Final Project Prototype, take 2.

Slowly but surely the flipbooks are coming along. The process is very tedious and I now have a newfound appreciation for hand-drawn animation.

Basically I've decided that I want to display 3 main elements:
1) how the animals have/will change
2) how nature (as we know it) is disappearing
3) how garbage (mostly e-waste) is appearing

The animals will change as a result of the other two; because of all the garbage and e-waste, nature as we know it cannot survive due to the toxic chemicals found in our everything things. Humans, with long life expectancies, cannot evolve quickly enough to be able to fight off the toxins and very few survive. Animals on the other hand, with much shorter live times can and will evolve into creatures that are unfathomable to us today, helping them to become immune to the toxic effects of the chemicals found in garbage and e-waste.

These flipbooks will serve as a message from the future as to why we need better e-waste management and control today. They will show the consequences of creating items with planned obsolescence that are known even today to have toxic chemical compounds.

As the animals, in this case coyote, change so will the 2 background images. The real photo of the ground and rocks will sink lower and lower to the bottom of the frame until there is nothing left. The garbage, in this case cell phones, will continue to climb up to the top of the frame until it and the animal are all that is left.

I'm still fine tuning the backgrounds and deciding on colors, sizes, and whether or not to use a real image for the garbage. Keep in mind, these pictures only show about 1/2 of the flipbook for coyotes. There will be a total of 4 books, 4.75" x 2.75", showing the consequences of 4 kinds of garbage on 4 kinds of animals found in Glen Canyon Park (coyote, hawk, snake, and mouse).

Final Project Prototype... for now.

Here is a quick example of how one of my flip books would work. As you can see, the mouse morphs into something more sinister looking. As you can see, this is pretty hard to see and fuzzy as it is currently hand drawn with pencil on tracing paper... The final version would be much more clear with more detail, including a background of some kind. This same process would be applied to 3 other animals: coyote, hawk, and snake. I think that these 4 animals give the audience a fairly good idea as to what the ecosystem of the present is like and therefore, how it will change in the future.

I want to incorporate humans into the project somehow but I'm not quite sure where they will fit in at this point. I'm still playing around with a couple of ideas, including possibly constructing an interactive display piece similar to a old-fashioned zoetrope...

In any event, I want to keep with the idea from my group's midterm project of seeing the world from a different point of view.

Midterm and Glen Park Library Experience

The library experience for me created a mixture of feelings. Of course I was nervous about presenting something in front of a group of strangers in an unfamiliar location but I figured that it would prove to be a good experience... provided that our group was ready.

Working as a group was a difficult and often nerve-wracking experience. We seemed to have a hard time coming to agree on just about everything; something you kind of expect. I for one became very frustrated because I couldn't seem to get an answer out of one group member in particular. It seemed to take forever to figure out what we would in fact do for this project and even longer to actually do it.

Our group's library presentation I felt could have gone a lot smoother. Going first is always difficult but this time in particular it seemed worse than usual. Our one group member forgot to print out a copy of the dog brochure which caused our slideshow to become choppy and awkward, especially at the end as we then had to display her work on screen right in the middle. This was very frustrating as we had agreed and planned on how our presentation would go and who would say and show what when. Apart from the awkward silence at the end, I felt that we conveyed our ideas well. We received very few comments from the audience at the end of all the presentations so I think that it would have been beneficial to have had questions answered at the end of each presentation.

I think that everyone else did a great job and explained their projects beautifully. Just about every group seemed very well prepared and in many cases presented better in front of the community than in the classroom.

Final Project Ideas/Proposal

At this point I'm still not entirely sure what I want to accomplish with this final project. I'm still really interested in the wildlife of Glen Canyon Park and want to incorporate that. I also like the idea I had for the cards that flip to create one image and would like to play around with and try to expand it.

Idea #1
At first I thought it might be interesting to do a series of pictures of how much the park has changed through the hundreds of years. I was thinking that this could take the form of an art book where I could alter the pictures both by hand and digitally. The pictures would all be black and white and their alterations might be in color. 

Idea #2
What if the animals took over the park?
If the time period for the project is 500 years in the future and we basically can imagine it any way we want, what if everything was reversed? In this case, the animals would be the ones in control of not only the park but also the whole city. In order to have accomplished a complete take-over from humans, several things would have had to change; their size and behavior mostly. As a result, humans would have had to change as well and might not be as advanced, which might be that technology is not used the way it is today. Basically, it would be like going in the past before we had technology and instead had to rely on ourselves to survive and get through our days. All of this would mean that nature has taken over the city and the creek would be allowed to flow and change any way it wants. As a result, humans would be considered the "wildlife" and animals do as they please. Human population would decrease as there would be more competition and everyday dangers.

As far as the form that this would take, I'm looking into maybe a series of very small flip books depicting the changes through time or everyday events. I want everything to feel hand-made and hand-drawn... maybe almost cartoonish. Instead of/in addition maybe a small book kind of explaining what happened might be a good way to make this concept more understandable.

Again, none of this is set in stone and is definitely subject to change as I'm still figuring things out.

Thoughts... Ideas... Stuff

History
-restoring back to the way it was originally
-original natural area

Wildlife
-photographic study
-black and white images
-native species and plants
-flippy cards with different shots

-city vs natural
-different views/perspectives... different ways of looking at things
-comparison of different time periods
-blurry images... images in motion

Brief Description...

Brief description of my group's project:

Our group from the start was very interested in the different uses of Glen Canyon Park. Upon further examination and after many visits, we discovered a large number of dog owners that seem to frequent the park on a regular basis. We also seemed to notice that from a particular clearing, there seemed to not only be a lot of dog-walking activity but also wildlife activity; we called this area "The Clearing." The wildlife that seemed the most active was the scurrying of mice throughout the grasses and shrubs. Then the question hit: How is it that humans and animals are able to frequent the same area without disturbing or even really noticing one another? In an attempt to examine the relationship, we wanted to try to get into the state of mind of these two groups; dog walkers were easy enough but that of a mouse was a little more complex. Then came the challenge of seeing the world through an unusual point of view and allowing ourselves to become completely immersed in it. Then of course once understood, how would other humans be able to learn and understand about the world that we share with these tiny creatures?

At this point, we decided to create two different brochures to entice people to Glen Canyon Park. One brochure would be directed towards humans, specifically dog owners, written by humans. The other would also be written for humans but penned by/through the eyes of the mice of "The Clearing." The ultimate goal was to gain a better understanding of an otherwise familiar place (Glen Canyon Park) by comparing and examining two different worlds that occupy the same space.

Cards

Here is the card idea that I've been playing around with... They are the different perspectives of home, what one would see or notice versus the other, etc...


First set... top 4 are the mouse perspective while the 2nd 4 are the human perspective

 Second set... again the top ones are the mouse perspective...

 

Suppliment Idea

So after some talk, we decided that we should add something to our brochures. While talking, we came up with the idea of incorporating some kind of card... perhaps like a trading card for kids... but I'm still not sure how this would work out.


However, while playing around with a million little pieces of paper, I think I've come up with something that could actually work... Now to run it past my group members... Let me know guys!


SIDE 1: The human point of view of the world... In this example: homes on a hill with the sky and birds in the background.

SIDE 2: The mouse point of view of the same place/image as above. In this particular case, the example would be: A hawk with a snake in its talons.... basically I figure that a mouse could care less about human homes on a hill and instead would focus in the birds flying in the sky (ie something humans wouldn't necessarily care too much about).

THE RESULT: When flipped together, they form one image. This could be a metaphor for the lives of humans and mice; we all live together and occupy one space even though we live different lives and focus in on different things.

Brochure Cover refined

Here is our brochure cover layout as of this point. The content is starting to be added, as visible under the "welcome" column.

Again, conversing as a group remains necessary to make sure that everything stays consistent and interesting.

What I Have So Far....

Ok guys, check this out and let me know what you think!

Brochure Ideas cont.

Here's some the ideas/experimentations I've been doing... just an update. Needs to be discussed further with my group members hopefully over the weekend.

Any of these could be the front/inside/back... I was just seeing what they would all look like together, what one panel would look like with a box, etc. These are in NO WAY a finished product....

Brochure Ideas

http://www.whatsthebigidea.com/wp-content/gallery/brochures-and-their-many-forms/brochure-folds.jpg

Idea for MidTerm continued

So after thinking about it, I'm still really interested in the wildlife of the area. Before my focus was probably more on the dogs and dog owners who seemed to frequent the park but after visiting it the last time, I realized that there are a lot more than just dogs running around. I was especially fascinated by all the little critters running around; the mice and gophers. Thats when I had the idea to incorporate this interest into the project.

Since my group members are interested in the different aspects of human use around the park and I'm interested in the wildlife, I thought that we could do two different and yet connected advertisement pamphlets... It could maybe even be combined into one depending on how it works out. Each pamphlet would have a separate target audience:

Pamphlet #1) Humans, which would show pictures and give details about why come to Glen Canyon Park, what to expect there, importance/human relationship to the creek, relationship with wildlife, brief history, etc.

Pamphlet #2) Wildlife, or more specifically from the point of view of the mice that live there. This one would have all the same elements/components but directed towards other wildlife or mice looking for a good place to move to and live. This could describe food sources, dangers (birds, coyotes, etc), the best real estate and communities (the clearing where we saw the most activity), a guide on how to co-exist with humans, etc. The ultimate purpose of doing it through the point of view of the mice is to describe how animals are able to survive and prosper in the city; a very unlikely place. It would be a way to point out to us humans that even though we think that we live in an urban setting, nature and wildlife is still all around and (possibly) still depend on the creek; something that most humans have forgotten.

BOTTOM LINE: 2 very different point of views of the Glen Canyon Park area, illustrating its different purposes.

This way, both human and animal interests are addressed. As for the digital mapping component, this could be where we saw human activity and mouse/animal activity... kind of like a comparison of how a bunch of different beings can co-exist in a particular area and how they use certain parts of the park differently.

This Glen Canyon Park pamphlet served as the inspiration for my idea....

 

Thoughts on "The Beholding Eye"

Apparently landscapes are everywhere and I think that this is true. There are many problems attributed with them and possible solutions but everything depends on how you view what you see and feel around you. It is important to remember that there are many different things to consider, such as history, nature, and the different relationships between the two with humans. Humans see things materialistically and ponder how to make nature bend to our every whim. This is probably why this reading was so interesting as it forces the reader to think outside the box and consider landscapes in different ways.

I think that all of the different ways to consider the same thing is always interesting, and in this case maybe even more so. This is because landscapes and nature are all around us but as humans living in cities we barely give it a second thought... pretty sad.

And although the reading raised many interesting thoughts and ideas, I found it a little hard to read. I never thought of landscapes in so many different ways and sometimes the concepts were a little hard to wrap my head around. I guess I never realized how complex a problem landscapes could be and that there are so many things to consider. Also, until this class I never realized just how much landscapes have changed over the years and how it can effect people today. I find the history of a location, especially San Francisco, very interesting and as I do more research for the mid-term I understand the importance of restoration.

Videos

Here are some of the short videos I took on my Iphone while in Glen Canyon park...

Here is the very short video of the birds that were flying above the dead mouse... You can hear the birds screeching in the background at the very beginning.

Although we never saw the animal that was doing this, I'm going to figure that it was a gopher because it was pretty strong.

We came across this sewer drain while looking at the gophers and mice... If you listen closely you'll hear running water.

First Draft Ideas/Documentation

At this point, I'm still not sure what form the final product will take. My group and I are still very much in the initial stages of planning and examining different ideas. Last Thursday we decided to head on over to the Glen Canyon Park area of Islais Creek to check out the things that we had talked about in class and do some observations; namely looking out for wildlife and any possible children walking through the park. Our walk began on the Elk Street entrance to the park and we decided to just go from there.

Just as before, the first things that I took notice of were animals. Again I saw a large number of birds and dogs. We also noticed that the day care center was open and that there were a lot of young children running around playing, screaming and laughing. As we continued down the path, something in the middle of it caught my eye... a dead mouse. When I pointed it out to my group members they were surprised to see something like that lying in the middle of the path and were curious to try to determine what killed it. Moments before while waiting for my group members, I had seen two hawks flying right above that section of the path (maybe they were fighting?) and had tried to take a video but only caught a couple of seconds of them before they flew out of range. Could there be a connection?

One interesting thing that really came to our attention while making our way through the paths (after having noticed the mouse) was the network of mazes created all the living things in the park. I first noticed that there were mice and gophers running through the grass and into holes all throughout the hills. We talked to a guy walking his 3 small dogs and he said that he had noticed a lot more of them in the last year. Suddenly I had the realization that their little mazes formed a community, much like the different communities of the city. Also, everything seemed to come into contact with the creek; a necessary part of life. Whereas we humans have seemed to forget and bypass the creek, the wildlife still communes and survives off of it; its still an important part of life.

Once this connection was made, I realized that just about everything creates a maze in the park... tree branches, the different paths, gopher and mouse holes, and even us when we map out our tracks on the GPS. I feel that this could be an interesting thing to examine... each one of us take a different subject and examine how a path or maze is created in all different manners around the creek. We already found out how easy it was to get lost in the jungle of plants and paths around the creek, as one little detour took us up to SOTA, then to a clearing with chairs, then to several dead ends all of which required us to climb over tree limbs and plants.

Basically, the idea of creek as the epicenter of all the life (human, plant and animal) is becoming our thesis.

MidTerm Proposal and Thoughts

After quite a bit of initial research about the Islais Creek, I can't help but realize that I keep finding myself focusing in on two different aspects: history and wildlife.

Regardless of the topic or subject I have always been interested in history, especially that of San Francisco. The city holds a lot of meaning for me and my family wouldn't be who they are today without it. I was hoping to incorporate some element of the history of the area into the midterm but as of right now I'm not too sure how to do it. As I believe I mentioned in a previous post, my grandmother grew up in San Francisco and that I planned on asking her if she knew anything about the Creek. Well to update this statement, I did indeed ask her about it but sadly even she had very little knowledge of the Islais Creek. She spent most of her childhood growing up in Ingleside Terrace, which is located not too far from the creek but during the 1920's and pretty much through the 1940's there was a lot of construction around and destruction of the Islais Creek area; one possible reason as to why she did not spend any time there. She was however able to tell me a lot of great stories of growing up in the area and that her father, as a young boy, had grown up in a small house (probably a farm house) where Alemany Boulevard now is. This however was in the late 1800's and early 1900's and so I have little documentation to work from.

The second aspect of the creek that I find very interesting is the wildlife, both natural and urban. Both times that I went out and visited Glen Canyon Park, I couldn't help but notice all the different critters running and flying around as well as the huge number of people with dogs. Its amazing to think that even though the park itself isn't very well known, people are still able to find it and go hiking around with their dogs (San Francisco has a lot of dog-walking activity). During my first trip and hike through the park, I saw a lot more animals than I would have expected. I was also surprised to see a warning sign for coyotes, which I didn't really think we still in the city; the amount of wildlife here is incredible when you think that the location of the park is hidden and surrounded by very urban city. When it came to documenting something about the area, the first thing I took note of was all the people with their dogs; what they were carrying and wearing, what kind of dog they had, whether or not they were by themselves, etc. Being a dog owner myself, I understand the joy of being able to bring your pet with you wherever you go, and even though a lot of websites will tell you that Glen Canyon Park is not a good place for dogs, the number of dogs outnumber the naysayers by far. The second thing I documented was all the birds (and other animals) I saw, mostly because when I sat in the car taking notes, they were one of the main sounds that filled the air.

To be able to incorporate both history and animals would be great but I have a feeling at this point that choosing one might be more practical at this point. I would love to be able to work with my grandmother further and perhaps come up with some idea as to incorporating some family history into this (or maybe the final) project... I'm open to anything right now.

Just Catalog Something!

Last Thursday, Josh said that we should start thinking about things that interest us regarding a particular area of San Francisco like Islais Creek; that we should think of ways of making a project our own. I'm still really unsure of how to proceed or even what kind of project to even consider doing but I took Josh's advice and set out to catalog something.

Since I don't live in San Francisco I wasn't sure where to go. Then I remembered that when I presented an entry of from my blog where I took pictures of Glen Canyon Park, just how much detail I was able to recall. Probably because it was my first time there and I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, I was very open to everything around me. So decided to go back and see if my second experience was that much different from the first.

I didn't end up getting there until after 5 PM and didn't think it was a good idea to go too far into the park as it was already dark from the overcast weather. I soon discovered that I didn't have to go too far to observe anything; all I had to do was sit in my car and there was plenty of activity around me. Because I wasn't sure if there was anything that I should specifically focus on, I decided to just take note of EVERYTHING around me.

Time: 5:40 - 6:40 PM

# of dogs: 40
Some of the breeds identified: Border Collie (2), Australian Shepard (5), Black Lab (2), Chihuahua (4), Golden Retriever (3).
Dog owners:
-carried little to no bags
-relaxed clothes (jeans or sweatpants)
-half were older, probably 55+ while the other half were probably in their late 20s/early 30s
-more women than men
-5 carried toys (ball or frisbee)

# of birds: 39
Species identified: Robins, Crows, Pigeons
Almost all seen were Robins, while only 3 crows were seen even though they were the loudest/most noisy.

# of cats: 1
One black cat watching the birds.

# of people on bikes: 6

# of joggers: 7

# of Toyotas: 52
Most of which were Prius. 

# of European cars: 39
Some of the brands included Land Rover, BMW, VW, Porshe.

# of Hondas: 39

# of American cars: 31
Some of the brands included Jeep, Chrysler, Chevrolet, GMC.

# of Motorcycles: 1

# of company vans/trucks: 1 (Comcast)

Some of the sounds that could be heard included:
-cars driving up the hill
-car doors closing
-car horns
-wind blowing through the trees
-dripping of water off of the trees
-kids playing in the playground, laughing and screaming
-people leaving their homes, closing their front doors and locking them
-different kinds of conversations, not all of which were clear (most people with dogs were talking to their dogs)
-crows
-rustling of grass and leaves where birds were pecking around for food

Here is a very short video of my view from the car right at the steps entering into the park. Its not particularly exciting but you can hear cars, crows, and kids playing.

San Pedro Creek in Pacifica

Although I know that we're supposed to go to the San Pedro Creek watershed as a field trip, I wanted to go and take some pictures. Getting there was incredibly simple because I live in Pacifica and the watershed is a less than 10 minute walk from my house; not to mention I had been there several times before. So because the dog needed to be walked anyway, a perfect opportunity presented itself.

 

This was a break in the fence that looked like it might have a small path. I could hear water but couldn't see it so I figured that this might lead us to the creek.

 

At this point my camera died and I had to use my IPhone... However the pictures didn't come out too clear so I'll have to go through them and post them later.

Brief Trip to Glen Canyon Park

Although I've been doing research online on San Francisco watersheds, I started to feel a little bored. I felt that I needed to get some first-hand experience so my boyfriend and I decided to take a drive over the Glen Canyon Park and see what all the fuss is about. After having gotten a little lost, I realized that I had driven past the park many times before in the past.

I was surprised by all the people walking in the park, which didn't really seem like a park at first. The creek itself is pretty well hidden with not too much water but the atmosphere was really nice. Most people there were walking their dogs or were going for a run. Also, during the course of the walk we saw several different species of wildlife: robins, mice, a rat, and a red-tail hawk. It didn't feel like we were still in San Francisco until I looked up and could see the homes on the hills.