Month: October 2019

Caroline Song-Looking Outwards-09

For this Looking Outwards post, I decided to look at Monica Chang’s Looking Outwards 03. In this Looking Outwards, she studies programmable bio-composites called Aguahoja, created by Neri Oxman and MIT. Using the most available materials that can be found on Earth currently, they create organic art that moves away from using plastic and other materials that are toxic to the environment.

Aguahoja I Pavilion, standing at 5 meters tall

I agree with her statement on why it is intriguing, the fact that this art is being sustainable in its resources shows the possibility in duality between conserving the resources we currently have in the ecosystem, while not halting our movement towards further modernizing the world.

Furthermore, I also think the statement that they are making in redefining art is strong. When thinking of art, what comes to mind is a lot of traditional materials, such as paint, clay, wire, etc. All of these materials (especially thinking of different types of paint) are also toxic to the Earth. However, using materials that are organic and that the environment has plenty of, traditional art is being challenged and being evolved as Earth does as well.

Chelsea Fan-Looking Outward-09

I looked at Claire Lee’s Looking Outward 07. It covers Stamen Design’s Cell Phone Coverage in the bay area. I agree with Claire in a lot of aspects of the work. The design is extremely interesting to look at and agree that the piece takes a mundane idea and turns it into something unique and artistic. I do wish that there was more explanation on how the piece is interactive. The post discusses that the piece covers 4 major cellular networks in the bay area, but it doesn’t mention which 4. I think this would also be good information to know. In addition, I wish there was some way to see what sections of the design correspond to which cellular network and maybe an image of all the carriers together on one map.

Although the original work is not linked, here is the link to Claire’s Looking Outward 07 Post: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/15-104/f2019/author/seoyounlandrew-cmu-edu/

Image from Claire Lee’s Looking Outward 07 of Cell Phone Coverage in San Francsico, Carrier 1 (n.d.)

Jamie Park – Project 09

sketch

// Jamie Park (jiminp)            Project 9
// Section E

var myPic;

function preload(){
    //preload image from imgur
    var meURL = "https://i.imgur.com/XmiI0Iq.jpg";
    myPic = loadImage(meURL);
}

function setup(){
    //createCanvas and fill in the background
    createCanvas(400, 300);
    background(0);
    //load the pixels of the image
    myPic.loadPixels();
    frameRate(60);
}

function draw(){

    //draw rectangles at random points
    var px = random(width);
    var py = random(height);

    //crate variables that would fit into acquiring the colors of the image
    var cx = constrain(floor(px), 0, width);
    var cy = constrain(floor(py), 0, height);
    var colorLocation = myPic.get(cx, cy);

    //generate rectangular color blocks
    noStroke();
    fill(colorLocation);
    var ran = random(20);
    rect(px, py, ran, ran, random(10));
}

I created a computational portrait of a picture of me. In addition to randomizing the size of the squares, I randomized the degrees of angle in the edges, layering soft and hard rectangles on top of each other.

I really enjoyed this coding process and it was nice to see the final product come together and create a picture of me.

Process (left) and final product (right)

The photo I used to code my project

Jamie Park – LO – 09

I was inspired by my friend Charmaine’s Looking Outwards post 05. This post is about a CG company in Tokyo that creates 3D models and develops character concept design. Among many other things created by company ModelingCafe, Charmaine focused her research on Imma, a computer generated fashion model. This computer generated model has a twitter and instagram account, where someone weekly posts an image of her.

The gap between the computer generated model, Imma, and real-life person is almost non existent that it is a little creepy. If one did not know who Imma is, one would have easily thought that she is another human being posting pictures on Instagram. Although it is really cool to see the impact of technology on media, I am concerned with the unintended consequences of this type of digital technology. I hope people do not misuse or abuse the ability to render and create identical copies of humans.

Katrina Hu – Looking Outwards – 09

Claire Lee’s Post: Prelude in ACGT

Pierry Jacquillard’s Prelude in ACGT

I chose to review Claire Lee’s Looking Outwards 04 Post. Her post looks at Pierry Jacquillard’s Prélude in ACGT. This piece takes the A-C-G-T (adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine) order of Jacquillard’s own DNA and turns it into a musical composition. He uses a Javascript-based program to do this, creating a piece that is correlated to the order of his own DNA. The project uses a midi library that generates signals to be converted into electronic sounds.

I also think the cited project is really interesting, as it combines the topics of art, technology, and biology. I agree with Claire’s assessment that this work is very simple, but that the concept in itself is very creative. It is also fascinating how the entire project’s sheet music is an entire book long, yet only contains 0.2% of Jacquillard’s entire DNA. I think the idea itself is very different from other works, as it combines many fields of study.

Sammie Kim – Project 09 – Portrait

sketch

//Sammie Kim
//Section D
//sammiek@andrew.cmu.edu
//Project 09 - Computational Portrait

var img;
var smallPoint;
var largePoint;
var pointSize;

//preloading image from imgur
function preload() {
    img = loadImage('https://i.imgur.com/yXi77UB.jpg');
}

//setting the speed and size of loading image pixels
function setup() {
    createCanvas(300, 300);
    background(0);
    imageMode(CENTER);
    img.loadPixels();
    frameRate(100);
    noStroke();
    smallPoint = 1;
    largePoint = 10;
}

function draw() {
    var x = floor(random(img.width)); //random x location for ellipse
    var y = floor(random(img.height)); //random y location for ellipse
    var imageColor = img.get(x, y); //picking the x, y coordinates from the image
    fill(imageColor); //fill the ellipses with the color from image
    //let the points get smaller toward the bottom of canvas that has more details
    var pointSize = map(y, 0, height, largePoint, smallPoint);
    ellipse(x, y, pointSize, pointSize);
}

This project was entertaining as I was able to recreate my own portrait by using points. Observing how the points would gradually generate the full photo, I purposely made the bottom half points tiny to better reflect the detailed areas.

Charmaine Qiu – Looking Outwards – 09

In Jamie Park’s Looking Outwards 05, she introduced me to a 3d artist from creative cloud named Roger Kilimanjaro. He is a 3d artist from Paris, France, and he uses Maxon Cinema 4d to render his projects. He mainly creates animated videos of motions that loops over and over in a satisfying manner. On his social media pages, you can find endless short videos and images of realistic and yet unusual 3d renderings that come to life. The videos are very pleasing to look at with the attentive incorporation of popping colors and logical audios as support. At the same time, Roger utilizes his skills to create advertisements for food companies such as Krispy Kream. I agree with Jamie that it is fascinating to see how software like Maxon Cinema 4d allows a vast range of potentials for designers around the world, and it must be life changing for its developers to realize what they contributed to elevate the designers’ experience of their project making process.

3D doughnuts for Krispy Kreme

Min Ji Kim Kim – Looking Outwards – 09

Creative miniworld by Jan Reeh

For this week’s Looking Outward post, I chose to review Claire Yoon’s Looking Outwards 05. The 3D computer graphic piece that she reviewed was CG/FX artist Jan Reeh’s Creative miniworld created in 2012 through 3Ds Max and rendered in Vray. Similarly to Claire, I was drawn to this piece because of how the word “creative” is expressed very literally and how the artist weaves a story into this 3D piece.

Closeup of the letter C in Creative miniworld

The other part that really caught my eye was the level of extreme detail and texture Reeh created, such as the grass or the bricks on the letter A. Furthermore, the effective use of sound, such as the explosion and the car engine, combined with the use of color and texture create a synergy that really breathes life into this piece. Claire also mentioned how the canvas fills left to right mimicking how we read words left to right which I thought was spot on analysis on her part and ingenious of Reeh to do.

You can see Jan Reeh’s portfolio here.

Siwei Xie – Looking Outwards 11

Ayah Bdeir is an entrepreneur, inventor, and interactive artist. She is the founder and CEO of littleBits. Bdeir earned a Masters of Science degree from the MIT Media Lab. littleBits joined the 2016 Disney Accelerator program. It has also partnered with Pearson, one of the leading curriculum companies in the world to co-create curriculum to support their Science and Engineering program.

EE is an interactive installation that examines people’s interaction with Lebanese electricity, an infamously broken infrastructure that they have learnt to live without, or in spite of. I admire it because over the past 25 years, electricity shortages in Lebanon have reached 20 hours a day, creating a sinister imaginary persona that commands life across social, financial and political lines, and seems to constantly play hard to get.

Ayah Bdeir, Elusive Electricity, July 2011, Neon, Steel, Motion Sensor, Cables, Custom Electronics

Original source.

Sammie Kim – Looking Outwards 09

Looking into the Looking Outwards 8 report by CJ Walsh, I was intrigued by Meow Wolf, which an artist collective. Consisting of more than 400 employees with various artistic and digital backgrounds, Meow Wolf is known for creating interactive installation projects. The project that was analyzed is called the “House of Eternal Return,” which is a large immersive space (20,000 square foot art exhibit) in Santa Fe. Once a visitor enters the space that resembles the lawn of a Victorian House, he or she is then able to explore and discover portals into other worlds. Likewise, this space contains dozens of rooms, secret passages, and even musical objects that the visitors can interact with to unfold the mystery of the Selig family, who mysteriously disappeared after conducting a forbidden experiment. This maximalist art showcase engages guests of all ages, letting them walk, climb, and crawl through fantastic and unexpected environments within a particular narrative. 

Personally, I agreed with most of my peer’s assessment, as I appreciated not only the resultative project, but also the strenuous process that was involved. In the lecture video, the way the group presented a lot of visuals like progress videos really showed how they were able to overcome challenges, particularly in establishing themselves as a productive artist group. Moreover, I wanted to add to how Meow Wolf really strives to challenge social norms and radical inclusions through community based art projects.

Image of the House of Eternal Return (Eye catching visuals that engage with the narrative)
Interactive objects that visitors can play around with

Link to Meow Wolf website: https://meowwolf.com

CJ Walsh – Looking Outwards 08 – Meow Wolf
Looking Outwards about Meow Wolf