This project is called The Healer, and was created by Brian Tessler and Jon Baken as part of their entertainment website, Cool 3D World. I could not find exactly what program they used, but it seems to be something similar to Maya, Daz3D, or Cinema 4D. This video caught my attention because of how different the style is from other animated videos, and how the backgrounds seem realistic but the character models all seem to be purposely weird and lower quality than they could be. I admire how the video doesn’t seem to be inspired by anything, and how Brian Tessler leaves the video up for interpretation, never revealing the meaning behind any of his videos. In an interview, he said that even though the video is meaningful to him, it is up to the viewer to figure out their own personal meaning, and how it affects their life, if it even does at all. He goes on to say that one of his goals with the project is to make the viewer feel all range of emotions from his videos, and even though the content is ridiculous, it can sometimes still be sad, crazy, or even scary.
I got the information from this site: https://metalmagazine.eu/en/post/interview/brian-tessler-the-internet-in-3d
‘graffiti nature – living in the ruins of a bathhouse’: flowers grow as the visitors walk through the bathhouse
“for thousands of years, people have looked for meaning in the relationship between humans and nature. both exist in an eternal cycle of life and death, ever-evolving with the trials and tribulations of time. throughout history, humanity has caused immense damage to nature, yet has similarly been devastated by it, too. the connection is complex, multi-faceted and of great magnitude to teamlab’s core thinking.” https://www.designboom.com/art/teamlab-mifuneyama-where-gods-live-shiseido-saga-japan-07-24-2017/
(Drawing on the water surface created by the dance of koi and boats: one of the 14 installations by teamLab)
Visitors’ coloring pictures are scannedColored pictures applied to the installation.
“A forest where gods live”, by teamLab, is a project in which it transformed a 500,000 square meter garden located in Japan into a grandiose digital art exhibition. It shows 14 artworks, and these designers soften the sharp boundary between nature and manmade. These digital interventions are part of an open air museum where people can interact with nature and also look at the beautiful design. One part of this project that I really liked was the visitor interaction; visitors can color the pictures of the animals or flowers, scan these, and put these colored pictures in the actual installation. This project really inspired me to be interested in media design because I was mesmerized by this design that represented nature in a digital intervention without harming the nature; maybe, I want to be part of this team to continue a project similar to this in the future. The thought that continuity of life and death existing in the nature like the forest, rocks, and animals influenced teamLab to apply digital art to the forest park. teamLab did several similar projects related to nature before “A forest where gods live”. This is a team that collects different professionals in the digital art world. Artists, engineers, mathematicians, graphic designers, and many more people are brought together to create art that is jaw dropping. For this project, it used “project mapping”, which is alike to video mapping and augmented reality, and light and sound technologies. Project mapping, unlike simple projection of a screen, is a display of 3D objects on interactive displays. I have to say that the project is flawless because it accomplished the goal, to create digital art that is not harmful to nature, successfully through just simple projection of digital art, music, and light on to the nature itself.
There is an app that was developed a while back called Cadenza and the purpose of this app is to have a live orchestra playback for a musician as they are playing the solo line. As a musician and music major this is very important and groundbreaking. Before this, musicians would have to either play along with a recording (that won’t follow you), imagine the orchestra part, or hire a piano accompanist to rehearse. No one just has access to an orchestra whenever they want to practice a solo piece. With Cadenza, musicians can now play and perform their solo repertoire with accompaniment anytime (and at all tempo both practice and performance tempo) and the orchestra will interact with you via microphone and follow you.
The app, created by Christopher Raphael, had to have many programming components to it in order for it run as smoothly as it does. As a musician at Carnegie Mellon, we talk a lot about technology in music and how the role of technology plays. While computer simulated music will never be able to replace real musicians (or will it?), I admire this app because it makes the artificial intelligence part feel natural. I think this project points to a future where electronic music will play a larger role in music of all genres (even ones that usually are not associated with electronics)
This is a video of violinist Stephanie Zyzak demonstrating the Cadenza app. Notice she is playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto but at a much, much slower tempo than the performance tempo and the orchestra still follows her.
The user’s hand can virtually interact with the interior of an animated cat.This virtual reality allows different types of view such as bones and muscles for an accurate display of the animated cat.
Leap Motion is a technology company that embeds virtual reality into many different fields to remove the barrier between people and technology. This Colossal blog post introduces the new “Cat Explorer” that allows humans to virtually interact with the interior of an animated cat. The movement of the user’s hand is co-operated with virtual settings to show real life internal movements of the organs, muscles, and different body systems when touched.
This VR technology can be an innovative educational tool in the medical field for studying bodies of humans and animals. Even better, if this type of technology coordinates with different types of nuclear scans that exist today, hopefully, in the future, patients, doctors, and nurses will find a quicker answer to biological solutions. I admire these type of technology because it can easily open up new perspectives to people who are at war with sicknesses that have shallow research due to limited research tools. However, one critique for this project would be accessibility. This type of medical research would require economic capabilities causing many people around the world not being able to access such technology.
I am writing my looking Outwards game about Night in the Woods. This game is one of the most moving game narratives I’ve ever experienced.
Those characters are the game’s biggest strength. They’re all damaged in different ways, but in very believable, understandable ways, ways we’re all damaged. But each of these anthropomorphized animals also have more heart, depth and decency than most games boast in their entire human cast.
There are central themes to this story: mental illness, friendship, and coming of age. I found it impressive that it was created by such a small team.
“Sonic Playground” was made by a team lead Yuri Suzuki and High Atlanta. High Atlanta was creating a project that was an interactive outdoors experience, but this is the first project where they were experimenting with sound, which is what Yuri Suzuki contributed in. The software that was used to produce this project was a combination of Grasshopper and Rhinoceros, which are both 3d geometrical software instead of focusing on auditory software. It doesn’t seem to be inspired by prior works, it seems to focus on interpreting already set environments that are in our world today. The “Sonic Playground” is a combination of a children’s playground (imitating the shape of a playground and the colors) and of horns (which is a simple musical instrument). This project points to a future of more interactive spaces and less having to conform to ideas that are already existing. Playing with different elements such as sound allows another human sense to be stimulated and explored upon, which may possibly help with human development.
Considered a ‘gold standard’ for indie games and independent computing projects in general is Cave Story.
Above is a fan made trailer for the game.
This entire game from the graphics to the music was written by one person, Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya, during his free time over a five year period. It was released for free in 2004 and has been a cult classic ever since due to its nostalgic feeling and catchy soundtrack.
I find it highly inspiring because he started the project as a college student working on it for fun and was able to make something amazing! Inspired by classic 2D side scrolling games such as Super Metroid, Pixel wrote the game in C++.
It’s amazing to me that one person could create such a huge project all on their own. Rather than being a technological feat itself (especially as it’s been 14 years since its release), I find that the opportunities presented by this game lie in how it means literally anyone could create their own large-scale project like this and share it with the world. It seems daunting but is definitely possible, and I find that very inspiring!
A screenshot from the game
Although an updated version titled Cave Story + is currently for sale on multiple platforms, the original remains free on its website! Find it here if you are looking to try it out yourself.
Studio Rooseguaarde is an urban design company founded by Daan Rooseguaarde that builds and installs interactive space to create a multipurpose environment. The Van Gough Path is a part of Smart Highways, which are made with light, energy, and information that communicates with the traffic system. Made out of small pieces of rocks embedded on roads, the path gathers light energy during the day and then glows at night. When I discovered this company a few years ago, I was fascinated by how versatile the Smart Highways can be. The Van Gough Path, in particular, not only changes the area into a landmark but also enhances public safety. Another aspect that inspired me was that the studio brought the pattern of famous Van Gough painting, Starry Night, in the museum to outdoors, and made it interactive and functional with the help of programming and urban design. Although the software used for this project is unidentified, it can be assumed that there were a lot of CNC machines used during the process.
This is an interactive artwork exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art called “Rain Room”. When visitors walk through the raining room, the rain would not fall on you. It even gives you the illusion that you are able to control the rain.
I find it admirable because the artwork does not have a certain cultural background to it. The installation could be exhibited anywhere around the world and since it is very cool, it attracts people going to the museum. Consequently, it is given great commercial values.
I believe the fundamentals behind the technology is not very complicated. The sensors just understand the locations of those who entered the room. It is a common technology with a lot of precedents. However, the best idea of the room is that it not only creates a unique experience by adding the rain element but also satisfies people’s desire to share their unusual experience.
If this project proceeds, I hope the visitor would be able to stop the rain using a hand gesture, just like what happens in “Now You See Me”.
While at the Design Museum, the Stedelijk, in Amsterdam, I had the opportunity to experience Studio Drift’s Shylights. These lights resemble flowers: growing, blooming, reacting- all as a part of a carefully choreographed dance. Studio Drift, an artist collective led by Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, was inspired by the “constant metamorphosis” of human activity. Using the expression of emotion and character as inspiration, they were interested in applying this attitude to inanimate objects, such as these Shylights.
I am inspired by this project because of the multiple layers of design involved in its creation. The first layer being the visual design and fabrication of the light itself, combined with the layers of responsive coding and software needed to control the light, with the last layer being the expression of their concept: human nature in inanimate objects.
Video of Design, Production, and Performance of Shylights by Studio Drift
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“Rain Room”