A Lowbrow Example …

Forgive me for producing an example that’s the lowest of the low-brow, but today’s discussion about reality and constructed scenes made me think of the ending of the MTV show The Hills. For those of you lucky enough to have missed this particular phenomenon, the show was a spinoff of a previous MTV reality show (Laguna Beach) and followed one of that show’s “characters” and her friends as they moved to Hollywood. Like a lot of reality TV, it was criticized for being set-up and possibly scripted — criticisms that only grew as the show’s stars became tabloid fixtures without that part of their lives ever being shown on screen.

Anyway, the show attempted to maintain some level of mystery about just how much it was setting up the story, until the final episode, which ended with the following scene — in which two characters say a mournful goodbye, only to have it revealed that (SPOILER ALERT!) they’ve been filming on a soundstage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8gyXYr1ZAM

Vivek

Hi there, I’m a first year MS/PhD student in Mechanical Engineering. I worked for a few years as a designer & strategist at innovation firm IDEO, where I developed the skills and a taste for ethnography as practiced in design research. Accordingly, I have the requisite (meaning, minimum) technical competencies in photography, video editing, sound editing, etc in addition to the abstract framing and synthesis that goes into worthwhile research.

I’ve also spent time in various writing workshops for short story craft, so I’m looking for ways to bring that mode of thinking to bear on multimedia narrative.

No projects in mind, yet.

Looking forward!

Kevin Huynh

Hello hello.

I’m Kevin Huynh, 1st year Mechanical Engineering grad student.  My interests are wide and my background is ironic.  In short, I like to make ideas happen and I’m obsessed with creativity and inspiration.

I’m interested in working in design strategy/innovation consulting, and rich media and story telling has always come up as an integral part of that.  I started a social art sideproject called the Common Camera Project that’s distributing hundreds of disposable cameras in a take-a-pic-and-pass-it-on campaign in search of inspiration.

I’m interested in learning more about photography (and learn how to take better pics) as well as better frame my thinking about how images can be employed to tell better stories.  I don’t have a huge background with photography apart from being an appreciator and an owner of a point and shoot.  I’ve worked a lot with photoshop (but primarily for graphic design purposes) and have dabbled in video editing with Adobe Premiere on a few occasions.  Enough to survive.

Pleasure to meet ya.

Bryan Trinh

I’m Bryan Trinh, a first year Masters student from the Mechanical Engineering department. Although we have no official concentration tracts, I focus my studies on the designing of products: both the tangible, and digital.

I am interested in designing products that connect–ones that transcend the superficial specifications of usage. I am a believer that the secret to making a connection is storytelling. A big part of storytelling is crafting the environment and emotional context that the creation exists or atlas designing with these in mind.

I have experience working with DSLR’s and the newer generation of video capable interchangeable lens cameras. In the past I have also worked with miniDV’s.

In terms of software, I have used adobe premiere in the past but admit that I will have to brush up on those skills. I have also recently tried Sony Vegas Pro. I recently acquired a license of Adobe Production Premium and will be using that this semester.

I am taking this class to simply improve my abilities. I don’t have any particular project in mind as of yet.

My email is [ bryan trinh 88  at gmail dot com ] (parse as expected)