Meeting Minutes / December 1999

December 21, 1999


1. One important decision was the definition of a "reviewable" chunk of the work: the first three sets of seven for Vienna, the first set of seven for Tarrytown, and the first set of seven for the Amazon. The rationale for this chunk is as follows:

a. The longish Vienna sequence gives us a chance to see how a definite dramatic/narrative line is shaping up.

b. The set of three in Vienna gives us a chance to figure out how the vertical diamonds might work.

c. Developing a set from each world gives us a chance  to experiment with horizontal transitions and to figure out how musically,  visually, and textually to make clear how these three worlds and their  characters are analogous.

d. A set of this kind might, if polished and done with good voices, provide us with a sample useful for grant applications or even approaches to potential "publishers."

2. Some elements of a final integration seem to be getting clearer:

a. Static text conventionally arranged is not likely to serve well in most instances.

b. Animation, even if simple, adds a great deal to the liveness of frames.

c. Animation and musical rhythm can work powerfully together.

d. A variety of techniques (including maybe selective user replays) can be used to foreground various aspects of the work-music, images, transition and interface, text, voice-so that no medium of expression of the meaning and force of the work is merely the servant of others.

3. Now that we have, thanks to Jose, some real music coming into the mix, we envision a slightly different process, like this: Gene furnishes textual scaffolding (not the actual texts, but dramatic/narrative context and content) for a set of seven and sends it to Lynn; Lynn creates a set  of seven layered images and sends those along with Gene's scaffolding to Jose; Jose creates music for the set and sends it along with Lynn's images to Gene; Gene writes the actual texts to be delivered by voices and gives the whole pile to Ben and Cort, who work on integration.

4. The time for the next meeting was not set. Jose needs to get into the work before he can estimate his rate of production. In the meantime, however, here is some calendar info for me. The weekend of Jan. 22 is blacked out, also weekends of February 19 and 26. Then we are out of town until April 3. If others want to let me know their calendar restrictions, I can begin to put together the several possibilities open to us in late January and early February. Incidentally, if a March meeting is in order, the house will be available for that.

5. I have not tried to capture the many interesting detailed observations that were made while we were working together, but only some overarching principles. Even so, I have likely missed something important. This, then, invites anybody to post an addendum to the minutes.

6. Here, just because it gets a little complicated, is what now exists in more of less final form:

a. Vienna 1: scaffolding, images, text

b. Vienna 2: scaffolding, images, text

c. Vienna 3: scaffolding, images

d. Amazon 1: scaffolding

e. Tarrytown 1: nothing

Obviously I'm not including various trial integrations, voice or musical wave files because these are not really "finished."