Category Archives: Miscellaneous

1080p, 1080i, and their differences

I’m sitting here trying to learn what differentiates the two video formats so for the sake of clarification I want to explain the details of each in the shortest, simplest way possible. I am no tech expert – merely a consumer with an interest – so don’t take my word as gospel, this is really just me trying to work out these nitpicky differences. Continue reading →

Digital existence; yes and not

One particular line in this post from Jackie Matthews tipped something over in my impossibly existential mind which responded to Adrian mentioning how our blogs do not necessarily ‘exist’ continuously, but only form when somebody requests the page. Jackie said, “I had a cool epiphany when I realised that my blog doesn’t really exist, the page isn’t there waiting for me, it just appears when someone seeks out its content. Trippy.”  Theres a bunch of technical stuff involved with blogs and servers and all that, but lets for a second take the abstract concept of that: is this perception of the world not true for everybody?

Now I studied Descartes as part of my VCE Philosophy class and we looked at his famously misquoted statement, “I think, therefore I am”. I won’t go into the full details of the premise and arguments but after a long spiel he concludes that due to the limited and variable nature of our perceptions – namely dreams seeming like reality, reality sometimes seeming like dreams – we cannot fully validate our own perception on the world. Hence, the only true thing is our own thoughts because thought is the only self-authored thing. At least in his arguments. Lets roll with it.

So when I want to look at a blog, I request it, and the server says, “Right, I’m gonna need this text, this image…” etc. and puts it all together for the lovely user. The same process can be said for ourselves; nothing exists until we look at or ‘request’ it from the world. That basketball behind you? Doesn’t exist, at least not until you turn around and look at it. Then it does. You’ll then say, “Well I know it’s there because I see it all the time! I used it yesterday for a sweet match with my friends!” which is very true, so I’ll say, “Alright. Prove to me, without pointing to or otherwise giving me direct visual access to it, that the ball exists.”

If you can do this, hell I’ll give you a medal, but in essence this is a thing known as qualia. It is the subjective, individual experience of a thing. A simpler example: explain – to somebody who has never seen, heard of, or experienced it before – the colour red. Experiencing colour first hand is an example of a qualia.

Your blog doesn’t technically ‘exist’ as such, but neither does the world outside of your peripheral vision, and for all you know it could all just be a dream.

So bad, it’s good

Yes, I know, I’m back on YouTube Poop again. DON’T GO I LOVE YOU.

What I want to do was share with you a particularly characteristic Pooper: ricesnot. The name betrays anything he makes. His themes include low fidelity stock images – watermark included – video, music, and graphics mainly from the 90’s and early 2000’s. There’s something awfully nostalgic in this way; the masterfully orchestrated music using only those fragments of media. The poorly photoshopped images layered in the most disgustingly haphazard way. The cheap stock music that undercuts everything. The simple minded dialogue. The horrid jpeg artifacts that distort several frames at a time, randomly. The utter disregard for continuity in media quality.

And lets not forget the incessant, relentless references and images of skeletons. Of all the objects in the world: skeletons. In it’s own way these videos create and maintain a demented story world that demands absolutely no prior knowledge or investment into anything to be humourous. If anything, they get funnier the more you watch them and the less coherent the videos as a series appear.

But no matter how incoherent, nonsensical the videos get the barebones (oh good god stop me now) narrative keeps them afloat, just enough to deliver their excellently timed, poorly constructed punchlines. It’s simply brilliant, the kind of stuff that became available on the internet.

“What would it be like to read a story that changed it’s shape every time you read it? What would you need to know to write such a story?”

This question was put to our class and immediately I thought about video games (crazy right?!). There are a good number of games that use morality alignment systems (think Dungeons and Dragons type alignment systems ie. neutral good, chaotic evil and so on) that change based on the action you take. I’ll use Mass Effect as an example. Yes I’m aware I’ve used it as an example before but quite honestly the game excels in so many faculties.

What I want to reference specifically is one of the final sequences of Mass Effect 2. To save you a wall of text the short version is, based on what missions you completed and for whom earlier in the game determines who survives the finale gauntlet run. Should you not help any of the characters’ requests, you do not gain their loyalty, and they will die, but if you do help them, they will survive. Survival is also dependent on picking the right characters for the right roles. For my first time playing the game I neglected these missions and my entire crew was killed (including my favourite character of all time) during the finale sequence. proceeding onward my role in this role playing game was vengeance for my fallen crew members. On the flip side my second time playing it I meticulously completed everything I could (with the help of an online guide, of course) which lead to an immensely more favourable outcome where everybody survived with plenty of time to spare.

Now in terms of a story that changes every time I read it, this is exactly what I think of. It’s outcomes – or shape – tangibly alters based on choices you made earlier. What was required of the writers and developers to write this though? Take a brief trip through the Mass Effect Wiki site and you’ll quickly find yourself overwhelmed with information about millions of details of the diagetic universe (there are some fantastic examples of design fiction mixed in too, such as I referenced in a previous blog post). The writers of these characters, and the universe that contains them, would have had to think of the various ways a single event could pan out. Who would survive in different situations, and what would change further under different circumstances? How realistic is it that this character survives this event? Would these two characters work well together? Many details would have been planned out for this to work without any plot holes or errors.

But lets take it closer to the narrative side of things. Dear Esther – another game I’ve mentioned previously – is designed by The Chinese Room and written by Daniel Pinchbeck. Dear Esther tells am ambiguous ghost story, and until you play the game through you really can’t define what the story is. What it does do however is provide a story with multiple meanings, not only due to it’s ambiguity, but the order of how the story is told.

You simply move across this island landscape, but depending on which direction you choose to take and at what point you make this decision the story’s fragments will be told in a different order. This can quickly change how the story is perceived. The game almost embodies Hyper Text, it only lacks being able to enter it at any point, and I were to give the developers any suggestions it would to have that very choice available; to have all of the chapters unlocked from the start and allow the player to enter the already fragmented story at any point. I highly recommend this game and if you at all enjoy poetry, mystery prose or anything of the like you will love what the developers did with this game. The narration by Nigel Carrington only amplifies the mood of the whole game.

I do trumpet it often but when it comes to discussing media (at least, entertainment media) I find video games set new standards. They provide such versatile platforms for techniques from film and literature which make for some potentially amazing ideas.

Slow week this week

In a way anyway. Ended up attending a party that only served to worsen my mood and took a big chunk of time out of my weekend. Snowballed from there. Again though, this demonstrates the importance of remaining up to date with tasks (set either by myself, institutions, or an employer).

A simple enough lesson, kind of gets lost when you find enthralling bits on the internet (like the Veritasium channel that explores plenty of scientific concepts in video form) or just get a bit lazy every now and then.

Thanks 5secondfilms.

Oh well, onward! For great justice!