Interactive Media 1 begins with a formal introduction to programming for interactive environments.

It provides a necessary foundation for future studies in Interactive Multimedia and Web Design courses. This course continues with an investigation of essential interactive concepts such as: user engagement, non-linear structure and narrative, information architecture, navigation and orchestration of multiple media.

In-class sessions aimed to provide a fundamental understanding of programming, internet technlogogies, audio, video, and creative technical solutions :

Nonlinear Narratives using Macromedia Director

Animation, Trignometry Basics, and RSS Feeds tied together with Apple Quartz Composer

iTunes Visualizers extended by Quartz Composer

Students finished the class with an an intro to Adobe After Effects and an open project, expanding on the assignments carried out earlier in the semester.

Packaged demos and class notes of past are now archived at http://faculty.mcad.edu/~pwenzel/interactive.

The left-hand navigation allows visitors to browse and sort all 771 artists by their chosen medium. This is driven using the Adobe Spry XML Framework.

Work from the Walker’s collection fades in, linked via artist list on the left:

Financials outlined in the Annual Report:

[ Videos and Quartz Patches To Be Posted Soon ]

“In Nothing (Nowhere) to Hide, the Revolutionary Party addresses issues of privacy, fear, surveillance regulation, and the individual’s right to know in an interactive installation that offers participants the chance to create their own FBI file, view documentation on the process of requesting files, and experience the frustrating aspects of seeking classified or reclassified information.”

To address these issues, we presented:

• A video explaining the steps necessary to make an FOIA request
• A web-based form and print center for generating your own FOIA request
• Posters showing historical documents that have been re-classified by the US Government.

See a brief video demonstration showing the installation space. (Courtesy of collaborator Beth Van Dam).

This installation was on display at the Walker Art Center in the Target Gallery in June, 2006.

“The warhol workshop also featured a phone blog, allowing students in the class to call in and report their research for the duration of the class. The phone number is no longer active, but you can see the blog at warhol.therevolutionaryparty.org.”

More details about this workshop are available on the RP website.

[ Videos, Quartz Patches, and Audio Samples To Be Posted Soon ]

This was a project with Co-Op Media.

[ Videos and Max/MSP+Quartz Patches To Be Posted Soon ]

An Icecast daemon provided the MP3 and OGG streaming interface for online listeners.

Shown below, all the elements that tie it together:

Radio.mcad.edu live feed lets you know what’s currently playing:

The Webcalendar interface schedules playlists from Radio MCAD’s iTunes library to play at specific times. Most playlists are arranged in 30, 60, or 120 minute increments. A cron job and some PHP shell scripts trigger SAM Broadcaster’s playback.

Audio playback is executed by SAM Broadcaster, pulling audio over the network from the iTunes Library server. It’s important to know that iTunes does not actually play audio over the broadcast. SAM allows us to crossfade between pre-recorded sets and live streams, even allowing for in-studio preview. This ran on a donated 1GHz Windows box.

The iTunes Libary where all the media is properly tagged and organized. This ran on an older 400MHz G4 tower with a 250GB backup drive. We chose to use iTunes for its simplicity, XML interface, and accessibly to student volunteers. Plus, it was free.

We used Nicecast and a powerbook to send live source audio to the SAM Broadcaster server back in the studio. We always referred to this handy helper as “Radio Friend”. Stations with a budget would use a studio-transmitter-link, but we used 802.11b and MP3.

The live event, streamed over wi-fi to the entire world! Woo hoo!

Utilizing custom software and MIDI gear, the show presented visuals that changed in real time with live audio input from the stage. It was produced with Cycling ‘74 Max/MSP and Apple’s Quartz Composer.

[ Video Documentation and Patches To Be Posted Soon ]

To make life easy for volunteers, radio.mcad.edu uses Wordpress for content management. No HTML knowledge is necessary for volunteers to post meeting notes, create pages, or formulate announcements. RSS feeds keep savvy users on top of what’s news. iCal calendar integration was set up for easy meeting scheduling. A web-based mailing list system was also included.

A live description feed pulled data from our custom Broadcast Automator.

The Radio MCAD front page:

A simple Radio MCAD news update:

Radio MCAD’s simple content management tool in action:

“Interested in radio but not sure how to get involved? In this class you will get hands-on experience becoming part of the Radio MCAD project. The broadcast media process will be analyzed from several angles: management, marketing, programming, technical logistics, FM/AM/internet streaming, and creative concepting.

“Consideration will also be given to what the artistic applications of a radio station might be. Students will be required to create one radio show (individually or collaboratively) as well as complete two smaller projects, one technically focused, and one conceptual.”

This course ran for several semesters and was instructed by myself and Mark Fox.

Radio MCAD has since retired has since transformed into Podcast Workshop, also maintained by Mr. Fox.

Head-bobbers gathered at a Radio MCAD sponsored show, organized by MCAD student volunteers.

An in-class diagram giving a sloppy overview of our broadcast system.

Beth Van Dam hanging out in the broadcast studio, attached to the classroom.

Nicecast streaming a Radio MCAD event.

The event streamed over 802.11b to the entire world!