Terminal bar

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Terminal Bar is an award winning American documentary short film directed and photographed by Stefan Nadelman. Relying on a variety of animation such as live action and black and white photography to illustrate an image of the by-gone era of New York. Terminal Bar premiers the work of bartender through a photo-driven documentary. This short film was produced with the hope of rescuing the craft from obscurity as well as show Stefan Nadelman’s skills as a filmmaker.

Although pictures taken featured people different backgrounds, the film mainly depict life of gay customers who lived on the edge of society in one way or another.

Terminal Bar was once a regular bar but, over time there was an increase in number of gay customers attending the bar. This resulted in the Bar becoming an attraction site for gay customers across America.

The terminal bar was a unique bar because it was like a community, rather then semi successful bar.

Examining this documentary, what caught my eye was the flow of black and white portraits throughout the film. It was an interesting concept that can be used to interpret emotions and feelings through pictures. In my opinion the use of black and white photographs captures the unique corner of the world in all its complex glory.

Through the different use of imagery intermingled with narration about the bar’s history, makes for a compelling and engaging short film. Raw and evocative, the photos keep a part of the bar alive – and a history that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Week 3 – Technology Is The Mortal Enemy Of Art

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“Technology Is The Mortal Enemy Of Art”

Is technology having a massive impact on art and pushing the boundaries too much or too little? Do we need to experiment more with technology and art or should it be left alone to a human process rather than a digital process?

Photography was developed over 175 years ago, when it was first developed it was not involved with art a huge amount. However as time has gone on we can really see that the two interlink a lot now. Between art and technology there has become a huge bond, we can see this and there is no way of going back to undo this, therefore I feel we have to accept this and embrace it. You can see the effect photography has had on art through apps and websites such as “Instagram” and “Facebook”. Now days it is so easy to snap a decent photograph on your phone, upload it for an audience to view and call this a published piece of art.

But does this take away the authenticity of a photographers work by making it so easy to access things like this? Photographers work so hard to get that special shot whereas technology has made it so easy to manipulate this with filters and effects to make easy work seem more technical and skilled. Traditionally before technology was about artists or photographers would take a portfolio to galleries and be judged on if their work was really good enough to display to the public, however now it is easy and non judgemental to publish a piece of work to an audience.

I think this can have a positive impact as it is now easy to discover new talent and make it known.

Referencing website: https://www.uncmirror.com/arts/2017/08/20/artem-ex-machina-technologys-impact-on-the-changing-world-of-art/

Reflection

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Upon finishing all the required research questions, I am now looking over my work process and evaluating what I could have done better and what I believe I did well with. To begin with however, I want to discuss the topic of Harvard Referencing. “Harvard Referencing is an appropriate form of referring to a text, quote or a post by someone to back up your own words.” (Sawyer, 2013). Although some people thoroughly hate it, I personally have no issue. I will discuss this further once I have stated what I believe to be the pros and cons:

Pros

Acknowledging the work of other writers and researchers.
Demonstrates the body of knowledge on which you base your work
Enables other researchers to verify the source and follow up.
Prevents accusations of plagiarism.

Cons

Numerous references within text become obstacles to the reader.
Citation by author can be difficult due to most journals or reports containing multiple authors or governing bodies.
Author and date of source aren’t specific.
Supply of further details can make the reference longer and more intrusive.

I will now talk through these “cons”, by justifying the “pros”. First of all, you don’t need to reference every single sentence you write, if you’re doing such a thing then you’re bouncing between too many topics, a good rule is to use a new source ever 5 sentences at the least. This clears up any space in your text. Then to cover the demand for detail or supply of information, as long as you can show where you got your information from, you don’t need to worry. At the end of the day you’re trying to cover yourself to show you’re plagiarising someone else’s work.

In terms of any improvements, other than adding more images I can’t think of any improvements. I always believe that you should never submit work that you’re not 100% confident in. Even when looking into other people’s opinions on the matter, it tends to be the recurring theme that if you don’t believe an image should be added, then don’t (Turner, 2016). An image should only be included if relevant to the piece of text, or to back up your any information you are giving and not for mere decoration.

Outside of the work pieces themselves, I personally wish my time management in terms of keeping up to date week by week was better. This would have meant less work for me to do at one time, however I don’t feel like it affected my work outcome in the end. Even though I did miss some RCS lectures, the use of Panopto recordings, allowed me to catch up on anything I missed, plus the uploads of the slides to blackboard, also helped a lot in terms of what to research.

References

Sawyer, B. (2013, October 14). Research, Harvard referencing & Pros and Cons of secondary research. Retrieved from brendansawyer – gateshead: https://brensawyer.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/research-harvard-referencing-pros-and-cons-of-secondary-research/

Turner, R. (2016, Dec 19). When writing an academic essay, is it appropriate to add pictures that support the piece? Retrieved from Quora: https://www.quora.com/When-writing-an-academic-essay-is-it-appropriate-to-add-pictures-that-support-the-piece

Week 2 – Image Comparison

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In graphic arts you can find multiple styles of different work. I am focusing on a photography based album cover vs a illustration based album cover. I find the comparison of the two interesting because the versatility of the two is huge however they both deliver the same sort of message and both for fill a purpose.

http://www.elle.co.za-justin-bieber-artwork-banned/

This image is a photography based album cover which is from a Justin Bieber album. Here we can see that there is a portrait of himself showing that the style could be a little formal. However, the editing of the image then allows us to relax a little as it has been converted into black and white and then his body has been made a little see through by changing the opacity of the photograph. Over the top of this image there is then some sketching which relaxes the tone of the image and the style even more, this then leaves us with quite a relaxed feel allowing the audiences to connect with the album allowing more sales for him.

http://site.laboca.co.uk/Bombay-Bicycle-Club-1

This image in an illustration based album cover which is from the band Bombay Bicycle Club. In their album cover they demonstrate a series of illustrations which show human figures walking round in a circle through the moon and sun. This already appeals to their target audience and sets the whole tone of the image as relaxed, this is the same as the previous album. this illustration has then been digitally process which also is the same as the previous image. It is quite simple yet effective, less fussy than the previous image. I feel like I prefer this image even though the image before has more detail, this is because there is more thought behind this image and you can tell in the final piece.

Summary Blog

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Over the 9 weeks I have learnt more about the history of each pathway and how significant it has been and how is has effected society. Writing these blogs has helped me to develop my understanding of postmodernism and the authenticity of art and photography. Throughout these blogs I concentrated on looking at photography and aspects of graphic design because they interest me the most and there is a slight cross over, as I feel that I can incorporate graphic design into my photography work. Moreover, I have learnt that critical thinking is a very important aspect to this section as it allows you to reflect on an artist work and explain your own interpretation of it and allows you to become a more creative writer. I feel as if these blog posts have enabled me to understand the different pathways more and to progress in my pathway by having a deeper understanding of the origination and the development of certain artists.

Furthermore, I feel as there is a connection with these tasks and the ideas that are developing within my practise as each of the task are broad and you can tailor them to your own pathway, throughout these blogs I used photography and graphic design as well as posters that has small amount of illustration on, I feel as if they all connected as photography is used in all of them, so they all connect and link together. I found that throughout these lectures it was important to keep an open mind as all the pathways link together however, motion graphics was the only one that I didn’t used throughout these, because I found it hard to connect it to my blog post.

Finally, the connection between theory and practise, in the last three blogs set (task 5,6,7) there was a programme that we watched and then used three words to describe different images to use as a starting point, the programmes showed us the different ways artists create there work showing their different theories, most of them started on paper and sketched their ideas out, in the last programme (Abstract The Art of Design S1 Ep7 “Planton Photography”) it showed us that Planton had a specific way of shooting his models and certain cameras that he used for the same shot, everything was the same and that’s the way he works. This would relate to my studio practice is I was shooting the same thing over and over however I feel as If it’s good to change certain things such as the lens or the back drop. There is a significant connection between theory and practise.

“Theory and Practice. There is always a tension between Theory and Practice. These two separate realms are connected through a process of abstraction and application. … To explain this relationship by way of practice, Theory is abstracted Practice, and Practice is applied Theory.” http://words.steveklabnik.com/theory-and-practice

Accessed on: 3/12/17

This quote shows that there has always got to be a theory to produce something beautiful, however sometimes things happen by accident but they are good accidents that become a success.

Blog Post Week Six:

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What do you see as the Positives and Negatives around Copyright?

Is it possible to make anything new?

Personally I am very biased when it comes to Copyright, in favour of the positives. However, I will try to explain and justify both sides. First however, I will define copyright. Through court decisions and specific language, within the UK Copyright Act of 1988 (Archives, 1988), the scope of copyright has been limited to particular expression of an idea, not the idea that underlies that expression. In no form does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation or anything of the sort, embodied in such work. Copyright doesn’t preclude others from using the ideas or information revealed by the author’s work. It pertains to the literary, musical, graphic or artistic from in which the author expressed intellectual concepts. This means the physical outcome is the only part of which is under copyright protection.

Now I will list off what I agree to be the positives and negatives of Copyright:

Advantages

Rights to Produce/Reproduce

Copyright gives the creator of a piece of intellectual property (including literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work; not ideas) the sole right to produce and reproduce their work.

Right to Authorise

These include the right to authorise others to produce or reproduce your work as well as the right to broadcast your work.

Protection

Moral Rights

Disadvantages

Inability to Share Work

Copyrights key advantage can also be it’s downfall. Copyright doesn’t allow you to openly permit others to use your work or to distribute it, even if they are not doing it for profit.

Authorship isn’t Ownership

You must own the copyright to be able to exercise the rights that it grants, and just being the creator of the work does not always guarantee ownership. In some cases the owner is actually the person who commissioned the work, or the company for whom the work was produced.

Limited Duration

Copyright protection doesn’t last forever. The duration depends on several factors. Generally, copyright expires at the end of the period of 70 years from the end of the calendar year to which the creator dies, or which the work was made.

I believe we can be very pedantic with the term “new”, as we can create something new all the time but it can be influenced by other media or ideas. For example, everybody tends to believe that Star Wars paved the way for modern Sci-Fi, however be it not for the likes of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ we wouldn’t have Star Wars either. Then to the argument that the story was nothing we had seen before, well actually, George Lucas was inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s ‘The Hidden Fortress’ (Barber, 2016).

Although, in a world of sequels and prequels, we can occasionally get something totally original like the beloved Netflix show, Stranger Things or Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix game Life is Strange.

(Strohman, 2016)

References

Archives, N. (1988). Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Retrieved from legislation: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/contents

Barber, N. (2016). The Film Star Wars Stole From. BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160104-the-film-star-wars-stole-from

Bomb, G. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.giantbomb.com/io-interactive/3010-3562/

Carroll, J. M. (n.d.). The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed. Retrieved from Interaction Design Foundation: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/human-computer-interaction-brief-intro

CBSNews. (2013, February 9). Preview: The Last of US. Retrieved from CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/preview-the-last-of-us/

CItyofRapture246. (2015). All Console Commands (Fallout 4). Retrieved from http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=564770571

Clore, G. L. (2013). Psychological Construction in the OCC Model of Emotion.

D, B. (2017, June 20). Hitman Episode 1: ICA FAcility Free Download Available on PS4, PC, Xbox One. Retrieved from One Angry Gamer: https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2017/06/hitman-episode-1-ica-facility-free-download-available-on-ps4-pc-xbox-one/33425/

Ding, Y. Z. (2003). The Designing and Development of Game. People’s Traffic Press.

FrictionalGames. (2017). In the Games of Madness. Retrieved from http://frictionalgames.blogspot.co.uk/

Gohanssj2. (2013, Jun 27). Antics of the Whiterun Guards. Retrieved from Imgur: https://imgur.com/gallery/Ev9gF

Hudlicka, E. (2009). Foundations for Modelling Emotions in Game Characters: MOdelling EMotion Effects on Cognition.

Indie Game The Movie (2012). [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/ondemand/indiegamethemovie/25268139

Lebowitz, J. (2011). Interactive Storytelling for Video Games.

McMullin, K. (2014, April 24). Passive vs. Active Participants. Retrieved from Collegewise: http://wiselikeus.com/collegewise/2014/04/passive-vs-active-participants.html

Norman, D. (1988). The Design of Everyday Things.

Playstation. (n.d.). The Last of Us Remastered. Retrieved from Playstation: https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/games/the-last-of-us-remastered-ps4/

Smithsonian. (n.d.). Apple 2 Personal Computer. Retrieved from National Museum of American History: http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_334638

Strohman, D. (2016, October 20). One Year Later: “Life is Strange”. Retrieved from The Young Folks: https://www.theyoungfolks.com/review/86175/one-year-later-life-is-strange/

task 11 & 12

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Reflective summary

From this module, I have explored so much on researching primary and secondary source through different ways from the lectures. It is very useful and I’m sure thus will helps me a lot throughout my study.

At the start I thought that online resources and visual research task were quite easy, however I find myself do not have a wide range of research. I have relied on the internet too much and often forgotten about there are other source like books magazine or even DVDs could be a source of my research too.

As an international student, I have always worry about my writing since I don’t know if other would understand what I want to say about or not. But as the more task I did, I feel easier as I go on once I have clear about my point of view. I have keep my vocabulary as simple as I can so I will not make it too difficult to understand.

Thus, I found out my weakness is to analyse images. as I always feel like I may not have the right understanding of the images, but then I learnt that is not a right or wrong understanding of images, as everyone think differently. So I know as long as I have my own idea to support the images, that will be fine.

Reflective writing is the hardest task for me, as I have to spent a lot of time trying to understand what the essay is about and often I have to translate it into my mother language before response to it.

In conclusion, I find this module very useful. It reminds me to look at library rescores more, and the importance of referencing to support ideas. I really enjoy the lectures and I like the way how our lecturer will help us to digest the task and showing examples before asking us to do it.

Blog Post Week Four:

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Select One Example to Outline the Key Concepts of Human-Computer Interaction. Reflect Upon the Role of the “Human”, the “Computer” and the “Interaction”.

Discuss the Relationship Between Games Design and Human-Computer Interaction.

“Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is an area of research and practice” (Carroll, n.d.). HCI emerged in the 1980s, initially as a specialised area of Computer Science, embracing cognitive science and human factors engineering. HCI, has rapidly expanded since then, incorporating diverse approaches to further the research.

(Carroll, n.d.)

The key concept of HCI is to understand the factors that determine how people use technology, this could be the ease of learning, remembering how to use it, effective and efficient use, safe use and enjoyable use. A lot of everyday systems and products seem to be designed with little regard to usability.

Computing moving off of the desktop to be everywhere with ease, is one example. Computers are everywhere, phones, cars, meeting rooms, hotels and classrooms. The focus of HCI moved from the desktop and will continue to move. HCI is a technology area, and it is ineluctably driven to frontiers of technology and application possibility. This movement of HCI from desktop is a large-scale example of a pattern of development that is replicated through HCI at many levels of analysis. To be more specific, the adaptation of the unlock function on a mobile phone, initially beginning with the simultaneous press of ‘*+Enter’ on the Nokia 3310 to the now simple finger print scanner or facial recognition on the Samsung Galaxy S8.

The User

This can be an arguable term as it could mean the individual or group working together. An appreciation of the way people’s sensory systems relay information, is vital. Also, different users form different conceptions of their interactions and have different ways of learning and keeping knowledge

The Computer

This is referring to any technology ranging from computer systems to home computers. For example, if discussing web design, then the website itself would be referred to as “the computer”. Devices such as mobile phones can also be considered “computers”

Interaction

There are clear differences between humans and machines. HCI, is the bridge between the two to ensure both work together fluidly. In order to achieve a usable system, you need to apply what you know about Humans and Computers, and consult with likely users throughout design processes.

At present the design area of HCI, within game holds a close connection: “Usability” is an important research of HCI within games, due to user feedback on gameplay, which is actually based on the usability of game software. At this point, gameplay is also called playability.

(Ding, 2003)

According to the theory of human-computer interaction described by Don Norman, the principle of “Simple, natural, friendly and consistent” should be reflected in every aspect of the progress in the game design (Norman, 1988). Flexibly applying these principles to the design of the interactive game not only establish good communication between player and computer, but also achieve the entertainment value of games.

References

Bomb, G. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.giantbomb.com/io-interactive/3010-3562/

CBSNews. (2013, February 9). Preview: The Last of US. Retrieved from CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/preview-the-last-of-us/

Ding, Y. Z. (2003). The Designing and Development of Game. People’s Traffic Press.

FrictionalGames. (2017). In the Games of Madness. Retrieved from http://frictionalgames.blogspot.co.uk/

Indie Game The Movie (2012). [Motion Picture]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/ondemand/indiegamethemovie/25268139

Lebowitz, J. (2011). Interactive Storytelling for Video Games.

McMullin, K. (2014, April 24). Passive vs. Active Participants. Retrieved from Collegewise: http://wiselikeus.com/collegewise/2014/04/passive-vs-active-participants.html

Norman, D. (1988). The Design of Everyday Things.

Playstation. (n.d.). The Last of Us Remastered. Retrieved from Playstation: https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/games/the-last-of-us-remastered-ps4/

Smithsonian. (n.d.). Apple 2 Personal Computer. Retrieved from National Museum of American History: http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_334638

Blog Post Week Five:

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Behavioural Modelling is an important part of NPC development for games. Should emotive modelling be part of that development?

Consider your favourite video game. If it contains AI controlled agents how individualistic are they and their behaviours, and, how might you set about improving them?

In my opinion Game AI agents today, don’t reflect the affective aspects of human behaviour, outside of pre-rendered cut scenes. The importance of which is quite high, as the gaming community is more and more recognising the importance of emotion in the development of engaging games. “Affect plays a key role in user experience” (Hudlicka, 2009).

The use of emotion effects on in-Game characters, are to immerse the player in a believable setting, ideally these expressions are appropriate for their context. It also is then necessary to develop, dynamically generated emotions, within the NPCs, in the context of ongoing gameplay, and the user-NPC interactions. Even though these have been developed and through research I have seen are based on the OCC model of emotions (Clore, 2013). However, through my own experience, I believe than any NPC interaction outside of cut scenes, never truly express this to a full extent yet, and I do understand it is still relatively new. For example, within open-world games like Bethesda’s “Fallout” series or “Elder Scrolls” series, you may have very emotive voice acting, however the emotion is never truly portrayed within the facial expressions or body movements. I feel to get a more immersive gameplay, this is a big portion of these open-world but story driven games that needs to be worked on, so people can truly connect with the characters they are surrounded by throughout the world.

(CItyofRapture246, 2015)

One of my favourite games that does involve AI controlled Agents, is Bethesda’s “Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim”. Throughout the game everything other than items or environments, is controlled by AI. All of these NPCs are usually on set, rotational paths, when you are in rendering range. More often than not, I have witnessed a Whiterun Guard on its path, come across an object in its path and instead of walking around like a person would, instead retract their legs into their body and climb over the object. This is common for the NPCs of Skyrim, if they interact with something that isn’t normally in their path, they tend to continue “through” it. Ideally I would work on these kinds of things, so if the NPC is on its path and does interact with an anomaly as such, it would react in altering its path by walking around or to even further improve, move the object, and display some emotion towards the situation if the player is in sight or nearby to hear. The aspect of realistic reactions would be an improvement for me, for example, in the image below you can see the player is able to place a jug over the guard’s head, although this is funny, I would prefer that if the player were to do such a thing, the guard can stop you by using his/her hands like any normal person would.

(Gohanssj2, 2013)