Mashup Spg12

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Hello, all!

Welcome to the wiki for the Mashup Culture class!

For more information on what a wiki is and how to use it, scroll down the page to General wiki info.

This wiki page is dedicated to the sharing and exchange of information for the Mashup Culture class
in the Graduate Media Studies dept at the New School: Mashup Culture - NMDS 5569 A CRN: 4659, Spring 2012. Jan 23, 2011 - May 14, 2011


Contents

Syllabus

Mashup Culture
Graduate Media Studies NMDS 5569 A CRN: 4659
Instructor: Josephine Dorado
Contact me by email

Course description:
Mashup Culture explores the remix culture as cultural exchange. We live in a world of ever-expanding networks, and the ways that we process and 'mash up' the various media and data reflect the evolving interconnectedness of our interactions. While studying about remix culture and collaborative process, students will manifest projects that involve mashing up media using various web-based creation, editing, live online broadcasting, and sharing and techniques of online presentation. The result will be a series of vignettes which reflect the distributed nature of our natural dynamic, bringing us together in cohesive cultural fusion.


Our tools

No books are required for the class; everything will be available online or downloadable as PDFs from Box.net. You will be required, however, to have access to either a webcam (an inexpensive one will be fine) or a digital video camera that you can use as a webcam, for videochats that will be part of class.

We will also be using a variety of tools available on the Internet:

For a full list plus other available tools, see the Resources on the class wiki.

Your contributions

Participation. Because this class is a seminar, your thoughtful participation is essential to its success. You are required to contribute—courteously and meaningfully—to discussions on the class blog. Participation is worth 20% of your final grade.

Assignments. There are a series of assignments throughout the term. Completion of these assignments brings familiarity with some of the tools available for remixing and collaborating, while simultaneously discussing the concepts upon which they are based and the community and kinds of collaboration that develop around them. These assignments are worth 60% of your final grade.

Final Project. The final project will be a collaborative, mixed reality mashup that will be manifested completely online. 'Mixed reality' refers to the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist. For our final project, we will be combining media that you've created throughout the class to produce a virtual sculpture garden that is filled with objects textured with your visual mashups and sound samples. More detail is available under Weeks 14-16. Document your progress and process on the class blog. Post images/sound/etc and link to them on the blog. Address the key theoretical concepts involved as well as your thoughts about the process and output. Final projects are due by May 11 and documentation is due by May 14. This project is worth 20% of your final grade.


Our schedule

WEEKS 1 & 2: Jan 23-29 and Jan 30-Feb 5

An overview of the remix.

Remixing and the collective mashup – what is it and how did it develop?

Readings:

This is a great keynote that Aram Sinnreich did for World's Fair Use Day 2011 - it has a lot of the same content that the article above talks about: http://youtu.be/ajobYLLUstg
and here's the presentation from the keynote: http://prezi.com/5kimeiibufhw/mashed-up/
NOTE: please read the whole series - the different sections are in the navigation bar on the right starting with "Intro" and "Keeping it (Un)real" through to "Remixing History"


Examples:

  • http://newsmap.jp/ and project info at http://marumushi.com/projects/newsmap - "Newsmap is an application that visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google News news aggregator. A treemap visualization algorithm helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by the aggregator...provides a tool to divide information into quickly recognizable bands which, when presented together, reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe."
  • http://thru-you.com/ - "What you are about to see is a mix of unrelated YouTube videos/clips edited together to create ThruYou. In other words - what you see is what you hear..." NOTE: if the above link doesn't work try the following (direct links from youtube):
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNzrwh2Z2hQ - DJ Earworm's United State of Pop 2009 (Blame It on the Pop)-Mashup of Top 25 Billboard Hits
  • http://www.eclecticmethod.net/ - Eclectic Method "helped pioneer the emerging art of audio-visual mixing since first cutting U2’s Mysterious Ways music video with the Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic as an experiment back in 2002. The trio’s audio-visual mash-ups feature television, film, music and video game footage sliced and diced into blistering, post-modern dance floor events..."
  • http://remixamerica.org/ - "RemixAmerica.org is a multi-partisan, non-profit website that uses digital technology to give everyone the chance to own the words, the music, the images and sounds of America in digital form; to remix those expressions and ideas with their own; and to send the products of our community's creativity out to the world... where others will come back to us and start it all over again."
  • http://www.sito.org/synergy/gridcosm/ - Gridcosm is a collaborative art project in which artists from around the world contribute images to a compounding series of graphical squares.
  • http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/ - Remix feeds and create new data mashups in a visual programming environment.
  • http://orange.blender.org/blog/creative-commons-remix/ - Remixes of Elephant's Dream
  • http://www.oamos.com/ - online mashing up based on a metasearch engine with audio-visual display interfaces.


Assignments.
a. Create a username and log into the class Class blog. For your first comment, introduce yourself. Write a short paragraph (bio).
We will all be posting class-related discussions via the blog and not via Blackboard.

b. Join the class Google group. We will be using the Google group email list to communicate logistical things and brief interactions. If you’re asking, “What is the difference between using the blog and the Google group email to communicate?” Mainly, the blog is public and the Google group is private; also, the Google group email will be used more conversationally/ for brief exchanges, whereas the blog will be for longer, more topical discussions.

c. We'll be using a variety of tools in this class and having some organizational tools will become essential. Diigo is an online social bookmarking tool that will help you store, organize and share your bookmarks. Create a Diigo account, if you don’t already have one, and post your Diigo URL to the class wiki. Once you've created your Diigo account, go to our Diigo Mashup Culture group at http://groups.diigo.com/group/mashup-culture and click the "Apply to join this group." Once you're part of the group, you'll be able to post and share mashup-related bookmarks to the group.

d. Go to http://newsmap.jp/ and explore the different options (customizability by region/topic/time). Go to http://www.oamos.com/ and try it (Enter any search term into the box. For fun, try your own name or the name of an artist/persona that you prefer). Go to http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i//msnbc/Components/spectra/index.html and add some news channels and then explore the interface (toggle images on, change view, try a word filter, etc). Each of these sites uses news as a source but approaches the mashup and visualization differently. Some are more straightforward, some - abstract. What did you think of the way that these sites mash up news, user input and mixed media? (I'm not asking which you thought was 'better' - they each approach the concept differently - just observe the qualitative differences). Post your thoughts on the class blog.

Note that it's not necessary for everyone to start a new post. You can also comment thoughtfully on other posts as well. As long as you're participating in the discussion, either creating a post or commenting -- either are fine.
If you're new to blogging and you're not sure how to create a post or comment, here's how:

  • To create a new post, just log into the class blog which will put you into your dashboard. You can either click "New Post" in the upper-righthand corner or you can click on "Add New" under the Posts section on the lefthand side.
  • To create a comment, log into the class blog which will put you into your dashboard. Click on "Visit site" on the top of the page which will put you back at the home page. Find the post to which you would like to add the comment. Click the "Comments" link at the bottom of the post. It will expand the Comments section and you'll be able to write your comment.


WEEKS 3 & 4: Feb 6-12 and Feb 13-19

The process is the product. Part 1: Mashing up images

What kinds of processes are involved? What has emerged as a result of this process? What does the process imply in terms of authorship and audience?

Readings:

  • Shiga, John. "Copy-and-Persist: The Logic of Mash-Up Culture." Critical Studies in Media Communication. Vol. 24, No. 2, June 2007, pp. 93-114. Download from Box.net - Shiga_CopyPersist_MashUpCulture.pdf
http://www.urbancollective.com/tennis.jsp
http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Photoshop-Tennis

Assignments.
a. Create an Aviary account if you don’t already have one. Upload at least 5 pictures (They don’t have to be of yourself – they can be anything. I’m more concerned with the process than with the content. Please make sure the images are your images though, in other words that you own these images). To upload, log into Aviary, then go to Create > Upload a file, then complete the fields (select the file, name it, give it a description and tags/keywords).

Please tag your images with "MashupCultureNS" as well as any other tags that are appropriate. For example, in this image: http://www.aviary.com/artists/funksoup/creations/bushwick_mural_-_hand -- Note that it's tagged: Bushwick, mural, Brooklyn, street art, MashupCultureNS

If you've already posted an image and you want to go back and add tags, click the "Creation setttings" button on the right and then add tags where it says "Tag your creation" (comma-separated).

For "Who can see this creation?" and "Who can open this creation and make derivatives?" leave it at the default selection which is "Everyone". For "What license should this creation use?" choose the last one, "Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial" - this will allow people to use your work in a non-commercial capacity without asking, provided they credit you and link back to your work. We will have further discussions on Creative Commons and copyright issues, later in the semester. Post your Aviary URL to the class wiki (log into Aviary then click on You > Your profile to get your URL). Add contacts (start with your fellow classmates).

b. Add some photos from your Aviary account to the Mashup Culture Aviary group.
Join the Mashup Culture group at http://advanced.aviary.com/groups_group?gid=304289 - click "Join" next to the group name
If it doesn't let you request to join, send me an email with your Aviary username. Once you're in the group, then just add one (or more if you want) photos to that group. Go to the image you want to add, then click the "Add to groups" button on the right side of the image, then choose the group "Mashup Culture (New School)" then click Submit.

c. To check out good examples of PhotoShop Tennis, go to http://www.flickr.com/groups/pstennis/ - This is the flickr "PhotoShop Tennis" group, in which participants post an original photo, structure a game around photoshopping the original image and adding/editing elements. Check out some of the games that people have posted, for instance, the Trouble in Paradise game.

d. Based on the PhotoShop Tennis game, we will make our own mini version of it for this assignment. Take one of the images in our Mashup Culture Aviary group and, using Aviary, add one or more elements in one of your images to it, or vice versa - add one or more elements from someone else's images to your image.
NOTE: this is not a test of how well you can edit an image - this is just a playful exploration of image mashing so please don't worry about how polished the edited image is.

1. Here are some video tutorials on how to use Aviary's image editing tools:
Selections and layers in Aviary's Phoenix image editor
Selections, transformations & filters in Aviary's Phoenix image editor
PLEASE WATCH THE TUTORIALS (they're about 10 mins each): Even if you're familiar with Photoshop or other image editing apps, Aviary is similar but certain things are different.
2. Upload your finished image into our Mashup Culture Aviary group
3. Blog about the process on our class blog - relate it to the readings and include links to your image(s).

NOTES on cutting/copying/pasting between multiple images:

1. Log into Aviary & have a look at the creations in our group: http://advanced.aviary.com/groups_group?gid=304289#creations

2. Choose the first image that you want to work with. Grab or modify the element that you want from this image then save it to your Aviary Library.

For example, I chose the Shiner Bock beer can:
http://advanced.aviary.com/artists/mm1320/creations/shiner_bock
Then I opened it in the image editor by clicking "Open in Image Editor."
This will open it in a new window in the Phoenix image editor. From there, I cut out the background and saved it to my Aviary Library (File > Save As).
Here's the image with the background cut out:
http://advanced.aviary.com/artists/funksoup/creations/shiner_bock
(for the purposes of showing it, I also published this & added it to our group, though you can choose to keep it as a "draft" until you're finished).

3. Now that you've saved that first image to your Aviary Library, it will be available in your Aviary Library so you'll be able to import it into another image.

4. Close the image editing window (File > Exit)
-- you might get a prompt saying "Are you sure you want to leave the page?" or something like that. Since you saved it, it's fine to exit and leave the page.

5. Go back to the Creations page in our group and choose a second image, then open it in the image editor.

For example, for my second image, I chose "DanielleMashup"
http://advanced.aviary.com/artists/cadette25/creations/daniellemashup
I opened it in the image editor by clicking "Open in Image Editor" then I imported the first image (the Shiner Bock beer can without the background) by going to File > Import > Aviary Library. I chose the image then clicked Import Image. Once imported, I sized it, positioned it, rotated, etc.(remember to Save along the way!) -- then saved it to my Aviary Library (File > Save As)

NOTE: If for some reason, the interface is being glitchy and it isn't displaying your first saved image -- in other words, if you go to File > Import > Aviary Library and you don't see the image you just saved to your library there, here's a foolproof way to grab it:
-- Go to the image page. For example, the Shiner Bock beer can with the background cut out is at http://advanced.aviary.com/artists/funksoup/creations/shiner_bock
-- Click the "Link and embed" button. Go to the HTML section and click "Copy it" -- this will copy the HTML embed code to your clipboard. Open a text editor (Notepad or TextEdit is fine). Copy the HTML embed code into that notepad or textedit window (or whatever text editor you're using).
-- Within the text, you'll see the words "img src=" which means "image source=" -- and after that will be the link to the actual image itself. So for the edited Shiner Bock beer can image, the image source link is img src='http://rookery9.aviary.com.s3.amazonaws.com/12440000/12440335_b0f9_625x625.jpg'
-- Grab just the URL for the image link (the link following the "img src=")
in my case, it was http://rookery9.aviary.com.s3.amazonaws.com/12440000/12440335_b0f9_625x625.jpg
-- Now that you have the image URL, go back to the image editing window, go to File > Import > URL then paste the URL into that box and click "Import URL"

6. So, now that you have the 2nd image pasted into the first image, you can go about modifying it/mashing it up as you wish, then save it to your Aviary Library.

7. Repeat the above steps if you wish to continue adding images to your mashup

8. Save your final product and Publish it, then add it to our Aviary group. (go to the final image page then click "Add to group" and choose our Mashup Culture group)

Ok, the rest is explained in the tutorials (working with layers, selecting, applying filters, etc). Have fun mashing up the images!


WEEK 5: Feb 20-26

Presence, Collaboration & Play.

Presence, collaboration and play are integral aspects in the online mashup process. What is meant by 'presence' and how can we extend it? "A network alone does not create collaboration" - what does? Why is play important?

Readings:


Assignments.
a. If you aren't already on Google Plus, let me know and I'll send you an invite to it so that you can join it. We'll be using the Google+ Hangout feature (group video chatting) as part of class conversation. Check out What Does Google+ Mean for Education? for more of an idea about using Google+ for education. Post your Google+ URL to the Links page. We will be scheduling video chats, times/dates TBA.

b. Create an account on Twitter. Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that also allows for interconnecting between platforms (you can connect your 'tweets' so that they show up on your Facebook status, as text on your mobile phone, and/or within instant messaging like Google chat). If you're not familiar with this platform, it's a good idea to get to know it a little better, since some of the data mashups we'll be looking at involve Twitter, and it's a way of building presence as well. Check out this post if you aren't familiar with it, or want to figure out how to optimize your use of it: Why Twitter?. You can go ahead and add me: http://twitter.com/funksoup. Post your Twitter URL to the class wiki. Add your classmates twitter names too. You will be required to tweet at least once a day for the duration of this class as part of our efforts to create 'presence'.

Think about how you can use Twitter to further your career interests. Are you trying to connect with people in a particular industry? For this assignment, let's explore it: find people in your industry and scope of interests to follow on Twitter by going to http://search.twitter.com and entering in keywords. Follow those that are talking about things that are relevant to you. Share your findings on the Twitter roll page.

c. If you are not familiar with Second Life, go to the Second Life Quickstart Guide for an overview of how to get started and the basics. Create an avatar for yourself and familiarize yourself with the basics. Over the next few weeks, our TA, Cassidy and I will be offering orientation sessions in Second Life that will involve learning basic skills such as navigating, walking, flying, typed and voice chat, creating landmarks and teleporting. Advanced sessions on object creation will be offered later in the semester. If you are new to Second Life, I highly suggest attending one of the basic orientation sessions as well as the advanced/object creation session. We will be sending out emails to schedule these sessions. If you're already familiar with SL, you may not need the basic session and it's up to you if you want to take the advanced/object creation session. Otherwise, you can also do your own exploring and learning. Again, for a tutorial on the basics, check out Second Life Quickstart Guide

As part of your exploration, feel free to check out some of the many interesting places in SL. You can check out the featured places on http://secondlife.com/destinations or Torley Linden's Cool Places to visit in SL and I've also made a list of my SL fave places to visit here: http://www.networkedcollab.org/index.php?title=Second_Life_faves


WEEKS 6 & 7: Feb 27-March 4 and March 5-11

The process is the product. Part 2: Mashing up sound

What kinds of processes are involved? What has emerged as a result of this process? What does the process imply in terms of authorship and audience?

Readings:


Assignments.
For this assignment, there are two options (or you can choose to do both).

a. Option 1: Check out Piano Etudes. Scroll down and click on one of the etudes ("Observing Squirrels," "Learning to Dance," "Reading a Poem," etc.). It will take you to a window in which you can play individual sound phrases and add them to the timeline below to make a whole piece. When you are finished, click "Sharing" on the left side and "Save and share my etude." This will save it and create a link to your new piece. You can also download an mp3 of your piece by clicking "Get an mp3 of my etude."
Blog about the process on our class blog and include a link to your etude.
NOTE: though this process is simpler than the option below (Option 2), it is slightly less creative, since the phrases are already pre-made and you'll find that certain phrases only connect with specific others. That being said, however, experiment and if you want more room to play, try Aviary's music editor, Myna, in the option below.

b. Option 2: For those with a little more experience in audio editing, or if you just feel adventurous, check out the Aviary's music editor, Myna. You can browse through the collection of popular mixes and the Hall of Fame. To play a clip, click on the egg icon. To open the clip in the audio editor, click on the filename then click Open in Audio Editor. It will open with all the tracks displaying and you can mix and mash within that window. The interface is similar to many audio editing programs so it may be familiar to many of you. You can bring in other sounds by clicking on the Library button on the bottom panel. The buttons underneath that are Quantum Tracks, Aviary and SoundCloud. If you click on Quantum Tracks, it will display a library of tracks that you can play and then drag into the timeline above. If you click on Aviary, then un-check "Mine Only?" and then enter a keyword in the "file, user, tags" field, it will search the entire Aviary database for sounds with that keyword (i.e., "drum" or "bell") and then you can drag them into the timeline above. Same thing goes for SoundCloud, just do a keyword search, check out the search results then drag your choice(s) into the timeline.

You can also download sounds from one of the sites mentioned above like FreeSound, or ccMixter and upload them into Aviary.

Blog about the process on our class blog and include a link to your remix.

NOTE: once again, this is not a test of how well you can compose or edit audio - this is a playful exploration of sound mashing so please don't worry about how polished it is. Please keep it short - preferably 20 seconds to 1 minute.


WEEKS 8 & 9: March 12-18 and 19-25

Copyright, Copyleft and Fair Use

What are the main arguments of this 'copyfight'? How have the outcomes affected remix artists? How do Creative Commons licenses affect remix culture?

Our guest speaker will be David Mazur, Esq. David is an attorney at MasurLaw and his practice is focused on the intersection of technology and entertainment. We'll be talking with him about issues around ownership, Creative Commons and fair use. Here's his bio:

David Mazur serves as associate counsel to MasurLaw. His practice is focused on the intersection of technology and entertainment, including the digital exploitation of intellectual property, ecommerce and entrepreneurial ventures. He also has wide-ranging experience in all areas of entertainment and media, including music, television, film, journalism, celebrity branding, advertising and promotions. His clients have included online music services, social networking companies, television production houses, advertising companies, game designers, wireless internet providers, and a variety of other creative businesses. David came to MasurLaw from Viacom, where his work focused on enforcing the company’s intellectual property rights online. Prior to that, David worked at the 92nd Street Y, providing legal support to technology based media and community outreach programs and administering rights clearances for the Y’s musical performances and speaker series. David earned a B.A. from Emory University where he studied English Literature and Political Science, and a J.D. from the University of Missouri – Columbia School of Law where his course-load focused on intellectual property and corporate law. Prior to beginning his career in law, David was an entrepreneurship scholar at the Missouri Innovation Center, a small business incubation center affiliated with the University of Missouri, focused on growing the technology and life science industry cluster.
http://www.masurlaw.com/about/team/david-mazur-esq/

Readings:

Reference:

Assignment.
a. We'll be having a realtime video conference in Google Plus with our guest speaker, David Mazur, time/date TBA.

Think about specific questions you might have for our guest speaker regarding mashup culture and issues surrounding the process.
Having finished the PhotoShop tennis and sound mashup assignments, have your ideas expanded/changed regarding ownership and the way media can be mixed and manipulated?

b. To see Creative Commons licenses in action, try searching for images that have one of the CC licenses applied by using the [http://search.creativecommons.org/ Creative Commons search tool. You can also look within Aviary and Flickr for CC-licensed images. In Aviary, go to http://aviary.com/search and enter an image search term then click "Search for creations." In Flickr, go to http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/ and enter an image search term then scroll down to the Creative Commons section. Make sure the "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content" checkbox is checked as well as the "Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon" checkbox, to find images that you can mash up. Note that if an image has an "All Rights Reserved"- the image owner probably doesn't want you to use or remix the image (or they may just not know that they can change their licenses to CC). By specifying that you want Creative Commons-licensed content, this ensures that the images you get will be ok to use and remix.

WEEKS 10 & 11: March 26-April 1 and April 2-8

Mashing & Mapping Data

Previously, we have mashed up different kinds of media. Now we'll look at mashing up data with media, such as geotagging, combining data sources and data visualization. What kinds of information do data mashups provide? What has emerged as a result of these processes?

Readings:

Examples:

  • Interestingness. <http://interes.tingness.com/>. - "a daily dose of interesting photographic inspiration from Flickr" (based on the "Interesting" feature on Flickr, which measures views and comments on an image)
  • Pipes. <http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/>. - an interactive feed aggregator and manipulator. There's a lot of potential here, for mashing up all kinds of data sources. For example, try the NYC Apartment Near Something pipe, which combines Yahoo maps with newyork.backpage.com apartment listings to generate a map of apartments in NYC 'near' things like parks or whatever you put in the search field. Or check out the Environmental News pipe, which aggregates many environmentally-focused news feeds. Or the New York Times thru Flickr pipe, which takes the NY Times homepage, passes it thru Content Analysis and uses the keywords to find Photos at Flickr. With each pipe, you can see how it has been created by clicking on View Source. You can also click Clone to copy and modify it to create your own pipe. Finally, if you want to track how brand or product mentions across a slew of social media sites, try the Social Media Firehose pipe.
  • Twist. <http://twist.flaptor.com/>. -"view trending topics in Twitter" (Enter a keyword in the "Show trends" field. For example, type "Madoff" in the Show trends field and then click "Last 30 days" to see the peaks and valleys of when the Madoff topic was being talked about - large peaks in February and smaller peaks in March. Notice also the "Hot Topics" list on the right.) [Note: if you don't know/understand what Twitter is, check out this article: Why Twitter?]
  • Mashup Awards: the Best Mashups on the Web. <http://mashupawards.com/winners/>. (The most recent mashup winners, ranging from Woozor - a Google Maps / Weather.com mashup providing 10 day weather forecasts all around the world to DivVoted - which lets you vote for your favorite sites with Twitter]. Click the "Older" button at the bottom to see older Mashup Award winners (there are many more).


Assignment.
a. Make sure you check out all of the examples above, as well as the links within the "Two to Three Years: Data Mashups" article.

b. Create a Flickr account if you don’t already have one. Upload at least 5 pictures (They don’t have to be of yourself – they can be anything. I’m more concerned with the process than with the content.). Post your Flickr URL to the class wiki. Note: you can customize your Flickr URL. Add contacts (start with your fellow classmates). If you're new to flickr, check out our What is Flickr? page.

b. Geotag some of your photos in Flickr. To do this, log into Flickr, then go to one of your photos. On the right side, under Additional Information, you'll see an "Add to your map" link. Click that, which will take you to a map where you can enter the location (city, state or city, country). When finished, click Done, which will take you back to the photo. You'll now see your geotag where the "Add to your map" link was.
To see how geotagging works, go to http://www.flickr.com/map/ and in the Search field, search "Everyone's Uploads" for a keyword of your choice. For example, searching for "graffiti" will display a map with dots that indicate flickr photos with graffiti that have been geotagged in particular places. You can also constrain the search by a more specific location; for example, you can search "Everyone's Uploads" for "graffiti" in "New York".
You can create a link to the map you just made by clicking the "Link to this map" button on the right. For example, the search I just did for graffiti in New York creates this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/graffiti/map?&fLat=40.7066&fLon=-73.978&zl=9
Create a link to the map you made using your search term(s); include it in a blog post about your process.

c. Create your own Pipe. See the description in the examples above. You can either create your own from scratch or clone one that you like and want to modify. I recommend watching the "Learn How to Build a Pipe in Just a Few Minutes" intro video and Using Yahoo Pipes For RSS Feeds and/or some of these tutorials. Save and publish your pipe; include a link to it in your blog post.

d. Grab a few sounds from the geotagged sounds on the FreeSound site that resonate with what you think your neighborhood sounds like or what you wish your neighborhood sounded like, i.e., it can be anything from subway sounds to sea lions in New Zealand. We will be using these sound bytes for a later assignment. For now, make note of the links (clicking on a sound will take you to the page for that particular sound and you can download it there as well, i.e., here's the link to those sea lions in New Zealand: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=38757 )
Include these links in your blog post.

e. Blog about your processes, and include links to your Flickr map, Pipe and FreeSounds. Of the examples and other data mashups you came across, which were your favorites? Why? What kinds of data and meaning has emerged as a result of processes like these?


WEEKS 12 & 13: April 9-15, April 16-22

Mashing up video

"...the remix never ends, it is everlasting, ever expanding and unstopable, an active force giving actual potentiality to the creator and freeing music/content/information from its constraints. The progressive possibilities to mash-up, refashion and reconfigure culture in such an inherently modern manner, makes music/content/information/art, as Tankel concludes while referring to Benjamin, into the building blocks of represented repetition itself:
'The remix recording creates a new artifact from the schemata of previously recorded music. It is prima facie evidence of Benjamin’s contention that to “an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility.'"
- Janneke Adema referencing Jonathan David Tankel with quote by Walter Benjamin, from "Schyzophonia. On Remix, Hybridization and Fluidity"

"The French philosopher Paul Virilio argued that every new technology comes complete with its own unique catastrophe; the invention of the aeroplane, for instance, was also the invention of the plane crash. The corollary of the sample epiphany is what I call the 'sample stain'."
- Simon Reynolds, from "What is your sampling epiphany?"


Readings:


Viewings:

machinima:
Machinima is cinema shot inside a virtual world, like Halo or World of Warcraft or Second Life (machinima = machine+cinema). I am including machinima in "video mashup" since it has aspects of re-sourcing/re-appropriating virtual world elements.

  • http://thisspartanlife.com/episodes/1001_mod3.php - "This Spartan Life" is a machinima take-off of "This American Life," with interviews shot inside the Halo video game. Episode 1: interview with Bob Stein.
  • http://journey.machinimag.com/ (Click on "captured Movie" and download the zipped movie file) - "The Journey" by Friedrich Kirschner. A machinima piece made with Unreal Tournament 2003 by Epic Games.
  • http://youtube.com/watch?v=c_gT0YDAkec - ZeroG Skydancers, produced and directed by DanCoyote Antonelli, machinimatography by Gary Hazlitt. Shot inside the virtual world Second Life.


Assignment:
a. For our video mashup assignment, we will be using WeVideo, a collaborative, browser-based online video-editing platform. Create a WeVideo account and watch the following tutorials:

For a quick guide on how to add someone as a collaborator, check out this WeVideo wiki page

b. Once you've created a WeVideo acccount and watched the above tutorials, upload some media files (note: make sure you own these media files or they are licensed through a Creative Commons share-share-alike license). If you don't have your own video files, there are many videos with a Creative Commons (CC) license available on archive.org through their Open Source/Community Video section at http://www.archive.org/details/opensource_movies and these videos are available for free download. (Note that if a video is CC licensed, the Creative Commons logo will appear on the left hand side of the movie's detail page). To search for videos by keyword, enter the keywords in the Search field at the top of the page at http://www.archive.org/details/opensource_movies. If you need audio, you can download free sound files from FreeSound or you can also use the audio library inside WeVideo. There are about 400 sound files in WeVideo's library categorized by things like "action", "romantic", "jingles", "sound effects", "atmosphere", etc. Go to the Audio tab in WeVideo's Editor window to access them.

c. Create a new project in WeVideo and mix together some of the video and sound files that you uploaded. Save your project, then go back to the Dashboard and invite some classmates to collaborate. (See the tutorial on WeVideo collaboration.

d. Blog about the process and include links to your mashup(s).

Joint class in SL: April 23

Joint class in SL with Mediated Environments

We'll be holding a joint class in Second Life with Christiane Paul's Mediated Environments class on April 23, 4-5:50pm EST. We'll be looking at how to leverage the virtual world environment to explore identity through avatar roleplaying. This will be an opportunity to meet real-time & explore the effects of avatar embodiment on online identity & interactions: an #IdentityMashup if you will. ;)

Please indicate whether you can attend or not by marking your availability on this Doodle:
http://www.doodle.com/8qigy7uqwbkrt6b4

If you want to teleport directly to our meeting spot, go to
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ASU%20altI/80/146/57
(launch Second Life, then click that link to teleport to our location) or instant message (IM) me or Cassidy and we'll teleport you. To search and send an IM in Second Life: click the Search button (magnifying glass in the side navigation bar, or Ctrl+F (pc) / Cmd+F (mac), then search for me or Cassidy: SL names: Josephine Junot or LilCaz Restless. You'll see the name in the search results, then click it and click the IM button.


WEEKS 14, 15, 16: April 23-29, April 30-May 6, May 7-14

Mashing it up mixed-reality style

'Mixed reality' refers to the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist. For our final project, we will be combining the photoshop tennis objects and freesound samples with objects inside Second Life to produce a virtual sculpture garden that is filled with objects textured with your visual mashups and chosen sound samples.

If you are not familiar with Second Life, go to the Second Life page on our wiki for an overview of how to get started and the basics. Over the next week, our TA, Myroslaw and I will be offering advanced sessions in Second Life on object creation. If you are not familiar with object creation in SL, I highly suggest attending one of the advanced/object creation sessions. If you're already familiar with building and object creation, you may not need the session and it's up to you if you want to take it. Otherwise, you can also do your own exploring and learning; check out the Second Life page on our wiki and and the tutorials available on http://secondlife.com/showcase/tutorials/

Here are some specific tutorials on building, applying textures and sound:

and here's a video of the tutorial I gave in SL for the previous class: creating objects, applying textures and uploading sounds
(The functions are basically the same though the SL interface might look a little different. Watch it in full screen mode for best viewing (hover your mouse over the bottom right of video to see the full screen button).

As part of your exploration, feel free to check out some of the many interesting places in SL. I've listed some of my faves on this page: Second Life faves

I will be inviting everyone to join the alt^I group in SL, which is where my virtual theater/meeting center now resides. I will need everyone's SL name in order to invite you to the group and give you access to the island, so please make sure you list your SL name on the class links page.

When you receive the invitation to join the group, click Accept to join the group and then you'll be able to go to the island. This is where we'll be holding the orientation sessions. I'll be giving everyone landmarks to the island, so you'll be able to get there whenever you want.

A couple of notes:

1. Once you've joined the alt^I group, by default, your group label will activate so you'll have rights to build on that island. If you end up joining other groups in SL, and you want to come back to our island and build, you'll need to re-activate your alt^I group label. To do that, Go to Groups (Communicate/My Groups) and click on the alt^I group then click the checkbox at the bottom of the window ("Activate selected group")

2. Make sure that you make the object modifiable and copyable, so that others can modify it (right-click/command-click the object and go to Edit > General tab, then click the Allow anyone to move, copy and Next owner can Modify, Copy, Transfer. Also make sure where it says Group: alt^I, you click the "Share" box next to that -- that will make it share-able with the group.
All of these checkboxes have to be checked or else your object won't be modify-able (please double-check).

3. To upload an image or sound:
In the top menu, go to Build > Upload (Image or Sound) -- you can also do cmd+U on a mac (and I guess ctrl+U on pc)

(It's $10 Linden dollars to upload an image or sound, which is about $.02 US - so you'll need less than a dollar to upload some sounds and images) (I can transfer some Linden$ to you or you can just get them yourself as well - click the Buy L$ button on the top of the SL window)

It will go into your inventory (Me > My Inventory or cmd+i on a mac/ctrl+i on a pc) - you can find it quickly by doing a search for the name of the sound or image (enter the name into the search box in the Inventory window - where it says "Filter Inventory")

NOTE: remember that sound files have to be in a .wav format and must be under 10 seconds long - 9.99 or under. If you need a quick and easy audio editor, try Audacity (mac/windows/linux) or Wavosaur (pc)
Also if you troubles uploading your sound and you get an error message that indicates that the sample rate is wrong, change the sample rate to 44.1k (in Audacity, to the left of the audio track, click the dropdown arrow and select Set Rate > 44100 Hz - or go to the very bottom left of the Audacity window, where it says Project Rate and select 44100).

4. To put a texture on JUST ONE SIDE of an object (one face vs all faces)
In the Build window (when you're in editing mode on the object), click the "Select Face" radio button. This will select all the faces of the object, then click on just the side that you want. Click on the Texture tab and click the Texture box and select the texture/image that you want from your inventory

5. Please clean up after yourself! (If you have a bunch of objects laying around that you don't need, delete them). To delete an object: right-click (or cmd-click) on the object and go to Delete

6. To take a copy of something (it will go into your Inventory): right-click (or cmd-click) on the object and go to Take Copy


So, once you've acquainted yourself with SL basics and object creation, create an object and apply one of the images from our Mashup Culture creations on Aviary. In Aviary, log in and go to our Mashup Culture creations, click the Creations tab and select the image that you want, then click the "View at full size" button on the right side of the image. You'll be able to download the size that you want from there (right-click to save the image). In Second Life, you can upload images as textures, by going to Inventory (Me/My Inventory or click the suitcase on the right side of the window), then in the Inventory window, go to File/Upload (Image or Sound). In the old viewer, just go to File/Upload. Each upload costs $L10 (10 Linden dollars = approx 4 cents), so I will be depositing Linden dollars into each of your accounts, so again please make sure you list your SL name on the class links page. Once you have uploaded your image/texture, it will go into your Textures folder in your Inventory (click Inventory, then go to Textures, or just search for the filename). For a video tutorial of how to apply a texture to an object, check out this youtube video on applying textures. Once again, Nina and I will be holding advanced/object creation sessions, so if this all sounds complicated to you, don't despair! We will be going over how to create an object and apply a texture.

When you've created your object and have applied a texture, you can leave it on the island. Make sure that you make the object modifiable and copyable, so that others can modify it (right-click/command-click the object and go to Edit > General tab, then click the Allow anyone to move, copy and Next owner can Modify, Copy, Transfer. Also make sure where it says Group: alt^I, you click the "Share" box next to that -- that will make it share-able with the group.

Once we've got some objects with textures on the island, the next step is to choose an object that resonates with you (doesn't have to be yours - it can be anyone's) and apply one of your FreeSound samples to it -- that way we'll be mixing 'sound portraits' with our sculptures, to make a virtual sculpture garden.

To upload your FreeSound samples, you can also do this through Inventory > File > Upload. Torley Linden, who is Second Life/Linden Lab's 'Resident Enlightenment Manager', has a detailed tutorial on editing and uploading sounds in SL, including how to use the free, open source audio editing program, Audacity to edit sound. (you can use any audio editing program that you prefer)

To make your object trigger sound when it is touched, add a script to the object. Right-click (or cmd+click) on the object, go to Edit, click the More button if the Content tab isn't showing. In the Content tab, drag your sound file from your Inventory into the Contents folder then click New Script and replace the default script with this: 

default 
{
    touch_start(integer total_number)
    {
        //Play a Sound file Once that is in Object Inventory
        llPlaySound(llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_SOUND,0), 1);
    }
}

Click Save then close the Editing window. Now when you touch the object (right-click or cmd+click, then Touch), it should make that sound. Have fun!


WRAP-UP:
Wrap up final projects.
This last week, we'll be holding another SL session so we can get together and have a walk around our sculpture garden and discuss. If you can't make this session, no worries, it's optional - just go to the garden and have a look/listen on your own time.
Blog about the process and outcomes and include screenshots.

References

References page

Links

Go to the Links page to post your Flickr links, Wikipedia assignment links, and personal/portfolio sites

Resources

How to join or start a Google+ Hangout videoconference

How to use Diigolet

Resources page

Flickr tips: How to display images linked from Flickr

WeVideo - how to add collaborators

Second Life fave places to visit

topics for basic SL class

topics for advanced SL class


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