Updating

Hmm, did I say "more regular posting"? Perhaps I underestimated how busy I might be as I start working on my master's thesis. I'm doing the thesis about how to make it easier to use gestures and movement to control various media in performance. See, lots of performance artists have "gestures" trigger sound effects, shape video projections, or affect music; however, the actual code for these systems generally looks at really low-level things about movement, like "What's the voltage value on the bend sensor for the left elbow?" rather than something potentially more meaningful like "How much is the arm extended?" As an example (and this is something I did for my Sponsor Week project this year), if I gave someone a glove and said, "When you wear this glove, the system can recognize if you're flicking your hand, how hard you flick your hand, if you're squeezing, how tightly you're squeezing, if you're waving, if you're tilting your hand to the side, if you're shaking your hand back and forth... so how do you want those gestures to control sound or visuals?" they'll immediately be thinking of very different interactions than if I gave them a glove and said, "This glove has a bend sensor on the index finger and an accelerometer on the back of the hand. How do you want to control sound or visuals?" So in order to really experiment intuitively in rehearsal/performance with using gestures, I think you have to have a higher-level representation of gesture and movement qualities.

On the less techno-babble side of things, most recent refashion/construction: Halloween costume for the boyfriend, who wanted to be an elf (Lord of the Rings style). We'd made the long hooded cloak from a pattern last year, and this year added a quick elf tunic (refashioned from a green sheet), collared shirt (a reject of my brother's), a belt (really just a long strip of felt), and some pants from the dollar-a-pound clothing store. Didn't have the time to make or find a bow and arrows, unfortunately. (I went as a 1920's flapper, which pretty much meant: red velvet dress that I had gotten on sale for $9 a couple of years ago, a $2 red feather for my hair, stockings, and the character shoes I've had for a good number of years.)

So. Hopefully more jewelry refashioning soon. Also, I have a couple of easy (I hope) 1960's dress patterns that are waiting for a free evening and some stash fabric...