The last weekend was quite a rush of activity as we worked to complete our installation of Audimeter-001 in the show. Brock, Katy and I worked to complete a piece that addressed the themes of surveillance and a fictional piece of Nielsen company technology. The following is the text from a didactic panel that accompanied our work.

“Interactive Media 413 class is a project-oriented course that allows students to participate in the creation of interactive performances and exhibits. The class has worked on four distinct projects over the course of the semester. This exhibit titled, Paged, Staged, Engaged was curated by class members Brock Norman and Katy Otto in conjunction with Professors Jim Ferolo (Interactive Media Program) and Kevin Stein (English Department), the students also created a piece, Audimeter-001 with Jim Ferolo for the exhibition The concept for this project grew from Jim talking with Kevin, who is the Poet Laureate for the State of Illinois. They became very interested in exploring the intersection of poetry and new media and came up with the idea of producing an exhibition. They decided to center on the production of a series of new media and traditional media works that explore a single poem. The piece they decided to use is titled “On Being a Nielsen Family.” The two students involved in this project, Brock Norman and Katy Otto, were given the task of not only creating the media and physical aspects needed for this piece with Professor Ferolo, but also were in charge of coordinating the show with the other artists involved as well as Liz Kaufmann, the gallery director. Focusing on the concept of surveillance, the idea started out simple enough, but quickly changed and grew as equipment changed and ideas for media evolved. Brock took on the task of building the physical aspects of the project, while Katy worked to organize the gallery so that all of the artists could set up their pieces. The students worked together with Jim to shoot the video content on a green screen along with support from the Iona Group and technical consulting by Dave Lennie. The Audimeter Model-001 installation is the result of this semester’s hard work. Thank you to everyone who supported this installation effort: Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts, George Brown, Dean Jeff Huberman, Elizabeth Kauffman, Paul Krainik, Carrie Kroenke, Dave Lennie, Mark Lohman, Cory Rabe, Trudy Ruch, and Joan Wilhelm.



The opener was essentially a testimonial piece that showcased Pioneer employees delivering key messages about how they have empowered themselves to be agents of change in their business. I really enjoyed developing the work and we created a mobile kit to capture interviews with over twenty field representatives across the midwest. We ended up shooting the piece with a Panasonic HVX200 and Red Rock micro adapter. We really wanted to get some decent depth of field and allow the viewer to focus on the talent. The adapter we had was a first generation and we needed to contend with varying light conditions. The adapter isn’t very fast and knocks the image down a couple of stops. We ended up getting an HMI and generator along with a decent 12×12 silk to keep the sun off the talent. The interviews were set up and shot in less than hour. They did a great job delivering the lines with sincerity. Many props to the other folks who worked on this. BJ Aberle’s original music track and performance. Tim Martin is our main cinematographer and is an absolute machine with amazing patience and attention to detail. Rob Cody edited the piece and brought his years of experience and timing in the creation of the final edit.

While traveling around for the opener, I became enamored with the textures on the old barns that I was seeing at different field locations. We were hoping to capture that with a dynamic build of geometry and text influenced rural images. The closer was built on a soundtrack that BJ Aberle augmented from an existing track. The idea was to use the sounds in the field to build energy around key corporate messages. Matt Forcum brought his considerable compositing skill to this piece and we brought it in on time and on budget.

Thanks to all the folks at Pioneer and at Iona who supported this effort.

Paged, Staged, and Engaged: 
Reimaging the Poem as Interactive Performance

A cross-disciplinary group exhibition by Bradley faculty.
December 2 – December 18, 2009
in the Hartmann Gallery at Bradley University

Opening Reception: December 2, 5 – 7:00pm

Using Kevin Stein’s poem “On Being a Nielsen Family,” this collaborative project interrogates our culture’s historical privileging of the printed page as sole site of poetic performance. Instead, this collaborative project proposes a cardinal notion of poetry: that poems are events, not stories about events.

Project collaborators have thus fashioned a collage of print, audio, video that challenges cultural assumptions about how poems are created and received. In short, the project’s artist-collaborators have aimed to re-imagine traditional print forms, welcome current technological innovations, and encourage reader/listener participation in the creative act.

In the process, the poem’s literal and figurative “space” has transitioned from the historically orderly confines of the printed page to a physical realm of interactive performance. Such fooling around evokes in both poet and reader the self-sufficient joy of reshuffling the perceptual deck of cards one has been handed by previous reading.

Bradley University Galleries
Elizabeth Kauffman, Gallery Director
1400 West Bradley Ave
Peoria, IL 61625
(309) 677-2989
ekauffman@bradley.edu
art.bradley.edu/bug

In the past four weeks I have had been looking at the ways in which I have been completing projects and facing a looming set of deadlines. Much of the work that I engage in deals with a client. That client may be in the commercial sector or it may be a lecture that needs to be delivered to a class. What continually gets lost in a sea of meetings and daily deliverables is the time spent on research and development. I believe that shrinking budgets, shorter timelines, and a climate of economic urgency, can potentially create a creative environment that looks to the daily bottom line more than advancement of the field or a company’s knowledge capital. This has lead me to think about a few ways in which I might be able to limit investment on the seeding of new ideas. So, here goes my pre-holiday New Year’s resolution.

1. PARTY WITH MY PEERS
I hope to conduct a working group that meets to talk about and design products or services that I have always wanted to build, but have not have the opportunity to do so. This group will most likely start by being extremely social, meet no more than hour, write no code, have no agenda, but turn out a series of sketches at the end of the session. I believe this has been called brainstorming in the past– not sure what the experts in collaborative development call it these days. My hope is to just capture ideas that we are passionate about and see if there are commonalities present that we haven’t observed before– in an environment that is inviting and fun. 

2. READ SOMETHING NEW
I have been ordering and reading at least one book per month that is related to my work, but not in my sweet spot. My goal is to push my understanding of current technology/theory and look for ways in which I can expand my existing skill set. Plus, this gives me an opportunity to shop on Amazon, and who doesn’t like shopping?

3. DO SOMETHING NEW EACH WEEK
I have been working very hard to keep my Moleskine notebook filled. Yes, that is verging very close to the hipster side of things, but seriously, I try to sketch out a couple of new thoughts and approaches on a weekly basis. Some of them are flushed out, some are just dreck, and some are just for my own personal amusement. (BTW, if anyone is flying from Toronto to Chicago and finds a red Moleskine book on American Airlines, send it back to me!) I have been pretty good with this one and the discipline is in doing something on a regular basis– no rules and no expectations on what may be a good or bad idea.

Let me know if you have any other thoughts or observations.

We finished up green screen photography for a client at Chroma Studios this week. We managed to get everything we needed on the shoot and I was very pleased with the outcome. Our talent was fantastic and we had a manageable schedule that we moved through at a good pace.

We managed to do some additional tests with our various HD cameras and I am increasingly impressed with the quality of footage that we are able to get out of a variety of capture devices. Our main camera was a Panasonic HDX900 shooting in 720p and a secondary Panasonic 200HVX. Both are fantastic, however, I did continue to shoot a variety of element tests using a Canon 5D Mark II and have continued to be impressed with the quality of the video at the price point.

The plates are noisier than what we get from the Panasonic cameras, but with the oversampling factor, the DSLRs are fantastic. This is a huge issue for keyed footage, but workable. The plates that come off the Canon in exteriors and well lit interiors are going to continue to pressure the lower end cameras coming out in the 2-3K price range.The form factor is very challenge to use, but in a studio or set environment, I think the cameras are extremely compelling.

The unlocking of the manual controls on the Canon’s has been a key element in their usefulness for pro’s and I think that we will see more accessories that help make this camera more usable in the field.

This is a reassuring thought for me. Because when the ideas don’t just appear, it is nice to know that someone like Chuck Close believes it is about hard work, not just divine inspiration.

I am not a big self-help book/media fan. However, this project was one that definitely caught my eye. I was compelled by the content found in the short film that headlines the website. I don’t want to ruin it for you, but if you haven’t had an opportunity to see this, you may find something in it that resonates for you on this day.

The Iona Group engages with a wide variety of clients using the latest communication strategies and technologies.  Join us for a discussion of trends in digital advertising, audience engagement, and online strategy.  The Iona Group will share their recent work and research and development; including killer wireless robots, eye bulging video installations, incredibly sticky phone applications, and websites that will make you scratch your head and wonder, how?
Prices for the lunch are for Peoria Ad Club members and for non-members and guests.  RSVPs are required and payment is expected the day of the meeting by cash or check. Please RSVP by October 12 to hold a seat.
Click Here to rsvp.

Using Kevin Stein’s poem “On Being a Nielsen Family,” this collaborative project interrogates our culture’s historical privileging of the printed page as sole site of poetic performance. Five hundred years of printerly convention have led to our unthinkingly accepting the materiality of the page as the only means for poets to offer and for readers to receive a poem. That convention deludes us into regarding poems as static entities. We expect, if not demand, poems presented in standardized, linear fashion marching handcuffed from left to right across the page.

Instead, this collaborative project proposes a cardinal notion of poetry: that poems are events, not stories about events.

What this means for poetry is as simple as it is profound. In sum, reading or hearing a poem offers an essentially interactive experience. This experience poses an infinitely fresh encounter enriched by the creative interplay of author, poem, and reader. Because no poem exists wholly in a vacuum, divorced from culture and community, this bristling interchange enables poems to reward multiple rereadings, each experience as unique as that particular electric moment of encounter.

All poems are performative, verbal artifacts enacted in space and time. Poetry’s mystery lies not only in recreating this performance within readers but also in welcoming the readerly act as itself performative.

Project collaborators have thus fashioned a collage of print, audio, video that challenges cultural assumptions about how poems are created and received. Artists George Brown, Jim Ferolo, Scott Cavanah, Robert Rowe, Chad Udell and Gary Will, and will be completing a variety of traditional and interactive works that explore the nature of written poetry and alternative artistic forms.

In short, the project’s artist-collaborators have aimed to reimagine traditional print forms, welcome current technological innovations, and encourage reader/listener participation in the creative act.

In the process, the poem’s literal and figurative “space” has transitioned from the historically orderly confines of the printed page to a physical realm of interactive performance. Such fooling around evokes in both poet and reader the self-sufficient joy of reshuffling the perceptual deck of cards one has been handed by previous reading.

Look for links and future summaries on the artists’ works.

Emily and I went to the Art Guild in Peoria last night to do a second site survey. Emily is a student in my I M413 course that is centered on the creation of intermedial experiences. She has proven to be a very able collaborator and has brought her experience of Flash to bear and is learning more about these types of installations as we continue to develop the idea.

We were hoping to bring in our test rear projection material, projector, and alpha build of the software to get a sense of the overall scale and color saturation of the projection. The piece is essentially a search of twitter posts that mention Lincoln and is primarily text. The goal is to have it viewable from the street in the evening, so that passerby’s can experience a part of the overall exhibit, or even better, entice them to come to the guild to see the work.

There were some scheduling changes that kept us from completing the full test, but we did get a confirmation on the physical position of the work, i.e., which windows it will project in. And we have set up a listing of test conditions to figure out which colors will pop and what type of contrast will be needed.

Additional software tweaks include some soft logic to determine how many times a specific tweet is repeated. There are many references to Lincoln and some quotes that appear over and over again. We are interested in tracking the frequency of those quotes and mapping it against physical locations– a typical mash-up approach.

Most of the physical projection work that I have completed in the last year uses virtual scenery that is extremely dense or highly composited. This is the exact opposite and is a great exercise in contrast from previous efforts. I look forward to the next phase of development and will post more pics as they become available.

1. Design and the creative process is an emotional one. 
Okay, raise your hand if you have ever been in this situation. You have moved through your design process carefully and with consideration of your audience and client. Initial needs assessments have been completed, definitions of goals are done, design comps have been created, all with the blessing of client and the team. For the first time the “thing” is clickable and usable and the entire audience is getting a chance to use the experience and the questions start coming in. “Is that nav really intuitive?” “Don’t you think that the header should be a bit bigger?”, “If not bigger, it should definitely be much more red than it is now.” And, yes, the comps were signed off on, the site map has been completed, the use cases have been accepted, i.e. we all knew what we were getting. However, the conversation will continue and everyone will begin to voice their opinion about what the next best steps should be. I would like to add that I think nearly all of the opinions are valid, but arbitrating them at this point in the design process is an extremely sticky wicket. It is more troublesome because there has been an investment made in this build and any designer or developer should be attached to the work that has been completed. If the external feedback runs counter to the designer/developer opinions there is the potential for conflict and an awful hypothetical conversation about what the best way to proceed really is. That is when I like to use one of my major time outs (I am always reminded of my mom and dad drawing the imaginary line down the backseat of our car on road trips that lasted for weeks to keep my sister and myself from eviscerating each other.), head off the ensuing battle, and get another perspective from the vox populi. Let’s put it out there and see what the users think.

2. Significant testing can be carried out cheaply and easily using on-line and client-based tools.
There are so many simple tools that can help you collect, tabulate and summarize data for your interactive experiences. I am a fan of Zoomerang for data collection and tabbing. However, it can also be completed by putting together a solid is of questions or testing rubrics that will give you the answers that you need. Excel is always good if you have folks local and just need to add up the numbers. However, it can be a bit time consuming. Don’t worry about the test being statistically significant, because the real goal is to find trends and the big gotchas that are right in front of the team, but obscured because of closeness to the build. I like to shoot video of people using software and experiences, too. I find that it provides a great record that I can go back to and also provide video evidence to clients to support observations and eventual recommendations. There are some specific legal clearances for this and other ethical concerns with testing that are important to understand before you embark. Once your bases are covered, you may want to check out Silverback for your testing needs, as well. The software is great for recording keystrokes and video evidence.

3. Most significantly, testing may help you learn something that you, your team, and your client never really considered before. 
Distance can never be underestimated. One of the best things I ever learned from a senior designer that I worked with was the importance of understanding your relationship to the work. If you are too close, you become impervious to change and less open to suggestion from those with key input. If you are overloaded with work, you can, at times, move too far away from the project and lose a grip on the details. I think that usability tests help with focus and framing and allow us as designers and developers to get back into an objective comfort zone– an appropriate “depth of engagement.”

Most of these musings can be found on a variety of sites and are explained much better by those with much more experience. I will leave you with a few links if you should choose to read more.

This is the first book you should read on usability. Clear. Simple. Amazing. Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by Donald Norman.

A Practical Guide to Usability Testing. A great book on usability for those just getting started that need a quick primer and step by step guide.

Understanding Heuristic Evaluation is key for most of us because we most likely can’t afford a full study (and focus groups are challenging conceptually because we usually use interactive experiences one at a time.)

These reports from the Nielsen Norman Group look solid, too.