Memory Model

This is a memory model taken from http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/cs6751_97_winter/Topics/human-cap/memory.html

It shows the differant stages for creating and storing memories with the fastest decaying on the left and the more perminant on the right. To explain the flow, information enters as a sensory memory based on the attention span. Things chosen from an intrest or something which is not the norm is coded into the STM or working memory. Things that are or importants then get encoded again to form LTM which have 3 stages, at seperate areas of the brain. Rehearsal of STM will keep the memory active for longer than 30 seconds be it needs to have attention. Constant rehearsal will allow the information to encoded into LTM so that it can retreved again at some point in time. As an example an actor learning there lines.

Classification of Memory - Short Term Memory and Long Term Memory

Here is the medical term for STM (Short Term Memory)
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=7142

Short-term memory: A system for temporarily storing and managing information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension. Short-term memory is involved in the selection, initiation, and termination of information-processing functions such as encoding, storing, and retrieving data.

One test of short-term memory is memory span, the number of items, usually words or numbers, that a person can hold onto and recall. In a typical test of memory span, an examiner reads a list of random numbers aloud at about the rate of one number per second. At the end of a sequence, the person being tested is asked to recall the items in order. The average memory span for normal adults is 7.

Short-term memory is also termed recent or working memory.

Visual STM information taken from wiki

In the study of vision, visual short-term memory (VSTM) is one of three broad memory systems including iconic memory and long-term memory. VSTM is a type of short-term memory, but one limited to information within the visual domain.

The term VSTM refers in a theory-neutral manner to the non-permanent storage of visual information over an extended period of time. The Visuospatial Sketchpad is a VSTM subcomponent within the theoretical model of working memory proposed by Alan Baddeley.

Whereas iconic memories are fragile, decay rapidly, and are unable to be actively maintained, visual short-term memories are robust to subsequent stimuli and last over many seconds.

I like the last part where it uses words like fragile and decay to create a visual picture of how memories are perceived.

Like fragile old photos which are decaying because paper doesn't last forever. Further down the page I found a little paragraph about color and memory.

If observers are asked to report on the quality (e.g., color) of an item stored in memory, while performance might be perfect when only a few items are encoded (the number of items that can be perfectly encoded varies depending on the attribute being encoded, but is usually less than five), after which performance invariably declines in a monotonic fashion as more items are added. Different theoretical models have been put forward to explain this decline in performance.

Basically the accuracy of the information is relational and effected by the number of items that need to be remembered. There are different modes all which come to fact that short term memory can only home so many items of information, this is expected to be around 3 to 5 due to experiments.


taken from http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578303_1/Memory_(psychology).html

Working memory capacity is correlated with intelligence (as measured by intelligence tests). This correlation has led some psychologists to argue that working memory abilities are essentially those that underlie general intelligence. The more capacity people have to hold information in mind while they think, the more intelligent they are. In addition, research suggests that there are different types of working memory. For example, the ability to hold visual images in mind seems independent from the ability to retain verbal information.

Here it talks about how intelligence of effect by memory and it’s the first time I have come across inteligent's and memory in my research. Its basically saying that inteligent’s effects how much memory you can hold. It also states something which I have already looked into and seams to becoming an underlying theme that, visual memory and audio memory are different from each other and have different properties.

I read on another wiki page about the length of STM storage

The most important characteristic of a short-term store is, clearly, that it is short-term — that is, it retains information for a limited amount of time only. Most definitions of short-term memory limit the duration of storage to less than a minute; no more than about 30 seconds, and in some models as little as 2 seconds. Memory that exceeds short-term memory duration limits is known as long-term memory.

In order to overcome the limitation of short-term memory, and retain information for longer, information must be periodically repeated, or rehearsed — either by articulating it out loud, or by mentally simulating such articulation. In this way, the information will re-enter the short-term store and be retained for a further period. The process of consolidation (transfer of short-term memory to long term memory) is enhanced by the relationship, if any, of an item of short-term memory to an item in long-term memory (for example, if a sensory short-term event is linked to a trauma already in long-term memory).

Again I have already looked at this in little detail. To keep something in the STM it needs to be rehearsed so that it will stay in the STM for usage, example like before a number. I would like to explore some ideas with visual STM and how I can show this form or reparation so that an image will stay clear. Using techniques like blurring and re-tracing old lines would be a good visual start in my opinion. I’m current researching films which have an underlying theme of memory and/or identity and writing up my idea about the film in a review form. A film called 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' showed some amazing interesting ideas which I had already thought about before I had seen the film. One was the use of blurring a face from which someone’s identity is removed because the memory can't be converted from the LTM into the STM. In the case of this film they were delegating the memories from his brain, thus he was unable to recall the memories from his LTM to his STM because they had disappeared.

I realized a lot the research I’m blogging is text heavy and a lot of my visual research is coming from films I’m watching. I later will need to look at artists who use memory as a key concept for their ideas.

Here is quick visualization of an idea I had which links in the idea of computer memory waiting to be downloaded. It looks at the breaking down of the transferring of LTM to STM. Although it might not be a total breakdown it is the waiting to remember. Just like a web browser that is waiting for the information to be downloaded from the server.

My sister is at York University and she had looked at STM and LTM in her psycology work. After asking her for some idvice she sent me a table which helps show the differance between the two.

	Capacity	Duration	Encoding
S	Miller’s	Brown & Peterson suggest 15 to 30 seconds	Conrad suggested only acoustic process. Shulman suggested also visual and semantic processes.
T	7 +/- 2 Chunks
M	The magical number seven plus or minus two.
L T M	Unknown and impossible to measure. Maybe limitless.	Relatively permanent. Relates to theories of recall and forgetting.	Declarative and/or Procedural. Declarative may be Semantic and/or Episodic (Tulvig). Baddeley showed process was largely semantic

Long-term memory (LTM) is memory, stored as meaning, that can last as little as 30 seconds or as long as decades. It differs structurally and functionally from working memory or short-term memory, which ostensibly stores items for only around 30 seconds. Biologically, short-term memory is a temporary potentiation of neural connections that can become long-term memory through the process of rehearsal and meaningful association. The proposed mechanism by which short-term memories move into LTM storage is via long-term potentiation, which leads to a physical change in the structure of neurons. Notably, the time scale involved at each level of memory processing remains under investigation.

As long-term memory is subject to fading in the natural forgetting process, several recalls/retrievals of memory may be needed for long-term memories to last for years, dependent also on the depth of processing. Individual retrievals can take place in increasing intervals in accordance with the principle of spaced repetition. This can happen quite naturally through reflection or deliberate recall, often dependent on the perceived importance of the material.

The last part interests me, as I would like to explore the loss of memory in my work. Natural forgetfulness is talked about here. Here it’s describing how important personal information is recalled often.

LTM is divided into 3 sections. These are Episodic Memory, Semantic Memory and Procedural Memory.

1. Declarative memory refers to all memories that are consciously available. These are encoded by the hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and perirhinal cortex, but consolidated and stored elsewhere in the cortex. The precise location of storage is unknown, but the temporal cortex has been proposed as a likely candidate. Declarative memory also has two major subdivisions:
* Episodic memory refers to memory for specific events in time
* Semantic memory refers to knowledge about the external world, such as the function of a pencil.
2. Procedural memory refers to the use of objects or movements of the body, such as how exactly to use a pencil or ride a bicycle. This type of memory is encoded and probably stored by the cerebellum and the striatum.

There is an amazing documentary called 'Unknown White Male' about a man who wakes up on a train and has lost his episodic memory. He doesn't know where or who he is, what his job is, who his family and friends are. He still retains the semantic and procedural memory so he able to perform tasks and know how things act and how things work, so for example he still remember how to talk. I will right a film review about this once I have re-watched this and taken notes about certain areas of interest.

So where now?

Now that I know each area of memory I need to look at how they all work together. Looking at memory models should help me get a better understanding of how memories are created and stored via the 3 classifications of memory.

Classification of Memory - Sensory Memory

Sensory Memory usually only lasts a second and at the very most it lasts two seconds. It has a very short life, and the brain chooses to discard most of the information that is in our sensory memory. Attention is what causes our brain to change this sensory memory into STM (short term memory). When we have an attention to something it becomes more relevant and we used it in our STM's

This is taken from wiki and explains one of the first experiments into discovering sensory memory

One of the earliest investigations into this phenomenon was in 1740 by Johann Andreas Segner(1704 - 1777) the German physicist and mathematician. In an experiment Segner attached a glowing coal to a cartwheel and rotated the wheel at increasing speed until an unbroken circle of light was perceived by the observer. He calculated that the glowing coal needed to make a complete circle in under 100ms to achieve this effect.

Examples of sensory memory was found at http://library.thinkquest.org/C0110291/basic/brain/sensory.php

• You lose concentration in class during a lecture. Suddenly you hear a significant word and return your focus to the lecture. You should be able to remember what was said just before the key word since it is in your sensory register.

• Your ability to see motion can be attributed to sensory memory. An image previously seen must be stored long enough to compare to the new image. Visual processing in the brain works like watching a cartoon -- you see one frame at a time.

• If someone is reading to you, you must be able to remember the words at the beginning of a sentence in order to understand the sentence as a whole. These words are held in a relatively unprocessed sensory memory.

I find the second statement VERY helpful, and it relates to my initial idea of using burst frame animation. The fact the we process 'a frame' at a time, almost like watching a cartoon is something I need to look into more to produce ideas. This statement will help for the visual style I will be looking to use, but will have little to do with the actually content, only the way it would be presented.

If I create a video piece of work it will need to be complemented with audio and looking into how the brain processes sounds is also useful. The way you remember a second before the word that caught your attention is important for this.

It’s interesting its almost like memory is in blocks and is something that wanted to be remembered the whole block is then transferred into the STM. You can’t single out the one sound that got your attention. It seems to be more time based.

This is all in terms of short memory in relation to sensory memory. LTM (long term memory) is a little different.

Different stimuli have different durations. Also take from the same site explains these 2.

Your brain can take in a lot of information fairly accurately, but this information is not processed much at all, and it does not remain in sensory memory very long. Exactly how long information can be stored in sensory memory differs according to source of the sensory information being remembered:

• iconic memory (visual sensory memory) - less than one second
• echoic memory (auditory sensory memory) - less than four seconds

This is information is useful because it shows that different stimuli had a duration. If I was to make an Audio and Visual piece of work, I could use this to help me get across the idea of memory.

If for a moment the person was to record their sensory information into a way it could be recorded permanently, for others to see. As an example the one second of information in the sensory image is photographed, and then the audio is played over the top of the image with 3 seconds of audio left playing in the dark. I have written this idea into my notebook with examples and sketches of how it could look as in installation piece of work. I have also looked at how 1 second is perceived e.g. frame rate (30 images to show the motion of a 1 second image)

What happens next?

Our brain must quickly decide what information will be processed enough to remain in short term memory and what information will be discarded. Less than 99 percent of sensory information is passed on to short term memory. Two encoding processes by which we transfer information from sensory to short term memory are selective attention and feature extraction.

• Selective attention occurs when we notice important information necessary to meet our basic needs or our own interests.

• Feature extraction would be observing things as unusual, or "out of the ordinary."

From here I have learnt that attention is what causes the transferring of sensory memory into STM. Depending on what our brains need and weather something is not the norm.


There is a really interesting part of this website which explains an effect of sensory memory

Instructions: Hold your hand up in front of your face and wave it up and down.

Questions: What do you observe? Is this different from what you expected? If so, how?

Discussion: You are able to see where your hand was before you moved it, so it looks like you have more than five fingers. Your eyes are taking in the new image of where the hand has moved to while your visual sensory memory allows you to still see where the hand was just an instant before.


The ability to see where something has just been is from sensory memory. Sensory memory only lasts a few seconds but it allows us to see where something has just been by remembering it.

I ask myself the question does this mean we are looking into the past? Or simple remembering the past as it was just a second ago.

The memory is as strong as it has just happened that nothing can confuse is. With long-term memory we might forget certain colours or objects as we might be recalling from an event that happened a long time ago.

From this site http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/learning/memory.html

It briefly talks about working memory were the repetition of something keeps it in our memory for use. We might not always remember the number to help is to not forget it is kept at to our attention by repletion. An example of this would be to remember a phone number. By repeating the numbers it almost (and I use the word lightly) 'refreshes' the information.

The site also references the human brain to artificial memory. It also links the way human memory is in blocks like I previously said.

Works like RAM memory in computers; provides a working space. Is thought to be 7 bits in length, that is, we normally only remember 7 items. STM is vulnerable to interruption or interference.

I found some more information which re-touches on the previous research of recalling information from sensory memory. Taken directly from http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578303/Memory_(psychology).html

American psychologist George Sperling demonstrated the existence of sensory memory in an experiment in 1960. Sperling asked subjects in the experiment to look at a blank screen. Then he flashed an array of 12 letters on the screen for one-twentieth of a second, arranged in the following pattern:

Subjects were then asked to recall as many letters from the image as they could. Most could only recall four or five letters accurately. Subjects knew they had seen more letters, but they were unable to name them. Sperling hypothesized that the entire letter-array image registered briefly in sensory memory, but the image faded too quickly for subjects to “see” all the letters. To test this idea, he conducted another experiment in which he sounded a tone immediately after flashing the image on the screen. A high tone directed subjects to report the letters in the top row, a medium tone cued subjects to report the middle row, and a low tone directed subjects to report letters in the bottom row. Sperling found that subjects could accurately recall the letters in each row most of the time, no matter which row the tone specified. Thus, all of the letters were momentarily available in sensory memory.

I found this interesting because it shows a link between the audio and the visual. The audio helped people to remember the visual. This is an interesting idea which I could create a piece of work showing the effects of audio on an image. The audio would directly affect what parts of the image is visible and the duration of image.

Classification of Memory - Overview

There are three classifications of memory. Two of them are known as general knowledge. These are Short Term Memory and Long Term Memory. The other less known is the sensory memory.

Wiki has good definitions of all three of these classifications. So i will just para-phase these rather than to copy and paste.

Sensory Memory
This is a very fast responce (200-500 milliseconds) from when an object is perceiced. If you look at an object or item for a second, we have the ability to remember the object after only a second, this is an example of sensory memory. The brain has a average capacity to remember 12 objects, this was proved by George Sperling's experiments. Sensory memory acuracy is lost very quickly and over time mostly altogether. Another thing about sensory memory is that practice does not improve the memory, like a actor practicing their lines for a better performance (not forgeting lines).

Short Term Memory
This is when some of the sensory memory is changed into STM (short term memory). STM allows one to recall something from several seconds to as long as a minute without rehearsal. STM is believed to rely mostly on an acoustic code for storing information, and to a lesser extent a visual code.

Long Term Memory
Sensory and STM have a a limited duration along with capacity. LTM (long term memory) can store larger amouts of information for what has been discribed as an unlimited duration (a whole life) . Studies have shown that sleep helps improve LTM as it helps to consolidate information. Repetition helps to change information such a set of digits (STM) into telephone number (LTM)

Two things I have found very interesting here is that sleep helps the storage of information by consolidating. I think there are alot of potential ideas here were lack of sleep could show memory loss. I could explore the dream world as part of this. There is an amazing film i recently watched called 'The Science of Sleep' which explores dream states. I this things happen in the real world as he is dreaming, but when he wakes up he is sometimes unsure of what is or isn't the truth. He cant quite remember if what happened did happen.

taken from www.allocine.co.uk


Another thing I thought was interesting was this idea of repertition in order to remember something. I thought about graffitti to be honest when I read this. The idea that someone 'bombs the system' with there personal tag as so many people see it many times. The tagger would then hold this to be imbedded in the minds of the viewers.

taken from a graffiti movie called 'Friendly Fire 2'

Processes of Memory

Ok there are three main stages in the formation and retrieval of memory. These are

registration which is processing and combining of information to form a memory.
storage which creates a record of the registrated memory from stage one.
retreval which is calling back the stored information for use.

taken from wiki

List of Research Topics to possiably look into

Processes of Memory

Classification of Memory

Models of Memory

Areas / Anatomy of the Brain

Emotions of Memory

Memory Dissorders / Illnesses

Artifical Memory

Religion and Memory

Icons of Memory (goldfish and elephants)

False/Fake Memory

Memory and Learning

Subliminal/Involuntary Memory

Photography / Visual and Total Recall Memory

Alcohol Effects on Memory

Wiki

as with most things these days wiki seams to be one of the first places i go for fast, reliable and accurate information about a certain topic. Naturaly in my research this was the first place I will visit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory

"memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and subsequently retrieve information"

From reading wiki i first found out that there are differant types of memory. These are clasifide by how people duration, nature, and retreval of information.

There is also short term memory and long term memory. Looking at these 2 along i could generate some ideas on how to express the loss, and/or regaining of these memories, although further research must be done.

There are differant models of how memory works by differant psychologists.

Memory can also be classified by information types or temporal direction.

Looking at the referances theres a book by Marcel Proust in which memory is explore i would like to have a quick look at that. Ill have to check the uni libary. Theres the film 'Momento' which i have already written about. Also there also a film ref 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind '. 'Strange Days' is another film i would like to check out which looks at memory.

There are also deseases which effect memory. Some of these could be intresting and i would like to look further into these.

I have found out that there are differant methords of memory some afew differant from others but have the same key ideas behind them. Differant people have there own ideas, and it seams that there is no definitive methord of explaining memory as there are differant theroys.

From here i think it would be wise to re-create a list of tasks which focus down into certain aspects from the wiki site. Looking at the differant theroy's, illnesses, films to watch and book(s) to read.

In my own words: Memory is the ability to recall upon something which was previously done. If you look at the foam on a bed mattress, it is said to have memory as when you take off pressure it 'remembers' where it was before. Similarly with plasics which have said to have 'memory' when bent to acceptable levels and let go they return to there remembered state.

I would also like to explore my own memory, with the help of my sister, whos a pycologist at york university. She has written about her old childhood memories and could help me explore my own memory. I would also like to look at other peoples memories. There favories and least memories. A questionaire would be the best way of collecting this.

There is also a emotional responce to memories which i dont think wiki really touched upon so i would like to explore this too.

Movie List to watch

From doing about 3 hours quick research at uni i was able to find afew videos mostly online to watch which used a style of stop motion or burst shot. Others are blockbuster films which i have still yet to see which explore themes of memory. Here is the list

12 Monkeys

Between You And Me

Copy Shop

Das Clown

Dead Skunk

Fast Film

Fight Club

Gattaca

La Jetée

Le Souvenir D'un Avenir

Memento

Minority Report

Mise eEn Abyme

Soaked Down

The Island

The Miser Movie

Unknown White Male

Review Outcome

On wednesday i had a review in which i was able to speak to 2 very helpful people (jen and tom). As i was having problems with my ideas, the review was vital to the progression of my work. I decided to show them this blog and work down through my ideas. After i presented they looked through the notes and picked apart every idea.

The ides i presented were said to be very formal, and focused on the technical side. This was no good as there needed to be some personality in my work and also some core meaning.

What is the point in created a exif data visulisation when after its not doing anything. The end result is a image and thats it. This is not what they wanted to hear. The only idea they really picked up on was the burst shot idea, which would explored memory as a core concept. The proplem was that they were still alittle unsure about why i chose to use a burst shot technique. I explaned it was to help show memory and then to later pull out and mess around with frames.

I was told to watch - Minority Report (for a concept from another idea - 'idenity on the internet)
- La Jetée (a french movie made up from just stills)

From here i was very greatful that i had a path to then follow and explore around. I would like to look at memory and in perticular human memory (an organic methord in psycology).
From this i can start to create some more ideas with a personal meaning rather than just looking at the techonologies of the ideas.

IDEA 6 - a room with a blur

http://www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/exh_detail.php?id=162

When you enter a new room you are
under a whole new experience with your
eyes open you are absorbing everything
around you.

My idea is inspired from piece of work by
a Japanese artist called
“Takashi Murakami”

His piece explores how you observe a
room when you first enter and flips the
experience back onto you as you’re the one
being looked at, rather than you looking at the room. The work is in a unique style which would be very different from my own.

My idea is to create and interactive installation which explore how an image blurs, and your
relationship to this blurred image. The idea came from my experiences of lomography and how images are not always perfect.

The idea was to have a large projection with an image being projected onto the wall. Could even be from a webcam sat looking at the people viewing the screen. Based on how far the person is away from the projected image would be how blurred the image displays. The closer the person gets the sharper the images gets but because they get so close the image then fragments into pixels and the image is never seen as it was intended.

It changes the expectations on the viewer of what a perfect image it. Some might find the blurred image beautiful and would be happy to watch as it changes via the webcam feeding it data. Others would want to control the image once they find out they can control the sharpness. Frustration would set in as they discover they are not totally in-control, or they will never see the image. Others might decide that the installation is “broken” and not working as it should.

I think an installation of this nature needs to be researched properly to see if anything has been done like this before. Experiments would need to be made about how to go about censoring the viewer, and problems which arise. One problem instantly visible is that if there is more than one viewer which should it track do set the blur, only research could solve this problem. Technologies would also need to be explored; phidgets is one possibility which can be used with a number of programs such as PHP or most likely MAX.

IDEA 5 - exif data creates and image from an image

Everytime you press that shutter button on the digital camera, data is instanly stamped onto that image reminding the author of how that image was taken. Each detail is recorded the second that the light is read. The file is output as “Exchangeable image file format” or .exif for short.

Data is sorted as a table with the “tag” and then the “value”. Here are afew examples of the tags which store the data of the image.

http://www.smallbluesphere.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/02/sandTraveler1.jpgManufacturer, Model, Compression, Exposure Time, FNumber, Date and Time (original), Metering Mode, Flash, Focal Length.

Each of these will have differant data on each image. Some could be the same, such as FNumber but others such as focal length could have large veriances.

Using the data from exif files i would like to crate a generative visual piece of work. I would created the visualization in flash action scripted or more likely in processing (java environment).

Research is needed into how the exif data veries and how this might effect the outcome of a generated imaged in processing. I would also need to find a way of importing the data. Flickr.com manages to pull out exif data for display to i could use PHP inside processing to get this data, for another possabilty would be to use a processing libary which might have already been made, I know there has already been an MP3 ID Tag created.

IDEA 4 - reality controling a virtual environment

Playing games and video / computer game espeicialy are a form of escapistm. They allow the players to interact with a world which is at a far reach or most likly a fictional world. Game allow for involving, exicing narrative similar to film. The add an added layer of interaction which you dont get from film. The ability to chose to kill someone is a factor that many people choose to play a game, especialy with teenage boys. They allow things which are just not possiable in this world.

I would like to explore what happends if you bridge the gap between the real world and inside a game.

What if YOU are the game?

You can still escape the world as an envirnoment but you cant escaple who you are. If you are unfit, you are unfit in the game. You are who you are.

This has been done before. One example was someone monitored themselves for a day or a week and then the data collected controlled the stats of a character in a game called ‘Morrowind’ a role playing game which revolves around the status of the players character.

Rather than just simply copying this idea and adding my own twist or using a differant game I would like to find a new usage. I decided to say virtual environment instead of game because I feel that there are alot more other uses than just gaming.

dating
communications
fun
meetings eg hobbie meatings

Instead of a gaming environment I would like to design a social usage for using real world data to effect how a virtual character acts or looks. I would like to explore how people hide their real selves on the internet. There have been previous projects which explore this, one spings to mind which took myspace and twisted it to show how people lie about themselfs.

Im not sure how sucessful this could be as people like to use the internet to hide from there real selves. Further research would help to work out what users would want from an idea like this.

IDEA 3 - short film exploring memory using burst shot

A Short Film Exploring Memory Using Burst Shot


Memory is an individual experience, absorption of senses, in their intiratory or singular. A person might just remember an image, or in fact the smells, sounds, feeling and even tastes. One person’s experiences of a same event are different to another’s of the exact same event.

I would like to explore these ideas of memory and create a piece of video which explores a narrative from two or more people’s memories.


How are they the same?
What are the main differences between the two narratives?
What really happened?
Who was right or closest?
What effected people’s memories?

I could use wall mounted CCTV for what actually happened VS the memories, but use twists in the story. As an example the end could shot someone slicing up video to create a distorted reality of events. This would leave the viewer confused as to what actually reality, if there even was a true reality. Studies have shown that when powerful moving events occur memories are strongly
Remembered to the reality.

In a world where we are constantly under surveillance so we need a memory?

A common example is of the twin towers collapse, people were able to give very strong recollections from years ago about what they ate that morning, what they were doing, what they were wearing ect, but they couldn’t remember what they had for breakfast 2 mornings ago.

I have seen a style which uses photography to create film. I would like to try frame by fame
Photography to create an animation. I think this will be fun to play around with the idea of
fragmented memory in a very fragmented way. Choosing to slice out, or edit certain frame(s) to show the view how a person perceives memories. I explored this in my first year but I wasn’t very satisfied with the results. I used a similar method, which I now realize was a wrong idea.


The following part of the blog is not from my PDF sketchbook...

After looking into this idea more i decided to do afew experiments using my nikon SLR with a f1.8 50mm lens and a f3.5 18mm wideangle lens i was able to create two compositions which explored some of the basic ideas which i wanted to use if i did decided to go head with this as a final inital idea.

I have uploaded them onto youtube.
They have no audio as they were just shot on a bust mode i did 3fps so every second of motions has only 3 frames but i then rendered the animaion out as 12fps, which gave the desired speed i wanted.

I quickly sketchout out a basic narrative into my notbook with ideas of camera angles. Once i had done this i had to sort out some lighting for the lens as too low of a shutter speed would cause too much bluring.

I wanted to use something which was very basic and put a differant outlook onto how something is done. I wasn't focusing on the ideas of memories like in my idea, more of how i could relate this too my main theme of photograph and the techniques of how it is done. This helpped me get an idea on time management for the rest of the year.

If i made it for a final piece of work it would need to add sound. The lighting, angles and photographic style would be compleatly re-designed based on the themes of the narrative which itself would be far more complex than just making a cup of tea.

here are the two videos i created.

Make Tea not War





How to Make Pizza




I used a Nikon D80 on burst mode to create these effects. Chosing angles then setting lighting after the angle was set. The first video consisted of about 200 shots. The latter had 800+. I then took each image into Adobe Lightroom a image editing softwear and set the style i was going for.

In the first video i wanted to explore a lomographic style using a digital vignetting and a slightly boosted level of vibrance although the lighting used was very vibrant.

The second video i wanted to take out the colour information to see how this would effect the lighting, and the food. I think this added more texture and lighting atmosphere, but the apeal of the food was lost.

IDEA 2 - photographic narrative and inspiration

Photographic Narrative and Inspiration

As a photographer I sometimes find it hard to think of fresh ideas. Everyone is like this at some point in their creative journeys and anyone who says they don’t it lying. People can share photographs at ease in this digital age. Online website spring up all over the place, offering a place to store, share, communicate, buy and sell their photographs. There are a lot of creative sites which people will give you feedback and inspiration on image you have created.

I intend to create a world online where people can share images, but with the purpose of create a narrative. Users can upload chose images, to start off a story, add to or complete stories.

Text will follow each image, with a word or phrase highlighted by the person who uploaded the image. Other users must then take an image relating to the word.

This allows for inspiration and guidance to people who are stuck with ideas, or just want to be
reative. They then follow up their own photograph with the next installment of the narrative. Highlighting a word or phrase which they have then created allows the further advancement of the narrative from other uses.

Depending on the creativity of the users, I believe that long in-depth stories could be created. Each story will have accompanying images and once a narrative is completed users could close the story and crate a video, or animate sequence of the story. The site could even allow for uploading of audio clips which users have created themselves, reading from the finished story.

Advancing ideas for the site could include a blog format. Members can read current stories, create narrative and even upload there images to the site from there camera phone, allowing creativity on the move.

IDEA 1 - analog film to a digital audio experiance

This is my 1st idea taken stright out of my PDF i created afew weeks ago.


Analog Film to a Digital Audio Experiance

Imagine capturing an amazing image of the sun setting
behind cold desolate mountains.

That homeless guy you stealthfully managed to snap as
you are pulled past by the tide of daily commuters

The warm glowing lights of the life beyond daylight.

The place you snatched 10 minutes to relax and drink
a coffee before you rush away on business.

You friends drunk at that party last week.

All these images quite and suspended in a single frame which you chose. What sounds would those amazing yellows give? That deep blue from the sky? Those dark shadows cast from the natural light hitting the subjects face? Monotones from that street shot at that café? Lush fresh greens in the grass?

Photographs have no sounds. They are silent slices of captured time, segments of what a person wants to remember, cherish and hold onto. Slideshows present images in an order for a particular viewer, music chose by the creator.

What if photographs could speak for themselves?

What would they say and how would they want to say it?

My aim to create a interactive piece which will invite the user into using image which they have created in analog format, or most user friendly digital format.

Using create code the images will be read for colour
information and audio will then be created from the i
nformation collected. Most likely the audio will sound
randomized as the image colours are random. I will try find a way in which the image as a whole can be interpreted.

I will try use music theory to allow the sounds to work together creating audio which does not sound randomized. Use of scales would help to create music created from an image.

the start of something - Analoge Photography

Within the 1st week at uni i was already personaly looking into photographic techniques. I already had sorted out some chemicals for developing known as C-41 a very popular set of chemicals/methord of developing colour negative film. I also got some bathing tanks, thermometer,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-41_process

Within the second week i knew that my dissertation was on lomography so i could start producing some images with my camera.

I have also spend close to £600 on camera equipment using ebay.co.uk

-LC-A
-FM2 Nikon Film SLR
-Lomo Fish Eye 2
-Nikon coolscan V

From here i was able to explore analogue photography for both my disseration, to allow me to understand the colour of lomography, but also to gain ideas for my studio work.

Working in analog format i have learnt that things are not always perfect but alot of the time its this characteristic which makes something beautiful about the image which is where some of my ideas began to develop from.

Here is a slide show of about 50 images (50 images on 20th novemember 2007) taken over the last 6 weeks.
I have used a range of cameras and they have all be developed using C-41 processes and digitaly scanned by myself.

cameras used are

WOCA-NF1 - which cost me £10 New from china off ebay.
Lomo Fish Eye 2 - bought off ebay New for £45, this gives a 170degree angle on life.
LC-A - i got this referbished off ebay for about £100 it was made in USSR in the 70's and has formed a cult following of people and a socity which has created a lifestyle and a movement in photography. My dissertation is currenly titleded "lomography and its cult following" BBC's lomography documentry helped me understand this cult so well.

Scanner used was a Canon Flatbed which has a medium performance, which made me decided to get the Nikon Coolscan V priced around £450 - 500, but non of the images were scanned using the new scanner.

I am still learning with film, it takes about an 40mins to develop each roll and then another hour or two to dry. Scanning take a following hour so its takes about 1hour 40mins to get 36 images. This is the down side to analoge as apose to digital where i could fire off 500 shots and copy them stright to the computer. An example of this is the burst shot idea i had and greated 2 small videos/animations.


Most of these shots are taken in a "lomo style" which i have been researching. The image quality is via the cameras, the scans are with no digital aids.

At a review 2 weeks ago my photo of a eastern kitchen was said to be

- blured
- a kitchen or bar
- looked digitaly edited

which is what i would like to look at in terms of how this style relates to digital photography

Here is slide show of my lomophotography.

A Kick Up My Own Backside - 1st Blog Post

Ok so I have been in my final year for 7 weeks now (nearly 2 months)
I will admit that I am behind with my work already in the final year, due to lack of motivation and attendance to lessons. I have taken a serious step back this weekend to get some motivation to do work.

To help me get to grips with my work and truly focus I need to know what I have done so far in these 7 weeks to truly know where I am going.

I have created a large list of websites which have inspired me, about 100+ which is growing each day. These are all bookmarked on my delicious account.
http://del.icio.us/t0402648

I have created a few main ideas around certain areas of interest (I will blog these ideas later). These have already been made into PDF's for a digital sketchbook.

I have read a few books so far in the last few weeks for inspiration and ideas.

-Creative Code by John Maeda

-Analogue In Digital Out by Brendan Dawes

-Lomo Mauritius by Mauritius

-Don’t Think Just Shoot by Leningradskoye Optiko Mechanichesckoye Obyedinenie

-On Photography by Susan Sontag

-Processing by Casey Reas & Ben Fry

-The Medium Is The Message by Marshall McLuhan

Although some of these are for my dissertation I think that I was able to gather ideas from all these books.

I have a few solid ideas which I will pick to further progress. This will allow me to organise my time better and allow me to specialize my ongoing research.

My dissertation is linked into my final year project as expected so I also have a sister blog based on the topic for my dissertation which is lomography
I have 4 blogs

Personal Photography Blog: http://stimu1us.blogspot.com/

Lomography Blog: http://lomo-mojo.blogspot.com/

My old Uni Blog (which can be useful for past research): http://mmvr33.blogspot.com/

and this new blog!

I have decided to create this blog to help document the progression in ideas and technologies.
As I have already done a little bit of work I will need to blog all up 2nite.


I have written a list of task which is needed to be done by the end of week.
To help me manage my time better than the last 7 weeks I will start to write these lists on a regular basis.

By the end of tonight (20th November 2007) I would like to ...

-create a blog to which I can document all work online in the last 7 weeks

-blog all photos of the lomography work I have been exploring and creating

-blog the 5 or 6 initial ideas out of notebook and PDF's with supporting images

-write a final idea proposal with images to back up the final idea

-link burst shot experiments onto blog from YouTube (can be included in the initial ideas blog post)

-find a way of adding my java experiments from the processing development onto the blog

-Think of a title for final idea and possible if time generate some logos/themes for
the ongoing style of the project, e.g. for storyboards, sketchbooks, future website
and this blog