Thoughts on Intimacy

I think that people want to connect to one another in an intimate way.

A discussion on the cultural, emotional distance coinciding with the growth of technology and ubiquitous use of online interactions is nothing new. Theorists and idealists have long been warning of the dangers of Myspace & Facebook “friends,” along with the growing online lives we lead (and the disconnect between our actual lives). Even more ancient is the disappearance of hand-written letters; replaced first by typewriters, then computer printouts, and now with e-mail and instant messaging.

The great media theorist Walter Benjamin talked a great deal objects losing their aura in his book, Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Essentially he commented on pieces of art losing their aura when they were removed from their context in time and space (a church fresco has a much different effect on the viewer when it’s lit by candles in an incense-infused chapel than in a cavernous, well-lit museum). The same concept can, in my opinion, be used in relation to written communication to one another, as well as inter-personal communication and connections.

Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and the ailing Myspace allow people to divulge an immense amount of their private information to the public, but there are seldom real connections. Even though every one of your “friends” can see your Relationship Status change or read your latest Tweet, these don’t lead to intimate, one-on-one connections. There is a difference between social networking & intimacy.

I’ve been using instant messaging less and less (to the point where I’ll get on maybe once a week or once every other week). At first, this wasn’t a conscious decision, but one which rose from a disconnect I was feeling to the people on the other side of the digital chasm. Eventually I realized I’d rather these people call me or, in an even bigger commitment to our relationship, visit or hang out with me in person. I knew I’d lose touch with a good amount of contacts, but wouldn’t the payoff be more significant relationships with those whom I do take the time to meet up with? Wouldn’t these relationships become more intimate? With instant messaging, I got all of the information that the other person wants to send me, but without the context of their gestures, cadence, and vocal emphasis to make a point.

There’s something very special about receiving a hand-written letter. The character and personality of the writer can show through the handwriting. Knowledge of the time it takes to scribble down a letter adds to its intrinsic worth to the recipient as well. The information of the letter can be typed up and sent digitally, but it loses its aura then. The letter lends the information a tactility and context in which the writing can be assimilated in a certain space at a certain time. Now there is also value in sending a text message or e-mail to co-workers to get a job done as efficiently as possible, but should we look at our personal relationships in terms of efficiency? I guess a better question is, do we view our friendships through the lens of business; where acquiring the greatest amount of an acceptable quality product in the most efficient way possible is the ideal? If that is the case, then having 1,000+ Facebook friends, a lengthy AIM Buddy list, and numerous followers on Twitter is what we all should be striving for. A goal like that leaves me feeling so incredibly empty and sad though.

“Paper Balloons” comes into play here. Though the information is still digital, the user has to write or draw out the message that they want to send. The App is not a chat tool, but something allowing for more of a connection between people or between someone and themself. There is more intrinsic value in receiving a hand-drawn, digital message than a simple SMS text, though a hand-draw actual letter carries more value than a digital one. Our culture is not going to revert back to prolifically hand-writing letters to one another. This would go against the momentum of the ubiquitous computing direction which we are headed (and it’s not an unfavorable area to be going). Using technology to gain back those lost intimate connections to other people is something that this iPhone app attempts to take on. It’s not completely successful yet, but I think it’s a decent step forward. Having this in mind gives a little bit clearer outcome to steer towards.

New Ecology of Things Project

Working on a proposal for my NET class, our big project is coming up. The assignment wants us to look at ways to de-homogenize (heterogenize?) activities which have all fallen into the traditional keyboard, mouse, and computer screen interactions.

“Typical computer interactions tend to be very similar – a person sitting at a desk, using a mouse and looking at a screen. In contrast, someone building a car in an auto factory has a completely different apparatus and environment than someone making pottery in a studio. Likewise each interaction with ubiquitous computing should aspire to fit into the context of the activitiy rather forcing the users into a default technology interface. Imagine that instead of millions of people sitting in similar chairs, at similar desks, using similar computers, each individual uses a system (physical objects & space, interfaces, activities, system behaviors, gestures, affordances, etc.) that makes sense for the activity they are doing right now.

This NET project should rethink how people communicate, work, or play using the ideas of NET, including productive, embodied, and mythological interaction. The project must incorporate some kind of distributed computation, where more than one object or space composes the whole project. This should involve remote sensors, effectors or other parts of system accessed through the network.“

I’ve been trying to think of different, physical ways users can do some of the same creative activities that they normally do on a laptop, only in a more interesting or beneficial way. I’ll often watch films, TV shows, and/or music videos for inspiration on a lot of projects. Granted I’m a sci-fi nerd so I do have a bit of a bias on what sources of inspiration I’ll draw from, but there’s generally a good amount of great content in science fiction. There’s always the Star Trek/Star Wars interactions of characters blindly pushing buttons on some console, but there’re other interactions that move away from this cliche.

Specifically, the newest Battlestar Galactica series. It’s set in an alternative future with the human race as a space-faring species living on multiple planets. An intelligent race of machines called Cylons has been created who eventually turn on the humans. The only way that one of the older space warships survives (called a Battlestar) is because its computer systems onboard aren’t networked. The Battlestar has a strange mix of old and new technology, where people still use phone intercome systems and paper printouts while ordering starfighters in intergalactic dogfights.

Dr. Know (from the film A.I.)

Minority Report is another, fairly obvious film referenced quite often for innovative interactions (or takes on them, rather). I, Robot and A.I. are also both looks on different technological interfaces, mainly in the form of robots, but there’re other bits like when the robot-boy, David, encounters “Dr. Know”.

Pip Boy (from the video game Fallout 3)

Several post-apocalyptic or retro-futuristic video games offer a great take on different interactions as well; thinking of ways which people would have to interact with technology without electrical computers controlling everything. Fallout 3’s PipBoy is one example (though it still has a screen), along with a great number of other weapons and gadgets in the game. BioShock shows an interesting way of “hacking” into mechanical devices by connecting different tubes together so a fluid will flow through in time. If data and information were actually liquids (in the physical sense), how would we interact with them?

Working within the constraints of creating present-day technology in a pre- or post-computer age seems to be a great way of inspiring new and innovative interactions. Adding in ubiquitous computing should also create some interesting ideas. Hopefully I can get at least 1 or 2 concepts from the mix for my proposal tomorrow.

A Term in Typography…wtf?

Week 2 of my time as an M3.5 and I’m in Type 2, a course I quite literally never saw myself taking in my life. After not passing my Thesis Gateway Review, the MDP department chair recommended I take the Graphic Design dept’s version of Comm Design 2 and Type 2 for a light term this Fall. The running joke is I might as well be taking an Astrophysics class as both subjects are equally foreign to me. My first quiz in Comm Design 2 this week made me feel like I was in high school again. On the review sheet we were given the first day I knew…nothing. Not who John Baskerville was, not what a swash or leading was, and none of the identities of any of the 10 fonts on the back of the sheet. I came away from the quiz this week only missing 10 of the 33 questions which I thought was decent enough.

As I’m sitting in my Type 2 course now, it’s apparent that every week we’re required to do layout exercises (at least 20 I’m assuming). Besides reminding me of Comm Design 1 which I took in the MDP as an M1, the exercises also seem similar to some of the same principles of Character Design. Using the same information and concepts, the designer continually churns out idea after idea until their creativity is drained for this one idea. Then all of the ideas are sifted through, the few rough gems taken out and refinement is continued week after week in an attempt to have one polished, diamond of a design in the end. I do think that I enjoy this kind of iterative design, though it is time-consuming and requires a bit of discipline.

Tracy Fullerton at USC’s Interactive Media Division talked about iterative design with making her games which I can see as well. Your first idea on what is “fun” may not actually be all that fun after the first run of rendering it. I saw this quite a bit when I was a game tester at Vivendi (now Activision). Play-testing is key. I guess in game design, all of your various sketches & ideas are put out into the first version of the game. Once the testing starts and the bugs make themselves apparent, then you start the real refinement (besides what you’ve already self-initiated through the development process up to that point).

I’m still looking for a programer to help me with this small, side project for a game. It may end up being an iPhone app, though I’m not sure how that will work with me only knowing Actionscript. There’s a free test version of the iPhone SDK that I just downloaded a few days ago so I’ll probably be tinkering with that this weekend. On that note, I do need to start being productive with something. Luke Johnson mentioned earlier in the week that he’s a man who thrives on structure & I agree with him to a point. It is very easy to spend an entire day on YouTube or “researching” through video game play & graphic novel reading. This is where the motivation & self-discipline has to come in. So without further blog indulgence, I’m off!

Big Brother Google

In everyone’s free time, they’ve Googled their own name at least once. I have before, but having done it most recently, I was genuinely astonished and slightly creeped out at how much information came up…

Everything from when I worked on my best friend’s senior film at LMU, to the games that I had tested at Vivendi (now Activision-Blizzard), to every single one of my blogs and even other people’s sites who use photos I’d taken came up. There’s also the given web pages that I want to show up (i.e. http://people.artcenter.edu/~kcoats/) but the amount of data my name carries with it was surprising and unsettling. Be wary of what you attach your name to, citizens.

And they’re off!

One week into the third term and it’s looking like an eventful one. On the site gamecareerguide.com there’s a weekly feature article called “James Portnow’s Game Design Challenge.” A couple weeks ago I entered the challenge to design a replacement for the standard machine gun in first-person shooters. Earlier last week the results came out and my Doppelganger gun design got third place. It’s some of the first recognition I’ve received for design related directly to video gaming so I was pretty excited. I passed on the following challenge though which was coming up with a new take on the WWII FPS genre… Genius has its limits.

During the first Colloquium of the term an MDP-exclusive scholarship was announced. The guidelines of the scholarship call for students to modify their website to “include a clear statement of direction.” The deadline is midnight, of Tuesday, May 27. Since scholarships at ArtCenter are about as common as hit film-based video games (every now & then there’s a good one) I’m going to attempt a redesign. Although I’ve been avoiding making a Flash-exclusive site due to the difficulties in the content being Google-able, it might just be time to go for it. I’ve done a few sketches, but so far have had a lot of difficulty escaping anything resembling a “tree” or “web.” I might just go with the cliche; some design standards do seem to stick around because, unbelievably, they really work. I mean that whole wheel thing still hasn’t gone away.

Last night was the culmination of numerous designers’ hardwork, namely Mieke Gerritzen and Koert van Mensvoort, in the Biggest Visual Power Show on Next Nature. The show was part-side show, part-rock concert, and part-high art. After working the ticket booth & will call in front of the Million Dollar Theater in downtown L.A., I got to catch the last 3/4 of the show. I was very glad I got to not only volunteer for it (& receive a few free goodies), but also watch the performance and all the visuals accompanying it. The Dutch definitely have some good stuff going on over there below sea-level. If anyone is able to, I’d highly recommend trying to see the next one in 2009 as I believe they happen annually, although quite possibly in different cities.

With all that, I’m going to get back to my website redesign. 9 days is not a lot of time, especially in MDP terms…

Thesis Moral Crisis (#1)

It’s Thursday of Week 12 of my second term and after laying down for a bit to clear my thoughts before diving into the tumult of final projects I came to an unexpected realization about my thesis. As I’ve gotten closer to entering my third term and the inevitable “Thesis Gateway” at the end of it, I’ve been attempting to seriously consider what my year-long thesis project will be.

So far, two of the largest themes that I’ve found myself interested in are isolation and self-sufficiency; emanating mostly from the world of floating islands and airships known as Pelago. The concept of having one’s own self-sufficient, secluded island floating in the clouds has always attracted and fascinated me. In an age of global warming this seems even more intriguing as instead of trying to “fix” global warming or stem its effects, why not just lock ourselves away like was so often planned for nuclear holocaust? There can be no global warming or climate change in a self-sustained ecosystem or biosphere.

And herein lies the conflict. While attempting to solidify my voice for the second project in my Comm Design 2 class on the Rem Koolhaas book Mutations, I realized something unsettling. My response to Mutations was essentially, “Yes the world is mutating and so are societies. It’s globalization and we must view the world as one body with humanity in it and not warring tribes with individual agendas. The earth isn’t large enough for everyone & their egos so we must look at the larger picture.”

This goes completely against isolationism and self-sufficiency!

We, as the United States, are inescapably dependent on the rest of the world for resources. As such, and in a world of global climate change, we can not practice diplomatic isolationism again. It simply does not work. What we don’t know can & will hurt us without even a second thought.

In the face of this realization though, how does one progress on an original thesis without succumbing to the current global warming hype (not to downplay the seriousness of the issue at all; I use ‘hype’ in a cultural sense) in which everyone has an answer, but no viable solution? Is it isolation or global unity?

*sigh*

How soon are we getting to Mars?

Le premiere entree

Here’s the first entry for Kylan Coats’ graduate Media Design blog. Currently I’m in Echo Park at Christiane Holzheid’s home for a Super Studio 2 meeting. It’s a bit warm even for a southern boy like me.