Art 412: Areas of Inquiry/Study Guide -
Art/Cultural:Technical:Director
Stephen Wilson
Professor,
Conceptual/Information Arts, San Francisco State University
(more information on CIA http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~infoarts/
More info on 412 course at http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~infoarts/cdmain/a412/a412.main.html)
Technical Topics
What is an operating system? What are its present
and
future functions? What are key features of the Macintosh system?
· Booting,
Loading, Saving, Cataloguing, Managing files, Communicating with
humans,
Communication with printers, Micro & mainframe systems, Accounting,
Security, Time Sharing, Intelligent Agents, PIMs, Remote Computing,
Network,
Wireless, Artifical Intelligent Agents
· Graphical
Interface, Desktop Metaphor
What are computer graphics? Paint programs?
Illustration
programs? What can you do with these programs? What is the
difference between vector and bit-mapped images?
· Freehand
& straight lines, regular and irregular shapes, paint brushes, air
brush simulations, fills, erasers, patterns, Bit mapped vs Object
oriented
graphics
What are comptuer graphics formats? How do
they
differ?
· Bitmapped
vs Vector, Postcript, PICT, TIFF, PAINT, GIF, EPS, JPEG
How does scanning work? What parameters must
be
attended to?
· dpi,
nature of image, line art, photographic, colors
What are image editing programs? Introduction
to Photoshop
· Graphic
Manipulations; multiple images, cloning, scaling, rotation,
perspective,
image enhancement, filters, collage
What are the underlying principles of computer
graphics?
What are pixels, resolution, color palettes, coordinate systems?
· What
is resolution? How does the Cartesian Coordinate system work?
Vertical
& Horizontal axes, the Origin. Underlying assumptions about
understanding
space
What are ergonomics? What are the dangers to
the
eyes and body of working with computers? What safety steps can be
taken to avoid damage?
What are the basic principles of
Electronics?
How do tubes, transistors, integrated circuits work?
·
Introduction to Electronics: History, How does a tube work?
amplication
effect, switching effect, transistors, integrated circuits, How are
integrated
circuits made
What is the difference between analog and digital
electronics?
How does digitization work? What is digital logic? How do
computers
work to represent intelligent processes?
· What
are the strengths of each -- precision, conversion,
cumbersomeness?
Truth tables and digital logic. Philsophical issues about nature
of the world.
· -Microcomputer
architecture: Sense, Decide, Store, Act. CPU, data &
address
lines, memory, program counter, instruction sets.
What are the electronic principles underlying
representation
of quantity, image, text, and sound? What are base 2 and base 10
systems? What are alternative number systems? What is ASCII
code? How are images represented?
·
Alternative number systems: Brainwashed acceptance of convention,
What is the difference between decimal, binary, and hexadecimal
numbers?
Reading numbers in the different systems. Relation of binary numbers to
digital electronics. Bits & Bytes. Possible combinations
possible
in 1 or 2 bytes.
· Representation
of concepts other than numbers in binary systems. ASCII
convention
for representing letters. Representing sounds, colors.
How do scientists analyze sound? What are the
underlying parameters? How does sound digitization work?
How
do sound editing programs work? What sound formats are there?
· Computer
synthesized sound: Amplitude, frequency, wave shape, ADSR
envelopes,
analog & digitally synthesized sound, CPU based sound,
special
sound integrated chips
· Computer
digitized sound. Sampling rates, quantization, compression
· Sound
formats (AIFF, WAV), sampling rate, resolution, MIDI, realPlayer, MP3
· Computer
Music and Sound Applications -- computer aided Instruction in Music,
Synthesized
music composition and performance, Music notation programs
· Introduction
to SoundEdit application: recording, effects, editing, tracks, formats
What is MIDI? How do sequencing programs
work?
What is speech synthesis? How can programs control speech?
· MIDI
standards. note events, program (patch choices), enhancements
How does data based telecommunications work?
What
is a modem? What is the history of the Internet? What is the
technical
and historical principles of the internet?
How does a web browser work? What are plug
ins? How do search engines work?
How does computer memory work? How is it
measured?
What is the difference between ic chip , hard disk, and removable
memory?
·
Hard disk physical characteristics & care, Tracks, Sectors,
Initializing
disks. Optical systems. CD and DVD recorders and formats.
· Hardware
memory- core, ram, rom, prom, eprom. Removable memory -- paper
tape,
punch cards, magnetic tape, floppy disk, hard disk, bubble memory,
optical
memory, bacterial memory.
How do computer hard copy print out systems
work?
What are page description languages such as postscript?
· Photography
of video screens, Printers- daisywheel & dot matrix, Plotters, new
technologies - ink jet, laser, electrostatic, Photo-CD, color
What are programming languages? How do they
differ?
What languages are available?
· Comparisons
of programming languages: High vs. low level languages.
Interpreters
vs. compilers.Machine language, assembly language, BASIC, FORTRAN,
PASCAL,
COBOL, FORTH, C, LOGO, LISP, MODULA 2, ADA, Java, Perl. Operating
systems - Windows, Mac OS, OSX, UNIX ,Linnux? Strengths &
weaknesses
of languages.
How does digital video work? How does
digitization
and compression work? What parameters must be attended to?
What file formats are there?
· Varieties
of graphics hardware: How does TV work? How does it create color?
Scan lines, NTSC standards, RGB, frame rates, persistence of
vision.
How do vector based graphics systems work? Storage tubes, direct
analog control of magnets. How do raster systems work? How do
text
screens work? Frame buffers, screen memory, tradeoffs between
resolution
and color. Calculations of memory requirements for certain
displays.
Why are high resolution displays expensive and hard to
design?
Why can't any TV be hooked up to any computer? What is the
difference
between regular TV and computer monitors? Comparisons of
vector
and raster based systems. How are professional quality computer
graphics
created? How is animation created?
How can one use computers to sense and control
physical events in the world? What kinds of principles underlie
the
operation of sensors? How can sensors and actuators communicate
with
the computer?
What are the components of a computer
system?
How do systems differ?
Art/Cultural Topics
What is critical theory? What is
postmodernism?
How do theorists think about technology and art?
· Survey
of Themes from Critical Theory and Culture Stuides:
Post-Industrialism,
Media Culture, Postmodernism,Structuralism, Deconstruction, Demise of
the
Avant-garde.
· Issues
in Critical Theory: Assumptions in the theories, Disjunctions
between
critical theory and scientific world views, Mediated image and
representations
vs. real things and organisms, Uncertain validity of action.
· Current
Themes: What Is Reality and How Can We Come to Know It; Are Bodies and
Physical Space Relevant?; Digital Culture and Identity; The
Relationship
of Digital Technologies to Gender, Class, and Socioeconomic Forces;
Information
Structures and the Fabric of Life; The Role of the Arts in Digital
Culture;
Interactivity and User-Interface Conventions; Media Archeology
What areas of scientific inquiry and technological
development are likely to be important in the future? What are possible
ways for the arts to relate to research?
· Artist
Stances: Modernist updating , Deconstruction as Art, Research as Art.
· Sources
of Information: Importance of information sources outside the
arts,
networks, journals, media, trade shows, research, artist as early
warning
system for culture.
· Key
research areas: New Biology; Materials Science and Computer
Integrated
Manufacture; Military, Surveillance & Auto ID; Space Science;
Telecommunications; Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Life, &
Robotics;
Human-Machine Interface; Virtual Reality & Simulation; Hypermedia,
Interactive Multimedia, & Cultural Extensions
How does one create a metaphoric space on the
computer
that can represent a virtual world?
What is hypermedia? What different ways can
information architecture be conceptualized?
· Interactivity:
Patterns of Navigation: Linear, Branching, Hypermedia,
Exploration
Environments -Patterns of User Interaction:
Presence,
Choice, Hypermedia Exploration, Contribution
What are the strengths and weaknesses of interactive
art? What are customization and targeted media?
How does one use life and everyday events as a
source
for art?
What is conceptual art? What are some
examples
of conceptual strategies? How can they be used as tools for
creating
art?
What is an art critique? What are the
responsibilities
of the audience and the artists? How can its benefits be maximized?
How have artists approached work with the
aesthetics
of sound? How have they worked with noise, music, speech?
What
is sound ecology?
How have artists approached work with the
aesthetics
of text? What is concrete poetry? How can text be
approached
as a visual element?
How have artists worked with randomness? Order,
chaos,
and randomness in the world and in art.
What is Artificial Intelligence? How is it
being applied? What philosphical issues does it raise? How
are artists working with it?
What is telepresence? What is virtual
reality?
How are they being applied? What philosphical issues do they
raise?
What is the place of embodiment? How are artists working with
them?
What are the ways that artists around the world
have
approached working with technology? What are artists doing in
interactive
media, robotics, biology, artificial life, information structures,
etc?
Where can one find resources to find out more?
What local resources exist? Exploratorium, the
Tech,
galleries, museums, special shows?
What are the cultural implications of the
following
technology trends? How can the arts work in these arenas?
Hypermedia
and the structure of information; Telecommunications, networks, World
Wide
Web, groupware, remote omputing, and the changing nature of information
sources; Simulation, virtual worlds, and artificial realities; Remote
sensing,
robotics, and telepresence; Artificial Intelligence; Gesture
recoginition;
New Biology; Materials Science; Space Science
Using Director
· (See
Director On-Line Tutorial)
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~infoarts/technical/director/wilson.director.main.html
What is the basic structure of Director? What
are its main functional parts - movies, scores, frames, sprites,
cast members?
· Director
Oganizational Key Concepts Stage, Cast
(paint,tools,text,sounds,
vector, digital movies, scripts); Score (Time Line model),
Channels
(visual sprites, sounds, tempo, transitions, palettes), Control
Panel,
Message Window
How do you draw computer images using Director's
basic
tools? How do you use the bit-mapped and vector systems?
·
Differences between raster & vector image systems; File
formats; Options (shapes, lines, text, filled areas,
buttons);
Color systems (Palette channel - system palatte, cross platform, custom
palettes, resolution, gradients);
How do you create animations in Director?
· Real
time recording, Looping, Inbetweening - linear, special, Cast to time,
Space to time, Paste relative, Substitution of cast members, Rotation
How do you use Director's graphic manipulation tools
- flips, inks, etc?
·
Inks - (copy, transparent, revesal, etc.); Effects - (flips,
rotates,
scaling, inversion)
What is a programming language? How does Lingo
work? What are messages, objects, and behaviors? How do you
program Director?
· Programming
in Director/Lingo: Sequential program structure, Object oriented
programming, Messages and Message handlers, ExitFrame and Idle, mouseup
and rollovers.
·
Process of programming: Value of program bugs, learning from
mistakes,
systematic problem solving and algorithmic thinking, Problem
Solving,
Algortihms, Heuristics, Translations from hand proceses, Debugging
· -Director
- Introduction to Lingo - Interactivity
·
Object oriented vs procedural languages
·
Messages and message handlers
· Where
to put scripts - sprite, cast, frame
·
Procedure for creating scripts, documenting, commenting
·
Interactive Design - creating scenarios and choices
·
Interactive metaphor events - mousebuttons, key typing, mousemovement
·
Commands/Properties ( on mouseUp, mouseDown, keyUp,
keyDown,
commenting -- )
How does one create navigation in Director?
What
are markers? What commands control movement among frames in a
score?
· -Director
- Simple Interactive Navigation
·
Frame numbers, frame names, markers
·
Managing frame space
·
Attaching scripts to sprites, buttons, and castmembers
·
Simple control of frame movement - halt pause, continue
·
Commands/Properties ( go, theFrame, previous, next,halt pause, continue)
How can one create interactive buttons, text, and
graphics?
What is a rollover? What kind of user actions can be
sensed?
How can these be used to initiate actions
· Mouse
Events - down, up, enter, leave, within, stilldown, mouseloc, mouseH,
mouseV,
clickloc, lastclick, clickOn
What are variables? How can the be used to
store
information and to manipulate properties of graphics, text, and
sound?
What is difference between local and global variables?
What are properties and functions? How can they
be
used in events?
· Freestanding
commands (halt, quit, restart); comands and arguments (go to frame x,
set
x to y); keywords, statements & expressions, constants,
operators
· Functions,
conditions & status (set the visible to true/false); checking
status
(if the key = "a" then go frame "animal"); testing functions in message
window
· Properties;
testing, setting; system properties (the platform); movie
properties
(the stagecolor); sprite proterties, cast properties; sound properties,
digital video properties
What text properties can be manipulated - for
example,
size, font, position, content...? How does one test them and set
them? How can one dynamically change the text? How can one
incorporate user typed text?
· Introduction
to text - fonts, size, style, height
· Manipulations
of text: size,font,style,color, components - character, word,
item,
lines
·
Editable text of sprite - allowing user modfication
·
Programming text - set the text of cast, field
·
Modifying text - put into, before, after, delete
·
Elements of text - chars, words, items, lines
·
Information about text - number of, length, the last, contains
·
Interactions with text - mouseword, mousechar, mouseline, the key,
lastkey
·
Using Alert boxes
·
Commands/Properties (textfont, textsize, textstyle, textheight,
editabletext,
put, number of, char, word, item, line, contains, last, mouseword,
mousechar,
mouseline, the key, lastkey)
·
Commands/Properties ( alert "text")
What image properties can be manipulated - for
example,
size, postition, color...? How does one test them and set
them?
How does one control appearance of sprites, cast members, and the stage.
·
-Controlling visible appearance - color, visibility, size, cast member
·
-Controlling the stage, cursor - setting location, color, cursor cast
· -
Commands/Properties (locV, locH, moveabLessprite, bottom, top,
left,
right, center, height, width, lefttop, botright, rect, constraint)
·
-Commands/Properties (visible, stretch, spritebox, blend,
forecolor,
backcolor, trails, ink, cast of, crop)
·
-Commands/Properties (stageColor, stageBottom, stageTop,
stageRight,stageLeft,
centerStage, cast number of cursor)
·
Control which member/picture is mapped to which sprite (the member of
sprite
#; the picture of sprite #)
· -
Commands/Properties (the puppet of sp#, puppet sprite#,true,
· puppetPalette
cast#, puppetSound cast#, puppetSprite chan#, puppetTemp speed,
puppetTransition
id#)
What is a message handler? How does one write
a custom handler subroutine? What are they good for?
If Logic: What are conditionals? How
does one use if...then statements to control the flow of events and the
semblance of intelligence?
· Control
of Flow. If statements, If-then-else, CASE statement
· Using
if intelligence to bounce, wrap, follow the mouse
Loops: What are loops? How does one use the
repeat
command structure? How can work with them in media events?
· Repeat
Loops.
·
Introduction to loops - repeat with, repeat while
·
Loop Structures: Use of variables as counters, using branches to
end loops. Sequential Loops, Nested Loops. Animation
Relationship
of program and visual structures.
·
Introduction to variabLess - global, local, set get
·
Commands/Properties (repeat with, repeat while, global, nothing,
pass, showlocals, showglobals, set, get)
Sound: What sound properties can be manipulated -
for
example, volume, sequence, synchronization with other events? How
does one control sound? How does one work with different sound
formats?
·
Built in Sound Channels, Linked files; Waiting for a sound to
finish
(Tempo or Lingo); Using the soundbusy() function; Stopping sounds,
changing
volume, enabling sounds; Example volume control by mouse position
·
Commands/Properties (puppetsound ch#. soundplayfile ch#,
soundstop
ch#, soundenabled, soundlevel, volume of, soundfadein, soundfadeout,
soundbusy,
beep)
Random: How does one use the random statement to
manipulate
events?
· Generation
of random numbers within a desired range
Digital Video: What properties can be
controlled?
How does one synchronize video with other events?
· Lingo
control of quicktime - start,stop,framerate, size, speed
·
Commands/Properties ( controller of cast#, directtoState of cast,
duration of cast, frameRate of cs#, movieRate of sp#,
movieTime
of sp#, startTime of sp, stopTime of sp, set video of cast# to true,
volume
of sp#)
Shockwave-Projectors: How does one save movies
as projectors or shockwave? What special preparation in needed?
Web: How does one use commands to access
resources
directly from the Web?
Time: How does work with timers, time and date
detection?
· Time,
Duration, Timers Delays, Time & Date,Using timers, timeouts, and
lasteventsv
·
Commands/Properties (date, time, abbrev time, long date, ticks,
delay,
timeout, timeoutLength, timeoutLapsed, timeoutScript, timeoutKeyDown,
timeoumouse,
lastEvent, lastRoll) Using the Idle message.
Lists: How does one work with lists?
·
Systematic storage of families of information; Property
Lists;
Creating and manipulation of lists - use of [] to indicate lists;
·
Commands/Properties ( deleteAt, getAt, addAt, SetAt, add,
getLast,
getOne, getPos, count, append, sort, itemdelimiter)
·
Commands/Properties ( delteProp, findPos, findPosNear, getaProp,
getProp, getPropAt, addProp, setaProp, setProp)
Xtras: How does one work with Xtras?
·
Sources of xtras; Use of the External file IO Xtra to store
information
·
Sample events - cutomizing user interaction, storing states, cumulating
information
·
Controlling Devices, appleEvents
·
Commands/Properties (open/close xlib)
Sensors/Real World Control: How does one work with
external
sensors and actuators from within Director?
·
Universality of computer as logical device. Substitutability of inputs
and outputs.
· Input
Devices: Keyboard, joystick, paddles, trackball, mouse, digitizer
tablets (pressure, sonar, electromagnetic), touch screens, light pens,
digitizer video cameras, speech, bar code readers, musical keyboards,
new
technologies -- proximity, gesture, eye movement, biofeedback sensors.
· Output
devices: Graphics, sound, motion, light. A/D and D/A conversion
(Analog-Digital
and Digital-analog):
· -pplications
in the arts: Robotics and Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM).
Control of theatrical lighting. Control of Kinetic Sculpture,
multi
media control, Virtural Reality
Mathematics of Graphics: How can one
synthetically
generate shapes -eg circles, sine waves