LookingOutwards-09

LO-09- On Looking Outwards

Ying Gao, Flowing Water, Standing Time, 2019. Original LO-03 by Isabel Xu.

I found this work fascinating because of my peer Isabel Xu’s description of how the artist Ying Gao blends robotics and fabric to create ever changing clothing. Ying Gao uses color and light sensors to make clothes that respond to the chromatic spectrum using a raspberry PI and small cameras.

Ying Gao, source: http://yinggao.ca/interactifs/flowing-water-standing-time/

What stood out to me was that Gao described the clothing line to display “perpetual metamorphosis”. Comparing the changing qualities of technology as it is used, for example a running code, clothing is quite static and existent as a sculptural piece that can be worn. By blending the two as Gao has done, you get clothing that is constantly in a state of changing. More humorously, this clothing line reminded me of a solution to our indecisive nature when deciding what to wear for the day as our clothes appear the same throughout the day. This provides a solution for those indecisive moments where the clothing is transforming and responding to its chromatic surroundings.

This clothing line demonstrates how robotics can turn something definite in form to something responsive to the environment. Much of life is constantly changing and so the integration of AI and machine learning allows for previously static objects to evolve like a life form in response to worldly stimuli.

Looking Outwards – 09

One Looking Outwards that I found to be pretty interesting was Francis Park’s LO-5 on virtual fashion shows. This assignment wanted us to discuss 3D computational art. With the global pandemic, it’s been difficult holding events as one usually would. A fashion label, called Hanifa, worked around this by holding a virtual fashion show. This fashion show used technology in order to stream animated 3D outfits through Instagram Live. I thought this method was very effective with the current circumstances. I’m also amazed with how well these models were rendered, as the outfits and material look so realistic. Because of this digital fashion show, I decided to do more research on how fashion companies are handling the pandemic. Though not done in the same manner of Hanifa, many fashion shows used 360 videos and VR technology to create a realistic experience. Here is an example of one:

Looking Outwards : 09

The Looking Outwards from week 4 was about sound art and I am extremely interested in how sound is being visualised today within generative art practices. Nick Wong’s LO on Nanotak Studio’s Daydream was extremely fascinating for me. Although the idea of adding sound visualisation has recently become prevalent in art and design. It does start to allow for a more immersive experience. This installation aimed at establishing a physical connection between the virtual space and the real space, blurring the limits and submerging the audience into a short detachment from reality. Lights generate abstract spaces while sounds define the echoes of virtual spaces. Daydream is an invitation to contemplation, and the frontality of the installation leads the visitors to a passive position, almost overwhelming them with the audiovisual effects. I definitely feel Nick could have added a video which would have helped me better understand the project at first glance.

Nick Wong’s Looking Outwards 4 on 27th September, 2020.

Looking Outwards 4: Audio-driven digital art

LO-09

https://www.archdaily.com/868540/this-mysterious-3d-printed-grotto-challenges-boundaries-of-computational-geometry-and-human-perception

As a concept artist, I basically do visual design for games. I am very interested in generative art, so that I checked back to week 2 LO and found Robert’s post about Dillenberger & Hansmeyer’s 3D printer grotto. (Thank you for your post)
I think the working process of computer generative art and concept design are very different but concept art can borrow some essence from computer generative art for sure. Especially about the weird shape and repetitive technology feeling, this aspect is very hard for the human brain to create.
But as always, I don’t think computer generative art can be directly used in concept design. It is very easy to tell the picture is to some extent lack of deep thinking and art re-twist. People’s eyes like to see something that has big, medium, small reads. The problem of computer generative art is that it is very even. I definitely think the 3D work I referenced here is awesome and also I definitely think it is not suitable for any game or film without re-design by designers. It is full of details. Just imagine if audience need to watch a movie and it has so many details for 90 minutes long, they will be so bored after 10 minutes because they don’t know what to look at.
In one sentence, I think computer generative art is awesome as a starting point for design, but it is far from excellent in terms of using it in mature visual products.
( Here is my portfolio just in case someone is curious about what I am literally doing for games: www.yolishen.com)

Looking Outwards 09 – on Looking Outwards

Looking Outwards 07 (Information Visualization) by Shruti Prasanth talks about Aaron Koblin’s Flight Patterns. I was first drawn to the project because of its aesthetic visuals. The contrast between the dark background and bright neon lines were eye-catching, and the shapes created by overlapping strings give an interesting pattern. I definitely agree with Shruti that the overlapping intersections of the strings really enhance the visuals of this project, especially because the lines glow brighter at the intersection point which shows the density of the air traffic. It was interesting to know that Shruti finds this map similar to the map she saw in global history class about traffic patterns of slave ships. I definitely see the similarity between the visuals of the traffic patterns of slave ships in American history and the Flight Patterns by Aaron Koblin, because they both use lines to represent the traffic patterns. The interesting part I personally think about the connection between the two maps is that one represents the traffic pattern on the ocean and the other represents the traffic pattern in the sky. We can compare and see how much technology has developed over time, and also see how different transportation is. The contrast between the colors of the background and the strings definitely makes the shape of the United States more clear in the project, but I personally think the dark spaces in the background represents the “air/sky” rather than the “sea”. The visuals of the project to me feels like the strings are placed in mid-air. I personally interpreted the strings to be visual representations of trails left behind planes, something like contrails.

Link to Aaron Koblin’s Flight Patterns here

Shruti Prasanth’s Looking Outwards-07, October 18, 2020: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/15-104/f2020/2020/10/18/lookingoutwards-07-6/

Video of Flight Patterns

LO – 09

Jubbies Steinweh-Adler
In Response to Holly Liu’s LO #4, September 26, 2020

In response to Holly Liu’s Looking Outward’s about Christina Kubisch’s Cloud, I have to say, I wish I could experience this interactive art installation myself. This piece reminds me of a theremin, an instrument that also uses electromagnetic field generation but instead of curly wire, it uses two antennae. I find it interesting how Kubisch’s cloud seems so much more inviting to me than a theremin, which I believe is a result of the use of bright color and whimsical arrangement of wire.

I explored some other works of Christina Kubisch, who apparently is well-known for her explorations of sound art using electromagnetism. I really appreciate how she has taken a simple mechanical principle and used it to inspire so many different experiences. My favorite of her work so far is Electrical Walks, which again makes use of wireless headphones responding to electromagnetic fields. The interesting distinction of this project is that the headphones make audible the sounds of above- and underground fields generated by everyday objects from light fixtures to streetcar cables. I absolutely love how this project allows people, for perhaps the first time, question what unassuming objects like security cameras sound like.

Christina Kubisch Portfolio: http://www.christinakubisch.de/en/works/installations/2

Holly Liu OP:

LO 4

Looking Outwards 09

Video Demonstrating the Use of the Weather Thingy

The fourth Looking Outwards blog post my peer Tak wrote was about “The Weather Thingy,” a device that takes climate data and weather information and translates it into sound. “The Weather Thingy (c. 2018)” was created by Adrian Kaeser and gathers information about the weather from sensors and rescripts that to affect the sounds coming out of a synthesizer. I think that this project is outstanding and adds an element of randomness to the music. I also appreciate how it contrasts the calculated, digital qualities of electronic music through its incorporation of sounds from nature and the environment. I agree with Tak’s appreciation of how this device allows artists and musicians to convey and share how they percieve nature. However, I think that it’s also important to note that while the weather filters and effects what the artist is playing on the midi notes, so this device could also be considered an auditory collaboration between humans and nature rather than humans merely letting nature into creative process.

I think this project is very performance-oriented in the way it captures the nuance of the changing surroundings from a more philosophical aspect. In creating the garments, the designer was inspired by a patient whose self-identity changes depends on the surroundings. I do agree with Isabel on how this project embodies the complexity and rhythm of the changing environment. To a certain extend, I also agree with her notion on how this project questions the traditional assumptions about clothing with the use of technologies and computation, but I believe the innovative part is not all about combining robotics with fabrication. On a deeper level, it challenges us to reflect on the role of the clothes and the wearer. In the past, human chose what to wear base on their needs, which is constantly changing as the weather, social occasion, and many other variables would be taken into considerations, but this new garment has its judgment, whether rational or not, on how to react to the immediate present.

I would say that the message that the creator wanted to deliver is more about the philosophical relationship between individuals and the changing surrounding, and less on the algorithm and the tools she used.

Designer Ying Gao Creates Robotic Clothing That Reacts To The Chromatic Spectrum

Ying Gao, 2019, “flowing water, standing time”.

@Isable Xu LookingOutwards-03: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/15-104/f2020/2020/09/19/lookingoutwards-03-4/

LO 09

In catbug’s Looking outwards 6 post, catbug talks about Robbie Barrat’s Neural Network Balenciaga series. The series is comprised of a line of fasion items produced by and amalgamation of an AI’s interpretation of Balenciaga’s lookbook, runway shows, and published images. What is interesting about this is that it walks the fine line, like catbug says, “creativity and mimicry”. The AI’s interpretation at the same time not only allows us to analyze what makes the Balenciaga line Balenciaga, but also begins to examine the idea of a designer’s true need to design. If there is a commonality within all the design work done by this luxury fasion house, what’s the point of hiring new designers? Wouldn’t a computer algorithm be enough to generate the next season of their line? As long as the inputs for the current trend and the “Balenciaga DNA” is present, a continuity of their design legacy is sure to last.
The ephemorality of human led design is upon us.

Looking Outwards 06: Randomness

https://www.ssense.com/en-us/editorial/fashion/do-androids-dream-of-balenciaga-ss29?utm_term=collabshare

Looking Outward 09

Jubbies’s Looking Outwards Post on Joris Laarman piqued my interest. Joris Laarman is a Dutch artist who utilizes emerging technologies in his work and founded a self-named experimental design lab in the Netherlands.

The work being discussed was his “Strange Attractor Lamp” made in 2016: this was a dynamic piece of random-looking, sweeping metal elements woven together that had the ability to function as a lightning element.

Jubbies mentions that they enjoy the “blend of digital and organic” within this work and I feel similarly. I love how Joris Laarman is able to turn a material that most people think of as hard, cold, and industrial, and infuse an organic form onto it.

LO 03: Computational Fabrication