The piece I looked at was Ryoji Ikeda’s 2013 work titled Test Pattern, originally posted by Maggie. The piece is a large-scale sound and light installation. It features huge flashing barcodes being projected onto the floor (and, in some versions, walls) of a large open space accompanied by loud rhythmic sounds.
In the post Maggie goes into detail about the physical setup of the space and the code behind it. To add to this, I will say this piece initially caught my attention because of the scale. I am always drawn to huge installations like this, especially one’s as sensorily intense. I also love the abstract and interpretable quality of the piece. Ikeda is purposely vague about the meaning behind the work, stating, “I don’t really want to speak about any concepts. Because there are no concepts.”
During week 8, the Looking Outwards assignment focused on the creative practice of an individual. As an architecture student, I am constantly interested in the different explorations that other people connect with the study of architecture. I came across the individual that my peer, Aadya Bhartia, wrote about in that week’s blog.
Meejin Yoon is the Dean of Architecture at Cornell University. She is also an architect and designer that focuses on the relationships between space, technology, and materiality. After watching her presentation from the Eyeo Festival, I really enjoyed the aspect of interaction within public spaces through responsive and interactive technology. Throughout her presentation, I appreciated the process of her design for her projects and also the connection she makes with technology as well. Overall, I do not have any disagreement with my classmate’s overview of the work of this individual. The relationship between design and technology is constantly evolving, and there is so much more to be explored and discovered.
I read a post by Shaun Murray about Stefanie Posavec and Greg McIrney’s (En)tangled Word Bank. I think his assessment of Posavec’s style in her use of color is accurate and I also feel like she is an artist who values organized complexity. Each section features well-sorted data on each of Darwin’s revisions, and while it doesn’t fall into some sort of obvious pattern it is clearly thought out and built to be visually cohesive. It is easy to see what has been changed due to the color coding of each circle, and while they are different, they all share the same structure to convey clarity and allow viewers to really understand and make good use of her work. I think McIrney’s contributions and style also share that same creative space of controlled, thought out design and balance of color to create interest and dynamism but also present material in an easy to understand manner.
For this LO, I read Bennett’s post about Lindsay Grace. As someone who does not have a background in computer science or STEM at all and enjoys video games and computers, I am always fascinated by those who teach themselves electronics and software development. This greatly contrasts the music world, where you need years of formal training and finding your own voice to be considered an artist. According to his presentation, Grace taught himself how to create games because he could not afford to buy them. I find it incredible that he taught himself in the beginning and has advanced so far in his career as an educator. I am also inspired by the scope of his projects. He has created on his own educational games, kids’ games/apps, new media art, and more. Lindsay aims to create a cross section between video games and a wide range of topics.
Looking back to the wide variety of Looking Outwards projects, one specific blog post that I find very intriguing is poppy’s “Looking Outwards – 05 – 3D Computer Graphics“. As the title of this blog implies, the fifth week of Looking Outwards projects involved 3-dimensional computer graphics.
Poppy’s analysis focuses on Jennifer Steinkamp’s “Womb“, a piece that was featured at Talley Dunn Gallery in August 23, 2019. As a digital animator, Steinkamp uses 3D modeling software and Photoshop to explore the ideas of space, perception, and motion.
“Womb”, Jennifer Steinkamp’s, 2019
“Womb” allows viewers to walk up to an interactive wall of fruit that follows the movement of people and continues to move on its own. Poppy expresses, “I admire how eccentric and lively the piece is…Similar to a womb that takes up space within the body in order to generate life, her artpiece generates transformation, movement, and life as well.” I definitely agree with Poppy’s statement regarding Steinkamp’s purpose and how the piece affects its audience. Adding on to this, I believe that the piece’s interactive aspect allows viewers to be involved as participants, giving them a more personal experience overall.
For this week, I decided to read a blog post written by my peer Dreami. I was particularly struck by her analysis of the project named “Facebook Flowers” by Stamen Design. This cited project is something I would be also intrigued by because it collects real life data and translates it into a piece of art. I thought it was interesting how Stamen Design chose to represent the activity of a Facebook post through flowers. The parallel of a post getting attention and growing is shown through the flowers getting bigger and flourishing. I don’t necessarily disagree with Dreami’s assessment because I agree with her how it’s cool that motion is used in this data visualization.
From Bennett’s LO – 04 on Tomu Tomu’s “Plant Sounds” project:
I really like the idea of being able to hear plant sounds. I like to think that everything makes noise, it’s just the matter of being able to hear it, like how when in a really quiet space or after working out you can hear your own body working, your inhale and exhale, your pulse, your blood running through your body. I guess plants don’t actually make noises, but I think that synthesizing certain noises to specific biological processes of the plant would be interesting. I think it would actually be an interesting exploration of tracking a plant’s growth or health. Assuming that certain processes are only for producing a new growth–maintaining current growths, cutting off nutrients from certain areas of the plant(like flowers on a plant dying), or trying to heal from damage or fight off infection–the general sounds produced by the plant would change according to what processes it’s engaging in, so you would be able to tell if the state of the plant is undergoing change prior to any visible change simply by the change in the sound produced. Although I think that would be far more complicated to create.
The “Plant Sounds” project reminds me of a product I saw a while ago: Playtronica. It’s a TouchMe Midi that faciliates the production of sound when an electronic loop is formed, essentially making it so that when two people form hold either end of the midi, they are able to create music through touching each other. I think the Playtronica has a lot of potential for experimentation, especially when used for performance or music production. I would be really interested in seeing a dance performance where the dances have individual midis with a specific set of notes/sounds per performer so that the sounds are explicitly created by the interaction of touch between specific dancers. I wonder if that were applied to a longer performance, like a ballet, you would be able to find motifs within the created music that tracks the interactions and grown of relationships between certain characters of the ballet.
The project is an animation commercial for Nike’s Air Max sneaker by ManvsMachine with stimulating visual elements. ManvsMachine uses Cinema 4D ( a competent 3D suite program)to create motion graphic which is more eye catching than 2D graphics. I agree with Graana that this project is successful on playing with different textures and lighting to demonstrate lightness and airiness of the product.
While fashion editorial have championed extremely tangible imagery, ManvsMachine achieves a different effect in this work which is more conceptual and abstract. By animate morphing objects and diffusing colors, the campaign video is able to visualize the product with a more painterly approach that also leave imagination to the customer.
In many levels, the project is an artistic approach to demonstrate both aesthetics and functions of the product.
Artist Website: https://mvsm.com/project/air-max Graana Khan’s Looking Outwards-05 post, October 05,2020 https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/15-104/f2020/2020/10/03/looking-outwards-05-5/
While I was browsing through the different Looking Outwards, this project by Manolo Gamboa Naon stood out to me. It is a generative digital art, but when I first looked at it, it screamed 3D to me. Despite it being digital, I kept on thinking of how they could bring to life in the real world, Such as using see-through fabric (like chiffon) to mimic the translucent outer circles and maybe even cardboard with the center circles to create a sense of depth and height. It is so interesting to me to envision this in reality and make it into something that is touchable. There are so many textures to explore. I agree with laurel in how the simpleness in the randomness makes the work complex. The explosion of color and circles is really mesmerizing and beautiful.
Because Season 2 of Disney’s The Mandalorian just premiered last Friday, I wanted to discuss t.chen’s 5th Looking Outwards post on Industrial Light and Magic’s phenomenal real-time 3D rendering for The Mandalorian. As t.chen mentioned in their post, ILM is a motion picture VFX company founded by George Lucas in 1975 and can trace its roots back to the original Star Wars trilogy.
Although ILM has always been a huge pioneer within the VFX industry, the company broke new ground through The Mandalorian‘s background and atmosphere through “The Volume,” a huge, circular stage of LED screens that display whatever planet or setting the scene requires. Everything within the background is rendered in real-time through Unreal Engine, so if the director wants the sun to set or entire cities to be built or put away, The Volume can provide these specifications.
I wanted to add onto t.chen’s original post that this technique is ironically not new – many films since the mid-1900’s have utilized the rear screen projection technique to achieve this effect. However, The Volume opens up new possibilities of having backgrounds respond in real-time, rather than prerecord background footage or have actors act in a green screen set and construct the world in postproduction. It’s incredibly exciting to consider how this will change filmmaking in the future.
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