Title Ideas

• One
• 1
• Hare Krishna
• We HARE Kr1shna
• We are One
• Krishna Krishna
• Krishna in different languages
• One in different languages
• Spiritual Souls
• Spirit
• Spirit and Soul
• Many
• Hare. Rama. Krishna
• Tilaka

Interactive Question Ideas

Guru Krishna Das

• Involvement
• How did you get involved with the Hare Krishna movement?
• How did you get involved?
• What's your story?
• Plans
• What's your plans after London?
• What's your plans after January?
• What's the next step of your journey?
• Where does your journey take you next?
• Living in the Ashram
• What's life like in the male Ashram?
• Clothing
• What's the significance of your clothing?
• How does your image relate to your beliefs?
• Beliefs
• What do you believe in?

Miriam

• Involvement
• How did you get involved with the Hare Krishna movement?
• How did you get involved?
• What's your story?
• Growing Up
• How was life growing up around Hare Krishna?
• Did you have a religious upbringing?
• What did you believe growing up?
• Living in the Ashram
• What's life like in the female Ashram?
• What's your routine while living in the female Ashram?
• Beliefs
• What do you believe in?

Dan

• Involvement
• How did you get involved with the Hare Krishna movement?
• How did you get involved?
• What's your story?
• How did you meet the devotees?
• Background
• What made you seek spirituality?
• Transition
• How was the transition?
• How was the religious transition?
• How did you find your religious transition?
• Arti
• What happens in an Arti?
• What is an Arti?
• Music
• What part does music play?
• What is the importance of music?
• What role does music play?
• Beliefs
• What do you believe in?
• Temple
• Why do people from all over the world come to the Radha Krishna Temple?

Olga

• Involvement
• How did you get involved with the Hare Krishna movement?
• How did you get involved?
• What's your story?
• Role
• What is your role within the temple?
• What do you do in the temple?
• Beads
• Why are the prayer beads significant?
• What do the beads mean?
• Tell us about your prayer beads
• Life
• How has the Hare Krishna movement changed your life?
• How has your involvement changed your life?
• How has it changed your life?

Layout/Design Experimentation

Rough Idea for Interactive Interview Page - We liked the idea of making the background black and white as it would draw more attention to the interviewees skin tones, highlighting the diversity of the Hare Krishna religion (we didn't have a photo of one of the participants at this point, hence two of the same photos). We also decided to focus on the eyes, as the eyes are said to be the entrance to the soul
and when speaking to the participants, they talked a lot about how they are spiritual and believe that every person is a soul.

Rough Idea for Interactive Interview Page 2 - We tried to make the images horizontal as well but we felt as though the first idea was far more effective and fit in with our theme more. 

Rough Idea for Rollover Captions - We liked the gold, as we felt as though gold is utilised a lot in patterns seen around the Radha Krishna Temple. We were unsure whether to place the captions all on one side, or alternate like is seen in this mock-up. We felt as though it looked quite inconsistent placed alternately.

Rough Idea for Rollover Captions 2 - We liked the contrast of the white text, but overall we liked the gold better. However, we felt as though the layout of all the text on one side looked cleaner. We decided to go for the gold text but the captions all on one side.

Rough Idea for Title Name and Font - We haven't 100% decided on a title, but this is one of our options. Although we really like the little leaves on either side, we weren't 100% sure on the font and felt as though it wasn't very representative of the Hare Krishna movement. 

Handmade Stories

http://www.handmade-stories.com/en/#Portraits

Handmade Stories is a character based interactive documentary that focuses on craftswomen all over the world.

The first screen you come to is extremely simple, just a looped short clip of a woman doing her craftsmanship with "Handmade Stories" across the middle of the screen. It gives the viewer just the right amount of context - giving them a quick snippet of the content to come while keeping them intrigued.

Slightly further into the interactive documentary, there is a split screen which allows the viewer to hover over the characters name. When they do, a portrait of the character is shown, along with an illustration of a map of the craftswomen's home country. The geographical reference is great as it is not only visually pleasing, but also gives the viewer context of the character in terms of where they fit in the documentary. The use of portraits looks great and was definitely something that inspired us to use a portrait as the first visual of our characters. The use of people from different countries also encouraged us to explore the diversity in our topic, allowing the viewer to learn from many varying cultural points of view.

After clicking on a character, the participant can choose to enter a "discussion" with the craftswoman. The viewer can choose from three different quotations depending on what they want to hear the character talk about. This interactivity inspired us to allow the viewer to ask our characters questions in order to feel as though they themselves are interviewing the person, letting them learn from a more personal experience rather than simply being told the information. This is one of the most important parts that we took from the documentary and largely shaped our interactive documentary's structure.

Kabul Portraits

Kabul Portraits is an interactive documentary that highlights the reality of the characters that live in Kabul, a conflict-torn region.

It begins with a brief paragraph, explaining the relevance of the content of the documentary. This is something that we have taken into consideration and will probably implement in our final project, as this allows the viewer to understand the context of our piece. We would like the introduction to be spoken by someone (possibly an authority figure) who is part of the bigger picture that we are trying to capture, therefore allowing the viewer to be drawn into the topic from the very start. It also gives a sense of authority and will encourage the viewer to entrust our take on the topic.

The next page you come to is a screen split into 6 triangles, each containing a portrait of a character which you can choose to learn more about. When hovering over a portrait, it provides the participant with the name and occupation of the character. We had always wanted our documentary to be quite character driven, and this gave us the first idea on how to style the home screen - drawing the viewer in without revealing too much, encouraging them to continue exploring the website in order to find out more.

When you click on a portrait, it takes you to their 'profile' page, and allows you to choose between different categories such as 'video', 'audio', 'memories' and 'possessions'. This is a nice way to separate content into consumable sections, allowing the participant to engage more interactively with the piece and therefore being able to control what they see, and in what order.  Without this interactivity, the piece would be better off as a documentary which encouraged us to think about how we should add interactivity, and why our piece should be interactive. The aspect of allowing the viewer to be in control, selecting the content they consume themselves, is really important. We feel as though it is a way to allow the viewer to learn at their own pace, which is a really beneficial if you want your piece to be educational, which is our current focus. Also, allowing the viewer to explore encourages them to delve deeper into each section, immersing them in the experience that we will hopefully provide.

Overall, Kabul Portraits was extremely helpful and influential in coming up with ideas for our final project. It was the first time that we had experienced a really character driven interactive documentary and it showed us one way in which we could layout and section off our content.

Church Email Draft

Dear Sir/Madam

I am a student at the University of Westminster studying Contemporary Media Practice. Me and two other students are currently working on a web-based interactive documentary project aiming to educate people about religion, looking particularly at the Christian and Islamic faiths and the individual communities found within them, highlighting their positive attitudes and values.

We hope to enlighten the general public of Christianity's peaceful and harmonious ethos by displaying an educational digital tour of the ______ church, whilst meeting and interviewing some of the people involved within your religious community. We expect that this will show the importance of the space and individual members' religious values.

In order to create this, upon your permission, we would require access to the ______ Church for a few days with minimal equipment in order to carry out some filming.  Our presence in the space will be very non-intrusive and of course we entirely respect the needs of the church and its users. We are very flexible with filming times and are happy for you to dictate these, as we understand the significance and value of service times.

If you are content with our proposal, it would be great to begin filming as soon as possible. In addition, if we could arrange a preliminary visit in order for us to gain a better understanding of the church's layout and the way in which it operates, that would be very beneficial for us. We have read and fully understand the protocol for filming as laid out on your website and realise that you may ask for a headed letter from our institute of study (the University of Westminster), so we will happily oblige if this is needed.

Thank you for considering our request.


Yours Sincerely,
Kieran Panchal

Draft Email for Islamic Central Mosque

Dear Mr Saddique,

I am a student at the University of Westminster studying Contemporary Media Practice. Me and two other students are currently working on a web-based interactive documentary project aiming to educate people about religion, looking particularly at the Islamic and Christian faiths and the individual communities found within them, highlighting their positive attitudes and values.

We hope to enlighten the general public of Islam's peaceful and harmonious ethos by displaying an educational digital tour of the London Central Mosque, whilst meeting and interviewing some of the people involved within your religious community. We expect that this will show the importance of the space and individual members' religious values.

In order to create this, upon your permission, we would require access to the Mosque and Islamic Centre for a few days with minimal equipment in order to carry out some filming.  Our presence in the space will be very non-intrusive and of course we entirely respect the needs of the Mosque and its users. We are very flexible with filming times and are happy for you to dictate these, as we understand the significance and value of prayer.

If you are content with our proposal, it would be great to begin filming as soon as possible. In addition, if we could arrange a preliminary visit in order for us to gain a better understanding of the Mosque's layout and the way in which it operates, that would be very beneficial for us. We have read and fully understand the protocol for filming as laid out on your website and realise that you may ask for a headed letter from our institute of study (the University of Westminster), so we will happily oblige if this is needed.

Thank you for considering our request.


Yours Sincerely,
Kieran Panchal

Church Contact Details EF

London International Christian Church - 02082487362

ChristChurch London - office@christchurchlondon.org or 02073846486 (if press enquiry, contact Andy Tilsley)

London International Church of Christ - http://www.thelondonchurch.org/ChurchWide/ContactUs.aspx?Region=London

Hillsong Church - hello@hillsong.co.uk or 02073849200

Christ Church Spitalfields - admin@ccspits.org or 02073772440 (open church Sunday 1 - 4pm, weekdays 10 - 4pm)

Christ Church Kensington - admin@christchurchkensington.com or mark@christchurchkensington.com

New Life Church - office@newlife-london.org.uk or 02074824907

Grace Church Greenwich - http://www.gracechurchgreenwich.org.uk/index.php?zonename=contact23

C3 Bloomsbury - info@c3bloomsbury.church or 07572805592

Life City Church - hello@lifecity.org.uk or 02086864010

Christ Church East Greenwich - info@christchurcheastgreenwich.org.uk

Commonwealth Church - 08451303334

Christ Church Fulham - admin@ccfulham.com or 02077364261 or 02077316849

Harrow International Christian Centre - administrator@hicc.org

New Life Bible Church - 02082044590 (must book to speak to church leader)

St Peters Harrow (Mick Warwick, lecturer) - office@stpetersharrow.org or 02084226297

Kings Church Harrow - hello@kingsharrow.org or 02084235238

Meeting Feedback

• Look for mosque/church similarities
• reinforces our intentions
• contact mosques and churches 
• attempt to rearrange meeting with sandra 
• research into the mosques and churches themselves 
• look into potential softwares that we could use for our iDoc 

Jesus in Islam - Religion Research

Jesus in Islam

Jesus
Islam honors all the prophets who were sent to mankind. Muslims respect all prophets in general, but Jesus in particular, because he was one of the prophets who foretold the coming of Muhammad. Muslims, too, await the second coming of Jesus. They consider him one of the greatest of Allah’s prophets to mankind. A Muslim does not refer to him simply as “Jesus,” but normally adds the phrase “peace be upon him” as a sign of respect.
No other religion in the world respects and dignifies Jesus as Islam does. The Qur’an confirms his virgin birth (a chapter of the Qur’an is entitled “Mary”), and Mary is considered to have been one of the purest women in all creation. The Qur’an describes Jesus’ birth as follows:
“Behold!’ the Angel said, God has chosen you, and purified you, and chosen you above the women of all nations. Mary, God gives you good news of a word from Him, whose name shall be the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, honored in this world and in the Hereafter, and one of those brought near to God. He shall speak to the people from his cradle and in maturity, and he shall be of the righteous. She said: “My Lord! How shall I have a son when no man has touched me?’ He said: “Even so; God creates what He will. When He decrees a thing, He says to it, ‘Be!’ and it is.” [3:42-47] Muslims believe that Jesus was born immaculately, and through the same power which had brought Eve to life and Adam into being without a father or a mother.
“Truly, the likeness of Jesus with God is as the likeness of Adam. He created him of dust, and then said to him, ‘Be!’ and he was.” [3:59] During his prophetic mission, Jesus performed many miracles. The Qur’an tells us that he said:
“I have come to you with a sign from your Lord: I make for you out of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, and breathe into it and it becomes a bird by God’s leave. And I heal the blind, and the lepers, and I raise the dead by God’s leave.” [3:49] Muhammad and Jesus, as well as the other prophets, were sent to confirm the belief in one God. This is referred to in the Qur’an where Jesus is reported as saying that he came:
“To attest the law which was before me, and to make lawful to you part of what was forbidden you; I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, so fear God and obey me.” [3:50] Prophet Muhammad emphasized the importance of Jesus by saying:
“Whoever believes there is no god but Allah, alone without partner, that Muhammad is His messenger, that Jesus is a servant and messenger of God, His word breathed into Mary and a spirit emanating from Him, and that Paradise and Hell are true, shall be received by God into Heaven.” [Bukhari]

Taken from http://ilfordmosque.org.uk/faq/

Mosque Contacts EF

London Central Mosque* - http://www.iccuk.org/page.php?section=media&page=protocol (information for filming etc on website under "Media" header) X

East London Mosque - http://www.eastlondonmosque.org.uk/contact/general-enquiry X

Islamic Centre of England* - icel@ic-el.com or http://www.ic-el.com/en/contacts.asp X

Hounslow Jamia Masjid and Islamic Centre - admin@hounslowmasjid.co.uk X

Croydon Mosque and Islamic Centre - enquiries@croydonmosque.com

Ilford Islamic Centre* - ilford-islamic-centre@hotmail.co.uk X

Baitul Aziz Mosque - 02073787764 or https://www.facebook.com/BaitulAzizMosque/ X on FB

Palmers Green Mosque, Muslim Community and Education Centre - enquiries@mcec.org.uk X

Harrow Central Mosque and Masood Islamic Centre - info@harrowmosque.org.uk X

Bait Futuh X

Fazl Mosque












http://mosques.muslimsinbritain.org/maps.php#/mosque/1357

Statement of Intent Feedback

• Consider types of religion, would it be best to focus more on more underground beliefs?
• Consider access to places of worship - start early in order to ensure it is gained.
• 360 degree vid cameras now available at university store, could be usable for interactive google maps/Abbey Road style tours
• Research Sounds of Street View 
• Distance and volume of sound - perspective 
• Sandra Gaudenzi - arrange tutorial for more iDoc feedback
• Klynt/Adobe Muse - possible software for interactive website building (Klynt appears more user friendly)

Project Proposal

Initial working title: 

السلام عليكم
Peace Be With You

Summary: 

We propose to create an interactive documentary highlighting the similarities between people of different religions despite their religious beliefs causing conflict. Our experiential interactive documentary will take viewers through two places of worship, a Christian Church and an Islamic Mosque, providing the participant with the opportunity to meet members of each religious community. Through the introduction of these characters, the audience will gain insight into key issues each religion is facing whilst understanding the parallels that both groups share.

The documentary could begin with a split screen, showing the same perspective of the outside of each religious building. The viewer will then be able to select whether they want to visit the Church or the Mosque first, which will initiate a quick tour around either building. We then hope to introduce members of each religion, focusing on the issues their religion faces, but also their personal beliefs and values.

We’ve also considered visiting both the mosque and the church and shooting very similar shots frame by frame, and giving the option to the participant to press down on the spacebar in order to switch between the two different videos. This would be a very literal way to show the parallels between the religions.

Presentation Intentions:

Interactive Documentary - Screen based

Inspiration/Key References: 

http://kabulportraits.nfb.ca/main.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cllWl1u1fj0 https://insideabbeyroad.withgoogle.com/en/welcome https://www.teamgaza.nl/en/ https://digitalsynopsis.com/advertising/honda-civic-type-r-the-other-side/

Meeting Notes - 20/02/17

Meeting Notes - 20/02/17

• Pressure pad possibly? - when user walks into room and sits/stands in the middle, video plays
• Need to make a way to disconnect the pressure pad after it has been initialised for the first time as if it is pressed again, video would start again (?)
• Square, big, dark room, table in the middle? Spotlight illuminating the middle?
• Explore Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Atheism, Buddhism (possibly way too much to focus on)
• Surround sound? Each video has it's own speaker?
• Differences in beliefs/parallelism in values
• Make questions interactive - audience get to choose what questions they hear the answers to
• Each member of the audience has to cooperate with each other in order for piece to play?
• Potentiometer - use to scroll round the room through the videos
• Scroll round the room at the start, each religious leader states the most important value in their religion - once the audience member has scrolled round the whole room, the video starts playing (not enough interaction/interaction not meaningful)
• When filming contact, get the religious leader looking in lots of different directions so that we can make it look as though when one person is talking, everyone in the other videos is looking at them
• Label the different religions on each panel of the wall
• Instead of labelling, let the subject state their religion within the answer to the first question
• Religious leaders speak instructions - possibly get them to speak in unison?
• Would have to be very simple, uniform sentences
• How do we make the audience more involved rather than just an observer?
• Tall Ships by Gary Hill
• Projections onto life size perspex glass i.e. Kings Cross Station
• Whomsoever by James Bridle
• i-docs.org (maybe do interactive documentary instead)
• National Film Board of Canada
• Buttons not good enough if doing installation, there must be a way to include the audience and make them feel like part of the piece rather than just pressing buttons
• PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERACTION - dealing with preconceptions etc.
• Find hate tweets about each religious group...iPad in the middle displaying them?

Lesson 4 - Arduino/Pure Data

Monday 27^th February – Project proposal

o   No more than two sides of A4

o   Must include both text and image to provide visualisation

o   Format:

§  All group members names

§  Initial working title

§  Summary of the proposed project in 500 words or less

§  Presentation intentions – how is the project to be experienced by its audience? Is it an installation, app, etc.

§  Visualisation – it could be your own work or an appropriate image from your research

§  Key references – other practitioners, films, books, etc. Include material of genuine influence

Arduino

·      Digital pins/analogue pins

·      5V or 3.3V – must be careful as components can be damaged if using the wrong voltage

·      Upload using USB cable

·      Runs program over and over again if connected to power – no on/off switch

Connecting Arduino to Pure Data

·      Make serial connection to link Arduino to Pure Data

o   Redirect so that the data goes to Pure Data rather than the serial monitor

·      Tell the program that you’re initialising a serial connection in the setup

·      You need the programs to communicate at the same speed – bps match on each program

·      If part of the code is greyed out, it is not going to work – you can use this to temporarily remove part of the code – grey a code out by adding // at the start of the line

·      “serial.write” sends bites of the data to Pure Data, tell the program what it is going to send in the brackets afterwards i.e. serial.write(OutputValue);

·      If code is orange, it is recognised 

·      Open Pure Data, and open the comport template

·      The devices box will open a pop up containing all the available devices, including the Arduino device

·      Different components:

o   Moisture sensor – detects moisture in soil

o   Force sensor – senses pressure 

o   Stretch sensor – small arduinos that can be stitched into clothes etc. 

o   Accelerometer – detects orientation

o   Pulse sensor – measures heart rate

·      Additional shields to slot onto Arduino:

o   RFID reader – reads cards etc. with RFID chips in (i.e. uni card, contactless card), can be embedded into objects easily

o   GSM shield – mobile phone shield – put sim card in, connect to Arduino, it can send and receive text messages, calls etc.

o   Motor controller shield – used to make robotic elements 

Lesson 2 - Adobe Animate

Adobe Animate

·      Templates – shows and sets the stage to general dimensions for certain formats i.e. banner ad or iPhone app

·      Scale along the bottom – numbers show frames

·      Graphics are vector based, not pixel based

·      Merge drawing mode – adds new drawings to previous drawings to make them joint pieces i.e. if you remove one part of the drawing it will leave an empty space

·      Object drawing mode – draws everything as separate objects and therefore they can be layered on top of one another (for example) and therefore can be moved around without affecting the other drawings/objects

·      Animated parts of projects must have their own layer

·      To animate something:

o   Select object, and right click then select motion tween

o   Click ok on the pop up that asks to turn the object into a symbol

o   You will be able to select and add key frames in order to change the path of the animated object

o   You can also manipulate the path my clicking and dragging

·      To extend object to more frames:

o   Select the last frame that you want the object to be included in

o   Right click and select insert frame

o   It will add the object into every frame in between the first and last frame

o   OR click command and hover over the double headed arrow key to drag the object out over more frames

·      To make a button:

o   Draw the graphic for the button in its own layer

o   Select modify and then convert to symbol

o   In type, select button and click ok

o   Double click on the button to edit the button when it is “up”, “over”, “down” and “hit”

o   Enter key frames in order to change the colour of the button etc. in each state

o    

Karen (Life Coach App) Analysis

The camera angle in the way that Karen is filming is very natural in order to act like you are video calling her on your phone and even in some cases seeming like you are with her in reality. She always keeps eye contact with the audience which furthers the connection with the consumer which almost encourages them to engage and interact more as it seems as if she is really listening and responding to your answers. She also comes across as honest and trustworthy due to the aforementioned reasons. The multiple choice answers as well as the descriptive ones allows you to reply in the way that you wish.

The time intervals between being able to use the app has both pros and cons. It allows it to be very realistic but also it can cause a loss in engagement, and forget to use app at a later time. For example sometimes she quickly speaks to you for 5 minutes and then you have to call her back several hours later.

The app starts off as a life coaching app, leading the user to believe that over the course of using the app, Karen will be able to teach you more about yourself and help you work towards your goals. However, as time progresses, the app almost completely flips, immersing the participant into Karen's life. You explore Karen's past, as well as engaging in conversation with her boyfriend (?) and experiencing their unstable relationship. As time progresses, the audience will realise that instead of Karen analysing their life, they will end up analysing Karen's.

Lesson 1

Media Explorations

What are ‘interactive media’?

·      10:30 – 1:30 every Monday in J1.17, workshops for the rest of the day

·      Deadline – Monday 4^th May (crit at 10:30)

·      Research (contextualise your work)

·      Documentation (possibly in the form of a blog)

·      Explore different technologies and document the experimentation

Installation based documentary?

·      Focus on psychological interaction instead of physical interaction

Lev Manovich

·      “psychological interaction”   

·      Concepts:

o   Hypothesis formation

o   Recall

o   Identification

“The Dark Pool”

What is it? How would you describe it? How is it described?

It is an experience based immersive installation in which the participant/consumer triggers sound by interacting with different aspects of the set. Narrative environment, interactive narrative

How is it interactive?

The consumer must physically interact with the installation causing the experience to be tailored to their actions. 

Why is it interactive?

The interactive nature of the installations adds to the immersion of the experience.

Are any of them more interactive than others? If so in what ways?

What do they all have in common?

  

Creating a 1 click wonder

1. attach 2 wires to IPAC using screwdriver – loosen screw, insert wire – 1^st to ground, 2^nd into any

2. plug into usb

3. Command e for edit mode, connect keys to object – can make multiple connections

Our 1 click wonder (Taste The Ocean)

We decided to make use of the IPAC in conjunction with the ball bearing interface. When the ball bearing inside the metal canister was tilted to touch the other side, it would type a key on the keyboard, which, in turn, could be programmed to produce a sound using Pure Data. We connected this ball bearing sensor to a water bottle, so when it was used and the bottle was drank from, it would tilt, causing the ball bearing to hit the side of the canister, and therefore the 'w' key to be triggered, which was programmed to play the sound of an ocean wave. This was a good example of an interactive practical application of the iPAC and how it can be used to reinforce a brand/as an advertising technique.