The Voice Of Sue

The FishPod Finds a Home

thevoiceofsue — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:22:18 +0000

The FishPod has found a new home. After spending just four days at its last venue, the Otago Museum 1877 Gallery, it is now safely sitting in the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre at Portobello, Dunedin (NZ). If you missed it at the ScienceTeller Festival, and are in Dunedin (NZ) for the summer holidays, then head down to the Aquarium and visit.

Questions, questions?

thevoiceofsue — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:40:16 +0000

The last two days of CreateWorld involved intense content and in-depth conversations that left me with little time to devote to my blog. My mind is now brimming with new creative ventures and ideas. I have tried to write this post several times now and I find myself suffering from the ‘unedited verbal dribble’ that so many people complain is the failing of many blogs.

So, for now I shall pose some of the more provocative questions that intrigued me during CreateWorld.

What was your most memorable image of the 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre. Was it an image or a movie? Just how many photos do you take? What photos do you like? Can taking photos engage the viewer in the environment? Can a photographer become more socially aware by observing life and nature?
How do you feel about creative space? Does the space you are in change your creative process? Has a creative work you have recently viewed changed the way you have felt?
What do you think of digital music? Creating sound without a musical instrument, is it music? How can an arrangement of digital music and chanting change your mood?
Can iPad technology help with conservation? If so how?
We have all ventured into a digital game of some sort over the last few years. Even if it is only as a third party. What role can serious game playing have in teaching and learning?
Define Pedagogy. How can a free encyclopedia such as the Wikipedia help with free and accessible knowledge to the population?
How do universities involve past student work with new student work?
What do you think of science? Can it be incorporated with creative methods to provide and interactive framework for everyone?

That is enough questions for now. I have been conducting a subjective survey of what people think of blogs. Most have said that the blogs are just as I said above: ‘unedited verbal dribble’ and that they would like to see more links and images. So, I hope this post fills all those spots. For now, my short post is over.

Day 1 – CreateWorld 2011

thevoiceofsue — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 12:43:44 +0000

CreateWorld kicked off with a bang for me this morning with an introduction to an awesome piece of software called Quartz Composer. Scott Baker, performer for Abre Ojos, was our guide for the morning.

“Quartz Composer is a node-based visual programming language provided as part of the Xcode development environment in Mac OS X for processing and rendering graphical data”

The great thing about QC is that you do not need to write a single line of code! You do however need to get your head around 3D space and how your image will behave across the X, Y and Z pivot points. I will be posting more about this later, but for now watch the following YouTube clip to get a feel for what it can do.

Following the workshop we all headed over to the Registration table to pick up our ‘goodies’ and mingle over some yummy food. After lunch we had the official opening of CreateWorld 2011. Australian University Consortium (AUC) is a partnership between nine Australian Universities and Apple. So it was no surprise to see so many iPad, iPhone and MacBook Pro devices in one room. The point of this gathering is to learn, mingle and meld the digital creative world that Apple provides into the sea of interconnected beings. From the people I have met so far this is certainly the case. The professions I have encountered so far are: medical, film/photography, design and electronic publishers.

The first performance of the week, Tralala Blip, is a collective group of differently abled artists that use a range of digital media to make electronic music. I was not the only one in the crowd bopping along to the tunes they laid out for us.

After the buzz of the music wore off we headed to another room to hear Judit Klein talk about “Evolving tools, teaching and methods in technology enabled learning.” Then we had the first of our Keynote speakers, Tom Ang. Both talks were very interesting and their content/ideas will certainly turn up in future posts.

For now however, from an extremely warm, muggy, sticky Brisbane I bid you goodnight and retire so I may start a fresh for tomorrows talks.

Festivals & AUC, again!

thevoiceofsue — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:33:02 +0000

What a fantastic week it was. The ScienceTeller Festival was a week to remember. I got my display up and running finally on Wednesday morning at about 9:30am. The 1877 Gallery at the Otago Museum was a nice place to be, if a little out of the way for people to find. The talks were inspiring and informative. Jay O’Callahan took us to the stars with his performance of Forged In The Stars, a love story to NASA to celebrate 50 years of space exploration, and Lawrence Krauss ventured into quantum physics and dark matter. Both workshops from each of these storytelling celebrities were also fantastic.

Before the madness of the festival began I received the exciting news that I had won another scholarship from the Australian University Consortium (AUC) to attend the CreateWorld 2011 in Brisbane, Australia. My last trip with the AUC saw me in Sydney learning about Apps and the software used to build them. This time I get to learn more about using Digital Media in a creative way. My flight leaves at 5pm today, so this is the first of my posts about my time over there. I will post a daily reviewe of my time there.

However, for now, I must get to the airport. I will leave you with some images of my FishPod display. A special note goes out to iPadEnclosures.com, the enclosure they sent me worked a treat and it was a fantastic way to use an iPad and feel confident that it was safe and could be accessed easily. I used the Full Metal Jacket enclosure with the Figure 8 mounting system. Thank you Bryan for getting the whole thing to me on time.

Enjoy.

Full Steam Ahead

thevoiceofsue — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:31:43 +0000

With the ScienceTeller Festival kicking off next week it is all go for the students of the Centre for Science Communication. Here is how to catch the world premiere of our work.

November 16th, 10am, 1877 Gallery at the Otago Museum, Popularising Science Students:

Ocean of Wonders

Science is everywhere; in mechanics, in life, even in industry.

Take a dive with us to explore the mechanics of automata, the classification of life and the fisheries industry, all in just one combined display.

November 16th, 6:30pm, Regent Theater, in the Octagon, Science and Natural History Filmmaking Students:

This is always a fantastic evening. It has been known to sell out before screening so I suggest, if you can, rush out and orgainse the tickets now. This year seven fantastic films will be released for our enjoyment and education.

November 17th, 3:30pm, Castle Lecture Room Complex Breakout Room D, Popularising Science Student:

Let Andrew Sparrow help you explore the methods of science through a hands on workshop.

November 17th, 7pm, The Bog Irish Bar, Writing Students:

Soak up the atmosphere, have a drink or two and listen to readings from their freshly pressed books.

There is so much more to the ScienceTeller Festival so check out the Programme and join in.

Click To View

thevoiceofsue — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:05:33 +0000

Just a note about the podcast Fishing For The Future. You need to click on the link to watch it. The podcast is rather small in the window, however the words are clear, as is the sound. This is a trial run on how I will build my future podcasts so please leave comments. Good or Bad, I will take it all in. Promise.

Fishing For The Future – Podcast

thevoiceofsue — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:52:46 +0000

Fishing For The Future

Finally, here is the podcast! Click on the link above to watch it.The Quota Management System is a complicated entity. To the extent that it has a whole Ministry to manage it. Not to mention approximately 50 observersand their support staff to gather the information required to keep the information current.As they say, there is an exception to every rule. Some fish stocks contain more than one species. The flatfishfor example, and the arrow squid. Both these fisheries contain more than one of the species, but they occupy the same locality, have a similar distribution and so are managed as one stock.

The Total Allowable Catch (TAC) also allows for more than Recreational, Customary and Total Allowable Commercial Catch. Through statistical models, based on data provided by scientists, observers and fishers it also allows for environmental conditions that cause natural death rates. It also allows for ‘natural mortality’, that is, the concept that everything has a time and a season and all fish die eventually. The main draw card for fisheries management through the QMS is the ability for constant monitoring that can result in active management of fish stocks. If a fish stock is showing signs of over fishing, the Ministry has the ability to adjust the Total Allowable Catch, and in doing so the Total Allowable Commercial Catch.

The entire fishing industry is full of acronyms. I have tried to stick to the core ones that provide an overview, basically, of how the QMS came into existence and the how it is managed. There are many more, as I mentioned before. However, I hope this provides you with an overview. Enjoy

EEZ = Exclusive Economic Zone

QMS = Quota Management System

FMA = Fisheries Management Area

QMA = Quota Management Area

TAC = Total Allowable Catch

TACC = Total Allowable Commercial Catch

Organised Chaos

thevoiceofsue — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:10:48 +0000

Chaos has descended on me. Ok, well, I have been in a state of chaos for a few months now. The ScienceTeller Festival is fast approaching. This is where my fellow students and I have the opportunity to show our creative work from our Masters of Science Communication course.

For my part, I am generating several podcasts about NZ fisheries. They are not what you would call traditional podcasts. I am using a combination of images and music to tell tales about fisheries science in NZ. No spoken words used. My Quota Management System podcast is complete and I will be posting this VERY soon. I am just composing some words to go with it.

I have moved onto my next podcast about a very important part of fisheries science. That is, the Length Frequency (LF). A LF provides information about the health of the fish population. It uses the weight, length, and sex of the fish to determine the ‘health’ of the population. More details about this later.

As I sat down with a fresh piece of paper, GarageBand file and Keynote file I realised I was in trouble. The podcasts are 3-4min long and require some nice music to accompany them. Although GarageBand has an extensive collection of music, it has a limited number of up-beat, long music clips. So, I went in search of some Royalty Free music to purchase online. There is no such thing as a free lunch, or so we are told.

The music I found ranged from $29.99 (US) per clip to $79 (US) for a CD of 10 songs. I scrolled through several websites and found some nice music, but none that I was entirely taken with. That was until I found Kevin MacLeod. His website, incompetech.com, offers free music he has generated. Under the FAQ section, he answers all the questions about the use of his music. Basically, it is all free, although you a welcome to leave a donation.

He has used the Creative Commons License: “Title Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons “Attribution 3.0″ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/”.

This is a fantasitic website/resource. As Kevin mentions in his FAQ section: “If you hold tightly to your creative works, they become impossible to share. If your art isn’t experienced by people, it serves no purpose in society”. Now I have oodles of music to pick from! Thanks Kevin, your a star and a true artist!

New Zealand has its very own Creative Commons (CC) website, and here is a Vimeo clip about using CC in New Zealand. Enjoy.

Enough of the rambling now. I must carry on the good work, now I have music.

MFish App

thevoiceofsue — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:44:19 +0000

The Ministry of Fisheries has generated an App for Recreational Fishing.

Get recreational fish species information on the go with the Ministry of Fisheries Recreational Fishing App. The application helps you to identify recreational fish species common in your area through images, then displays relevant information such as the minimum legal size, maximum daily limits and area bag limits.

So splash to it and check it out.

thevoiceofsue’s photostream

thevoiceofsue — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 04:52:30 +0000

thevoiceofsue’s photostream on Flickr.

I have uploaded some of my photos taken in Sydney to my Flickr account. Enjoy.

Well that was interesting. I tried this from my Flickr account. It uploaded all the images plus some from the next photostream. Hmmmm, interesting.