Team Canvas went to ArtHackDay (arthackday.net) this weekend. For our project, we decided to work with the team working on ScratchML (scratchml.com) to create a shooting game. What started as a joke by Timothy, “let’s convert ScratchML to BulletML”, became a really fun two-day project. Here’s a quick synopsis of the game:
The title: aliensthatlooklikeskrillex.tumblr.com
The backstory: Aliens are trying to communicate with us through dubstep, we interpret these actions as hostile and go on the offensive. Destroy the aliens.
How it works: The DJ controls the boss ship. We are receiving the ScratchML data in realtime from the turntables, so his/her actions directly affect the bullet patterns and movement of the ship. As the player you can dodge and shoot back. It’s a head to head battle of player vs. DJ. Others can participate as well: the Twilio integration allows people to text a number if the DJ sucks, and their text will appear on screen and damage the boss ship.We had a great time at arthackday. Thanks to everyone involved, the sponsors (hey that includes us!) for the food and drink, the 319 Scholes team, the ArtHackDay team, everyone that showed up to the event and battled the DJ, and especially the ScratchML team.
And if you’re still interested, learn more about us.
-Dave
This was seriously fun!
Idaho has the slowest Internet speeds for residential customers in the country, while Rhode Island and other East Coast states have among the fastest.
Differences in download time between the cities with the fastest (Providence, RI) and slowest (Pocatello, ID) connections vary by an order of magnitude i.e. a multiple of ten. More like 12 times, in fact.
Oddly, Washington State has faster Internet connection speeds than California, and all other states west of the Mississippi River. I wonder why…?
* A related New York Times article is linked to the graphic.
I’m pretty sure my apartment is beating Idaho on slow internets right now. Thanks, Time Warner. :(
“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and somthing else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.”
-Chuck Close
Image from Wisdom
(Source: wearethedigitalkids)
Tumblr’s Andrew McLaughlin MCing the Emergency NY Tech Meetup to protest SOPA/PIPA!
Photo by Craig Cannon
I was there and it was awesome!
First, we don’t spend our entire lives in cars. We walk everywhere. With narrow streets, an abundance of stores, and a dearth of parking, the city is practically designed to make us walk. Before we get on the subway, we walk there, and after we arrive at our stop, we climb numerous flights of stairs. We also walk faster than the average American; in a recent study, New Yorkers were ranked as the fastest pedestrians in the country. To some, that’s a sign that we’re rude and obnoxious. To scientists, it’s a sign we’re going to live longer.
