Map for CCC

Plot Overview

Cygnus Cried Cygni

Characters:
Cygnus: the brightest star who took his own name from the constellation itself. Though great in ability to outshine the other stars, Cygnus greatest weakness is his ego which cripples his own capability and progress.

Cygni: the fastest star of the Cygnus collective (constellation). Cygni feels he is the faster younger brother to his brighter relative Cygnus. Cygni feels a strong conviction to upstart his relative star. Jealousy fuels him and allows him greater speed in spite of his size and brightness.

Planet 1:
Peter: the first character we meet on Planet 1. The character is working research with Mary when a catastrophe occurs in their laboratory due to the change in gravity induced by the battling stars.

Mary: Peter's assistant in their lab. Peter's sacrifice creates a change in her which leads to her creation of a new type of communicator* then the one they were researching.


Planet 2:
Luke: the first character we meet on Planet 2. Luke is a space explorer on a distant moon from his planet. His mood is drastically changed by the change in swing and motion of the moon which in turn effects a drastic decision to inflict harm on his fellow explorer John.

John: a sometimes obstructive and challenging explorer whose research methods and philosophy conflict with aforementioned Luke.


Planet 3:
General Fortuna: a war-crazed general whose sole mission is to destroy all life upon Planet 2. His war-driven machines eventually overrun the further moons of Planet 2 until meeting with the moon Luke and John inhabit. John's demise leads to Luke's inner-turmoil and eventual self destruction by imploding the moon and sending Fortuna and his machines into an orbit nearing Planet 2. With his succession nearing Fortuna meets his demise by the super-nova of Cygnus and his ego imploding; engulfing the entire siege and half of Planet 2 in its wake. Planet 2 is finally contacted by Planet 1 at this point.




Overview of Plot Comparison:
Planet 1 and its characters represent a passion or even a forbidden love. Peter's sacrifice leads Mary to rethink her original task (strictly assigned by her administrators) and allows her to create a device to contact further life (if any) in deeper parts of the galaxy.
Planet 2 represents a further passion of man to destroy and how our own self destruction through our devices. Luke is a nobleman but his integrity is questioned and lost during his exploration in a remote moon with his one companion, John. His downward spiral towards the murder itself leads to Luke's rash decision to detonate himself and the moon (along with all the research).
Planet 3 is a stronger characterization of man's destructive nature. Fortuna has no remorse nor logic and only craves destruction. His warpath is altered by the course of events and finally stopped by the rash decision of Cygnus to brighten himself further.
Cygnus , Cygni and their roles: Cygnus is an entity whose ego represents the ego of all sentient beings. His greatness and sheer importance in his own galaxy are rivaled by his own awareness. Instead of being brighter by his own mechanics and means, he merely tries to impress and intimidate. In doing so, Cygnus proves that no matter how great one is, even at an infinitely cosmic level, we all must pass with digression. Cygni is in the same boat as Cygnus but instead acts as a protagonist to Cygnus as they fuel each other's ego. Cygni already possesses great speed but cannot understand his role within the universe and instead attempts to upstart Cygnus.

Conclusion:
Planet 1 contacts Planet 2. Half of Planet 2 is scorched. Planet 1 attempts to delegate some control in an attempt to help Planet 2 rebuild itself. Planet 2 agrees but seems slightly off-put. We see a connection between Cygnus and Cygni and their trivial affair. Planet 2, although willing to accept the help, seems slightly offended at the gesture (through the voice of various leaders - scenes of politicians communicating).
Planet 3 is seen in the last shot as a giant metropolis, far technologically advanced. In its last shots, Planet 3 is launching more starships similar to Fortuna's. In the background a star will twinkle and then brighten and engulf the whole screen; as if to signify Cygnus has imploded again (or another star has taken its task).

Meaning:
Basically the point is that in this universe, as we know it, there will always be those who fulfill certain roles and our destiny is determined by all of these factors, including our own.

Dialogue Beta Storyboard

"The two star's float with insatiable anxiety as to the other's reaction. For a moment, it seemed as if time had lost its place and infinity had forgotten it's name. All attention of the universe had met at this point like a singularity."

Cygnus- "By my own word, has time been a menace..."
Cygni-"How so great elder brother?"
Cygnus-"The men and their forefathers continue to name me after their Collective ["collection"] yet my true memory are met in grave brevity. What must I do?"
Cygni-" You are slow and pompous. Yet your fire burns bright; like your size, brother, indeed. But your fire which you burn pales in comparison to the vanity it exhumes within you. If only exhumation were not so simple for your vainglory."
Cygnus:"Silence your tongue little one. My stage is beyond yours. In your adolescent pursuit you only embarrass yourself."
Cygni- "I will outlast you in this galaxy. Your essence will be downtrodden by your own ego in ebb."


Mary: "Welcome Doctor."
Peter: "It is time to prepare the structure"
Assistant: "Give it time to load up properly..."
Peter begins to start the process. - "Computer off record please" -
Computer: "Yes sir."
Peter-"Initialize the lower zeta frequency this time. "
"We are not properly authorized to-"
"Forget them..."

Fade to planet 2
Luke (pompous tone): "This way, there will be much more availability here!"
John: "Heh, of course doctor." -Throws a rock towards Luke.
Luke: "Test me further John..."
John: "We began on the wrong day for this phase of research. This moon's own atmosphere and growth alone warrant our arrival at a later date. The specimens-"
Luke (interrupting): "Quit the pompous attitude. We have dates that must be met, its time to wisen' up and do your work!"
John: "Spare me the lecture, Luke."
Cut to scene of only Luke's half face shot covering half the screen - John behind him at 25%. Luke is angered.

Fade to Planet 3
Politician: "Well all the papers seem to be in order General Fortuna. I see no problem in passing this on to the next stage of votes. Surely a securely favorable decision will be concluded. "
General Fortuna: "I couldn't think of it any better way my boy."
Politician: "Of course all of this will be translated fully to the mass of the imminent threat that this "intelligent planet" may carry? Surely no one will-"
General Fortuna (interrupting): "The planet invariably has proved to us the capability to receive distant communications and possibly REPLY with a far more dangerous communication. Action is the only just and logical cause!"
Politician: "And the retriveable goods will be-"
General Fortuna (interrupting): "Well accounted for and retrieved."
Pause...Shot of half of General's face covering half the scene smiling insanely with the politician nodding
Politician-".............Good."

Critique of Walking Tour

The concept revolving around this interaction is subtle and sometimes too subtle. Peter Stuyvesant's farm tour is an interesting audio backdrop to what exists now in Manhattan; but was it really that immersive?
Each numbered code given to us contains a specified area with accompanying audio clip. As you walk or bumble about the general area you find on the map one has to listen to the audio clip. One notes the poor quality almost immediately of these clips. I draw comparisons of immersion to another audio tour I took 2 years ago in Central Park which involved ambient sounds and headphone speakers. This scenario relied on timing and involvement of the user while this tour is more like a played-out website scenario (all live) or a museum tour guide. The major differences here however are what set this tour back.
Lack of ambience and poor quality certainly do not draw attention to the piece. From this 'user's' point of view it is almost a task to complete these tasks. Straight from the get-go we had to read this map and "treasure hunt" our codes out. It wasn't so much that the task was hard as it was merely time consuming and it was not a consolidation of skill to find these places as just a mere hindrance in our quest to hear each audio clip in its proper place on the map.
These problems from a designer's point of view seem glaring but I suppose this is what the designer's failed to realize. It seems that their piece was merely only trying to allocate at the surface the ideal behind many interactive pieces; audio, sound, location and interaction. The glaring noticeable flaws mentioned above seemed to be ignored as they had finished their own agendas in the first place.
As stated, the hindrances in the piece make this a difficult project to remark on. The audience I would imagine would be tourists or even locals. Certainly not kids unless an immersion factor was played out more. If this was a beta test , I would add different interactive phone features (unknown just now what or how), better sound quality and audio immersion (perhaps make it seem like you can hear someone from the 17th century speaking from a phone in that exact location . ie. "Why hello this is my old - WOAH WATCH OUT THEIR HORSE!!") and finally, ANOTHER NUMBER. I had to do this the next day as everyone was calling on this number during the time given.

my domain map

Forgot to put this up before class and after.
Basically, a narrative follows this
Each section is pretty clear

Paul Virilio Interview

Mr. Virillio has an interesting idea about comparing various elements of media. I'm a little bit lost on his whole idea about these "accidents". I see his take on modern technology and media as a somewhat naive point of view. In a sense, he is being too vague and metaphysical in his comparisons. How is television a mistake? In comparing cinema to television and our capacity to be impacted by them on different levels he ignores the history of such elements. He segregates television into some league which it certainly is not. I will agree that television has had a fairly negative impact but it has also brought information prior to the internet at an alarming rate that was not seen before in the radio. Surely then, telegraph, is an accident as much as television during its time period. His scenario is simply too unrealistic and contrived of metaphoric comparisons to relate to the realistic notion of technology and media. His comparison with the Gulf War was a strong example but still does not touch upon the realistic nature of media and its impact in our day. Mr. Virilio seems to draw too much from some idealistic cyberworld which he perhaps envisions. Maybe in his old age reality has taken a toll on him or perhaps life wasn't what he expected but reality is not going to be substituted by his Jewish proverbs or technological bridge extensions. He seems to be very jaded by his time as a soldier and while I agree war is certainly a "civil" approach to future, his idea is too abstracted (especially when relating current technologies) to contrive an idea of the future being a separation of body from mind and our "war machine accident" being 'finally' eradicated.

Review of Paula, Sam and Joseph

Paula's, Sam's and Joseph's piece was very interesting. It began as a stationary listening device which would envelop the user in a soundscape from far regions within the room. I believe their final iteration was a lot stronger for many reasons. The interaction was strong but requires a final step that was missing in it. Its simplistic nature limits its nature however it is strong in design already even in its current concept. With the addition of other prototypes (as suggested by critics) in a large environment such as a gymnasium (possibily pitch black to reinforce the importance of sound in this) users could possibily interact with each other using these as further extensions; even more so than currently since they would rely on the sensations the headgear provides in order to interact in the environment. As stated however, the concept is strong and utilizes their ideas perfectly. It seems as though it only requires a stage or concept for itself to be utilized within.