LookingOutwards-08 – Page 4 – [OLD FALL 2017] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

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Theo Watson and Emily Gobeille talk about their projects at the 2012 Eyeo Festival

On today’s edition of “Looking Outwards with Michael Miller,” we will be exploring the life and habits of artist, programmer, and designer Theo Watson. Born in London, Theo studied Design and Technology at the Parsons School of Design, and has since founded Design I/O and YesYesNo, among doing other cool things. Theo works on interactive experiences that encourage play, so kinda like games, but generally on a larger scale such as creating digital environments in physical spaces that give open-ended opportunities for people to interact with the space, such as he did with Night Bright and Funky Forest. One of his focuses in development is rapid prototype creation — making proofs of concept that allow people he’s working with to visualize what it is he wants to do — and I think this is an admirable strategy for project work because it turns abstract concepts into concrete creations which can then be more readily shared and analyzed. In presenting, he uses a bunch of images and videos of the creation process of his projects, and I feel that this is effective in engaging the audience because it gives them a window of insight into how he works.

(Note, most of this post can also be applied to Emily Gobeille as she also worked on these projects, but I just did more specific research on Theo. I’m just trying to be clear that Theo didn’t work alone on all of these)

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Ben Rubin is a media artist currently based in New York City. He received a B.A. from Brown University and an M.S. afterwards from the MIT Media Lab. His artwork is displayed all around the world including the San Jose Museum of Art, the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris. One of his most recent creations is the Shakespeare Machine for the Public Theater in New York which displays text on a chandeliered of quotes and adjectives Shakespeare wrote. Currently, he is a professor at the Bard MFA program and at the Yale School of Art.

Mr. Rubin gave a talk at the EYEO Festival in 2013 about his projects and inspiration. He began his talk by speaking about the importance of words and language in our society. He believes language is able to “write, transmit, interpret, regard, understand, perform, analyze, receive, and read,” and he desires these attributes in his artwork. This is why the major majority of his works all feature words. His first major project was inspired by the first text display ever in New York City. He implemented the conveyor belt design of horizontal words on an elevator shaft. This work would read the recent books checkout in a library, but would only show the word as the elevator was moving.

Another project he spoke about was the time when he worked closely with Steve Reich, one of the most innovative and well know of the living contemporary composers. Together, they made a program that translated works into syllabic rhythms that can be given to percussionists to perform. Steve Reich then added music on top of this to create a vocal composition accompanied by percussion that emulated the speech in drums. It is amazing how words can be so impactful in artwork, very similar to many of the beliefs of choral music that tells a story with words and music instead of just the notes. This is in correlation with artwork as he utilizes words and art to evoke a much deeper emotion than when they are separate.

http://eyeofestival.com/2013/speaker/ben-rubin/

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I watched the video of Frieder Nake, a German mathematician, computer scientist, and pioneer of computer art. He is internationally famous for his contributions to the earliest manifestations of algorithmic and generative art. In 1963, he began his first artistic experiments with the drawing machine of Konrad Zuse, at the Technical University of Stuttgart where he studied mathematics. The reason why I thought his lecture was interesting and worth watching was first of all, he set a significant cornerstone for computer art, trying out new things in the field yet unexplored. What he has done was so innovative and creative for the time period, and what we are doing in this class right now might not be the same if he hadn’t try out new things himself.He talks through his encounter with early generative art, what he had to go through as a pioneer of the field. Through presenting some anecdotes from of his life, he tries to demonstrate how algorithmic art requires algorithmic thinking, and how computer graphics is the origin of digital media. His lecture help us understand more in depth about the thought process of the people who initiated these practices, in a different language other than actual code. Listening to the talk by somebody who made his way through an unpaved path helped me make more sense of algorithms used in generative art.

What I really liked about his art, I think, came mostly from its originality. Of course, art is original in nature, but for his work, he did not have anything to make reference from. His works are truly experimental from all aspects. I attached one of his works that I liked below. Not only that I enjoy the visual composition or the color of the piece, but because I learned from the video about how he appreciates the whole process of generative art and algorithm, it gives the piece more meaning and life.

I wasn’t able to find his website anywhere online.

Eyeo 2014 – Frieder Nake from Eyeo Festival // INSTINT on Vimeo.

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Events in Space Time – Jesse Louis-Rosenburg & Jessica Rosenkrantz (Eyeo 2015)

Talk: https://vimeo.com/channels/eyeo2015/133709845

Jesse Louis-Rosenburg and Jessica Rosenkrantz are part of Nervous System, a generative design studio that works at the intersection of science, art, and technology. Jesse has a background in math and computer science, while Jessica in biology and architecture. In their projects, they are interested in focusing on three main areas of research: science and nature, digital fabrication, and co-creation. They start all of their projects by studying natural phenomena, and translate them into one of a kind products by using design tools, algorithms, and technological systems (essentially digital fabrication) that they create to represent those natural phenomena.

Floraform from Nervous System on Vimeo.

It’s interesting how they are using digital fabrication to find new ways of translating nature and biology into different kinds of products. One project that interested me the most is Floraform. In this project,they delve into how biological systems create form by varying growth rates through space and time, hence the title of their talk. They then created algorithms and mechanisms that created a simulation of differentially growing elastic surfaces that represented these differential growths. These experiments were then used to create 3D sculptures and wearable products. What interested me about this project was how they took a natural phenomenon and created their own algorithms to translate them into physical objects.

Simulation that follows the natural phenomenon

Wearable product created from the simulation

Throughout the talk, they used pictures, videos, simulations, and other different types of visualization to present their works in their presentations. I believe this is the most effective way to show their work, which are mostly composed of computer generated products. This makes me realize that there are many different ways of showing not just your end product but also your process of designing that product as well.

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Jake Barton, an American designer based in New York, works a lot with interactive design and focuses on trying to combine technology and emotion to create new things. In this video, Barton talks a lot about creativity and the ways that make it feel like the experience of falling in love. I love how the way Barton tries to create creative and interesting interactive designs and how he is interested about connecting technology and creativity. One of his past projects, which was the Big Heart NYC Project, was an interactive installation that involved a giant cube made of transparent tubes and LED lights. This heart reacts to affection and touch and converts the energy from it into light in the heart. Barton tells us that “appealing to emotions itself can build something big; interactions don’t have to be complicated to make a specific human moment and to make something satisfying.” I love and admire the way he talks about his works and the way he tries to approach every idea he has. Creativity can be fickle and hard to deal with sometimes but in the end, it is also incredibly beautiful and exhilarating to have.

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(Jake Barton, “Like Falling In Love”, 2012)

Link to Barton’s website: https://localprojects.net/

Jake Barton is an American designer who is also the founder of the company “Local Projects.” To introduce his educational background, Barton got a Bachelor in Science of Speech at Northwestern University and studied at New York University for his M.P.S. Interactive Telecommunications. He then recruited a media design team to launch his company.

Local projects is a media and physical design company that invents and build upon new media form to help customers connect with algorithms and up to date technology. Barton mainly focuses on making products that explores the relationship between technology and emotions that are most of the times derived from customers.

One of Barton’s most admirable work is the media of the 9/11 museum in New York City. This piece was created through a custom algorithm that reproduced clips of video, text and audio of that tragic day. Although the contents could have been sensitive, I felt that Barton’s approach to this tragedy was smart. His approach was indirect and subtle enough to not upset those who were victimized, but also strong enough to get the message across. His balance and approach was ideal.

Barton’s usage of pictures and examples of his algorithmic products makes the talk more engaging. It definitely catches attention of the viewers and also makes his words more understandable. Also the interaction with the viewers by asking questions was smart.

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Heather Knight is a student who is currently conducting her doctoral research at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute and running Marilyn Monrobot Labs in NYC, which creates socially intelligent robot performances and sensor-based electronic art. She earned her bachelor and masters degrees at MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and has a minor in Mechanical Engineering. I’m inspired by her work because she creates robots that interact with human and also use robotic intelligence to create performances that are interesting.

Footnote on the Video: Heather Knight’s Ted talks with the Marilyn Monrobot which creates socially intelligent robot performances and sensor-based electronic art.

Her work also includes: robotics and instrumentation at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, interactive installations with Syyn Labs, field applications and sensor design at Aldebaran Robotics, and she is an alumnus from the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab.

When she talks she talks very fluently and it was nice to see the actual robot interacting with the audience. I find that very powerful and a good way to present.

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James George is a media artist and programmer who generate films, interactive installations, and software products advancing the art of the moving image. He created a new medium for cinematic expression through incorporating codes to bring volume to his films. In his presentation at Eyebeam Art + Technology, he talks about photography. In times where “ten percent of all photos were taken in the last twelve months,” he explores what that would mean for photographers in terms of their contribution to the data base. This leads to fascination with humans in digital space. One of the projects that reflects that interest was Depth Editor Debug which depicts fragments of candid photographs placed into a three dimensional space. By utilizing data from video game controller in combination with custom software, this project captures unique data from a depth-sensing camera and visualize people existing in their natural way in the virtual environment. Now the project has been developed to create films with the same concept and allow users to visualize data online. James George is admirable in the way he visualize and transform a typical photograph into an interactive form represented in physical space reflects his inquiry on humans in digital space. He also presented in a step by step process that brings the viewers to engage with the topic through the use of quotes and examples that reflect the purpose of these projects.

lecture: https://vimeo.com/channels/eyeo2015/134973504

website: http://jamesgeorge.org/

photographs of Depth Editor Debug project

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“Eyeo 2015 Meejin Yoon” from Eyeo Festival //INSTINT

Meejin Yoon is Korean American Architect who graduated from Cornell University and received her Master in Urban Design from Harvard University. She effectively integrated responsive technologies and architecture to create interactive environment and public spaces.

“Hover” in New Orleans by Meejin Yoon-interactive lighting installation

One of her projects, “Hover”, shows a nice combination of her interest in responsive technology and interactive environment. Hover is a temporary canopy fir the DesCours festival. It is a luminous canopy that has both LEDs and “photovoltaic” cells that power them. She took inspiration from human body cell to create this interactive installation. The installation reacts to the surrounding environment, emitting more light on sunny days and less on cloudy days.

How she used the material and how the material or system reacts to its surrounding is very inspiring. Everything she creates and every material she uses is very intentional as aesthetic as well as systematic. And the result of the practicality of materials, space, and interactive potential created a public installation that interacts with the viewers.

link to hover

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https://www.sandsfish.com/skullwhispering/

For this week’s Looking Outwards, I chose to study the work of Sands Fish who is currently researching at a MIT Media Lab’s Civic Media Group. He introduces himself as both an artist and a researcher whose interests lie in the field of computer science and design. I thought his works would be interesting to investigate because his works lie closely to the environment of CMU where I’m studying design. I thought it would be interesting to learn about his works and try to identify with some of the design practices I am learning and doing here in CMU.

For his Eyeo 2017 lecture, he focused on “Building Parallel Realities”. Sands Fish specifically focused on futures and how speculative designs can contribute to ” shift us into another reality via objects and devices that aren’t born of the status quo, or of our own time or place”. Mainly, his lecture focuses on the ways to integrate individuals from different backgrounds into one. In this talk, Sands explores how, using design, art, and media, we can embody ideas and worlds in objects, and look critically at our assumptions about how our world has to be. He details his work at the MIT Media Lab building provocative police futures to question who participates in this design space, and how we might create more humane alternatives.