Tag: Collaborative Project

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CPD: Final Project (Whale Walk) – Ann(Candy Bi)

Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EwXfkyi-ZoXZtg6_UaRKJT_4vE0iwg6g

Date: 05.21.2019

Processor: Ann Chen

Partners: Maike Prewett

Description:

The Shanghai Whale Walk is an educational opportunity for participants to better visualize the North Atlantic right whale, its undersea habitat, and the threats it faces, using interactions with the surrounding urban landscape as a measuring tool. It is mapped on Shanghai lujiazui skywalk from Lujiazui Station(exit 1) to Lujiazui Central Green.
It is a demo for the Wildlife Conservation Society, and meant to eventually be adapted to the city of New York and its landmarks.
It runs over thirteen minutes long.

Continue reading “CPD: Final Project (Whale Walk) – Ann(Candy Bi)”

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CPD：Progress Report for May 7–Candy and Maike(Ann)

Link of draft two:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NzJeDNVZpjmqhWsOaCBHIqQX8DYONcu4ktDJEBlLtsg/edit

What we have done:

This week, we developed more on the draft one. We started to write while thinking about how and when  we will use sound effects and background music. Space is created for sound effects. Considering the feedbacks we got, more informational details of the North Atlantic right whale are added. For example, the three different sounds they make and the meaning behind it:

Like humans, these whales are social animals. The upcall is used by whales to announce their presence.     Gunshots are used by males to threaten other males, and find mates.      And the scream is used by females to build and maintain groups.

We also decided to map the project in Lujiazui and write the script based on that. Given that neither of us has been there before, street names and landmarks are not added yet will be added very soon. And we still need to add an ending.

Maike did a demo record of the intro part so that audience could understand more about the tone and the general feeling of this project.

Next Step:

Both Maike and I will go to the place. Given that we can not find a time that work for both of us. Maike will go on Wednesday to do some recordings and decide on the exact route of the project. I will go on Thursday with her recording to see what works and what doesn’t and have the rest of raw recordings we need finished.

On the weekend, Maike will do the recording of voice over and I will work on the editing. We will have the draft audio done before Monday.

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CPD: Midterm Project (Geocinema) – Ann(Candy Bi)

Link: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Btq-_Lf011ix5ZtnHHLd5DasnCvPvnOj

Date: 04.01.2019

Processor: Ann Chen

Partners: Jenny Zhu, Sebastian Lau, Tyler Roman

Concept and Rules:

Our project explores a way to narrate Zikawei Observatory and its related sites in Shanghai with a focus on meteorology as a science that connects with many other fields. We decide to discuss the relationship of meteorology with history, economy, weather forecast, transportation and daily life through the observation of Zikawei Observatory and the  three related sites: St. Ignatius Cathedral, Gutzlaff Signal Tower and the Customs Building.

We chose to follow the recorded rules used by Henri Le Lec in his meteorological observations in Shanghai, an important figure in the initiative of establishing the Zikawei Observatory. That is to observe the weather every day at 5 am, 9am, 12pm, 4pm and 9pm. We decided to each film at one site and at the five time slots.

Filming:

It is not my first time to film something using a tripod and a camera myself yet only through this time, did  I trully feel comfortable with it.

I went to film the Gutzlaff Signal Tower at the Bund on Saturday, March 16 for 9am, 12pm, 4pm and 9pm. I fail to get up on time to get the 5am footage and thus went for it the second day on Sunday, March 17. Overall, the filming process is smooth despite the tripod and cannon 6d are really heavy to carry. Even though it is a long time in between two time slots, I do not even want to walk around for food.

The signal tower is taller than my expectation that it sometimes goes out of canvas. I sit next to it, recording how it looks and its surroundings. The clouds was moving fast above the white tower, which provides me with some really good shots.

It was still a great experience to be there for a whole day, for it gives me the chance to observe the Bund as how it becomes crowded and quiet again. The most rewarding part while filming the footages is the sunrise at the bund which I have never expected to be so beautiful. I was so tired that time for I arrived at dorm around 11 the day before and got up at 4:00am to film the 5am time slot. Yet at the time I saw the sunlight gradually comes out from the other side of the Huangpu River, I felt everything worthwhile.

Editing:

At first, we decided to place our footage evenly on the frame.  However, according to the feedbacks we got in class, it was confusing what each channals refer.  We thus make the channal being discussed about the biggest and the other three smaller on the right side of the frame. For better explanation, an introduction is added.

Jenny and I worked together on editing the second part after introduction. I carefully selected the best footage of each time slot and each location, and arrange them on the canvas by adjusting the postision and sizes each by each. Still, I thought it was a bit confusing: each time slot the biggest channal is displaying different sites and I am not sure whether the audience could understand this. I tried to show the transition of one channal moving to the center an at the same time becoming bigger. Yet it turns out a chaos. We later simply add a black frame in between for transition as Jenny suggested. Each of us recorded a 30 seconds voiceover and put them in the video.

Problems and Challenges:

It took us a long time to decide on the concept of our film. The site and rule deciding did not take much time yet we meet some troubles deciding on what to convey through this project. One reason for this is that the weather observatory and the four sites we chose are too broad to cover in 3-4 minutes. Another reason is that we think differently on this topic. For me, I think the rule we set is already interesting enough since we are doing the site observation exactly the way people on those sites decades before are doing weather observation. Thus I prefer not to include too much direct information telling in the film and leave more space for free interpretation. Through several rounds of discussion, we finally decide to include four branches of ideas under this topic.

We also have some problems of cooperation. The original idea was each one of us getting all the five time slots at one site on the first weekend after we are assigned the project so that we could have more time to edit the raw materials. However, due to busy schedules, only Jenny and I finished filming all the five slots on the chosen day. Thus we rush the editing part the day before presentation after we are able to gather all the footages on Sunday morning .

Reflection and Improvement Ideas:

Some improvements may include better voiceover quality. As said, we rush the editing process due to the late filmed raw materials. Some voice over we use are not as good as we expect yet we do not have time to redo it again. Next time while doing group project, time arrangement should definitely be improved.

Another improvement maybe “less is more”. For this geocinema project, we seems to be too ambitious to include too much in the video. Even though our video is longer than others’, we fail to dig deep enough in one topic as each of us only has 30 seconds talking and each discusses a branch that is already enough to cover the whole video.

Sources and Credits:

https://www.virtualshanghai.net/photos/images

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BE%90%E5%AE%B6%E6%B1%87%E8%A7%82%E8%B1%A1%E5%8F%B0

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B1%9F%E6%B5%B7%E5%85%B3%E5%A4%A7%E6%A5%BC

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%96%E6%BB%A9%E4%BF%A1%E5%8F%B7%E5%8F%B0

http://www.xjh.sh.cn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44:xjhgxt&catid=11&Itemid=116&lang=en

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CPD: Digital Map–Ann(Candy)

Documented by: Candy Bi

Project name: Color visualization of flight

Professor: Ann

Link: https://editor.p5js.org/candy/full/JDRj8RNQh

Video: video

Description: I find it hard to change the data I download from WCS into nested json data set. Thus I choose to develop on the data of the flight we use in the workshop. What we already have is those planes flying to Shanghai as “clock” goes. To better visualize the data, I made each plane a rectangle and make them bigger. The time is visualized by different colors rather than just displayed on the top-left of the canvas: all planes(rects) are originally green, as time goes, they became redder and redder. “Clock” on the top-left corner are made the same color of those planes. This way, by looking at image itself, audience could get a direct idea of what is going on. Lines are drawn to display the trial of flying.

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Reading Response 1–Ann(Candy)

A Four-Century Retrospective of Marine Fauna and Fisheries Around New York City

The authors provide a quite detailed picture of fishery industry in New York City by providing related information of the past four centuries. They point directly to the problem of overfishing that though species composition has changed relatively little, population sizes, and the mean size of individuals have greatly declined. It surprises me that facing such situation, government is still investing into the expansion of fisheries and promotion of
seafood consumption. However, I do acknowledge that this is a difficult problem to solve for governments worldwide. Overfishing does not seem to be a new problem and It is impossible to simply tell the population just stop consuming fish. The problem is how we deal with it. I recall a good example I saw on TV: fishing nets is made to suit the size of local species in a way that it would avoid small fishes that are still young.

WCS Informational Sheets

It is my first encounter with this organization and I am deeply impressed by what they are doing. I really appreciate the education program WCS founded for it is crucial important to educate children about the current natural situation on the planet. Since 1895, WCS gradually involved 60816 members. However, I do think this great organization should get more attention from the society and I believe it will.

The Ainu: Beyond the Politics of Cultural Coexistence

This article presents the charm of Ainu music and dances as well as their situation and struggle in Japan. It seems to me the Japanese government is trying to deny the existance of this minority by claiming there are “no pure Ainu people”. One culture can only be protected when it is acknowledged by the public. The first step to take for Japanese government is to recognize Ainu before it trys to protect its culture.