#exercise1

Visual Exercise 1 - Film Analysis

The Royal Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson 

Suicide Scene - “Needle in the Hay”

Even though Wes Anderson delivers a great deal of dead panned humour in his films, especially this one, he managed to produce a very core cutting scene. I think Luke Wilson is wonderful in all of Anderson’s films and perfectly plays a ‘Wed Anderson character’ – quite unglued and dysfunctional.

The majority of the scene is a close up of Richie, yet the shot is still quite wide. The use of the wide shot allows us to see that he is completely alone in this sad looking room – also showing how he might be feeling mentally as well as physically.

As he begins to cut off his hair, there are a few jump cuts to show that time is passing. This editing technique can sometimes be quite jarring, however, I feel in this scene it really emphasizes the fact that Richie is not mentally stable and time is slipping away.

The cold colouring in this scene perfectly annotates the emotions and thoughts Richie currently has.  Anderson always uses a very ‘art nouveau’ style colour palette in his work. For example, instead of using blue and green he has used more navy and moss like tones. The off-colours contribute greatly to tone being conveyed, in this case being very empty and joyless, as well as making the shot feel a little flat.

The song “Needle in the Hay” plays throughout the whole scene. Off the bat, this shows that Richie feels lost and alone, and past the point off saving. Richie looks himself in the mirror and says “I am going to kill myself tomorrow”, the deliverance of this line is incredibly chilling, he says it with absolutely no emotion or regret, making you feel like he is dead already.

Linking to colour as well as the editing, when Richie does begin to hurt himself, fast cutting is used to show what he is thinking about. We see very warm shots of his bird, Margot (who he loves) and his mother. The warmth of these shots heavily contrasts with the cold and dark shots we see Richie in, this shows that they are what brings him joy in his life.

Activity 1

Website Design / Digitization, OCR, and Text as Data

I worked with two very distinct kinds of digital sources for the first exercise. I never looked at these kinds of sources deeply until now, or moreso, I knew within me the differences, but comparing them was something I would not have done on my own. As someone born in the growing digital age, I'm used to having these sources accessible to me.

Despite both being accessible online, they perform different functions, are created, preserved, and experienced in their own ways.

Digital history is mediated, and I am made more aware of this fact, as I explore the two sources. I find that they are both authoritative in functions. They are both searchable, organized, and widely accessible. But because both sources are shaped by the technological assumptions, they answer to decisions made by institutions: the newspaper editors, by the library of congress. It proposes a limit in preservation and choice of what data is accessible for us to view

The first link is a digitalized newspaper from the Library of Congress.

The second, a born-digital website archived by the Wayback Machine.

Both can be freely accessed online.

THE DAILY WORKER (September 1, 1927).

This digital source can be accessed through the Library of Congress's Chronicling America collection. The name itself is interesting. It is to chronicle what was. This specific daily newspaper is political in nature. In a closer read, it focuses on labor movements during that time, depicting the "left" side of politics critiquing capitalism. Even the ads and editorials reflect this ideology.

I find the detailed metadata of Chronicling America to be its strength. I was able to search by date, state, publication, and subject or keyword, making it easy to navigate and locate what I might need.

I was thinking of two things as I explore the site: what is the scope of the archived newspapers in the database? I encoutered only two results with my selected search. Similar to a physical archive, I wonder who made the decision to digitalize these primary sources.

I did a bit of external research about The Daily Worker, and come to find its roots aligning in Communist Party ideology. This version has shaped institutions like the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library and the Library of Congress. The decision to release these specific newspapers must be catered to diffirent individuals or is it to inform us as well?

In my experience with digitalized newspapers, some can be hard to read due to the scanning quality, or OCR proccessing. But the metadata organization of the site is extremly well done in my opinion. I could read each word, zoom in or out and easily access the provided images.

If this site were to disappear, the contextual information provided will be lost along with it. I must have been ignorant until this point because I never knew this to be the case in the Americas back then. But now I am a little bit informed.

Tumblr, 2007-2013, Internet Archives Wayback Machine

I decided to pick this site because a few days ago I accidentally deleted my Tumblr account containing blog posts from when I was 18 or maybe even younger. I was going through reddit and got informed that this cannot be undone. That account of mine is lost forever from their database. A reddit user recommended the Wayback Machine to recover older posts, but I am unlucky and could not find anything regarding my account. It made me a bit sad because they contained my memories and my younger self blogging and recording.

The born-digital source of Tumblr was created when I was just 6 years old. Since then, it has transformed into a web of sophisticated digital platform capable of using bots. I used the Wayback Machine to explore the archived versions of Tumblr from 2007, 2008, and 2013, 2014, and adding my experience, till now, 2026.

The left side images are from its founding years, and the right ones are from mid-years. This showcases the rapid growth of digital platforms. They evolve based on feedback and user needs. The early version is text-based and minimal, containing what essential tools you need for a blog site.

In just 2008, it becomes sligthly more refined, but simpler compared to 2013-2014. Now, tumblr is one of my favourite blog sites. It is capable to adding embeded links or even inter-linking other sites.

As you know, this blog is done on Tumblr.. :)

The Wayback Machine can only capture a fragment of what the experience might have been with Tumblr, for many individuals. Tumblr has become so much more interactive, with newer design elements, such as replies, reposts, notes. The Wayback seems to have archived up to the year 2016. This explains why I could not find my lost account in the archive. This limited scope of archival data makes me wonder if they would require informed consent to add more about the remaining years. I personally do not remember signing anything about this. Nevertheless, I am indifferent about this decision to share my personal data.

I discovered the structures that shape how I use Tumblr today but not the lived experience it had, though one can simply imagine. The access to the archive, captured only what the Wayback Machine could provide me. It has succesfully captured the preservation of Tumblr's fragments but not its full ecosystem.

Because it is a born-digital archive, Tumblr's content is often personal, or user-generated. This can cause an ethical problem about who's data is preserved and if there are policies or consent involved before it is shared with the internet. Maybe I will check again in tha few years, if they decide to showcase or capture my old blog site on the Wayback Machine.

Activity 2

Reading Like a Machine: OCR in Action

While doing the OCR activity, it emphasized how technology shapes historical interpretation.

When I scanned the left photo, an excerpt of Georgias, it assumed a very clean printed text, since all the lettering and text are the same font and layout. The main text was decoded very easily and when copy-and-pasting, most text is searchable. The smaller fonts in the side margin were not easily captured.

On the other hand, when I scaned my notes from a class, it failed to recognize any of my handwritten notes. The text can be selected but it is not searchable. It produced an unreable text. If I simply look at it, it is legible but the OCR failed entirely.

For many historians, this error matters. If I were to research a source that is handwritten, the OCR may fail to recognize it and it becomes invisible. Valuable information is lost: ideas, names and content. This doesn't mean they did not exist in the past but they are misinterpreted.

outa, pull down outa's pants

position your body over the wine barrel

outa, pull down outa’s pants

position your body over the wine barrel

position your body over the wine barrel

the Boer wants to discipline you

outa, please we want to go home

“Temporale” - Giovanni Pascoli

During the class we worked on three exercises/inputs I proposed to the students. Several remarkable results of these exercises are published here. Here are the three exercises as they have been proposed at the beginning of the class:

Exercise 1

“Vito Acconci’s exercise: write in exploded axonometry”.

When I invited the American artist Vito Acconci to my poetry class at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris in 2009, he came up with several fantastic exercises, one of which was to try to write a text having in mind the model of the exploded axonometry, often used in design and architecture. The response to this input didn’t necessarily have to be visual, but also conceptual, narrative, towards a multidimensional perception of writing. Given its implications, I decided to re-propose this exercise to the Multilingualmediadimensional class. 

Exercise 2

“Create a score/map as a piece and as a notational system for a piece to come, such as a performance, a sound work, an installation. How do the score or the map differ from the piece?”.

We discussed widely the poetic possibilities of nonconventional maps and notational systems, in terms of multilingualism (maps and scores as languages, as ways of translating actions and pieces), multimedia (maps and scores for multimedia projects to come), and multidimensionality (maps and scores as multiple narratives and ways of poetically and artistically reinventing space and performance).

Exercise 3

“Give words to the dancers in the following sequence from Sascha Waltz’s choreography NoBody: http://www.ubu.com/dance/waltz_nobody.html, minutes 29′ to 33′. Make a poem out of their movements. What would the dancers say? Would they all speak simultaneously, or one after the other? Would they join their voices in just one message, or would they say different things? How could this collective poem add something to the space of choreography and to the dancers’ movements, but also to the film of the performance rather than just the performance itself?”.

This exercise was also a way of exploring forms of translation among poetry, performance, space, multiplicity, collectivity, multidimensionality, voice, movement, body, perception, and so on and so forth, in the spirit of our class.

Soojung Lee, n9667598

As I finished modelling the character, this is now time to UV unwrapping for texture the character mesh, and texture the character with Substance Painter. 

^ Figure 1: UV unwrapping

^ Figure 2: Cut and unfold the mesh

I opened the UV tools and started to cut the edges to unfold the model. I tried to divide them into the easiest way to texture them. As such, for the back, where it has the pattern, I cut them as one piece so I can texture the pattern much easier. When I finished cutting the mesh, I pressed the unfold button, and Maya automatically layout the pieces like in Figure 2. However, they are not placed in the best place to texture.

^ Figure 3: Layout the unfolded mesh

Therefore, I have to arrange the layout. I have to change their place because they are too close together, which is hard to texture each piece, so I changed their place to bit away as well as placed them in categories, such as eyes, legs and arms are placed close together. This was to help myself to texture the mesh.

^ Figure 4: Moved to Substance Painter

When I finished with UV unwrapping, I export the mesh and import the mesh into Substance Painter for texture. It shows mesh and UV unwrapped of the mesh together as shown in Figure 4.

^ Figure 5: Texturing

I used the black mask to texture each part. In Substance Painter, I can control the roughness, metallic and height of the texture. Lizard is not shining like glass, so I reduce the metallic and increase the roughness to represent the lizard skin. Also, I add basic texture as well because I want to represent that lizards leather skin texture.

After add and change the setting to a suitable setting for the character I am going to texture, I started to add the colours with the fill layer, and I manually draw the patterns by brush tool. You can see how does the UV looks like after texturing in Figure 5, and the final textured model is published to Sketchfab.

As this model is not a complicated model like a human or real-world animal, it was easy to UV unwrapping, and personally, texturing is not hard compared to modelling, and most interesting and fun step in 3D modelling.

Sketchfab

https://skfb.ly/6IKHZ

I finished the texturing, then it is time to export the texture as a normal map, and go back to Maya to do the Arnold lighting and render the image in 4 different perspectives.

^ Figure 6: Set the lights and ground

I placed two different spotlights to the model and they are warm and blue lights. I changed the name of them and changed the colour. After I finished with placing and changing the colour of the lights, I add the planer to create the ground.

It was really hard to come up to this stage because the tutorial on the Blackboard was not helping at all, so I have done a few research to find much helpful tutorial and follow the steps.

^ Figure 7: Add nodes

After setting the lights and plane, I started to work with the nodes. I study this through YouTube tutorials as well. This step is to add the texture I have done in Substance Painter, but I could not found the way to apply the texture to the mesh.

^ Figure 8: Add a few more nodes

I did some more research on YouTube to find out to apply the texture to the mesh, but I could not get the result I am looking at. I had export the texture, so I have three different images, which are a normal map, metallic smoothness map, and transparency map. However, it is not working. I have to figure out this to take the render images.

^ Figure 9: Nodes

^ Figure 10: Not working

^ Figure 11: Actual textured

I applied all the textures exported from Substance Painter, which are roughness, normal map and metallic image to Maya, but as you can see in Figure 10, it is not showing texture properly like the Figure 11, which taken from Substance Painter.

^ Figure 12: Found out the problem

All of the sudden, I realised that I have to check the UV because the texture lookiung werid mean there is something problem with UV, and as you can see in Figure 12, sonehow, UV is not right.

^ Figure 13: Fixed the UV

In the first place, I was thinking to fix, but rather than that, I decided to start from the beginning. and I started to apply the texture on top of the model. As to showing in Figure 13, the texture applies very well as it has collect UV.

^ Figure 14: Set the environment and light again

The texture applied and this is now time to set the environment again. I set the lights and ground. Now, finally, I can take render image with lighting.

Render images

Front view

Side view

Back view

Quarter view

Reference list:

- Andrew, Z. (2018). Arnold Lighting and Materials. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvcHQsDax_o

-Blanc, L, B. (2019). Lighting in Arnold for Maya | Lighting Tutorial. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUfCRXbL9ZM

- C-Media. (2018). Tutorial | Substance Painter. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLI0J77vSa0

- Pereira, F. (2018). Exporting from Substance Painter to Maya 2018 Arnold Part 1. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ_NrD1pEMg

-  Schiffmann, A. (2017). Maya 2017 How to render and save an image. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJjHH8iLbJY