flatland

Outreach

Page history last edited by Anonymous 2 yrs ago

Outreach

Not very many people actually come to the Sculpture Center every day. If we want to reach a bigger audience than gallery goers, we can have an Outreach Program. Our web homepage is the most obvious starting place. Lets make a list of outreach ideas here.

ward 050307: Here is an idea for the website plan, a sitemap> I moved it out of the way to its own page.

http://flatland.pbwiki.com/Site%20Map%20Plan

(doug 7.3.07)

about outreach ---> what if we find some sympathetic art/culture spaces to show/link our webcams, ideally with a permenent monitor somewhere under their roof?

scuplture center of course,

what about:

nikolaj kunsthallen (pelle?)

cph art library (pelle?)

mumok (ward?)

pierogi (ward?)

(ward 07.03.07) Good idea. I am sure we can get a monitor into Pierogi. I suppose what we need in each case is 1. permission, and 2. a dedicated computer with an internet connection, and a hidden mouse. I have an old i-Mac that might work at Pierogi. I think local bars and restaraunts might be cool too.

pelle 08.03.07:

I'll ask the places doug suggested, if they would be up for it... I'm sure Knud would love it! What about simple posters with a message. black and white, A3 printed out. put up in the neighborhood. Saying something simple and catchy.. (cant think of anything right now). But I think its interesting with the local community. In general I think this is really crazy, to go inside flatland. And then if we are also very keen on promoting what we do...It would create interesting questions: who are these crazy people,, why do they live in this flatland? Why do that guy, wear a cleaning suit with a flower hat ? why? Is there a smart answer?

(doug 9.3.7):

maybe the posters are 'messeges in a (flat) bottle!' -also a way to engage the occasional visitor

i've been working learning webcams+java ...... it's possible each person could have their own webcam, in addition to the others.... maybe a link to it on the individual webpages. you could control it - when it's on, when it's off, text, etc. i've been playing with them so far, and the software is suprisingly versatile and easy: http://www.douglaspaulson.com/webcam2.html

if the images aren't moving, it's because the camera is off, and it stays on the last page.

it's also possible to add a still picture to the webcam -

- so when you go onto pelle's personal page, you could see an image of pelle's space, like this:

the viewer will always see pelle's face, and see a 'live' image of pelle's space. the 'live'-ness is easily controlable: the viewer will always believe they are seeing a live feed. the camera can also be set to turn on and off when it senses motion, and you can define that easily......

Ward 09.03.07:

I think we should get those multi cameras together at your place so you can see if having more than one image upload is possible, and then we'll have to test at Sculpture Center. I think we should buy the server today. What do you think?

doug 9.3.7:

yes, let's buy it as soon as possible. we should know if it sucks before you leave!

ward 09.03.07 - Unit is out of stock til Tuesday Here's a report from the ISP

You currently have an upload/download rate of 1600/128, and a static IP

address, correct. If you have more than one person viewing the webcam at a

time, you really may find that the 128 on the upstream is not going to be

enough, and it will start to cut into the download (which you need for the

performers accessing the internet) making it very slow.

You do qualify for up to 3000/768, which would give you much more bandwidth

to work with. Upgrading service to the higher speed takes less than 24

hours, I would recommend doing it at least a week before your exhibit starts

to work out any issues and test the webcam/etc.

To upgrade for just the 3 months, you would pay the full price of

$129.95/mo, then downgrade service at the end of your exhibit. Alternately,

if you wanted to upgrade service on a permanent basis, we could do it for

$79.95/mo, which is a $10 discount over our current promotional rate.

Honestly, whether this bandwidth will be enough will depend on how many

concurrent users are viewing the exhibit at a time.

You do need a static IP address, so you can point people to your webcam

address, or link to it from your site, and not have to worry about it

changing every day.

If you have any questions, or would like to discuss this further, please

feel free to call or e-mail.

Regards,

AceDSL Support

212-868-2366

doug 19.3.07

here's a rough! web beginning. what does everyone think? how can we spice it up?

http://www.douglaspaulson.com/flatland/UntitledFrameset-44.html

the only links that work are the 'douglas' ones.

ward 20.03.07

Good start, Doug

I would like there to be a live cam window in upper rt corner that is maybe part of the frame set so it is always there...

I would like everyone's face to be on the opening page...

maybe I can make a sketch today and mail it to you.

I assume flatland.info is the only suffix left; no .com or .org ?

ward 21.03.03

Here is a try at a web page look. go to

http://www.wardshelley.com/flat/sitetriala.asp

It's just a screeshot. Nothing works.

(the following is a transcribed skype chat)

DOUG 14:01

ok great... and you want that webcam visible all the time? that's of course possible with frames...... i'll begin re-working my pages soon ....

my first reaction to yours is that with live images, + photos ,, this page has too much going on. maybe that the drawing background can be simpler graphics, less invasive color scheme,,,, maybe blending in with the (flat) structure of the page. we should cut it down to one main menu that's always visible (preferably the left), and other smaller menus that are subserviant to that one. these two menus seem overwhelming and redundant

what if, when you click 'ward shelley', the text directly above your name opens to 'wards webcam' and in place of the other names and faces, text about you appears. repeat for each participant

i think we might need our own font for flatland logo

wardshelley 14:04

okay. So, I guess your comment about font is about the logo, i think the Flatland logo has a fonty look, and feels less original. I also tried it with bland fonts, and then it doesn't read "fonty".

DOUG 14:03

yes

wardshelley 14:04

You want me to send you some un-fonty versions?

I can do that, and you can play too. I have Illustrator and I am good with it, so I can really distort and shit.

DOUG 14:05

is there something else?

wardshelley 14:07

allright. i want to try and keep the background. Shapes can have thick borders (like face pictures and web cam, or the whole thing can be darker. But I think the background is compelling, when you figure no one has an idea what Flatland might look/feel like.

DOUG 14:07

yes yes ... i'm proposing a more graphic version .. simpler,, flatter!

this drawing implies depth!

i think we should flatten it up a notch

wardshelley 14:09

I think that flat on the web is just normanl and doesn't open into this arguemnet . i am really tired of "tasteful" artists sites. I like your home page. It inspired mine. No blank color backgrounds and stingy, little, hard to find links.

doug 22.3.7

below are some logo directions, and a background idea for the webpage. check it out @ http://www.douglaspaulson.com/flatland/index2.html

ward 22.03.07

I took your art and merged it with mine and came up with trial B at

http://www.wardshelley.com/flat/sitetrialb.asp

give it a look.

The graphics are beginning to get fuzzy and a little smaller because of my constant cutting and re-sizing, but I think the look is impoving. I took your drawing and made it into a shadow. Do you like that?

doug 22.03.07

we're getting there.... the silohettes work .... i still think the menu redundancy seems ameaturish ,,,, the color scheme is quite saturated,, but we can make that kind of decision when we can see how the webcam images will look

ward 22.03.07

what redundancy? I took the masthead buttons off...and i doo loovve the saturated blue and gold. Its the Cub Scout colors!

doug 25.3.7

ok! here's a web proposal:

http://www.douglaspaulson.com/flatland/index3/index.html

follow the links for webcams, people > doug, decription, wiki.!

ward 25.03.07

I am very happy with the overall design. It has an original feel placed next to all other things webbish. Reminds me of edgy movie posters from early sixties, like "Anatomy of a Murder".

I think there are details to tighten up, and I think there should be more change from page to page, because it is not always readily apparent that one has loaded in a new page, if the part you were focusing on didn't change. This could be simple, like a different background color, or a morphing of size relations (like the OSX dock does, or something. but I think we can relax with this basic model. I'd say we have something of a keeper.

maria 25.03.07

I like the website! I suggest that as soon as we decided on our uniforms we should have that colour appearing in the design somehow. I will come up with the final search and suggestion by next week.

doug 26.03.07

ok .,... . go to the dummy site and check out the planning page

the bottom of flatland should be extended down somehow (maybe with drawings of pipes?)

and i haven't taken that inch off the site - i'll do that to every page at the same time.

BUT putting text into photoshop to make these pages is definitely a lot more complicated than cut-and-paste.... that the real drawback to doing things this way

SO if you could send me final(-ish) texts asap, that will save lots of time later!

of course, we CAN modify things later, but i'd like to keep that to a minimum ....

when are you coming back?

ward 25.03.07

dearDoug,My opinion of the planning page is that it is not interesting enough.

I think we need more flexibility when moving away from the home page. We want a visual connection with home, but I don't think we want a page that is difficult to format, to update. We want to be able to slug in new pictures, to edit text, to make changes.

the home page: its fine to have it fine tuned and reliable. I think it would be too bad if we couldn't add categories easily to the side bar, or put in News Flashes at a moments notice. I think you are saying that the way you are working, the whole page is a single jpeg and you have to go back to photoshop to make changes, not as simple as an html file.

So I think the home can be done this way, but i don't want all the subsequent pages to be to dependent on the format of the home; neither the jpeg, nor the layout. We can leave the funky grid after we get deeper into the site and just save some reminders of it at the top.

I recommend going table format for inner pages: quick to do, quick to change, very reliable. And we can have a design protocol that ties them in with the home, but gives them more flexibility. The side bar, with the illustration next to it, take up too much of the planning page I think. We probably want to keep the side bar, or something, but we could loose the blue and black figure by that time, and maybe the dominence of the face (I think we will begin to be embarrassed about too much of the faces). Maybe we can reduce or loose the faces on inner pages.

And the planning page, I thought it would be sketches, some text, an interesting perusal, so it can't just be a page of text slugged into a box of a formula page, even if the text is big. Whose going to read it? nobody. (I bet even most of us.)

Also, do you remember my idea of the 3 frame gif animations for the faces? I am thinking, that your technique may rule that out. Is that true?

ward 29.03.07

If you want to see what direction our insane web designer is going, check out these samples:

http://www.douglaspaulson.com/flatland/index3/index.html

http://www.douglaspaulson.com/flatland/index3/planning3.html

I am pretty pleased with the look. Of course, we want everyone to have a chance to select their face picture. I myself don't want to be the same sloppy drooler I find on this page. We could have your faces change so you are not always the same. Also, move the whole thing to the left and get maria fully on the page, not half off.

The content needs to be fine tuned as we get closer. We are thinking of buying a website name: www.flatland.info

doug 29.3.7

could everyone send me your personal info -- bio, website, whatever you want on your 'facepage'?

this page is unfinished, of course, but it will look something like this:

http://www.douglaspaulson.com/flatland/index3/doug.html

send me info soon!!

Maria 30.3.07

I sent my bio to Doug. This is to remind everybody else to do the same, as soon as possible.

doug 1.4.07

ok! here are hopefully the final versions. there are is info missing in some spots. i'm still working working working on getting the webcams up and running, and i'm still waiting for YOUR bio. take a look at my page or ward's to get thinking.....

http://www.douglaspaulson.com/index4/index.html