Interesting Programming Language

I recently learned about a programming language for visual creations called processing from a friend who also gave me a book on the topic. The book, called Learning Processing, is for beginners to programming, but there are still some interesting topics in there that I am sure will be valuable to me. Processing looks like a really interesting project and I will try to post some of my tests with it here once I get something interesting going. For more information on the language, check out the Wikipedia page here or see the main site here.

A Remote You Take With You

Having remote controls has freed us from having to get up to change the channel or turn on various devices, like air conditioners. But I think it would be very handy to always have this functionality available, no matter where you are. I would like to see remote controls in wrist watches for instance that can dynamically adjust to any device we’re around. I know that infrared is line-of-sight only, so you’d have to sync with the devices you want to explicitly, but the possibilities for this seem endless. You would no longer have to search for the right remote and it would always be on your wrist. Since I carry a watch anyway, this is the perfect solution for me.

Keeping a Catalogue of Movies/Games/Books I Own

I seem to have this problem where I can never recall what movies I already own or don’t own when I’m in the mood to buy a new one (which isn’t very often lately). Today it hit me that I should have an online database of movies I already own (it could also contain books and video games – pretty much anything with a bar code I could use). What I want is to be able to take a picture of the bar code and have it automatically look-up the item for me, then if I already own the item, it could tell me that, or if I don’t it could give me the choice to put the item into the database (to easily add things as I get them). I think it would be really interesting to look into how to deal with bar codes programmatically and also this would be a really handy application for me. I could also work out different tags and categories, say for keeping track of movies Dad owns or books Mom owns or has read already.

Movie Premise

I have another movie premise idea. A main character leads an ordinary life and starts to realize that things around him or her are changing according to his or her will, slowly but surely at first and then much more rapidly. To elaborate a bit, I envision him or her thinking intently about something that he or she wants to happen, closing his or her eyes, and then, upon reopening, seeing that thing as they wished. And as he or she starts to experiment with it more and more, the easier and more quickly things start to happen. The things that could happen could be simple at first, like moving objects around or opening and closing doors, then they could start to get more complex, like turning car engines on or operating computers just by thinking about what he or she wants to happen.

I haven’t thought of a cool climax or ending for this movie, but the key factor is that the main character has to completely envision what they wish to happen before it will. He or she has to truly believe that it has happened before it will, with only the smallest amount of doubt in their mind. I think this makes the premise more plausible since they are just discovering this “talent” in mid-life (which I neglected to mention earlier).

Half-Life Mod

I’ve always wanted to create a mod for a video game. I think I will investigate what can be created for half-life and see what other people have already done. I’m thinking that creating a level would be a good start, using my own artwork and textures. Here is the link to Wikipedia’s list of current mods. I’m initially thinking a watchmen themed level would be interesting.

Amateur Radio

I have been interested in amateur radio (or ham radio if you’re more familiar with this term) as of late and it occurred to me that this could make for a great network for net.art pieces. One idea I had was to have operators connect on the same frequency and each play a particular portion of music simultaneously (for example, one person could play the drum section for a song and another the guitar section for the same song or even an entirely different song). I would want to try and limit the number of users per frequency so that it doesn’t come out as just noise, but this could definitely make for some interesting music. I don’t have the knowledge currently of ham radio to pull something like this off, but I really like the idea of it (especially if non-operators could tune in and listen).

Connecting Bluetooth Capable Phones

I have always wanted to experiment with cell phones and when thinking about this, bluetooth quickly came to mind as a possible medium to use for creating a collaborative net.art piece. Since most modern phones are at least somewhat bluetooth capable, I would like to see if I could write a piece of code to do something interesting when a lot of phones are in close proximity with one another (bluetooth works great for this because it is a relatively low-power and thus low-range protocol). One idea is to have an image appear on each users phone which grows somehow when more users join in and shrinks back when users are removed. I’ll think more about the details of what this could be and will try to post some more ideas later.

THWONK

This is a net.art experiment: go to thwonk.com, sign up for an account (near the top there is a join button – you have to create an account for me to get your message), and then send me an email at short_story@thwonk.com with whatever you want to add to the story in the subject line. I automatically ignore anything in the email body, so please just use the subject line (I did this so that people most likely won’t be enticed to add too much at one time). As I get new messages, I’ll update the story. To give you an idea of what this will be like, below is the story I started the experiment with (for testing and an example):

A magician wandered along the beach, but no one needed him. Except me… For I am the one that seeks the wanderer!

There are three emails total here. “A magician wandered along the beach, but no one needed him”, “Except me…”, and “For I am the one that seeks the wanderer!”. So, as this example shows, anything you add will get appended to the end of the current story.

The updated story can always be found on my THWONK Short Story page (see the right navigation bar or click here). I look forward to your submissions!

Story Idea

I have an idea for a short story that I’d like to share here. I have always enjoyed reading short stories and wrote a few when I was in high-school and elementary/junior high school. I would like to revisit this creative outlet and see if it still holds interest to me.

Basically, my idea is to create a super-human character, a person who is extraordinary in some way, and have chronicles of his or her daily life. It would be interesting to create stories periodically as well and see if I can keep things from contradicting each other while still being interesting on an individual level. It also would open the door for side plots and different protagonists along the way, which would be really incredible to write.

My first idea is to have someone who is impervious to all physical harm, sort of like super man, only without the flying and super speed, et cetera. Then I want to have some sort of task that he or she has to perform or else a major catastrophe will occur, like having a nuclear weapon go off over a major US city or something to that effect. Something really catastrophic and basically something that would end the series if it were to actually occur in the story (such as if the character failed in their task). They could uncover hidden government plots and have a race against the clock to stop certain events in a large chain leading to the catastrophe. I’ll work on this idea  a little bit and then post a rough draft of the first story. I think I’ll use a narrative, but keep things in the perspective of the main protagonist for the most part, kind of like a comic book.

Interesting Help For Writing An Artist’s Statement

http://www.nitaleland.com/articles/statement.htm

This is a great resource I found for helping to write a good artist’s statement of purpose. In particular, the questions that the author states helped me greatly in thinking about what to include in my statement.