LookingOutwards-12 – Page 3 – [OLD FALL 2017] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

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*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).

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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.

Edan Kwan’s website

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.

Sonia Falcone’s website

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Bleep Space – iOS Sequencer Toy and Tabletop Arcade

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.

The Creatures of Prometheus – Generative visualisation of Beethoven’s ballet with Houdini

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.

Looking Outwards 12 – Yugyeong Lee

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For my final project, I am interested in creating something generative, and perhaps includes some elements of user interaction. With that in mind I looked at the work “Black or White or More or Less” by Lia, and the project “Messa Di Voce” by Zachary Lieberman, and others. The first project I looked at, is one in which cascades of sliding line segments alternately hide and reveal black and white surfaces, opening and closing apertures into spaces that expand through and behind the virtual canvas in a mesmerizing, infinitely varying interplay of dark and light. Lia’s project is generative in nature but allows for the immersion of the user into the space beyond the canvas. Lieberman’s project is very much interactive because it requires the sound generated by the user; transforming every vocal nuance into a subtly differentiated highly expressive graphic. The audiovisual performance is one that creates a cycle of interaction that fully integrates the performers into an ambiance consisting of sound, virtual objects, and real-time processing.

I admire both projects for the way they created an immersive environment, but in two completely different ways. While Lieberman’s project takes a more direct approach by utilizing the user, Lia’s work indirectly accomplishes this by allowing the viewer to get lost in the work due to the shifting spatial perception caused by the play between dark and light.

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“Swipe Brick Breaker” by Monthly 23 (Yoonsup Choi)

In research for my precursor project, I decided to compare different app games that have been popular among my friends. First game, Swipe Brick Breaker is a simple and very addictive game that I recently fell in love. Swipe Brick Breaker is a mobile app game developed by Monthly 23. Monthly23(Yoonsup Choi) is independent one man developer who release game every month. He makes addictive minimalist game for all ages. I like how he creates interesting game with simple geometry and simple rules. The rule for this game is simply swipe to shoot balls to break bricks. When the ball hits the brick, durability is reduced. When durability reduce to 0, brick breaks. You should get the green circle to increase the number(power) of balls. When the bricks reach the bottom line, game is over.

link to appstore for brick breaker

“Ready Steady Bang” by The Cowboy

Second game that I looked into is “Ready Steady Bang” by The Cowboy Games limited. Ready Steady Bang is a simple shooter game, perfect for gamers who love the minimalist approach.This black and white cartoon-like dueling game has players tap their side of the screen as soon as the countdown is finished. The twist? The “bang” happens at random intervals, meaning you have to wait to hear it before you can pull the trigger. This game relies on pure speed and reflexes and is perfect to play with a friend. Although, it does have a single-player mode that increases difficulty as you progress further.

link to ready steady bang

Key part I like the most about the first game is calculating reflection angle with the bouncing wall. Second game is interesting because it requires perfect timing when the shooting is required. I like how both of them take minimalist approach to its design and operation. I also like how they rely on simple “tapping” or “pressing” instead of complex control keys or mouse control. For my final project I want to combine two project to create minimalist shooting game. I initially took a idea of shooting and aiming method from the ready steady bang. Like brick breaker game, I want to create a game that people have to aim precisely at target object and calculate the reflection angle with the edges of the canvas to make a shoot.

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“On Feeling Melancholy” by the YouTube channel, the School of Life, is a video and animation (done in collaboration by animators Hannah Jacobs and Lara Lee) that I absolutely love and appreciate. This video struck me when I first saw it, and though I can go into a longer discussion about its contents and themes, I’ll focus on the music, sound, and art for this post.

“THE ARROW” by Emilio Yebra, an animator from Valencia based in Edinburgh, is also a great example of something I would love to implement into my final project. I love the rhythm of the music and sound effects and how it is quick, smooth, and matches the visuals.

I find that both of these projects are great examples of rich feeling and substance, particularly because of the way sound and visuals combine to strike the viewer or listener with feeling. I would love to create something along these lines in my final project, in that I give someone a unique feeling by stirring their senses.

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Toca Boca and Stack!

In my search for precursor projects to our final project, I decided to research different apps. From my search, I found an app created by Toca Boca (https://tocaboca.com/about/) called Toca Life and Stack! created by Ketchapp. Because our project is going to be more of a cause and effect based project, I found that the apps that I found followed very closely to the goals that we initially wanted.

Below is an introductory video that gives you a feel of what kinds of products Toca Boca makes.

The apps that Toca Boca creates cater more to younger children and letting them interact with a virtual world while also simultaneously teaching them lessons in a more fun and dynamic way. The apps are simple enough for young children to use while also visually appealing.

The next app, Stack! helps as a precursor because in our final project, we wanted to implement a game where particles are being dropped from the top of the canvas onto a platform in the lower part of the canvas. This app encompasses exactly that as it has blocks that fall from the top of the screen onto a separate canvas. However, where the goal in this app is to stack the blocks as high as possible, the goal in our project’s game will be to gather different types of ingredients for a new recipe that the character makes.

iPhone Screenshot 1 — screenshot of the app in play

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My final project will mostly be focusing on animation, so my primary focus for this weeks looking outwards was aesthetic inspiration, as well as interesting ways of generating animations.

So, while doing research, my largest aesthetic inspiration came from the game Limbo, created by the video game studio Playdead in 2010.

Limbo is characterized by this sort of disturbing, nightmare-scape. I’d like to incorporate this same beautiful, nightmare mood into my own work.

I think what I admire most about Limbo is its capability to create something so disturbing, but so breathtakingly beautiful at the same time.

After that, I was trying to think of the animation from a coding sense. That’s when I stumbled upon L-systems, actually mentioned in another student’s looking outwards from a few weeks ago. After some initial research, the subject sounded super interesting, and I went looking for artists using L-systems in their animations.

William Chyr came up pretty fast when I googled L-systems, and his work seemed to adequately demonstrate to me the potential of L-systems in regards to visual aesthetic.

A program using L-systems to generate a plant-like image

The above image is probably the simplest of Chyr’s pieces, but also really concisely describes the visuals of L-systems. What interested me more than just his still images, though, were the animations that developed over time.

I think that seeing the program rapidly increase in complexity to form a full image is much more impactful or interesting. It captures the viewers wonder, as he or she watches a line begin to split and branch out without any idea of what the final shape will be.

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Looking-outwards 12 Thomas Wrabetz

The book

This is a generative book by allison parrish. The book is entirely randomized, although the sentences are put together so that they follow each other in a valid manner. I personally don’t think it makes much sense, but it is still an interestinggt precursor, demonstrating both the potentialities and the drawbacks/difficulties of text mashing.