more updates?

well, I’ve changed my password to something I can (hopefully remeber now… before, it was an odd combo of characters and letters generated by the site, and I could only update it from my machine, where I’d saved the password, now that it’s changed though, I should be able to update it from anywhere that I can get net access. go me.

the portal

yes. once AGAIN the portal’s dowm. incredibly useful when you’re trying to get info about what it is you’re supposed to be doing. It wouldn’t be so bad if we got given lecture notes about things, but pretty much everything is paper less. Good for the environment, but bad when you can’t get access to what it is you’re trying to study.

busy little bees

As a general note, I think we’re all at the busiest we’ve been on the whole course! So many things on, and all seem to be taking up more and more time!

robotic trickery!

Well today, although we had no formal lectures, Ollie, Suzie and I went into hear what Engineering Arts Ltd had to tell us about their current robotic incarnation. They’re a Cornish company that make animatronics and the like, mainly for educational purposes, for places such as the Eden Project, and somewhere in Glasgow (I forgot to jot down the client!). They brought with them, Robothespian, a life size animatronic, which was pretty kewl! It had some funky moves and features… though I found the interface really kewl! it was a large touch screen, with a lil joystick at the top, and a live feed from a camera mounted in its head! well good!

I have to admit, I thought there might be more to do with the AI side of things, but alas no… It was programmed to make certain gestures and operations from films, but as far as interaction went, it didn’t really seem to do a lot, but then again, I get the feeling it wasn’t meant to… I got the feeling it was basically a life size automated puppet, and was only programmed to emulte films… the ammount of time and money put into the project kinda made me wish they’d done something that hadn’t  been done before, but as the guest speaker said, he’d come from an engineering background, so I think he was more focussed on mimicking human movement than human response… something that hadn’t been truly thought through though, as the robot didn’t return to a ‘natural state’ when it had finished its maneuvers… it stayed in the last pose that it had performed.

All in all though, an interesting look into the sorts of work that going on; both in this area of the country, and in robotics as well.

Apollo

well, some of us carted our way down to this week’s Apollo today. It was kind of a launch of the ‘Green screen’(the large led array on the side of Portland Square Building). I’ve seen the technology already, but it was good to hear Chris speak of it in terms of where it came from, and what its purpose is. what I found interesting is how detailed images looked when they were of bright, high contrast colours, and how much of a difference there was to the more muted colours, which at times were unrecognisable. I have to admit though, I kind of see what Chris was suggesting in terms of whether or not it met it’s intended outcome ( as far as those who are it’s potential ‘clients’). Looking at a screen that was ,at least part funded, by people who wanted to campaign for a greener earth… I kind of found myself wondering what good it was doing in that field… and then to look down slightly, and see the new RL building, lit-up like a Christmas Tree with no-one in it… hmm. Lets say “we’ve all got a little bit more to do on that front”.

Still, on a brighter note, whilst noticing the glaring contradiction between the ‘green screen’ and the RL building, I was reminded about the ‘person’ in Scott building, and told Chris about it. He’s said he should be able to get something done about it, and get a studio for us, which is good. I’m still baffled by the fact that we can’t get hold of it ourselves, and that we’ve had to go to Chris to get something sorted… and I’m still ‘miffed’ by that blokes attitude…

Ho hum, Java 2moro!

hmm

I find it interesting that we get given so much grief about turning up to lectures… when sometimes the lecturer doesn’t bother.

grrr

hmm, ok, I went to the Scott building yesterday to see if I could book a photography studio so that we could get some half descent staff pictures for our company’s website. Bearing in mind this is a project we’re doing for a module. I’m studying Digital Art and Technology. This can result in either a BA or a BSc. No-one was there yesterday, but the person running the photography supplies store seemed to think there wouldn’t be a problem, and to ask someone when they were about. I went in there today to see what we’d need to book a studio…

‘Heya there, I was just wondering what we’d need, or who we’d speak to, to find out about booking one of the photography studios please’

‘What course are you on?’

‘Digital Art and Technology’

‘You don’t’

And that was it. Was there any need for such a condescending reply? Not in my books. The whole thing has really pissed me off. IF the studios were being fully booked and used, by photography students all of the time, I’d understand: Priority has to be given to them. But the studios were empty! Why are we not allowed to use the university’s facilities when we pay over three grand a year to go there? It wasn’t even as if I were using it for my own personal work! I find this a little ridiculous to be perfectly frank. As you may have sussed though, the thing that really got me annoyed was the bloke who was so rude and abrupt. There was no ’sorry about that, but… whatever reason ‘ . He just looked at me as if to say ‘f**k off now’

In the pissed off mood that I was, whilst walking home past the Plymouth College of Art and Design (pcad), I decided to go in and ask if their facilities were available to non-students. The chap there said that he doubted it, but was helpful enough to pass me some information about the person in charge, and said it was best to ask her, and that something might be able to be sorted out. Was it THAT difficult to be polite?!? NO! And the fact that it might be easier to go to the pcad and user their studios when I’m not even a student there, rather than use my own university’s is utterly beyond my belief.

gah!

It lives again!

Yes, after almost a day of ‘fun and frolicks’… My Dell is back! It’s a complete manufacturer reset, so there’s none of the software I had before, but at least it works… for now!

I’m currently playing with brushes and vector art in ps… results are ‘interesting’

dead dell

Alas, it’s finally happened… the Dell laptop couldn’t keep up the fight against all the nastyness of the net, and died. I tried running various anti-virus things on it to try and clean it up, but to no avail… I’ve now had to bite the bullet and put mynew laptop on on the net… something I’ve been trying to avoid in order to try and keep this one from the same fate of the Dell. Looks like it’s time to go do the great big big master reset… Hope I got all my stuff off of it, and onto the external hard-drive before it packed-up… I’l find out soon enough! I shall now try to carry on with doing more blogs, as the last few entries I went to post failed, and crashed the old laptop… so there may be a few update type things comming soon…

Oh well, r.i.p. the Dell…

Weekend fun!

So, why am I going to tell you about a weekend in London, where I took no notes, sketches or pictures? In fact I was shopping and pubbing and clubbing, so what could this possibly have to do with uni?

Let me tell you!! Well, I’d say first of all, it was totally dependant on the subculture that I’m part of ; ‘goth’ if you will. And yes that does involve trying to walk in ridiculous boots, and having to wear black clothing in the midst of summer, however, I would argue, that it is also the sub-culture that had most embraced the digital/cyber revolution. The ‘cyber-goths’ are absolutley governed by digital technology and art. They are the closest thing I would say that exists to digital symbiosis. Every element of their lives is digital. From the moment they wake in the morning til they go to bed… well… in the morning, everything is digitally dependant. It’s the utter embrace of this technology, and its circumstances that is most fascinating. Now for anyone who has seen or knows any cybers, you’ll half know what I’m talking about. The clothing, art, music, community and indeed very mentality is founded on and around cybernetics. It really is an interesting sub-culture, and one that’s been documented as so. I think I may try and get some evidence and maybe a case study or two on this and post something  with a little more credibility to it, but for now, this shall act as a note to the fact that this sub-culture is out there, and living the digital life already.