Both of the pieces are a form of digital paintings or visual generations. What I admire about them is the interactive input in creating a cohesive piece. I am not aware of the algorithms used or the input audience members were allowed to share in forming the interaction, but a subject I think was overlooked was the physicality of these pieces and their linkage to audience members. I think if the interaction was an important part, the documentation of the interaction is also pivotal in display, otherwise it seems like another painting.
For my final project, I would like to create some data visualizations of the running routes I do in Pittsburgh. These visualizations would be algorithmic drawings documented as a running diary of my daily or weekly runs. What I normally do not notice on a run are the larger gestures I make and the shapes, speed rates, and heart rate variations accompanying the larger gesture of a route. Mapping out these routes, and creating algorithmic drawings from the resulting shapes would not only visualize the “gestures” I am constantly making but unaware of, but also document trends on the routes which can affect my running and the way we look at a route retrospectively. I would be using turtle functions to follow the path, and arrays and for loops to create algorithmic patterns/visuals for a more appealing visualization of how I felt that day.
*fyi: there are 3 inspiring projects listed here, and I felt each one of them was important to explaining my inspiration and because of that I couldn’t exclude one of them, so here they are…
Inspiration Project 1 Awkward Dimensions Redux:
Awkward dimensions Redux is a game available on steam as of October 21st,2016, meant for computers. It is a game that explores dreams and their ever-confusing, ever-scattered logic (or lack thereof) but convincing and astoundingly real-feeling qualities. It capitalizes on the unpredictability, perplexing, and looping qualities that all dreams seem to retain. The game itself is made by a Denver based high school student in college, Steven Harmon, who’s studies focus on psychology and theater (both of which shine through in the actual game). The game itself relies heavily on metaphors to make points and many of the functions from dreamscape to dreamscape are representative of this. For example The interactions are limited to walking, jumping, inspecting, picking up stuff, and solving some small puzzles. But, the amount that one can interact or the amount of control they have varies from scene to scene, and on occasion they have no control at all.
Awkward Dimensions Redux October 21st, 2016
Here’s a link to a video for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gQr39Pmx5E
Inspiration Project 2 That Dragon, Cancer
That Dragon, Cancer is a game dedicated to and based on a true story which revolves around the lives of a couple and their newborn child. Their son was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at only 12 months old leaving him partially blind, and unable to speak. The game documents his struggle and fight with cancer as well as the emotional ups and downs for the parents during they time they had with Joel (the son), before he died. Through a mixture of first and third person perspective you are led through an extremely touching, but heartbreaking narrative and are invited to slow down for a moment to immerse yourself in the intimate narrative of another person’s life. There is an ambiguity maintained throughout the game as to who you are, leaving a hefty amount of room for interpretation and allegory. There is also a distance maintained between you and the characters in the way they are visually represented – blockish, with very few details across faces, however – regardless the story and the game play pull you in – it absorbs you and becomes you in the sense that you start to experience what Joel’s parents went through as though you yourself are going through it. There’s not a lot that can be said about it that matches how it feels to play, so I suggest if you really want to understand the game that you play it and experience it for yourself.
Embedded video:
Inspiration Project 3 The Game: The Game
Angela Washko’s installation/game is unusual in both what it represents, and how it plays. It was first exhibited August, 2016 and is a continuation of a series called ‘BANGED’ done by the artist revolving around her interactions with player/pick-up artist/overall misogynist, manosphere figurehead, Roosh V. This game is not about him, but about exposing and discussing the practices used by several prominent pick-up artists (or seduction coaches as they like to be known as). In the game the player is a character to undergoes interactions with each of the coaches (all of whom are trying to bust a move on the player), in a dialogue-based format similar to a lot of dating sims. The coaches are all trying to seduce the player using the techniques and practices mentioned in their respective instructional guides and video materials. This allows for a fascinating conversation to take place on the social construction of dating and the experience of being a woman and exploring this confusing and often uncomfortable terrain.
Link to a video of the artist speaking about her work and the background behind it (videos of the actual piece are in this): https://vimeo.com/225466353
Comparison:
Each of these games have something big in common: they all address pressing issues or big themes with a relative subtlety or creative sensitivity, in very different ways. I think that is what I admire most about them – how they take something touchy, hurtful, or confusing – and then couple our experience with them and comfort/capabilities for idea-intimacy in gaming. The way that each of the games do it is so different as well, which is be-fitting considering they are each discussing very different concepts. Overall I hope to draw a lot from each of the projects that I mentioned and that I am able to communicate that same level of intimacy with my ideas allowing the player to become emotionally invested or even just sympathetic to what occurs in the game or what happens to the character. I hope to also be able to accurately match certain ideas or concepts regarding things just through the gameplay and format/construction of the ways the game can be played. In all honesty, I’m not sure that any of the games missed out on opportunities – they each seemed to hit the nail on the head in how effectively they were able to get players to really let go and become attached to the events transpiring (particularly That Dragon, Cancer).
My proposal for my final project would be a map that tracks where my siblings, parents and I have visited, all over the world. I would have a world map that’s has different colored dots(at least 3 colors), correlating to which family member it is, with lines connecting to where we each individually lived(home) at the time. I love tracking data especially when it has to do with maps/geography. I definitely want to add an element of interaction, not quite sure what yet. Perhaps when a certain button or the mouse is pressed, it will highlight one of the subject’s path. Overall, the point of this project would be data display that tracks where the members of my family have been/visited.
For the final project, I’m going to collaborate with classmate Jiaxin. We are going to create a media art interactive installation, using projection and Makey Makeys. Makey Makeys will be used as input devices, and the projection will project the content created by P5.js. For this media art installation, we are going to create a serious of music visualization animations responding to the input signals from Makey Makeys. The animations will change along with the melody when people interact with the input devices. At the beginning of this installation, there will be a basic melody for people to follow. When people try to use the Makey Makey, they can add new melodies to the existed music, also change the animations displaying on the projection screen.
Music can be fun
I’m planning to create interactive media art with projection for my final project. For this, I’ve researched some interactive media art with jiaxin, my collaborator for this project, to get some inspiration. One is ‘Music can be fun’. This is interactive website using music to create visual and interactivity. I really liked the way he created visual for music. He’s creative technologist from UK. He also creates other arts with music visualization. You can check he’s astonishing art works at his website down below.
The other project that I found for my project is this.
Sonia falcone is a female artist using various types of fabrication and media. Interesting thing about this installation art is that she used not just flat square screen to project the image. She used different small dimensions to make this visuals much more interesting. I got the idea of using projection from this work. It overwhelms people when the art becomes bigger scale. I love the feeling of overwhelmed by atmosphere art created. Right side of Video Installation-2010 Sonia Falcone’s website
As a kid, I always loved playing pixel mini games. These games included a winning and losing situations, where players would try to get the highest scores they can. I want to implement a similar game that takes place underwater. Taking on the classic “grow your fish” games, the fish character would attempt to eat smaller fish while avoiding the sharks.
Possible Pixel Sketch
The players would be able to interact by controlling where the position of the fish are. As the game continues on, the rate the shark characters come out would increase as well as the speed of how fast the fish and sharks swim, making the game more challenging.
Bleep Space is an iOS Sequencer Toy and arcade created by Andy Wallace & Dan Friel that uses geometric graphics that produce music and sound. The inspiration for this public installation came when Andy enjoyed playing with his friend’s KORG synthesizer. The game was written on OpenFrameworks and the arcade version of this game is nearly identical to its online PC release counterpart. People can create something that is not only auditorily pleasing but also visually pleasing as well.
Another project is called The Creatures of Prometheus, created by Simon Russell. The piece is an orchestra of animated figures that move, change color, and play music using a MIDI file on the program Houdini, a software made to program and run all the figures. An interesting quote from Russell himself is when he said “Usually I’d hand animate every last detail but this one is essentially generative”. This quote really relates to my proposed project.
Both projects involve sound and visual graphics, however the Bleep Space game is more of a videogame that requires people to interact and play with as The Creatures of Prometheus is a program that automatically takes MIDI music and converts it into animation.
I see both projects very relevant to my proposed project. I proposed to make an animation software that is easy to use yet very generative and unpredictable. I want my project to be just as fun to use like the Bleep Space game and also very artsy, generative, and automated just like The Creatures of Prometheus program.
For the final project, I and my classmate Bettina collaborate to make generative greeting cards. Each of us will create a few different visual styles of cards (This will be the way we split up the work). Even if there are different styles and approaches, we are mainly focusing on creating typography with the techniques that we learned in the class so far. These are some approaches/styles that I am considering:
Creating custom typefaces with geometric elements.
Creating type with depicting pixels with lines, circle or any simple graphic elements. I used this approaches in my previous project
Creating a graphic pattern.
In addition, I am considering that make data visualization approach with this card generator. For example, based on who is receiving this card, what is the purpose, what is the relationship between sender and receiver or etc, visual elements could be differentiated. I think some parameters should be clarified.
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