From: joro@panix.com (Joe Rosen)
Subject: Re: "this island earth"
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 19:24:20 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC

In <19165@mindlink.bc.ca> KOH@mindlink.bc.ca (Kenneth O'Heskin) writes:



>        What sort of devices are these, off-the-shelf or home
>        brewed?  I'm using photo resistors for image/text
>        manipulation; not "interactive" in terms of individual
>        users-- don't think I'm ready to let them torment any
>        mutants or the art ;) --but responsive to environmental
>        light levels. Low tech. However, current installation
>        will be the last based on cadium sulphide.

all home-brew... to the extent that i don't build the computer i'm
using (i work with Macintosh, IBM-PC, and Amiga)...

     the chip-computer interface i describe -- i don't build the
chip-computer from scratch either, but instead use a board mounted
device manufactured by a company called Blue Earth (8051 series micro
chip computer pre-mounted in a small case)...

i don't write my own complilation software -- alas i used packaged
C language and Pascal compilers to fashion code...

     all electronic components are purchased from radio shack stores
or through mail order catalogs (the circuits i devise are of my own
design, however)...

so... the computer is not "home-brew" -- *but* the interfacing 
circuitry and software is !

     will not use pre-packaged outta the box hardware or software
once i get into the level of the "content" of what it is i am building.


photo-sensitive resistors are cool !

     they make for great input devices... two years ago i used one
mounted in the palm of a gardening glove to detect light changes as
the wearer opened and closed their hand...

i used the change in resistence to effect z-axis change of an on-screen
computer object... i called the piece:

                    "cheap and dirty data glove"


>        Re: _This Island Earth_

>        Did the mutants get a fair shake?  The Metalunians giant
>        foreheads, signifying advanced evolution, did not jibe
>        with the fact the mutants have even more massive heads
>        --yet they were treated as brute insect-animals. Obviously
>        a product of 1950's xenophobia. If the mutants controlled
>        that planet it mayn't have been convulsed by wars and
>        environmental disasters. Just a thought.

>        Are you using captured frames (and if so what about rights,
>        lawyers, heat, etc.?) or hand-drawn renderings?


i purchased a black and white still of the metaluna mutant at a movie
trivia shop (jerry orlinger's) here in new york city...

     i laid tissue atop the photo and from it produced a rough line
drawing in pencil (modifying the photo a bit as i hand traced)...

i transfer the pencil tracing to a bristol board and ink over the lines
with a felt tip marker...

     i am careful to use crop marks as i produce multiple copies of all
the mutant's body parts (so as to get them all to register when i 
digitize 'em into the computer and begin the interactive animations)...

i colored the mutant in with a neat set of "berol" brand coloring
pencils (they have great colors and spread on paper real nice)...

     since i draw the images by-hand (from rough tracings) i am not
"stealing" imagery direct from the film or video -- i am instead sorta
re-interpreting existing imagery by hand-drawing technique...

also... since i have no commercial intent for my applciation (pure 
"art" and nothing else) i ain't sure any "rights" are required (?
am i wrong about that ? -- all kinds 'o issues, i guess in the realm
of appropriated images).



cool analysis of the movie !

     alas... the political ramifciations of the film are beyond my
giant forehead's ability to ponder -- i just really like the "look" of
the movie...

the metalunians "looked" real cool (and the mutant, well -- need i say
more about the cool-ness and disgusting-ness of the look 'o the:

                          metaluna mutant

     ... ?).




 -- joro@panix.com --


>        I'd like to try something based on _Fiend Without A Face_
>        sometime.

>        -koh
>--

>        .  kenneth o'heskin              .  art of programming bbs
>               . . . .                   .  (604) 826-9663 24/hr 2400 8n1
>        .  koh@mindlink.bc.ca            .  grafix.midi.800+ forth files.