How spaceship will look in game mode

We were taught some basic keyboard shortcuts for unity :

• Pan : Q

• Move : W

• Rotate : E

• Scale : R

• Snap : V

• Frame Selection : F

• Duplicate : Ctrl D

From about 0.15 - 2.55 in the video provided us for a basis of inspiration. The way that Matthew Broderick walks in, synchronises with the other accountants, yet starts to do things slightly differently/ more laid back. At around 2.30 in the video, the other accountants begin typing in synch whereas he stares dreamily into distance while singing about his desire to be a producer.

Our final idea that we asked the dancers to perform was set in an office, in which a group of dancers would be carrying out the synchronised movements - based on activities done by workers such as filing, drinking coffee and typing. These movements would almost seem robotic. The different one would then walk in, sit down at the desk and try and join in with the rest, however failing to do so. She would get in sync but then mess this up and fall out with the rest of the workers, causing her frustration. At the end all would get up in order to go to a meeting, however the different one, who at the end of the line, stumbles causing a domino effect on the rest to fall as well. While actually working with the dancers to do this we played around with the domino effect, even when they were sitting at the desk having the odd one out's misplaced actions mess up the entire synchronisation of the rest of the more robotic characters. I found it intriguing how new ideas can pop up and change things from just playing around with the order and actions. 

Overall I really enjoyed the entire three days. The exercises brought back some fond memories of being in drama school as we would carry out similar activities and I felt in my element. I am also very happy about the fact I pushed myself a bit more to be more outspoken as for once I was generally the main spokesperson for our group at times such as explaining what to do to the dancers and our idea to Rachel. This is something I'm usually very bad at being quite a quiet person, but for some reason I was very calm about doing so, even when addressing the entire class. Hopefully this is the start of me developing a bit more confidence and not being so worried! :) 

Filmed entirely in one fluid shot and uses kind of a flash mob approach. I liked how the dance looks very fun and colourful. Rachel informed us that the song was written about young love and the movement can reflect this in it's very basic, innocent, child-like manner. 

Yeasayer "Sunrise" // Dante Russo

I liked the idea of the dancers being in a therapeutic support group and their dances reflecting their 'personal issues and psychological pains.' It was pointed out at the beginning people dancing in streets seemed a bit unrealistic and strange. Quite a bit of fast changing shots and various angles. 

Tamara Levinson Choreography Reel

I liked how there was no distraction from the dance due to a lack of objects and background. However this resulted in disorientation as the viewer isn't able to tell the direction or whereabouts of the performance. The black and white was good at highlighting and shadowing areas to make it visually interesting. The music seems a bit strange and misplaced. 

Rosas danst Rosas // Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Katherine reached out to me and Laura with her idea of deaf dancers and how even though they cannot hear the music, they create movements based on vibrations from the sound around them. I found this to be a very intriguing topic and it amazes me the capabilities of the human body, especially in disability. We all looked into other works and videos that included deaf dancers. Here is some of the videos I found interesting and useful.

Allison Becker

An audition for the American TV show So You Think You Can Dance. When asked the question, "How do you dance if you are hearing impaired?' Allison responded, '...it's just feeling the music. It's just that the vibration helps me to keep...on beat and on rhythm.' 

It's incredible and inspiring watching her talk about her story. 

Jarrell Robinson

Another audition from So You Think You Can Dance. Jarrel says that '...the only way that I can hear the music is if you really...turn the bass on.' This reinforces the importance of vibrations - something we want to incorporate if we follow this idea. 

Physically Being Me (Six Stories from Deaf and Disabled Dancers) // Foundation for Community Dance

Thousand Hands of Buddha // My Dream Chinese Deaf Dance Team

Very beautiful piece that really shows off the capabilities of deaf dancers. The movements and synchronisation are amazing.

Mark and Emilia Villaver

Consisting of Mark and his deaf mom Emilia. It's interesting to see how have a connection through dance and how she is just as perfectly able at the dance as he is - shows the capabilities. 

I really like the idea. I think it would be nice to incorporate the emotion and stories of the deaf dances into their work, as through watching these videos and interviews you can easily see the passion, commitment and dedication these people have for dance. I think it would be nice to translate this in the piece. However I am worried that this would be not be achievable - we would need to find deaf dancers, a translator etc. We are going to look further into this idea and see if it is a possibility, as well as thinking of other ideas we might want to pursue as this is early days!

When beginning the project, I don't think any of us realised how ambitious it actually was for the four of us to accomplish. Creating an installation is something that none of us have had much experience with, if not at all. Therefore making an installation that was also interactive, was going to be very challenging. 

We had a hard time coming up with a meaning behind the piece, and initially after Rosie had suggested we revise and develop the idea a little more, we over complicated a lot of things. This therefore lead to us wasting time, as we spent a long part at the beginning just sitting together throwing ideas around each other, ending in the idea becoming way more complex than any of us wanted it or meant it to be. This stressed us out a little as well, because at times we would solve one problem, but another would be created as a result and this was very frustrating. At the end of each group meeting we would go away exhausted and with sore heads from thinking so hard! However after we pitched the idea to the entire class, Rosie called us out on just how complicated we had made things and we decided to revert back to the original, more simple idea. 

I found my part of looking into the visual side of the piece very enjoyable and doing research on other artists who have done scientific works of the brain was very interesting and definitely inspiration for future work as well as this piece. It was very fun working out how to film the POV video and we all had a lot of laughs, even through the many failed attempts at getting the style right. This taught me a lot more about the importance of team work, as we had to work very closely in order to achieve the look we wanted - Tom and I basically had to become one person to film and act out the activities seen throughout the video! However near the start, we were all a bit confused about what the visuals would actually be, at one point we looked into showing the  inside the brain itself through After Effects. However I found once we had established that the video had to be simple and general in order to be relatable to the audience, it was easier to develop from there. 

Things to Improve

If we were to do the project again, we should research into materials and creating the model brain a lot earlier than we did. Instead of spending so much time on trying to put a complicated meaning into the piece, we should be more prepared as to how we should carry it out. The fact this was not the case left us feeling very pressured and rushed to get it finished on time and put a lot of stress on Julia to make the brain model, which was not ideal, particularly for her. I think we could have also began doing tests sooner, both technically and visually, to ensure that the piece was definitely going to work like we wanted. I would have liked to have maybe put more tests on the blog as well, to show more development towards the final piece. I also think occasionally communication could have been better (only a few times though as we were generally very good!) as some people would contact each other through private messages instead of the group one and I found myself getting a bit confused at times! 

The Group

I feel we worked very well as a group. The project was very ambitious from the out set, but despite any problem that came up we worked hard to get over anything and come through to achieve the final result. Each of us were in charge of our own area, and while each of us lead their own part, everyone else would or be willing to if asked help out with anything if another pair of hands was required. 

Rosie reviewed the complete contents of the installation (the visuals and sounds controlled by the software and keyboard). This was without the model brain however, as this still requires to be vacuum formed and then assembled to show these contents. 

The photos and video seemed to work well, and I'm happy with this as I suggested to Tom that maybe in the first attempt with the software the randomness and style was too much. Now they are a lot more toned down, to allow the audience to focus on the meaning instead. Rosie suggested that the border (meant to look like an eye) around the completed video was still distracting, but this should be easily solved by retreating the edges of the border back more and quicker. 

Interactivity

Examples of what the MaKey MaKey kit can do

Plan of Action Until Assessment

After the tutorial, Tom and I found Harry as there had been a mix up with the room we wanted to book, and sorted this out so that we have it for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to set up and assemble everything physically.

Monday 

Tuesday and Wednesday

• General set up and tests to make sure everything is working.
• Move completed installation piece to assessment room
• Final test in assessment room