AIAS Conference

I've spent the last week in Zurich, Switzerland, participating in a conference hosted by the Association of International Art and Design Schools. I went with two other students from MICA--Johannah, a senior in the undergrad Environmental Design program, and Mark, a grad student Digital Photography program. MICA was the only American school participating in the workshop, and other students came from Turkey, Germany, Holland, England, Japan, Portugal, and of course, Switzerland, just to name a few. All of the students participated in one of two workshops--I participated in the following:

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Guided by sound: Augmented architecture

This five-day workshop begins by exploring the potential sound space existing in the lecture theatre at our disposal, particularly its 360 degree panoramic projection and 7.1 surround system. Work starts out from participant laptops in terms of open space intervention, designing and realizing small sound spaces, and subsequently networking these to align them with the larger space system. Developed through combined artistic efforts, the emerging spatial atmosphere will open up space for further individual activities.Labyrinthine spatial orientation is intended to contrast with panoramic projection and perspective view.

During the course of the workshop, participants will activate the lecture theatre’s 360 degree projection. The workshop will build on individual participant skills in order to develop various design methods in parallel. The workshop will peak in a live concert with an invited (classical) musician, whom participants will afford multi-channel accompaniment via the theatre’s sound equipment and counterpoint with the help of networked AirPort-enabled mobile computers.
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At first, the dynamic between the students was very compartmentalized. Students grouped themselves by country or language, or more commonly, went off on their own, and began to experiment with what could be done in the space.

The room not only had 360 sound and video projection, but also had a unique setup that the students ended up creating together. Most students had a laptop of their own, and those of us who did, set up an external speaker next to us which served as our left channel, and then set up one of the main speakers in the space as our right channel. There were several other external speakers of various types set up around the space.

This was my favorite:



Though I participated in other projects, I worked collaboratively with another artist, from Zurich, to create an environment for the creatures that have appeared in my illustrations before. The other artist, Vinchenzo, and I worked together to create voices and personalities for each of the characters and then passed them out to all the other artists participating in the workshop. For the performance, all the artists used the sound clips to give voices to the characters, moving the sound around the room. Here's a video of our rehearsal, but I warn you--the audio is awful:



I have better documentation, but I haven't gotten a chance to parse it down. I'll post more videos once I get the opportunity to edit.

Saturday's Bake Sale

Here's some photos of the things I sold at the Bake Sale this weekend:

Captain America Cupcakes - $1.00 each


Batman Brownies - $0.75 each


Superman Sugar Cookies - $0.50 each


Green Lantern Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies - $0.50 each

I'll bring in the video on Thursday.

Baked Goods for Superpowers

I have purchased a table at the Bolton Hill Community Yard Sale (October 6th from 9am to 2:30pm) and will be appearing at the sale masked, selling baked goods, in order to raise money to become a superhero.

I might make a sign out of poster board and permanent marker and tape it to my table to further advertise this point to the people visiting the sale.

Put it on your calendar!:
October 6th, 2007
The Park Avenue Median Park

Superhero Podcast

Just created a podcast called "Super Powered Podcast".

To view it through iTunes, use this URL:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=265850063

There is also an RSS feed of the podcast in the right hand column in my blog.

The first episode is the first of a three part series starring the superheroine, Cytenia. In this "radio play", Cytenia's alter ego's (Erika) boyfriend, Jason, begins to fall in love with her superhero personality. Cytenia suffers through the difficult moral question "Is it okay to cheat on myself as myself?" with some guidance from her trusty sidekick, Max. Throughout all of this Cytenia also works to protect the city, her home, and her loved ones from the evil villain, The Talon.

Social Networking Services for Superheroes

I began thinking about social networking services that would be useful to superheroes, to help them obtain both the things they wanted and needed to be superheroes.

ESTABLISH A SUPERHERO IDENTITY:
This service will not only help superheroes establish fantastic super-identities, but it may also give them a greater understanding of themselves and how they relate to the world as a superhero.

After participating in the superhero identity establishment program, the hero will have:

• an interesting and comprehensive origin story (ideal for resumes, press releases, and websites)
• a logo or emblem
  
• a representative color scheme
  
• a costume
  
• suggestions for possible transportation vehicles, weapons, and accessories
• an outline detailing the intricacies of the umbrella theme designed for the superhero and explanations about why each aspect was considered appropriate

Things that will have to be considered:

• Origin and Motivations
  
• Powers/Abilities
• Body Type
• Personality
• Preferred Fighting Terrain(s)
  

FIND A NEMESIS:
Kind of in the style of match.com (i.e. "We match you on 32 different levels in order to find you the perfect match), allowing superheroes and villains to come together in a community to find their perfect nemesis.

Things that will have to be considered:

• Gender - What gender are you, if you have one? Would you feel uncomfortable fighting with the opposite gender? Would you like a nemesis that could double as a romantic interest?
• Physical Build - Height? Weight? Build? (To make sure that someone such as the Doll Man doesn't get paired with Galactus)
  
• Identity Themes - What kind of super powers do you have? What colors are your costume? Are there any apparent themes in your identity? What is your preferred fighting terrain (underwater, city rooftops, alternative dimensions,etc.)? (This series of questions will pair you up with some that stylistically relates or compliments you. Example 1: If you have a fire theme, you might be paired with someone with a water theme, as long as you're both able to fight on the same terrain. Example 2: If you have powers rooted in magic, you would probably be paired with someone who would be able to match your magical abilities, although they may be studying an opposing branch of magic.)
  
• Experience - What is your current level of experience in crime fighting (or world domination attempts)? Are you looking for a nemesis that can challenge you, or are you just looking to build your resume?
  
• Relationship Status - Do you want to have one, exclusive nemesis? Or are you interested in having casual relationships with multiple nemeses?
  

FIND A PLACE TO SAVE:
This could be approached in two ways:

• Classified Ads - Research locations and place ads in an organized and allow superheroes to look for career opportunities for themselves or see what kind of superhero jobs are available in other areas
• Temp Agency - Looks at the individual needs and wants of the superhero, and various cities, and makes suggestions for different places that the superhero may consider taking up residence.

SUPERHERO HELP FORUM:
Basic forum allowing superheroes to post questions or issues they might be having. Those questions can both be answered by administrators or other superheroes.

NOTES:
Would these services be solely marketed towards superheroes, or would the same or similar services be marketed to supervillains as well? What would be the best way to go about that?

Projection and Escapism in American Culture

Superheroes first appeared in American culture during the Depression, in the newly developed medium of the comic book. It was one of the first products that was uniquely catered to the hopes, desires, and interests of America's youth. Even toys of the era marketed themselves to parents instead of their children, enticing adults with claims of being "educational”. Comic books did nothing of the sort, and instead provided the means of escapism and project so avidly desired by the American youth of the time.

Comic books made it seem that superheroes could easily hidden among the masses, secretly fighting for the greater good. Clark Kent, for instance, only had to remove his glasses to before he could recognizably become the Man of Steel. Other heroes had powers that felt like they were only an arm’s reach away—Billy Baston was once a normal young boy with no particularly distinguishing traits, but once he is chosen by a wizard to be a champion of justice, he only needed to say the word “Shazam!” to transform into the fully-grown, super-powered Captain Marvel. Batman, on the other hand, possessed no powers at all—aside from his super-wallet. He had undergone years of training in the martial arts and other combative studies, and then was able to provide himself with numerous gadgets thanks to the multi-million dollar empire built by his alter-ego Bruce Wayne.

Through out the decades superheroes have continued to develop and provide culture with new ways of escaping from the tribulations of everyday life. With advances in science and technology, superheroes are no longer forced to remain within the few newsprint pages of the comic book, but are allowed to venture into other realms of media such as television shows, movies, video games, and the internet. The internet, however, I believe has become the greatest tool for providing American culture with a means to break free from their everyday lives.

It's easy to lose yourself among the facts and nonsense, the images and text, the shopping, the games, and everything else that makes up the world wide web. And now, social networking provides people the means to do what superheroes have been doing since the Depression--create another identity for themselves that they can use to influence the world around them, while still holding onto their "secret identity".

More to come on this topic later...

To Become a Superhero...

To become a superhero, you must have the following:

• superpowers, or at least a skill that is matched with a strong sense of justice
• superhero identity (i.e. costume, logo, accessories, etc. that fall under a particular theme or ideal)
  
• person and/or place that is constantly falling into peril
• alter-ego
  
• nemesis
  

You may also require things such as:

• secret lair
• sidekick
  
• contact method (i.e. phone, signal, beeper, etc.)
• romantic interest (which may be a person you seen in the everyday life as your alter-ego, another superhero, or even a villain that you just can't seem to hold back your feelings for)