Author: natalie

Looking Outwards-09

One project I found when looking at all the amazing female computer artists was called “Another Moon” by Mimi Son. This was in development since 2015 as an outdoor art exhibition with lasers, code, solar panels, and other elements. It creates “a technically sublime second moon in the sky.” It was made using scanning mirror laser projectors, which were protected from weather during the day as it gained energy from the solar panels to be released through the laser into the sky again at night. I admire this work because it’s very energy efficient while also spectacularly beautiful to behold – I think the use of the lasers is innovative and breathtaking, and I appreciate the thought and care that went into it. The artist, Mimi Son, is the founder of the Seoul-based art studio called Kimchi and Chips, which this exhibition was also a part of. She has a special interest in geometry and Buddhist philosophy, which allows her to use space and time to form various perspectives. Her area of expertise is Conceptualization & Interaction Design, which she studied at the Landsdown Center of Middlesex University in London. She’s also been a teacher of Interactive Storytelling in Korea for six years.

Watch “Another Moon” here.

Read about “Another Moon” here.

Looking Outwards-08

For this assignment, I watched a speech by Chris Barr, a director of arts and technology investments at Knight Foundation in West Virginia. Chris works with art museums and other artistic or cultural institutions in order to implement technology that will help attract and engage audiences. Chris describes himself as “interested in how human culture is shared via media, art, and information systems” but “most of all interested in bringing people together in new and interesting ways.” In this speech specifically, Chris discussed the ice cream museum in New York and the way in which the simplistic and child-like design of the museum increases attraction of all ages. I admire his work and analysis of museums because he provided very simplified breakdowns of the information. He used audio files from other people along with visual aids and feedback from museum-goers to help ground his speech. From this speech, I can learn more about presenting from the amount of aids he uses to help get his message across.

Access Chris Barr’s website here.
Access the speech video here.

Looking Outwards-06

A project that I find interesting is the Dall-E mini software that became vary popular this year. The way that it works is using AI software to generate images from any prompt. Many people used this for comedy, because the software is able to make any image typed, even if it’s impossible to actually occur. Randomness is involved in the way that the photos compile themselves with the AI software. The programming works in order to generate prompts with information that developers have given to the website. I really admire this project because it’s quite fun to compile images into something that isn’t actually possible to create something impossible, which is creative and unique design. Many of my friends have made amusing things with it, and I find it so interesting that computing was used in order to randomly generate any prompt that someone may think of into a picture.

Link to Dalle-Mini.

Looking Outwards-05

One project that I found to be very interesting was Tentacle Tower by Yoichiro Kawaguchi, created in 2005. It’s abstract and interactive, allowing viewers to walk around it. I find myself lost in the design while looking at it, and find the complex shapes and patterns to be fascinating. The medium is a Lenticular 30 picture light box, and was the first time that such a huge-scale Lenticular image has been used to cover four surfaces. While I’m not completely sure about the algorithm, the website says that it is a high-res image composed of 15 serial flames. Kawaguchi’s artistic sensibilities has to be very specific in order to convey such a complex work of art. A lot of thought had to go into all the different shapes and patterns and how they would interact with each other, and the effort and time that it took to make is obvious.

See and learn about the work here.

Project 04-String Art

These are my abstract butterflies.

sketch
// Natalie Koch
// nataliek
// Section A

// Abstract Butterflies

var numLines = 400;
var c1 = ['pink', 'blue' , 'purple'] //color 1
var c2 = ['blue', 'red', 'yellow'] //color 2
var c3 = ['pink', 'green' , 'orange'] //color 3
var dx1 = 10*(150-50)/numLines;
var dy1 = 10*(300-50)/numLines;
var dx2 = 10*(350-300)/numLines;
var dy2 = 10*(100-300)/numLines;
function setup() {
    createCanvas(400, 400);
    background(0);

}

function draw() {
    function a (x1, y1, x2, y2,dx1, dy1, dx2, dy2, colorList) {
        for (var i = 0; i <= numLines; i += 1) {
            stroke(random(colorList))
            line(x1, y1, x2, y2);
            x1 += cos(i)*dx1*15;
            y1 += sin(i)*dy1*15;
            x2 += cos(i)*dx2*20;
            y2 += sin(i)*dy2*20;
            
        }
    }
    a(50,50,300,300,dx1,dy1,dx2,dy2, c1)
    a(50,200,200,375,dx1,dy1,dx2,dy2, c2)
    a(150,25,300,200,dx1,dy1,dx2,dy2, c3)

    noLoop()
}

Looking Outwards-04

For this project, a work that I found to be very interesting was “Purform – White Box, Audiovisual Performance” from 2010. I was mesmerized by the abstract visualization of sound on the giant screens, the animations smooth and flowing along to the music playing. This is something that I admire because I can recognize how difficult something like this must be to achieve. I personally very much love music, and to see it visualized through waves and other abstract shapes with this technology was very exciting. I’m not quite sure about the algorithms needed, but I would assume that they used trigonometric functions in order to make these kinds of shapes. The artist needed to be able to visualize how they wanted the sound to be portrayed on these screens, because this kind of project could have been interpreted in many different ways. The artists’ vision needed to be specific and they needed to use coding and other technology to make their vision a reality.

Watch the video here.

Project 03

This is my project of the moon phases!

sketch
// Natalie Koch
// nataliek
// Section A

// The Phases of the Moon

var diam = 300
var value = 255
var canvasX = 600
var canvasY = 450
function setup() {
    createCanvas(canvasX, canvasY);

}

function draw() {
    background(0);
    mouseX = constrain(mouseX,25,575) //motion constraints
    mouseY = constrain(mouseY,225,225) //motion constraints
    if (width/2-mouseX >= 0) {
        diam = mouseX
        value = (mouseX/canvasX)*255
    } else if (width/2-mouseX < 0) { //size variations as moon moves
        diam = width-mouseX}
        value = (mouseX/canvasX)*255
    fill(255,255,value)
    ellipse(mouseX,mouseY,diam,diam) //moon
    ellipse(50,30,10,10)
    ellipse(100,50,10,10)
    ellipse(120,70,10,10)
    ellipse(160,30,10,10)
    ellipse(200,60,10,10)
    ellipse(250,30,10,10) // } stars
    ellipse(300,40,10,10)
    ellipse(350,20,10,10)
    ellipse(400,50,10,10)
    ellipse(450,30,10,10)
    ellipse(500,60,10,10)
    ellipse(550,30,10,10)
    fill(0)
    ellipse(-75,height/2,400,400) //black circles on sides so moon can crescent
    ellipse(675,height/2,400,400)
}

Looking Outwards 03

For this assignment, I was reading about “Robots in Architecture.” I thought the crossover between these two disciplines was really interesting, specifically because even though I don’t know much about them, I find robots fascinating. In this project, robots are used to help construct different architectural works. I don’t know much about the algorithms, but coding and engineering had to play a key role in the functioning success of these robots. The website says that KUKA|prc is a program that simulates the different positions of the robot, also citing a wide range of algorithms (such as Grasshopper) that these coders can build upon to make sure the robot functions smoothly. The creators had to have a very specific vision in mind for the buildings, and then an even greater handle on the coding needed for the robots to successfully carry it out. This is a great example of how STEM and the arts can intersect to form something powerful and innovative, and I would love to watch a project be carried out like this first hand.

Article link:
https://www.robotsinarchitecture.org/kukaprc

Watch the robot at work here:

Looking Outwards 02

Natalie Koch; Section A
Looking Outwards 02

When looking through the different provided examples for this blog, one that really stood out to me was the bird photography done by Erlend Haarberg in https://www.thisiscolossal.com. As someone who has done photography in the past, I know how challenging it can be to capture things in motion, such as birds. There’s a lot of work that needs to go into camera settings to ensure an in focus picture. Setting a camera with the correct settings for pictures like these is an algorithm in itself. When setting a camera, you need to pay attention to things like shutter speed and aperture. The pictures of birds clearly seen flying and the pictures of birds silhouetted against the skyline require different settings, so Haarberg had to have the end result in mind when setting his camera for these shots. All of these pictures are artistic in different ways, so Haarberg had to use his artistic sensibilities to make sure the photos came out the way he wanted them to.

“Rock Ptarmigan Flight”; the award winning picture: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/bpoty-1.jpg

“Puffin Love”; a silhouette picture: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/bpoty-7.jpg

Project 02

This is my variable face project

this is my project

sketch
// Natalie Koch; Section A

function setup() {
    createCanvas(480, 640);
    background(0);
    text("p5.js vers 0.9.0 test.", 10, 15);
}

function draw() {
    background(132,200,180);
    fill(0)
    ellipse(240,310,420,410) //back of hair
    fill(255,208,172)
    ellipse(90,350,50,70) //left ear
    ellipse(390,350,50,70) //right ear
    rect(175,400,125,200) //neck
    ellipse(width/2,height/2,300,350) //head
    fill(197,220,222) 
    rect(90,250,125,100) //left glasses lens
    rect(265,250,125,100) //right glasses lens
    fill(255,208,172) 
    rect(205,345,70,30) //nose
    fill(0)
    line(215,275,265,275) //glasses bridge
    line(190,420,290,420) //mouth
    rect(90,200,300,50) //bangs
    ellipse(240,175,275,100) //bangs
    fill(255)
    rect(140,260,65,20) //glasses light flare
    rect(315,260,65,20) //glasses light flare
    fill(81,89,66)
    ellipse(240,639,500,150) //shirt

if (mouseIsPressed) {
    background (180,39,8)
    fill(0)
    ellipse(240,310,420,410) //back of hair
    fill(255,208,172)
    ellipse(90,350,50,70) //left ear
    ellipse(390,350,50,70) //right ear
    rect(175,400,125,200) //neck
    ellipse(width/2,height/2,300,350) //head
    fill(33,13,5)
    ellipse(width/2,430,140,50) //mouth
    fill(255)
    rect(190,405,100,20) //teeth
    fill(0)
    rect(90,200,300,50) //bangs
    ellipse(240,175,275,100) //bangs
    fill(81,89,66)
    ellipse(240,639,500,150) //shirt
    fill(255)
    ellipse(155,300,70,60) //eye base
    ellipse(330,300,70,60) //eye base
    fill(0)
    ellipse(160,295,40,40) //pupil
    ellipse(325,295,40,40) //pupil
    fill(197,220,222)
    rect(90,320,125,100) //left glasses lens
    rect(265,320,125,100) //right glasses lens
    line(80,300,90,370) //left earpiece
    line(390,370,400,300) //right earpiece
    fill(255,208,172)
    rect(205,345,70,30) //nose
    fill(255)
    rect(140,330,65,20) //glasses light flare
    rect(315,330,65,20) //glasses light flare
    ellipse(170,290,20,20) //eye light flare
    ellipse(340,290,20,20) //eye light flare
    fill(70,43,15)
    ellipse(150,200,80,40) //eyebrows color
    ellipse(325,200,80,40) //eyebrows color
    fill(0)
    ellipse(150,210,70,30) //eyebrows cover
    ellipse(325,210,70,30) //eyebrows cover (i don't know how to code arcs!)
}
}