Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Ethan Hopfer Artist Statement work in progress
My artwork is an extension of my inner child. It refuses to grow up, play nice, or be appropriate. Continually challenging the established art aesthetic I use humor to address social and political issues. Whether it be print, sculpture, paint or digital media levity is paramount in my work. We are surrounded by so much doom and gloom that if we can't laugh at it there is no way to survive. Evil corporations, lying politicians and mass media all cry out to me to be knocked back in their place.
Interview with Leslie Rule head of KQED's Center for Community Media
Me: In your own words what is location based education?
Leslie: Location based education is another way of saying place based education. place based education takes in the community and goes well beyond what can be found in a text books. It frees students from the confines of a four walled classroom and rigid textbooks by placing them in the context of community because we are not isolated from each other.
M: How long have you been working in the field?
L: I have been working with locative media for about 5 years, but have been working with different forms of story telling for over 20 years.
M: What got you interested in the field?
L: Well it was a bit of a fluke. I went to a conference at MIT were i was inspired by two speakers, Paula Levine with her "Shadows of Another Place: San Francisco <-> Baghdad," and Jeremy Hight and his piece "Narrative Archeology." Shortly after Hewlett Packard came to KQED with a new software they developed and asked if we would work with them and put on a lab using their product.
M: What would you like place based education to do for schools?
L: On a grand scheme I'd like to see it change the educational experience as a whole. I'd like to see it change the way in which school happens. I'd love to see scientists and artist come together and find knew ways of educating. And I'm not talking about people being assigned to develop this, but individual who really want to make change and believe in what they are doing. To not just see this as linear thinking and story telling but to develop create and new ways to use the technologies. I want teachers to understand the importance of getting out of the classroom.
M: What are some of the limiting factors facing place based education and how can they be overcome?
L: Lack of standardization in mobile devices. We also need to develop a standard operating system. Another problem is in the development of curriculum. as I said before it is important to get people together and try to come up with new and interesting ways of presenting information. Yet another problem facing us is that we are forced to build these systems upon the lowest common denominator. right now we are building to be used with cell phones because they are cheap and everyone has one.
M: What devices and technologies are best suited for immediate implementation of location based education?
L: At the moment cell phones. Mainly, as I said earlier, because everyone has them. There is not as large of a disparity between kids with money and those with out. Plus cell phones are becoming smaller with better computing power and are replacing desktop computers for many features we traditionally used them for such as email and data management.
M: Do you see location/place based education replacing the current system we have in place?
L: Yes
M: What do you think it will take to get teachers and the public on board?
L: As Arnie Duncan said, "If you're not in you're out." There are no gradual steps to take. to achieve this we have to build from the ground up. Sure we can do a case by case study in class rooms but then it is only trial runs. It is going to take sweeping changes to break away from the status quo.
M: Do you feel location is useful outside of the school system?
L: Absolutely, in two ways. One, seeing the community as a living text. And two, for people interested in life long learning. There is so much information out there that you are not required to obtain it in a class room.
What are your thoughts on augmented reality and its importance to place based education?
L: Augmented reality is just another term for content in place, used by a different subset of people. Persnoally i don't care for it all that much because it elevates technology over content. This are just my personal feelings. Who knows what will happen with it. I would always rather look at the real world then an overlay of it.
Leslie: Location based education is another way of saying place based education. place based education takes in the community and goes well beyond what can be found in a text books. It frees students from the confines of a four walled classroom and rigid textbooks by placing them in the context of community because we are not isolated from each other.
M: How long have you been working in the field?
L: I have been working with locative media for about 5 years, but have been working with different forms of story telling for over 20 years.
M: What got you interested in the field?
L: Well it was a bit of a fluke. I went to a conference at MIT were i was inspired by two speakers, Paula Levine with her "Shadows of Another Place: San Francisco <-> Baghdad," and Jeremy Hight and his piece "Narrative Archeology." Shortly after Hewlett Packard came to KQED with a new software they developed and asked if we would work with them and put on a lab using their product.
M: What would you like place based education to do for schools?
L: On a grand scheme I'd like to see it change the educational experience as a whole. I'd like to see it change the way in which school happens. I'd love to see scientists and artist come together and find knew ways of educating. And I'm not talking about people being assigned to develop this, but individual who really want to make change and believe in what they are doing. To not just see this as linear thinking and story telling but to develop create and new ways to use the technologies. I want teachers to understand the importance of getting out of the classroom.
M: What are some of the limiting factors facing place based education and how can they be overcome?
L: Lack of standardization in mobile devices. We also need to develop a standard operating system. Another problem is in the development of curriculum. as I said before it is important to get people together and try to come up with new and interesting ways of presenting information. Yet another problem facing us is that we are forced to build these systems upon the lowest common denominator. right now we are building to be used with cell phones because they are cheap and everyone has one.
M: What devices and technologies are best suited for immediate implementation of location based education?
L: At the moment cell phones. Mainly, as I said earlier, because everyone has them. There is not as large of a disparity between kids with money and those with out. Plus cell phones are becoming smaller with better computing power and are replacing desktop computers for many features we traditionally used them for such as email and data management.
M: Do you see location/place based education replacing the current system we have in place?
L: Yes
M: What do you think it will take to get teachers and the public on board?
L: As Arnie Duncan said, "If you're not in you're out." There are no gradual steps to take. to achieve this we have to build from the ground up. Sure we can do a case by case study in class rooms but then it is only trial runs. It is going to take sweeping changes to break away from the status quo.
M: Do you feel location is useful outside of the school system?
L: Absolutely, in two ways. One, seeing the community as a living text. And two, for people interested in life long learning. There is so much information out there that you are not required to obtain it in a class room.
What are your thoughts on augmented reality and its importance to place based education?
L: Augmented reality is just another term for content in place, used by a different subset of people. Persnoally i don't care for it all that much because it elevates technology over content. This are just my personal feelings. Who knows what will happen with it. I would always rather look at the real world then an overlay of it.
Wireless Art Symposium
On Thursday Night Nov. 5, I met with Leslie and a group of new faces at KQED headquarters. The agenda was to finish planning the call to artists and set a date for the wireless art festival currently with the working title "Art in the Air." so far we have a tentative date of May 14th-16th to be followed up on the next weekend by a number of hands on workshops for the community. In the tasks delegated I will be re-doing both "Mapping the Hood," and "The 1906 Earthquake." Along with that i will be creating a map using Google maps that shows where all the previous wireless artwork in the city is located. On top of all that i have decided on a personal project of a walking tour of my neighborhood in which i highlight things and places I enjoy along with humorous stories along the way.
A bit late but this is an update
Well it sure has been a long time since i came on here and blogged about my internship. the reason is quite simple up until the other day not to much had gone on at my internship. First i guess i should fill in how my internship at KQED came to fruition. Initially I wanted to intern at the Exploratorium, unfortunately I was not able to work in the hours need to do so (also they were terrible at getting back to me). Leslie Rule on the other hand was and is fabulous over at KQED. I went over there about a month ago to meet with here and discuss the possibilities of interning there. She explained to me two projects she was working on. One being place based education and the other a wireless art symposium. For the location based education we will be working with two schools here in the city one a continuation high school and the other balboa high school. The goal is to develop and implement educational practices built up around a technology that all of the students have...cell phones.This is still in the preliminary stages so i don't really have much else to report, and as to the symposium i will be giving it its own blog post.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The New Semester
The new semester is upon us, let me be the first to say FUCK THE CSU SYSTEM!!!
there with that out of the way i my proceed with the purpose of this blog. What was the purpose again? oh that's right to share my resumes and artist statement, let me just link them up.
ethan's art resume
ethan's work resume
ethan's art statement
artist statement to come shortly
there with that out of the way i my proceed with the purpose of this blog. What was the purpose again? oh that's right to share my resumes and artist statement, let me just link them up.
ethan's art resume
ethan's work resume
ethan's art statement
artist statement to come shortly
Thursday, May 21, 2009
GOcars
I had an amazing time on our field trip to go cars. First off it was just plain fun. Secondly it was very informative. Seeing GPS work in the real world in real time was awesome. The programers they used are top notch. It was great to interact with a city i have lived in for two years in a new way. My favorite part is the way they synced music with the ride. When speeding down a big hill the car would play a fast paced song that really added to the feel of speed. the directions were great and the route it took you on are really enjoyable.
Monday, May 18, 2009
511 Final project
for my final project i will be doing a continuation of my earlier downhill SFSU. i will take the map i created for that and turn it into a locative walk, or rather skate. i will be laying audio tracks over it and creating the finished piece using mscape.
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