Hello and thanks to those who showed up for this talk – it was a great discussion on how to integrate the marketing of yourself and the selling/exhibiting of your artwork on websites such as Facebook, Etsy and Red Bubble. The following text was provided as a handout. I am happy to run another workshop on this topic in the future if there’s enough interest – or feel free to email me with any questions you might have.

Note: images accompanied these notes in the presentation.

Enjoy! 

INTRODUCTION

This is a presentation and discussion on how you, as an artist, can use the internet to keep in contact with other artists, groups and galleries – and promote your own event – and sell work with the help of the internet. This talk will be targeted at those who might have avoided the internet so far, but would like to jump in and have a go. My motivation is to get as many HIP members online and as internet savvy as possible!

Topics covered:

• Facebook – how to become a member and connect with artists, groups, galleries and events
• Create a website – how to create your own blog-style website for free, display your CV and
upload images of your work
• Increase sales – how to sell your artwork on websites such as Etsy and Red Bubble

FACEBOOK

What is it?

www.facebook.com is primarily a social networking website that is free to join. In fact, there are over 175 million active members! It’s a place where you can keep up-to-date with what your friends have been up to, send private messages to them (similar to email, but without an email address), invite them to a party or event you are organising, upload albums of images or video, and display what mood (status) you are currently experiencing – similar to Twitter [1] – which you can even update on the run via your mobile phone.

Main features

Each time you log into Facebook, it gives you a summary of the 20-30 most recent things that your friends have been up to. This might be a status update, a ‘Happy Birthday’ message they’ve written on your or one of their friend’s walls [2], if they’ve imported another website’s interesting story, or posted a link to a website they enjoy. It also reminds you of your friend’s upcoming birthday’s, groups or events you’ve been invited to and more. There are also lots of time wasting games and quizes that are a bit annoying, so beware of those!

Hunter Island Press has a presence on Facebook [3] (of course) and through an RSS feed [4] it automatically imports all the posts we add to our official website [5]. We have also created a discussion topic for upcoming workshop suggestions from you guys!

Security on Facebook

It is important when you first set up your Facebook page to be mindful that it can be viewed by as many or as little people as you want it to be. This also applies to any content you upload – would you like only your friends to view a photo you’ve added? Or would you like to extend the access privileges to people within other networks or countries? It’s all up to you!

It is a common myth that when you add your details into Facebook, that anyone in the world can see them. This is not true. You have to ‘make friends’ with someone first – and this only happens through a request and a confirmation process that you and someone else are in fact friends. And even then, you
can give them access to all or a limited part of your information.

How can I create a ‘business’ page on Facebook for my arts practice?

You can choose between creating a ‘group’ page (where you can invite your friends to join) or a ‘business’ page, which allows people to subscribe and become a ‘fan’ of your business. This is most popular for galleries, musicians and other businesses, as it gives fast access to a collective of interested people. It also provides statistics (such a how many people view your page, how many view the photos and what percentage of gender or age your fans might be).

You can easily send a message to people that are already fans of your business page – for example, if you have an upcoming exhibition and you want to invite them. Or, if you are very entrepreneurial and have a ‘printmaking memoirs’ book for sale, you want to attract people to your page from all over Facebook. In this case, you can target, for example, “18+ year olds, living in Canberra/Melbourne/Hobart/Launceston/Burnie”, which have said in their ‘interests’ that they’re an artist, like art and, even more specifically, printmaking – which instantly informs you over 11,000 Facebook members match such a description.

Of course, this function is paid advertising, but you really get value for your dollar, as your ad will only appear on their pages. Whether they choose to click on it for your link, that’s up to the relevance of your wording or imagery!

You can choose to pay for impressions (how many times your ad appears on someone’s page) or pay for when they click on your ad (a higher cost rate). You can also set daily budgets and run your ad between very specific sets of dates. This is how Facebook makes its money (an estimated 300 million USD for the past year alone)!

How to invite people to an exhibition

If you have an upcoming group or solo exhibition, you can very quickly upload photos and all the details onto Facebook, and invite your Facebook friends along. We currently have one dozen fans of the Hunter Island Press business page, but once we have many more it will be an excellent way to contact fellow printmakers and artists, and invite them and their friends along to an exhibition. It’s important for us all to spread the word online and offline.

Business page and statistics

Once your page has enough fans to provide a summary, the ‘insights’ statistics can be an excellent way to monitor the progress of your page’s popularity.

Examples of ‘arty’ groups and pages I am a fan/member of: Hunter Island Press, Salamanca Arts Centre, AGDA, the TMAGots, Inflight, Design Centre Tasmania, ACT Art, Criterion Gallery, Arts of Tasmania, School of Art (UTAS), Biennale of Sydney, Crafternoon, Hobart Fringe Festival, Free Tattoo (never get a girls name), Six_a inc and Cat-Rabbit.

Groups and organisations are coming on board every day, just as the Hunter Island Press has recently done so. So there’s really no excuse! You no longer have to rely on accessing traditional mediums, such as flyers, posters, the postal service, or word of mouth. Facebook can help even remind you that an exhibition opens that very day!

Growing the group (without paying for advertising)

As I join as a fan to HIP’s business page, one of my friends sees this on their news feed. They sign up to HIP and a few more of their friends see and become fans too – this is how easy it is to get viral marketing going and the HIP group expanding.

The ongoing digital interaction helps strengthen relationships between people and entities. For HIP’s presence on Facebook, we enable a mix of current and new generations of computer savvy artists to keep up-to-date with our workshops, exhibitions, and what we can offer them. This relationship will be strengthened as HIP reaches out and communicates with its fans.

Our objective is to build these relationships through the creation of an online printmaking community, to ultimately encourage a ‘fan’ to make the next step and join HIP as an active and paid up member, eligible to participate in exhibitions.

CREATE YOUR OWN WEBSITE

There are so many hard and easy ways to create your own website within the World Wide Web. One easy and FREE method is to use Google’s own www.blogger.com – it only takes a few minutes to set up and you can share stories, photos and videos – using an internet browser or your mobile phone to upload content!

You will require a google email account (gmail [6]) first, but this too is FREE to set up. There are many default designs, layouts, colours and fonts, to make customising your own blog website as generic or as individual as you please.

You can even customise your security settings – i.e. give everyone a username/password to view your website, if it contains very private information. Or you can enable anyone to view it and find it through the search engines – even customising your own meta data [7]. The great thing about this sort of website, is that you don’t need any software, nor technical knowledge.

It’s simply a framework for you to populate with your own content. You can automate a feed into your Facebook page, or advertise your website address on Facebook. And if you want to get really tricky, you can integrate YouTube to share the documenting of your artwork or exhibition – and embed a moving image file into your blog website, or Facebook page. Even include a link to your Etsy shopfront…

HOW TO SELL YOUR ARTWORK ON THE INTERNET

Selling on Etsy

www.etsy.com is a website for buying and selling anything handmade. When I typed in a search for ‘printmaking’, it brought up over 11,000 results! You can join as a buyer only, or create your own shopfront as a seller, join an Etsy online community, join a chatroom and more. It’s free to join and only takes around 5-10 minutes to set up.

Etsy fees and charges

You set the price for your piece of artwork. Etsy charges you in USD to upload/list an item (20 cents for a four month period). A sales fee of 3.5% of your total selling price (not including shipping fees) is calculated only when you sell an item. You receive a monthly statement for any listed or sold artwork!

Selling on Red Bubble

www.redbubble.com is more of an image-applied merchandising business – call themselves an online art gallery. They really allow the customer great control, as it’s the customer who selects firstly the art image they like, then whether they’d like it on a t-shirt, as a framed digital print, a calendar, or greeting cards.

Perhaps more easily available for digital photographers or digital artists, as you upload a high quality digital image. Red Bubble creates and dispatches it to the customer, all for you. You always retain copyright, choose which products to associate with your piece of art and set your own prices.

REMINDER

Add your profile to the Hunter Island Press website!

www.hunterislandpress.org.au is our own website and we have many member profiles on board already, which is great – according to our own website statistics, they are some of the highest viewed pages!

If you have a page already (visit http://hunterislandpress.org.au/sub/galleries) let me know if it requires updating. If you don’t have a page, there is no excuse! There is plenty of room to include a biography and examples of your work, along with your CV. Contact me to discuss your requirements.

FURTHER INFORMATION

I hope this presentation has been full of useful information to get you started.

Please feel welcome to contact me and we can get you web savvy ASAP!

Cheers, Anita

Anita Wanless
Vice President, Hunter Island Press
email: hip@anitawanless.com.au
phone: +61 419 323 077
www.anitawanless.com.au

FOOTNOTES

[1] www.twitter.com is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

[2] A wall is public space for writing messages onto your friend’s Facebook profile, for them and their other friends to see and comment.

[3] http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/pages/Hunter-Island-Press-HIP/56418664727

[4] An RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works (such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video) in a standardised format.

[5] http://hunterislandpress.org.au

[6] Go to https://www.google.com/accounts/Login to setup your free gmail account.

[7] Meta data is hidden information that give a description and keywords of a web page, which allow search engines to index the page.

© Anita Wanless, 2009. Please contact me if you wish to reproduce this information.

Below are the variety of images on offer, both as cards, digital prints and some as original works of art. Digital prints are available for $15 plus postage (approximately $5 within Australia). Email me with your enquiry.

For more information about the Odd and Even market, check out the website or email oddandevenmarket@gmail.com.

First chore of the day: getting the wireless internet to work – I thought I was following Aaron’s instructions, but to no joy. It was a bit of a task that re-routed an internet connection from Nancy’s office into some hub’s that Dad happened to have (hugs) and I was on my way. Normally the wireless connection just ‘works’ but something seemed to be interfering with it. D’oh! And I thought this was going to be such a seamless day – I can’t control everything unfortunately! Haa!   

The ‘very expensive’ adaption to the projector hadn’t moved overnight, which was so awesome.       

Wowee – got Internet sorted at, oh, about 4.30pm that afternoon. I was stressing on the inside, hee hee. Aaron and Bill were very clever and got it all working. And then you wouldn’t believe it, but the pages I’d spent many hundreds (slight exaggeration) of hour on – ok, maybe just 30 or so hours on – were too bandwidth greedy. Most of them embedded flash video from uStream.tv – so I had to take a bit of a detour with my webcam input.       

I googled “IP webcam’s” and found a fantastic site with links to many IP cameras around the world. For the first test I combined traffic in Spain, a European office, a Turkish shop front, a muslim radio station, the Bay of Fires in Tassie, a swedish learning institution, a swinging pendulum foyer, a Spanish market and a beachside café/bar.      

For the final installation, I will include Ana Voog’s webcam broadcast (she is one of the original webcam girls too, so, sort of an ‘ode to Ana’), as well as setup a virtual webcam (just using Photo Booth) from within the vicinity. I will probably use the lower-right or middle-right screens for this, as catch a bit of light spillage from the doorway, which may show more details for the onlooker within the room.     

The screen zoom tool works really well for the browser broadcasts, as I can zoom in and crop with a fair amount of control over what footage I want to show. Aaron downloaded a preference pane plug-in called “Cursorcerer” which hides your mouse after a nominated duration. Absolutely perfect for me.A couple of broadcasts keep ’sticking’ and freezing on a frame – bandwidth problems still perhaps – so I will check/change to smaller broadcasts to ensure quality. I just have a few more photos/video to upload, then submit my artist’s statement and details for the grad show spiels that Luccia prints out for us. And then I’m all organised/done, yay!

What a gorgeous start to the day it was – Dad lugged in the heavy gear in his Hilux. The lighting rigs were shiny new ones, from ‘Production Works’ who hired them to me for a wonderful deal/price         

I was keen to have about 4-5 metres in between where the iMac’s were set up and where the projection was beamed onto the end wall. So that there is plenty of room for a crowd to come in and have space to stand in the centre of the work.        

The lower shelf started at 900mm off the ground the the highest point of the Mac’s on the top shelf were going to be around 2.5 metres. Any taller and it would be difficult to view the content. The stands were very sturdy. Required the half coupler brackets to be positioned. Then two lots of 90º brackets to be bolted on. The black timer shelves (consisting of MDF with hardwood centre support beam) were then screwed into the metal brackets. Certainly not going anywhere in a hurry, ha!       

Once the central iMac’s were positioned, we measured 90mm between them and the iMac’s next to them. This gave an even spacing between the vertical ones, giving the impression of grid-like matrix.      

All the iMac’s contained a security hole for bolting to a desk or similar. These were all in slightly different positions, so Dad and I were careful to mark and position each one with great care. I caught myself when I realised I was about to ask him to move one half a millimetre to one side.      

Voila! Yay!    

And now for the false wall – to cover up all the junk in the back of the room. But also to draw/halve the size of the room. The rope really stood out – even with the lights off – so we used a combination of gaffa tape quality to hang and then hide the rope, blending it in with the black material.     

Tidying up – couldn’t get the internet to work though, d’oh! Fingers crossed for tomorrow with Aaron’s help     

The 3D glasses are offered close to the entrance from the atrium walkway. I didn’t want to put them on the other side of the room, as they might get missed.     

I wanted the eye to be projected through a circular shape, so that it didn’t have a hard white rectangle edge around it. So Dad cut a small hole in some wood to reveal the projected image through it. It certainly has a Big Brother feel to it now! Peers that popped in during the course of the day all seemed to react well to the domineering effect that the computer matrix/grid had too. It certainly seemed to have an overwhelming presence in the room, which is fantastic. I am really very happy with how it all looks. Just have to get the wireless internet connections and the auto file startups to work – I wasn’t able to get this working late tonight, without Aaron’s help. So I will have to pester him again in the morning.   

Loose ends

• Full-screen toggle for embedded uStream video files [Unable to find anything that works, so have posted a query on the Whirlpool forums website, so will see if anyone knows of a way.]

I received this reply to my post, from DaRKoN_ “You must goto full screen manually. AFAIK you can’t programatically do it else we would have websites taking over our entire desktops all the time.” …Well, that answers that then! I received another reply that was similar. So, my maximum window solution appears to be the one at this stage.

• Flash video of blinking eye, to create intervening page within some of the broadcast pages [DONE]
• Refine choices for embedded web streams and create extra six journeys of streams [DONE]
• Check what needs to be written for assessment [DONE]
• Artists statement – should also be a reflective statement, so need to tweak current statement once everything is finalised [DONE]
• Get photos printed for journal [Decided to just add to this blog instead]
• Iron black material
• Pack gaffa tape & rope to hang black material
• Photograph seminar room for setup preparation [DONE]
• Monday lunch hour: bring in TV for Matt [DONE], find Jessie for her to take her photo.
• Print out stickers for attaching to journal/documents [DONE]
• Investigate concave surface for projecting onto … check whether 3D effect still works and whether it gives the appearance of an eyeball coming out from the wall. Maybe getting some foam cut? Keep it a white shape? [Shapes distorting too much, discarding idea]
• Round hole to project eyeball video through – project as round shape onto wall, masking edges. Projector lens is 50mm, so cut hole at diameter of 45mm.
• Test webcam’s on uni iMac computers running OS 10.5 with macam software.
• Fix white background for flash video of eyeball.

Electronic Portfolio

Finalise DVD or website plans – I am thinking that the web is more appropriate, since my project is all about the internet, lol. At the moment my website is just a cover page with a link to this blog. So, perhaps I could rework it to begin with my showreel and then links to other works?

Finalise Grad Show DVD screens

We tried the same font as the grad show catalogue, “Arno Display Italic”, but when Raef tested it, it just wasn’t legible for tv screens. After trying the non-italics version, we pulled the pin on Arno and resorted to Helvetica CY instead. Looks much better and will be excellent that people will actually be able to read our blurbs, lol. Here’s a preview of a few pages:

Internet connections

Bill and Aaron have sussed out the internet connections for me, for the seminar room, for examinations setup. One computer will use the ethernet cable & will be used to send a wireless signal to the other 9 computers in the room, yay! So that bit is all sorted.

Rig for computers to be displayed

I have a few possibilities for this tricky little part. I could use some scaffolding from somewhere within the uni (not so sure how polished this will look), hang the computes from the ceiling (wold depend on how they are weighted & might interfere with the screens, so not so keen on this one either) or hire some lighting rigs from Production Works. The latter being the preferred option, particularly for occupational health & safety reasons … as the show is open to the general public, I want for things to be rock solid & not worry about damaging equipment nor humans! Lol. So, the rigs just depend on the costings. Otherwise, scaffolding will be the go!

Measurements

Need to take some photos of the seminar room, measure the walls to check that my big piece of black material will suffice, and check what sized planks I may need to sit the computers on. So, need the dimensions of the computer also. Will need to bolt them down onto the planks, for security reasons!Specs off the Apple website:

20-inch iMac: Height: 46.9 cm; Width: 48.5 cm; Depth: 18.9 cm; Weight: 9.1 kg                                             

Webcam testing 

Testing out two external webcam’s that I’d like to hang around the room/hallway area of the uni atrium to connect into my broadcast. Not sure how I’m going to get those to autostart with the log-in stuff required, so I might have to come in every day and do that after all, d’oh! Anyways, I purchased one UVC logitech webcam – apparently if a webcam is UVC it is supported for Mac’s running OS 10.4.9 onwards, but you need to download the latest macam software from http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net and the open source software can be downloaded from here.

Matrix code

Yay, I have just finished the matrix of nine coding sequences for the installation. Running left to right, top to bottom, here are the pages to kick things off:

• http://www.anitawanless.com.au/greaterdimension/1a.php

Includes: ‘on the rail’ pool; Anita Wanless webcam 1; pirillo.com; Roland Martin Show; and embedded flash video of the 3D eyeball.

• http://www.anitawanless.com.au/greaterdimension/2a.php

Includes: Jonathon Davis; japanese animation; embedded flash video of the 3D eyeball; and flamingo church.

• http://www.anitawanless.com.au/greaterdimension/3a.php

Includes: John McCain; japanese animation; and ‘This is Mason’.

• http://www.anitawanless.com.au/greaterdimension/4a.php

Includes: Vent with Michelle Malkin; NASA space; Anita Wanless webcam 2; and Ludo DJ.

• http://www.anitawanless.com.au/greaterdimension/5a.php

Includes: MCLY TEC; The Tech Buzz (problem solving); Get Web TV; and In search of the paranormal.

• http://www.anitawanless.com.au/greaterdimension/6a.php

Includes: Dane Cook; Clifton Beach TAS webcam; African flamingos; and embedded flash video of the 3D eyeball.

• http://www.anitawanless.com.au/greaterdimension/7a.php

Includes: Bay of Fires TAS webcam; Anita Wanless webcam 3; Switchfoot Studio; and Lunchtime Chats.

• http://www.anitawanless.com.au/greaterdimension/8a.php

Includes: Ed Morrissey Show; Wine Library TV; Penny Arcade; and KCJJ RAW.

• http://www.anitawanless.com.au/greaterdimension/9a.php

Includes: embedded flash video of the 3D eyeball; the Scheff Experience; LAGtv; and MP3 Insider.

Planning the seminar room 

I have organised to hire some light rigging stands from Production Works, as well as 1 dozen half couplets, 2 heavy base stands, 3 planks of wood, and bolts/washers etc.  

The celing height measure 3.03 metres up to the wood and then gives another 400mm. My rigging stands measure 3 metres – how lucky is that! It should all just fit in nicely (fingers crossed). 

I was happy to find three little hooks right where I’d like to hang my false wall with the black material. I can tension some rope and use gaffa tape to do the rest. Then, I can hide all the stuff (chairs/desks/etc) I don’t need from the room in behind it all!

Bring in for the first set up day

• Hammer (Dad to bring)
• Cordless drill & drill bits (Dad to bring)
• Shifter (Dad to bring)
• Ladder (Dad to bring)
• Black material (ironed)
• Gaffa/electrical/masking tape
• 3D glasses
• Nuts, bolts, washers
• Rope
• Power boards
• Extension chord
• Video/camera for documentation

ARTIST STATEMENT

Early conceptual investigations were inspired by Oscar Wilde “…Man is least himself when he talks in his own person…Give him a mask, and he will tell the truth”. I have continued to explore the idea of a mask, as a tool to reflect upon the barriers we often develop to hide/protect our inner identity. My work deals with these ideas and concerns relating to identity, inhibitions and personal expression. And, more recently, how these are aided through personal interactions via the Internet.

Post modern feminist Donna Haraway, famous for her ‘cyborg’ writings, asked “…why should our bodies end at the skin?” and that “…even the most ‘natural’ body is a cyborg: one organic and (another) technological”. This work, entitled ‘Greater Dimension’, aims to make a statement that one can simultaneously be both the gazer and the gazed upon, be an organic life form or digital body of data, in a journey of self-discovery via the Internet.

This work aims to portray the masks of those separating their identity from body, exploring an online body of data with a desire to connect with others through different media channels, such as blogs, journals and galleries. The objectification of individuals creates dedicated engagement and interest, resulting in their own micro-celebrity fan base for the consenting broadcaster.

‘Greater Dimension’ combines the streaming of live data across the Internet, via multiple webcam’s – combining personal and public footage from local and international locations – to create an engaging and interactive work for an audience’s gaze.

Themes of exhibitionism and surveillance are prevalent. Statistics provide further intrigue for broadcasters, who can watch themselves being watched. Individuals are increasingly streaming their daily routine across the Internet – turning the ordinary into extraordinary. This work questions whether online experiences tell more about one’s self, than those they are watching.

T. Senft, Camgirls : Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networks, 2008, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York: 8

ibid: 36

SELF REFLECTION

Many conceptual developments were inspired by Laura Mulvey, Linda Nochlin, Griselda Pollock and Donna Haraway. Focusing upon their arguments about the gaze and adaptation of one’s digital identity. My intention was to create a work, exploring notions of the digital self and how broadcasted behaviour may uncover more about oneself than those you choose to watch. My initial research investigated chat rooms, then focused upon online communities, who embraced broadcasting themselves online.

Writer Terri Senft helped uncover the essence of this work and critiques provided excellent guidance, with peers suggesting a surveillance-like setup. Discussions with teaching staff further reinforced the conceptual and metaphorical importance of highlighting a broadcasters’ interest in self-surveillance.

The blinking watchful (stereoscopic anaglyph) eye symbolises a three-dimensional and organic contrast to the rigid matrix of the iMac’s. It metaphorically achieves a sense of being inside the viewer’s mind. Who is watching whom? What does this tell us about the Internet … and about ourselves?

While broadcasters allow phone calls, instant message chats, and live webcam’s of themselves – the work was originally strengthened by displaying total online viewers, providing greater interest. It led me to wonder where the intent to broadcast originated? Perhaps to achieve micro-celebrity status, or simply watch one’s broadcast being watched? I felt including some time/location data gave a broader sensory awareness to an individual’s interaction with the work.

Whilst it was disappointing that I had to discard the original embedded broadcast sequences, as were too bandwidth hungry, I feel the IP webcam’s were even more successful. Whilst I had to compromise on less private webcam’s, the IP webcam’s still communicate the essence of the work – in that, they reveal more about the watcher, than those featured within the broadcast. Overall, I believe it’s a highly engaging, interactive and thought provoking work, for today’s digitally-masked society.

Friday 10 October launched the opening of the New White Gallery in Little Bourke Street, Melbourne CBD. Showcasing the work from approximately one dozen artists, it was an eclectic mix of contemporary artwork from a variety of mediums, including photography, painting and printmaking. 

Snapshots of the work and celebrations:  

A couple of night’s this week were dedicated to working out the DVD screen layouts. Just waiting now to hear back in regards to what colour scheme has been approved by the committee. Unfortunately the $250 funding fell through, so students need to fork out an additional $23 each for a DVD. 

Stereoscopic anaglyph eye

I was able to finalise the looped sequence for the 3D eyeball. After Effects was a lot of fun & a bit fiddly in the start (before I knew what I was doing) to get the hang of the motion stabiliser. I decided to only apply the effect to the x-axis, as it rotated the eye otherwise. Here is the finished result below:       

This is the address of my uStream channel:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/anita-wanless                          

Video embedding code details:

<object classid=”clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″ width=”400″ height=”320″ id=”utv459567″><param name=”flashvars” value=”autoplay=false&brand=embed”/><param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true”/><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”/><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.ustream.tv/flash/live/306875″/><embed flashvars=”autoplay=false&brand=embed” width=”400″ height=”320″ allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” id=”utv459567″ name=”utv_n_421202″ src=”http://www.ustream.tv/flash/live/306875″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” /></object><a href=”http://www.ustream.tv/” style=”padding:2px 0px 4px;width:400px;background:#FFFFFF;display:block;color:#000000;font-weight:normal;font-size:10px;text-decoration:underline;text-align:center;” target=”_blank”>Video chat rooms at Ustream</a>                          

Full screen toggle

I found this helpful website that got me a step closer with the full-screen code:http://www.htmlhelpcentral.com/messageboard/showthread.php?t=6099 So now here is a test page that resizes itself automatically:http://www.anitawanless.com.au/emedia/test_1a_fs.php

Automatic motion sensor

I spoke to Bill Hart about setting up a motion sensor to activate one video file to play another video file, then return to the first video file. He’d set something similar up years ago for a project, and so may have a ready made (see his link) but otherwise said I’d need some electronics programming skills for the Arduino gadgets. Something I’d like to investigate further that’s for sure I am excited that I’ll be able to get the eye transforming from a gentle blink, to an erratic pace!

 The basic Arduino board:

Critique comments

I had my critique today and received some really productive feedback. Most people thought that trying to do everything would be overkill and too complicated. They liked the 3D eye all by itself (just the plain blinking version … discarding the erratic version options) but with some motion tracking control applied (it has some horizontal movement at the moment) and without any motion-sensor interactive component. And while the stereoscopic eye has been subtle on a small computer screen, I received really positive feedback about it projected up onto the big screen – so I was really pleased about that. At this stage, I will include some 3D glasses – and let people take their preference to whether they wear them or not. Bill is working on how to arrange the multitude of internet connections I’ll require for my installation. I’d only thought to use 3 monitors but he was generous to say that I could use nine monitors if I really wanted. I am excited about the possibilities of that, as it would visually be highly communicative of the surveillance-like feel that I am desiring. So, at the moment, I am envisioning the large eye projected onto some sort of round convex surface. It is adjacent to a three by three grid of nine iMac’s, which are all broadcasting embedded webcam streams via an internet browser.

It was tricky to get this thing down to 100 words, but here it is:

Inspired by Oscar Wilde “…Man is least himself when he talks in his own person…Give him a mask, and he will tell the truth”. I explored the idea of a mask as a tool to reflect upon the innate barriers we often develop in relation to our identity, inhibitions and personal expression, and how these are aided through personal experiences with the Internet. ‘Greater Dimension’ portrays those separating identity from body. It engages with individuals broadcasting their daily routine – turning the ordinary into extraordinary – and discusses how online experiences may tell more about one’s self than those they’re watching.

Showreel

Runs for 1 minute 50 seconds:

 The music is a compilation of about four different tracks by an artist called “Calpomat” who publishes freely for students to download his stuff, on the flashkit.com website. As I’d also like to include this showreel as an intro to my final portfolio DVD, I didn’t want something that ran for too long. A couple of minutes is plentiful I reckon And as I’m not quite ready to release the ‘eyeball’, I didn’t include as yet.

Stereoscopic anaglyph eye

I have been learning a bit of After Effects – playing with the levels, timeline, 3D-glasses effect. It seems to be fairly intuitive and quite easy to use. I really like it! Well, I now have a 50 second (or so) eyeball loop, containing it looking ahead, plus darting around in all directions. The 3D works, but I’m not sure how well it works – in that, it is subtle! I will see what feedback I receive from the upcoming critique, as others might not deem in necessary either. Perhaps the plain eye (which I like aesthetically) will do the job all by itself. I have two versions for the critique anyways.

Testing uStream broadcasts

Here are a series of three streams to test at various times of the day:

• http://www.anitawanless.com.au/emedia/test_1a.php
• http://www.anitawanless.com.au/emedia/test_2a.php
• http://www.anitawanless.com.au/emedia/test_3a.php