Computer Vision for Artists and Designers
July 20th, 2008
by Golan Levin.
Tested translator in mac widget
June 20th, 2008
I tested translator in mac widget.
“안녕 뭐해? (meaning “Hey/Hello, what’s up?” in Korean) becomes
“위로 있는 무엇이 여보세요?” (What is up there is Hello?)
I love when the translator just makes up the whole meaning!
It’s so creative and artistic and almost like oracle telling me words of wisdom.
I should write a poem using this, hehe.
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June 17th, 2008
Registered for boxing gym in downtown.
Hooray!
Yet, that place looks …well, full of men.. and a few big women.
The minute I entered, it was a bit like, hmm, how can I put this right, a scene from Police academy, one of my favorite childhood comedy B-movies that used to play all its sequels on TV on national holidays.
So much muscle and sweat, a bit dark, not quite enough ventilation, all combination of which is …not really my cup of tea. But it was quite a scene to watch. People look so excited! And there are a lot of them! And you can’t really hear well. Women showers’ r not too great. They don’t have towel service!
Perhaps, something I wouldn’t really love to pay to do, on other occasion.
On what occasion am I now?
Well, well, it is an experiment, cuz otherwise, I would never try this kind of thing.
Anyhow, I say I’ll try one month.
Ate three mangosteens.
They are soo.. yummy yet so expensive. Only five of them cost $9. Wow.
In Chinatown, that is a real luxury.
Flipped through a photo-book called “North Korea” by Philippe Chancel, at McNally Robinson.
amazon
North Korea is interesting nation. A huge cult following real idols.
And “North Korea” seemed to be a well-put-together.
It’s a photograph from somebody else, but Chancel observed the same event.
So here is a scene from “Arirang”, a famous North Korean mass games in 2005.
Card section with acrobatics(fan-dance, here)!
It’s so daunting that it’s 20,000 people(students) that make the whole big picture as individual pixels, yet so interesting. We should try to utilize this for other sorts of occasion. I think it could be promoted to be more classical and genre-specific than radio city Christmas spectacular’s Rocketees, for instance.
I didn’t really like the foreword of the book. Whoever wrote it seemed like making patchwork out of his theory. Well, who doesn’t. But it didn’t work for me, at least. The history that Korea in old days didn’t allow western visitors to go back to their countries after capturing them cannot really serve to explain any relation to North Korea’s current isolation policy. Can it? What about South Korea?
I wish I could visit there some time. Maybe with my dad.
Btw, love McNally Robinson bookstore. Should visit more often.
Well, so much for today.
Found this from my junk
June 5th, 2008
While cleaning my old junks, I found a short essay I wrote for a class at ITP .
Title says “Artist statement for Contemporary Media Art Practice”
I sound as naive and somewhat vague as I always am.
I don’t think I have changed a lot since then.
Anyway, let’s hear me saying 4.5 years ago.
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I never considered myself as an artist before coming to ITP. I thought the terms “art” and “artist” bear much more meaning than I could hold. I was an anthropology major and have always been interested in linear story-telling regarding people’s lives but what I was doing was far from “art” in my viewpoint.
Even now, I am not so sure if I can possibly write a statement to show my artistic direction or preferences. I would rather write how I’d like to cook my ramen in the following two years. The boundary of “art” is still ambiguous to me and I don’t have my own recipe yet.
For one year at ITP, I was puzzled to grab the concept about what I was supposed to do! We (also ambiguous term) do video, sound, music, programming, networking, painting, sculpting, dance and all other traditional arts and are to add something onto it, which seemed too distracting to me: none of them looked like “art” to me. Most of the stuff I’ve watched here was interesting but not really moving.
However, having my third semester here, I am trying to find the missing link between the art and me. Now, I see the possibilities of a medium that I only understood the limited value revealed by precedent and contemporaries. I remember I never liked abstract art until I read Kandinsky’s article explaining his art: I got to understand the reason and nature of the medium, which led him to find his own format of expression. Likewise, I guess now I am finding the reason of existence and nature of the media I am dealing with, which, mostly for now, is video and programming. I am not so crazy about technology nor am I good at it. However, I am positive that I can find new links between the media I am using now. Hopefully, throughout my life, I would like to obtain fluency in my own format, not only enjoying the possibilities of it. As for the issues in my work, they range from outsiders, isolation, and humor to daily joy. And most importantly, I want to find art in what I am doing, more than I want to be an artist. That way, I could call myself an artist. Art lies in finding new values from what I have ignored.