Mashup Spg11

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Hello, all!

Welcome to the wiki for the Mashup Culture class!

For more information on what a wiki is and how to use it, scroll down the page to General wiki info.

This wiki page is dedicated to the sharing and exchange of information for the Mashup Culture class
in the Graduate Media Studies dept at the New School: NMDS 5569 A CRN: 5025, Spring 2011. Jan 24, 2011 - May 16, 2011


Contents

Syllabus

Mashup Culture
Graduate Media Studies NMDS 5569 A CRN: 5025
Instructor: Josephine Dorado
Contact me by email

Course description:
Mashup Culture explores the remix culture as cultural exchange. We live in a world of ever-expanding networks, and the ways that we process and 'mash up' the various media and data reflect the evolving interconnectedness of our interactions. While studying about remix culture and collaborative process, students will manifest projects that involve mashing up media using various web-based creation, editing, live online broadcasting, and sharing and techniques of online presentation. The result will be a series of vignettes which reflect the distributed nature of our natural dynamic, bringing us together in cohesive cultural fusion.


Our tools

No books are required for the class; everything will be available online or downloadable as PDFs from our Google group (under "Files"). You will be required, however, to have access to either a webcam (an inexpensive one will be fine) or a digital video camera.

We will also be using a variety of tools available on the Internet:

For a full list plus other available tools, see the Resources on the class wiki.

Your contributions

Participation. Because this class is a seminar, your thoughtful participation is essential to its success. You are required to contribute—courteously and meaningfully—to discussions on the class blog. Participation is worth 20% of your final grade.

Assignments. There are a series of assignments throughout the term. Completion of these assignments brings familiarity with some of the tools available for remixing and collaborating, while simultaneously discussing the concepts upon which they are based and the community and kinds of collaboration that develop around them. These assignments are worth 60% of your final grade.

Final Project. The final project will be a collaborative, mixed reality mashup that will be manifested completely online. 'Mixed reality' refers to the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist. For our final project, we will be combining media that you've created throughout the class to produce a virtual sculpture garden that is filled with objects textured with your visual mashups and sound samples. More detail is available under Weeks 12-14. Document your progress and process on the class blog. Post images/sound/etc and link to them on the blog. Address the key theoretical concepts involved as well as your thoughts about the process and output. Final projects are due by May 9 and documentation is due by May 12. This project is worth 20% of your final grade.


Our schedule

WEEKS 1 & 2: Jan 25-31 and Feb 1-7

An overview of the remix.

Remixing and the collective mashup – what is it and how did it develop?

Readings:

NOTE: please read the whole series - the different sections are in the navigation bar on the right starting with "Intro" and "Keeping it (Un)real" through to "Remixing History"


Examples:

  • http://newsmap.jp/ and project info at http://marumushi.com/projects/newsmap - "Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator...provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe."
  • http://thru-you.com/ - "What you are about to see is a mix of unrelated YouTube videos/clips edited together to create ThruYou. In other words - what you see is what you hear..." NOTE: if the above link doesn't work try the following (direct links from youtube):
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNzrwh2Z2hQ - DJ Earworm's United State of Pop 2009 (Blame It on the Pop)-Mashup of Top 25 Billboard Hits
  • http://usecpr.com/ - "CPR records the news and plays it like an instrument then gives you the tools to do the same"
  • http://www.eclecticmethod.net/ - Eclectic Method "helped pioneer the emerging art of audio-visual mixing since first cutting U2’s Mysterious Ways music video with the Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic as an experiment back in 2002. The trio’s audio-visual mash-ups feature television, film, music and video game footage sliced and diced into blistering, post-modern dance floor events..."
  • http://remixamerica.org/ - "RemixAmerica.org is a multi-partisan, non-profit website that uses digital technology to give everyone the chance to own the words, the music, the images and sounds of America in digital form; to remix those expressions and ideas with their own; and to send the products of our community's creativity out to the world... where others will come back to us and start it all over again."
  • http://jaycut.com/ - Browser-based editing, uploading and sharing of videos.
  • http://www.sito.org/synergy/gridcosm/ - Gridcosm is a collaborative art project in which artists from around the world contribute images to a compounding series of graphical squares.
  • http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ - Remix feeds and create new data mashups in a visual programming environment.
  • http://orange.blender.org/blog/creative-commons-remix/ - Remixes of Elephant's Dream
  • http://www.oamos.com/ - online mashing up based on a metasearch engine with audio-visual display interfaces.


Assignments.
a. Create a username and log into the class Class blog. For your first comment, introduce yourself. Write a short paragraph (bio).
We will all be posting class-related discussions via the blog and not via Blackboard.

b. Join the class Google group. We will be using the Google group email list to communicate logistical things and brief interactions. If you’re asking, “What is the difference between using the blog and the Google group email to communicate?” Mainly, the blog is public and the Google group is private; also, the Google group email will be used more conversationally/ for brief exchanges, whereas the blog will be for longer, more topical discussions.

c. We'll be using a variety of tools in this class and having some organizational tools will become essential. Delicious is an online social bookmarking tool that will help you store, organize and share your bookmarks. If you’re new to delicious, check out our What is Delicious? page. Create a Delicious account, if you don’t already have one, and add funksoup to your Delicious network. You can import your bookmarks into your account or leave it as is. One of the first bookmarks you may want to post is http://delicious.com/funksoup/bundle:mashup which is how I’ve tagged links that relate to mashup culture.
When you come across a link that you want to save, post it to your Delicious bookmarks. Links that people in your network have posted show up under "Network". This way, we can share relevant links. You can also post a link specifically to someone in your network by specifying whom in your network the link is for by entering their username in the "SEND" field (i.e., if you wanted to send me a link, in the SEND field, start typing "funksoup" and it will auto-complete. You can also put "for:funksoup" in the "TAGS" field and it will do the same thing). If you come across a link that you think is pertinent to the class, you can send it to me.
Again, if you're new to it, please check out our What is Delicious? page. Post your Delicious URL to the class wiki.

d. Go to http://newsmap.jp/ and explore the different options (customizability by region/topic/time). Go to http://www.oamos.com/ and try it (Enter any search term into the box. For fun, try your own name or the name of an artist/persona that you prefer). Go to http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i//msnbc/Components/spectra/index.html and add some news channels and then explore the interface (toggle images on, change view, try a word filter, etc). Each of these sites uses news as a source but approaches the mashup and visualization differently. Some are more straightforward, some - abstract. What did you think of the way that these sites mash up news, user input and mixed media? (I'm not asking which you thought was 'better' - they each approach the concept differently - just observe the qualitative differences). Post your thoughts on the class blog.

Note that it's not necessary for everyone to start a new post. You can also comment thoughtfully on other posts as well. As long as you're participating in the discussion, either creating a post or commenting -- either are fine.
If you're new to blogging and you're not sure how to create a post or comment, here's how:

  • To create a new post, just log into the class blog which will put you into your dashboard. You can either click "New Post" in the upper-righthand corner or you can click on "Add New" under the Posts section on the lefthand side.
  • To create a comment, log into the class blog which will put you into your dashboard. Click on "Visit site" on the top of the page which will put you back at the home page. Find the post to which you would like to add the comment. Click the "Comments" link at the bottom of the post. It will expand the Comments section and you'll be able to write your comment.


WEEKS 3 & 4: Feb 8-14 and Feb 15-21

The process is the product. Part 1: Mashing up images

What kinds of processes are involved? What has emerged as a result of this process? What does the process imply in terms of authorship and audience?

Readings:

  • Shiga, John. "Copy-and-Persist: The Logic of Mash-Up Culture." Critical Studies in Media Communication. Vol. 24, No. 2, June 2007, pp. 93-114. [Download from our Google group under the "Files" section - Shiga_CopyPersist_MashUpCulture.pdf]
  • Shreve, Jenn. "Anyone for Photoshop Tennis?" Wired. 27 September 2001. <http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/09/47132>.
http://www.urbancollective.com/tennis.jsp
http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Photoshop-Tennis

Assignments.
a. Create an Aviary account if you don’t already have one. Upload at least 5 pictures (They don’t have to be of yourself – they can be anything. I’m more concerned with the process than with the content. Please make sure the images are your images though, in other words that you own these images). To upload, log into Aviary, then go to Create > Upload a file, then complete the fields (select the file, name it, give it a description and tags/keywords).

Please tag your images with "MashupCultureNS" as well as any other tags that are appropriate. For example, in this image: http://www.aviary.com/artists/funksoup/creations/bushwick_mural_-_hand -- Note that it's tagged: Bushwick, mural, Brooklyn, street art, MashupCultureNS

The MashupCultureNS tag will enable us to find our group's images in the Aviary Library.
If you've already posted an image and you want to go back and add tags, click the "Creation setttings" button on the right and then add tags where it says "Tag your creation" (comma-separated).

For "Who can see this creation?" and "Who can open this creation and make derivatives?" leave it at the default selection which is "Everyone". For "What license should this creation use?" choose the last one, "Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial" - this will allow people to use your work in a non-commercial capacity without asking, provided they credit you and link back to your work. We will have further discussions on Creative Commons and copyright issues, later in the semester. Post your Aviary URL to the class wiki (log into Aviary then click on You > Your profile to get your URL). Add contacts (start with your fellow classmates).

b. Add some photos from your Aviary account to the Mashup Culture Aviary group.
Join the Mashup Culture group at http://aviary.com/groups_group?gid=304289
If it doesn't let you request to join, send me an email with your Aviary username and I'll add you myself. Once you're in the group, then just add one (or more if you want) photos to that group. Go to the image you want to add, then click the "Add to groups" button on the right side of the image, then choose the group "Mashup Culture (New School)" then click Submit.

c. To check out good examples of PhotoShop Tennis, go to http://www.flickr.com/groups/pstennis/ - This is the flickr "PhotoShop Tennis" group, in which participants post an original photo, structure a game around photoshopping the original image and adding/editing elements. Check out some of the games that people have posted, for instance, the Trouble in Paradise game.

d. Based on the PhotoShop Tennis game, we will make our own mini version of it for this assignment. Take one of the images in our Mashup Culture Aviary group and, using Aviary, add one or more elements in one of your images to it, or vice versa - add one or more elements from someone else's images to your image.
NOTE: this is not a test of how well you can edit an image - this is just a playful exploration of image mashing so please don't worry about how polished the edited image is.

1. Here are some video tutorials on how to use Aviary's image editing tools:
Selections and layers in Aviary's Phoenix image editor
Selections, transformations & filters in Aviary's Phoenix image editor
PLEASE WATCH THE TUTORIALS (they're about 10 mins each): Even if you're familiar with Photoshop or other image editing apps, Aviary is similar but certain things are different.
2. Upload your finished image into our Mashup Culture Aviary group
3. Blog about the process on our class blog - relate it to the readings and include links to your image(s).

NOTES on cutting/copying/pasting between multiple images:

1. Go to the first image you want to work with, click the Open in Image Editor button - it will open in the Image Editor window
2. Then go to File > Import File > Aviary Library
3. Uncheck the "Only your stuff" checkbox, and in the Search Options box, type "MashupCultureNS" -- only the images tagged with that tag (our class) will display
4. Select the image you want, then click Import Image
5. You'll see that it will import it and place it onto another layer
6. You can also add other images outside of our class group. Go to File > Import File > Aviary Library > Search options (if the image you imported is still selected and covering up the Search options box, just click the X in the corner to close it). Uncheck the "Only your stuff" checkbox, and in the Search Options box, type the search terms you want (i.e., "elephant" or "graffiti") then click Search. You can also grab images from Flickr and other image databases. To grab from Flickr, go to File > Import File > Flickr, make sure "Only your stuff" is unchecked, then under Licenses, choose Attribution-Noncommercial and then type your search terms and click Search.

Ok, the rest is explained in the tutorials (working with layers, selecting, applying filters, etc). Have fun mashing up the images!


WEEK 5: Feb 22-28

Presence, Collaboration & Play.

Presence, collaboration and play are integral aspects in the online mashup process. What is meant by 'presence' and how can we extend it? "A network alone does not create collaboration" - what does? Why is play important?

Readings:


Assignments.
a. Create an account on Tokbox. Some of you may already have a Tokbox account and if so, use your existing one. Tokbox allows for video conference and messaging. We will be using it to have video conversations with each other. You can go ahead and add me: http://me.tokbox.com/funksoup. Post your Tokbox URL to the class wiki.

For your first video message, introduce yourself.
You can also respond to these questions either on the blog or in Tokbox as a video message: What is meant by 'presence' and how can we extend it? "A network alone does not create collaboration" - what does? Why is play important?

b. Create an account on Twitter. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that also allows for interconnecting between platforms (you can connect your 'tweets' so that they show up on your Facebook status, as text on your mobile phone, and/or within instant messaging like Google chat). If you're not familiar with this platform, it's a good idea to get to know it a little better, since some of the data mashups we'll be looking at involve Twitter, and it's a way of building presence as well. Check out this post if you aren't familiar with it, or want to figure out how to optimize your use of it: Why Twitter?. You can go ahead and add me: http://twitter.com/funksoup. Post your Twitter URL to the class wiki. Add your classmates twitter names too. You will be required to tweet at least once a day for the duration of this class as part of our efforts to create 'presence'.

Think about how you can use Twitter to further your career interests. Are you trying to connect with people in a particular industry? For this assignment, let's explore it: find people in your industry and scope of interests to follow on Twitter by going to http://search.twitter.com and entering in keywords. Follow those that are talking about things that are relevant to you. Share your findings on the Twitter roll page.

c. If you are not familiar with Second Life, go to the Second Life page on our wiki for an overview of how to get started and the basics. Create an avatar for yourself and familiarize yourself with the basics. Over the next few weeks, our TA, Myroslaw and I will be offering orientation sessions in Second Life that will involve learning basic skills such as navigating, walking, flying, typed and voice chat, creating landmarks and teleporting. Advanced sessions on object creation will be offered later in the semester. If you are new to Second Life, I highly suggest attending one of the basic orientation sessions as well as the advanced/object creation session. We will be sending out emails to schedule these sessions. If you're already familiar with SL, you may not need the basic session and it's up to you if you want to take the advanced/object creation session. Otherwise, you can also do your own exploring and learning; check out the Second Life page on our wiki and and the tutorials available on http://secondlife.com/showcase/tutorials/

As part of your exploration, feel free to check out some of the many interesting places in SL. You can check out the featured places on http://secondlife.com/showcase/ or Torley Linden's Cool Places to visit in SL and I've also made a list of my SL fave places to visit here: http://www.networkedcollab.org/index.php?title=Second_Life_faves

WEEKS 6 & 7: March 1-7 and March 8-14

The process is the product. Part 2: Mashing up sound

What kinds of processes are involved? What has emerged as a result of this process? What does the process imply in terms of authorship and audience?

Readings:


Assignments.
For this assignment, there are two options (or you can choose to do both).

a. Option 1: Check out Piano Etudes. Scroll down and click on one of the etudes ("Observing Squirrels," "Learning to Dance," "Reading a Poem," etc.). It will take you to a window in which you can play individual sound phrases and add them to the timeline below to make a whole piece. When you are finished, click "Sharing" on the left side and "Save and share my etude." This will save it and create a link to your new piece. You can also download an mp3 of your piece by clicking "Get an mp3 of my etude."
Blog about the process on our class blog and include a link to your etude.
NOTE: though this process is simpler than the option below (Option 2), it is slightly less creative, since the phrases are already pre-made and you'll find that certain phrases only connect with specific others. That being said, however, experiment and if you want more room to play, try Aviary's music editor, Myna, in the option below.

b. Option 2: For those with a little more experience in audio editing, or if you just feel adventurous, check out the Aviary's music editor, Myna. You can browse through the collection of popular mixes and the Hall of Fame. To play a clip, click on the egg icon. To open the clip in the audio editor, click on the filename then click Open in Audio Editor. It will open with all the tracks displaying and you can mix and mash within that window. The interface is similar to many audio editing programs so it may be familiar to many of you. You can bring in other sounds by clicking on the Library button on the bottom panel. The buttons underneath that are Quantum Tracks, Aviary and SoundCloud. If you click on Quantum Tracks, it will display a library of tracks that you can play and then drag into the timeline above. If you click on Aviary, then un-check "Mine Only?" and then enter a keyword in the "file, user, tags" field, it will search the entire Aviary database for sounds with that keyword (i.e., "drum" or "bell") and then you can drag them into the timeline above. Same thing goes for SoundCloud, just do a keyword search, check out the search results then drag your choice(s) into the timeline.

You can also download sounds from one of the sites mentioned above like FreeSound, or ccMixter and upload them into Aviary.

Blog about the process on our class blog and include a link to your remix.

NOTE: once again, this is not a test of how well you can compose or edit audio - this is a playful exploration of sound mashing so please don't worry about how polished it is. Please keep it short - preferably 20 seconds to 1 minute.


WEEKS 8 & 9: March 15-21 and 22-28

Copyright, Copyleft and Fair Use

What are the main arguments of this 'copyfight'? How have the outcomes affected remix artists? How do Creative Commons licenses affect remix culture?

Aram Sinnreich will be our guest speaker this week. He will be coming into Second Life on Thurs, March 24th, 8-9:30pm EST, to talk about Mashups & Configurable Culture. UPDATE: here are pictures from this session: http://www.flickr.com/photos/funksoup/sets/72157626219926009/
and the recorded video: http://blip.tv/file/4932700

Aram Sinnreich is an assistant professor at Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information, and the author of the recent book Mashed Up: Music, Technology and the Rise of Configurable Culture. He has written about music and technology for The New York Times, Billboard, and Wired, has testified as an expert witness in several cases including the Supreme Court file sharing suit MGM vs. Grokster, and has offered his expertise as an analyst and consultant to hundreds of companies, from major labels to fledgling startups, since 1997. He is also a working musician, playing bass and composing with bands and artists including Brave New Girl, Agent 99, and the late, great Ari-Up.

Here's a chapter from his book, Mashed Up: Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture:
http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/mashed_up_music_technology_and_the_rise_of_configurable_culture_20100826/
and a recent keynote talk he gave at World's Fair Use Day:
http://worldsfairuseday.org/post/3075090537/wfud-2011-keynote-aram-sinnreich-rutgers
and the presentation itself: http://prezi.com/5kimeiibufhw/mashed-up-worlds-fair-use-day-january-2011/
and his blog: http://aramsinnreich.typepad.com/

Readings:

Reference:

Assignment.
a. Prepare for our guest speaker session with Aram Sinnreich by reading/viewing the following:

chapter from his book, Mashed Up: Music, Technology, and the Rise of Configurable Culture:
http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/mashed_up_music_technology_and_the_rise_of_configurable_culture_20100826/
recent keynote talk at World's Fair Use Day:
http://worldsfairuseday.org/post/3075090537/wfud-2011-keynote-aram-sinnreich-rutgers
thoughts on "Mashed Up", copyright and cultural hegemony (view the video):
http://aramsinnreich.typepad.com/aram_squalls/2011/02/joost-smiers-and-i-chat-about-mashed-up-copyright-and-cultural-hegemony.html
Think about specific questions you might have for Aram regarding "configurable culture" or the mashup process or history.
Having finished the PhotoShop tennis and sound mashup assignments, have your ideas expanded/changed regarding ownership and the way media can be mixed and manipulated?

b. To see Creative Commons licenses in action, try searching for images that have one of the CC licenses applied by using the [http://search.creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons search tool. You can also look within Aviary and Flickr for CC-licensed images. In Aviary, go to http://aviary.com/search and enter an image search term then click "Search for creations." In Flickr, go to http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/ and enter an image search term then scroll down to the Creative Commons section. Make sure the "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content" checkbox is checked as well as the "Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon" checkbox, to find images that you can mash up. Note that if an image has an "All Rights Reserved"- the image owner probably doesn't want you to use or remix the image (or they may just not know that they can change their licenses to CC). By specifying that you want Creative Commons-licensed content, this ensures that the images you get will be ok to use and remix.

WEEKS 10 & 11: March 29-April 4 and April 5-11

Mashing & Mapping Data

Previously, we have mashed up different kinds of media. Now we'll look at mashing up data with media, such as geotagging, combining data sources and data visualization. What kinds of information do data mashups provide? What has emerged as a result of these processes?

Readings:

Examples:

  • Interestingness. <http://interes.tingness.com/>. - "a daily dose of interesting photographic inspiration from Flickr" (based on the "Interesting" feature on Flickr, which measures views and comments on an image)
  • Pipes. <http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/>. - an interactive feed aggregator and manipulator. There's a lot of potential here, for mashing up all kinds of data sources. For example, try the NYC Apartment Near Something pipe, which combines Yahoo maps with newyork.backpage.com apartment listings to generate a map of apartments in NYC 'near' things like parks or whatever you put in the search field. Or check out the Environmental News pipe, which aggregates many environmentally-focused news feeds. Or the New York Times thru Flickr pipe, which takes the NY Times homepage, passes it thru Content Analysis and uses the keywords to find Photos at Flickr. With each pipe, you can see how it has been created by clicking on View Source. You can also click Clone to copy and modify it to create your own pipe. Finally, if you want to track how brand or product mentions across a slew of social media sites, try the Social Media Firehose pipe.
  • Twist. <http://twist.flaptor.com/>. -"view trending topics in Twitter" (Enter a keyword in the "Show trends" field. For example, type "Madoff" in the Show trends field and then click "Last 30 days" to see the peaks and valleys of when the Madoff topic was being talked about - large peaks in February and smaller peaks in March. Notice also the "Hot Topics" list on the right.) [Note: if you don't know/understand what Twitter is, check out this article: Why Twitter?]
  • Mashup Awards: the Best Mashups on the Web. <http://mashupawards.com/winners/>. (The most recent mashup winners, ranging from Woozor - a Google Maps / Weather.com mashup providing 10 day weather forecasts all around the world to DivVoted - which lets you vote for your favorite sites with Twitter]. Click the "Older" button at the bottom to see older Mashup Award winners (there are many more).


Assignment.
a. Make sure you check out all of the examples above, as well as the links within the "Two to Three Years: Data Mashups" article.

b. Create a Flickr account if you don’t already have one. Upload at least 5 pictures (They don’t have to be of yourself – they can be anything. I’m more concerned with the process than with the content.). Post your Flickr URL to the class wiki. Note: you can customize your Flickr URL. Add contacts (start with your fellow classmates). If you're new to flickr, check out our What is Flickr? page.

b. Geotag some of your photos in Flickr. To do this, log into Flickr, then go to one of your photos. On the right side, under Additional Information, you'll see an "Add to your map" link. Click that, which will take you to a map where you can enter the location (city, state or city, country). When finished, click Done, which will take you back to the photo. You'll now see your geotag where the "Add to your map" link was.
To see how geotagging works, go to http://www.flickr.com/map/ and in the Search field, search "Everyone's Uploads" for a keyword of your choice. For example, searching for "graffiti" will display a map with dots that indicate flickr photos with graffiti that have been geotagged in particular places. You can also constrain the search by a more specific location; for example, you can search "Everyone's Uploads" for "graffiti" in "New York".
You can create a link to the map you just made by clicking the "Link to this map" button on the right. For example, the search I just did for graffiti in New York creates this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/graffiti/map?&fLat=40.7066&fLon=-73.978&zl=9
Create a link to the map you made using your search term(s); include it in a blog post about your process.

c. Create your own Pipe. See the description in the examples above. You can either create your own from scratch or clone one that you like and want to modify. I recommend watching the "Learn How to Build a Pipe in Just a Few Minutes" intro video and Using Yahoo Pipes For RSS Feeds and/or some of these tutorials. Save and publish your pipe; include a link to it in your blog post.

d. Grab a few sounds from the geotagged sounds on the FreeSound site that resonate with what you think your neighborhood sounds like or what you wish your neighborhood sounded like, i.e., it can be anything from subway sounds to sea lions in New Zealand. We will be using these sound bytes for a later assignment. For now, make note of the links (clicking on a sound will take you to the page for that particular sound and you can download it there as well, i.e., here's the link to those sea lions in New Zealand: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=38757 )
Include these links in your blog post.

e. Blog about your processes, and include links to your Flickr map, Pipe and FreeSounds. Of the examples and other data mashups you came across, which were your favorites? Why? What kinds of data and meaning has emerged as a result of processes like these?

WEEKS 12, 13 & 14: April 12-18, April 19-25, April 26-May 2

Mashing up video

"...the remix never ends, it is everlasting, ever expanding and unstopable, an active force giving actual potentiality to the creator and freeing music/content/information from its constraints. The progressive possibilities to mash-up, refashion and reconfigure culture in such an inherently modern manner, makes music/content/information/art, as Tankel concludes while referring to Benjamin, into the building blocks of represented repetition itself:
'The remix recording creates a new artifact from the schemata of previously recorded music. It is prima facie evidence of Benjamin’s contention that to “an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility.'"
- Janneke Adema referencing Jonathan David Tankel with quote by Walter Benjamin, from "Schyzophonia. On Remix, Hybridization and Fluidity"

"The French philosopher Paul Virilio argued that every new technology comes complete with its own unique catastrophe; the invention of the aeroplane, for instance, was also the invention of the plane crash. The corollary of the sample epiphany is what I call the 'sample stain'."
- Simon Reynolds, from "What is your sampling epiphany?"


Readings:


Viewings:

machinima:
Machinima is cinema shot inside a virtual world, like Halo or World of Warcraft or Second Life (machinima = machine+cinema). I am including machinima in "video mashup" since it has aspects of re-sourcing/re-appropriating virtual world elements.

  • http://thisspartanlife.com/episodes/1001_mod3.php - "This Spartan Life" is a machinima take-off of "This American Life," with interviews shot inside the Halo video game. Episode 1: interview with Bob Stein.
  • http://journey.machinimag.com/ (Click on "captured Movie" and download the zipped movie file) - "The Journey" by Friedrich Kirschner. A machinima piece made with Unreal Tournament 2003 by Epic Games.
  • http://youtube.com/watch?v=c_gT0YDAkec - ZeroG Skydancers, produced and directed by DanCoyote Antonelli, machinimatography by Gary Hazlitt. Shot inside the virtual world Second Life.


Assignment:
a. For our video mashup assignment, we will be using Sarolta's Video Editor which used to be MixandMash.tv, a collaborative online video-editing community with browser-based editing and video sharing features. If you've used MixandMash.tv before, you can log into Sarolta's Video Editor with the same login -- *important: click the green Login button on the top right* (rather than the logging into the "Video Factory" login, which seems to not work as well. You can create a new login by clicking on the "Create an account" button on the top right. Once you're logged in, if you're not in the Video Editor window, just click the Video Editors button in the top menu, and go to "Video Editor (Advanced)" -- I suggest using the Advanced one rather than the Basic because it will give you more options for transitions, effects, etc. (and it's not that much more "Advanced"). You can upload media at http://www.sarolta.tv/web/vfupload or by clicking the Upload button at the top. Supported Formats: mp4, flv, webm, ogg, ogv, mpg, avi, wmv, rm, qt, m2v, mkv, png, jpg, gif, bmp, wav, mp3, wma.

You can check out their online tutorials on how to use their video editor. If you have used online, browser-based editing tools like Jaycut, then this will be very similar.

Once in the video editor window, you can view your uploaded media by going to the dropbox that says "Viewing" (underneath the video window) and selecting "View Media">"My Media", similarly you can see our previous group's (last semester's) videos by clicking the "Viewing" dropbox and selecting "Groups" then "Mashup Culture-New School." (Note: the Groups function seems to be slightly buggy right now and I have a support ticket submitted, so rather than have everyone join a group right now, you can just use clips from this group and your own uploaded clips.)

Make sure you save along the way! (File > Save/Save As)

Grab audio and video clips from the bottom by dragging clips into the timeline above. A clip is an audio clip if there's musical note in the upper-left corner. It's a video clip if there's a film reel icon in the corner, and it's a still image if there's a picture icon in the corner. Drag media into the appropriate timeline (video and still images into the "Video & Graphics" timeline, audio into the "Music, Sounds & Speech" timeline). When you're done editing, click File>Save and then Publish to Internet. (It will be put in a queue to be rendered then will show up later under your videos (If you want to see all the videos you've uploaded, click on "My Account" at the top and "Videos">"View your videos")

UPDATE:
For those of you that are still working on your video mashup and don't want to deal with Sarolta's glitch issues - you can use a combination of JayCut and Box.net. I think JayCut's interface is slightly more straightforward and robust, however, its weakness is that it doesn't have any group functionality, so if you want to grab other people's clips from our group, I've downloaded them from Sarolta etc & uploaded them into a Box.net folder.
So far, here are everybody's video mashup clips (if I left anyone out, please let me know):
http://www.box.net/shared/d8kkfog0ve
(just hover your mouse over the title to see the Download link, or click on the title to see the Download button)

You can download them, then upload them directly into JayCut http://jaycut.com/ - once you've created a username for JayCut, click "Create Movie" to go to the editing window and "Add Media" to upload.

d. Blog about the process and include links to your mashup(s).


WEEKS 15-16: May 3-9 & 10-15

Mashing it up mixed-reality style

'Mixed reality' refers to the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist. For our final project, we will be combining the photoshop tennis objects and freesound samples with objects inside Second Life to produce a virtual sculpture garden that is filled with objects textured with your visual mashups and chosen sound samples.

If you are not familiar with Second Life, go to the Second Life page on our wiki for an overview of how to get started and the basics. Over the next week, our TA, Myroslaw and I will be offering advanced sessions in Second Life on object creation. If you are not familiar with object creation in SL, I highly suggest attending one of the advanced/object creation sessions. If you're already familiar with building and object creation, you may not need the session and it's up to you if you want to take it. Otherwise, you can also do your own exploring and learning; check out the Second Life page on our wiki and and the tutorials available on http://secondlife.com/showcase/tutorials/

Here are some specific tutorials on building, applying textures and sound:

and here's a recording of the tutorial I gave in SL on creating objects, applying textures and uploading sounds

As part of your exploration, feel free to check out some of the many interesting places in SL. You can check out the featured places on http://secondlife.com/showcase/ or Torley Linden's Cool Places to visit in SL

There are a couple of places/exhibits I think that everyone should know about:

  • Resonating-With-secondlifeWind by Edo Paulus (SL: Edo Autopoeisis) - "an incredible meditative journey into a sky-based field of 100 windmills" -- it works off of the 'natural' wind in Second Life, in which the windmills are propelled and generate random acoustic tones.
  • Collateral Damage - works by Gazira Babeli. This is definitely a must-see! Gazira Babeli is masterful at creating scripted environments that actively transform your avatar. Part of the fun is the surprise, so I won't all spoil all of it for you. I will give a few hints though...as I walked up to the Campbell's soup cans, one of them attacked me...then I wandered up to the painting with the question marks on it and touched the black object in front of it (right-click or cmd-click, then Touch) and I was suddenly surrounded by a hoard of Marios from Super Mario Bros. I touched the object again and then it surrounded me with question marks. One more touch and I was surrounded by bananas. Beside the painting is an object that displays text that says "Don't Say: New Media" - so of course I had to say "New Media" (typed "New Media" into the local chat) - and then text displayed that said "Don't Say: NEW MEDIA! Josephine, say Art!" and then it propelled me around in a endless circles with black smoke until I logged off. I logged on again and went back for more Collateral Damage. Each object interacts, or rather, acts on, your avatar. It's really funny and sometimes slightly creepy, but mostly hilarious. One thing you absolutely must try: the paintings with the chairs. You can actually sit in the chairs and become part of the painting. Right-click or cmd-click on the chair in the painting and then click Sit Here. If you suddenly can't see yourself, click Escape then use your left or right arrow key on the keyboard to rotate around and see yourself. Something will happen to you, either while you're sitting in the painting or after you stand up (click Stand Up). I'll leave that a surprise as well - it's quite excellent.


I will be inviting everyone to join the alt^I group in SL, which is where my virtual theater/center now resides (those of you that have been to my theater before, note that it has moved and is now being graciously hosted on Arizona State University's island, called alt^I). I will need everyone's SL name in order to invite you to the group and give you access to the island, so please make sure you list your SL name on the class links page.

When you receive the invitation to join the group, click Accept to join the group and then you'll be able to go to the island. This is where we'll be holding the orientation sessions. I'll be giving everyone landmarks to the island, so you'll be able to get there whenever you want.

A couple of notes:

1. Once you've joined the alt^I group, by default, your group label will activate so you'll have rights to build on that island. If you end up joining other groups in SL, and you want to come back to our island and build, you'll need to re-activate your alt^I group label. To do that, Go to Groups (Communicate/My Groups) and click on the alt^I group then click the checkbox at the bottom of the window ("Activate selected group")

2. Make sure that you make the object modifiable and copyable, so that others can modify it (right-click/command-click the object and go to Edit > General tab, then click the Allow anyone to move, copy and Next owner can Modify, Copy, Transfer. Also make sure where it says Group: alt^I, you click the "Share" box next to that -- that will make it share-able with the group.
All of these checkboxes have to be checked or else your object won't be modify-able (please double-check).

3. To upload an image or sound:
In the top menu, go to Build > Upload (Image or Sound) -- you can also do cmd+U on a mac (and I guess ctrl+U on pc)

(It's $10 Linden dollars to upload an image or sound, which is about $.02 US - so you'll need less than a dollar to upload some sounds and images) (I can transfer some Linden$ to you or you can just get them yourself as well - click the Buy L$ button on the top of the SL window)

It will go into your inventory (Me > My Inventory or cmd+i on a mac/ctrl+i on a pc) - you can find it quickly by doing a search for the name of the sound or image (enter the name into the search box in the Inventory window - where it says "Filter Inventory")

NOTE: remember that sound files have to be in a .wav format and must be under 10 seconds long - 9.99 or under. If you need a quick and easy audio editor, try Audacity (mac/windows/linux) or Wavosaur (pc)
Also if you troubles uploading your sound and you get an error message that indicates that the sample rate is wrong, change the sample rate to 44.1k (in Audacity, to the left of the audio track, click the dropdown arrow and select Set Rate > 44100 Hz - or go to the very bottom left of the Audacity window, where it says Project Rate and select 44100).

4. To put a texture on JUST ONE SIDE of an object (one face vs all faces)
In the Build window (when you're in editing mode on the object), click the "Select Face" radio button. This will select all the faces of the object, then click on just the side that you want. Click on the Texture tab and click the Texture box and select the texture/image that you want from your inventory

5. Please clean up after yourself! (If you have a bunch of objects laying around that you don't need, delete them). To delete an object: right-click (or cmd-click) on the object and go to Delete

6. To take a copy of something (it will go into your Inventory): right-click (or cmd-click) on the object and go to Take Copy


So, once you've acquainted yourself with SL basics and object creation, create an object and apply one of the images from our Mashup Culture creations on Aviary. In Aviary, log in and go to our Mashup Culture creations, click the Creations tab and select the image that you want, then click the "View at full size" button on the right side of the image. You'll be able to download the size that you want from there (right-click to save the image). In Second Life, you can upload images as textures, by going to Inventory (Me/My Inventory or click the suitcase on the right side of the window), then in the Inventory window, go to File/Upload (Image or Sound). In the old viewer, just go to File/Upload. Each upload costs $L10 (10 Linden dollars = approx 4 cents), so I will be depositing Linden dollars into each of your accounts, so again please make sure you list your SL name on the class links page. Once you have uploaded your image/texture, it will go into your Textures folder in your Inventory (click Inventory, then go to Textures, or just search for the filename). For a video tutorial of how to apply a texture to an object, check out this youtube video on applying textures. Once again, Nina and I will be holding advanced/object creation sessions, so if this all sounds complicated to you, don't despair! We will be going over how to create an object and apply a texture.

When you've created your object and have applied a texture, you can leave it on the island. Make sure that you make the object modifiable and copyable, so that others can modify it (right-click/command-click the object and go to Edit > General tab, then click the Allow anyone to move, copy and Next owner can Modify, Copy, Transfer. Also make sure where it says Group: alt^I, you click the "Share" box next to that -- that will make it share-able with the group.

Once we've got some objects with textures on the island, the next step is to choose an object that resonates with you (doesn't have to be yours - it can be anyone's) and apply one of your FreeSound samples to it -- that way we'll be mixing 'sound portraits' with our sculptures, to make a virtual sculpture garden.

To upload your FreeSound samples, you can also do this through Inventory > File > Upload. Torley Linden, who is Second Life/Linden Lab's 'Resident Enlightenment Manager', has a detailed tutorial on editing and uploading sounds in SL, including how to use the free, open source audio editing program, Audacity to edit sound. (you can use any audio editing program that you prefer)

To make your object trigger sound when it is touched, add a script to the object. Right-click (or cmd+click) on the object, go to Edit, click the More button if the Content tab isn't showing. In the Content tab, drag your sound file from your Inventory into the Contents folder then click New Script and replace the default script with this: 

default 
{
    touch_start(integer total_number)
    {
        //Play a Sound file Once that is in Object Inventory
        llPlaySound(llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_SOUND,0), 1);
    }
}

Click Save then close the Editing window. Now when you touch the object (right-click or cmd+click, then Touch), it should make that sound. Have fun!

To sign up for one of the orientation sessions or to suggest an alternate time, go to the SL sessions page.

WRAP-UP:
Wrap up final projects.
This last week, we'll be holding another SL session so we can get together and have a walk around our sculpture garden and discuss. If you can't make this session, no worries, it's optional - just go to the garden and have a look/listen on your own time.
Blog about the process and outcomes and include screenshots.

References

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