Fluid Interfaces

So I was poking around the Fluid Interfaces group at the MIT Media Lab again (Grad school prospects are something I´ve decided to start thinking seriously about considering I will have to apply sometime in the next 2-3 years) and I watched a video for one of their projects Sixth Sense. It is a device that helps us interact with the digital and real world at the same time. I must say it is really cool - inexpensive (the guy says he wants to make the hardware open-source and that you can build your own for $300), environmentally-friendly, and with endless possibilities. The coolest function is the fact that he can just frame something with his fingers and the device will take a picture. Nuts! The possibilities of the mobility for digital photography and film with that sort of technology would be pretty incredible. Fluid Filmmaking! (sort of)
So check it out if you have some time!

Categories: Graduate School, MIT media lab, tech

Back in the Big Apple Part 2

April 13, 2011 - Somewhere over the continental United States between NYC, NY and Miami, FL

So I'm on my way back to Quito after a long long time of being away. A big part of me dreads it. Feels that Quito is not the place I should be in right now, or will be in for much longer.
You see, I've made up my mind to move out of Quito by September or October at the latest. And I've decided that my best options right now are going to Beijing or New York. I just need to fix a few things back home (like, earn some money) and then I'll be on my way. I've also decided that I will make a conscious effort to be twice as productive as I was before once I get back. Not that I haven't been productive before...
Meanwhile, I fondly recall my last few days in NYC after I arrived at Grand Central Terminal on monday evening.
Monday evening, M and I went to have dinner at our friend LY's place in Brooklyn. LY is also a friend and one of our neighbors from Vassar. She's a pretty awesome person - and she aspires to be a High School history teacher and has recently been accepted into Columbia's Teachers College. It was a laid-back evening of catching up with some lovely food and some cider and old college friends. After that, M and I headed back to M's house and fell asleep.
The next day (yesterday) was my last day in NYC. M had to work and my brother, in true L fashion, sent me a list of things I needed to go find and bring back for him the night before. So I supposed that was going to be most of my day. I also managed to get a meeting with a professor at CUNY at night to talk about developing my central theme all my projects (and my company) revolve around. So I basically just walked around the city running errands. I mostly stayed in the Union Square area, hitting up American Eagle, Best Buy, and Barnes and Noble. I also toured the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Grad school has been on my mind again as my frustration towards my inability to actually be on set or make films has been growing and growing. M and I had lunch at City Bakery near her job in the Flatiron District and then I went into Express and bought a couple of really awesome dresses (one for work, one for more dressy events). I went to drop off my stuff at the apartment and made sure everything was packed before heading out to Think Coffee for the meeting with the professor. I think that went very well. Afterwards, M and I went for a slice of NY pizza at Ray's Pizza in the village. Very lovely ending to my stay in NYC. I was just perfect to walk around the village at night, with the raindrops from the evening showers diffusing the orange and pink light reflecting off the sakuras and the storefronts that were still open.





New York in the Spring...what a beautiful sight.
I was sad to leave this morning. It was so nice to see my housemates and friends from college in NYC. It was nice to feel at home in the city itself - more at home than I've felt in a long time. I felt vibrant and alive and productive. It made me want to stay. To find an apartment right then and there, and a job somewhere....but doing that might have been irresponsible. There are loose ends I need to tie up in Quito before I move - important loose ends.
But I have a plan now. A realistic one.
So the goodbye is temporary - as I know I will be back soon.
As Oswaldo Guayasamín put it:

“Mantengan encendida una luz que siempre voy a volver,”
(“Keep a light burning for I will always return.”)

Categories: airplane, Graduate School, L, LY, M, miami airport, NYC

Some cool stuff coming out of the MIT Media Lab

So I was looking at the MIT Media Lab website (yet again) to read up on what´s going on at the Camera Culture research group (because if I want to apply in the near future, I figure I should know and understand all the details about what is being done there) and I came across a few press releases about what is being developed at the lab and thought that I´d post the links here because they´re actually pretty cool stuff:

(1) Albeit (as the article points out) somewhat useless considering the widespread accessibility to weather forecasts in a computer or pda or iphone or whatever, a toothbrush that tells you what the weather is going to be like today is sort of creative and awesome (especially since it will tell you what the weather is by dispensing different flavors of toothpaste. i.e. if you get mint, it will be colder than yesterday).

(29) Holographic displays! If I go to the Media Lab, I would probably want to be working on this sort of technology. Maybe helping to develop holographic film cameras? That experience would be pretty amazing! Anyways, the Star Wars geek in me wholeheartedly approves trying to reproduce Princess Leia´s hologram (in R2D2) as a demonstration for the currently available technology.

Categories: film, Graduate School, MIT media lab, star wars, tech

HSK? Grad School?

I've been hit with a bunch of suggestions to look into grad school/applying for grants lately and I've begun to do some research about it. Not that I am going to apply to grad school or a Fulbright or anything like that anytime soon, but I guess it is a good thing to know all the options available to one. So far, I've managed to figure out a few things:

(1) I should probably take the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi or 汉语水平考试) at some point. Seems like a good thing to have and more proof that I can, in fact, speak Mandarin Chinese. I want to be able to take the Advanced test and I think that with some serious study I could probably do that. Although I just looked at the Basic test instructions (for elementary level Chinese) and I was like - okay, maybe I should actually PRACTICE my Chinese before I get into this ordeal. Well, to be fair, I will be having a few one-on-one speaking sessions with a teacher at the newly inaugurated Confucius Institute at the university where my parents work at (I've become really good friends with the head of the Institute - he's also my Tai Chi (or to call it by its correct name taijichuan - 太极拳) teacher). Also, I'm going to China in March. I'm hoping that being in the Mainland for 3 weeks will help me remember most of my 4 years of Chinese study. Probably will. On that same subject, I've apparently been unofficially invited to do a small series of lectures on Chinese National Cinema which I'm really excited about because it is one of the central focal points in my ongoing film goals and themes (most scripts I write have a sort of heavy influence from China's 5th-generation filmmakers and contemporary Hong Kong Cinema).

(2) I'm not sure if I want to go to grad school for filmmaking. Part of me thinks it is a big waste of time and money - mostly because I get the feeling that anything you learn in grad school for Film Production can be learned by being on set. Also, I've heard varying reports that suggest that Film Production grad schools will box you in too much - about how the creative process goes. I feel that filmmaking, like any other art, does require technique and technical knowledge, but at the end of the day, has a creative flow that no rules can really govern. Most stories are written without paying much heed to storytelling rules - in fact, they tend to go on to define those rules themselves without meaning to. Then there's also the fact that those film production grad schools are notoriously hard to get in to and give you next to no money. My feeling is that if you're going to spend $100,000 ($50,000 per year) on a program that will teach you something that you could learn while getting paid on a set, you might as well take that money and make a movie with it yourself. It would be an extremely low-budget film, but it is definitely doable considering today's technology and filmmaker resourcefulness. And trust me, a lot of filmmaking is about resourcefulness. I think that when I go to grad school I want to do something other than film production. Right now the program that has really caught my eye is MIT's Media Lab research programs. They're doing one called "Camera Culture" which is dedicated to creating the next generation of cameras to be used for film production that could give you a better image, greater mobility, and aid in the development of a more interactive filmmaking and moviegoing experience. There's another one about the Opera of the Future or something like that that experiments with new kinds of music and concertgoing experiences. What I like about the program is that it can be partnered with an Entrepreneurship program so that you come out being both business and tech-savvy at the end. It is a little bit more of a sciency way to go, but I think I will definitely eventually apply to it. I also have looked into Columbia's MFA in Screenwriting/Directing, and the Beijing Film Academy's MA in Fiction Film Directing or Cinematography. The BFA's program is particularly interesting because I think it might allow me to explore different perspectives and themes than the other western programs would. Also it's cheaper, shorter, and I think there are a few grants I can apply to in order to cover the costs. BUT it is also in Beijing....and while I do love China, living in Qingdao for 3 months 3 years ago was really really hard on me. Might be a different situation though...

All of this, of course, comes from the fact that I'm actually currently in the process of completing my application for a Grant for Language Study Abroad (I want to study Dutch in The Netherlands). It is due on Tuesday, but I want to get it in today. I don't know what my chances are, but it would be a good option to have if it comes through. Yay!

Categories: Chinese, film, Graduate School, grants, HSK, travel