Video Brainstorming

We got our third assignment for ART 74 on Monday--we're to get into small groups (done) and make a 2-4 minute movie with the the general theme of technology gone wrong.

My group decided we'd all spend a day or two making list of things that we thought would be interesting and doing a bit of research on our favorites. We're all going to post our research links on our blogs so we can easily show them to each other in class today. Hopefully we'll be able to narrow down our focus and pick a topic.....

The three things that I think are most interesting as possible video topics (trying to keep in mind the actual feasibility of filming said ideas) are:

Nanotechnology, as applied to medicine--the idea of tiny little machines running around inside of our bloodstreams has so many possibilities, some wonderful and some horrible. It is a field that is being actively researched and developed--ittty bitty robots altering our bodies may not be that far off in the future.

One of the things I found was speculating about nanotech being used to rewrite DNA and reverse aging--sounds impossible, but could make for a great tech gone wrong video....

Anyhow, here are a couple of started links regarding the subject:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7288426.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3920685.stm

And a really long link to a google book that I'll shorten by doing this.

Next up on my list is robots/androids--human looking and acting machines. Japan has been doing a lot of work in this field with some amazing results. I think it would make a good video because people can be used as our props and there is a whole lot to explore--benefits, dangers, ethics, etc.

Here are my robot links:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,279383,00.html

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.bbd53bd17a5713678ea8bea533d92910.1bc1&show_article=1

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/robotics/2008-03-01-robots_N.htm

http://paro.jp/english/index.html

Definitely watch these two videos of the robot baby:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE2VCwYDjx0

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

Lastly, I love the idea of the everyday stuff that we surround ourselves with getting a little bit more complicated and developing personalities of their own. I mean who doesn't argue with their computer, yell at their microwave, curse at their VCR, etc.? Now what if they talked back? Wouln't that be fun to watch?

I had been thinking it would be fun to do a scene in which a toaster was arguing with its human--turns out it has already been done (and in a Red Dwarf episode I've somehow never seen too!). But this is exactly the sort of thing I was thinking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZslRQvv5zM

http://www.the4cs.com/~corin/cse477/toaster/FAQ.shtml

Right, that's all for now folks,

--The Wombat