The Puppets Look Like Flowers At Last

The urge to uncover aspects of human condition permeates my work, from the fundamental curiosity of a child tearing apart their doll to uncover what lies within to continuing a quest in uncovering basic human urges through my puppet animated dramas and tragedies. There is a controversial line between the childlike and the adult-like that can be ambiguous, and at some times more discernible while other times less. I create handcrafted stop-frame puppet animations that explore self-conscious emotions such as embarrassment, shame, and envy within unpredictable life scenarios. These are animations about inner life, attempting to resolve conflicting elements of the human psyche. At first glance, these puppets might appear scary, but upon closer observation the viewer may realize it is the puppet who is scared

Real time falling leaves

There is a growing interest in simulating natural phenomena in computer graphics applications. Animating natural scenes in real time is one of the most challenging problems due to the inherent complexity of their structure, formed by millions of geometric entities, and the interactions that happen within. An example of natural scenario that is needed for games or simulation programs are forests. Forests are difficult to render because the huge amount of geometric entities and the large amount of detail to be represented. Moreover, the interactions between the objects (grass, leafs) and external forces such as wind are complex to model. In this paper we concentrate in the rendering of falling leafs at low cost. We present a technique that exploits graphics hardware in order to render thousands of leafs with different falling paths at real time and low memory requirements.Postprint (published version

From revelation to revolution:apocalypticism in green politics

Apocalyptic narratives in green politics have provoked much controversy about questions of rhetoric and framing. Critics argue that constant warnings about impending environmental collapse demoralise and demobilise the public, while advocates argue that dire predictions embody a realism necessary if the radical collective action required for a green transition is to be taken. This is not just a debate about the tactics of presentation; at a substantive ideological level, the multilayered questions raised by apocalypticism cut to the heart of significant divisions in the green movement between radical and mainstream currents concerning their orientation to structures of political and economic power. Comparisons with the contested historical tradition of apocalyptics in Christian theology shed light upon the dynamic tensions between movement insurgency and institutionalisation. Apocalypticism has played a key role in framing the green critique of capitalist modernity and is intrinsically connected to the formulation of utopic alternatives. In both theory and practice, it remains the animating spirit of radical environmentalism

Justice Arts: Making the Arts Accessible to People in the Juvenile and Adult Criminal Justice System - A Feasibility Study for the Creation of a National Network Summary Report June 2016

In June 2015, more than 220 people from 22 states gathered at the University of San Francisco to participate in a four day conference to share stories, best practices and work they were doing in adult and juvenile prisons and correctional facilities throughout the United States and in England. This conference, "Arts in Corrections: Opportunities for Justice and Rehabilitation," was presented by California Lawyers for the Arts and the William James Association with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, as well as the University of San Francisco and several private foundations.During the conference, a group of approximately 40 persons met in two facilitated sessions to discuss the possibility of creating a national network. A smaller group volunteered to participate in an informal steering committee to investigate the needs and benefits of such an organization. In the fall of 2015 the steering committee designed an electronic survey to receive feedback about this concept from a larger number of practitioners around the country. They received 205 responses, with 94% saying that they would support or join such an organization--a strong mandate to explore next steps to create a national network that will help artists and programs

The Apple Tree

We as human beings inherently strive to live the best life that we possibly can. We all want to be happy. Many times we see happiness in terms of what and how much we posses. This story is about how we don\u27t always need the biggest and the best to be happy. The simple things in life are the ones that matter. Through this paper I will document my process in the making of my thesis animation The Apple Tree . I will discuss how my main character Zach, discovers through his interaction with a magical apple tree, that biggest isn\u27t always best

Combining Procedural and Hand Modeling Techniques for Creating Animated Digital 3D Natural Environments

This thesis focuses on a systematic solution for rendering 3D photorealistic natural environments using Maya\u27s procedural methods and ZBrush. The methods used in this thesis started with comparing two industry specific procedural applications, Vue and Maya\u27s Paint Effects, to determine which is better suited for applying animated procedural effects with the highest level of fidelity and expandability. Generated objects from Paint Effects contained the highest potential through object attributes, texturing and lighting. To optimize results further, compatibility with sculpting programs such as ZBrush are required to sculpt higher levels of detail. The final combination workflow produces results used in the short film Fall. The need for producing these effects is attributed to the growth of the visual effect industry\u27s ability to deliver realistic simulated complexities of nature and as such, the public\u27s insatiable need to see them on screen. Usually, however, the requirements for delivering a photorealistic digital environment fall under tight deadlines due to various phases of the visual effects project being interconnected across multiple production houses, thereby requiring the need for effective methods to deliver a high-end visual presentation. The use of a procedural system, such as an L-system, is often an initial step within a workflow leading toward creating photorealistic vegetation for visual effects environments. Procedure-based systems, such as Maya\u27s Paint Effects, feature robust controls that can generate many natural objects. A balance is thus created between being able to model objects quickly, but with limited detail, and control. Other methods outside this system must be used to achieve higher levels of fidelity through the use of attributes, expressions, lighting and texturing. Utilizing the procedural engine within Maya\u27s Paint Effects allows the beginning stages of modeling a 3D natural environment. ZBrush\u27s manual system approach can further bring the aesthetics to a much finer degree of fidelity. The benefit in leveraging both types of systems results in photorealistic objects that preserve all of the procedural and dynamic forces specified within the Paint Effects procedural engine

Scripting therapeutic screen stories : animating the healing potential of film narratives

Beyond entertainment, animated narratives can potentially induce psychological healing, termed “individuation.” Stories exist in many forms, like literature, film and conversation, as well as in the human mind, or “psyche.” These “self-narratives” use life experience to shape consciousness. Therefore, effective storytelling based on archetypal myths can restructure the psyche. Film narratives communicate meaning through symbols, termed “textual cues”, while screenwriters employ specific templates, which organise story information into familiar structures. These guide audiences towards predetermined meaning. Through bibliotherapy, which is the use of literature for therapeutic purposes, audiences project their unconscious content onto narrative components that resonate with it. Ego-consciousness can then integrate this material. Films, like dreams, incorporate raw unconscious material, labelled “archetypes”, and symbols, conscious interpretations of the archetypes, to affect unconscious reactions that facilitate psychological growth. When a narrative’s protagonist undertakes the “Hero’s Journey”, a quest’s twelve stages that enact change, they guide audiences through a metaphorical portrayal of individuation. Audiences can then mimic this path to prompt their own inner journey. Animation augments storytelling’s healing ability because its fantasised appearance transforms individuation’s threatening psychological information to reveal wisdom. Since screenwriters delve into the collective unconscious to create stories, they initiate audience healing. Thus, they represent modern society’s shamans. By creating a screenplay for an animated short feature film and discussing how screenwriters can induce psychological healing, I demonstrate the therapeutic potential of film narratives

Remembrance of Things Past? The Relationship of Past to Future in Pursuing Justice in Mediation

In this Article I seek to explore, not resolve, some of the issues and tensions in the role of temporality in achieving justice through mediative processes and to suggest some correctives at the practice level, as well as encourage some deeper thinking at the theoretical level. I focus here on issues of expression of temporality ( the past ) in the justice and mediation question, not on issues of how the past should be judged - by the rule of law, culture, or universal human rights principles, or even how it can be managed when understandings of the past conflict or cannot be resolved. I leave those bigger questions for another day or another writer

Culture, neo-liberalism and citizen communication: the case of Radio Tierra in Chile

This article analyses the Chilean independent and not-for profit station Radio Tierra In the general context of the work of two key Chilean sociologists, José Joaquín Brunner and Manuel Antonio Garretón, in particular the latter’s theory of an epochal transformation in the relationship between culture and neo-liberalism in Chile over the preceding 30 years. More specifically, it suggests that Radio Tierra makes evident the emergence of a new form of social communication which, in contrast to the traditional liberal model of communication of, and for, information, is more attuned to the new functions of culture in the expansion and implementation of citizenship under conditions of (neo-liberal) globalization. After a discussion of the contemporary media scene and the role of public journalism and alternative communication in Latin America, the article then focuses on the communicational, political and cultural work of Radio Tierra. In 1990, along with the transition to democracy, Radio Tierra (RT) was born in Santiago as an independent station. Using its trajectory, I will try to concretely show some important connections between globalization, neo-liberalism and culture in contemporary Chile

Physically Based Animation of sea Anemones in Real-Time

This paper presents a technique for modeling and animating fiberlike objects such as sea anemones tentacles in real-time. Each fiber is described by a generalized cylinder defined around an articulated skeleton. The dynamics of each individual fiber is controlled by a physically based simulation that updates the position of the skeleton’s frames over time. We take into account the forces generated by the surrounding fluid as well as a stiffness function describing the bending behavior of the fiber. High level control of the animation is achieved through the use of four types of singularities to describe the three-dimensional continuous velocity field representing the fluid. We thus animate hundreds of fibers by key-framing only a small number of singularities. We apply this algorithm on a seascape composed of many sea anemones. We also show that our algorithm is more general and can be applied to other types of objects composed of fibers such as seagrasse