Future Students

First off, it is imperative to your New Media career to take this class at least once! Where to begin with explaining this course? I have learned so much from this class, mainly about myself, from simply just talking through out thought processes. Seeing Sideways covers literally anything and everything that you want it to. Just like with any other course there are assignments, attendance is mandatory, but as to what you get from the course is entirely up to you!

Some of the classes started out with the topic of choice that Beth had in mind but would end up on a completely and entirely different subject! Any questions that someone would have in the class would spark a different discussion. Some of the bigger topics that stick out in my mind are the topics on religion, ethics in the New Media field, and college in general.

Looking back at this semester, there isn't one thing or anything really that I could say about this class that would give a prospective student any further idea of what the course is like. The bottom line is if you are wanting to find out more about yourself as a person, student, and professional, enjoy the creative process and all the different aspects of it? THEN TAKE THIS CLASS!

My Creative Spark

What the hell do you think you are?!

What is it?!?!

October 25 Class

This class shaped up to be one of the best in my opinion. It dealt with real world issues that I personally can relate to as well as others could I'm sure. Don't get me wrong I love going to Beth's class but sometimes the topics tend to get so far out there that the real world seems to be the fake and not our specific topic of discussion.
Being in the same shoes as my fellow classmate, in the regard of being skeptical of showing my work at times, I really gained a lot just by hearing everyones input. I never have really been concerned of what people thought of the preliminary stages of the project at hand but when it comes to the final product, I like most am quite sensitive. Its nice to hear that I am by far not the only one somewhat struggling with this issue.
I love what I am doing in school and starting to do in the real world. Almost without a doubt, one of the biggest issues that has been on my mind is the infamous portfolio. What to put in it, how to go about making it, and so on. The list literally runs on forever the more I think about it. After touching on some of the topics in class it was really nice to hear what is best to put in and honestly how the majority of employers view it; just as you dress it! After putting a little more thought into the topic post-class, this oh so cloudy image of a portfolio started to become much more clear and the idea has slowly been developing since class yesterday. Honestly I certainly hope that we have a lot more classes like this previous one. It, for me, gets the juices flowing the best and well once they get to going watch out! I am absolutely blown away by how this creative thought train, which I use to ride all the time in high school and my freshman year at IUPUI, has built up more steam than it ever had before. Needless to say thanks Beth for the kickass class!

You Call It

October 11 Class

Honestly, for once, I don't have a lot to say. Today's class really was rather "normal" compared to some of the others that we have had. I didn't think that the class discussion that we had would go quite as smoothly as it did. It was nice to actually see that I am not the only one that is experiencing some of the things that I am. This was nice considering, although I hear that most do, I tend to think that I was the lone bird going through this type of I guess would say predicament. Starting to think that when I or really anyone for that matter starts questioning things around her/his self, it seems to almost alienate us more than just going with the flow; even if it isn't what we see as agreeable.

October 4 Class

What matters...

Fear and My Expectations

After giving my deepest darkest fears some serious thought, I started to realize and give the effects of fear some deep thought. This train of thought sent my mind running from here there and everywhere in between. It wasn't so much as to what is going to cause the initial emotion/reaction of fear that I was interested in. When I, or really anyone from my experience, experiences the effects of fear, I or they tend to miss some major points or pieces of the puzzle. What I am getting at is our mind, as was talked about in class, goes into a fight or flight mode. Once we, humans, are in this mode, our surroundings are not experienced as they would be if we were not in a fight or flight mode. For example, say if one was presenting a very interactive presentation before a class in a normal classroom setting, the audience of the presentation would more than likely pick up on every subtlety and design element of the presentation. Now remove the normal classroom element of just a "normal" new media presentation being given. Add in the effects and the added elements of what fear brings to the table and then present the very same presentation. All of the subtleties of the presentation almost undoubtedly will NOT be picked up on as before.

As for my expectations of how my demonstration will go before the class is yet to be seen. I most certainly think that the emotion/presence of fear and all of its entities will without a doubt heighten the classes overall experience. I predict that they, the class, will be put into a fight or flight type of mode if my ultimate goal is met; scare them to their wits! With this added element the bigger picture will more than likely be missed and just the big obvious clues and surroundings will be picked up on. My number one goal is to exploit the effect of fear and what senses given up when experiencing this emotion and element and also what is gained when experiencing it. I do believe that this will more than likely help everyone in the class start to see things from a much different point of view! Stay tuned to see what the overall effect my experiment will be and its reactions.

Class 9/27/10

Really can't say a lot about this considering I was unable to make it to class yesterday! :(

Fear Reflection Class

This class was well in my opinion interesting but yet at the same time. I had already, in my own past thought about this very thing. It was nice to revisit the topic yet didn't seem to give me that spark that this class always does. I will have to admit though that the assignment for this previous class session does sound very interesting. I am very excited to get started on it and see where it takes me!

What Sense would make Sense?

I've been thinking long and hard about what new sense we, humans, would have and how it would be received or interpreted by us. It didn't really dawn on me until I was at my golf outing yesterday that the having the sense of distance, actually measuring it, would be very very handy! This sense would be perceived through your sense of vision. I know that some of you are probably thinking that some of us already have a good sense of distance. This new sense that I am proposing is a very precise sense of measuring distances. This sense would only be able to measure the distances that you could see. So more less if a wall is blocking your view of say a tree in the distance, you would only be able to measure the distance from you to the wall. This could also prove very valuable when having to come to a stop abruptly on the interstate in rush hour!

AVL & Beyond!

After our recent visit to the AVL (Advanced Visualization Lab), my head almost instantly started spinning out of control with ideas! What our class was able to see during our mini field trip was absolutely amazing. I had no idea that the locked down side of the IT building was doing that much state of the art development.

This assignment is one that I feel like I can run with! One piece of technology that really seemed to grab my eye, more than the others, was the device that allowed the user to feel different textures without actually touching them. My mind went on a bit of a rant when I realized that they were testing and developing this device.

My location for this device to be used is the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I really see this device being placed in some sort of either children's area and/or a normal exhibit of really any type of art. The ideal setting for this would be a pottery exhibit. Instead of the user holding onto a pen-like device and looking at a screen, she/he would instead sit down at a throwing wheel wearing a pair of 3D glasses and gloves filled outfitted with censors. The user would then have to control the speed of the throwing wheel just as a normal potter would. They would then pick up a raw chunk of clay and place it on the wheel just like normal. Instead of actually picking anything up, the software, computing engine, and 3D atmosphere would go to work. The viewing screens that the user would be looking at during this process would include a table top screen that would function as the throwing wheel and the piece of pottery that they are creating. A left side panel, a middle screen that would depict directly in front of the user, and a right side panel. There would also be a ceiling panel that would depict the ceiling and where ever else the user would look as well as a floor panel that the user would walk on while entering the virtual pottery studio. This software program that would be running to provide all of this, would allow the end user to throw their own piece of pottery and either email it or save it to their own personal memory stick. She/He would then be able to take this file(s) home and paint and design the look of them in any graphic design program (Illustrator, Photoshop, etc). The entire time the specialized gloves that would be worn would be giving the user the different textures, contours, and surface types that are felt when throwing pottery. Every action the user would provide to the system, there would be a reaction that would be produced by a collaboration of the software, hardware, and user.

This overall experience that the museum would be providing to its guests would not only be a very lucrative exhibition attraction, but also an extra educational tool. This amazing piece of technology would help educate exhibit visitors understand what all it takes to create the wonderful pieces they are viewing in the exhibit.

A Day at Cedar Point...Backwards?

I really think that I need to start giving these assignments that are given in this class a bit more of an open mind. After being assigned this "walking backwards" assignment, I was really starting to think, "What in the world is the point of all of this? I thought this was a New Media class not a complete blow off course!" Like usual, I was proven wrong. This assignment really started to get me thinking not only about New Media, but how new products or trends are introduced to the public in provocative and sometimes questionable ways.

For my walking backwards experience, I chose to do it at Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH. I decided to only walk around backwards for half of the day and see what kind of reactions I would get in a heavily populated spot. It was very, very interested to say the least! A lot of people just looked and either smiled and chuckled, or laughed. Some of the other people just turned the other cheek or got upset! To clear things up, all I was doing was walking backwards at an amusement park. I wasn't making any sounds other than talking. I wasn't disrupting anyone else. Lastly, I wasn't doing anything wrong! So many people were so quick to either make a judgement or assume what was going on that it really shocked me to say the least. Another thing that shocked me was the number of people that actually asked me why I was walking backwards. There were a whopping total of two people that actually asked what I was doing. After answering they seemed to have an entirely different train of thought! It was almost as if the light came on.

My experience was well rather weird in my opinion. The entire feeling of having something that you've always had quickly taken away hit me as soon as I took my first step walking backwards. After the first few hundred steps, I felt like I was starting to get the hang of this new experience. As the first uneven spot in the pavement approached, unbeknown to me, the feeling of having the hang of walking backwards came to a crashing halt. Literally. Yep, I fell down in the middle of Cedar Point. Thankfully, for both my humiliation and ass' sake, this was the only time I fell down.

By lunch time I decided to call it quits and after starting to walk "normally" again, the feeling of doing something new ran throughout my body once again. It didn't take nearly as long to get use to walking normal. All in all it wasn't a bad experience, nor really that great of one either. Just a different one to say the least.

Reflecting back to this entire experience really makes me think about how new products are introduced to users and the public. Generally, not always, but generally all new products try to come in with some sort of bang. This is achieved either with a rather eye catching or provocative way. This provocative way isn't always something that is morally wrong or perceived as wrong, just something that is generally not something that is generally done. A prime example of this is walking backwards in an amusement park. This was a smaller rather different assignment that most definitely got me thinking outside of the box!

The Egg...hmmm what to do what to do!?!?

My whole take of the egg assignment after it was given in class was literally, WTF!!! I had no idea really as to what I was going do to let alone what direction to take next. My mind went everywhere from throwing the egg on the ground or against something, to drawing something on the egg itself. It wasn't until later on in the class after talking about seeing things in different perspectives and thinking outside of the box that my idea finally took hold. I decided to depict the development of my idea of what to do with the egg.

This idea isn't so much about what will be done to the eggs themselves, but instead the thought process behind the egg. Initially when I am given an assignment, unless I am very lucky and something clicks quickly, I generally draw a blank and have to do a bit of thinking about the assignment to get started. This assignment was no different. Starting out there are generally one or two ideas that come to mind and generally more spawn from these initial ones. After narrowing my choices down to two or three, I will start "playing" each one out until I end up with the one that I ultimately go with.

I decided to document and show this process through a series of pictures. These pictures will depict my thought process of narrowing down the ideas to the final one.

Flash Backs From the First Day... =S

Well, the first day of class was interesting to say the least! It was a first day that was and has been unlike any other first day of class I have had to this point in my college career. I can say though that I am very excited about the course! I don't think there will be any problem sparking the creative fire in my head with this course. Just after the first day I started having creative ideas that came on a daily if not hourly basis. The first assignment, the one with the egg, will prove to be very helpful in fulfilling the idea/vision that I have as of now.

I would have to say that the top highly rememberable moments from the first day are as follows:

• Beth's creative take on presenting a syllabus
• Our 15 minute break (entirely in our chairs might I add)
• The seemingly limitless bounds of the class assignments and class in general

This semester should be very interesting! I am looking forward to how it plays out and hope to get the most out of this class!

-Ross Smith