LookingOutwards-12 – Page 4 – [OLD FALL 2018] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

Sarah Yae – Looking Outwards 12 – Section B

Regarding the project “Drum Kit” (http://ronwinter.tv/drums.html), this is an computational, interactive music project that plays drum-related sound that correlates with a specific key of the keyboard. I admire that it is under a certain theme (of drums), but I feel like there could have been volume control of the general program, so that users could put a background music and use “Drum Kit” at the same time.

Regarding the project “Rave” (https://rave.dj/mix), this is a website that allows users to mash up two songs that are uploaded. It’s pretty cool in a way that it generates smooth mashup of music, but it would have been improved by allowing the users to change the mashup of songs, instead of automatically generating it.

The two above projects are very different from each other even though they both utilize music to create something new. Rave focuses more on using existing songs to create a new song, while Drum Kit focuses on using different sounds to create a song.

Looking Outward 12, Erin Fuller

The first project, Orbicular Geode Puzzle, I found was made by Nervous System. It’s a puzzle that is computer generated to represent a slice of an algorithmic geode. Each puzzle is unique, emerging from a computer simulation that creates natural variations in the shape, pieces, and image. The way the puzzle is cut, a dense, maze-like pattern with extreme intertwining and high piece count, makes it an extremely hard puzzle to solve.

It is similar to my final project because I’m making a generated maze. Though I probably won’t be able to make something as complex as this, it is a nice project to see how beautiful a generated puzzle can be.

My second project, while not a highly technical project, explores mazes even more. Robert Morris, American sculptor, conceptual artist, and writer, is regarded as one of the most prominent theorists of Minimalism. The Philadelphia Labyrinth was a site-specific art installation. While this is still a contemporary project, I think it’s interesting how much labyrinths, mazes, and puzzles have been a part of the human consciousness since ancient times.

Anthony Ra – Looking Outwards 12

I already briefly mentioned two projects that I want to talk about in my proposal, and I will go much more in-depth with these projects.

The first project is the gaming of all of the Super Mario series by Shigeru Miyamoto. What inspires me is the simplicity of the design of the character, the landscape, the premise and the way it codes yet it is popular to the wider audience globally.

The part in this video I want to emphasize is the 2nd part of Miyamoto’s “genius” in work, which is the simplicity. I don’t have to write words like what I am doing right now on instruction on how to play a certain game with the use of design subtlety and positioning. With minimal objects the user can see which direction to go and what the obstacles are; in Mario, the goombas and koopas move in the direction towards him, signaling that it is harmful.

The second precedent is a game with similar graphics called “Flappy Bird” developed by dotGears. What makes this game intriguing is how some of this code was programmed in ways that are very similar to what I have learned throughout this semester. One of the more obvious assignments and projects regarding this is the generative landscape, where various sizes and heights of the same object moves from right to left, giving the illusion that the static character is moving from left to right. And also, by implementing changes in velocity and mouse pressing function, I think there is a way for me to create a simple game using the subtle design techniques of both of these projects with enough detail and compelling-ness for a suitable project.

Hannah Cai—Looking Outwards—12

I was inspired by these projects:

For my project, I was originally thinking of just doing something like the first video, which would basically just be integrating sound into my generative landscape. However, I wanted to something with generative audio, and not just a simple audiovisual, like the glowing dot, which I personally don’t think is very exciting. I then thought of doing something with particles. Ideally, my end product’s visuals would be something like the second video, with particles that feel dynamic and “alive”. However, instead of just being static recorded segments, I want my project to be interactive, reacting to mouse position or something like that. I also want the user to be able to interact with the view/perspective, so I’m thinking about using WEBGL and orbit control.

Alexandra Kaplan – Looking Outwards – 12

Video of Samsung’s “The Frame”

The two projects I am focusing on for this week’s Looking Outwards is Samsung’s “The Frame” and a piece called “All the Minutes”. These pieces are very different from each other, but they both are somewhat connected to what I want to do for my final project, an interactive tv set. Samsung’s “The Frame”, created by the company Leo Burnett Sydney, takes place in an art gallery, but some of the paintings/photographs are actually tv’s with which people interact with videos on them. The videos also interact with each other. I think that it is a really fun idea, but I feel like they could have invested more in the quality of the painting videos and tried to disguise them better.

The piece ‘All the Minutes’, created by Studio Puckey, is a clock that uses tweets with a specific time in them. I think that it is much more effective than Samsung’s project, even if it is so different. It is fun to watch the different tweets as the times change throughout the day.

Sophie Chen – Looking Outwards 12

For my final project, I wanted to dive deeper into animations that interact with or respond to a live camera input. As I was doing research I came across this project called webcam piano created by Memo Akten, where the users’ gestures not only trigger animations but also different keys of the piano, creating their own visual and sound sequence. Another project that I found is Fauna by Dr. Woohoo, an immersive art experience where a floating fauna seems to be just on screen but when people stand in front of it, it starts moving and engaging with them. Both projects are triggered by what’s in front of the camera, the main difference being that with the webcam piano the users see themselves and the animations on top, whereas with Fauna users don’t see themselves on screen at all, merely the animations that are triggered by their movements/presence. This made me think a lot about what it means when the users are able to see themselves vs. when they are not, and what I want to do for my project.

Fauna

Webcam Piano

Link to webcam piano: http://www.memo.tv/portfolio/webcam-piano-2/

Link to Fauna: http://blog.drwoohoo.com/currents-2010-playing-with-fauna/

Romi Jin – Looking Outwards 12

For my final project, I want to create an interactive game with a moving landscape. The initial examples that I thought of were Super Mario Bros, developed by Shigeru Miyamoto, and Fireboy and Watergirl, developed by Oslo Albert. Growing up playing these games, I have always wanted to be able to create something similar. In each of the games, the characters try to avoid enemies to collect items they need to win the game. However, in mario bros, the enemies move around while in the other, the “enemies” are stationary in that they are bodies of water and fire. I am interested in creating something like the former, with moving objects towards the bunny with a moving landscape like one of the previous projects we have done (generative landscape). But I like how Fireboy and Watergirl has a multiplayer component to it (as the mario bros game I grew up playing did not).

(Super Mario Bros)

(Fireboy and Watergirl)

Kyle Leve-LO-Week-12

For my project I decided I wanted to incorporate music. One project that I discovered that relates to my project is the company Magic Music Visuals. The company has created a software that creates visuals for music performance. This software is able to be used in both live performance and with imported audio.

Link: https://magicmusicvisuals.com/video

Another project that has inspired me is a music video created by Zoon Designs for Olafur Arnalds’ song “3055.” I had never heard this song before, however I was captivated by how the visuals correlated to the music and enhanced the overall performance. Music can already portray so many emotions, however with the addition of a visual component, those emotions are heightened even more.

The music video for “3055”

Jenna Kim (Jeeyoon Kim)- Looking Outwards- Week 12

For our project (collaborating with my partner), we are planning to make an interactive digital story for young children.Therefore, I looked into educational related digital projects. One project that I looked over is “Puppet Parade, made by design I/O. It is an interactive installation allowing children to use their body to move large puppets that are projected on the wall. Another project is “The Uber Game- Financial Times”, which is an online game made by the Financial Times. It is a form of journal that is also a game built from interviews. I admired “Puppet Parade” because i love the idea of children’s’ telling their own story depending on what kind of movement they do. “The Uber Game- Financial Times” is also admirable because it was made in a fun way to tell a story (interviews/ journal) through interaction game. They are created in two different ways, but they are very similar because they only tell a “story” through interaction; they’re not just in a form of writing or reading. I would love to do a project similar to these to make reading or delivering a message in more communicative way.

Vicky Zhou – Looking Outwards 12

In my research for generative and computational artists, I came across a visual artist/programmer/designer that I really admire — Marcin Ignac. A lot of his projects deal with data visualization and generative art in visually engaging ways, many times involving the manipulation of interesting 3D spaces in aesthetic qualities. In particular, I find “Continuous Transition”, “Instancae”, and “Noise Particles”, projects the most visually stimulating, with “Instancae” being the most visually engaging. “Instancae” is a branch of a bigger project “Flora”, and it is interesting because it is a generative plant project that involves several different “plant” forms to generate output, and focuses on translating natural elements (biomimicry) onto a computational platform. I also really admire his “Continuous Translation” project because it dives into an interesting break down of undulation, that I would want to further explore in my final project. Although several of his projects do allow for interaction, “Continuous Translation” is more so an already finalized project; I would want to explore more so how the user can input data in order to manipulate the wave.