The latest projection mapping

When I did the research, I was surprise to find out a clip on Youtube and I learn a new word—video mapping or projection mapping.

In Wikipedia article, projection mapping or “3D projection is any method of mapping three-dimensional points to a two-dimensional plane.” This new technique is now widespread used in various advertising campaign. As it can be applied with architecture, the viewers can have an inspiring visual experience, and of course, the advertiser achieved its goal to attract attention and gained the media coverage.

It is better to watch than to say.

“A video-mapping show projected on the medieval Astronomical Clock in the city's Old Town Square”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4LVEAiZJyg&feature=related

Another example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDHfa03XzaM

advanced video mapping technique

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8jCY9_xcpo

The election Campaign in social-network

When Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's president, created his account in Facebook to touch with the citizens, the election battle looks more interesting and fashionable ever since.

In a media campaign for the purpose of election, the more media coverage is reached, the better maybe the candidate. In spite of the promotions in traditional media such as TV or Print Paper, politicians trend to explore a new means in communication and the internet provides such platform. As the campaign in the term of journalistic tone is uncontrolled, there is a desire that more positive reports are beneficial. What is the best way to control the content? Jonathan shows us a good way to start—the Facebook platform. He writes about current events, government policies and the vows in elections, and these contents will stand for Jonathan because they are broadcasted by him. Facebook and Jonathan were written into headline into national newspapers and this gave him another one media coverage as a result.

Jonathan says that he reads the comment in Facebook and takes the idea presented by the commentary into account. This sounds brilliant for the reason that the people can interact with their president directly and personally. At least, it presents a sense that the president or the next election candidate is trying to hear and listen to them.

I have no doubt in the popularity Jonathan achieve and the impact on the young Facebook users and voters, but I will consider the credibility of such form of communication and interaction. The online environment is open, and anyone can use any source of materials and any forms of medium to make up themselves, and anyone can pretend to be another one. As all can be manipulated, it is difficult to tell the presentation online is objective. Jonathan maybe really concern about the value of individual idea of national development, and he may really communicate with some Facebook users. It is difficult not to notice the motives he may have. Facebook is a profound channel to deliver his politics and also promote and protect his own images especially if there is a crisis of reputation. In that case, Facebook is just another tool of public relations.

This case reminds me how weird I feel when I saw Gillard spoke on Youtube. I know how eager the politicians are to catch up with the new trend. This is just to indicate their “indentification” online whatever it should be.

The news link:

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/social.media/10/01/goodluck.jonathan.facebook.profile/index.html

The promotion of labor party

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IakdsvIseqI

The promotion of election campaign (is it official? No comment?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyR2pu_pY_I&feature=channel

This one looks like self-surveillance. She seems to close to the viewers, so it allows comments and interaction?

http://www.youtube.com/watchv=y_x5DBvgKKs&p=587C789822142D45&playnext=1

The art of eggs

What is an egg? My answer may be an oval object. If it is cook, it turns to be my breakfast .If it is hatched out, it becomes a chick. And then what is the art of egg? I had thought it maybe some color painting on the egg shell or maybe the egg is used to cook some unique shape food. When I saw some photos of artistic works from master Franc Grom, I can’t believe there is such incredible art on the fragile egg shell. He needs to create around 2500 to 3000 holes on the egg shell to maintain the decorative design.

When one form is changed (remediated?) into another form, the new form of the object is still itself? Those eggs are either the eggs or the art? It is not surprise that Franc Grom’s egg works are art no matter what kind of materials (the egg) he uses. The reasons why are that those eggs are no longer as simple as eggs and those egg shells present the artistic idea. The material-egg shell could be transparent during the process, and what we see is an art rather than an egg shell. That is to say, we focus on the representation of the art on the egg and then forget its origin. This can be explained more clearly on the other egg shell art. Like the artist carve on the art shell like the painting, and this is about the religion. Will we be interested more in the religious story rather than the shell? And when we enjoy this art, we spotlight the carve painting. In a similar way, we don’t change the surface of the egg, but we use the egg to make up another form, and we finally have the same attitude towards the form of eggs. Have a look at the Picture. We might still consider it is the 50 Yuan Cash, not an individual egg.

The image of Japanese soldier on screen

The year I was 8 I saw the first anti-war movie The Tunnel Warfare which is a black and white film released in 1965. As a part of educational trip, all my primary school students watched this movie together. The first impression of Japanese or Japanese soldier was negative. We though Japanese were stupid, cruel and insidious after the movie and also though the Japanese Soldier should be a small eye, fat, bald man with moustache wearing a round-frame glass. We were so inspired that we decided beat the Japanese monsters when we grew up.

                                   Japanese soldier in The Tunnel Warfare

Even though the intension between China and Japan is melting, the images of Japanese soldier seem hardly to have a change on the screen. They are all cruel and inhumane. They killed and raped Chinese who had no weapon during the Second World War. I was taught that Japanese invaded Nanjing City, and shot and buried over 300,000 people there and was encouraged to remember this lesson. And the young children think as the same as we were. My11- year- old nephew are interested in weapon and he wish to fight against his imaginative enemy who are Japanese and American. I have a doubt in the images of Japanese soldier in the movie and TV soup, were they such awful in history?

                                      The Japanese Soldier in a TV soup.

What is the purpose? Maybe this image is a reminder that we must not forget that distress or as if we were weaker, the monsters would come back, so we should be stronger.

In 2009, the movie City of Life and Death revised the image of Japanese soldier used to be. The character the Japanese soldier Kadokawa shows his compassion to the Nanjing People and saves two Chinese in this film. Many people commented that maybe not all the Japanese were terrible in the war, and maybe some had hearts. However, the movie faced the criticism that it reveals sympathy to a Japanese soldier who killed Chinese.

                         the Japanese soldier Kadokawa in City of Life and Death

No matter how much impact the movie put on the Chinese, once there is conflict with Japan, the negative image of Japanese would first come into mind as we have seen enormous evidence through the other movies and TV soup and it is impossible to change this image in the solid mind only by a single movie.

It doesn’t blame the producer who designs such image. Rather. Here just shows a image can have massive influence in the impression of a race or a culture. And the images they are in fact associated with the society and the culture. Take the Chinese character in American movie for  example, they are all fit for the American consideration of typical Chinese female. But to the Chinese, it is hard to agree with that assumption.

lucy liu, chinese American Actress

Mulan Animation

 

 

Are we Horton?

There was a period that I kept an eye on my every step on the floor in case that I hadn’t ruined any small world or kill any small lives. This is the “side effect” after watching the animation Horton Hears a Who.

Horton Hears a Who is adaption or remediation of Dr. Seuss's classics. The story is simple. Horton, the elephant also the teacher in the jungle, happened to hear the yelp from the dust speck on the pink clover, then he believes there are people living in the speck. Contacting with Mayor Ned McDodd –the leader in the Who—ville in the speck , Horton decides to help them to find a new safe habitat. Surely, Horton faces with pitfall and mistrust triggered by the other animals in the jungle, but finally everyone can hear the sound made by the Who—ville inhabitant and believe what Horton said—there is people living in the speck.

The point that “ a person is a person no matter how small” is compelling. I had imagined the earth maybe just a drop in some giant’s swimming pool and we were as small as germ to them, long before Horton Hears a Who. So when this movie comes, it just matches my old imagination and I cannot resist in believing in there maybe someone living in a germ-size world.

Why I have such belief? The “small” idea is appealing and it is comfortable with our knowledge as it is written by human being. When I know it is only an animation, why the belief is stick with me? If I only read Dr. Seuss's book or watch the old two dimension animation, I think I wouldn’t have this strong feeling. This Horton Hears a Who uses the CGI technology, for example, I can see Horton as a man because his movement and emotion are the same as human’s. I can hear the human voice and I watch the human action, and I’m sure I am able to find the origin of the element in the animation in our life. When the dream or imagination in a mind, they are dream and imagination, but once they are represented in profound way, they come into life. At least, they influence me on the idea that the imagination would be true one day.

I won’t dare to tell any kids that Santa Claus doesn’t exist because they could find them in different form of representation such movie or photo, even though they may hardly to meet one in life. As what they can see in media, they can believe what is alive.

Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIQFTBsGccA&feature=related

"This is Benjamin."

I though they use prosthetic makeup to make Brad Pitt look like over 80 in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. It is shocked and surprising for me to realize that they “create completely digital human head.”

For the team of artist and technologists and filmmakers in that film, they contributed to the amazing technological application because of their desire to make the authenticity of aging backwards of a man. In their words, “it’s not a special effects film; it has to be a man”. David Fincher, the director, he wanted a “sympathetic character”. Then, they filmed different bodies of actors for the use of different ages of Benjamin, and they create “a computer-generated version of Brad’s head” to match with the bodies.

After years of trying, the team eventually was inspired by the idea of Facial Action Coding System from Dr. Paul Ekman who believed “there were 70 basic poses or shapes of the human face and that from those basic poses or shapes of the face, they can be combined to create infinite possibilities of everything the human face is capable of doing.”Following this idea, they found the technology－Contour: “Brad stands in front of a computer array of cameras, and those cameras can, frame by frame, reconstruct geometry of what Brad’s doing at the moment.”Through this, they built up a 3D data in the real time of Brad’s face.

They invited a special effect maker and a photoreal sculptor to get through the process and then “retargeted”, so they can have a full database of Brad that allowed them to transpose Brad at 44 to Brad at 87.

They created lighting system, eye system and even a mouth system to match what Benjamin should be in scene.

Their work is profound. The film got people to watch different stage of Benjamin, and made the remediation of Brad or Benjamin disappear, what they gain is just “The Benjamin.”

it is very interesting to watch"How Benjamin Button got his face", go for it in

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ed_ulbrich_shows_how_benjamin_button_got_his_face.html

Video Language: We don’t need words (Weekly Review)

Two days ago, my Windows was affected by a virus so I had to find some solutions. A long article that explains how to get rid of the virus was searched by Google. I spent nearly half an hour to read and understand the details and another 2 hours to experiment it on my laptop , which might run out all my patience in life, however, it failed, out of the blue. Though I was irritated, I still stood at the good side and Google again. Then, a video appeared. This is an incredible video showing every step with a clear navigated scene. Within 10 minutes, I killed the virus completely. That moment, I showed my great appreciation to such video creator. An idea came out—Why is video more understandable than article?

“Language is dying.” said some socialists since we have shifted to type on our computer and taken photos instead of writing. The trend has changed ever rapidly, now we free our hands and face towards our camera to show daily lives, tips, instructions… without any letters. There are millions of Youtube followers watching video and thousands of new videos are invented just in a second. Do you have such feeling that you are likely to search a video first when you are suddenly eager to learn some new Hip-hop moves (for example)? Michelle Phan, a Vietnamese American, her Make-up chips are abnormally hot , and many school girls imitate her .In her “tutorial ” video, you indeed can easily follow her because you can watch exactly what she does at her face. And this make-up education looks more fun as it consists of her soft voice of explanation and good music. Looking for a cosmetic guide book and practicing them are not more interesting compared with fashion video, though you can read more letters on the paper and know how those spell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUJ7uQ2qwxk&feature=topvideos

Due to the innovation of technology, video applying the digital techniques is getting refined. Using video to explain and illustrate something can turn them from complex to simple, from more to less. The apparent trend is that educational videos are commonly used from kindergarten to university. (My friends Tiger and Pooh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI1FIPxIF64  ) You cannot doubt that geographic textbook is less eyes-catching than Discover documentary.(just see the awesome in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0jZzBEKIMc) Video inform us in a language combined with sound, images, and sometimes letters, and this encourages most our sensation to obtain the information. All we feel is we are part of it that is what an article hardly provide us.

I cannot assume that language is not dying because of video, but it is the amazing things that we are able to learn or show by a video without written words. Maybe we can believe that the language become more visible.