Disruptive Technologies

Course site for Disruptive Technologies. Exploring identity, community, & design.

Month: March 2015 (page 1 of 4)

Listen Up, Can Anyone Hear Us?

To prepare for Thursday’s synthesis presentations, those of us that like to be Too Disruptive would like for you to do two things. First, take a look at Sam Richards’s Ted Talk,  “A Radical Experiment in Empathy.”

Then, we would like for you to take a brief, semi-anonymous quiz. Especially since this is such a small class, we hope that everyone gets a chance to take the quiz (even Cole). Also, please do so no later than Thursday at noon so we will have time to compile the results.

Click here to take the brief quiz, Making ‘My’ Way Downtown

Kate’s ipad reflection

I am finding my modular method of working with the iPad to be quite successful. Some of the interesting features I have discovered in explain everything is the ability to record actions on each slide and publish it on YouTube. I am also able to drop videos directly into the presentation, write and draw over them and include all of the interactions that I have on the screen in the recording creating a completely customizable presentation. I also found the app cute cut to have some greate features including the ability to layer videos and change their transparency. The only downside to this app is that the free version leaves a watermark on the video and has a limit to the length of the video that can be made. An easy fix for this is to place these clips in iMovie for final arrangement and to add music.

Aside from these tools, I have been using my iPad for most of the lectures that I do and have been finding it to be an overall enjoyable and smooth experience. I still needed the ipad for photoshop instruction and to play DVDs.

Identity Video Project

I am an artist.
I create conversations that challenge normalcy and comfort, that shift focus to the unnoticed and misunderstood, that demand self evaluation and the scrutiny of implications. I respond to questions, just not the questions that are often asked, and not the ones that are coated in layers of sugar for ease of consumption. I disturb and unnerve to enlighten and share perspective.

I am a technician.
With technology, I forge, otherwise unattainable, aesthetics to shape worlds on stage and to build a platform for art’s consumption.

I am a producer.
Working with teams of designers and artists affords me the opportunity to grow as an artist and a theatre practitioner. Collaborating innovators push the limits of theatre as we know it. I am an interface between production teams and the world– I manipulate circumstance to facilitate the making.

Let’s make something.
Innovate with me.

Christopher Stratis

Weekly iPad Reflection — Drive Sync Issues

I’m still encountering issues with the google drive app for iPad. I’ve had to remove the account and re-add it to get new content to appear in the drive. This issue is killing my production team’s willingness to rely on technology. It seems that I am not the only one experiencing this:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/drive/wTb-ERraipQ

On the bright side, I’ve got a new project for the iPad– controlling stage lighting, remotely, with the iPad.
More soon!

Weekly iPad Reflection — Day One

Two weeks ago, I downloaded and installed a new app to help me record bits of information about my life, daily. I am horrible at making daily entries, but I’ve taken photos and made notes about things that I would likely forget. I’m having fun with it so far! Check out their video:

Day One Journal from Day One on Vimeo.

Weekly Create – Tweet

Any textual representation of self will be taken out of context, read with different intentions, and potentially used against the person who posts. I’m slightly paranoid when posting– there is no erasing content on the internet. Every public, digital transaction gets associated with your being. Employers, friends, family, strangers, co-workers, and subordinates see this and project this onto their preexisting ideas of what that person is about. It’s a pretty powerful tool if used correctly, but the effects could be catastrophic.

Kate’s Weekly create

I tweeted a little experiment with making abstract animations today. It’s really important to me that when I work in different apps that it doesnt call attention to the app that was used so that it remains consistent with my artistic identity and adds positive qualities to my work. In choosing what aspects of my identity to put on Twitter, I would like it to be about my experimentations with different media (including apps) as well as ideas. Twitter is a powerful tool for shaping identity and I think it’s important to take that into consideration at all times. I find it interesting that when I google my name it is one of the top three sites that appear along with this blog despite how infrequently I tweet, which shows how important it is to make sure that these are the aspects of my identity that I want to be public.

Week 9: Wrapping Up Identity

Let’s play catch up and review where we are and where we are headed. I have graded all of your things … some items are missing and you can see what I missed for you in the Garde Center in Blackboard. Please let me know if I missed things! Also, I’d like to give everyone a chance to get caught up, so whatever you have missed, you can go back and add it to get caught up by Sunday at 5 PM.

Today we wrap up the block on Identity and while I can tell from reading your work that you’ve gotten stuff out of the experience, I am disappointed in the fact that we lost so much time together. With that said, it is time for you guys to take over again next week and produce your second Team Synthesis Post and Presentations. Same format as last time, but I want you all to me cognizant of the time you take to deliver your synthesis. Each team has an hour.

Conversation Starters

We define who we are by the ways we experience ourselves through participation as well as by the ways we and others reify ourselves. — Wenger

Identity as negotiated experience. — Katherine

Buckingham and Wenger coincided in their discussions on identity in several ways. Both authors emphasized that identity is neither static nor steady; instead, they describe how it is a “state of becoming,” and that the process of “identification” is going on all the time. — Jay

Thinking about how you can have “multiple” identities thanks to the power of anonymity on the Internet a more fluid definition of identity works. A definition where you are not only identify with your physical characteristics, but also your interest, your thoughts, and the content you create. — Shady

Identity Posts

Let’s talk about digital identity and how social identities can shape other people’s overall impression of us. Does the “web function as tools for people to create constantly changing projections of their identities through content production online?[1]” Take for example the stories of the Star Wars Kid and David after the Dentist.

Out of Class

David After the Dentist

From Wikipedia

Because this was David’s first surgery and his mother could not be there, his father decided to video tape the experience to share with her and their family.

After the surgery, David was feeling confused from the anaesthesia he was given. While in the car, he was asking his father questions like “Is this real life?” and “Is this going to be forever?” and also telling him that he had two fingers. At one point he even attempted to push himself up from his seat (while still buckled in) and began screaming before sinking back in exhaustion.

Seven months later, David’s father uploaded the video on Facebook. Being overwhelmed with people wanting to see the video, he decided to upload it to YouTube, but did not notice there was a private option. Just 3 days after the upload, it had been seen over 3 million times.

The DeVore family were soon made YouTube Partners. This gives YouTube the right to run ads over the videos they post, and in exchange, are given a share of the revenue. They also sell “David After Dentist” t-shirts and donate a portion of the revenue they earn to dental charities. However they have made very little money on it so far, and are currently in the process of filming a similar video to the original.

David DeVore Sr. has received criticism for exploiting his son. DeVore has stated that he appreciates the concern, but feels that it was innocent and has been a very positive experience for his family.

The Star Wars Kid

From Wikipedia

Star Wars Kid is a viral video made in 2002 by Ghyslain Raza[1] in which he wields a golf ball retriever in imitation of Darth Maul’s lightsaber moves from the Star Wars films. At the time, Raza was a 15-year-old high school student from Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He had not intended for the video to become public, but its subsequent release led to ridicule during which Raza chose to distance himself from the video. Raza since has affirmed his identity and has used the video to help speak on the effects of bullying.

On November 3, 2002, Raza made a video of himself swinging a golf ball retriever around as a weapon. The video was filmed at his high school studio, and he accidentally left the tape in a basement. It was taped over a portion of a basketball game (as seen extremely briefly at the end of the clip). The video was discovered by a schoolmate, whose friend created an electronic file from the video tape. The video was distributed amongst his school’s students. A student uploaded it to the Internet with the title Jackass_starwars_funny.wmv. The video eventually became a viral Internet meme through P2P services. According to court transcripts, the video first appeared on the Internet on the evening of April 14, 2003.

Raza states he was a victim of cyberbullying, as his video also attracted negative attention and comments. Online commenters responded with critical or bullying messages. In a 2013 interview, Raza states, “What I saw was mean. It was violent. People were telling me to commit suicide.” Among the comments online, “One commenter called him ‘a pox on humanity.’ Others suggested he commit suicide.” He was bullied in person at his school, and he left the campus to pursue private tutoring. He claimed to have lost friends because of the ordeal.

Two New Social Apps

While I was at SXSW two weeks ago there was all sorts of talk about Meerkat — essentially a live streaming app/network let’s you instantly share a view into what you are doing. There were all sorts of chatter about (a) how cool it was and (b) the public dust up with Twitter over features and functionality. Everyone knew Twitter had purchased a similar service about a year ago and were speculating on if that was the root cause.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, Twitter released Periscope as an integrated live streaming and social interaction app today for the iPhone. Even though it is an iPhone app I have installed on my iPad and it works well. I may use it today in class.

The other one is a new app from Instagram that let’s you create multi frame images to share … nothing earth shattering, but it is fun to use. It is called, Layout by Instagram. Again it is designed for the iPhone but works on the iPad.

Ken’s iPad Reflection: Programming on the iPad

I reached out for opinions from CS students on using the iPad for schoolwork. The consensus was that there wasn’t really a good way to accomplish most necessary tasks on the tablet, however there was some support for the Surface Pro, a fully functional Windows 8 tablet with a touch screen. I’m actually considering getting one instead of a new MacBook, although I’m not quite convinced about it. It seems like it might excel as a tablet but fall short as a laptop, more research is needed, especially on the keyboard.

There are many mobile and cloud based apps for writing code in different languages, but they typically lack the features and integration you’d want when creating full applications. Services that offer a cloud VM and browser-based IDE like Cloud9 and Koding are beginning to look promising, although they really need native iOS apps in my opinion to be viable on the iPad. Some apps can really be useful for learning the basics of a language, for example a new app Swifty can be used to learn the Apple language Swift on your iPad or iPhone.

In general I think if we’re pushing for iPads on campus there are 2 ways to lessen resistance against it:

  1. Frame the debate in terms of eReader vs. traditional books since it’s definitely a win for portability, cost, and flexibility.
  2. Move to a more optional BYOD model where iPads are offered as a rental, but the student can use their own device. Although I imagine the allure of standardizing on one device is that it’s easier to provide support.

Kate’s iPad reflection

When I heard representatives from apple were coming I didn’t know what to expect. What would they add to this conversation? I was pleasantly surprised with with much of their visit. While much of their discussion on garage band was comprised of things I had already explored, it made me look at the app a second time and find a few new features that I had not yet tried. My main take always were the countless ways keynote can be transformed from just a basic presentation app to something that can be applied to many more dynamic projects. It even has some elements that will help me do mock ups of animations and websites. They also mentioned that keynote projects could be imported into the app “explain everything” and the presentation could be recorded I bought this app and love it. Its main down fall though is that it does not import slide transitions and there is no ability to add them in after importing. My only solution would be recording the presentation and then opening it in iMovie. I also liked the idea that iTunes U could be used to create a portfolio. I would like to explore more of these nontraditional uses for these apps and understand their fundamental capabilities so that I can repurpose them depending on my needs.

One of my biggest revelations was to break out of the notion that a single app has to do everything. I do a lot of animation work and not having an alternative to AfterEffects or something similar so I can do trial animations has been a big drawback. I am used to working with software that does everything but now I am seeing apps more as modules that I can move my work through. I have stopped searching for things like animation apps and instead looking for ones with specific tools such as apps that will cut out sections of images and give transparent areas to the images so I can layer them in another app. This has been successful and I am looking forward to developing a system of use with several free apps as well as Explain Everything, iMovie and GarageBand to animate some of my paintings.

[We] Identify as Disruptive Too

A person’s identity indicates something about them. As a set of social classifications, identity is created by viewing two or more people or groups in relation to one another (oneself is included). Identity  is a paradox in two ways.

First,  it is constantly in flux, but at the same time, suggests an ever-developing constant within a person. How someone chooses to identify his/herself (or someone else) can change over time; there can be momentary or long-term changes. For example:

  • Momentary: Role as friend takes precedence over role as student if a friend is in a car accident.
  • Long-Term: Gender or sexuality can fluctuate over time.

Second, a person’s understanding of their own identity affects the lens through which they view his/herself and others.

 

Ken’s Tweetly Create

I’m very picky with how I use Twitter to shape my online identity since it’s public for all to see. I use it to retweet things from my apps’ Twitter accounts and some other posts I really like, and occasionally some thoughts I have. Lately I’ve realized that your replies to people don’t show up in your main feed of tweets so I’ve been using it a bit more for communication instead of solely a platform for publishing.

The majority of my tweets are tech-related but sometimes I stray a bit. My favorite tweet of mine is an idea pertaining to the popular open source app framework PhoneGap and its lack of quality plugins.

For this assignment I tweeted a link to a list of iPad music apps on Pinterest. I had already shared something similar a couple of weeks ago on Yammer but I thought this relevant for a couple of reasons.

For one thing I think some aspects of Pinterest are useful, especially the way you can share multiple aspects of your identity cleanly by creating different boards for different topics. I try to replicate this on Twitter by using multiple accounts and I wanted to highlight that here. The Twitter account for my app Color Sounds is centered around music and art technology, music apps, etc. So I planned to send the tweet from there, retweet it from my main account and post a link to that, however I don’t think you can link to a retweet.

In any case, I get the feeling I don’t use Twitter the way most people do. I’m on it a lot but almost always for consumption, hardly ever posting. I like finding interesting articles and things on it. Also I don’t think I follow or have a single follower on Twitter that’s somebody I know in real life. For me that’s what Facebook is for. Facebook is social and Twitter is business.

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