Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Do you remember how it was when we came of age?
Timeline: built.
Color correction: following.
Sound boosting: also to follow.
Roughcut: Above.
This is pretty much a lo-fi signpost of how the final piece could and will flow.
Comments welcome.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
We're back.
Bad news: The MCOMMS network seems to have died a death.
Good news: All the work I intend to use has been backed up both in digital and hard copy.
More interviews lay ahead. A chance conversation has lead to further developments in that sphere. We will be beginning the editing process, give or take within the next week and a bit.
Excitement abounds.
Good news: All the work I intend to use has been backed up both in digital and hard copy.
More interviews lay ahead. A chance conversation has lead to further developments in that sphere. We will be beginning the editing process, give or take within the next week and a bit.
Excitement abounds.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Well, well, you look familiar...
Four interviews in the last two weeks done and dusted. 2 today, and 2 last week. My thanks to Sinead Lynch, Mike McGrath-Bryan and Steve Hunt.
Expect them on Youtube at some point in the near future.
There are more to come.
The way things are going, the editing process is not too far off on the horizon.
Things are starting to get exciting.
Expect them on Youtube at some point in the near future.
There are more to come.
The way things are going, the editing process is not too far off on the horizon.
Things are starting to get exciting.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Roughcut number 1.
Had to bump this down in size in Imovie seeing as the original was a whopping 6.7 gb in size.
Basically, this is the first rough cut I've done so far of the final piece. Its about 15 minutes in length, which is pretty much the amount of time you need to preheat your oven before you throw on your dinner.
It's fairly lo-fi, admittedly, but it'll give you a bit of a heads up to where we are and where we're going.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Possible intro to the final documentary. I stress the word possible because there's a wide variety of stuff that I'll be getting in the next couple of weeks, but it'll be along similar lines.
Bit of a homage to PBS shows like "McNeil/Lehrer Hour" and "Innovation" from the late 80s/early 90s...incidentally classic PBS documentaries or study programmes rank among some of my favourite online watching so the style homage was quite deliberate...especially down to the synthesizer based music in the background.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Soundtrack - intro theme.
Click here - Words without stories (intro theme)
"Intro music to my final year project documentary.
The story, basically seeing as the documentary is dealing with conversational breakdowns, I dubbed my own voice saying a variety of different things in English, French, Afrikaans, Japanese and Spanish with the voices of a few people who were good enough to send me sounbclips, namely Eddie "Dreth" Rodriguez in Puerto Rico, Mike Haralambakis in Cork and Sinead Lynch in Dublin in order to try and create an overwhelming and claustrophobic background of people talking about a whole bunch of nothing until it reaches a critical point, hence the aggrieved scream of "shut up" at the end.
The music itself in the background was kind of thrown together in about an hour or so, and it isn't really all that important although its pleasant enough, all the same.
Have at it and tell me if you think it accurately gets the point across."
Doing more soundtrack work as the weeks go on for different segments where needs be.
"Intro music to my final year project documentary.
The story, basically seeing as the documentary is dealing with conversational breakdowns, I dubbed my own voice saying a variety of different things in English, French, Afrikaans, Japanese and Spanish with the voices of a few people who were good enough to send me sounbclips, namely Eddie "Dreth" Rodriguez in Puerto Rico, Mike Haralambakis in Cork and Sinead Lynch in Dublin in order to try and create an overwhelming and claustrophobic background of people talking about a whole bunch of nothing until it reaches a critical point, hence the aggrieved scream of "shut up" at the end.
The music itself in the background was kind of thrown together in about an hour or so, and it isn't really all that important although its pleasant enough, all the same.
Have at it and tell me if you think it accurately gets the point across."
Doing more soundtrack work as the weeks go on for different segments where needs be.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Updates.
Test filming and editing begins on Wednesday afternoon.
This is basically a test exercise to get across my familiarity with editing suites and with filming practises.
Not in any way going to be indicative of the final piece or the prototype, but if any of the footage is useful, I may use parts of it as a trailer.
I have a lot of work to do on the technical side before I burden myself upon other people with a camera.
Buckle up, folks, this journey's about to get bumpy but we'll be going places.
This is basically a test exercise to get across my familiarity with editing suites and with filming practises.
Not in any way going to be indicative of the final piece or the prototype, but if any of the footage is useful, I may use parts of it as a trailer.
I have a lot of work to do on the technical side before I burden myself upon other people with a camera.
Buckle up, folks, this journey's about to get bumpy but we'll be going places.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Short survey related to Media Project:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22EX4DEXJ4E
So far I've recieved 7 responses within a half an hour of placing it online, and they've been of serious interest related to the final project. I'll be saving data from the final talley and posting it online through here either tomorrow or the day after.
So far I've recieved 7 responses within a half an hour of placing it online, and they've been of serious interest related to the final project. I'll be saving data from the final talley and posting it online through here either tomorrow or the day after.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Further update:
Ross Gillanders of a fantastic Cork band called The Beastmen has just offered me full use of their back catalogue as soundtrack material for "Incoherence".
As a long standing fan of their work, I can only say that I'm honoured and privileged beyond any shadow of a doubt, to say "yes" to that.
Business, dear readers, is good.
As a long standing fan of their work, I can only say that I'm honoured and privileged beyond any shadow of a doubt, to say "yes" to that.
Business, dear readers, is good.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Updates.
Right, I've been letting this go for some time and I feel that explanations are in order...
The project focus has changed a little but not a lot... languages and communication are still a huge part of the final piece in a major way, but it's less now about the promotion of languages and more to do with, pardon the pretention, the psychological elements of languages and communication...between people who are able to speak the same language on a first language basis, between those whose proficiency may very, i.e. a first language speaker of English or any language in particular communicating with someone who many have English as a second or third language, and indeed, and this is something that kind of became very interesting to me in recent times, the interactions that human beings have technology or any form of artificial intelligence, and the emotional/psychological responses that can often occur when communication between humans, and between humans and technology can turn into something of a one way street.
In fact, let me break it down further...
"As the weeks go by, I will be conducting interviews for my repeat project concerning breakdowns in communication between 1st and 2nd language speakers of English and breakdowns of communication when human beings interact with machines and highlighting their similarities. Y'see, I studied languages for quite a long time before I moved south to Cork, and I had done a few modules on different elements of language, such as EFL and have worked for quite some time with different aspects of technology and I've often found that many people's reactions in a certain situation where they may not understand what another person may say or in the case of an AI, where commands given by a human user may not exactly translate too well or be understand by the AI...and the whole thing then is kind of based around the emotional reactions that people have in that kind of situation, be it amusement, frustration, etc. Buzzwords: Psychology/emotional responses, linguistics, communication, miscommunication. "
Primary research has been through the medium of social networking, on my Facebook page and on a few forums that I frequent, I've basically asked the following question to a number of users of such platforms...
" What do conversations between a native speaker of a language and a non native speaker of language have in common with a human being interacting with a machine, be it an AI (Cleverbot for example), software or indeed hardware... give it a thought, your answers could be very helpful."
Been recieving very, very candid feedback from many of the users this far, some of whom are indeed, maybe second or third language speakers of English, (for example, I've received responses from contacts of mine in Germany and Israel) as well as from some expats that are currently residing in Ireland, as well as friends and collegues who have worked in a wide variety of job positions and from all walks of life, both academic and non-academic. All their answers thus far have been highly interesting and eye-opening.
An example or two:
Matthias Eck (Germany): "I would say, mostly its the lack of understanding between both peers in terms of knowledge.Lets say you are using a Voice Recognition System Program, the program needs to understand/know the words.If it does, it works usually well and commands are recognized quickly.If it doesn't work, the program starts to take parts of it and that tends to lead to issues of misinterpretation or misunderstandings.The result of this can be quite frustrating for the person using the system and the same could happen between 2 or more people that are not fluent in the language, one or more people are using in the conversation, like vocabualry, pronounciation or dependency in the situation. Best example are hotlines for customer related issues.You call them and lets say a guy in india picks the phone up and you start explaining your problem and he answers your question with a lack of english vocabulary or weird pronounciation. The result leads to the same problem. Unsatisfied customer, stressed customer representative and a bad reputation based on the conjunction of the whole mess."
Sam Brearshears (U.S.A.): The non native speaker has to think about what to say, just like the AI would have to figure out what the proper response is, and also Jim, I also remember an incident from 17 years ago at a college I was attending. There were a lot of international students, and I would often wind up translating English to English between the French students and the Spanish students and the Russian students.
Richard Konrad (born in the Ukraine, now living in Israel): Hmmm.... Sometimes, when I'm caught off guard by some guest at work (hotel) I actually fail to immediately understand him/her (even though my English is quite good as you've noticed Jimmy), let alone reply. Then I start talking with a very strong russian accent, despite the fact that I can fluently speak with american accent, nearly flawlessly. And when it comes down to a machine, well, many times I get frustrated because of its poor performance, or my inssuficient experience as a user perhaps. Eventualy, I might end up yelling at the poor computer like a psychotic sociopath, e.g. Patrick Bateman or Nicholas Cage.
I have filmed interviews scheduled with many people over the next few weeks in Cork, Dublin and in Limerick with a wide variety of people who were interested in taking part, some who have experience of life abroad, some who have worked in language, some who have travelled here as students from abroad, people who have worked with all sorts of technology, and just people in general.
The end result of this will be a video study/documentary made up of the results of such a study as I feel for a subject like this, whilst it is quite of interest to academics of linguistical and psychological backgrounds, the subject matter is still of great relevance to ordinary people as communication breakdowns are part and parcel of every day life, and the emotional responses can run the gauntlet from humorous misdirections to confusion and sometimes even to anger or more negative emotions.
A video example:
- The infamous clip of the chap in IT who destroys his machine due to its inability to follow through on tasks.
- Classic Fawlty Towers, Manuel is clearly over his head when dealing with a costumer. (In fact any scene with Manuel dealing with Basil in particular is comedy gold and a flawless example of the sort of frustration one feels when one is not getting one's point across.)
Based on the quality of the footage and the candour of the interviewees that I have lined over up over the next while, I see a golden opportunity to create a documentary/study/film that highlights people's own personal examples of miscommunication or disharmony between the words and how the intended reaction may often differ based on the perception of others or indeed, machinery, and how those people react in such situations. Not compiling this footage would be a wasted opportunity as I can see positive and indeed enlightening results coming forth from such a study.
I'd also like to stress that though the concept is indeed quite a heavy one, it is still very much an everyday occurrence and it affects all in many different ways so it does have a that human interest appeal and approach to it.
The interviews start this weekend and I foresee them being wrapped up by mid-April...although I will be posting a trailer here in a few weeks for the final piece. A number of saintly souls have stepped up to the plate to contribute their own experiences, my eternal gratitude to them and also to those who have contributed replies to the social networking talkbacks and on the various forums and indeed to those who are at this moment in time giving me more and more contacts to speak with.
Phew, that was a lot to try and bash together but I think that just about covers everything, I'll keep people up to speed with all the rest of the information as it happens.
Cheers for reading. Wolves withdraw.
Jim
p.s. Final title: "Incoherence: A two way street." There'll be a webpage up and running in the weeks to come with most of this information and more.
The project focus has changed a little but not a lot... languages and communication are still a huge part of the final piece in a major way, but it's less now about the promotion of languages and more to do with, pardon the pretention, the psychological elements of languages and communication...between people who are able to speak the same language on a first language basis, between those whose proficiency may very, i.e. a first language speaker of English or any language in particular communicating with someone who many have English as a second or third language, and indeed, and this is something that kind of became very interesting to me in recent times, the interactions that human beings have technology or any form of artificial intelligence, and the emotional/psychological responses that can often occur when communication between humans, and between humans and technology can turn into something of a one way street.
In fact, let me break it down further...
"As the weeks go by, I will be conducting interviews for my repeat project concerning breakdowns in communication between 1st and 2nd language speakers of English and breakdowns of communication when human beings interact with machines and highlighting their similarities. Y'see, I studied languages for quite a long time before I moved south to Cork, and I had done a few modules on different elements of language, such as EFL and have worked for quite some time with different aspects of technology and I've often found that many people's reactions in a certain situation where they may not understand what another person may say or in the case of an AI, where commands given by a human user may not exactly translate too well or be understand by the AI...and the whole thing then is kind of based around the emotional reactions that people have in that kind of situation, be it amusement, frustration, etc. Buzzwords: Psychology/emotional responses, linguistics, communication, miscommunication. "
Primary research has been through the medium of social networking, on my Facebook page and on a few forums that I frequent, I've basically asked the following question to a number of users of such platforms...
" What do conversations between a native speaker of a language and a non native speaker of language have in common with a human being interacting with a machine, be it an AI (Cleverbot for example), software or indeed hardware... give it a thought, your answers could be very helpful."
Been recieving very, very candid feedback from many of the users this far, some of whom are indeed, maybe second or third language speakers of English, (for example, I've received responses from contacts of mine in Germany and Israel) as well as from some expats that are currently residing in Ireland, as well as friends and collegues who have worked in a wide variety of job positions and from all walks of life, both academic and non-academic. All their answers thus far have been highly interesting and eye-opening.
An example or two:
Matthias Eck (Germany): "I would say, mostly its the lack of understanding between both peers in terms of knowledge.Lets say you are using a Voice Recognition System Program, the program needs to understand/know the words.If it does, it works usually well and commands are recognized quickly.If it doesn't work, the program starts to take parts of it and that tends to lead to issues of misinterpretation or misunderstandings.The result of this can be quite frustrating for the person using the system and the same could happen between 2 or more people that are not fluent in the language, one or more people are using in the conversation, like vocabualry, pronounciation or dependency in the situation. Best example are hotlines for customer related issues.You call them and lets say a guy in india picks the phone up and you start explaining your problem and he answers your question with a lack of english vocabulary or weird pronounciation. The result leads to the same problem. Unsatisfied customer, stressed customer representative and a bad reputation based on the conjunction of the whole mess."
Sam Brearshears (U.S.A.): The non native speaker has to think about what to say, just like the AI would have to figure out what the proper response is, and also Jim, I also remember an incident from 17 years ago at a college I was attending. There were a lot of international students, and I would often wind up translating English to English between the French students and the Spanish students and the Russian students.
Richard Konrad (born in the Ukraine, now living in Israel): Hmmm.... Sometimes, when I'm caught off guard by some guest at work (hotel) I actually fail to immediately understand him/her (even though my English is quite good as you've noticed Jimmy), let alone reply. Then I start talking with a very strong russian accent, despite the fact that I can fluently speak with american accent, nearly flawlessly. And when it comes down to a machine, well, many times I get frustrated because of its poor performance, or my inssuficient experience as a user perhaps. Eventualy, I might end up yelling at the poor computer like a psychotic sociopath, e.g. Patrick Bateman or Nicholas Cage.
I have filmed interviews scheduled with many people over the next few weeks in Cork, Dublin and in Limerick with a wide variety of people who were interested in taking part, some who have experience of life abroad, some who have worked in language, some who have travelled here as students from abroad, people who have worked with all sorts of technology, and just people in general.
The end result of this will be a video study/documentary made up of the results of such a study as I feel for a subject like this, whilst it is quite of interest to academics of linguistical and psychological backgrounds, the subject matter is still of great relevance to ordinary people as communication breakdowns are part and parcel of every day life, and the emotional responses can run the gauntlet from humorous misdirections to confusion and sometimes even to anger or more negative emotions.
A video example:
- The infamous clip of the chap in IT who destroys his machine due to its inability to follow through on tasks.
- Classic Fawlty Towers, Manuel is clearly over his head when dealing with a costumer. (In fact any scene with Manuel dealing with Basil in particular is comedy gold and a flawless example of the sort of frustration one feels when one is not getting one's point across.)
Based on the quality of the footage and the candour of the interviewees that I have lined over up over the next while, I see a golden opportunity to create a documentary/study/film that highlights people's own personal examples of miscommunication or disharmony between the words and how the intended reaction may often differ based on the perception of others or indeed, machinery, and how those people react in such situations. Not compiling this footage would be a wasted opportunity as I can see positive and indeed enlightening results coming forth from such a study.
I'd also like to stress that though the concept is indeed quite a heavy one, it is still very much an everyday occurrence and it affects all in many different ways so it does have a that human interest appeal and approach to it.
The interviews start this weekend and I foresee them being wrapped up by mid-April...although I will be posting a trailer here in a few weeks for the final piece. A number of saintly souls have stepped up to the plate to contribute their own experiences, my eternal gratitude to them and also to those who have contributed replies to the social networking talkbacks and on the various forums and indeed to those who are at this moment in time giving me more and more contacts to speak with.
Phew, that was a lot to try and bash together but I think that just about covers everything, I'll keep people up to speed with all the rest of the information as it happens.
Cheers for reading. Wolves withdraw.
Jim
p.s. Final title: "Incoherence: A two way street." There'll be a webpage up and running in the weeks to come with most of this information and more.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Hello.
Did you know that some words in different languages sound a lot alike?
Pardon the condescending tone of the question above, but, behold, a few examples...
Sala'am. (Arabic)
Shalom. (Hebrew)
Sleim. (Maltese)
p.s. Salamat means "much obliged" or "thank you" in Filipino.
This may or may not, pending tomorrow, have a lot to do with tomorrow's presentation.
Further information will follow when time deems it necessary.
Pardon the condescending tone of the question above, but, behold, a few examples...
Sala'am. (Arabic)
Shalom. (Hebrew)
Sleim. (Maltese)
p.s. Salamat means "much obliged" or "thank you" in Filipino.
This may or may not, pending tomorrow, have a lot to do with tomorrow's presentation.
Further information will follow when time deems it necessary.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Soundtrack work and original music:
Portfolio of music work: http://soundcloud.com/the-swindlers-liszt
Rather than relying on production tracks or on the use of public domain/creative commons music or sound effects (which was definitely one of the elements that may well have held me back the first time) , I strongly insist on the usage of my own material for the upcoming project.
The above link contains a considerable amount of original material as well as mixing that I've done for other people, and one or two covers.
I have access to equipment that should allow for the sound element of the project to be of a high quality and, false modesty being a red herring, am capable of producing soundtrack material in a wide variety of styles and moods, metal, progressive rock, electronic, ambient and more and can produce sound effects necessary for such productions at short notice and at a high quality level.
Therefore where necessary, I insist on using my own material either to underscore certain aspects of the project, or indeed, if allowed can and will produce a soundtrack for other projects, be it film or animation.
Rather than relying on production tracks or on the use of public domain/creative commons music or sound effects (which was definitely one of the elements that may well have held me back the first time) , I strongly insist on the usage of my own material for the upcoming project.
The above link contains a considerable amount of original material as well as mixing that I've done for other people, and one or two covers.
I have access to equipment that should allow for the sound element of the project to be of a high quality and, false modesty being a red herring, am capable of producing soundtrack material in a wide variety of styles and moods, metal, progressive rock, electronic, ambient and more and can produce sound effects necessary for such productions at short notice and at a high quality level.
Therefore where necessary, I insist on using my own material either to underscore certain aspects of the project, or indeed, if allowed can and will produce a soundtrack for other projects, be it film or animation.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Sculptris - 3d modelling software/freeware
Sculptris is an elegant, powerful and yet easy to use 3D sculpting software, allowing the artist in you to simply focus on creating amazing 3D artwork. Gone are the technical and often tedious constraints typically associated with digital art.
If you're new to the world of digital sculpting, Sculptris is the ideal ground on which to get started. If on the other hand you're experienced in CG, what you will find in Sculptris is a blazingly fast way to realize your concepts.
It's intuitive, fun and user friendly, so you can focus as an artist on pure creativity.
Sculptris Artist: Taron Baysal
Sculptris Artist: Barry Croucher
What's more, the skills you learn with Sculptris directly translate to ZBrush. The models that you create with Sculptris can even be sent to ZBrush with the click of a button using the GoZ™ functionality!
Since releasing our award-winning ZBrush more than a decade ago, Pixologic has become recognized for bringing ground-breaking innovations into the world of digital art.
ZBrush is the most widely-used digital sculpting application in today's market and is the industry Standard. When you're ready to take your Sculptris creations to the next level for detailing, rendering and integration into even the largest of projects, we welcome you to ZBrush with its host of robust, unique and revolutionary tools.
http://www.pixologic.com/sculptris/
http://www.pixologic.com/sculptris/
The last thing you will hear is the sound of someone walking away...
Well, well, here we are again...
This is, for the benefit of those with eyes to see and ears to hear, my project blog for the period beginning February 2012 and ending a couple of months down the line in June 2012.
I'll be throwing up information related to the project as it is (more accurately, as it will hopefully turn out to be), research materials, and technological and/or pedagogical elements that are related to the project, directly or indirectly.
Excited, yet? Keep an eye on this place as I'll be uploading rough designs, screencaps, some video and sound clips as time rolls on and as they're made available.
The main keywords thus far are as thus...
1. Language...and the promotion of languages and linguistic skill.
2. The message: educational purposes and/or the promotion of multilingualism as a passport to a better quality of life. Entertainment always a must.
3. Picture and sound: animation, video, music, text.
That's it for the time being, call back for more hot off the presses news soon.
Keep cool.
Jim
This is, for the benefit of those with eyes to see and ears to hear, my project blog for the period beginning February 2012 and ending a couple of months down the line in June 2012.
I'll be throwing up information related to the project as it is (more accurately, as it will hopefully turn out to be), research materials, and technological and/or pedagogical elements that are related to the project, directly or indirectly.
Excited, yet? Keep an eye on this place as I'll be uploading rough designs, screencaps, some video and sound clips as time rolls on and as they're made available.
The main keywords thus far are as thus...
1. Language...and the promotion of languages and linguistic skill.
2. The message: educational purposes and/or the promotion of multilingualism as a passport to a better quality of life. Entertainment always a must.
3. Picture and sound: animation, video, music, text.
That's it for the time being, call back for more hot off the presses news soon.
Keep cool.
Jim
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