Category: LookingOutwards-09

LO-09

After browsing through the Looking Outwards posts by my classmates, Maggie’s 3D Computer Graphics post on the Amigos Project by Zigor Samaniego caught my attention. Amigos Project is a series of art by Samaniego started in 2016 using tools such as Photoshop, Pixologic Zbrush, Maxon Cinema 4D, and Wacom Cintiq. As Maggie pointed out, these computer-generated “monsters” are super cute, a reason why I wanted to learn more about it. As they also mentioned, it’s really interesting and impressive how Samaniego was able to achieve such realistic textures using 3D rendering tools to create the adorable “realistic” creatures. Along with that, I am also fascinated by how Samaniego made certain choices while programming and designing to be able to maintain the creatures’ “cuteness” despite making them super realistic (especially since the “more real” something appears, the less “cute” it becomes).

Amigos Project 5
Amigos Project 7

LO 09 – On Looking Outwards

All Streets Limited (2007) by Ben Fry

In Bon’s Looking Outwards on Data Visualization, he examined All Streets Limited by Ben Fry. Fry used data from the U.S. Census Bureau to code the map in Javascript, which consists of 240 million individual road segments across the United States. He applied the Albers equal-area conic projection to obtain the longitude and latitude coordinates of the streets. I agree with Bon that the illustration provides a macro view of our national interconnectedness. After doing my own research, I also found it interesting that the map contains no other terrain (canyons, rivers, mountains, etc.), yet we can still see the shapes of these natural forms emerge as roads weave and navigate around, demonstrating the power dynamics between the natural and artificial/industrial. 

Ben Fry’s All Streets Limited.
Closeup of the roadless terrain that forms the Appalachian Mountains.

LO – 9

I chose Hayoon’s 7th Looking Outwards post to examine in greater detail. She highlighted the data visualization“We feel fine” project created by Jonathan Harris. Like Hayoon, I found the subject matter of emotion a really intriguing topic to visualize. I had just watched a lecture about the complexity and necessity of emotion as a consideration in design solutions earlier this semester; this made data visualization of this concept all more important in my eyes. I also took note of the extensive use of color to categorize information. Furthermore, I believe that the use of text and simple shapes was pretty ingenious at representing complex information, especially with a concept as abstract and conventionally-unquantifiable as emotion. It goes to show that smart design does not need to use the most groundbreaking techniques, but can instead solve the problem efficiently using what is available. I also thought it was a good design choice to incorporate photographs as a way to humanize and contextualize the data. In examining Hayoon’s interpretations of her chosen project, I was able to take a different approach to examining Harris’ insightful initiative.

I especially enjoyed Harris’ interpretation of mood swings and how the colors relate 2 data visualizations together.

LO-9

For this week’s LO, I decided to revisit my friend Sean’s LO from Week 3, in which he wrote about BLOOMS, a group of sculptural computer fabricated pieces by John Edmark that was created around 4 years ago.

Sean mostly covered all the basics of the project, but upon more research, I was surprised to find out that the forms of the pieces are actually each based on a different algorithm, such as the Fibonnaci sequence or the golden rectangle/angle. Additionally, while Sean described the process that Edmark uses to create videos pretty accurately, I was surprised to learn that the timing between each frame is created using progressive rotations of the golden ratio, also known as phi. This angle and shape is mostly commonly seen in sunflower centers and pinecone-like forms in nature. I found it interesting that everything from the form to the frame timing ties in together to create nature-like forms in the final product: some of the forms even look like pinecones or something that could be found in a cellular structure of something. 

LO – 9

I decided to look at Helen Cheng’s looking outwards from week 2. It was on Robert Hodgin’s ‘Traffic’ piece. Being a driver myself, I found this piece very interesting and agreed on many of the points Helen mentioned in her blog post. The simulation is busy, and the cars have an “aggressiveness” to them like humans do. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been overwhelmed by cars running reds, blocking the intersection, etc. People don’t always make the smartest decisions on the road, and this simulation captures it pretty well. The thing I find the most interesting, however, is the attempt to make a computer act human. Even with the “aggressiveness” coded in, this project doesn’t make accidents happen and the traffic still flows more seamlessly than traffic in real life. I know it would be much more difficult to code and he wanted to keep things pretty simple, but it somewhat works in a way. What I mean by that is the whole idea of self-driving cars. Once self-driving cars are at their finest, and everyone is using them accidents should be minimal and traffic will probably look quite similar to this. It was very interesting to think about how code can be manipulated to show human flaws, and on the flip-side, give us insight into what automation has the potential for.

As always, here’s the link to Robert’s website:

Traffic

And two videos of his simulation:

LO-09 On Looking Outwards

“Womb” Jennifer Steinkamp, Talley Dunn Gallery, August 23, 2019. Video

When browsing through the 3-D Computer Graphics Looking Outwards, I found Poppy’s post about Jennifer Steinkamp’s digital animation “Womb” very interesting. I was initially intrigued by how she wrote about the piece being centered around femininity. I found my peer’s assessment about how the artist’s sensibilities manifesting in the piece to make a meaningful analogy with her work very insightful.  

I admire the way the artist uses bright “Fruit Ninja” style visuals to create a thought-provoking piece. Steinkamp describes this piece as a way of showing how a womb is a place of transformation that “grows and stretches outward to exercise agency.” With this piece, the viewer acts as the form of agency as the piece’s movement mirrors the viewer’s movement. I agree with my peer’s assessment that this is an interesting way to represent how we as people take up space.

I learned that the wind sound used is taken from the Wizard of Oz tornado scene, which I thought was an interesting choice as it’s unrelated to the subject matter of the piece. I also learned that Steinkamp tailors each of her pieces depending on the space in which she shows, which I thought was very impressive. 

LO 09: on Looking Outwards

MTV: Love from Laurie Rowan on Vimeo.

I was scrolling through the previous Looking Outwards category on 3D Graphics when I stumbled upon eyelash’s post on Laurie Rowan. The work “MTV: Love” was extremely mesmerizing, to say the least. I agree with my peer’s analysis of Rowan’s work, that it is demonstrative of how a seemingly impractical artistic vision can find a place to reach and impact a greater audience. I really appreciate how each of his work’s is definitely idiosyncratic, yet clearly still his distinct style. Rowan’s work is absurd and adorable, appealing to people of all ages. I think it is interesting to consider how music and sounds come into play with his animations and add yet another degree of complexity. I would also like to add that Rowan creates pieces that comment on society as well, as evidenced by his piece for a Businessweek Editorial (seen below). His works are playful, but also critical.

Although I am not familiar with animation software, I agree with the assessment that these were likely made with a combination of rendering/animation programs such as Cinema4D and AfterEffects, and I believe that Blender might have had a role in their creation as well.