Quick recap + project & reading for next week:
We added a makeup class on Sunday March 6th. Those who realize they can’t attend please let me know ASAP, as in class everyone said they could. Syllabus has been updated.
Presentation list will be up shortly, if you didn’t pair up + choose a date, now is the time.
Some names and links from class:
Technocalypse & Frank Theys, Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, 5Voltcore, Zbigniew Rybczynski – Tango, School for Designing a Society –http://www.designingasociety.net/.
In class we went over using Vizzie modules, and Max patches up to 2.0.2, plus the counter and metro patches. Download the patches from the portal.
For next class:
– Read Hayles “Narratives of Artificial Life”, on the portal.
Project 1: Hybrid Machine: due next week feb 17. (this is a “warm up” project, if you’re well on your way with it but are stuck in trying to realize something specific, you can bring that to class- but you’ll need to show you’ve done some actual patch-bending work!)
1. Use a real-world mechanical, electronic or cybernetic repetitive process, as simple as a looping film camera or an escalator, or more complex and abstract, as a reference point for your work on this.
2. Go over the Max and especially Jitter example patches (Applications >> Max5 >> Examples). Fiddle around with everything, don’t be afraid to mess stuff up… These are mostly much more complex than you know how to make right now, especially since we haven’t started on Jitter- but you should be able to hook up some of the things we learned to modify and control some of these complex “machines”- Metronomes, gates, counters, random etc, and also some input from other objects in the class patches folder, such as Mousestate and Key. This is more like “circuit bending” then actual “engineering”- the idea is to get your hands dirty a bit with these complex machines and see if you can “bend” them a bit in a direction you like.
3. Try to combine pieces from more than one patch, to create a “Hybrid Machine” of your own. Feed it with appropriate source material (your own video, or even live camera feed via the Vizzie Grabbr module I demonstrated in class), which refers to the mechanical process you chose at the first stage. Remember the green patchcords usually carry video information, you can hook one up to a Vizzie Viewr module to get a nice full screen output.
* note: remember every object has a help file, that you can reach by option(alt)-clicking it. This file is a patch as well, you can unlock it and copy stuff for your use. If you’re looking for an object that does something, look at the “Max objects by Functions” list on the Max Help page.