Arquivo da categoria: ITP – Tisch – NYU

FIRST DAY OF CLASSES

So it beggins!!

First day of classes at ITP!! Applications class with Red Burns… What an interesting lady… Founded ITP in 1979 and participated in technologies such as Public Acces, Teletext, and the first emails in the world!

Some of the things she expects us to do:

  • Embrace the unexpected
  • Value serendipity
  • Play
  • Create a whole with disparate parts

A quote from one of the founders of Xerox: “If you want to know what the future is – INVENT IT!”

Another interesting topic:

Consumers are becoming content producers – how to sort/distribute/access all of this media/content?

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Our first assignment was handed out:

“Take the M5 bus on a weekend at Houston and La Guardia Place to the last stop – George Washington Bridge – and return.

Make notes of what you find surprising – e.g. Changing neighborhoods, changing people, changing architecture, or none of these – and write your personal experience of the trip – observing, imagining, and reacting to New York, or you can choose to imagine a story about the people you see.”

Some ideas I have:

  • Video/picture sequences of the route
  • Map pinpointing position
  • Retrace route on bike – shooting video and pictures along the way
  • Include heart rate monitor data
  • Interview people along the way (not so good)

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Second half of the class we had the guest speaker: Acconci

Here are two VERY short exerpt of the lecture – was really just testing the video capabilities of my phone…

(Coming back soon)

Started out as an artists experimenting with the self – showed us some of his pieces:

  • Video with him using a candle to burn the hair off his body and trying to become a woman
  • Installation in an empty room with a ramp – he was under the ramp talking “dirty” and masturbating – experiment on togetherness and isolation
  • Installation with a dining table that stretched out of the window – becoming a trampoline
  • Installation of 4 planks on the floor – all with the American colors – and a seat in the middle. The seat is connected to pulleys that tilt the 4 planks up to close up and form a room – the exterior walls having the Soviet colors. The room existed just as long as the person existed sitting there.
  • Upside down houses – 3 houses upside down one on top of the other

“Art started to become specific to space and time. If the piece was somewhere else or at a different time it would not make sense or make a different sense.”

Nowadays he is a designer/architect www.acconci.com

Dwells on natural shapes – how architecture should move to adapt to humans – not the opposite. Organic shapes.

In NY:

  • Queens College – sphere installation
  • Clothes shop in Japan – cloth used to cover the interior to give it a soft feel – in the changing room, if you liked the clothe, press a button and take picture of yourself – picture is projected on store front’s panel
  • Staten Island subway station – walls that become the seating

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Can’t wait for more!

GADGETS

After having sold EVERYTHING I owned in Brazil – car, motorcycle, camera, video, dvd player, home theater, windsurfing and kitesurfing equipment, bikes, stereo and so on – I have purchased some new toys 😉

Felt good and at the same time funny to look at my 2 travel bags, some cases of books and clothes, and realize that it was all I owned… great feeling… start fresh.

Did some research and got the following:

1 – MacBook Pro 15″

I switched!! Did the switch from PC to Mac and must say that I am absolutely LOVING it! Have to admit that one of the reasons I actually switched is precisely because you can install Windows XP on it!

BUT when I started using it I realized that I might do it just to test it and might never really use it. During an interview, Apples PR guy said that he was not worried about people buying their hardware and using Microsoft’s software since once a PC user tried Mac OS X they would not go back to Windows XP… thought it was a fantastic and bold (and probably well thought of) comment.

Mac OS X is amazing – just like the ADDS say – it is ready straight out of the box – configuration is simple and you cannot go wrong. All the tools you need are there, even if you are an advanced user you will find that the simplified tools are great for the basics.

Thought about getting the 17″ one but the performance is the same and it simply is a little too big to lug around.

2 – Helio mobile phone

Decided to steer away from the traditional mobile operators and go with the new 3G MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) owned by Earthlink’s founder and a Korean investor I believe.

Only 2 but very cool phone options… all you can eat data services which I loved… free videos… the phone I got has great features – amazing screen – 2 megapixel photo camera with “flash” and digital zoom – vga video – mp3 player – voice recorder

Did not like that it is still not compatible with the Mac and some of the features like shortcuts are not all customizable… also did not find a way to store bookmarks while surfing for sites…

3 – Specialized Tarmac Expert

Was going for the Cannondale CAAAD 8 but after the guys at the shop told me to try the this one I fell in love with it… don’t know if it was the full carbon frame or the modern geometry but it just felt right… loved it…

To go with it got top of the line Specalized shoes (carbon), Time pedals, Bell helmet, Polar heart rate monitor with wireless speed and cadence transmitters, and Specialized goggles that adapt to the lighting conditions.

Still want to buy the Canon EOS 30D and the Apple Cinema Display 30″ but waiting to move into my official apt to get that.

Well… now will also have to spend some money furnishing my apartment… but that is from a different budget… mentally 😉