maxelman.com

Yesterday was open studios here at UCSC, meaning that as as Art major, I’m just about done with this quarter. Rock. I’ve been working on two big projects - the photo series that I’ve already posted images from, and a computer-art piece that’s slightly hard to explain. I made a huge digital frame, hooked it up to flickr and skype, and made a slideshow of all images uploaded from cellphones. You then call in to this frame, control the images, and “vote” which one is your favorite. Sounds simple, but really took about a month and a half of coding. Maybe I’ll post what that all looks like just to scare some people.

The general lack of attention paid to this blog can pretty much be blamed on two art classes. As one of them results in something I can’t really put online, here’s some recent pictures from the other. planes! cars! ducks!

So, in an effort to replace the zope/plone craziness of kzsc.org, I’ve been looking into CMS alternatives. I know - exciting, right? It’s been a whole lot of uploading files, changing permissions and using the wonderful new tabbed terminal in Leopard. I’ve set up a few on this site so far, with only one looking like a real option. If anyone’s had any experience with any of these - let me know!

• wordpress (duh) - too blog based, but on the other hand, good for multiple blogs (μ - mu edition)
• drupral - also blog based
• expression engine - not very user friendly and a hell of a time to change skins
• joomla - the best for not-blogs so far and very easily skinnable
• plone - an actual up-to-date version that makes life better

So maybe joomla for kzsc.org - it’s a whole lot easier than plone, that’s for sure. But for this blog? Wordpress all the way.

On another note - anyone have any strong opinions on the Academy of Art? Specifically the School of Computer Arts: New Media? Because that’s looking like a nice place to head next.

As of today, I’m a double art/film digital media major. Awesome. Quite the ordeal, I have to say. College 8 was a bit of a punk about it, and the film department was just plain silly at times. All and all, the art department rocked, and was strangely efficient. Weird.

Definitely glad I’ll never have to do that again though. Unless I decide to minor in Molecular chemistry or something. Who knows.

next up, my final for art 119.
enjoy.