American Decameron 3

http://youtu.be/YZ6YgGCp-Sc

American Decameron 2

http://youtu.be/VEUQ1lux3ek

American Decameron 1

http://youtu.be/cnGPW1UzyfU

The Tank take2

While I was going down 34th street, it was so cool and interesting looking at all the other threaters and shows that were going on. I almost missed The Tank sign because I was too into looking around at the other places. I did not expect The Tank to be like that. I expected it to be a little bigger and different but it was free so it was good eough for what we were using it for. These pictures of the actors playing their stories and trying to get connected with the kinect.

The Tank take1

I dont go to the city that often like i should according to professor Baldwin but when i do go, i always see interesting new things. There is soo much talent in the city its unbelievable.

The Tank & Other Thoughts

Sorry if I sound rather unenthusiastic when speaking. I've been hacking up a lung and coughing non-stop that it's been difficult to even get through this video without having coughing fits. But to recap, I just talked about how it's unfortunate that we didn't get to fulfill every idea that we had because of the large scope of this project. Nonetheless, it was an interesting experience.

The Tank- Bravo to the actors!

I really enjoyed the show, especially Prince's part.. My friend I brought and I agreed that it was short and hilarious. We loved that he mentioned "the bullseye", and the stated the oldtimers were about 55 lmao. I loved the story about the asian guy and the brazilian girl..It really just was a funny/cute story.

I think the most heartfelt performance was by Robbie. It really just shook me to my core, I just thought wow.. this can't be true. My friend and I literally spoke about on the entire way home from the LIRR. You never hear the real stories about what happen in the army, just the good times. Drinking and comraderie. I have alot of friends in the army and they usually tell me they can't tell me about their experience because there aren't any words but Robbie just.. did and it was amazing.

Bravo to you guys.. amazing!

advertise!

The American Decameron show was a perfect space it was small enough for us to really get a feel of the show but large enough to fit the class but I still saw some empty seats. I think for the next show for a better outcome, there should be some advertisement. I don't mean putting a picture on eclipse gum of the show! but maybe telling some students interested theatre or putting one poster up in the elevator of the theatre building.

The Tank

well it went better than i thought!! i honestly thought it was gonna be a complete bust but it went really well. the kinect thing failed but the stories and poems were very well presented. some things that could have been better were:

-Actors speaking louder and having their stories linked: I.e. the lady with the book with the name and the guy whose name was in the book. their stories should have been run back to back so the audience got the joke or the relevance of the name in the book. but they didn't run like that so the story was pointless to the unknowing audience.

-about the kinect and projectors

- the kinects and projectors could have been more in the middle of the stage. that would have made it easier for actors to walk out, calibrate dead center stage and have the visuals projected onto them. it seemed a bit foolish to have the projection stuff off to the side. ALSO though the kinect failed part way through the computer that was connected to it could have put on a slide show of photos or SOMETHING!! the visual of the dead program was not attractive.

-loud people should have been asked to leave...

-though it was not an upscale Broadway performance people should have still been respectful. for those who did not should have been booted (just my personal opinion)

-the mini rehearsal that took place b4 the show only benefited the actors

- being in the film group i submitted my and other people's media which never got prepped to be played even wayyyy b4 the actual performance took place. granted they were not that important i feel as if they would have added to the stories. the music got DJ'd from a laptop as the show was going on WHY WAS THERE NO LAPTOP LIKED TO PROJECTOR PLAYING FILM AS THE SHOW WAS GOIN ON? that whole department was poorly planned...

-WE NEEDED MORE TIME TO PREP!

- we only ran through the entire show once in the little black theater and it was the last day for us to work stuff out. we should ahev started getting stuff ready weeks B4 the show or the first run through. i know the kinect hacking was goin n but i fee as though we were not allowed to work with eachother enough during class.

The Tank (Part 2)

Overall, the performance at the Tank was an amazing experience. I got to experience soo many aspects of technology that I normally dont get to. I've used the Xbox Kinect before to play games on my Xbox however never to put on a show in using it to manipluate space. I've seen "off-broadway" performances before however never ones using media and technology as a mashup. It was a great learning experience that taught me alot about the future. We, as students, are the future and these are some of the most important times of our lives. That being said, we must go out and experience, explore, and be users of media and technology. It's a fact that we never know what tomorrow will bring so we must stay thinking, and become the future of tomorrow.

Below are other pictures that I took durring the performance:

Jaw Droping Brain Cap

In my opinion, there was one really cool thing that happened during our time at the Tank that made every one's jaw drop. It wasn't part of the performance, simply a model of something big that could be for the future. A couple weeks back, a student came up with the idea to get a brain cap. Before this time, I've never heard of such a thing and became completely intrigued when I found out. Simply put, its a cap that can read your mind. It uses cutting edge technology in order to read your brain waves and manipulate something in accordance with the waves. You can use it to do math problems, to open an application on your computer, or even manipulate music. To the outsider, this may seem crazy and maybe even impossible however Ryan was able to make it work.

Before the performance, I took a picture of Ryan with the cap on. He was making sure everything was in tact and that it would work correctly. Then he shows us his homemade motor. With the brain cap, he was actually able to use his "thinking" power to move the motor up and down and side to side. Amazing! He was standing about 5 feet away from the toy and was completely able to do it without any physical help. That set the rest of the tone for the afternoon and became the most impressive performance at the Tank that day.

Ryan's use of the brain cap is really cool however it serves a purpose. To me, it's the future. The future of everything from cell phones to computers to even learning in school. Think about all the amazing things that can be done just using your mind. DJ's can mix up music just by thinking about it and professors can write on the board by just thinking about the problem. This brain cap is going to be the future of the world and I hope that it can be put to more uses in the near future. I am simply amazed that innovation has come this far and that it's right here at Stony Brook.

Opera Singer

This is a picture of the opera singer that was part of the show. She was an amazing singer. Professor Baldwin said she sang all over Europe which I found fascinating. I'm happy she sang two different songs in romance languages, and then a modern song "At Last." It was a beautiful rendition, because she puts a lot of emotion into her voice.

The TANK

Today was the day for the final!!
I woke up around 6am, then took a train@7:17am...
I am a night person, so for me, it was really early...
When I took a train, I could not see any classmates, so I was kind of wondering that there were some classmates in the train.

When I arrived@Penn station, I finally met some of my classmates, and I ate a breakfast together. It was 9:30am, but it already past 3 hours after I woke up!!! I could not imagine about it.

When I get the TANK, so many students were in there, and they already started rehearsal.
I was one of actors, so I practiced for my story a bit.

Today, I was a bit nervous, but I guess I did my best with my partner!

The Tank (Part 1)

The Tank is a really cool space, but much different than I expected. In my head, I pictured the lobby bigger (and the bar) and the actual theatre and stage a little smaller. What I really enjoed about the whole setup was the fact that everything was up to us. There were no "rules," we go to do whatever we wanted to do in order to increase the efficiency of the performance. Before hand, we were able to collect almost all the movies and music so that when we got to the space, we had that done. What we focused on setting up were the lights, the projectors, and the laptops to run Max MSP.



The picture below is an action shot of the performers warming up. It was interesting to see their techniques but judging by their performance, they seemed to work. I think the most entertaining one was the one where they went in a circle and everyone made up their own "act." Going around the circle, everyone else had to copy that act. Besides the actors, I was pretty happy with the turnout. We had almost everyone from our classes and some extras too. Some were parents and some were locals who stoped in to check out what was going on. Overall, the energy in the Tank was good.

Trip To The Tank

The tank was awesome! Today was the big day and I'm pleased with the way things turned out. With everything from the walk to the Tank to the actual performance, it all turned out excellent. I decided to document the whole day starting with the minute I got out of Penn Station. I love how the New York City sun hits you right as you come up the stairs. Walking down 8th Avenue, I started taking pictures:

It wasn't a far walk from Penn Station at all. I'd say it only took me 15 minutes to walk to the Tank. It was a nice day and actually not too crowded so i enjoyed the exercise. Some of the buildings and architecture were amazing and the amount of new buildings are incredible. I can't believe how much the city is always changing.

Practice for the Tank

This past Wednesday, we took on the task of taking a practice run for the gig at the tank. Overall, it went great. All semester long,, we were all in a sort of fog. Professor Baldwin kept telling us to just keep plugging away but we still weren’t sure what use it was going to serve. I can happily say that this practice run cleared many questions up. It is all making sense and im excited to see what the Tank has in store for us.

On Wednesday during the test run, I took some pictures and thought about some ideas and comments I had for the performance. The above picture is the setup we’re going to use to seat the performers on stage. It consists of two rows of chairs, each lined with approximately 10 chairs, and a performance space in the middle. In the middle, we have two Kinects that are going to be used by the performers to manipulate space. The professor will stand on either side of the stage and direct the flow of performances.

What I particularly like about this setup is the space it leaves open to act. It allows the audience to see the performers even through they are not all performing at that time. I think we need to make some changes in accordance with the Kinect. As the actors were performing, they seemed to wander away from the camera, which meant that they were not manipulating space. To fix it, we can place the cameras closer to each other so that it leaves a bigger space that they have to work with. We can also place a piece of tape down on the floor so that they actor can easily look down for guidance.

Coolest Kinect Hack - DJ

Check this out: http://youtu.be/YSYrtmogIZA

Within the last month, we've been trying to see how we can use the Kinect to manipulate different objects and services. We've gone through a lot of them, trying everything from just moving a mouse around to using a brain cap in attempting to move space with brain waves. Personally, I think the above video is the coolest thing we can use the Kinect for. The video basically shows a hack that allows a person to "DJ" via 3D space. They can move their hands side to side, up and down, and back and fourth. All of these motions control something different so by moving around, he is able to change music. To the normal person, however, it simply looks as if he is waiving his hands around in the air.

The coolest part about all these experiments with the Kinect is that we're actually using them in a real-life gig in New York City. As you can see , many of these ideas have come about already and people started hacking up code in order to create procedures for them to work. What hasn't been done is exactly what were doing. Nobody has taken these hacks and performed with them in a public showing. This could be, and probably is, the most important part of the whole process because when developing a new idea, It is important to get your ideas out and show them around. You never know who you'll bump into and next thing you know, the hack can be used for something very important and could be worth millions. I'm very excited to see who shows up at our event.

Rehearsal for American Decameron 2nd video

Todays Rehearsal for THE TANK

Overall I think rehearsal went a lot better then expected. The key will be to make sure everything is up and running before we start the event. It will be cool to have our films playing as an introduction to people as they walk in and then if there is time we can show more after the performances while people stay to talk about the show.

We need to be careful that everyone projects, articulates and faces the audience while they are moving around. Especially the group of four actors. I am worried that the sound that plays with the films will drown out the actors and we will not be able to hear them clearly.

If things go as planned we will have an effective piece that will be chatted about for months. I want to wish all of the actors a lot of luck. I am looking forward to hearing more of their stories