Joe Mills

Frisky Dingo

Since getting a Blackjack last spring and taking the bus to work, I’ve been able to watch some shows that I would not normally get to see by downloading them on to my phone. I’ve seen some good things (The Wire), some mediocre (Mad Men) and some not so good (Robot Chicken). Recently, I watched the first six episodes of Frisky Dingo. There are obviously tons of cartoons to watch on television and on the Internet and someone will always tell you that, “You HAVE to watch this.” You have to be picky nowadays because there is just way too much watch, so let me just say that Frisky Dingo is good. It is hard to really describe the plot, so I’m going to let Wikipedia describe the plot for the first season:

The first season of Frisky Dingo follows the adversial relationship between the villainous white behemoth Killface, who aspires to strike fear into humankind, and Awesome-X (the secret superhero identity of multi-billionaire Xander Crews), a superhero who has just defeated the last known super-villain but dislikes the idea of retiring.

The animation is not really all that exciting but the writing and jokes are clever and funny (something hard to do). Too often, it seems, cartoons and live action shows try to shock you with mediocre bathroom humor so people will watch. Or, they try to be too clever with abstract metaphors and poorly timed pop culture references. Frisky Dingo seems to have found a happy medium where it all just works. I’ve been thinking about making my own “show” and Frisky Dingo has certainly been a good bit of inspiration. You HAVE to watch it.

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New Artwork

I have two new artworks up on my site. Check them out here. They are the last two thumbnails on the left.

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Simple and Complex

I have been working on a paper recently for Teaching Artist Journal and the basis of my article is how I like my units to be simplex yet complex. In other words, the curriculum should be deep and rigorous, but the flow of the unit should be easy to understand. As I thought more about this, I realized that a lot of the artowrk I really like is simple and complex. In other words, the work seems effortless when you look at it, but when you look at it longer, there seems to be a lot going on behind the surface or it looks like a lot of work went into completing it. Now, I know why I do not like a lot of conceptual or “high” art. When I see very conceptual artwork, it always seems too complex. A lot of it is not aesthetically pleasing and it asks too much of the viewer to try to figure out and reconcile. Nothing really grabs you. On the flip side, you can tell when an artwork is too simple. It might look nice but it feels like no thought or sweat went into the production. It is just something with pretty colors that makes you look at it…and then move on. Anyway, I like figuring out stuff like this…

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FilmWise

Image courtesy of FilmWise

I don’t know what I like more about these FilmWise quizzes. Is it the quizzes or the idea? I saw these quizzes years ago and I remember them being maddeningly difficult even though it looks super simple. It is wild how the faces in a scene make that much difference. On the other hand, if you have not seen the film, you probably have no chance to get it. I’m also struck by how the images are perfectly edited. It’s not like they just blacked out the faces…the background is there too. So, if you haven’s seen this…check it out.

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Layer Tennis

Image courtesy of Layer Tennis

Here’s a little competition that a friend passed along to me called Layer Tennis. I’ll let them explain it:

We’ll be playing matches using lots of different applications, from Adobe® Photoshop® to Adobe® Flash®, but the basic idea is the same no matter what tools are in use. Two artists (or two small teams of artists) will swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a “volley” and then we post that to the site. A third participant, a writer, provides play-by-play commentary on the action, as it happens. The matches last for ten volleys and when it’s complete, everyone with an opinion sounds off in the Forums and we declare a winner.

They have a bunch of matches already up where you can see the “volleys”. It is interesting to see how one artist takes one design and changes it up. Plus, they even have someone adding “color commentary”. Who knew artists and designers liked sports?

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Cartoon Physics

I came across this Wikipedia page for cartoon physics the other day. The fact there is a Wikipedia page for this is the first amazing thing. The second amazing thing is that somebody actually compiled this. The final amazing thing is that it is actually compelling and funny. Here are just a couple entries:

• Characters are allowed to swim or blow themselves upwards a short distance in the air before falling normally. Sometimes when a character runs off the edge of a cliff, they will not actually start falling until they look down and realize they should.

• When a toon (normally a villain) saws off a platform, it causes the main platform, with the toon standing on it, to fall down, with the sawed-off platform floating on air.

A lot of thought has been put into it and it feels like you could make a faux physics paper or a video tutorial…regardless, this has some possibilities.

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Learning Like Kids

This is always one of my favorite topics and sometimes I feel like I beat into the ground, but I guess know it is so important the health of my brain that I’m almost reminding myself. Wil Richardson writes a great technology education blog that recently outlined a trip he had made to a middle school classroom. During the visit, he was showing the students a lot of online applications, and he could see the minds of these boys moving in full speed as he showed them all these things that were available to them. He continues:

And not that the brains of the teachers who I had a chance to speak with weren’t cranking as well, but it was interesting (at a minimum) how differently the body language and reactions were. Much more measured and thoughtful. No wiggling in the seats, for the most part. Not that I expected that, but the difference was brought home by one of my hosts when we went to dinner before an evening presentation to parents. (It was a long day.) At one point, as he was talking about his classroom teaching, he said “I always think like a kid; I want to learn like a kid.” Yeah. Me too. On some level, this is all play, isn’t it? But it’s directed, collaborative, connected play that has learning as a payoff (much of the time at least.) I love the “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” approach that many kids have about technology (and tree branches and skateboards and whatever else they might be pushing the limits of.) And I wish it were easier for adults to take that approach. Not be so thoughtful. Not think so much, just play.

Keeping that curiosity and exploratory nature of children is so hard to hold on to as adults, but it is necessary. Adults are scared to death of making a mistake that anything new is to be feared. Kids do not have that same problem and that is why they make the perfect students. Whatever you are trying to learn has to be approached in a child-like manner, “Hey, it might not work right away and I might not understand it right way and I might not like it, but I’m not going to learn anything without trying it out first.” Easy to say…hard to practice…

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Pinball Number Count

A little nostalgia from the days of Sesame Street. I had forgotten how cool and how well thought out the Pinball Number Count videos were. It has this psychedelic animation along with this pinball that just had you mesmerized as you watched it go through loops and ramps. Plus, I had forgotten how funky the music was. Here is a great blog post by Fong Songs about where you can find the song and all of its iterations. It is amazing how many people have used it and remixed it. For your enjoyment…

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Kloonigames

I came across Kloonigames a while back and something brought it to the front of my mind recently. Regardless, here is the reason this guy tries to make a new game every single month:

The point of this blog is I try to crank out an experimental game every month. I was inspired by Experimental Gameplay Project, so I try to follow their rules. Basically this means that every game I create I have to make within 7-day limit, they have to made by me alone and they have to test some new form of gameplay.

So what’s the point? Why waste your time on small freeware games when you could be creating some massive huge MMORPG game?

I have to ruthlessly borrow a segment from Ad Lib Game Development Society’s website, because they said it better than I could.

“We believe that, as game developers, there are many ways of improving our craft. Reading books, attending seminars, enrolling in university programs, enlisting the help of a mentor — all of these are worthwhile and can contribute to the breadth and depth of one’s game development skillset. In the end, however, there’s just no substitute for experience.”

So if a bunch of savvy industry veterans trust that rapid game development improves their craft I can do nothing but to agree and create a few more games.

I like the ideology and I like the results. It is almost like a monthly test you give yourself. Plus, the games can be very well thought out and aesthetically pleasing. They don’t always look like a quick study or something thrown together “because”. Crayon Physics is a good example. There are a couple screen shots below.

Basically, you try to get the red ball to touch the star using what is on the screen. Seems simple enough, but it is very complex. With all the other things I’m interested in the digital arena, I always wish I got involved early on with this interactive type of design. Although, you are never too old to learn some new tricks.

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Tinkering School

I came across the Tinkering School through this video on TED. The presentation is given by the head of the Tinkering School, Gever Tullery, and it is titled “5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do”. Just to let you know where he is coming from, and for the record, the “things” he talks about are play with fire, own a pocket knife, throw a spear, deconstruct appliance, break the digital millenium copyright act, and drive a car. The point of this lecture was that in this overly cautious and overly protective world, kids lose out. If parents are afraid to let their child do anything dangerous, how will they learn to be safe? For example, if students do not learn how to properly use a knife, what will they do when they are confronted with one? There are many simple rules to follow when using knives and the only way a student is going to learn what to do is by using them. Always cut away from you. Always be aware of where the blade is. Make sure the blade is sharp. I am doing a project right now with my 5th graders that requires them to use X-Acto blades. And while it is sometimes daunting to have 32 children using a knife simultaneously, it is skill that most of them have not learned. When are they going to learn it?

The other point of his presentation is subtle but important to point out. If you do not let kids experiment with things and try things out and see how things work, their creativity and curiosity is going to be stunted. Kids need to be able to explore and test things. Giving kids a safe, easy to understand toy that has a specific play pattern and is a one trick pony, might look nice under a Christmas tree, but will do nothing for a kids creativity. It seems that the Tinkering School recognizes that and uses it as their motto. This is from their site:

The Tinkering School offers an exploratory curriculum designed to help kids – ages 7 to 17 – learn how to build things. By providing a collaborative environment in which to explore basic and advanced building techniques and principles, we strive to create a school where we all learn by fooling around. All activities are hands-on, supervised, and at least partly improvisational.

Grand schemes, wild ideas, crazy notions, and intuitive leaps of imagination are, of course, encouraged and fertilized.

Too often, kids are not allowed to tinker and explore and if they do not learn to do that when they are young, they might never learn. It is not an easy skill to pick up.

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