LookingOutwards-09 – Page 4 – [OLD FALL 2020] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

Looking Outwards – 09 – On Looking Outwards

Random Internationals Swarm Studies is incredible because it automatically draws people in. It allows people to interact with the piece through visuals, audio, and motion. I agree with Mango in that I also admire how the piece manifests unique forms with each interaction it has with each person. In a way, it encourages people to become an artist themselves and create their own personalized experiences.

Random Internationals – Swarm Study I (2010)

I also believe that Random Internationals wanted to imitate the acrobatic efficiency of birds in flight. It seems like mystery how entire flocks of birds are able to make quick, instant turns when they are flying forty miles per hour. Studies have shown that flocks are able to propogate easily because each bird watches for the moves of their nearest neighbor. Similarly, each light source in the piece changes their direction and motion in response to the noise near them, resulting in collective behavior.

In this way, I think that the creators’ artistic sensibilities are rooted in togetherness. The act of collective behavior of the lights, people, and their interactions, can lead to artistic experiences.

Looking Outwards 09: on Looking Outwards

In the 5th week of looking outwards, we were tasked with looking at 3d graphics. There is a wide variety of choices my classmates have chosen to analyze and elaborate on. A specific one I’ve taken a liking to is the one on Jakub Javora by the author under the alias, rkim. They bring up the transformation of a real location to an alternate reality in a project called Restore Point. This is similar to the post by the author under the alias, carson michaelis. The core concept of creating an illusion with a preexisting condition is what the authors and I find fascinating. They focused on a rendering from an architectural firm, WOJR, and their project, ‘Mask House’.The difference between the two projects is one is creating an artificial world that is meant to be fantasy but one is created to portray a potential reality. Both create a mood they want the viewer to experience and cater to their visual palette. I enjoyed both projects and think both authors are absolutely right when it comes to their analysis of their executions.

*carson michaelis*‘ *Looking Outwards 5*

Looking Outwards 09: on Looking Outwards

For this week, I looked at 101’s week 9 LO about computer graphics. He/she introduced me to the project Melting memories by Refik Anadol, which was displayed in Pilevneli Gallery from February 7 through March 17, 2018. In the post, he/she mentioned how it was interesting to see a project that intersects physical and digital reality, art, and neuroscience. I agree with that since, besides from its outstanding graphics, the fact that it showcased materiality of remembering captured my attention. I thought Anadol’s way of displaying advanced technology and the study of human memory was creative. The method of gathering data and implying it to the installation was also unique. For this project, participants were asked to focus on specific long-term memories during the recording process. Then the researchers looked at certain nodes with limited frequency rates and used them to drive noise parameters within the real time simulation.

Melting Memories

Peer link: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/15-104/f2020/2020/10/03/looking-outwards-05-3d-computer-graphics-5/

Looking Outwards 09: on Looking Outwards

Looking at other students’ looking outwards posts, I found the looking outwards 06: randomness post by the username “catbug” interesting. The work he/she talks about it Robbie Barrat’s Neural Network Balenciaga series. Barrat produced a random image by analyzing the similarities in thousands images from Balenciaga runway and interpret the patterns in those. I agree with him/her that it is very interesting and admirable that this project throws the whole concept of randomness into question; that they are series of randomly generated images yet look so similar to each other and look so consistent in the style. I wonder if it is a similar concept to the average. Analyzing thousands of images of Balenciaga runway and lookbook may have allowed the algorithm/system to find out the patterns in the clothes and find out the “average” of the aspects of the Balenciaga style and that led to generating the most “Balenciaga” images.

https://flaunt.com/content/ai-fashion

LO 9 – On Looking Outwards

For this week’s LO, I looked at Holly’s Looking Outwards post from week 5 on 3D computer graphics. In this post, she examined the work of 3D designer Roman Bratschi, studying a piece from his “NONSENSE IN 3D N°191-200” collection from 2018. Similar to Holly, I am drawn to Bratschi’s work because of his highly detailed, realistic renders of complex textures. His strong sense of color is evident in his work, as he utilizes sophisticated color palettes to enhance his visual narratives. In addition to the elements that Holly pointed out in her post, I think that the compositions of his pieces play a significant role in their success, as they are quite dynamic and invite viewers to examine the intricacies of each render.

To learn more about Bratschi, I visited his website, where I read about his career path and past work. I was really intrigued by the way that although his work is extremely clean and polished, he is able to effectively manipulate texture, color, and composition to convey a range of emotions and narratives across the different pieces in his portfolio. While some renders come across as very elegant and satisfying, others feel dark and unsettling.

LO 09: Anthony Prestigiacomo

Author: Anthony Prestigiacomo
Assignment: Looking Outward 03
Artwork: Probability Lattices
Artist: Marius Watz
Year: 2012

I agree with Anthony that the 4 pieces created are all quite unique, but similar in a very interesting way. The sharpness of the edges created by the angles give an interesting appearance to each individual sculpture. I would be interested to see what the parametric functions looked like to create the art pieces. Also, as the piece was created in 2012, the 3D filament is quite apparent. I would be interested to see how complex Watz could make these art pieces with today’s technology. 3D printers are much better at not leaving lines as well as can create more complex structures. I agree with Anthony that the artist relies on abstractionism which gives his artwork the feel that it does. On top of that, the Watz manages to reduce the abstractness with computation. The ties between the two gives the art its appeal which I imagine is quite difficult to create.

http://mariuswatz.com/2012/05/09/probability-lattice/

Looking Outwards – 09

“Tree Growth” is a very simple piece that I find really intriguing. Like Alyssa mentions, the process of painting a tree comes down a lot to muscle memory and random brushstrokes to give it enough “noise” to be lifelike. This program does the exact same thing, replicating the process of painting or growing a tree through computational means.

The leaves even change color by the seasons! The piece, fundamentally, is simulating natural growth within the confines of code. By roughly replicating the natural process, the piece takes the first step towards growing a “real” digital tree.

-Robert

LO – 6 – Randomness

LO9: On Looking Outwards

Nike’s 2017 AirMax Campaign Video

One Looking Outwards that I am drawn to is Jubbies’s Looking Outward 5 on 3D computer graphics. Jubbies chose the Nike AirMax 2017 campaign created by the design studio ManvsMachine. I totally agree with Jubbies’s assessment of the video. The promotional video was able to use sound and 3D renderings to convey the lightness and comfort of the Nike AirMax without having to render the literal shoes themself which I thought was really cool. I really enjoy the gravity simulation created. The application of computer-aid 3D rendering to something that I’m really interested in–running shoes– and an aspiring product designer is really eye-opening to me.

Creator: ManvsMachine

Year: 2017

Link: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/15-104/f2020/2020/10/03/lo-3d-rendered-project/

LO-09: Learning from Peers’ Blogs

Emoji-inspired Artworks for Facebook, by Kyuha Shim

LO 1 – My Inspiration

For Looking Outwards this week, I chose to review a blog from the one of the initial weeks of the course. Having joined this class late, I missed out on the first two weeks of work and that’s why I chose to use this week to review LO essays from those weeks written by peers.

I reviewed a post by Mark, where he talks about one of the artists who inspires him: Kyuha Shim. I chose this post to review because Shim, is not only a CMU professor, but also someone I had the chance to learn from, last year as I am a part of the Department of Design. Kyuha’s body of work is hugely inspired by what he calls computational design thinking.

While designers have several visual tools and software at their disposal to create and design interactions, experiences and interfaces, Kyuha’s work focuses on bringing computation into that design process and looking at computation as material. Kyuha was an artist-in-Residence at Facebook and he used computational methods to iterate graphic design compositions using deconstructed emojis.

In the process of iteration, he uses computation as material to create artworks/compositions at the frequency of “thousands of compositions in seconds” which expands the boundaries of thinking.

As a designer, this way of approaching code is inspiring. Rather than going in with an entire plan, going in with the right computational tools, can give rise to many visual design posibilities, which is true about p5.js as well as Processing

This is also a great example of an artist building up a particular practice or approach and using that approach for a versatile set of projects.

https://www.facebook.com/analoglab/videos/2163738493935595/?extid=GzpKGxeoSpyRbp7Q

Looking Outwards 09

I looked through my friend Lucas Bittig’s Looking Outwards posts and the one that I found interesting and different was his week 4 post. This post was on music and art, he talked about a certain art work that sometimes appears like a physical painting and others as a computer generated art work. I agree with my peers assessment of the project, I like how interesting the painting can turn out as some of them can be very realistic looking. I also like the combination of the two art forms into one, “painting” and music. Like Lucas said this art can tend to be beautiful as is incorporates so many mediums and techniques to form a final product. The creator of the arts name is Kynd in collaboration with Yu Miyashita in 2020.

LO 04 – Music and Art

Expressions – Paint and pixel matière at micro-scale