akluk-Section A-LookingOutwards-12

The first project that I have chosen to write about is “I want You to Want Me” by Jonathan Harris. It was created in 2008 and was installed in the Museum of Modern art during valentines day on 2008. It is an interactive exhibit where every balloon is a unique dating profile/story where the user can choose which story/profile to view as well as the background of the display. I Want You To Want Me aims to be a mirror, in which people see reflections of themselves as they glimpse the lives of others. Below is the link to the project.
Link to project 1

The second project that I have chosen to write about is Oily Stratum by Jared Tarbell. It was created in February 2003. It is a simple animation that is based on the laws of physics and tries to describe how to merge irregular objects based on cohesion and globual size.

Link to project 2

The two projects are similar in that they both abide by certain physical rules, one is more based on data that is unrelated to physical rules while the other is based on physical properties, which is impressive.

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Process video of Generative Typography by John Oquist of IBUILDWORLDS

Created by John Oquist for the 35th Type Director’s Club Annual in 2015, Generative Typography features clouds of particles formed in the shape of typographic glyphs, to then be exerted on by some kind of force created by the program. What arises from this is a set of striking letterforms with a strong element of motion that is rarely seen in typography. The initial letter itself is created with a wireframe in the 3D modelling program, Blender, then populated with particles, and movement is added with the help of the particle system baked into the program itself.

In-program view of model deterioration

What I really love about this project is that the organic, fluid nature of the deformation against the rigidity of typography creates an incredibly compelling letterform, which I’d hope to echo in my own Final Project.

More of Oquist’s work can be found on Behance, Dribbble, and the IBUILDWORLDS website.

Full alphabet of Buchstabengewitter

Similarly, but in a two-dimensional space, Buchstabengewitter created by designer and programmer Ingo Italic and Letters Are My Friends in 2012 warps letterforms in a different way, and focuses on the transition between letterforms.

Experiments of the Letters of My Friends opening animation using Buchstabengewitter

Created, animated, and morphed in vvvv, each glyph slowly bleeds into the next as the contour of the letterform is connected to the contour of the surrounding circle. The implementation seems fairly simple, but the effect that it creates is profound and engaging. However, I do wish that there was some variation in its execution since it seems fairly simple to implement – what other effects could be created, and is an internal typographic contour necessary to create these glyphs?

Static images of the full Buchstabengewitter alphabet

jiaxinw-LookingOutwards 12

For the final project, I am planning to create a media art installation with music as its subject. In this project, I am going to do some interactive music visualization. Therefore, I am interested how artists and designers created projects like this.

Firstly, I found a very cool website, in which you can use your mouse to move as the canvas is moving, and you try to hit as many as blue circles you can while without hitting the red circles. This is Music can be fun, Designed & Developed by Edan Kwan / Music by Pasaporte, and this website was created in 2011. Here is the link to Music can be fun:

http://musiccanbefun.edankwan.com/

The most inspirational thing about this website is the stunning visual design. The animation of this experience changes according to the music changes. It makes the music become more immersive and the engagement of people can be raised.

The second project, I found might be useful for my project is the Patatap by Jono Brandel. This is a portable animation and sound kit. With the touch of a finger create melodies charged with moving shapes. The animations representing different sounds are visually pleasing and creative.

Comparing these two different projects, Patatap gives more freedom to the user to control the sounds and create their own content, while Music Can be Fun was based on a song to create the experience. I think for my project, I would probably combine these two features and make a media art installation with changes of melodies and animations.

Link to Patatap:

https://patatap.com/

nahyunk1 – Looking Outwards 12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0gAgQQHFcQ

Some of the most successful coding projects that I think are admirable are games. Programming games in entertainment has been of the most popular areas in the exceeding market and through high-level coded programs, the game culture have become one of the crucial factors that cannot be overlooked in its impact in today’s society. One of the examples that I have is Flappy Bird created by dotGEARS on May 14th 2013. Although the creator of the game was unhappy about the fact that the game got very successful, the game’s success in relation to its comparatively basic program occupied the popular trend proved the successfulness of coding programs in games. The other project is tetris created by Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. The game, created in Russia while Alexey was working at a science academy, marks for one of the earliest and oldest games to exist and still remain popular in our current generation. Both of the games implement rather simple coding skills to generate and create game systems that outlive/will outlive decades. However, throughout their time spent learning and attaining the usage of such language, their effort and time in relation to the product that looks rather simple isn’t something that should not be overlooked.

svitoora – Looking Outward 12

Google’s DeepMind AI just taught itself to walk

I admire how I can watch the model slowly evolve into fitness. The project was created by Google’s DeepMind AI, and it involves teaching various models how to traverse across an obstacle. The model learned how to walk, run, balance, and climb. I am not actually sure if this is a machine learning AI, it could most likely be a genetic algorithm that is making this work. Regardless of the underlying algorithm, it is still an impressive feat of compressing the natural process of evolution.

Ant Behavior

I admire how a swarm behavior is represented here. The nodes simply randomly search the space, and one it found food it starts moving back to its hive leaving behind a trail of chemicals. If other nodes found the trail of chemical they simply followed it. It’s amazing how such a simple rule can produce such complex behavior. One downfall for this piece of “art” is that it is very unaesthetic. The system is implemented via a grid system, which is fine, but it is represented using simply rectangles as if this was the early 90s. Really the aesthetic of just sucks.

http://www.natureincode.com/code/various/ants.html

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The first project that really inspired my final project is Mind and Matter by LIA, a software and net artist who creates abstract, generative images using code. Her designs have been used for apps, performance, sculpture, projections and graphic print. She is mostly interested in the relationship of machine as artist and artist as machine: viewing the interaction as both a dependence but also conversation. All of her work is beautiful and incredible.

Her project Mind and Matter is a typographical image of the phrase Mind & Matter that is spelled out by ellipses and lines but deteriorate and evolve into a more chaotic pattern. This was finalized as a 2D image for the daily Austrian newspaper diePresse: “Freiraum” and in Slanted Magazine #15 Experimental.

Source:

Mind and Matter

The second artist who inspired my project is Kate Hollenbach – an artist and programmer who explores interactive systems and new technologies to redefine the relationships between body, gesture and physical space. I was mostly attracted to her New York Times piece where she deconstructed the text on the New York Times using a photocopier.

Although this piece was more a formal exercise and not much compared to her more newer, more sophisticated pieces, I was still mesmerized by the layering of text to build into larger letters and altering text so that it was manipulated around larger images. I also like the idea of hacking a photocopier to play with typography and layout.

Source:

http://www.katehollenbach.com/new-york-times/

looking outwards – 12 – keuchuka

My proposed project has to do randomness that generates relationships between lines, fills, and typography. The first project I was inspired by was Matthias Dörfelt’s Marcel’s Fountains. Simply, it is a series of Marcel Duchamp’s famous fountain, but the interesting part is that the slight variety computer generated. The work is simple but cute and calm to observe the subtle differences between each drawing. The subject selected for the drawing is also eye catching. I imagine the process is similar to the variable face project a while back. The work doesn’t have any interactivity, probably purposefully so, as it is presented with ink on paper.

Marcel’s Fountains – showing one drawing

Marcel’s Fountains – computer generated series of drawings

src: http://www.mokafolio.com/

Another piece I’m inspired by are posters by KAZUHIRO AIHARA or “SHUNTO-SHA”. Japanese graphic artists tend to create custom typeface for their work (Japanese typefaces are difficult to create and there aren’t many off the shelf), and his work exemplifies this point. There is a sense of randomness and flow of type between the lines and fills in his compositions. Again, his work is static and non interactive. For both of these, I think exploring interactivity and motion would be worthwhile.

Examples of Shunto’s work

src: http://shunto-sha.com/

atraylor – Looking Outwards 12 – Section B

Two pieces that I’m inspired by are Blahblah by Vincent Morisset and JK Rowling’s old website from the 2000s (sadly it’s not up anymore, but here’s a link to a description). Blahblah is a “film for computer” and allows the viewer to interact with it and trigger events, but sometimes it’s hard to tell how much power the viewer has over the scenes. I admire that there is a clear direction and that it’s extremely engaging, and it is what the viewer makes it.

JK Rowling’s old website is similar and for a very different purpose. Her website was what you could discover in it. It started with her desk which had clickable objects that would take you somewhere where you could gather more information. One was a “room of requirement” like door that had different information or photos behind it depending on the day (which you could navigate to using a time turner).

I’m inspired by these projects because they use interactivity to explore ideas and information through directed narratives.

JK Rowling’s old website. Example of what the desk page looked like.

sntong-Looking Outwards 12: Project Priors and Precursors

One of the video overlays viewers can add throughout the video

Multiple layers can be added to the video at the same time by pressing multiple keys.

I came across two interactive website that is video based. The first project is LSD by Spencer Sheridan, that is a keyboard interactive music video for the band Busy Living. Viewers of the music video is able to add and overlay shapes, colors and videos onto the music video to create an unique visual experience every time the music video is played (check out the music video here).

This experiment lets you play your keyboard like an instrument to overlay colors and images to create your own music video, and I am interested in creating an unique experience to a short video.

The second example provides mouse interaction of the user on the page to generate music. GeoSound is a webpage By Yanlin Ma that generates sound through geometric object collision. It provides an interesting way to allow people to make sound and contribute to the sound they are experiencing.

Drag and drop objects to create random collisions and make sound

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For my final project I’m probably going to create a game (with Maddy Cha) along the lines of interactive fiction/ visual novels.

Kentucky Route Zero Act I, 2013, by Cardboard Computer

The first relevant project is Kentucky Route Zero, one of my favorite games. It’s being developed by Cardboard Computer, a small indie studio releasing the game in 5 acts (the 1st act was released in 2013, and the 5th act is supposed to come out in early 2018). It’s a magical-realist adventure game inspired by point-and-click games & interactive fiction, but with a heavy focus on characters and mood. It’s essentially a winding interactive story. I really admire this focus, especially compared to more combat- or puzzle-oriented “traditional” video games. While we’re definitely not going to attempt something this ambitious (or in a similar storytelling genre), I really like how the game handles story and text.

overview of the latest version of Twine

The second project is Twine. It was originally created by Chris Klimas in 2009, but its development has since been open-sourced and is now maintained by several other people. It’s a tool meant to make the creation of interactive fiction accessible, essentially generating a series of hyperlinked HTML pages at its simplest. Games or fiction created with twine are thus easily customizable since they can be extended with Javascript, CSS, or any number of other possibilities. I admire Twine since it radically simplifies the process of making a story (as simple as writing passages and connecting them), and makes it easy to visualize the game/ story as a whole. P5 doesn’t really have the option of hyperlinks, but the idea of branching storylines and keeping track of past choices definitely applies to what we’d like to do.