charles955

[[image:Lake Louise.jpg width="290" height="417"]]

 * Name**: Charlie Lee
 * Major**: International Affairs
 * Minor**: Geography
 * Grade**: Senior
 * Home Town:** Irvine, CA
 * Interests**: Photography, travel, eating, etc
 * Art Experience**: Photography & occasional sketch/doodling

=__**Week 1 Homework**__=

Copyright is obviously a complicated issue. When I was younger, I would upload videos on youtube and some of them would be taken down due to copy right reasons because I used songs in them. I just thought of it as a simple annoyance back then. I never put much thought into its implication and the comic strip shed some light into the issue.

I think the basic premise of copyright law is good. There should be an official means to protect intellectual property. However, some of the bigger and more influential producers often seem to abuse the law to cancel out competition. Personally, I am glad I am not in that field of work. It seems like there is so much restriction in creative freedom. You can mistakenly have Simpson playing in the background of a short panning shot and be sued for an absurd amount of money or you can be subconsciously inspired by a famous piece of art and be accused of copyrights. While I think copyright laws should continue to be enforced, but also taken down a notch so it is not at the point where it was absurd. Some of the cases of copyright that were mentioned in the comic seemed so petty to a point where it was ridiculous. Concern of copyright seems like it would only discourage creators from achieving a vision they truly want. If you cannot convey an ideal image of a city you adore because one small visual element violates copyright law and you are forced to change it, are you really achieving your original intent?

On a related note, I find it is funny how the copyright law goes flying out the window once it leaves the Western hemisphere. I am from South Korea and although copyright laws exist there, they are not as strict as it is in the United States and other Western countries. Popular movie theme songs, pop songs, and so on would be used in documentaries, official government videos, TV shows, and so on and most people don’t bat an eye.

When it comes to the digital world, I think it is really a tricky subject. I am guilty of pirating things online and I am sure most people of my age are as well. In a digital age, I think most of us feel that it’s absurd to be charged an exorbitant amount of money for contents that can be downloaded for free. In this aspect, I think the copyright law and the producer of digital contents need to evolve to better fit the standards and expectation of modern, digital society.

I am just glad that I will not have to deal with challenges that surround intellectual property and copyright law in the future, at least when it comes to what my line of work is going to be. Like I said before, copyright is a hornet’s nest of an issue that I would not want to tackle. Artists and other content creators have a lot on their hands.



Blue Screen of Death



Stealth Jet



Bear



Black Hand

Toy Gun

__Project 1: Surrealist Composite__

Source Images

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Progress



Final

Link to PSD file: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BxJPr8uxPJVsb0VsMGExaVpabG8?usp=sharing



Hummingbird.gif

=**Manovich reading response**=


 * Question**: Are there certain aspects of Augmented Reality you consider especially interesting for future experiments & exploration?

I think there are many new fascinating ways to explore the concept of augmented reality, especially with the advent of modern technology. In the 1990s, when personal computers were first becoming popular, the concept of virtual reality was a hot topic. The thought of being able to escape into a virtual world and to experience it was something that has not been possible for millennia. Sure, people could watch films or read books to engross themselves in a whole different world, but those experiences were only “fixed” and could not be interacted with. Thanks to the widespread use of internet today, the cyberspace serves as a normal way to communicate and interact with others in our society.

I think the next norm is going to be virtual reality, which has gained a lot of traction in recent years thanks to commercial products such as Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. In few short years, I believe virtual reality will be applied to many facets of people’s lives, especially in entertainment. Videogames are adored by billions of people around the world as means of escape. The recent advancement in virtual reality technology will further enhance people’s experience in an augmented space by allowing them to visualize and experience this space as if they were actually in them. Even cinema, which, despite the existence of 3D films, was limited to a fixed & flat 2D screen, may take a new turn as virtual reality films allow the viewers to experience a whole new space. Internet could be also browsed in virtual reality, making cyberspace quite literally a whole new space for people to interact in.

If Virtual Reality technology becomes widespread in the future, its effects might be seen in the streets of our cities. Virtual reality combined with wearable computer technology could pave way for many new options. People can wear glasses that have HUDs can look at and interact with their given space that people with naked eyes won’t be able to. Imagine seeing buildings being covered in holographic displays and billboards that can be virtually interacted through technology that seemed only possible in 80s cyberpunk film. The ability to “lay dynamic and context specific information over the visual field of a user” will go off the chart if these goals are realized.

It’s not only the entertainment and commercial aspect of our society that could benefit from such advancement. I believe people in all kinds of field will benefit from it. Imagine rescue workers wearing goggles that scan the surrounding and display relevant information on its HUD, or soldiers that can see live images of a place 40 miles away from him on his helmet display thanks to its connection to a drone. Some of these advancements are not just proof of concepts, but reality. For example, pilots of F-35 5th generation fighter jets wear extremely advanced helmets that allow pilots to perceive their battlespace unlike ever before. Their helmets are linked with various highly advanced optics onboard the aircraft and receive live information on their helmet mounted displays. This is the kind of augmented reality that we are already experiencing, so imagine how things will be in the near future.

=**Final Project (Site-specific Self-portrait)**=



For this project, I decited to combine my love for photography & birds. I took pictures of birds that can be commonly found on campus and combined them with images of specific trees where I took pictures of those birds. Then I mixed the busy sound of the city with songs of the respective birds.

How I achieved my auras:

1) Take necessary pictures of birds around campus 2) Cut them out in photoshop 3) Use photos of specific trees as trigger image 4) Use multiple photos of birds in flight to simulate birds "flying" through the trigger image 5) Combine that with slide show of bird pics 6) Add city noise & respective bird calls 7) Render the videos and use them as overlays

My auras are titled: Charlie Lee SP17 Final Aura 1 ~ 4

My intention was to portray how birds thrive and continue to sing their songs even in the hectic concrete jungle. Most people don't realize how many different types of birds live in the city, so I wanted to shed some light onto that by close-up views of some of the birds that live in Washington, D.C. You never notice certain things until you start paying attention to the little details. Even through the cacophony of urban noise, you will always be able to hear bird calls if you pay attention.

A lot of photos were not used in the final auras, and below are some of them.





After the critique

Looking back, I wish I added captions during the "slide show" part of my auras. Information regarding when these photos were taken, what specie of bird it is, and what I think about them would have added a more personal aspect.