Bridges

This movie was shot as part of a class project/collaboration to take place mid-December.
The title of our "show" is "BRIDGES", and we were given the assignment to get video of bridges, edit and post. Sort of like ....capture and release.

I used iMovie (again) to edit the film. Added some cross-fades to try and smooth out the rough transisitions. I think I'll use Final Cut after this to do any editing. That program has many more fine-tuning options (which can be very helpful with less-than-perfect video). I added audio to this one, "Crossroads" by Robert Johnson.

Learned a mite more about YouTube upon uploading this particular video; I received communication from them that my content might include copyrighted content owned and licensed by Sony (it does; Johnson has been dead since 1938, and I hope his ancestors are reaping the benefit of royalties...;-) ) Johnson, for those of you not familiar with this remarkable Delta Blues singers' work, was also the man rumoured to have Made a Deal With the Devil to obtain his mastery of the guitar.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson_(musician)

I find after observing bridges for the past week, I am more enamored of what's UNDER the bridge; why the bridge exists to begin with. The bridge I shot for this video is an abandoned bridge in my hometown, replaced with a more modern version which is barely visible in the video. The old bridge is a much more inviting place upon which to tread. Wood, steel, and the hallmarks of human craftsmanship.

Collaborative Painting

Good afternoon Collaborateurs;

I would like to attempt an internet-based collaborative painting session as my "performance" on December 18th's Internet2 session.

I have posted a short film I recently made of a friend of mine's art installation in Brooklyn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjpe_B63L8s

or..to make your life a little quicker:




The above installation inspired me to find an online application, (free-of-charge) that would allow a shared Whiteboard in addition to a chat feature. iChat has a feature that would allow me to share a file, but it's limited to One Buddy at a time.

I have created an account at jabber.org, and downloaded a cross-platform client (Coccinella) which has the ability to launch a Chatroom and a shared Whiteboard.
I would like to try this application with others in the collaborative class. Will you join me in this endeavor?

If so..(and I hope so...really want to see if this works!) Please do the following:

Go to Jabber and create an account for yourself:
http://register.jabber.org
Once you've got an account, please download the Coccinella Client:
http://thecoccinella.org
This software is available for multiple operating systems....

__________
Configuring Coccinella:
Launch the Coccinella application you've downloaded.
Click FILE - Setup Assistant. Follow the steps, choosing "Jabber" as your server.
On the login screen, enter the username and password you used to set up your Jabber account.
My account is named "JoEllen".

Please send me your contact user ID from Jabber so I'll be able to invite you to an interactive drawing session.

Thanks!

Positive Impact on the Collaboratii

The two day cable fest that was "Across The Ether" provided an extreme hands-on opportunity for our Collaborative class. Trial by Fire.

By the end of the second day I feel we all were much more comfortable and knowledgeable about cables, adapters, connections, equipment because of the intense setup experience. I would hazard a guess and add that each of us gravitated toward a specific area and became little "mini-pros" at our various stations.....as an example:

L - who began the weekend as a very timid participant in cabling/adapters/video distribution wiring became a very competent audio mixer. It was a delight to turn and watch her manning the controls on the audio board and being familiar with the vocabulary and even anticipating situations. Bravo! Collaborateur!

All three camera operators (developed not only a heads up in cabling and connections and in taking responsibility for the paths their connections took, but became very fluent in panning, zooming, close ups and framing a shot. We had many ongoing, behind the scenes conversations going on during the performance and stayed in touch with one another to try and create not only a technical performance, but venturing into making the camera work artistic in itself. Bravo! Collaborateurs!

Those in the Stage Managing positions must have done well; entrances and exits were smooth (that I saw!). They remained poised and helped out all over - not just within their assigned realm. Bravo! Collaborateurs!

I was assigned to the Video Mixing board along with Thomas McFarland on the other board. We spent a great deal of time investigating the possibilities of mixing, crossfading. Tom Beyer was the Master of Cues and Calls for camera shots and the distribution of screen real estate. The greatest task was ensuring that all participants got as much coverage and time while balancing that with what was shown to our in house audience. Whew! My head was spinning for the first 20 minutes.

We were assigned to become camera operators, video mixers, audio engineers, cable runners, cable testers, stage managers.....but for a great deal of the set up, we were all in it together as haulers, lifters, tapers, lunch runners,......I felt we struggled and were ultimately rewarded as a team in that:

During the performance, everyone and everything melded together (held together by some very strong glue from Tom Beyer and Dr. Gilbert). The level of confidence had risen by virtue of the effort of configuring and setting up. The hands-on practice contributed greatly to the comfort level achieved by the time of performance by those who were "behind the scenes" (our class). We reached enough of a knowledge level that I believe many of us were able to expand upon it during the performance and begin to use these tools are they are meant to be used - as tools!

How would you all like to do this on a daily basis?
: -)

The Down and Dirty Tech side of Ethernet Performing

Layers!

It took two full days of preparation to set up and execute this four-way ethernet driven performance. Lots of hard work by many hands; learning on the fly; trying to put into practice what had been learned in class. The experience on the whole was

successful;
fretful;
frustrating;
fulfilling;
took much more time than we thought;

..and thank God for Tom Beyer! His experience with all the necessary procedures, setup, equipment, etc. etc was invaluable. He push/pulled, cajoled, taught, explained (again and again) until the setup was successful.

DAY 1
LAYER 1 - Computers
Round up and bring all necessary equipment to the theatre; cables, adaptors, testers, video distribution amps, video mixers, splitters, computers, monitors, tape, pens, DVD players, projectors, amps, headsets, headphones. Lots of hands made light work.

All cables were tested and separated into types/sizes. This step saved lots of later agita, as a few were found to be no good. These were labeled and set aside.


COMPUTERS
Three computers were set up on the tech table. As they were new, all were given unique names and registered. Connections were established to the Internet2 network. All three obtained unique IP addresses. iChat software was set up. iChat accounts were established for each station which uniquely identified them to all participants. Computer 1 was set up to accept incoming connections from all participants, BCC, UCSC, Stonybrook and NYU. Tom Beyer manned this machine. Computer 2 was configured to handle incoming & outgoing connections from BCC and Computer 3 to handle connections to and from UCSC. This overall configuration facilitated the projections onto the three screens; center screen being the projections from the whole group; and screens 2 and 3 handling single connections from UCSC and BCC. As Stonybrook's participation consisted of only one initiated piece, that data was routed only through computer 1.

It took until mid-afternoon to accomplish the above; it was then discovered that the newer Macs had the capacity for outputting 800 speed Firewire only, which is incompatible with the Video equipment being used; after a fruitless search for 800 to 400 adapters, it was determined that the computers would be replaced with laptops...ah, all for naught. Having set up the first round of computers did serve as a high learning curve, and the next day's replacement with laptops went much faster as we had "been down that road" earlier.

CAMERAS
The second layer of setup involved the three cameras in the theatre. The camera (and all subsequent connections from them) were labeled consistently so to facilitate identification and troubleshooting. Camera 1 and all subsequent connections (Video Distribution Amps, splitters, SVideo cables, composite cables, were all labelled on the actual cables wherever they connected to something else; the chain looked something like this:

Camera 2 -(to)-VDA2 (composite cable) -(to)- Switch2 - to - Projector 2
VDA2 -outs- to Switch2
to Monitor2
Switch2 -outs- to Projector2
Switch2 -in- from VideoMixer2 (Edirol)

The Importance of Being Earnest

Before I post what will undoubtedly be a long entry detailing the technical aspects of our "Across The Ether" performance, I must say that:

Because I was so engaged in the technical side of the day, I really was not able to grasp a sense of the "whole"; in between cues and headphone communications with the camera people, punching buttons and wrapping cords, switching between screens and people via iChat, etc. etc., my attention was so divided that a sense of continuity in regard to the performances was not possible for me. Such is the pitfall of being on the Technical Team, most notably during a one-time-only performance. If this had been a production like others in my past, a production for which many performances were held, the technical side would eventually have reached a comfort level and I would have been able to allow myself to become immeshed in the performances being given. A "One-Shot" performance such as this does not allow for that rehearsed, repeated, comfort in repetition feeling, and attention must be given to the most immediate needs of the performers. I hope we were able to facilitate a good experience for the performers and participants.

So - I am really looking forward to seeing the documented film of the whole.

Through the fog/phase of performance time, I will note what stands out in my memory of the event:

1) Really liked the Californian's idea of keeping a character on-screen (iChat) during the show; the costumed, makeup character emitted a constant connection to "California" - through a character. Marvelous idea. It also served to establish that a real person was on the other end, a scenario which caused us some angst when trying to determine in real-time whether our transmissions were still happening "real time".
.....it is important to verify at anytime that a connection is happening between people; someone from each location needs to stay in front of a camera (in this case if iChat is being utilized).

2) REALLY liked the percussion pieces that were done. I am most interested to see what/if anything took place with latency.

3) REALLY REALLY exhausted when all was over.

4) Would like to know what the reaction of audience members was.....?

Internet 2 -Faster, Better ...................................and you can't use it!

Internet 2 represents an alternative Internet network, built upon a 100GB network backbone. It provides a high-speed packet network to a consortium of educational institutions. The network is built upon the Abilene Network, a high performance fiber backbone network. It is a private network in the sense that it operates outside of the public Internet traffic, and it does not operate in the same peer-to-peer fashion as the public internet. It is not, however, isolated from the public at large, as members can provide alternative access to many of the resources through the public internet.

The development of this network began in 1996 by EDUCAUSE and was formally organized as UCAID (University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development in 1997. The name Internet2 became a registered trademark.

The network is hosted at Indiana University, and provides its members with high-speed access to the shared resources available at the educational institutions, as well as the ability to share high-bandwidth applications at a high speed, without having to compete for available bandwith on the public internet.

I am looking forward to seeing this network in action during our collaborative meeting.

Tools of the Collabo-Trade

We are working toward collaboration, utilizing both video and audio over the Internet.
Sharing etherspace with musicians, writers, dancers, artists over miles of Cat5 cables, routers, switches, hubs, network cards standing between our players. Collaborating with those not physically next to us. How is this to be accomplished?

I wish to present a number of "Tools of the Trade" that have been developed over the years that facilitate the collaborative efforts of primarily musicians through the Internet. I will stay within the range of free, trial-based, downloadable products that I feel encompass both the main players of Operating Systems, namely Windows and Macs. We should be careful not to make the assumption that all participants are using the same operating systems; this is a very common error that is best addressed BEFORE any collaborative jamboree takes form!

Tool #1:
Ninjam

What is it?
"NINJAM is a program to allow people to make real music together via the Internet. Every participant can hear every other participant. Each user can also tweak their personal mix to his or her liking."

The Client Software which is downloaded to the user's computer, allows the user to connect to a participating server, set the Metronome (BPM)

The Client:




NINJAM compresses the recorded audio, thereby reducing drastically transmission time and the ever-present delay issues which are inherent in attempting anytype of online, real-time collaboration. Any type of input is supported; live singing, guitars, synthesizers, pianos, etc. etc. If your computer can record it, then you can jam with it.

Since the inherent latency of the Internet prevents true realtime synchronization of the real-time jamming, and playing and dealing with the subsequent latency is weird , NINJAM provides a solution by making the delay (and the weirdness) much longer.

A free download which supports both Windows and Mac platforms



Thomas Dolby Podcast Interview re Online Collaboration Experience