Networks Assignment!

The Parrot Bay is a website which alludes to the very popular, Swedish-based BitTorrent site, The Pirate Bay. Through the form of a recognizable torrent indexer, the purpose of this website is to bring awareness to what torrenting is, to its effectiveness in spurring all-to-frequent cases and debates, and also to shed some light onto The Pirate Bay's recent trials in court. The website itself does not encourage any form of piracy or illegal activities.

The Parrot Bay was created as an assignment for a Digital Media class at York University. The purpose of the assignment was to explore the basic applications of HTML and CSS coding, while at the same time engaging in a particular topic or issue. This website was not written from scratch. That being said, The Parrot Bay is also not a strict copy of The Pirate Bay's website. Well over 15 hours of time has been spent on writing, tinkering, and experimenting with code. The original files belonging to The Pirate Bay were only used as a reference. This site is, after all, supposed to resemble the world's most resilient BitTorrent site. 

The main Search page can be viewed here.

The Search Results page can be viewed here.

Torrent description #1 can be viewed here.

Torrent description #2 can be viewed here.

The About page can be viewed here.

References and more can be viewed here.

All pages are accessible through one another.

References CSS documents can be found in the source code.

Enjoy!

Networks Website Idea

Project 2 of The Electronic Landscape requires me to design a 6 page website. This website will be inspired by one or two pre-existing websites. My idea for this assignment is to combine two contrasting websites: contrasting in terms of both style and purpose. Using at least three different layouts, I am to critically engage with the HTML/CSS code as well as the content of my website.

The topic around which I plan to design my website is that of piracy. Music, video, game, and even picture piracy has existed for years. It is a topic of controversy, debate, and more often than not involves money or lost sales. I find this an important issue in today's society; especially with the growing popularity of BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer file sharing protocols. The recent events of LimeWire's shutdown and The Pirate Bay's time in court are also factors which swayed me in deciding on this as a subject for my website. I've got some interesting ideas for this assignment; let's just hope their implementation won't be too difficult.

Activism Through Social Media: Article Comparison!

Chapter 1 fromClay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody

Malcolm Gladwell'sSmall Change

The two articles above cover the topics of internet publicity, new media, and social networking from separate viewpoints. The first article (It Takes A Village To Find A Phone) concentrates on the benefits (and some drawbacks) of the advancement of social media; using the quite recent “Stolen Sidekick” incident as an example. The article talks about the ways in which social medias such as Facebook and Twitter are effective at raising awareness to certain issues. The second article (Small Change) uses an older example to take the opposing argument. It begins by illustrating to us a situation that occurred in the 60s, for the purpose of telling us that social activism today isn't what it used to be years ago. 

“The platforms of social media are built around weak ties.”

Though many may not entirely agree with the second article, I believe it has a strong, valid point; more so than the first article. It uses concrete examples to explain the essential differences between history's high-risk activism and the social mediums activists use to petition today. It also directly attacks the events that are discussed in the first article, dismissing this notion of an “upgrade” to activism; at the same time claiming that we live in a “networked, weak-tie world” focused on bettering irrelevant issues. When we look at the way social networks are used today, we can see what the second article is talking about. “Weak ties” refers to people having a vast network of “friends”; friends that people share weak relationships with. As the article explains; this method of activism is easy when it comes to expressing one's self; but more difficult for that expression to have any impact.

HTML Mini Assignment

Over here.

Poor Pure HTML, baby.

The Yes Men Strike Again!

The Yes Men spoof on Chevron is one that revisits the common theme of large corporations propagating their “altruistic” intentions in the form of concerned advertisements. What the Yes Men so effectively (and humorously) do is present the campaign in a manner almost identical to the way Chevron did. It's what makes the spoof so effective and the content of the article more attention-grabbing. 

"But what's unique and different here is the honesty. We've never been able to do this before."

With regards to coding and decoding, the Yes Men simply mimicked the original article's method of encoding (and why not, seeing as they already had an effective template for presenting a message laid out in front of them). Since decoding process is mostly subjective to the viewers of the article, the successful transmission of the Yes Men's message relies on the physical interpretation of the article, as well as the content of the text itself (specifically in contrast with the original article). The imitated professional layout and fake emails (all part of the encoding process) make the spoof more convincing (in addition to the already-present charisma held by popular activist groups similar to the Yes Men). 

<Chevron press release> 
<Yes Men press release> 

The Unfair Case of Jesse Jordan

Chapter three from Lawrence Lessig’s  Free Culture outlines the unfair situation endured by Jesse Jordan in 2003. His modified search engine (he didn’t even make it from scratch) attracted the attention of the RIAA, which explained that the company was entitled to an unreasonably large amount of cash to make up for “damages”.

Setting aside the unfair lawsuit, I’d like to draw attention to Jesse himself. He was a student in his freshman year at RPI. Seeing as his major was information technology, it’s no surprise (or problem) that he tinkered, fixed, and played with programs that he was interested in. In fact, an ideal academic environment would encourage students to be innovative in their field of study and experiment for the purpose of advancing their knowledge and the practical applications of the software (such as Jesse’s search engine) that were used at the time.

Even though Jesse would have been saving money for school at the time, his search engine wasn’t used for profit. He wasn’t part of any organization, and the software itself acted in a way extremely similar to Google. Should he have paid the demanded amount? Did he make the right choice? Whether or not he did, in becoming an activist he drew more attention to a battle that rages on today, and most likely will in the years to come.

Remix Assignment!

Every artist can be considered a magician. As the remix video below explains, the magician (or in this case, the artist) presents you with something ordinary. The trick is to change that ordinary something into something extraordinary. Whether it be in the form of a painting, sculpture, song, or digital art piece, artwork can amaze an audience the same way a magic trick would. How did the artist do it? What’s the secret?

Video #1: Art a Magic Trick

Sources: Noted in video credits

The thing is, you’re not really looking for the secret. Most people don’t mind enough to investigate the creative process surrounding a particular art piece; that’s what makes it so beautiful and awe-inspiring. Pictured below are my two remixed art pieces, each comprised of three or more sources (the appropriate sources are listed below each image). Think of each piece as a magic trick. How realistic does it look? Could one mistake it for reality? 

Image #1: The Real Turtle Island

Sources: scotto (castle photo), Nlr4 (turtle photo), PinkBlueBlackRed (turtle island photo), jup3nep (grassy hill photo), DianaFernandes-stock (sky photo), GONE-EVERLONG (rocky ground photo). 

Image #2: Dogback Rider
Sources: mjagiellicz (forest photo), keldbach (horseback rider photo), Czertice (dog photo).

David Hoffos: Scenes from the House Dream!

I became interested the second I walked into the dark exhibit. It took almost a minute for my eyes to fully adjust. Once they did, I began walking along and peeping through the numerous circular viewports which were placed along the right wall. The path of the exhibit went clockwise, and featured approximately two dozen, intricately designed pieces of work that inspired thought and contemplation. Most parts of the exhibit were a combination of holographic reflections and miniature models. Some were complex in nature; others simple, or humorous (such as the prison guard scene; my personal favourite). In the corners of the room were lifelike, yet ghostly projections of females doing different things. In one corner sat a woman at a table, in another stood (from what I could tell) a waitress. All in all I found the exhibit very interesting. The miniature models and holograms made me wonder how they were designed, how long it must have taken to have the screens properly calibrated and set up, and just marvel at the amount of detail put into some of the scenes (for instance, the forest ones). I also found the way mirrors were used to make the scene appear much bigger than it really was to be very interesting as well. I recommend it for all to see, as it really puts art into a different perspective and makes you think. And, seeing as the exhibit's free and there until December 31, why not have a look? Depending on how long you spend examining each piece of artwork, you'll be there anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. In my opinion, that's time well spent.

Remixing Perspective

Producing a sequence of multiple remixed images can be tricky. While doing so, it’s important to pick a theme that can be utilized throughout your work. This aspect held in common by all three remixes will allow you to advertently show progression of an idea, concept, story, etc. I’m not yet entirely sure of what I’d like to show the progression of, but I do know I’d like to play around with the idea of perspective, which plays an important part in every art piece. The art piece pictured below, for instance, plays with the perspective of setting. The artist (Pete Harrison) combines numerous objects and entities you wouldn’t often find in one place. The result is a visually complex yet realistic-looking art piece, combining the aspects of photo manipulation as well as graphic illustration. 

A piece by Pete Harrison

A piece by Erik Johansson (pictured below) is an interesting play on perspective as well. Like all his artwork, this image looks strikingly realistic. Everything above the water looks normal, but Johansson’s unique perspective on what lies below make his art that much more interesting. With my remixed images, I hope to do just that; express my unique perspective on things through the form of realistic media.

'Fishy island' by Erik Johansson

The Web Isn't Dead!

In response to the “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet” article on Wired.com, I have to disagree with the idea that the WWW is dead per se. I also feel that the chart featured in the article is not an accurate representation of the Web’s worldwide usage, as it strictly focuses on American statistics. Though portable apps and other indirect internet media are growing in popularity, I believe there will always be a demand for the Web. In making these online services more convenient and portable, these emerging internet-based innovations suffer the price of being scaled down in proportion and quality. By this I mean that there will always be certain tasks that are just better handled on the traditional computer and internet browser (for instance, writing a research paper that uses multiple internet article quotations).

I don’t mean to portray these simplified, sleeker services as ‘evil’. In fact, I believe they have great potential in making certain online services more convenient. However, I would like to point out that the Web (however less portable than these innovations) houses a wider spectrum of tools, features, and possibilities than portable apps and feeds will ever have.


“But the Web is now 18 years old. It has reached adulthood.” I don’t believe age has anything to do with a service such as the Web becoming obsolete. Books have been around for centuries longer than PDF’s and digital copies have, but have they become outdated? No, sir! Also, I would consider the following quotation an overly strong generalization: “Blame human nature. As much as we intellectually appreciate openness, at the end of the day we favor the easiest path.” That’s not entirely true. Not all internet users want the simplest (easiest) path to completing their tasks. In fact, a large amount (including me) may prefer to have as much options and potential for optimization as possible. Some of us want to bake the cake ourselves, as opposed to having a slice handed to us.

Project 2: iMovie!

DISCLAIMER:
The following video is a result of a lack of ideas, resources, and time. Please be generous and keep your expectations low!



Moving on!!!

Artist Spotlight: Peter Jaworowski

Born in Bialystok, Poland, Peter Jaworowski is a digital designer who works as a design director for the creative agency; Ars Thanea. Completing spectacular pieces of art for The Discovery Channel, Warner Bros, Samsung, Nike, and many more, Jaworowski implements amazing effects and details into compositions you wouldn’t expect them to have. I greatly admire the way in which he subtly does this. I’m also a huge fan of how Jaworowski uses *only* Photoshop to create works which appear to have been created using 3D software. Since I use Photoshop myself, I can appreciate the amount of time and effort put into making an image appear so realistic that it pops out at you. His image “No Strings Attached” does just that. When it comes to Photoshop, Peter Jaworowski is definitely an inspiration.

Project 1: Photoshop!

This image was created using Photoshop. It is composed of the 5 pictures posted below, as well as various effects featured in the program. The background of the image (metal wire) represents my preferred genre of music (metal!). A "burst" overlay is also pictured on top of the background, to give the image an overall complex (yet organized) feel, since the burst lines converge into the splattered paint.

The splattered paint encases the silhouette of a figure doing parkour (a passion of mine). The contrast between the black paint and the figure within amplify his visibility, and make him one of the main focuses of the image. The paint is also a representation of my love for art.

On the right-hand portion of the image is a set of headphones, symbolizing my interest in music. I chose to use headphones instead of earphones because headphones are worn by the entire head. Since a head (or brain) are symbols of knowledge, the headphones also represent my love for philosophy.

A lightsaber divides the image in half. One half displays physical interests (parkour, visual art), and the other half symbolizes my intangible interests (music, philosophy). The most colourful and radiant part of the picture is in the middle (in the form of a lightsaber, which represents my favourite movie).

My name is also repeated in the background of the image (representing me!). It is faded to prevent being the focus of the picture. However, it is worth noting that in the bottom right hand corner of the image, and instance of my name is pictured at 100% opacity (acting as a signature).

Pictured below are the images used in my composition: