Tuesday 7 December 2010

Final Group Presentation

Case study: Resident Evil


Resident Evil  or named Biohazard in Japan is one of the survival horror game being developed and issued Capcom for the Nintendo Cameube and released in 2002 a video game series.
Popularity.
- It has sold almost 40 million games as of May 2009
- A series of side products came out
   - Comics books
   - Novelizations
   - Collectibles: action figures, strategy guides and publication
   - Hollywood films
     2002- Resident Evil
     2004- Resident Evil: Apocalypse
     2007- Resident Evil: Extinction
     2010- Resident Evil: Afterlife
Values against morality
* Violence
* Exaggeration of bloody scene: gore
* Visual sexual scene
 












Violence
 As it is a survive game player have to kill all enemies to keep oneself alive, shooting and killing scene is inevitable. Frequently use of weapons to kill and torture the others are high-lighted in this game.
* Demerit: This kind of violence-oriented video games inject the wrong perception to players that 'The fittest survives' where the only criteria to single out the 'fittest' is by means of violence. In return, the immature players will bear it in mind, that is definitely a potential threat to the whole society.

 













Exaggeration of bloody scene
As we may see, the animation in this games is quite realistic as the creators try to mimic the real world in order to give the most realistic experience to players. In fact, those scenes are too bloody and detailed. From the above picture, gore scene is exaggerated.
*Demerit: Firstly, those bloody scene give players acts as excitement in the whole playing, those brutal things become all they strive for.


Visual sexual scene
 Female characters all have little clothes on that contain sexual implication.
*Demerit: Player uses different angles to peep girls' sensitive part

Dr. Craig A. Anderson
"Some studies have yielded nonsignificant video game effects, just as some smoking studies failed to find a significant link to lung cancer. But when one combines all relevant empirical studies using meta-analytic techniques it shows that violent video games are significantly associated with: increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased pro-social (helping) behavior."

Lt. Col. David Grossman, a former West Point psychology professor,
repeatedly used the term "murder simulator" to describe first-person shooter first-person shooter games.
He reckoned that violence games are "unethically train children in the use of weapons and, more importantly, harden them emotionally to the act of murder by simulating the killing of hundreds or thousands of opponents in a single typical video game."
Video game controversy


Man jailed for life for toddler Violet Mullen's murder
Retrieved 21 November 2010.
In January 2010, Gary Alcock punched, slapped and pinched his partner's 15-month-old daughter in the three weeks leading up to her death before he delivered a fatal blow to the stomach which tore her internal organs because she interrupted him playing X-Box. She died from internal bleeding after suffering 35 separate injuries including multiple bruises, rib fractures and brain damage, which were comparable to injuries suffered in a car crash. Alcock was jailed for life and must serve at least 21 years 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-11784103

Ethics of Video Games

Film in class: Gamer Revolution
a)According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies? 
Pros:
Sometimes videogames can be used as teaching aids like in this film mentioned  some US army use this game to recuit Military. On the other hand, player can have a brand new life experience in the virtue world, can relieve from the sometime annoying reality for the time being.
Cons:
Some violence games may contaminate teenagers' mind, they may mimic those violence action in reality, for example school shootings is not unprecedented news for us, so it will  be a potential threat to both individuals and society.

b) According the film, is there any evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world? Do you agree?

I do agree that digital games can encourage aggressive values and some anti-social actions in the real life,it is like a catalyse for people to commit violence-related crime. In January 2010, a man killed a baby girl by giving her a fatal blow to her stomach while he was playing a violence video game XBox. 



c) Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?

I do not think that the government have the right to ban any of these games. First of all, people in the society have the basic right to choose what they like to play provided that it won't affect the others.  Besides, it is extremely hard to ban a game completely since information technology is too flourish nowadays. A ban on certain games will triggers off people curiosity which may create another vicious circle.

Didital Games.... But are They Arts?

How does Adams define art?
Adams views art from different approach: category, history, duration and expressiveness.
*Category
Literary arts: writing and drama
Fine Arts: sculpture, painting, music
Decorative arts: architecture
Industrial design: aesthetic applied to utilitarian objects
*History
Arts should be able represent its era
*Duration
Arts should be 'highly durable' in value
*Expressiveness
Arts should be expressive which contain messages and artists' thought

More or less I agree with Adam just like he came up with that it is never easy to distinguish art from their nature, there is always a 'grey area'. For instance, a sculpture itself can be regarded as fine art, but can it also be decorative art in other point of view?  I myself would rather focus on the value of a work rather then their form. I totally agree that a work of art should be expressive, or it will be just a plain work but art.

According to Adam, what is needed for video games to be considered as art?
1. Video games should have content as well as expressiveness.
2. As video games are innovative that make people feel interesting and unprecedented, they are art
3. In case a video game can come across critics about its aesthetics, it can be art


Friday 3 December 2010

Mouchette www.mouchette.org

As you may see, the above picture is the front page of this controversial web site- mouchette.org. In the upper right there is a sad looking girl with a brief description claiming that she is an 13-year-old artist came from Amsterdam. In the lowest part of this page, there is a bar 'browse me' where visitors can link to more other pages for example 'cat' and ' 7songs'. 

When I first clicked to this web I am definitely attracted by a beautiful white flower placed in the centre with ants and flies on it. Apart from that,  the design of the front page is a bit out-of -date, especially the text front. When comes to the page named 'dead fly',  it makes me feel uncomfortable and where the picture is so raw with seemingly dirty thing. Like I mentioned above, there are several pages you can visit through clicking the bottom 'browse me' where they contain different theme and mood. All in all, I don't feel good when relating this web to a thirteen-year-old girl since some pictures and sounds may lure you to think of sexual elements ( a tongue licking the screen contains lewd implication). 

This work is so controversial because the public is doubtful about the maker of this web site, is it really made by a 13 years old girl who suppose to have a positive thought rather than eroded by negative suggestion like sex and suicide stuff. Moreover, people cannot figure out the intention of building up relationship between viewer since "Mouhchette" usually ask for our contact such as e-mail.

Technoligised Bodies


I think this work named Inter-Discommunication Machine made by Kazuhiko Hachiya is the most interesting one. 
This work requires two people to put on head-mounted displays concurrently so that one will see image and hear sound  from the display that is transmitted from the another device.  In other word, sight and sound perception of these two players will be exchanged by the machine and make players feel that they were forcibly put in the dis-connected place.
In fact, Kazuhiko did it on purpose: she wanted to break the border between identities of two people.
This machine impresses me because it  break natural barrier of physical  and perceptual dependence of mankind and makes it possible for two to exchange the honest perception and sensation between them. I can imagine how I feel after putting on this display: insecure yet surprising. To my belief, people are too adapt to the everyday environment and feel bored and  numb towards it, so this tiny  machine may help people to take baby step to re look at the world and their role in the society.   world.this it

Friday 8 October 2010

Do video-sharing sites such as Youtube enhance or worsen creative culture?

The well known video-sharing site Youtube to me, is a stage provided for creative ideas blossom. Since there is no restriction of entrance so that people from different walks of life can share videos to the whole world regardless of content stule and quality. There are countless videos can be found in the site, from official music videos, movies to home made videos, that large variety of topics suggested creativity. For example many home-made make-up teaching videos pop up out of the blue.
           
I think that if no such user-friendly site is provided for internet users, people may not think of making themselves directors and doing so well.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Thursday 7 October 2010

Youtube

1. How many viewers are estimated to have watched the youtube video?

Using Bus Uncle as an example, there are several versions of this household video. One of them with bilingual subtitles attracts over 2 billions viewers.

2. How would you rate the video?
    - Is it high qualityin technical terms? Is it interesting aesthetically eg cameral angles,us of light, the narrative, and so on?
It depends. On one hand, this video made a hugh noise in the territory and  triggered off  severe arguments about social problems among citizens, which effect is   unprecedented and deserves high rate. As for intechnical terms, it is not satisfying since the video maker merely intended to record the whole incident happened on the bus. In the video, we can see that the definition is low and the camera angle is quite straight forward without deliberate alternation.


  - Does it raise interesting socio-cultural issues?
This video actually raises socio-cultural issues and it can be analyzed in two period of time. When the video had just came out, people first realised that citizens have many mental problems like stress and pressure brought by daily life. Not long after, more and more people saw it and discussed it in forum which gradually form a collective criticizing trend online. To my mind, the video itself is not a single issue, but it lead to catenation in the society.

3. Do you think that it deserved the attention that it received from the internet community?
I do think that the video deserved people's attention even the stressful uncle. Before, a single voice voice is not loud enough to raise echo. This video honestly an underprivileged man 's encountering, in which the whole society can attain weight to them.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Misson to Earth


1. Using "Mission to Earth" as an example, note what is new or different about digital cinema compared to traditional filmmaking? Consider the story and appearance of the film.
Digital filmmaking is highly different from traditional one in both visual and narrative aspect. For visual aspect, traditonal film making rely hughly on cameras to record images, like hand held cameras, they have technological restriction that they can only make video on-the-spot. It turns out that the visual style of those videos are quite realistic and down to earth. On the other hand, film makers can capture or even create images through digital filmmaking, such as twisting the image, bluring it or even showing the image in a multi-frame window. Directors can freely compose a scene out of his own imagination, no matter they may run counter to natural discipline. In the movie Mission to Earth, the number of windows appear in a layout is oftern seen, suggesting different aspect of the character: her seeing, thoughts, memories and the like.

As for narrative aspect, traditional filming usually have a main theme, a story line or you may say - plot. In which we can easily get hold of the development of the story even in patomime, the story is clear. But in digital filmmaking, the plot is ambiguous and some images are pletiuful yet unclear to the whole story development. They seem like being linked together arbitarily. So in the better part of the movie, voice over is needed to help spectators to grab th idea of the movie.

2. What other art forms (e.g. film, digital art, painting, websites etc) does this film remind you of? Explain the similarities.
Paintings
Some scene reminds me of paintings of  Piet Mondrian, who plays with geometric patterns in his finger tips.

We may see that Lev Manovich also likes to deasign the layout in geometric form.




This image  was cut in the movie which is very painting-liked, it reminds me of some painting in Impressionism.


 Music
It makes me think of a type of music : post rock. Both the movie and post rock music are not mainstream genre type. I think it is a must to appreciate them with full attention from beginning to the end, othervise the poetic nexus will be lost.
In fact you may find his music in Mission to Earth:)

Digital VS Analog Photography

1. As long as both digital and traditional camera serve as capturing fleeting moments surrounding us, most importantly they can capture images through lens. On top of that, they share similar tools of shooting provided that the two have colour filter for different style of photos.

2. Nowadays, digital cameras are gaining importance in our society compared to traditional ones. It is because digital cameras have some unique and intenable function. First of all, the storage of digital camera is must bigger than traditional one since the former one is supported by memory card so it is possible to store thousands of photos at the same time. However it is film to store photos of traditional one and the number is restricted, to usually 36. On the other hand, with digital camera we can always undo or alter what we have taken in a minute. For instance, we can review back the photos and see if it is a good one and make some changes. However, we can only see the photo shot after we developed film.

3. There are some differences between the two kinds since digital cameras. The most distinguishing one is that traditional camera can still depicted a realistic world as we see in photos. On the other hand, we can change everything we want with digital cameras by means of certain software, from colour to proportion, we can even juxtapose different elements into a photo to create some sort of mood and style. On top of that, using digital camera is more flexible since many functions are autometically done without user's direction. For example some claims that autometic focusing is ensured.

photoshop

before
after

Sunday 12 September 2010

Wikipedia or traditional encyclopaedias?

To my mind, the traditional encyclopaedias is a better channel to provide digital knowledge.

The main function of these two different softwares is to provide useful information and knowledge  to users so I assume accuracy of information provided is the main criteria to distanguish the strong from the weak. To the best od my belief,  traditional encyclopaedias is much stronger in this field.

Since traditional encyclopaedias are catagorised as proprietary that sources can only be changed by owner, which can avoid careless posting of wrong information like in Wikipedia. Wikipedia  on the other hand is an open source that is opened to everybody ranging from scholar to illitterate people, in which people can create messages whatever they want. In that case, we cannot guarantee the quality of the content posted so as the user.

On top of that, traditional encyclopaedias have clear and definite owner that he/she is responsible for what messages he/she issues. As a result, administrator tends to be extra careful and pay more attention before action, that can really reduce the possibility of going wrong. However, people are can express their 'beliefs'  without giving personal information in Wikipedia which is hard to trace back the message creater. In extreme case it can lure to deliberate dissemination of rumour.

From the view of information searcher, I definitely reckon that traditional one is a more reliable tool to use.

Reflection on Modern Times




















1. This movie suggests that in that time many new technologies are used in industry like industrial machinery, feeding machine and closed circuit cameras. Undoubtedly it is beneficial to many parties. For examople, the owner of the factory gain a lot. With a wide use of machinery people are assigned to a particular stage of production so that they can produce more quickly and effectively under the concept of practise makes perfect. On top of that, the closed circuit cameras serve as a controlling mean for the bossso that he can check up on his labours everytime  everywhere to make sure no one can escape from his job position.
..... to be continued

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Hey dude

hi guys i am alison from visual studies year 2.  i'd love to go seeing the most interesting thing and diging it out. so if you are interested, please follow me:p