Scene 4 final touches

I think I've figured out a way to end scene 4, and thus Tulsita as a whole, and I'm just making a note of it here. Let me know what you think:

The sounds at the end of this segment are very subtle, so I thought I would have a few texts (ones that you sent me) accumulate in a faded, barely legible form. These words would slowly fade leaving the page blank as the sounds eerily wind down.

Question of the Day

What if Tulsa itself were conceived of, promoted as, and run like a mega-church??

Better yet, what if mega-churches promoted themselves like OERB, the oil-industry's public and overly made-up face. I'll give anyone $1 who can figure out what it stands for!

Tulsita Animation Update

I've ftp'd the latest versions of the Tulsita animation to Mindy's site--just click the "Tulsita animations" link above, and it should open in your browser.

I'm not sure how I'm going to fix the problem of it opening in the browser instead of a stand-alone player that has the capacity to go full screen.

What do you guys think?

Promotional Tulsa

I just went to the Goodwill today to scavenge, and look for things to photograph (inside!) since it's so friggin' cold out there that the thought of scavenging for images outside is not very appealing.

I found two promotional items about Tulsa. I'll show you what they are when you see the photos.

I want to pick up on Grant's earlier post where he was musing about using a fake promotional Tulsa paradigm to enter into this project. I like that, because it's not as direct, and frankly could be fun. One of my major issues with this place is this tremendous disconnect between the image Tulsa thinks it's putting forth and the actual reality.

I won't know how I feel photographing these types of things until I do it, but right now it's appealing to me. Meanwhile, if everyone could keep a look out for these types of items that would be great.

First Black publisher in OK

Found this on the New York Public Library website--it was the only thing that came up when I searched "photo Oklahoma". Not much, but maybe a future lead. Here are the vitals on the photo:

Image Caption:

S. Douglas Russell, a Black newspaper man at Langston, Cole and Kingfisher, 1895.

Created Date:

1895

Library Division:

NA /

Description:

18 cm. x 13 cm.

Specific Material Type:

Photographs

Item Physical Description:

18 cm. x 13 cm.

Subject(s):

African American men

African American newspapers

African Americans -- Oklahoma

Langston (Okla.)

Publishers

Digital Image ID:

1131162

Digital Record ID:

434483

NYPL Call Number:

Photo # 5494

Church on the Move

OK, you all have to check out churchonthemove.com (note the dot com, not dot org)--it's a very slick site. Most of all, you have to see the pastor's full name to believe it. Here are some non-threatening ways we can capture their discourse:

Hear Pastor George Monday through Friday on KNYD 90.5 FM from 11:00-11:15 a.m. and on KCFO AM 970 from 10:30-10:45 a.m. On Sundays, Pastor George can be heard on KRMG AM 740 from 7:30-8:00 a.m. The Gospel Bill Show airs on KGEB Channel 53. (Check local listings for airtimes.)

How to End It & Nagging Ideas for Living Arts

I’m almost done with scene 4, but I’ve reached the part in the soundtrack where the sounds are very faint and subtle, so I’m thinking I want the animation to match that.

Also, I’ve been thinking that I like the idea of doing a pastiche of a Tulsa promotional film/presentation for our Living Arts installation. It could still have Oil and Religion as it’s two main focuses. In fact, all of the things we included in the mocumentary would tie back to those themes, mimicking the way PR people sometimes will stretch associations to the point of incredulity.

We have discussed, though, how we want to avoid merely parodying Tulsa, which is not hard to do. At the same time, a more abstract or surreal approach to our method and presentation could help us prevent that. For instance, Nathan and Mindy had the idea of including a version of “The Channels,” the new, crazy development idea for the river, in the promotion. However, our version would float above the river in a sort of Gulliver’s Travels type way, above Tulsa but not of Tulsa (in fact, that could be it’s motto). By combining things we’d actually like to see happen in Tulsa along with parody of the plans of The Channels developers, not to mention surreal and highly aestheticized imaginative spaces, we can attain a neutral, if still critical, pastiche. Of course, the issues of oil and religion can tie in in several ways—the floating above can be spun as a way to “get closer to God” and the island could be powered totally by “recycling fumes from the refineries below” etc etc.

I’ve been keeping this diary for a while now, but I think making it a blog would not only allow us to share information when it inspires us, but also to use it as a portal to Mindy’s server where we could store larger files, such as flash, jpgs, and mp3s. Even if they don’t like the idea, I’d like to keep it for my own benefit and keep my notes there. I hope they're up for it because I think ultimately that the blog could serve as a supplement to our final project for our audience by documenting and including the process into the final product.

Scene 4 animation and WaKOW meeting minutes

David finally sent me his remix of Death/Metal, but I was unsure of how to animate the new poem. The sound during this part has David’s voice repeating in a sped-up, electronic tone. So, I thought it would be appropriate to put the poem down at the bottom of the page and having each word flicker (like the Doby Bowl) and then drop straight down and turn at a right angle and fly into its position. Question is, should I do it randomly (or semi-randomly to build in new meanings as the poem assembles) or in order. Well, see. Oh, btw, the whole poem will fade, leaving the words of the new poem in place. They will then fall into their new places from there.

In the meeting:

Nathan and David wondered if the “interscenes “shouldn’t be their own thing. And certainly we all agreed that the photos could stand on their own and fit a large scale animation in an installation. For example, the Living Arts space could handle three large projections on the walls—two on the long side wall and one on the long back wall.

Show and Tell:

1. Nathan had photos to show.
2. I have bibliographies and newspaper pdfs.
3. Mindy and David had bubkiss...

Things to think about:

Where to get

• projectors (ask Steve, Glen, Chuck Tomlins, etc)
• speakers (All Souls?)

House Art Show

Applying for grants through

• TU—exhibitions grant
• OK visual arts council
• English Dept/Dean’s office

Podcasts of supplementary sound

Could we program it so that the images would change depending on the sound or vice versa?

(We could if we learn the software and buy the hardware)

I said that I think we are making a movie

but we also could include related projects (photos, books, texts)

Having two projectors would allow us to present the duality of Oil/Religion but also to deconstruct the binary.

Question: how much of the Tulsita materials will we use in the new project?

I assumed that it was going to be all new stuff…unless, as David said, the old stuff is relevant

Nathan wondered how the House Show stuff would relate to the Living Arts stuff—would it be the same—we don’t want to tip our hand.

Interscenes and Death/Metal progressing

Been working late nights this week to finish this project at least to a point where we could submit it to an online journal. Nathan finally got me phrases for Death/Metal, but I’m still waiting on the other two. Mindy did finally get me two nets that she made out of Dig Down.

Mindy was also able to get me some “posterized” versions of some of the photos we submitted to Living Arts. She had the idea, above, to gradually animate them in a sort of paint-by-numbers scheme, which gave me tons of ideas as to how to show the language that undergirds the places and images we see every day.

At any rate, I thought this short animation would serve great as “interscenes,” transitions between the various poems. They could have sound or not (I don’t think the Green Door short will work with sound—it’s too slow a file because of all the text animation). I did the first interscene with the wicker deer photo mindy sent according to the paint-by-numbers idea, but I thought it would reverse it wit hteh green door, moving the animation in the opposite direction. Fading into text then fading into text that resembles the shape of the objects in the photo, then fading into and stopping at the photo. One more should do it, but I haven’t given thought to what it will be yet.

Instead, I’ve been tweaking the interscenes and in Scene 4 adding Nathan’s texts to Death/Metal. I hope to finish Scene 4 this weekend to show to WaKOW and to get approval to add the interscenes to the full project. Another idea I’ll run by them is to add hyperlinks to keywords in the texts that pop up photos when clicked. The photos would in turn have little x-boxes to click to close them. I think these pop-ups would work best when the poem is not in motion. This interactivity would be idea for an online zine environment even if it would be useless in an installation.

Thoughts on the Tulsita Flash

It will probably be necessary to create a downloading bar graph to show viewer how much has downloaded.

The fla file I created using the 15 photos we submitted to Living Arts might make for a nice intro page (I think I’ve decided against a title page like with Action, Yes. I want it to run as one movie). I need to ask Nathan to come up with a sound file that might accompany it. It’s now 17.5 seconds, but I could stretch it out. I also could combine it with Tulsita-intro.

Yesterday, I was looking at Beehive online mag—it seems like a good venue for this piece. Arras.net is not—it’s Brian Kim Stephan’s home page, basically, and does not accept submissions. I need to look at some of my other links and start contacting them.