sketchup 3D model ideas for Tour project

1) Tiger Tank            I want to attempt to build a 3D Tiger Tank

2) Factory                   a factory where the Tiger was built

3) T34 Russian Tank     if I have time I'll do the Russian tank

community event #2 music synthesizer workshop

  so I went to the workshop to try my hand at electronics. I can follow schematics and instructions well, however that doesn't mean I know why or how it works. what was funny to me was that, I think it was Greg, the instructor admitted that he doesn't always know why either. so I got a little chuckle out of that. the whole idea behind the project was to make sound.
  we started with the circuit board, also known as the breadboard. from there we added a circuit, a resister, some wires, etc. connected the whole thing to power and an amplifier. if we had connected everything correctly we would get a sound. different resisters created different sounds.
   this was and interesting workshop! I'm not big on electronics but it was fun building the boards and messing around with sound. the guys teaching the class were nice and helpful.

Tourism

  after reading the interview with Dean MacCannel, I would have to agree with a few points. I agree that tourism has been pilfered by capitalism and that the experience tourists get has been altered to maximize the tourist's ideal experience. the examples of the Haight Ashbury and China town is right on. these places have historical significance but are now altered to showcase a now generic version of these highlights that made these places famous. it is sad that the historical significance is now totally lost to its visitors. instead they get the version based around selling trinkets and gifts that say that "they" were at these places.
  when I visit these places I cant help but think how fake it is. china towns shops are all identical and sell the same trinkets in every shop. there is nothing unique. about these shops. its just a colorful place to walk through. there is a surreal feeling I get, like I  stepped into a Chinese outlet store.
  SF is a tourist city that is going to capitalize on such attractions. this is what brings business to the city and puts food on the city's resident's plates. so I cant rip to hard on these cheesy tourist "traps."

"Tiger Terror" - TOUR PROJECT

A tour of the most terrifying land vehicle of WWII: the Tiger I tank.
google earth locations...
1) where it was built
2) 1st battle - Russia
3) successes in battle and famous battle fields - east/west front, N.Africa
4) Tiger Aces - where they fought
5) tour and views of the Tiger Tank

Liz R

Liz is a fascinating woman and artist. i was captivated by her energy and her interesting ideas. I was particularly interested in her terra-cotta  warriors and how she was able to use copyrighted material in conjunction with public domaine pieces and keep them available for public purchase and display without any cease and desist letters. i was also moved by her documentary on Chinese reproduction artists and how she took them out of the "assembly-line" art to give a name and a face to the artist. I wish i could have a coffee with Liz sometime to pick her brain a little more! LOL

Heidegger

so what i gathered from the essay and the speaker Heidegger is saying that technology is a means to an end. That "the relationship will be free if it opens our human existence to the essence of technology." there are four "causes" that further this thinking: material, form, end, effect.
technology is a way of revealing the truth.
man only confronts himself, therefore he doesn't understand man. he does not engage or understand nature.

Community event #1 Exploratorium

  So I went to the Exploratorium and had a good time. it is a little overwhelming there in that there are so many gadgets and things that you kind of don't know where to start. I mean you could spend a week trying everything out and there would still be more to do. everything in there did get you in touch with your senses like hearing, touching, sight, etc. it also showcases technology like uses for electricity, magnets, and light refraction.
  I did find some interesting things relating to technology and art though. the "found faces" is an enjoyable collection of facial expressions found in inanimate objects. very comical and full of personality. I wont look at a sink or dryer in the same way again!
  another artist did some cool contour drawings that look like 3D landscapes that you can touch only to see that it is a 2D image. the toothpick sculptures were impressive as well. the artist made his biggest sculpture interactive in that he created paths within the sculpture that he could send Ping-Pong balls on a rolling journey.
  there was a massive concave mirror, like something NASA would use, that when you approached it you would appear in hyper detail and your reflection appeared in front of you as a 3D reflection. the last thing I found really cool was an artist created these really neat wind-up mechanical puppet sculptures. I cant remember the name of the type of art that it is but he inspired young people and there were some others that were made by 10 year olds that were really cool as well. it was basic mechanical gears and pulleys in miniature form that activated comical little characters to act out movements. very creative!
  I would recommend everyone check this place out!

Assignment 2: Intervention

here is my intervention video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RVsRv4cLR0&feature=youtu.be

    the idea behind the video is that this is a mini movie within the greater movie, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. this mini movie follows a stormtrooper who hands out missing persons flyers to the students at SFSU.
    I wanted this to be funny and also capture the responses of the students of which they were quite broad in range. everything from dismissive or uninterested, which I found strange since you normally don't see a strormtrooper walking around campus anywhere. to real interest, I had a lot of people wanting to take pictures or have what I was handing out. kids were stopping what they were doing and running across campus to approach me. and finally what appeared to be a general irritancy towards me. I had approached these to girls who were deep in conversation who appeared mildly irritated that I had interrupted them.
    I had fun with this project and would do it again since wearing the costume liberated me to do things and approach people that I wouldn't normally do. the only disappointment was that the music I used for the video is copyrighted and had to be muted.

vannervar bush reading

    I thought it was an interesting read, a bit difficult to understand at times, but fascinating to see his predictions. his thoughts on compression of data like the entirety of Encyclopedia Britannica compressed into a matchbox, or that of cameras becoming smaller and better were very intuitive on his part. I got a kick out of his prediction of data entry via keyboards into a computer by a room full of "girls" to be telling of the sexism of the era that this piece was written.
    I found the "bone conduction" to be a little creepy. I guess he was thinking of some kind of memory storage through vibrations in the skull, or something? it just sounded like a medieval experiment to me. but I see his point behind the idea, that being anything is possible.
   I was also fascinated by his point about the idea of computers being around long before they became a practical tool. the fact that they couldn't be produced at the time they were conceived because of the man hours and unreliability of the product when pen and paper were still faster.

    my predictions for 2073...

    medicine will have leaped forward. regenerating lost limbs will be available. people will live longer, some may request to die because they have "lived enough." cosmetic surgery will be even more out of control. there will be gene augmentation to grow hair after it has fallen out. breast augmentation will no longer require surgery that we know of today, just more gene "tinkering." this playing god complex will result in Dr. Frankenstein's  monsters living and working among us as normal.
    wars will be fought through computers. financial strikes or civil strikes will be the new terrorism. actual combat will be fought by drones, auto-mated vehicles, and robots. if nuclear weapons are used the world will resemble that of the Mad Max movies. wastelands with roving and warring gangs fighting over whatever is left.
    global warming and or rape of mother earth will cause us to inhabit other planets for their resources. deep space travel and colonization of other planes will begin the new empirical "land grab" era. wars may be fought over desired planets.

Chance project ideas

I like the idea of maps...
I'm thinking of doing a "chance around the world" piece.

1)use RouteBuilder http://routebuilder.org/ to plot your course on a map. you can pick any where in the world, in fact you could use chance to decide where to begin.
2) use the Undecided app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/undecided/id444318521?mt=8 to use chance to decide where you will be going and for how long etc. This app comes with multiple chance options.
3) you can use the "generate a number" to figure out how many feet, miles, etc. you will travel. when you come to intersections or impassible obstacles you can use the "flip a coin" function to determine another path. or just find another path until you reach the waypoint.
4) you could do a walking pathway somewhere here in San Francisco that you can actually travel, or generate a travel path in another country that you hope to visit. you can do a city to city path which would take you around the world

the idea is to generate  path all on chance that you will travel someday. if you end up taking the path, take pictures of the places you pass by.

-try to list how many countries were involved during World War II
-list all of Napoleon Bonaparte's battles
-draw a map of the invasion landings of D-Day June 6th 1944
-draw a map of the Napoleon's battle at Austerlitz
-do a google search for images of Napoleon and email them to your shortest friends with a tag saying, "you can rule Europe too"
-open an image of Napoleon and photoshop funny clothes "like a clown suit" or a "matador" and email them to friends

assignment 1

8/29/2013
midnight... I found some interesting artists for the first assignment.

Michella Rivera-Gravage  is a multimedia artist, who is dedicated to working with compelling and evocative stories to move and change people around a variety of social issues. she has some funny videos that parody some of the stereotypes of south Asian people. I got a kick out of the "King's Speech" video in particular. instead of curing a stutter, a specialist is called in to help with an Indian accent. http://michellaforever.com/

Christopher Robbins works on the uneasy cusp of public art and international development, creating sculptural interventions in the daily lives of strangers. He uses heavy material demands and a carefully twisted work-process to craft awkwardly intimate social collaborations. the Ghana think tank is a fascinating way to bridge cultural differences by addressing problems with answers provided by another cultures answers. whether they are right or wrong communication and new viewpoints are brought to the host culture. http://www.christopher-robbins.com/

Chico MacMurtie is internationally recognized for his large-scale, performative, kinetic installations, and interactive public sculpture. Chico's Totemobile is a robotic sculpture that begins as an iconic automobile that transforms into a large totem pole of organic nature. the car, which we know to move forwards and in reverse now moves upwards. http://amorphicrobotworks.org/works/index.htm