mohit.santram

further drawings and a nod to david’s trace

i spent a great deal of time today thinking about how best to rework the animation. i listened to the song several times over and reviewed the first draft animation several times today. chris ault was at itp today unannounced, i meant to ask him about the animation, though i’ll have to send him an email instead. i rewrote the lyrics and thought about alternative ways of presenting the slides.

http://flickr.com/photos/mojo/48181610/

http://flickr.com/photos/mojo/48181728/

it took me 65 slides for 34 seconds of animation, 5 minutes means at least 200. of course i’m sure i can use a bunch of slides over again, though my thought process for this song is makng me look for further inspiration outside the song. Michel Gondry did the original video, which i watched as well. the stunning thing Gondry did in my opinion was to integrate Beck into the scenes he spliced from the movie, yet in a non cheesey manner. gondry’s deadweight video lacks a certain punch that many of his (gondry’s) others exhibit, though i’m able to watch a video effectively advertising a movie and not be repulsed.

i started the trace method which david outlined in his piece tonight. i hadn’t thought about a simple trace as a work around to my ineffective (and unassisted) hand drawings. the one i worked on yesterday didn’t look so much like beck as it did a caricature.

hand drawn sketch of beck

i’m changing my focus to concentrate more on the hand drawn illustrations of beck for my 2nd version of an animated music video for deadweight.

i found the photograph of beck online here: http://www.rockpalastarchiv.de/bild/biz00/beck.jpg, and I wanted to give them credit for such image.

my drawing is a first attempt to bring a style change within the deadweight animation.

pure bliss?

i just walked out of a david lynch talk where he didn’t really do so much talking and he really didn’t do so much presenting. he really didn’t so much of anything, but kinda stand there (sit really) and make us listen to his “associate”. the evening’s program slowly evolved into a surreal version of of reality and then as the lights were turned off, into a movie of his own. it was so completely bizarre…

this was the advert i received:

“Director’s Series Presents DAVID LYNCH Filmmaking and Consciousness Through Transcendental Meditation
Cantor Film Center 38 E. 8th St. 6pm
TWO PRESENTATIONS
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
(RSVP Required)

9:00 pm - 10:30 pm
(RSVP Required)”

i’m not even sure if “this” is really happening now.

Illustrator Illustrations

The Creative Act: I have difficulty with Adobe Illustrator and developing complex vector graphics. While working on the the Animation Pressure Project, where I hand drew 65 cells to make a 34 second faux Music Video for Beck’s song “Deadweight”, I relied completely on my drawings to animate the video. I would have preferred incorporating illustrator and flash vector based graphics into the piece, along with animating the hand drawn cells. i hope improve my knowledge and understanding of these tools.

http://www.santram.net/itp/creativeact/studyseries/day1/index.html

like the gristle…

http://santram.net/itp/creativeact/likethegristle/index.html

a 34 sec assignment that is a precursor to a full on version…

art is for…

http://santram.net/itp/creativeact/artisfor/kittens.html

contrived invention

art is theft!

http://santram.net/itp/creativeact/artistheft/

art is…

// is this art
// by mohit.santram // is theft art?

size(600, 400);
background(50);

// Load the art. art is located everywhere in the
// main Processing directory/art/folder and they
// must be placed within the imaginary directory
// of your head for them to load
PFont fontA = loadFont(”Ziggurat-HTF-Black-32.vlw”);

// why doesn’t this work?
// where is my damn font?

// Set the font and its size (in units of pixels)
textFont(fontA, 32);

int x = 30;

// Use fill() to change the value or color of the text
fill(0);
text(”is”, x, 60);
fill(51);
text(”theft”, x, 95);
fill(204);
text(”art”, x, 130);
fill(255);
text(”?”, x, 165);

//this code is based on processing example. based off of a processing example.

artcauses

FreshDirect.com vs. Whole Foods

mohit.santram // 09.22.05
thinking about networks //
assignment #1 // compare two networks

FreshDirect.com vs. Whole Foods

Introduction
In an age of accelerated time, a growing segment of the New York City public has been raising their demand and consumption of higher quality food. Inherent to living in New York City, is the arbitrary value many New Yorkers place on the timely delivery of goods and services. Per capita, health-minded New Yorkers tend to place a larger cost value on organic and environmentally safe and responsible food. Aside from the fact that both FreshDirect and Whole Foods are in the business of selling food and groceries; they share more similarities and differences than one may think.

Background: FreshDirect.com
FreshDirect.com is a food delivery service that specializes in high quality raw ingredients, pre-packaged, prepared, vegetarian, organic, and frozen food. The business was started in 2002 in the ashes of the dot-com ventures, with an understanding of the pitfalls and mistakes of the first Internet boom. Armed with a better business plan and quality attention to the customer and their demands, FreshDirect.com opened its’ website for business in 2002. As an online food delivery service, FreshDirect.com promises to delivery higher quality food at a lower price. Since FreshDirect does not own any retail stores, it’s customers must conduct all of their business online with a credit card instead of shopping at a traditional food market. They employ several NYC area food experts and maintain their main preparation and distribution facilities in Long Island City, New York. FreshDirect.com’s customers tend to accept a perceived higher cost for all goods and services in exchange for the convenience of home delivery.

Background: Whole Foods
Founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods was started within a different environment than FreshDirect. In twenty-five years, Whole Foods has grown to 176 stores within the United States and United Kingdom. Whole Foods was started to provide it’s customers with a better selection of natural and organic foods at a competitive price. Whole Foods values ethical farming and environmental practices because it believes companies and customers must be responsible members of the larger ecosystem. Customers come to Whole Foods to purchase groceries and more specifically, for their unique shopping experience. As a high end grocery store, Whole Foods specializes in the same breadth of products that FreshDirect does, but in a much larger and diverse scale. Each Whole Foods store purchases items directly from local businesses located in the immediate and metropolitan area as well as from the company headquarters and worldwide distribution channels.

Comparison & Contrast
FreshDirect customers are not only willing to forgo individual item selection for convenience, they are also willing to forgo price in exchange for convenience. These same users place their order online with sight unseen of the item and wait for them to be delivered at a specific time and address. While FreshDirect attempts to pass along the savings per item by not maintaining a physical store; customers pay for home delivery of their groceries as a convenience regardless of the price. FreshDirect also believes that their customers are more concerned with convenience than the traditional food shopping and selection experience at a bricks and mortar store. Along with stocking perishables, FreshDirect sells frozen, organic, and vegetarian food. FreshDirect operates its deliveries based upon zip codes and as a result, each FreshDirect delivery truck behaves like its own node, where each delivery location is a member of a smaller network of nodes. FreshDirect must maintain accurate inventory of its stock in it’s distribution centers, along with managing the supply chain to ensure their ability to sell goods to their customers. They employ knowledgeable personnel along with safe, yet expedient, delivery people. Since most of the items are perishable, FreshDirect must also have air-conditioned delivery trucks with drivers who know the terrain and are able to deliver the properly packaged perishable items in a timely fashion. Failure to do so, will result in higher costs and will dissuade customers from shopping online at FreshDirect.com and intead buy at a bricks and mortar market like WholeFoods.

As a traditional bricks and mortar high end food market, Whole Foods faces many of the same challenges that FreshDirect faces, yet on a larger scale. Since they must distribute their goods to a significantly larger number of stores, their distribution network; from Whole Foods’ Headquarters to their stores, must take into consideration the same concerns of air conditioned transportation of all perishable items. Customers of Whole Foods rely not only on the condition and freshness of goods that they buy, they also rely on each individual store’s ability to display and present the goods in a clear, easy to understand manner. While Whole Foods relies on the presentation and condition of each individual item within their store, this pressure and maintenance does not exist at FreshDirect. Effectively, each Whole Foods store is a node within the larger Whole Foods network. Whole Foods’ headquarters dispatches direction, procedure policies, and mandates to each store. Each “node” also behaves as it’s own hub as the local suppliers, distribution channels, customers interact within the immediate area. Since perishable and non-perishable goods may be sent from Whole Foods headquarters to each store via diverse distribution channels/network connectors such as trucks, airplanes, and ships; the ability to do so in a cost effective manner dictates the prices that Whole Foods charges its customers.

Conclusion
Both Whole Foods and FreshDirect rely on their supply chains to provide the goods they need to sell to their customers to stay in business. Each Whole Foods store relies on gathering food from its vast network of distributors and local suppliers to stock each of its stores. Each store not only acts as a local node of the greater Whole Foods network, they serve as an immediate hub for commerce and activity in their respective community. FreshDirect, on the other hand, operates on a much smaller scale in a similar, yet different distribution channel. FreshDirect’s distribution of similar perishable and non-perishable items presents its users a different delivery and interaction model, yet through some similar network behaviors. Depending on the constraints, each network of nodes presents its own unique benefits and disadvantages.

dontbesoliteral

http://santram.net/itp/creativeact/just/dontbesoliteral.html

artISt?

11.58 PM

it’s 11.58 PM again.

here i am world, pot kettle black.

i read the twyla tharp book today. while it was full of some sound advice, it also bordered on ridiculous. though this may be even more so ridiculous.

proper preparation prevents poor performance. you think i’d have learned by now.

proper preparation prevents poor performance. proper preparation prevents poor performance. proper preparation prevents poor performance. proper preparation prevents poor performance. proper preparation prevents poor performance. proper preparation prevents poor performance. proper preparation prevents poor performance. proper preparation prevents poor performance. proper preparation prevents poor performance. proper preparation prevents poor performance.

what is the moon?

http://santram.net/itp/creativeact/day13/

proce55ing… proce55ing… proce55ing…

there are some great projects on the creative act blog that have been done in proce55ing. i don’t know how to develop proce55ing apps, but it’s high time to learn.

I googled proce55ing and some assorted keywords and I found this example on the proce55ing site:

http://processing.org/learning/examples/fluid.html

cool! this is crazy, why didn’t i learn this last year or two years ago?

intrigued, i asked a friend of mine, “say friend, what say you about this proce55ing movement.”

said friend replied, “well i use it to mock up apps and LED arrays”.

ah i responded. though i siliently mutted to myself, “that’s just crazytalk!” regardless my attention has not wavered.

so what now? each day for the next week, i’m going to try my hand at making each daily creative act in proce55ing. it’s a means to an end for me to learn proce55ing, which i’m beginning to get sick of typing as proce55ing.

oh yes, what inspired me? all the great processing apps on list.

bleedin…

or i sooon hope to be…

You: “I’m so sorry! I had no wi-fi” Me: BS!

“I’m so sorry i can’t get this post up”

Why are you so sorry? why can’t you get your act together? why can’t you post it on time? What the fuck is so important that you can’t spare twenty minutes?

“i didn’t have the right software on my machine.”

i mean really, c’mon! we’re in grad school. focus!

“my internet connection was down”

bullshit! let’s face it, you waited till the last moment. or maybe you got drunk. maybe you decided that you really didn’t give a crap. maybe you didn’t have anything “creative” to post.

“you have no right to judge my work or my Creative Act”

oh yeah? yeah well i call bullshit. there, i said it. and i don’t give a crap what you think. you can throw some gum at me if you want, or you can even make fun of my awful posts. you can sneer at me, or even email me and call me a jerk. you know what i say? go for it. call me out.

make me hate the work i did. try and make me regret writing this. make me me feel embarrassed for being a pot calling the kettle black. tell me that i have done the same thing i’m yelling at you for doing. go for it!

you know what, i’ll even help you. pick one or all of the posts. rip them apart. tell me that i didn’t put any thought into them, or that I was too busy chewing gum rather than thinking of gum as something beyond that stuff you chew.

you know what? i hate your lame excuses, they piss me off. i want to feel the rush, the pressure of the competition. i want to hate your work so much that i secretly love it. i want you to push me and everyone else. i want you to make us all better. so have at it, lay into my work (or lack thereof) so we can grow.

you know why? cause we’re not going to get better unless we turn it up. so there, i’ve thrown down the gauntlet. perhaps it was already thrown down, and i’ve been the one who hasn’t pushed my work. well i’m ready now, are you? i need your help.

je voudrais un chicklet

je voudrais un chicklet
messier fino de mastication
mercie bien

did i write that right?
i tried to remember french
bonsoir fino

pink bubbbbbbbbles

was it me? or was it the bubbles. maybe it’s the beer. maybe it was the satin sheets…

oh the movement! oh the camera!

soft silhouettes on pink satin sheets. sliding. caressing. popping.

oh the embrace! oh the embrace!

i can not say that i watched the video once. though, who was holding the camera?

“you look so peaceful when you sleep…” she looks so peaceful when she moves.

was it the bubble? was it the lack of the what i secretly wanted to see?

oh the movement! oh the camera!

where can i get some satin sheets of my own?

oh the embrace!

re: kleoni’s satin sheets