Welcome

MEDIA        

          Many different elements were brought together to document and share my thesis. The following section is a list of these elements; a kind of citation for tools, both traditional and contemporary. This list is intended as a reference. Using hyperlinks, I integrated individual pieces of this section into the thesis to elaborate on my process without clogging the flow of the narrative.  

Hardware

Digital Pen (Livescribe Pulse)

          The written and drawn notetaking is done with a digital 'smart' pen system. This pen stores a digital version of the notes internally using a small infrared camera that records a dot matrix printed on traditional paper.  At the same time, the pen captures the audio of the event, allowing the dot information to be time-stamped.  The synced audio-note files are downloaded onto a Livescribe desktop application, where they can also be hosted to a parallel online space through Livescribe.  The audio-notes can then be accessed within the paper notebook, on your computer, or online.

Smartphone (Apple iPhone) 

Desktop Computers (Apple and Windows OS)

Large Screens - 62" Flat-Screen Tv's 

Media Hub (Western Digital TV Live) 

Application Software

Website Hosting Service (Google Blogger) 

          The website was designed using standard templates and custom-made widgets.

Photo Hosting Service (Picasa)

Video Hosting Service (Youtube and Vimeo) 

Digital Pen Application (Livescribe Desktop and Online Application) 

Screencast Application (iShowYou HD) 

          The footage was paired with the digital notes using desktop recording of the video and Livescribe files.

Mapping Application (Omnigraffle Pro)

Document Viewing Application (Issuu)

Multimedia Notes

Asynchronous Video and Notes 

          My notetaking experiments with video, involving two separate windows and no sound, evolved out of necessity. Megan Gaffney, a graduate student from Medical Illustration who planned to show in the Bevier Gallery, was deaf. My conversations with her contained no audio dialogue; I needed video to document her experiences within my thesis. I used my smartphone to record session and removed the audio for simplicity. The lack of audio within the video turned out to be advantageous for others as well. Synchronizing soundtracks online involves more than good timing: media loads in relation to a user's connection speed, an uncontrollable variable from my end. Eliminating the sound allowed both windows to play simultaneously without risking audio conflicts. Examples of this method can be seen in the following sessions: 

• Megan's Studio and Installed Thesis
• Christine's Installed Thesis
• Revisit George's Studio
• Sandra's Studio
• Amy's Studio

          The double-screen process allowed me to encompass ASL and include context with audio notes, but lacked the synchronicity I was looking for.

Synchronous Video and Notes 

          I was able to splice the notes and video together in a single pane using a screencast application.  The following notes used this method:

• Pei-Chen's Studio 
• Mary's Classroom Studio 
• Yu Fen's Installation 
• Fan's Studio  

Click the following link for a full set of the notes linked with video.

Traditional Elements

          It is equally important to note that these technical tools came together with traditional elements, all of which were made with my hands. 

The Gallery Pathmap 

Screen Cabinets for flatscreen tvs

Bound Comments Book

Identification T-shirts

Troubleshooting

Livescribe Notes Wont Play?

          *The embedded notes use Flash*; if you are viewing through an Apple mobile device, they will not play.  Even using a flash-enabled machine, the notes can sometimes have issues playing audio, or can freeze altogether, but the fix is usually a quick one.   

          Hover the tip of your mouse's curser over any of the green lines (the black lines do not play in the same way).  A small red dot should appear.  Click on the notes, and wait up to 20 seconds for the file to load.  Although the pages can be navigated non-linearly, they load like any movie file. If you click on a point towards the end of the recording, it will take longer to play the first time, although once it has loaded, it is seamless to navigate.  If you are hearing no audio after 20 seconds, you can try pressing the stop button and then the play button in the bottom of the panel (orange circles with a white square and triangle inside, respectfully).  Now try clicking on a line in the notes again.   

          Still no luck?  You can try refreshing the page or closing and reopening the browser.  Still stuck? You can try restarting your machine, or email me directly.