What is Research
Aboriginal Territories in CyberspaceFriday, 12 February 2010, 4:44 pm
Notes From:
INTERDISCIPLINARY DIALOGUES 2009/2010 – WHAT IS RESEARCH?
Session II
Research, Ethics, Politics
February 12, 2010, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m., LB 646 Library Building, 1400 De Maisonneuve Ouest
Presentations by:
Josh Schwebel: Escaping ‘What’ and ‘Is’: research beyond subject(s)
Ioana Radu: Doing research with aboriginal people: the role of knowledge mobilization, engaged scholarship and sharing authority
Eric Ronis: Every Story Needs a Villain (or Does It?): Framing Social Protest Research in 2010
Devora Neumark: Art and Ethics Within and Outside of the Academy
Discussant: Joel McKim (Concordia, Communication Studies)
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Ioana Radu
Research and Aboriginal People.
Doing research with aboriginal people: the role of knowledge mobilization, engaged scholarship and sharing authority
Radu spend 8 years living in a community of the Cree Nation of Nemaska in James Bay. She works on concepts of development and self governance. She conducts research through oral history and interviews.
She takes approach that: Research -> Contributing to the social capital of the communities.
RESEARCH
Ruling ideas of the discipline: Authority, Objectivity, Distance, Objective Neutrality
Another approach: Multiplicity, Difference, Social & Political endeavor as much as an Academic one
ETHICS
Interpertatory, Dissemination, Personal, Civil and Political
POLITIC AND ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
- -Acknowledge agency
- -Imagined social struggle
- -Multivocal – There are many voice is a community to be heard
- -Multilateral – There are many parties to consider
- -Respect of justice, equality and inclusiveness
KNOWLEDGE MOBLIZATION
- Connection between research and practice
- Co-creation of knowledge
- A way of thinking and doing research.
- Knowledge mediated through social /political processes
- Acknowledge difference/multiplicity
ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP
- Building Relationships
- Working with living, not building a memorial to the past, looking to the future.
- Long-term commitment
SHARING AUTHORITY
(This notion originates from the Oral History field)
- Knowing from ->controlled narrative.
- Knowing with -> mutual creation/dialogue (Greenspan)
- Less chronologically structured
- Subjectivity
- Self-reflexivity
Resistance and contesting narrative within Aboriginal communities.
Radu then showed a video of complied interviews with people from Nemaska about Aboriginal notions of development. Video called “Reflections on Development”
Support “Future First Nations”!
Aboriginal Territories in CyberspaceMonday, 8 February 2010, 3:39 pm
Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace’s learning initiative “Future First Nations: Native Storytelling through Virtual World Building” made it into MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Competition, but we need your help to win.
You can help us continue and expand Skins, a game modding workshop with Kahnawake youth, by Commenting on the Future First Nations project by February 15, 2010. Please support Native youth learning technology, math, science, art, and storytelling through virtual world and video game modifying.
To Comment, register at the MacArthur site and enter a Comment on Future First Nations (scroll down to the bottom of the page).
Thank you!
Beth Aileen Lameman
Mr. Softie at Typ09
Mr. SoftieTuesday, 22 December 2009, 5:21 pm
Mr. Softie will be at the Typ09 conference in Mexico City on Thursday October 29th. We are organizing a workshop, Bending Letterforms with Mr. Softie, as part of the TypeTech section of the conference. Limited space, register soon.
Careers in the Gaming Industry Panel Discussion at Concordia
Aboriginal Territories in CyberspaceThursday, 12 November 2009, 1:01 pm
Concordia University’s Career and Placement Services hosted a panel discussion, ‘Careers in the Gaming Industry’, on Wednesday, November 11, 2009. Six Concordia Alumni from Computer Science and Software Engineering discussed what it takes to get into the industry and their personal experiences throughout their careers in gaming. There was much valuable insight shared with a room of approximately 2oo Concordia students who are eager to break into the industry (of which approximately 10 were women, no suprise there … I just like to keep track of these details). I will summarize what I took from the panel.
- The core Computer Science curriculum is required. Yes they use Dijkstra, A*, state-machines and all those other wonderful comp-sci basics we all know and love (-yes, I really do love them!-). Algorithms developed in the 60s are crucial to gaming. Path finding algorithms may be simple to apply in a static 2d space, but when you add another dimension, actors, buildings, and need them performed in real-time things get much more complex.
- Math, math, math– game development is all about math.
- C++ — you need to know it. C#, ruby and perl are also useful.
- Basic programing skills are more important than any 1 particular programming language.
- There is room for all types of programmers, hardware, AI, graphics and generalists. The industry needs us all.
- There is even room for bad programmers! The move to rapid prototyping of games creates opportunity for those with big ideas and little programming experience.
- This industry allows programmers to push boundaries. More forgiving of mistakes than the medical or aerospace industry. The code does not have to pass any safety regulations, allowing more creativity.
- This industry always presents new challenges to programmers. The hardware is constantly changing and thus frameworks and games change with it. There is always more to learn.
- Your greatest asset when trying to get into the industry is a portfolio that includes a gaming project of some sort. This could be a simple flash game, an iPhone game or even a Little Big Planet level. Even the smallest game requires that you are familiar with the life cycle of game development, from the brainstorm stage through to the release, this is what they are looking for.
- Gaming Studios want to know why you want to work for them. Do your research before you get to the interview.
- Overtime is not an option- it is industry standard. You’ve gotta love your job.
- When you stop learning in your position move on. Know what you want to do in the industry and move towards it.
- Although notorious for sub-standard social skills, programmers need to have good communication and interpersonal skills to work in the large teams of developers and have their ideas heard and understood.
Overall the panelist painted an optimist view of both the industry and the opportunities for recent graduates. I was very happy to hear about the experience computer scientists in the industry and am now planning my stratagey for beginning my career in the gaming industry (…maybe it has already begun….).
Typo at Center Stage
Mr. SoftieMonday, 2 November 2009, 4:02 pm
Day 1
Typ09 began in style. Speakers had to adjust to the 360 degrees of audience surrounding them, wishing they had paid more attention to how they appear from behind when practicing their talk. The audience, surrounded by 16 screens displaying the same slide presentations and videos, must decide which one to pay attention to, and end up looking like noone is listening because of each participant’s different focus point. And, to whoever sets up 16 contiguous screens, please exploit the opportunity of making one connected screen space instead of just duplicating content.
Among the tidbits of information that struck me most, Jan Middendorp presented some really interesting work of hand-lettered book covers of the 50’s and 60’s. One caught my eye more than others, a design by Hermanus Berserik that could have been the long lost relative of Donald Knuth’s Punk font (I couldn’t find the cover online, so if anyone has it please forward).
Soon after that, Francois Chastenet presented his research, which was recently published in “Cholo Writing: Latino Gang Graffiti in Los Angeles.” Looking back, this was for me one the most interesting talk of the five days of Typ09. I am curious to know more about Chastenet’s comparative study between photography of 1970’s LA and his recent research. From my geeky perspective, I couldn’t help but think of how graffiti, its form and style, creates not only the physical boundary that Chastenet’s was talking about by defining a perimeter, but also creates boundaries between the different groups that interact with the signs. Who writes them, who erases them, who understands them, who doesn’t.
I was looking forward to Alberto Coberto’s talk on “Spanish Type Specimens, and even though I was please to see so many specimens I would never come across, I felt it fell short of what it could have been. From the title, my expectations where steered in the direction of Alastair Johnston’s “Found Poetry: The Dude Typographers” article found in “Text on Type.” Coberto did poke at the idea when he mentioned, over a single slide, the religious used as content for the one specimen. I would be surprise if this was an exceptional case. As a recent example of interesting type specimen that goes beyond the oh-so-common and boring lorem ipsum or random news headlines, Tipo distributed their type specimen as a nice recipe book, found on the table of free goodies. This leaves me with one problem. Where do I place this ‘book’, on the shelf with other type specimens, or in the kitchen with the cook books?
Day 2
And on the second day Spiekerman spoke. After a morning session that involved too many instances of the word “global” without really digging into the interesting and “honest” (thank you John Downer) reality of type designed today, the work of contemporary Mexican type designers closed the session. However, already after a day and a half, my brain was overflowed with type design, so much that I remember apppreciating the work of comtemporary typography in Mexico, but could not name one that was presented.
Which gets me to Spiekerman’s presentation. This was a great example that all those monotone try-to-talk-about-everything-i’ve-done-in-the-past-until-now presenters should look at and remember the next time to want to entertain an audience. People, pick a subject, no matter how precise and be excited about it. Spiekerman’s talk about his work designing door numbers for modern furnishing supplier Design Within Reach was inspiring, not because it showed a million typefaces on slides flicked at seizure inducing speed, but because it showed the whole process, its ups and downs. The first types of numbers are beautiful and designed for certain contexts, and just like any other technology, type is used and abused in ways that type designers could not have even imagined.
Another somewhat unrelated tidbit of information that struck me was the presentation of Chilian artists by Felipe Caceres. The one Chilian artist that caught my attention enough for me to remember is Alejandro Faure (1865-1912). At first sight, and before Caceres mentione the name of the artist, I would have sworn that the art work in front of my eyes was made by Alphons Mucha (1860-1939), a check artist whose work I really appreciate. Given the simililarity of their work, the two artists must been part of the same singles, and everything came together when Caceres mentioned that Faure moved to Paris for a certain period of time, just like Mucha did in 1887. This is something I would like to did further into.
Day 3 (aka First Signs of Type Overdose)
The morning session took us in an interesting direction, from my perspective, that would question some technological issues. One presentation I was looking forward to was Granados and Zenke’r talk on “Reading Technologies” (I’m not sure which one of the two presented). Sadly, this presentation fell short of what it promised. Instead of truly questioning the Amazon Kindle, with its e-ink paper, networking capabilities, and graphical possibilities, the presentation digged itself a hole by complaining about issues pertaining solely to the Kindle’s software. If half the presentation involves slides that show a close-up of the screen of a device, without pertaining to the actual devices, then you should realize that you are talking about a completely different problem. A problem that might be present on the Kindle currently, but that is not tied to the Kindle.
Soon after, Christopher Moore briefly explored the possible uses of e-ink paper in the future, based on, again, the Kindle and one of Esquire magazine’s cover that used the technology. However, ten minutes is no doubt too short to really dig into the subject, Moore started a discussion on a subject that will certainly be more present in the future of the Typ conference. Hopefully, the conference’s organizers will realize that 40 minutes to talk of one persons typeface is often too long and boring (unless they are Dutch and can make it exciting), and that 10 minutes to question a difficult subject is just a tease and leave the audience a little dry.
Day 4
On the fourth day, we presented both workshops, “Computational Typography for Beginners with NextText for Processing” and “Bending Letterforms with Mr. Softie.” The workshops went well, even tough the number of attendees was fairly small, probably due to different reasons. Coding scares people, especially when the workshops are organized in a school or department that might be unrelated to the subject (we had to kick out med students that were having a quiz in the room scheduled for the workshop).
Mr. Softie, which is considerably more user friendly, attracted a few people who actually stuck around, went for a break and came back to play with the software, which was a nice thing to experience. If beta testing is like leaving your children uder someone else’s supervision for the first time, this might be similar to having the baby-sitter aggreeing to come back a second time, telling you that you kid is, well, baby-sitter friendly. Of the things I might would change for future workshops would be to start the conversation with the attendees earlier.
Day 5
Say no to tuna tacos.
Typ09 Recap
Mr. SoftieMonday, 2 November 2009, 2:49 pm
The Typ09 conference came to a close on Friday and it was a really interesting experience. Type design is a whole world that I didn’t really know much about, considering the fact I’ve been working on NextText for over three years.
It had been a while since I had attended a conference, and although I usually have a problem with the closed bubble around these events, this was very refreshing. It was the first professional conference I attend, and was very different compared to academic ones. A large percentage of speakers focused on specific companies and projects, to the point where it sometimes felt like advertising (and in a sense, it was)
There were presentations on a wide range of topics: type-oriented university programs, focusing on single characters (like accents or quotation marks), web fonts, the step-by-step development of a specific font, etc. It was interesting to see that, much like in other spheres, there is a very prevalent nostalgia on the “old-school”. This could be seen in the many lectures on traditional foundries and handmade fonts.
My two favourite talks were coincidentally about typography in Brazil. Lambe-lambe Letters by Catherine Dixon and Henrique Nardi went through the process of creating posters in a lambe-lambe printshop. The letters are carved out of wooden blocks and printed on wheat paste paper using a manual printer. The movies were compelling; it was captivating to see the process and how spacing is calculated by adding shims between the blocks. Brasilêro Project by Crystian Cruz was about the process of designing a font based on hand-lettered signage found in Brazilian cities. It was quite interesting to see a typeface that started on the streets end up in magazines, books, and the web.
Indians in Space: Curating Media Art by Indigenous Artists- A Talk by Steven Loft at IARC Speaker Series
Aboriginal Territories in CyberspaceMonday, 2 November 2009, 2:15 pm
Steven Loft at the IARC Speaker SeriesSteven Loft at the IARC Speaker Series
Indians in Space: Curating Media Art by Indigenous Artists
Steven Loft, Aboriginal Curator-in-Residence, National Gallery of Canada; Former Director, Urban Shaman Gallery
IARC Speaker Series, SAR Boardroom
October 29, 2009, 5:30–6:30 pm
The development of an artistic discipline based on electronic technologies is an articulation of creative and cultural space foregoing the territorialized domains of cultural and artistic canons. We get beyond the notion of simple mediation and enter the realm of translation, exploring how media refashions the logic of communication strategies to encompass a broader understanding of contemporary cultural phenomena. As curator Catherine Mattes has noted, “translation can loosely be defined as the act of expressing the sense of one language into another parlance or form of representation. When applied to visual languages, translation can transcend the boundaries of specific movements and discourses and does not bind artists by locating them in (or up against) a particular realm.” I interpret this to define a certain absolute and contiguous relationship to the technology available, and to its ability to transform our perception, existing as shape shifter, neither inherently benign nor malevolent, but always acting and active, changing, transformative, giving effect to and affecting the world. The term “language of intercession,” coined by Victor Masayesva, refers to this idea. In his essay “Indigenous Experimentalism,” Masayesva writes, “the Indigenous aesthetic, like each tribal language, is not a profane practice, a basic human protocol, or merely a polite form of etiquette and transaction, but rather, it is the way in which we are heard and commune with the Ancients.” (From http://sarweb.org/index.php?iarc_lecture_steven_loft-p:2009_2010_iarc_speaker_series)
Listen to the talk at http://sarweb.org/index.php?iarc_lecture_steven_loft-p:2009_2010_iarc_speaker_series
Typ09 Workshops
Mr. SoftieThursday, 29 October 2009, 8:44 pm
We gave our NextText and Mr. Softie workshops today and it went really well. The turnout was a little lower than expected but that ended up being a good thing as we almost had a one-to-one presenter-student ratio. I was a little nervous leading up to the workshops as I realized over the first few days that type designers are not too keen on having their meticulously constructed glyphs tweaked by our software.
The NextText workshop had an extra challenge which was that we had to also teach the basics of programming in that 3-hour slot. It was a lot to cover, but the participants made it through and seemed to have a good handle on things towards the end. A few points to keep in mind for next time:
- When going over the basics of programming, starting with functions before covering variables makes more sense. Functions can be used with literals at first and then variables.
- When building a set of behaviours, it is really helpful to draw the behaviour tree, and to modify it as the code progresses.
- We should have a basic sample sketch for each behaviour to show what it does. This should be included in the documentation, similarly to how it is done in the Processing reference.
- Some of the behaviours should be renamed to something more intuitive.
- We need a simpler way of creating behaviours. Perhaps bringing back the factories would be a good solution for this.
I would be very interested in trying this out again with experienced programmers. This would be ideal to test out the documentation and see how easy it is to understand, navigate, etc. It would also allow more time for free play, resulting in more complex and polished sketches.
The Mr. Softie workshop was a lot of fun and was actually the most time I ever spent in the software. In comparison with NextText, it was easier to grasp as the participants could start working on their visual sketches fairly quickly, and a lot of good looking work came out of it. A good measure of the success was that most people came back after the second break and some even told their friends to pass by and check it out.
- The Textpad is a great tool and has a lot of potential. One feature that would be good to add is to toggle whether white space is sprayed or not.
- The GUI could use a few improvements, mainly swapping the many drop-down menus for sliders, checkboxes, and radio buttons.
Mr. Softie Workshop at Typ09
Mr. SoftieThursday, 29 October 2009, 7:16 pm
We just finished the main portion of the Mr. Softie workshop. We had 9 students attend, and we still have 6 of them in the room with us experimenting with the tool. Bruno gave a good presentation that I think we should definitely consider taking to other places.
One thing we need to do is create a series of small .sft´s showing each of the SoftType behaviours in action, and even some combinations. What would be even better is a live preview option like Adobe Premiere has for its transition effects. And to make it easier to get a handle on the visual results of changing parameters, perhaps we should move to sliders there as well…
First Impressions at Typ09
Mr. SoftieTuesday, 27 October 2009, 10:40 pm
I just arrived in Mexico City today and after a short stopover at the hotel, headed downtown to the Typ09 conference.
The presentation layout is one of the best I’ve seen. The talks are given in the interior courtyard of the Museo Interactivo de Economía (MIDE). The podium is in the centre of the room and chairs are placed all around. Sixteen screens are installed on the perimeter of the room (four per wall), displaying the presenter’s slides. No matter where you are sitting, you have a good view of the presenter and her presentation. I can’t help but think about Most Pixels Ever and how this is a great setup for a multi-channel installation.
Kevin Larson from Microsoft gave a talk today on how typefaces have personalities and the research behind it. It was an interesting topic, but I felt like it needed more substance. Most of the points seemed obvious and felt like he was preaching to the choir, and the rest could have used actual statistics and data.
TimeTraveler™ WINS!
Aboriginal Territories in CyberspaceWednesday, 21 October 2009, 3:11 pm
Skawennati won Best New Media at the imagineNative Festival in Toronto last weekend for the TimeTraveller™ website. Congratulations to the whole TimeTraveller™ team and cast of thousands.
AbTeC @ imagineNATIVE
Aboriginal Territories in CyberspaceWednesday, 7 October 2009, 3:00 pm
At this year’s 1oth annual imagineNATIVE AbTeC-ers Jason E. Lewis and Skawennati Tricia Fragnito will present works in the New Media Show at A Space Gallery (401 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON).
We hope to see you all there!
SKINS 1.0 | Otsi: Rise of the Kanien’keha:ka Legends Trailer
SKINSMonday, 5 October 2009, 11:26 am
[...]
SKINS 1.0 | Otsi: Rise of the Kanien’keha:ka Legends Trailer
Aboriginal Territories in CyberspaceMonday, 5 October 2009, 11:20 am
SKINS 1.0 | Otsi: Rise of the Kanien’keha:ka Legends
Aboriginal Territories in CyberspaceFriday, 2 October 2009, 6:05 pm
Steven Loft Interview on Rabble.ca
Aboriginal Territories in CyberspaceTuesday, 29 September 2009, 5:49 pm
Steven Loft: A curator with chutzpah
By Jennifer Dales | September 15, 2009
Steven Loft has a lot of chutzpah. This Mohawk-Jewish curator, writer and media artist is the first to hold the two-year position of curator-in-residence, Indigenous art, at the National Gallery of Canada. His overall career goal is impressively ambitious: “I want to change the way mainstream Canada thinks about Aboriginal art.”
Read the rest of this article: http://rabble.ca/news/2009/09/steven-loft-curator-chutzpah
Aboriginal Steampunk
Aboriginal Territories in CyberspaceFriday, 18 September 2009, 12:52 am
As we recolonize cyberspace and re-envision technology for Aboriginal means, I am brought back to the Steampunk genre time and time again. For those unaware, steampunk, simply put, is a genre of fiction that re-imagines a past with steam-based technology. (Notably, steampunk has become a fashion and an aesthetic.) However, most steampunk, despite being based in Victorian or Western times, overlooks Native (Native American, First Nations, Aboriginal, Indigenous) representations and forms of technology and aesthetics that did exist.
There has long been a stereotype that Native people are technology illiterate, which it entirely untrue. Indigenous knowledge of technology is just simply different–it takes on a holistic viewpoint with collective memory.
To combat these misconceptions, I have looked to the past to inform the future, and bring my writing and aesthetic interests to a new sub-genre of fiction, art, and fashion–Aboriginal Steampunk.
This work is for me, for every part of me, that buzzes and spins until I get it out. Tonight, I’ll share with you a quick concept sketch for my typewriter. I intend to make it out of copper, brass, woods, with accompanying birch bark scrolls. The keys are syllabics from Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe, Ojibway, Ojibwa). It embodies a large part of who I am.
Aboriginal Steampunk Typewriter Concept, Beth Aileen Lameman 2009
How to get started with the files you received
SKINSMonday, 29 June 2009, 6:12 pm
Here are the instructions for you to set up and be ready to continue working on this project!1.Transfer the files from the CD to your computer:[CD/DVD_Drive_letter]:\RiseOfTheLegends\DM-Skins.ut3to C:\Documents and Settings\[your_account]\My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Unpublished\CookedPC\Maps[CD/DVD_Drive_letter]:\RiseOfTheLegends\Packages\Skins.upk[CD/DVD_Drive_letter]:\RiseOfTheLegends\Packages\Skins_Trees.upk[CD/DVD_Drive_letter]:\RiseOfTheLegends\Packages\SkinsSound.upkto C:\Documents and Settings\[your_account]\My Documents\My Games\Unreal Tournament 3\UTGame\Unpublished\CookedPC2. Start Unreal Tournament 3 Editor:Start>Unreal Tournament 3>Unreal Tournament 3 Editor3. Open the Generic Browser (if [...]
Useful Unreal Tutorials and References
SKINSMonday, 29 June 2009, 10:09 am
Here are some good links to create a Mod (need to start Unreal Tournament 3 to play it) or a Mutator (the finished game runs on its own without need for Unreal Tournament 3).Setting up a mod project:http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UT3Mods.html#Setting%20up%20a%20Mod%20Projectcreate a mutator:http://www.moddb.com/games/unreal-tournament-3/tutorials/unreal-learning-1-my-first-unreal-tournament-3-mutatorCreate a custom character:http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UT3CustomCharacters.htmlWeapons in UT3:http://www.ut40k.planetunreal.gamespy.com/unreal-Dateien/ut3tuts/UT3_Weapon_tutorial_1.htmmany video tutorials:http://www.ut3modding.com/Plenty of tutorials on many subjects:http://waylon-art.com/LearningUnreal/scripting classes documentation:http://unreal.student.utwente.nl/uncodex-ut3/utgame/utgame.html.gz [...]
Skins is on google!
SKINSFriday, 26 June 2009, 3:00 pm
I was searching for unreal tutorials on google and typed:“unreal mod bow tutorial”and here are the results that I got!: Skins is second!!Cassandra [...]
Kettle
Mr. SoftieFriday, 12 June 2009, 3:00 pm
This is the pot and the kettle with coffee and splash. Words (kettle, pot, coffee, splash) twisted into illustrative form.
Kettle
The Flying head by Kahentawaks!
SKINSFriday, 5 June 2009, 6:36 pm
Here is the Flying head modeled by Kahentawaks! the textured version will be posted soon. [...]
hands with lacrosse stick
SKINSWednesday, 3 June 2009, 5:16 pm
Tehoniehtathe, here is the fileIt should already be setup correctly. Just ask Kahentawaks for the details.Otherwise, here is a great tutorial that explains it all (setting up + start animating): http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Tutorials/Animation/BSoD/Character_Animation/Setting_uparms_lacrosse_01 [...]
stand under
Mr. SoftieThursday, 23 April 2009, 1:06 pm
Ongoing online series of Softie video experiments : http://glia.ca/conu/SOFTIES/
