LookingOutwards-12 – Page 5 – [OLD FALL 2017] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

yushano_Looking Outwards 12

http://www.creativeapplications.net/js/norman-webvr-tool-to-create-frame-by-frame-animations-in-3d/

Created by James Paterson, Norman is an open-source WebVR tool to create frame-by-frame animations in 3D. Drawing inspiration and building on the work from Rhonda (2004/05), James turned to WebVR to build the tool in Javascript that runs in a web browser and lets him animate naturally in 3D using VR controllers.

http://www.creativeapplications.net/c/block-bills-64-banknotes-generated-from-the-bitcoin-blockchain/

Created by Matthias Dörfelt, ‘Block Bills’ is a series of 64 banknotes generated from the Bitcoin Blockchain. Each banknote represents one block in the chain and the whole series consist of 64 consecutive blocks starting at block

I was attracted by these two work at the first sight. For the first one, I like it because I think using coding to do animation is very interesting and it is something that I have wanted to do for a long time. The animation is interactive for audience because it is not static. Also, the storyline also attracts the audience. It even uses VR to interact with the audience, which makes it more interactive. For the second work, the quality of the design impressed me. I like the design for just a bill using coding. I like how the author uses simple coding to generate or compose a such abstract design of a bill. This work is very aesthetic, but I think it can be more interactive. I know it is a design for bill, which is static, but it will be fun if it is an animation.

jiheek1 (Section D)–LookingOutwards-12-Project Priors and Precursors

I imagine combining Victor Doval’s concept of translating data visually (project 1) and the more game-related aspects and graphical elements of Monument Valley (project 2) in my project.

project 1:

Howler Monkey by Meier & Erdmann from Víctor Doval on Vimeo.

This project is a music video for an electronic music “Howler Monkey” by a German duo called Meier & Erdmann. The author of the project is Victor Doval, a visual artist. He created the music video in 2017 with an algorithm that converts frequencies into visual elements like peaks and flowers that ultimately generate a landscape! During the span of the music, the landscape progresses from day to night. Data from the source song is converted to different shapes and textures. I intend to use the concept of creating dynamic depictions of data in the background of my project(which is a game). I wish for my canvas to respond/react to certain data(such as points) and show that in a visually enticing way.

For more information: an article that covers project & official project page

Project 2:

Monument Valley – Behind the Scenes from ustwo on Vimeo.

Monument Valley 2 by ustwo Games (2014) is a game about the exploration of a mother and a daughter through an impossible world from which the players could experience ever-changing landscapes and the relationship between a parent and a child. What I admire about this project and could possibly integrate into my project are aspects such as the ever-changing landscape with an element of surprise (similar to the project above), the use of the game as a storyteller, and the visual graphics. I especially admire the visual graphics of this project and would like to refer to them when creating my project.

captures of the ever-changing landscape of the game

For more information:
official project page

gyueunp – Looking Outwards 12

Propagaciones (2009)

Leonardo Solaas‘s Propagaciones (2009) is a series of generative drawings that were made on commission for a book cover. Not a lot of description is provided for this work, but I find it appealing due to its visual qualities, such as the ethereal effect that the abstract forms create. The sense of randomness as well as the “imperfections” attract me to this piece. Another interesting work created by Solaas is Affine Swarms, “a generative system based on fields of drawing particles that follow the same random trajectory, but are scaled or rotated depending on their initial position.” Randomness and rotations are factors I may use in my final project.

Digital Grotesque II (2017) video by Video by Kaufmann & Gehring

Created by Michael Hansmeyer and Benjamin Dillenburger, Digital Grotesque II (2017) is a full-scale 3D printed grotto that was entirely designed by algorithm and materialized out of 7 tons of printed sandstone. I am interested in this work’s rich details as well as the spatial depth that its multi-layered structures create. Ultimately, its highly ornamental quality is what I find extremely beautiful in this work.

Its design development animation can be found here.

The two works both meet my interest in that they are composed of intricate designs that are simultaneously unspecific and decorative. An obvious difference between the two is that Digital Grotesque II as the final product is in a 3-dimensional form, while Propagaciones is not. The latter contains a sense of randomness, while the former does not.

These two artworks are relevant to my final project, as both random and systematic factors will be utilised in mine. The visual aspects of my project will resemble them in its intricacy and ornate details. However, mine will be interactive and in motion, unlike the two projects I have discussed.

BrandonHyun-LookingOutwards12

Ken Okiishi is an artist who uses television projection to combine the aesthetics of painting and moving image all at one entire television screen.

According to ArtSpace Okiishi’s “series of paintings on flat-screen monitors, gesture/data, evolved from a routine museumgoing act: Okiishi admired a painting by Joan Mitchell at MoMA and tried to capture it on his iPhone. His sheer, streaky brushstrokes, which veil an equally glitchy mixture of VHS and digital recordings, remind you how much gets lost in translation from the wall to the cloud.”

His dialog between the new media which is, in this case, a tv monitor and the old Media which is the painting over the television screen is so captivating and interesting for me because it is a combination of the things that we are talking about in class.

Projection does not always have to be using projectors. Every electric device that we use in order to absorb information and imagery is what “projection” means to me. So, in this case, I think Okiishi is touching upon a good point because he uses television screens rather than projectors that uses light beams.

Ken Okiishi’s Website

mecha-lookingoutwards-12

For my final project, I am hoping to collaborate with Allissa Chan in order to create a choices-based video game in which a user is faced with different opportunities (or not) depending on how they interact with characters in the game. With this in mind, I decided to research choice based video games and how they worked.

trailer for night in the woods game

The first game that I looked into was Night in the Woods, a game available on Steam created by “a teamup of Alec Holowka (Aquaria), Scott Benson (Late Night Work Club), and Bethany Hockenberry”. Published January 10, 2017, the game follows a cat who returns home after dropping out of college. Available for PC, Mac, and PS4, the game operates by changing dialogue and scenes based on which characters the user interacts with more. Even though the consequences of user choices within the game are subtle, they have a significant effect on the relationships that the user creates with each of the characters, providing an extremely different and personalized experience.

The choices in Life is Strange make for more dire consequences within the game.

trailer for life is strange game

Released on January 29, 2015 and developed by Don’tNod entertainment, Life is Strange follows the story of a girl with the ability to go back in time. The choices that the user makes directly affects the choices available from then on, as well as the relationships that the user has with the other in-game characters. What I find inspiring is the amount of detail of the game and the amount of choices and consequences that seamlessly connect together.

Both of these games can be considered relevant to our final project work in that it shows how a series of events can be triggered based on user choices.

cduong-Looking Outward 12

For my final project, I wanted to create a landscape that looped in an entertaining and visually appealing way that told a story and maybe implemented some human interaction.

Project: The Seed
By: Johnny Kelly
Link: http://www.johnnykel.ly/projects/theseed
This project is a two-minute animation that shows nature’s life cycle using an apple seed.

Project: Basecamp
By: Leander Herzog
Link: https://leanderherzog.ch/basecamp/
This project is an ongoing loop of pyramids that are constantly changing colors with the background.

I really like how the first project, The Seed, tries to tell a story visually and it is easy for the user to follow what is happening. In a way I wish the video followed through with using the same, single apple seed rather than just changing the fruit that was being used as the scene moves forward. Basecamp, on the other hand, does not tell a story like The Seed did but it does have a visually soothing aspect to it that just makes the user want to look at it forever. I really like the simplicity of it, but I really wish there was more going on in the animation, like maybe incorporating aspects that would make it really seem like it’s a basecamp because without the title “Basecamp” it could potentially just look like random pyramids that were scattered on a canvas.

I would like to incorporate the ideas of storytelling from The Seed and the simplicity and visually appealing aspects of Basecamp into my final project.

LookingOutward-12

For this weeks post, I chose to compare The Creatures of Prometheus and Atlas, two generative videos that pair audio and visual experiences. The Creatures of Prometheus, creates by Simon Russell, is a visualization of Beethoven’s ballet. The animation combines both the audio and visual, directly setting up the graphics to react to the music: pitch and amplitude derive the height and speed of graphics, volume effects color, etc.

Similarly, Atlas is also a generative video that combines audio and visuals. Created by Agoston Nagy, Atlas is an “anti game environment” that produces music in a conversational cognitive space. The video uses a combination of text, sounds and graphics (“tasks”) that are automatically generated and composed and carried out (“solved”) through machine intelligence without the aid of human input. Agoston questions concepts like ad infinitum, presence, human cognition, imagination, etc.

Although both projects have similar products (both are generative videos combining audio and visuals), the concepts driving the projects and ideas behind them are very different. The Creatures of Prometheus takes a very direct approach, programming an animation where the graphics react directly to the sound.

Atlas uses a more cognitive approach, focusing on the generation of an environment and space through audio and visuals.

Atlas

The Creatures of Prometheus

jknip-SectionA-LookingOutwards-12

The two projects I identified are David Yen’s “Fantastic Elastic” and Sasj’s “Geometric Animations”.

Fantastic Elastic Video

Yen’s Fantastic Elastic (2017)

Yen’s work features a combination of processing, PBox2D, and Geomerative, where he creates a program that draws fritzy letters that react to user key input. The letters he creates also dance to the rhythm of the music. I really enjoy the fun nature of his work and would love to incorporate forms of user input in my own project. An interesting opportunity would be for them to play with color and orientation of letters more, which would have made for a more dynamic interaction.

Sasj’s Geometric Animation (2017)

Sasj is a dutch interaction visual designer that posts geometric animations daily. She uses processing and enjoys working with geometric forms — multiplying, dividing and colliding them. The animations she creates run on their own pace with no user input.

The differences between her work and Yen’s are the control over user input, along with the type of sensory experience you would expect to have — Sasj’s may be more visual, whereas Yen’s may be both visual and auditory. This may be an opportunity Sasj could have investigated in — incorporating input or sound into her work to make it more dynamic.

http://halfconscious.com/interactive
http://sasj.tumblr.com/

rkondrup-Looking-Outwards-12

I am very interested in generative artwork which produces different landscapes or forms. Two artists whose work inspires me are Glenn Marshall and Markos Kay, both of whom work heavily in generating complex images of 3d landscapes and forms. While I do not believe I am experienced enough in coding to generate believably 3d works, I nevertheless am very inspired by the possibilities of illusory distance and atmosphere produced in the following generated images. I also am interested in how lines, colors, and images can combine to form some greater image seen from a distance, as was done by Glenn Marshall here:

or how lines can be animated to gradually illustrate a final image, like here:

Above and beyond all else I wish to produce something which is dynamic and pleasing to watch, and which extends, in some way, beyond the 2d frame of the html window.
by Markos Kay

merlebac Looking Outwards-12

Link to Outreach Programme on the Rwandan Genocide

Links to testimonies from survivors of the genocide

Testimony of Adeline a Survivor of the Rwandan Genocide

The two pieces of media that I was inspired by were the Frontline Documentary Ghosts of Rwanda and the primary sources from the Outreach Programme on the Rwandan Genocide. I first saw the Ghosts of Rwanda documentary in my sophomore year of high school. We were doing a unit on genocide and inhumane atrocities. The documentary highlighted the atrocities committed during the genocide, as well as the lack of response from the media and the United States as a whole. The exerts from the survivors are something that I wouldn’t consider to be art. However, I feel that for a project like this it is important to include stories from people who experienced the genocide. To me, these stories are something that no amount of artistic vision can compare to. Despite being vastly different sources, the two documents that I chose have a large amount in common. They both cover the experiences of people who suffer during the genocide, and hope to preserve the stories of the people that died. One criticism that I would have with Ghosts of Rwanda is that I wish it questioned some of the people in America who opposed intervening in the genocide.