Curatorial Project (Reality v. Virtual Reality)

For my curatorial project, I have chosen to create a hybrid theme which will mix both the “Gaming” theme with the “Virtual Reality” theme given to us for this assignment. These two themes produce an extremely strong influence in today’s society more than most of the options given to us for this project and that the two themes, which can with no doubt make for an excellent project on standalone, can together produce a phenomenal representation of society and the outlook on how we live and do things. Video games and online based games such as Second Life created a whole new world for humans to inhabit, however, this accomplishment has distorted the perspective in our minds in regards to differentiating reality and virtual reality. This exhibit stresses the rapidly growing connection and dependence between reality and virtual reality and also attempt to artistically represent the two themes together into a fluid hybrid of work. Although the “Gaming” theme may appear to be the easier amongst the other selected themes because of my generations understanding of the gaming industry and its economical impact, it could perhaps be one of the more difficult ones if analyzed heavily as gaming projects more than just visuals. Gaming projects ideas and ideals that we tend to bypass when we become deeply submerged between the fog of reality and virtual reality and the truthfulness between the two. The selected works offer a view into the space created by reality and virtual reality and how they relate to each other. From early incarnations of human based involvement in gaming in the form of the board game Life through to more recent incarnations are heavily emphasized in this exhibit. It may seem confusing at first to piece the concepts of reality and virtual reality displayed by the selected exhibit materials, but in depth analysis clearly shows the common link between the two fields. Technology is pushing every aspect of our lives further and further and virtual reality is just as affected as is reality in regards to this technological push. With the release of our favorite games month after month, we tend to overlook gameplay mechanics for pure visuals. These visuals are enhanced to an unbelievable degree to simulate realism; however, this was not the original intent of the video gaming market. Like our bypass for gameplay mechanics in virtual realistic societies and engagements, we use this same concept in reality. We tend to overlook the mechanics that compose our lives in favor of looking beyond into what we want our lives to be like. Ironically enough, video game life appears to be a simulation of that ideal life that many of us strive to achieve.

Human Checkers


This piece starts of the exhibition as it contains simpler visual connections to human absence from reality and presence in gaming culture. Although all fun and games, this is clearly a simple linking and start of what would become a culture phenom.
http://www.kissimmeechamber.com/images/checkers2.jpg

The Game of LIFE


Another subtle introduction to this cultural shift can be found in the board game Life. The game features many similar concepts that would eventually be borrowed by video games. A players goal is to basically life "the life" and taking over careers and responsibilities of growing up. Similar to a "Second Life" players are unaware of the fact that the mind gets temporarily detached from reality in an attempt to experience a faux life.
http://www.popular.com.sg/images/product/stationery/59214.jpg

World at War

Although semi-humorous, this image displays what is a growing trend in video games recapturing historic events. The game HUD display on this image satires the historic influences on gaming and links reality to virtual reality heavily. These types of games are also the most violent and visually accurate which offers "semi" authentic first person perspective on a section of reality that is wished to have never have happened.

World of Warcraft


Perhaps one of the most influential life simulators is Blizzard's World of Warcraft game and expansions. World of Warcraft has an unbelievable subscription base. Many turn tot his game in order to escape a reality filled with disappointments and or little excitment. The game has been heavily criticized for the amount of hours player spend online as opposed to spent on their own lives. It has also been linked with the ability to manipulate a players analysis on life and draw them in so far that reality becomes a "Second life" to World of Warcraft taking over as the primary life.
http://blog.makezine.com/_previews_pc_world-warcraft_world-of-warcraft-a.jpg

Really?


This image was spawned off of the ongoing trials lead by Jack Thomspon who, for many years, has attempted to outlaw the production and distribution of violent video games. Notorious during the "Hot Coffee" trial debates, Jack Thompson has argued that video games have pushed destroyed the barrier separating reality and virtual reality thus causing a conflict which disrupts a gamers intelligence in decision making. He blames video games such as the Grand Theft Auto series for its extreme violent content which is making its way into the hands of little kids even with the ESRB rating system intact. He has linked this particular game with numeroud murder cases which ironically appear to simulate a video game event.
http://wiredblogs.typepad.com/games/gamercheney.jpg

Nothing Beats Sex!


Following the Jack Thompson entry, this is what caused major controversy during the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The game features a sex mini-game which violates the ESRB rating given to it prior to its release. This is a significant image as it demonstrates how close games are coming to reality. Sex is considered majorly as a sacred act or taboo. This game seems to demonstrate it otherwise. Sex in video games is not a new concept, but it has contributed to its fair share of controversy as the idea of sex is heavily linked to religion.
http://www.techdigest.tv/hot_coffee_GTA.jpg

Fake or Foto?


This image is in the exhibit to purely demonstrate technology. When analyzing the image, it is extremely difficult to make anything out of it, however, when told that half of the image is a computer generated version of the car, it becomes shocking to see that the differences are subtle if even evident. Technology has come a long way over the years from single palette pixel images to cinematic computer generated visuals which appear almost too real. The realism achieved by video games is quite attractive and does enhance gaming experience, but it also enhances the perception of virtual reality and helps to place virtual reality a step higher in the minds of younger generations.
http://www.everybodysucksbutus.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/gt5-prologue.jpg

Fake or Foto

This week, I have found a great topic for my original posting. In this class, we are discussing art of the digital age and how we interact with it, and this post goes along fairly well with that. Being a 3D modeler and animator, it is a major part of my job to create visually realistic images when called for. For example, the above image is a digital rendering that I have created using Autodesk's 3D Studio Max software. It retains virtually all of the characteristics of realistic imagery and properties including the number of bumps on the ball. The programming power that we are offered through programs such as Autodesk's Maya and Max software as well as Softimage's XSI provide us the ability to regenerate reality through digital means. When you view a movie with lots of special effects, does your mind sometimes wander off thinking to yourself, "Man that looks real!" or "Was that real?"? Because I am familiar with the various techniques used in digital manipulation and 3D modeling, I can spot the differences fairly easily, however, the ability to distinguish reality from virtual reality is getting much more difficult over the years due to the increase in technology and the decrease in human participation in reality as virtual reality is taking over our daily lives more each year. The company Autodesk has produced a few challenges over the year that test a viewer’s ability to compare and contrast and to eventually differentiate real images and digital renders produced through one of their award winning programs. I have posted a link to the challenge for you all to take and test your ability to not only separate digital reality and reality, but to compare them with shared relations.

http://area.autodesk.com/index.php/fakeorfoto/challenge/

Out With The New, In With The Old

This weeks original posting focuses on a community project that I have been following since the very beginning of the project. Sega's Sonic The hedgehog 2, released in November 1992, became a worldwide best selling video game for the Sega Genesis and became a nostalgic icon for many. When Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog 2 the console hardware used to run the game was nowhere near as sophisticated as the technology we have now. Games then were held tight to a limited color palette and 16 Bit processing power and not to mention the sound processing was terrible, though the tunes played are quite catch and nostalgic themselves. Now, we can generate more than 5 times the processing power and we can produce lossless audio for games as well. We are also not limited to a small selective color palette either. So with all of this ability that we have in the 21st century, we should be able to make new great games right? Yes, and now actually. The community at the Sonic Retro Forums have taught an old dog new tricks. They have created a new game based nearly entirely off of an old one. With this comers Sonic the Hedgehog 2 HD. The community, most of whom are trapped in nostalgic moments of ring collecting and midi synthesizers, have decided to test the limits of new technology in this new HD era with old ideas. Created entirely from scratch, they have produced new HD resolution visuals based on the 16 Bit counterpart and have made a playable demo. The community has not just recreated a cultural classic, they have revived it. The new HD version is scaled in many ways to look and feel just like the '92 version with the exception of new sprites, resolution, and a new soundtrack. This is not only interesting because of the amount of work done, but this is incredible because it is a community project with no influence from Sega at all. Not even a cease and desist order! It is also amazing to see concepts of the old such as art and sound being re-engineered for today's technology. Here is a link to the demo for t hose who want to see what has become of this project.

http://www.logotypes.se/sonic/HD/TechDemoSecondRelease.rar
http://www.logotypes.se/sonic/HD/D3D_dll_files.rar


http://forums.sonicretro.org

Company Logo Designs

In this weeks posting, I decided to follow up on a subject that is happening fairly commonly today. The evolution of corporate logos is a subject, which gets little attention and relates well with art and identity of self. At the bottom of this post is a web link, which analyzes various well-known logos and gives brief history of the company and logo. This post is intended not to look into the various companies changing their logos but to analyze he importance of changing the logo. The logo is the visual representation of a company and perhaps he first thing people notice about a company. The design and color scheme are all selected according to some type of realization that can vary. Do these logo’s attract consumers? Do these logo’s create the illusion of friendliness? Do these logo’s represent the company a whole, a product or an idea? These questions have multiple answers depending on the company being analyzed, however it is important, in my opinion, to note the significance of logo changes. For example, perhaps the most recent known design change was Pepsi’s brand logo update. The Pepsi Company has been linked to the logo for decades, however, the company decided to change the logo. When a company changes its logo, it must put in a ton of effort and thought into its final design because although only good intentions are to come from the new design, a consumer backlash can result in response to the change such as consumer dependency on tradition or confusion. The new Pepsi logo didn’t change much as the color palette is still there, but some minor changes were done to the design that has received various types of criticism. Sometimes a company changes its logo because of a traditional logo becoming outdated in relation to current times, but the main question that I would like to see some answers to in the comments are to why consumers feel the need to push or rely heavily on a particular logo for years or even decide to change.

http://www.neatorama.com/2008/02/07/the-evolution-of-tech-companies-logos/

Box Art

A couple weeks ago, I brought up the topic of digital art that is commonly overlooked. Today, I would like to step back to that topic and bring about something similar with box art. Because box art spreads a number of categories, I will focus on video game box art because of their visual accomplishments and failures.
When we look towards purchasing a video game, or even DVD, we don’t think about what it is packaged in. As the consumer, we are more interested in what comes packaged in the disc rather than what is packaged in the containing wrap. I have a collection of games which presents me with a collection of DVD case art work that never receives much attention. One of the biggest questions that bother me is, “Why do distributors put so much time into creating box art?” Box art and the art that covers the top face of the disc appears to be rather pointless at times doesn’t it? We end up shelving our cases anyway and the disc which usually contains the same or similar designs as the case does normally gets fed into our disc drives where we never see it again until we decide to swap disc. There are many artistic designs that I have seen currently on video game case inserts.

The cultural favorite fighting game Street Fighter has returned in its fourth iteration titled Street Fighter IV and its cover art is just as attractive as the game. The reasoning behind this belief is that the actual game that is packaged behind this cover looks just like the cover. A unique Sumi-E art style gives the game and the cover a better pop in perspective. When playing the game, character models tend to jump at you and move so sleekly. The cover retains the same attributes as the game itself and isn’t deceitful.
Another game that I feel shows of great artistic qualities is Electronic Arts revolutionary game Skate. The cover is unique because of its simplicity. It doesn’t use overly saturated colors and doesn’t cram as many images and detail into one 7.125x5.00 inch space. The image contains no saturation to improve on its simplicity which also matches the simplicity of the name of the game. This type of approach is not normally taken and the outcome here is looks like an aged film, and if you aren’t familiar with the game or skating, filming is a major part of the sport.

One final game which displays a fine cover art is Burnout Paradise. I mentioned above that one good quality to Street Fighter IV’s art was that it wasn’t deceitful… well in this case, deceit is the next best thing. Anybody familiar with the Burnout franchise knows that the name Burnout and Paradise don’t mix well in reality, but mix flawlessly in a game. This cover art displays a very nice stenciled image of a vehicle which mask off a background of vibrant colors. The colors give off the paradise feel and may attract consumers who aren’t used to the franchise, but the game is everything but. High speed races and unrealistic vehicular crashes are breathtaking and make for a great game. The art doesn’t just mask away the colors, but it masks the gameplay as if not to reveal its goods.

Even with some pretty attractive art, box art of all forms will typically go unnoticed. As stated above, the cases will get shelved and often times thrown away as they take up a lot of space of those “collectors”. It is understandable to see the creation of attractive box art to lure the consumer in to purchase the product, but in an era with the internet, it isn’t box art that attracts people, it’s normally trailers, reviews, and perhaps the biggest, hype.

Industrial Design

In this week’s Original Post, I would like to focus on the visual changes in industrial design over the years and their effectiveness. Just about everything around us has been thoroughly mapped out and digitally designed before being manufactured. For example, the revolutionary media device known as the iPod has undergone “design surgery” numerous times. Many take for granted the amount of work and thought put into the next generation consumer goods. The iPod started out as a thicker version of last generation’s model with the only major visual change being the switch from the casual button functions to the iconic click wheel. Even so, the design has undergone an additional facelift in order to mix better with advancing technology which has created the popular iPod Touch series with a touch screen design. This design does carry over much of the original design layouts from its predecessors. The change in design has been a major success and has benefited owners by creating a much more user friendly interface and sleeker style. Another visual change in industrial design that I have come across is in the form of shoes, in particular, soccer cleats. The Nike Mercurial 1998 R9’s were a top of the line soccer boot during the time of the 1998 World Cup. The design appears to be fairly basic compared to today’s standards. A few streaks of colors and stitching that create a fairly unique pattern on the surface of the shoe. Today, the top of the line boots include the Nike Mercurial Vapor V. The designs styles between the two show a dramatic visual difference. Numerous current boots have a design layout that eliminates or hides shoe laces. This design, as seen on the Mercurial Vapors, allows for a centered strike on the ball at all times eliminating any offset placed on the strike of the ball by shoelaces. So between the two, technology has advanced dramatically to allow for a better experience. Now not all designs are for the better. Let’s take desktop graphics cards for example. The nVidia GeForce MX 440 was a midrange graphics car produced early in the century. It was rather small and featured no over the top design. Now, we have cards such as the nVidia GeForce 9800 series which is extremely bulky and rather unconventional in regards to its design. Basically, this post is meant to observe the many industrial changes to a line of consumer goods and their changes to help better the experience of the consumer and appeal visually. In looking back just a few years, it’s amazing to see the level of design advancements that the industry makes with their products. We went from a cubic lunch box designed GameCube in 2001 to a rather sleek looking rectangle known as the Wii in 2007. The current design has been praised for its ability to fit just about anywhere size wise and visually.

Speech Animation in Paintings

For this week’s original posting, I would like to address the technological achievements in relation to art and media. Although this video is only a couple years old, the technology used to create this is unbelievable and to this day not used widely. In this video, the director uses numerous famous paintings such as the Mona Lisa which are digitally altered to mimic actions such as lip syncing to begin talking.

The technology used to do this is similar to that used by CG animators in recording movements for character animations. The major achievement here is the ability to alter a still 2D image and enable it to manipulate the area around the mouth without distorting the original image. The director later uses a still photograph of himself in order to demonstrate the programs ability to manipulate various forms of portraits. This program enables the manipulation of images from various angles eliminating the need to recreate a 3D version of an original painting to achieve the same or similar effect. If anybody watches SpongeBob Square Pants, the opening includes a cheesy version of this which uses an overlapping layer of a person’s mouth to simulate speech, but with this type of technology, we can animate all type of images in a similar fashion. Imagine being able to manipulate an entire scene based on pinpoint interactions and movement from a human source. You could quite possibly reenact an image such as events in the Revolutionary War with proper time and development. As technology progresses, it is not certain what we can accomplish with this type of digital ability.

The Art That Never Was

Upon looking for an interesting topic for this week’s original posting, I became inspired for a specific topic in relation to digital art, media, and technology from an unusual source. When we think of art, are minds typical render the elements of modern art, abstract art, similar to Pablo Picasso, and pop art, which was pioneered by Andy Warhol. These art styles and artist names have been embedded within our memory because of educational influences that pressure these artists, their work, and their lives within our perception of the idea of art. In my research for an original post, I came across what one may not consider art, but most definitely is. Let’s take a GUI in to perspective. Don’t know what that is, how about if we term it as Graphical User Interface? Still no idea as of what I’m speaking of? How about the numerous visual elements that makes up your everyday electronic devices? These lines of code that render out the visuals we see on Cell Phones, Computers, Video Games and much more are most definitely works of art. These GUI’s for short all started out as hand drawn references before they were actually entered into scripting for use in our devices. The GUI’s were not just tossed together without the thought or idea of any artistic styles being used in its composition. Let’s take The GUI of Windows XP for example. The taskbar on the bottom of our monitors surely looks simple, but its design was not meant to be that. In comparison to the interface used in Windows 98, many artistic elements have been used in the later iterations of Operating Systems. For example, numerous bits of colors have been added to icons, taskbars and buttons. Highlights and shadows are now present and our icons for programs have distinct images that represent the program and its function. These all get revamped even more so with the release of Windows Vista, although many numerous elements were taken from Apple’s Operating System. The GUI for the XBOX 360 is (or was) a graphical wonder with its razor like tabs, colorful menus, seamless transitions, easy use, and much more. I say was because this has been updated with an entirely new look called The New XBOX Experience, which utilizes many new artistic styles similar to that seen on the Nintendo Wii, but with mixed responses from critics. This can be explored in much more depth, but I’ll allow the readers’ comments to explore even further as to what we consider art and how we use it.

2D vs. 3D

2D vs. 3D

After observing a post of a fellow classmate, I have begun to realize the amount of popularity that 3D visuals have acquired over the years. 3D visuals such as those in film have pretty much completely dominated the animation film industry, one which was originally powered by 2D visuals. When we look at animated films today, we tend to think of Disney and Pixar films such as Cars and Wall-E as well as a collection of competition films by DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox with releases such as Shrek and Ice Age. One common trait of these films is their stunning Three Dimensional visuals, spectacular special effects and seamless animations. The major situation here is the slowdown of 2D film production. Films such as Aladdin and The Lion King have set unbelievable records in the industry with their unique art styles. These films did however utilize 3D in production, but mostly to give off a seamless 2D effect as opposed to the resource heavy and time consuming hand drawn approach. It wasn’t until after the release of Lilo & Stitch, one of the last memorable 2D animations, in 2002 which saw the switch in tradition. Even though CG animations broke out in demand after Toy Story set sales and visual records in 1995, the 21st century has stuffed us full of CG heavy films such as Monster’s Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. There is nothing wrong with the growing trend in this particular style of Rendering and Animation, but the only source of finding 2D animations are through cartoon short animation which have been converting to CG rendered visuals as well with shows like Jimmy Neutron. With numerous devices and programs powering and pushing CG visuals, it is no wonder to find these visuals being pushed I the film industry as this is what we are used to. If we all stopped playing Bungie’s Halo Trilogy to open up to a 2D version of the game, the reception to the concept may not generate good criticism and ratings, and this is the same structure used in the film industry. It’s all about generating profit, and right now companies such as Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox are generating revenue beyond belief and altering the structure now may be a bad financial move. In other words, why fix something that isn’t broken? Toy Story 3 anyone? This is in production for a 2010 release!

Representations of Digital Identity

D. Boyd, M. Chang, and H. Goodman present an extremely explicit view on the term identity and the usage of personal identity in a media driven world in their article titled “Representations of Digital Identity”. A lot of the focus in the article deals with the construction and execution of a personalized identity system called Computer-Mediated Communication or CMC for short. Although, I was and still am a bit unaware of the origin and usage of the system, it provides a lot of paths in which people take to identify themselves in any setting.
The article is most definitely an eye opener for within the first few sentences the authors point out the various common usage of identity in the real world and compare it to that of the virtual world. In doing so, you can clearly see explicit similarities between the two. Many elements in personalized identity in the virtual world are borrowed from what we learn about people in the real world. D. Boyd, M. Chang, and H. Goodman connect identity as one of the biggest forms of communication neglecting the need for verbal communication. Some of the basics in which we have grown up knowing is that we often times create an identity of someone based on their age, gender, weight, height, body build, dress code and much more. The article explains that these same traits make their way to the virtual world in the form of avatars, message board usernames and ranking codes, gamertags, email address and screen names. It was also interesting to note that in the real world, a sense of extended pressure is placed upon legitimacy of one’s identity and proof of one’s identity is often needed to continue communication.
Well, in a world now dominated by technology and the internet, these same elements are used all the time. For instance, we can take ebay for example. One may immediately jump into this giant online auction website to purchase and or sell goods, however, the quality and outcome of a purchase greatly depends on the reputation or identity of the seller and or buyer. Approval ratings known as feedback is listed under the avatar of the buyer and or seller and the higher the rating, you can bet that your item(s) will be legitimate and will be delivered to you and it won’t be part of a scam. An even larger scale of legitimacy on ebay is the use of PayPal which requires one to route their checking account to the system in order to become a “verified” identity. This is only the beginning of the use of personal identity and communication in our world today.

What is the point of art in the media age?

This article composed by Dieter Daniels pushes the thought of the significance and impact that art has on the media age. Daniels writes in his article that people such as Daguerre and Morse are artist that we do not consider artist. Daguerre's daguerrotypes are considered by many to be the first form of photography although that is much debated as Nicéphore Niépce played a major if not nearly complete role in the discovery. Daniels views morse code as a form of art as sound is converted into a form of communication, but I seem to view things much differently.

In my opinion, Daguerre and Morse were not artist at all and shouldn't be considered such. Daniels points out that we do not link the accomplishments created by these "Artist" with there work as we do with other artist and their work such as da Vinci and Warhol. This is because there intentions were not art related. The photograph, which is obviously a technological phenomenom at the time and to this day, did not have much use as a form of art during the time of its development. Photography's origin can be seen more clearly as a science procedure which is why we do not link the inventor with the invention with art. As with my opinion on Daguerre, Morse's main intentions on developing Morse Code could not have been anywhere near art. Art in relation to this form of communication could have been the last thing on his mind and Morse Code became a science project.

In today's society, you can definetly try to link art with technology as you can link art with just about anything. The graphics we view on the television and computer screen for instance... art, the cars we drive... art, the clothes we wear... all of it is art as it all had an artistic template in it's design and manufacturing. Art in the media age to go deeper into Daniels article is a necesity to keep the media age moving. You cannot really create anything this day in age without a template. Technology is based off of what technology came before it and those forms of technology all had a template or an idea to construct such a thing. This may not necessarily be considered art, but it most definitely helps to manuever the way we view art, be it to enhance or to completely change the way we view it. Look at how we view photography today. It is seen as a form of art as well as documentation, entertainment, and income. Technological advancements helped to spread photography around into different fields as photography did not start this way, but found its way to this point.