We've had some excellent industry professionals in to talk to us about they're work and lifestyles as freelance designers, animators etc. Sam Butler and i talked about the possibilities of interactive television shows where you can manipulate the plot and influence the outcome of episodes, storylines or whole series. As well as the option of multiple camera angles, similar to games such as Halo 3, and perhaps the possibility of experiencing the whole show from the P.O.V of your favorite character.
Dan Miller introduced the notion of advertising and specifically product placement within my concept, which would obviously be a fundamental area to cover. Imagine pausing live TV as Britney Spears sips on an ice cold can of Pepsi, the camera zooms in and pans round the can of Pepsi and as the user rolls over it, a tab of other options and hyperlinks is made available, for example:
1)Your nearest Pepsi supplier is 134 Tarner Industrial Estate, Brighton, BN2 7QR.
2)***WIN A LIFETIMES SUPPLY OF PEPSI*** just enter our competition here
3)Check out our newest advertisement with the freshest Justin Timberlake Clone.
Angie Taylor and i spoke about the personalisation of the service, with profiles and online TV communities. You and your peers could could create a group revolving around the cartoon Family Guy, where you all settle down in your separate houses and watch it at the same time and converse about it on the text banner at the bottom of the screen - similar to how present viewers at home can text their opinions into Question Time and other talk shows. Of course this isn't as fun or wholesome as all congregating in the same room to actually watch it in each others company, but i think this is the way our Generation Txt is going. There could also be a recommendations option that advises, "if you like Family Guy you may also enjoy South Park, Simpsons, American Dad, Futurama, Aqua Team Hunger Force...etc." Amazon has a similar service for its users, as do the online Music applications Pandora and Last Fm.
Monday 15 October 2007
Evolve or perish
Progress must now be made. Ive decided to roll with the future of TV idea, as this is the most producable of the three. I aim to create an interactive menu, using Photoshop and Flash. Below are some first attempts and they need a lot of development until they look like something you would use in 10 years time. It's hard to find the balance between form and functionality. The interface obviously needs to have a futuristic aesthetic quality about it but also be highly user friendly and easy to navigate as every household will be using it.
Wednesday 10 October 2007
RESEARCH
Here are some links to articles ive read, and reread for research. Get your digital juices flowing.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19125635.600-why-not-become-superhuman.html
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19526141.700-superhuman-what-gives-elite-athletes-the-edge.html
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/13512/
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2185646,00.html
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2175360,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/27/news.google
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2185715,00.html
Additional articles and information can be found in my sketchbook.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19125635.600-why-not-become-superhuman.html
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg19526141.700-superhuman-what-gives-elite-athletes-the-edge.html
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/13512/
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2185646,00.html
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2175360,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/27/news.google
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,2185715,00.html
Additional articles and information can be found in my sketchbook.
Monday 1 October 2007
Designs Futures 01.
Brief:
This brief is concerned with the development of a concept that addresses the future and use of new technologies or technological services. That is to say, how technology might manifest itself in years to come and what direct impact it would have on our everyday lives. The basis of this project is to develop a ‘bluesky’ concept working on the principle of ‘what if’. The concept per-say could be derived from a product in as much as tool or for that matter a service. The concept should clearly have a defined rationale behind it and should be generated through a clear consideration of existing technologies and or related services, A clearly defined audience / user group should help to shape the conditions of the language used concerning the sonic, visual and physical elements along with the technical parameters, modes of delivery etc. Considering the time allocated for this project, students will have the opportunity to create a screen based presentation of the concept a ‘look and feel’
Brief:
This brief is concerned with the development of a concept that addresses the future and use of new technologies or technological services. That is to say, how technology might manifest itself in years to come and what direct impact it would have on our everyday lives. The basis of this project is to develop a ‘bluesky’ concept working on the principle of ‘what if’. The concept per-say could be derived from a product in as much as tool or for that matter a service. The concept should clearly have a defined rationale behind it and should be generated through a clear consideration of existing technologies and or related services, A clearly defined audience / user group should help to shape the conditions of the language used concerning the sonic, visual and physical elements along with the technical parameters, modes of delivery etc. Considering the time allocated for this project, students will have the opportunity to create a screen based presentation of the concept a ‘look and feel’
Designer Futures.
Ok, ideas. They came thick and fast at first (pun... intented?), but the bane of rationality has limited them somewhat, so here are a few ive whittled down.
1: SUPERHUMANS. I'd love to roll with some sci-fi prophecy of the future where, as Morpheus said it, "human beings are not born, they are grown." However not with such a bleak, end of humanity feel. More like an age, ohh say about 2048, where civilisation is at its pinnacle. Life is good for the everyday homosapien, desease is basically irradicated, poverty and hunger barely exist, and of course, the machines are our loyal servants. Genetics is at a point where we can pick and choose to create the 'perfect' human. You want your child to have blonde hair, blue eyes. No problem. But why? You want your little foetus to be a girl, tall and cat-walk skinny, no problem. The idea came from an article i read in New Scientist a few months back, on athletes with essentially super organs. Lance Armstrong (he won the Tour De France seven consecutive times, during losing his right testicle to cancer) was born with larger than normal heart and lungs. This is a characteristic common in many marathon runners, free divers and cyclists. So if we apply the blue sky what if...? What if we could genetically design foetus's to have superhuman strength, agility, respiration etc etc Superman. Well the problem with this idea is i don't know how it would manifest itself into an appropriate piece of work for the brief. Pretty cool to think about though.
2: GPS YOUR BABY. We all live in a surviellance society, Big Brother is watching blah blah blerghh. But for all this CCTV and Microsoft reading your email, what the hell happened to Madelaine McKann?! Now the parents are prime suspects or something, i mean i duno where i stand, i dont know them from Adam, but to lose you little girl and then be blamed for it, that's gotta be horrific. Anyhoo i digress. GPS your baby. Perhaps a decade or so into the future it will be more than acceptable to microchip your new born, maybe even at birth, you know like cutting the umbilical cord. And done so in such a way that it's undetectable to others. Now no more missing child, or person cases, paedofilia made impossible, yay, and all that surrounding malarky. Brilliant. You could even equip your child with a mini lens and microphone and see exactly what they see and where they go, while watching from your work office in North London, yuppie.
3: THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL TELEVISION. Yes, TV is going digital, no i dont have a high definition TV or even a Sky set top box. I watch most of my TV on the internet, alluc.com thank you very much. This allows me to watch whatever i want, whenever i want. Shows, sit coms, cartoons, films, documentaries, the choice is so vast it is practically unlimited. Now imagine if we could all do this on a 60" HD screen from the comfort of your favourite arm chair. Ooohhh yeh that feels good doesn't it? Yes, but this isn't anything new you say? Well blue sky, i mean what if you didn't know the series plot of Heroes and you were watching episode 13 without seeing the previous 12 (obviously if anyone actually did this they deserve to be probed) then you could pause the show and bring up a synopsis from something similar to a hyperlink. Now imagine, if there was an actor or even something more specific like an object in the background of a shot that you wanted to learn about? Pause the show, cartoon, docu and run your remote mouse controller over it as a hyperlink to detailed information on said object. The scope is fairly massive with this idea, i need to further think about the accessiblity and amount of information possible to the user and consider what restictions there will be for the consumer.
1: SUPERHUMANS. I'd love to roll with some sci-fi prophecy of the future where, as Morpheus said it, "human beings are not born, they are grown." However not with such a bleak, end of humanity feel. More like an age, ohh say about 2048, where civilisation is at its pinnacle. Life is good for the everyday homosapien, desease is basically irradicated, poverty and hunger barely exist, and of course, the machines are our loyal servants. Genetics is at a point where we can pick and choose to create the 'perfect' human. You want your child to have blonde hair, blue eyes. No problem. But why? You want your little foetus to be a girl, tall and cat-walk skinny, no problem. The idea came from an article i read in New Scientist a few months back, on athletes with essentially super organs. Lance Armstrong (he won the Tour De France seven consecutive times, during losing his right testicle to cancer) was born with larger than normal heart and lungs. This is a characteristic common in many marathon runners, free divers and cyclists. So if we apply the blue sky what if...? What if we could genetically design foetus's to have superhuman strength, agility, respiration etc etc Superman. Well the problem with this idea is i don't know how it would manifest itself into an appropriate piece of work for the brief. Pretty cool to think about though.
2: GPS YOUR BABY. We all live in a surviellance society, Big Brother is watching blah blah blerghh. But for all this CCTV and Microsoft reading your email, what the hell happened to Madelaine McKann?! Now the parents are prime suspects or something, i mean i duno where i stand, i dont know them from Adam, but to lose you little girl and then be blamed for it, that's gotta be horrific. Anyhoo i digress. GPS your baby. Perhaps a decade or so into the future it will be more than acceptable to microchip your new born, maybe even at birth, you know like cutting the umbilical cord. And done so in such a way that it's undetectable to others. Now no more missing child, or person cases, paedofilia made impossible, yay, and all that surrounding malarky. Brilliant. You could even equip your child with a mini lens and microphone and see exactly what they see and where they go, while watching from your work office in North London, yuppie.
3: THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL TELEVISION. Yes, TV is going digital, no i dont have a high definition TV or even a Sky set top box. I watch most of my TV on the internet, alluc.com thank you very much. This allows me to watch whatever i want, whenever i want. Shows, sit coms, cartoons, films, documentaries, the choice is so vast it is practically unlimited. Now imagine if we could all do this on a 60" HD screen from the comfort of your favourite arm chair. Ooohhh yeh that feels good doesn't it? Yes, but this isn't anything new you say? Well blue sky, i mean what if you didn't know the series plot of Heroes and you were watching episode 13 without seeing the previous 12 (obviously if anyone actually did this they deserve to be probed) then you could pause the show and bring up a synopsis from something similar to a hyperlink. Now imagine, if there was an actor or even something more specific like an object in the background of a shot that you wanted to learn about? Pause the show, cartoon, docu and run your remote mouse controller over it as a hyperlink to detailed information on said object. The scope is fairly massive with this idea, i need to further think about the accessiblity and amount of information possible to the user and consider what restictions there will be for the consumer.
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