Into the Big Scary World of HTML

What is a webpage? A webpage is an individual HTML document.

A website? A collection of webpages or HTML documents.

What coding elements provide a webpage with its structure? Tags are contained in pointed brackets and must be opened and closed. They are commands which describe the webpage how to appear. For example: CONTENT

How do you write an HTML tag? Write an HTML tag using pointed brackets. They must be opened by writing the tag, and closed by writing the same tag except with a backslash (/) inside the pointed brackets before the tag word.

Where do you write text you want to see on the page?
To see text on the page, you must put the text inside of a
or
tag.

What is the H1 tag used for? The tag is used to create a header of the largest scale.

How do you load an image on to the page? Load an image using the tag.

What is a server? A server is a computer or series of computers dedicated to keeping a website online and active.

What is a URL? URL stands for Universal Resource Locator. It is the unique address assigned to a webpage so that it can be found on the Internet.

How do you create a link? Create a link using the tag.

New media wiki answers

Digital Footprint Research

Ryle Laporte’s Digital Footprint: Ryle Laporte

Musical Enhancement in New Media

The term “new media refers” to any form of communication that is still young as far as innovation and experimentation are concerned. Today, this term also refers any form of expression or communication that brings the physical world and the digital world closer together. Any medium or content that attempts to create a symbiotic relationship between man and machine, physical and digital, could be considered new media. This could occur in small progressions, like creating an augmented reality interface through the lens of a camera1, or larger ones, like using a computer to decipher brain signals in order to create images. The three artists and innovators examined in this essay attempt to bring music and the listener closer together through sensory and participatory means.

Abstract Birds is a group of two “visual music artists”2 Pedro Mari and Natan Sinigaglia. Together they create generative systems and interfaces meant to create an organic visualization for music. Their technology seeks to capture the emotion of music into a visual display. Partitura (Score) creates a visual on a horizontal plane that resembles a three-dimensional organic music score. Partitura aims to physically embody the music it is set to react to. “Inspired by the studies of artists such as Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Oscar Fischinger and Norman McLaren”3, elements of the score are digitally created and then evolve with the music. Partitura is capable of interpreting music in order to display it for the listener with accuracy. It senses rigidity and elasticity, calm and anger in music- “everything and it’s opposite”4. The viewer sees this organic “score” react to the music it is set to. Genesi is a similar video with an animation generated in real time by the output of two instruments5. It tells the story of “an abstract organism from birth, through its various stages of development, until its death.”6 Using musical queues from a piano and a wind instrument, the software is able to render a real time visualization far more engaging and more accurate than any default “visualizer” program. This visualization is a step above what we know as a “visualizer”, which usually comes built into computer-based music software such as iTunes. Instead of a shapeless mass expanding and collapsing to (supposedly) the flux of the music, Genesi generates a far more accurate visualization-complete with shapes that represent instruments and colors that reflect the tone. It also manages to tell a story at the same time. This is the new generation of visualization, progressed further by Abstract Birds. http://vimeo.com/12901672. The work of Abstract Birds falls directly in to the “experimentation” phase of the media life cycle. Abstract Birds are innovators of existing technology and concepts. However, they are pioneers when it comes to this level of musical visualization. Clearly the goal of these projects is create a visual extension of the listener’s mind that replicates the feeling the music creates. By creating software that allows images and patterns to be created by music itself, Abstract Birds have opened countless doors of possibility to artists seeking to become more involved in music. This innovation brings music and listener closer together. Abstract Birds have created a medium by which listeners can now see what they are hearing too. Audiences can now develop an even closer relationship with their music, and are one step closer to becoming a single being with it.

Modal Kombat is a live show that combines live guitar playing and video games. It was established by Yale Graduates David Hindman and Evan Drummond7. Their technology allows electric guitars to be turned into video game controllers which they use to play classic video games in front of the audience. Hindman and Drummond play games such as PONG, Mortal Kombat (hence the name), and Super Mario Kart to showcase their technology8. This marks a new era of musical participation and manipulation. Modal Kombat is unlike any music based video game in existence today (eg. the popular Guitar Hero franchise) because unlike these games, Modal Combat does not force the user to play along a set track. The player must instead react to their opponent using his or her skill on the guitar. As a result, a unique sound is created each time the game is played. The user has to physically make the music for the game to be played, a reverse process of the today’s popular music games, where music is created digitally only if the player performs a set task first. Like Abstract Birds, this technology falls into the experimentation and innovation stage of the media life cycle. Guitars and video games are both well known technologies, but they have never been combined in this fashion before. Using musical instruments to influence what happens on a screen unlocks endless possibilities to enhance the experience of both listening to and creating music. If an artist were someday able to control a free-drawing tool with a musical instrument using Modal Kombat’s technology, they could create a visual representation of their music- with no guidelines or metaphorical tracks to follow. Video games that teach guitar could also be created based on this technology. Like the work of abstract birds, Modal Kombat allows the listener to immerse themselves more fully into their music, this time by participating in the creation of both music and its visual result. This technology allows the player an unprecedented intimacy with their music, being both the creator and the audience of a unique visual display to accompany it.

Leon Theremin is the inventor of the theremin, a unique and rarely seen musical instrument10. It consists of a single box that outputs an electronic signal that is turned into a sound wave through an amplifier. The user can adjust the pitch and volume of this signal through hand gestures, which are picked up by the two antennae attached to the box. Theremin invented the instrument in 1920. It did not have a chance to take root in North American culture because of the great depression. Only now is the potential for flexibility being recognized in this relatively young instrument. The theremin produces a ghostly, ethereal sound that no other traditional musical instrument has since replicated. It was the first instrument to operate under a touch-free interaction system. The player is able to wave their hands within the detection field in order to influence the sound that the theremin creates. Over the years, the degree of precision and control that the player has over the instrument has increased greatly. The theremin player resembles a musical conductor. The emotion that the player puts into the theremin performance is reflected in the sound that it creates. The instrument has set off a new age of experimentation with touch-free technology in music. For example, the modern Air Piano shares many similarities with the theremin of the 1920’s11. http://laughingsquid.com/the-airpiano-an-instrument-played-by-hand-gestures/.This sort of touch-free style of music creation allows the player much more freedom in how the music sounds. While a guitar is limited to a combination of strings and frets and a piano is limited to its keys, the modern theremin and like instruments have a near infinite spectrum in the sounds that can be produced. Touch-free technology such as this allows the player to ascend to a new level of participation with their music. Instead of merely producing a sound on more traditional instruments, the theremin brings the player closer to being a physical part of the music. Like the work of Abstract Birds and Modal Kombat, the theremin and similar technologies allow the user to become closer to their music. These touch-free technologies allow the music to enter the physical realm, to take form in the bodies of their players.

The three artists, inventors, and innovators presented are all producers of new media. Their work allows the user to step closer to music and experience it through their eyes, their mind, and their bodies. Abstract Birds allows music to take on an accurate and organic visual form. Modal Kombat allows the user to produce their own music to control an on screen image or game. The theremin began a series of experimental instruments that allows the user to produce music using the movements of their bodies. These forms of media tighten the relationship between user and music. They help to bring the workings of imagination and feeling into a world we can see and quantify.

WORKS CITED

1. “New York Nearest Subway augmented Reality App for iPhone 3GS from acrossair” Online Posting. YouTube. September 27, 2011. Web. http://bit.ly/nRrIdo.
2. www.abstractbirds.com/about/. September 27, 2011. Web.
3. “Partitura 001”. Online Posting. Vimeo. September 27, 2011. Web. http://vimeo.com/23316783
4. “Partitura 001”
5. “Genesi (excerpts)”. Online Posting. Vimeo. September 27, 2011. Web. http://vimeo.com/12901672
6. “Genesi (excerpts)”.
7. “www.modalkombat.com”. September 28 , 2011. Web.
8. “www.modalkombat.com”
9. “www.modalkombat.com”
10. “What’s a Theremin?”. Theremin World. September 28 2011. Web. http://www.thereminworld.com/article.asp?id=17
11. “Jo Hamilton- Alive, Alive.” Online Posting. Vimeo. September 28, 2011. Web. http://vimeo.com/21456519