and so, the end has come...

This has been nuts.

I never thought I would get this thing done let alone be as happy with it as I am. From conception to execution, it seemed like a big string of problems, and problems I didn't know how to solve.

First, there was the esoteric and deeply abstract nature of the text. I'm not saying I didn't thoroughly enjoy what Ron Burnett had to say, it just took some time to get my head around it. I'd be very interested in doing more work in this field, I think its important and the discourse for it isn't as developed as it should be.

Second, my concept for the site began as something far more complex and very intimidating because I thought I would have to use entirely javascript, which by the way, I have absolutely no experience with. Not that I am unwilling or afraid to learn it, I just didn't think I'd have enough experience with it at this point to make my site work effectively. Thus I scoured the internet looking for other forms of code that would work for me, and I found an elegant and simple CSS layout that worked well beyond my expectations.

Third, and this is the step that caused the delay in production, and why I haven't posted in over three weeks. I was having trouble with the content. Because the concept is so, well, nebulous, I had a hard time putting it in words and then translating those into images. I struggled for weeks on different layouts, and directions (see post on de Stijl, what the frak was I thinking...) to no avail. I finally gave up and focused on my other projects for my production class and patiently waited for inspiration to hit.

If there is one theme of my time at the U and of this semester in particular, it has been patience. I left the Graphic Design program in the Art Department because the faculty there believed I didn't have the patience to be a good designer. I didn't think that is true then, and I certainly don't think it's true now. For both my projects in my classes this semester, I was willing to wait and refine my ideas until the very last minute if need be. I just didn't want to do something half-assed or not well thought out, because they were my projects, I was responsible. Of course I had a great deal of stress about it, but when the inspiration did come, it was as if the sun had come out and I think my projects are that much better for it.

So this last weekend was when I began production on the text and the imagery that accompanied them. I realized that I was writing the text to the imagery, and that was where I was getting stuck on actually creating them. So I shifted gears and thought about this as a kind of glorified research paper. That is when I really started producing the elements of the site.

I'm not going to discuss my process or interpretations of my imagery, because it would be contrary to the purpose of this project. If I tell you what they mean to me, it would taint your interpretations, cloud your meaning, thus contaminating your imagescape. Of course, part of building imagescapes is experiencing sight with others, so I'd be happy to talk to anyone that asks, just reply to my post and we'll chat. But for now, I leave you to make your own interpretations.

A few technical notes before I call it a day-
Viewership has been good with few having trouble. I've had about 40 people visit the site, most coming from the posts I made on Facebook. The only problem I've encountered aside from a brief .png issue is the Safari float issue, which I haven't resolved because frankly, no one is looking at it in Safari. I do have some fixes in mind for it involving javascript, but I'd really need more time to make sure it works correctly.

This endeth my trek through this amazing material and my sphere of knowledge has increased quite a bit. I feel like this process has been a good one, both intellectually and personally. This project taught me a lot about my own imagescape, how much it means to me not only personally, but also for my occupation. I learned more about my self-discipline, patience, and where the boundaries of those qualities lie (further out and nigh unbreakable thanks to this semester I am happy to report). So farewell happy viewer, and thanks for coming to the show.

Cheers!
~Rachel

Okay... (Update)

Fixed the problem with the Representation image, stupid png errors, it took me like an hour to figure out that the image was bad and not the code. Oh well. Also added the credits page with links to everything I used for this project and I fixed up the text a bit. Oh, and I finally learned how to spell "Independent."

Out of curiosity, is anyone viewing in Safari or Opera? I didn't test in those browsers, but I know Safari has an issue with a:hover so one needs to remain hovering over the thumbnail in order to view the full image and text. Not sure about errors in Opera.

As promised, a lengthier, more detailed post will come a little later, probably tonight.

Finally

Finally finally finally. 99.5% done. I just need to get my credits page completed, which I think I'll just do from here. That hurt my brain, longer post later I promise about why I was so damn late in getting this thing up and running. Yeah, and Google Analytics is giving me crap, I don't know if it's because it's a campus server or what, but I'll try to get it fixed so I can get some usage stats. For now, Beta begins! To Facebook to tell all my friends to look at it!
Cheers!

Success!

HA HA! It works! Sort of... it's the bare bones right now, and I'm still experimenting with the images, but this is, in essence, my site! I'm just happy the code works out all ok, though IE has some trouble. Nevermind that you IE users, it will be corrected in the final version. More updates to come. =)

de Stijl and New Media

Less than four weeks till the end of the semester. Whew. I'm working on getting the imagery just right for this project. I had to stop and think about it for a while actually. I had an image in my head, but it didn't quite feel right at the time. So I waited, patiently, for inspiration to come. It came in the form of a reading from the book Screen that I mentioned in an earlier post. The author was talking about de Stijl as an outline for New Media.

"... an effort to resolve the relationships between structural form and transient content, between cyclical time and infinite space, and between a message transmitted and a message received."


















Jessica Helfand explains that de Stijl is "controllable precision" because of it's geometric nature, the purity of the x/y axis, and it's focus on the simple form of line and color.

The philosophies of the de Stijl movement can be applied to new media to bring together the "static and kinetic, variable and constant, and the universal and unique."

This was an absolute revelation for this project, as I was struggling to find a structure for the whole thing. I have the things I learned from the reading, but they can be hard to apply to an image and even harder to relay to a viewer. Having the structure of the de Stijl movement has given me an excellent outline to further apply what I've learned without compromising the viewer's ability to actually understand what I'm talking about.

I have a rough outline for how my page is going to layout:The whole size is 600 x 1600px, side scrolling. The black parts are where the images will go when I build them. I have some really excellent ones via Dave Morris on Flickr, I'm just not quite sure what I want to do with them yet. One of the things I'm contemplating is starting out the image library with some rigid architectural imagery and moving to more organic free flowing imagery that I'll "break out" of the rigidity of the grid. Too pretentious and contrived? Maybe. But it makes for good visuals. I'll play with that and see how it goes. I'm planning on having the website in some shape or form up this weekend, even if its just a rough working model.

Production production

So after looking at endless code examples and tutorials, I think I've determined the layout and functionality of my page. Going from this example, I'll produce a large format image map that will be clickable. Once clicked, the image will display a bit of text from the Burnett book, my own interpretations, or just general musings on the image. A menu will hover over the image map, with items that include home, credits, contact and other pages as I build or find them. I plan on aquiring the images from my own collection, morguefile.com and Flickr Creative Commons. These are all royalty-free images, most only requiring attribution, which I'll put in the credits page.

Some things I will focus on:

• The relationship between the viewer and the image
• Visualization and Creativity
• Viewer as passive observer and image as origin of meaning
• Image as a representation
• The relationship between "reverie" and meaning
• Depiction and interaction

Some questions I will ask of the viewer when an image is selected:

• What drew you to this image?
• What was the first thing you thought when you viewed it? The second? The third?
• What experiences does the image remind you of?
• What experiences shaped how you feel/think about the image?

So now I have a road map of what I want to accomplish, and some real significant amounts of time to devote to it. More updates later!

And So Begins Production

After many long weeks of extra hours, tiny deadlines, and a stress level unknown to me, I can happily say the hard part is over. The Jane Goodall lecture went out without a hitch and we have received nothing but praise for it. Now that that is out of the way, I can now refocus to the task at hand. Now that my research phase is (long) over, production on my website must begin. But before I get into that, I came across this wonderful video:

It mixes two of my absolute favorite things- Star Wars and Saul Bass. It contrasts Star Wars' "lived-in" science fiction aestetic, with the sleek energetic style of the 50's and 60's movie titles. I could wax poetic about Star Wars and Saul Bass forever, but I'll skip that for now.

On to production! I have a (very) rough idea of how I want my page to layout, and some idea of the visual look of the site. First, the functionality. There are two directions I can go with this. The first is a site that is essentially one big image that the user can can click and drag their way through. I saw this once a while ago from one of the design blogs I frequent, and I fell in love with it.

I've done some research on various sites, and I've even picked up some code from (and I really, really hate to say this) the Thomas Kinkade website:

< type="text/javascript">

var server = 'http://www.thomaskinkade.com/newzoom';

var fif ='moumem';
var credit = 'Copyright © www.thomaskinkade.com';
var zoomtype = 'le';
iip = new IIP( "targetframe", server, fif, credit, zoomtype );



<>
< id="targetframe" style="border: none; width: 730px; height: 450px; background: #000000">
< id="morenavwin" style="border: none; background-color: white; display: block;">
< id="myScrollerMoo" class="scrollerMoo">
< border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
< id="scrollRow">
<>

< valign="middle" align="left">

< id="vloading" src="/htmlroot/zoom/images/loading.gif">
< /div>
<>

< /tr>
< /table>
< /div>
< /div>

Here is what it looks like.

So this is really what I want for the site, the problem I have is that I know next to nothing about javascript. The good thing is, I know people who know javascript, and I'm a fast learner.

If I can't get the click and drag to scroll functionality just right, then my plan B is to simply have a side scrolling site.

As far as how I'd like my site to look, I have a few ideas:

**Warning! Nerdy content to follow!!**

LCARS is the computer system used in Star Trek. I always liked how it looked, and for my menu system and some elements of the image I might make it look similar to the LCARS style.

My next inspiration is from the film adaptation of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The animations for the guide are great.

So there are two things that I'll be working on developing in the very near future. I'll be posting more frequently about my production progress as well. Stay Tuned!