Biotech

I found this interesting article via my Facebook feed, and was surprised/interested since we had just recently frequently discuss this topic in class.

http://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/biohackers-insert-glowing-leds-their-hands

I don't think I would want to be the first testers of this technology, as there are a lot of things that can go wrong. I'll wait 30 years and see what comes about then, before I decide if I want to be a cyborg.
It's still interesting to see that this is already becoming reality, which is why I was so surprised when I saw this in my feed. This leads the way for medical implants that can detect, it leads the way for cosmetic tech and things I can't even imagine.

These are definitely brave people to get this brand new surgery, let alone one performed by a tattoo artist! Who knows what the future brings in this field.

Dawn of the Mac

1984: The Apple Macintosh personal computer is introduced to the world.

Wozniak priced the computer at $666.66, because he liked repeating digits. This price actually surprised me, as the first ever personal computer by IBM was $1,565. That doesn't sound like a lot, but today that would be about 5,000. It was clunky, slow, and could only do basic commands. 

Today for significantly less, you can get a computer a fouth of the zize, with 1000x the capability and possibilies. Laptops now are so powerful they have screens as good if not better than TV's, and can play games at the highest graphic quality and speed. 

I remember the earliest computer games I played was in the late 90's, they were pixilated and simple but they were the most fun I had. I would fake sick just so I could go to work with my mom and play on her extra computer because it was better than the one at home. 
One of my favorites was Zoo tycoon, and a Land Before Time game. There was little content and were learning games, but zoo tycoon was the first customization game I played and it amazed me. From there I played multiple generations of Sims, and whatever the library had that looked interesting.

Now, I look to play the latest games from Steam that have he best graphics and story. A lot of games now have over 300 hours of game play like Skyrim and Fallout, which is an enormous advance in such a small amount of time. 

One of my recent favorites is the newer assassins creed games - Syndicate and Unity. They're both incredible in the graphics department, each having a to scale city- London and France respectively. They're extremely accurate and realistic and playing it really brings you back in time, and can explore parts of the city that still exist today, that you would definitely not be able to explore. I can climb to the top of Notre Dame and Big Ben, run over the roofs of the suburbs and go into the London Dungeons. Developers these days are pulling out all the stops to amaze players.

Just because, here's a side by side of the first game I can remember playing and a new favorite: Land Before Time (1997) and Assassins Creed: Unity (2014)                                        

Art in the News

My art in the news was finding a a dance art installation created with the Kinect movement tracker addon for Xbox. They created point movement lines from points on the body to create a person out of lines on he screen that moved the same as the person in front of the kinect.
   

An experimental project using Kinect sensors to motion capture a choreographed dance piece sends the resulting point cloud data dancing into life.
as·phyx·i·a is a collaborative effort and experimental film created by Maria Takeuchi with Frederico Phillips, and performed by Shiho Tanaka.

http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/motion-graphics/watch-stunning-motion-captured-dance-art-of-asphyxi/

This could lead the way for new ways to create video games, art etc. 

Flip book

I split my flip book in to two separate stories. However since it is on a paperback book and not the specific type used for a project like this, it does not flip properly so it is impossible to see the story develop.
The first is about a little creature that emerges from a maze, discovers a flower that opens to grant him a wish- in this case wings. He flies up and up over the clouds, draws back his bow to shoot his arrow, which eventually loges itself in the throat of a giant snake, who's tail ends in the the mouth of a cave.
The second starts with a house rising up with balloons attached to it, very high. The door opens to reveal a bird who jumps out of the house head first, then proceeds over a lot of pages to dive, ending up neatly splashing into a lake. This was cleverly named: Swan dive.

https://youtu.be/CpswlQqL7_o

I've included a few pictures just to give you a sense of the story, since the video is hard to see.

1982

               I titled this blog 1982 instead of something more specific to the movie because I think there were a lot of ideas and speculations within the plot and details of the movie that were more of a generational ideology from the culture of the decade.  

            Personal feelings about the movie quality aside there were many forward and futuristic thoughts that went into it's development. Lots were inaccurate, some are already established now and some could be developed in the near future.

One large inaccuracy is the development and society description of LA. In the movie it's heavily Asian influenced, with culture and language alike. It is also dirty, dark, industrial and crime ridden, which is very different from the sunny artistic California hub we know today. Buildings are triple the height and the city itself if quadruple the size of LA today. Lots of the city seems like slums, and there is one corporate building to rule them all. In the 80's pollution was becoming a well known and wide spread problem, and I think that emphasis is in the movie as well, with the large nuclear towers in the beginning.

                                                         
Another mistake was the technology they proposed would be in 2019. Some was correct, like the eye "exam" test they had for the robots, which could be described similarly to retinal exams of today. Video chat is also correct, but it's even better now than they could even do with movie magic in the 80's. They also had videos and adds on the buildings, which is all over the place today from time square to art installations and concerts.

There are also major wrong hits with technology like hover cars and fully working humanoid androids, with feelings and judgement that could be mistaken for a human. We also aren't fighting off world and needing robots to fight for us for the expansion of earth. We also don't need a ship to take excess humans to these colonies.
        So obviously the developers and directors of this movie were going for a dystopian society focusing on overpopulation, pollution, and the abuse of technology gone awry. 
        The movie as a whole was not my favorite, the story itself and characters could have been developed better, but it was an interesting watch to see the guessing of forward thinkers from 34 years ago. 

        

3D

I came across this link while browsing Facebook, and I thought it would be interesting enough to share. We talk about 3D printing a lot in class so when I saw all the possibilities that it could accomplish I was astounded.

http://www.dorkly.com/post/71480/the-top-20-times-3d-printers-were-awesome#item-1

Normally this is a website who does jokes and video game memes, so I thought it was pretty cool that they had a slide show like this.

I think the last one was my favorite, or the rubber dress. Think of how many people that could help in under developed countries. I enjoy fashion AND technology so I looked more into this. If I had any skill with a 3d printer and the human form when it comes to clothing, I would definitely become a 3D  printing fashion designer.

http://www.irisvanherpen.com/womenswear    This designer has broken ground into the industry already. This is the clothing of the future, this is what I picture when I think of futuristic society fashion.

Here are some of my favorites from multiple designers:

http://fashionista.com/2015/07/3-d-printed-fashion-collection

Lattice

Grids are all over the world. Even in places we wouldn't expect. I wanted to create an inorganic looking, stiff, geometrical grid out of something that is very pliable and organic. I wanted to use different colored metallic wire originally, however I was unaware at how expensive that would be. So I went with twine, that varied in blue hues from dark to light. I also wanted to create a sort of optical illusion with how many lines I made. To do this I thought of using different shapes, as well as angles that normally aren't seen in a grid, as they are usually horizontal and vertical lines. I started with the largest outer square, then the triangle, and lastly the small light blue square in the center. Then at 1" intervals I weaved diagonally. Last I made a big X going through the center of the largest square. Doing all these created an eye catching geometric pattern that is aesthetically pleasing. It may be hard to see in the picture but I put it at an angle to where the lighting creates a second shadow, making it seem like there are more lines, which creates the optical illusion I wanted. This project taught us to look at the world through a different eye than what we're used to.