Promotion Basics

1. The main audience for this project is not meant to be a specific group of people, but more focused on anyone who is curious about new things. Because (hopefully) the interface can have an incredibly wide array of uses, and many different directions it could expand in, I think that it could be applicable to nearly anyone in that aspect because someone else may get an idea based on this, just as I was inspired by a few other previous projects.
It also helps that there a lot of lot people who are, like myself, curious about things, how they work, and can't help themselves by touching and interacting with something new, and I hope that this will bring that out in more people.
2. Following that, I would like to be able to set it up as an installation, ideally in the Union somewhere, where many people can walk by it and hopefully be interested in seeing what it is. If it were in a place hidden away, I'd think that only people who specifically wanted to (or had to) go see it would probably take a look, but if it were in a more public place, I think that a wider variety of people would be more likely to at least take a glance.
3. Promotion is always tricky for an installation type project, so finding others to share a time/space is helpful. Because of the nature of the project, I don't feel that having a huge amount of mass mailings would be ideal, but I will at least be posting to the pool, new media conference, and probably on other places like Facebook. I can't say for sure yet what will be in the email, as I don't have a place or time set right now.
4. To receive feedback, I would first ask people who can to review it on the pool. Any email I send should always have a message asking that if you do view the project, please email me with any questions or comments about it. My "ideal" feedback idea though would be to have a camera facing outwards from the screen that monitors people's reactions while they are interacting. This would give a different, but more "direct" type of feedback that can sometimes be more telling than someone's emailed comments.

Milestone #3

Final Milestone before "beta" testing begins.

As of right now, a functional model of the final version is working, the physical interface should be the only thing remaining. The current version uses a standard video camera with a small hand-held light, displayed on the normal computer screen. In the final version, you will simply touch a plexiglass screen with a video projected on it while an infrared camera monitors where you are touching the surface of the screen. Also, Ryan's video is pretty much done rendering, and we have tested some bits on the interface to try and figure out the best method to use.

I have alsorecently purchased a few sheets of plexiglass to start constructing the final interface, which should be completed over break.

The only other part of the project that hasn't been implemented yet is an audio switching scheme. As the video layers are faded out, the sound of the layer below should start to be heard, eventually leading to 4 layers of sound to be heard together, eg sound effects, voice effects, and music. This is partly because Ryan is still working on some sound bits, and partly because I haven't figured out exactly how to implement it yet. Either way, this is not the focus of the project, and will be implemented in the final version.

Milestone #2

Some pretty major updates for this next stage. The mutli-layered aspect is pretty much finished, minus a few tweaks and some interface cleanup. 4 separate color layers are overlaid on top of each other, RED, GREEN, BLUE and BLACK. Using a small light source pointed at the camera, the brighter the light and the longer it is held in one spot, the further down the images will be "dug" into, eventually fading back through the layers when the light is removed.
Using a sample image of overlaid handprints to simulate what the final version will look like, you can see how each layer is carved away to see the layers underneath.

Milestone #1

This is the most recent update of everything going on, for milestone #1. The most important thing reached for today is (finally) platform-independent tracking program to jump off from as the entire base of the project.This will allow me build everything off of the default Max/MSP/Jitter core program without having to use any outside patches or externals.
Mac version
Windows version
It is the most simple version of the project, but it allows me to do an important thing now: be able to control the mouse cursor without touching a mouse or keyboard. From here, I can go in two different directions, and both of them will be useful in the final stage.

I am also starting to work with Ryan Schaller to find the best way to integrate with his project, and and the next major step is how and why things are going to work together.

Idea...

In thinking over where my original ideas started and where I have been continually coming back to, I think my project will be going through a fairly major change. It's been too long trying to make a square peg fit a round hole, in a manner of speaking.

NM definition part 1: Vin Crosbie

a) The first "issue" my project would have with his definition, is that he does little to address the "art" side of New Media. It is hard to say what does and doesn't fit into his definition because of this. He does bring up computer games, and I would say if anything my project comes closest to a game in the way that it brings things together, but even this doesn't fully commit to his definition as it is not quite accurate enough.

b)It took me a little while to fully comprehend where Vin Crosbie was coming from with his definition of New Media, but looking now on it, I love the idea of starting with transportation and working from there. It was a bit confusing at first why he was talking about the land and sea in relation to New Media, but when it leads into defining a New Medium, I think it all becomes quite clear. In addressing it from a different direction like this, it makes it much more apparent that the emphasis on "new" is much more about the possibilities of a completely new form of information "transportation", and less about how much technology it contains.

NM definition part 2: Lev Manovich

a)Lev Manovich's definition of New Media is generally the first one brought up when trying to define the topic, and is almost always followed by several questions starting with "But...".
Along this same line I would have to apply his "myth of interactivity" to myself, in that I think my project and ideas both agree and disagree with him. Interactivity is a word that is often taken either far too literally or used as a blanket statement to cover a lack of concrete ideas, and I will not be the last person to honestly say "yes, I am guilty of that". Based on the definition he gives, interactivity can have a wide range of uses, but it is really up to the individual to define it for each situation.

b) For the most part I do agree with Manovich and his definition. I especially like the section detailing "What New Media is Not", in that it addresses the most common issue of people shoehorning concepts into New Media on the basis of it just being around in the digital age. This defeats of the point of calling it "new" if everything that exists now can be put in this category.