SectionD – Page 2 – [OLD SEMESTER] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

Looking Outwards 11: Societal Impacts of Digital Art

The article is about ImageNet Roulette, a classification tool that uses artificial intelligence to sort and categorize pictures. It was created by Trevor Pagan and Kate Crawford who were hoping to reveal some “racist, misogynistic and cruel results” with their platform to highlight issues with biases in artificial intelligence. The data set that trains the AI is widely used in the industry and consists of over 14 million images. The article highlights an extremely concerning issue of the AI highlighting white individuals with common descriptors regarding their careers, personalities, etc. However, black participants primarily reviewed results that reflected their race. Fortunately, changes were made to the database, and images and descriptors were removed to reduce the negative biases the software was creating.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/art-project-exposed-racial-biases-artificial-intelligence-system-180973207/

LO 09: Women in Computational Art

I looked at the project A Global Retail Interactive for the brand On Running by Vera-Maria Glahn. Glahn is a digital artist who combines data art and immersive experiences to create immersive storytelling. This project is a digital wall of gradient colors with motion sensors that tracks the movement of people in front of it. I think this is a smart design for a running store because it allows interaction between the product of the store and the artistic installation design of the walls. The customer can try on the shoes and run across the wall and the wall would respond to the movement and create a biomechanical profile of their movement, resulting in digital art. When the customers return after their purchase they can run again and the digital wall can show how the shoe can improve their performance. This system is composed of multiple motion sensors that capture the running motion from 3 angles. I find it inspiring how digital programming can create a system that can both be useful to track and compare running data and create artistic art.

Link https://field.systems/work/on-running-try-on-global-retail-interactive

Project 9 portrait

sketch

//Evette LaComb 
//Section D 
//09 project 


//the portrait must be an un-retouched photograph of a person
//that can be acessed on imgur.com 
//you can only display the portrait generated
//should not be bigger than 480 x 480
//show creativity 
//write a sentance or tow reflecting on your process and product 


let img;
var x; 
var y;

var angle = 0;
var radius = 0;
var frameCount = 0;
var circleSize = 1;

function preload() {
  img = loadImage("https://i.imgur.com/a9JqjIf.jpg");
}

function setup() {
  createCanvas(480, 480);
  img.loadPixels();
  imageMode(CENTER);
  img.resize(480, 480)
  background("grey");

  noStroke();

}

function draw() {

    //varaibles for x and y occording to spiral 

    x = radius * cos(radians(angle));
    y = radius * sin(radians(angle));

    //code for calling pixels: 


   var pix = img.get(x, y);
   var pixx = img.get(width/2, y);

   //code for the circels and fill:


    fill(pix);
    circle(x, y, circleSize);
    fill(pixx);
    circle(x, y, circleSize/2);

    //code for the spiral:

    radius += frameCount / 3000;
    angle += 8;
    frameCount += 1;
    circleSize += 0.07;
    if (frameCount > 3000) {
        noLoop();
    }

    //border to cover where circles could not be drawn:

    fill("white");
    rect(0, 0, width, 20);
    rect(0, height - 20, width, height - 20);
    rect(0, 0, 20, height);
    rect(height - 20,0,  height, width- 20);

}

//my process for this was I wanted to include a spiral effect revealing the image
//I found that translating th spiral to the center effted where my pixel colors were being grabbed from
//I changed the spiral instead to start at 0, 0
//I ended up liking this effect better because it shows how the that top corner 
//is the brightest part. The spiral created a sun ray effect that looked cool
//I then wanted something else in the circled so I made donuts with the 
//inverted color in the center. This helped to bring some color to the top corner
//so it wasnt just all white.

Looking Outwards 9

For this week’s Looking Outwards I looked at Emily Gobeille. According to her website she is an “an award-winning designer” and is cofounder of Design I/O “a creative studio specializing in the design and development of cutting-edge, immersive, interactive installations and new forms of storytelling”. I picked her to look into her because a friend of mine had suggested it would fit my interests. I am currently in a class about designing environments and toy design was something that got me into design in the first place.

From her personal site I was then drawn to the Design I/O site to learn more about the projects she has worked on. I was drawn to the “Funky Forest” project done in the Singapore Art Museum, simply because I liked the visuals. Learning more, this project was a visual learning tool to show children how forest ecosystems work. The interactive display was through a projected system that reacted to the children’s movements and positioning of objects. I personally was inspired by this project because of the use of projected digital graphics to create an entire immersive and interactive environment, that both looked cool and provided a fun purpose. My favorite part of the project is when the kids kind of go crazy and are sending water all over the forest. I think Gobeille’s own sense of storytelling and imagination is reflected in the projects she works on.

Funky-Forest-Interactive-Installation-Design-I_O-1 Download

http://zanyparade.com/

Project 09: Portrait

I really enjoyed this project and think this turned out cute. I especially like how the icons reinforce what the image is communicating (I really love fruit).

sketch

/*
    Joan Lee
    Section D

    This program draws a portrait of me GRIPPING my fruit with symbols that represent me loving fruit.
*/

function preload() {
    joan = loadImage("https://i.imgur.com/eMJulaO.png");
}

function setup() {
    createCanvas(385, 480);
    joan.resize(width, height);
    background(255);
    joan.loadPixels();
}

function draw() {
    //want the image to be revealed where the mouse is
    var pixColor = joan.get(mouseX, mouseY);
    
    //revealing image of me GRIPPING fruit with icons that resemble fruit and my love for it
    noStroke();
    iLoveFruit = ["♥", "⊛", "❂"];

    for(var i = 0; i < 3; i ++) {
        fill(pixColor);
        textSize(random(1, 10));
        text(iLoveFruit[floor(random(iLoveFruit.length))], mouseX, mouseY);
    }
}

Looking Outwards 09: A Focus on Women and Non-binary Practitioners in Computational Art

video of Delicate Boundaries by Chris Sugrue

I found Chris Sugrue’s Delicate Boundaries compelling because of its interactive and creative nature. Chris is an artist who specializes in interactive new media installations. She earned a Master’s of Fine Arts in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design, and now is based in Paris, where she teaches at Parson’s campus there.

This piece allows users to watch as small bug-like creatures scuttle across a darkness, and come to life when hands touch the screen. The artist definitely knows how to make bugs look appealing; even though their movement and legs clearly indicate that they are creepy crawlers, their shapes are approachable and cute. I am curious as to why these critters were chosen to be the subjects of this project. It is remarkable how well the software is able to read the locations of hands, as well as the paths to follow along the arms, and I admire its blending of virtual and physical worlds (hence the title). Since it reacts to touch and is projected from above, I assume this effect is achieved through infrared/heat sensors.

Looking Outwards 09

The artist I looked into was one Marina Zurkow, who I became interested in because I saw that she does interactive cartoons. I’ve always wanted to experiment with interactive cartoons, ever since I started becoming interested in animation. So it felt like a good fit.

Marina Zurkow is a media artist who likes delving into issues that are typically controversial and often have a sort of activist bent, but takes a wildly different approach. I couldn’t see where she went to school or anything, but she appears to have worked with a number of universities. She is based out of the United States.

The project of hers I focused on was the animation Mesocosm, which depicts a large man and a number of animals, people, and other paraphernalia all moving around. According to her website, it is an algorithmic work, meaning that “One hour of world time elapses in each minute of screen time, so that one year lasts 146 hours. No cycle is identical to the last, as the appearance and behavior of the human and non-human characters, as well as changes in the weather, are determined by a code using a simple probability equation” I found this fascinating, and it reminds me of the clock project I had worked on earlier this year. At certain parts of the animation the man does get eaten, (by birds, but only nibbles I think, not sure. No way to completely tell how far it gets) which is kinda graphic, but that’s okay its not horrid.

*NOTE, the animation requires Adobe Flash Player to view

Blog 9

This week’s emphasis was on women, non binary, and underrepresented people in computational art. A lot of the work was really cool and the artists were all people with diverse paths and specialties. The person I chose to focus on was Kate Hollenbach, I really enjoyed her work because her art is really focused around the relationship between the user and the thing or algorithm or whatever. Phonelovesyoutoo was a project I found hilarious. The premise was pretty simple, we spend time looking at our phones, what if our phones spent time looking at us. Hollenbach programmed her phone to record a video every time she unlocked it and was using it. 30 to 90 minutes of footage a day for a month. What came out was a collection of videos of staring blankly at the screen almost always in that double chin craneing the neck at an unhealthy angle. Pure relatable gold.

Project 09: Computational Portrait (Custom Pixel)

This process took me a while to figure out and understand. I wanted it to be interactive in some way and thought, what if you get to “paint” it?”. To my surprise, I was able to figure out the painting portion quite easily. I also wanted the pixels to be more than just squares or circles so I decided to use a phrase that I constantly need to be reminded of: “Believe in yourself”.

sketch my portrait Download

/*
Sandy Youssef; 
section D; 
syoussef@andrew.cmu.edu;
Project-09;
*/

// loads portrait of my face
function preload () {
    face = loadImage ("https://i.imgur.com/47iZQND.jpeg");

}


function setup() {
    createCanvas(480, 480);
    background(220);
    face.resize(480,480); // resizes image proportionally to the canvas
    face.loadPixels(); // loads pixels data
}

function draw() {
        
    // pixels appear at the position of the mouse
    var ColorPixel = face.get(mouseX,mouseY);  // returns text that corresponds to the color of the image at the location of the mouse
    noStroke();
        
    // Array that contains words of a phrase. This allows the individual words to 
    //be displayed on the canvas as opposed to the phrase as a whole to 
    //create shorter sized "pixels"
    word = ["Believe", "In", "Yourself"];
    // loop that continues to iterate over the words 
    for(var i = 0; i < 3; i ++) {
        //draws text random size wherever your mouse is on the canvas
        // allows you to paint the portrait!
        fill(ColorPixel);
        textSize(random(1,10));
        text(word[floor(random(word.length))], mouseX,mouseY);
            

    }


    
}

// This process took me a while to figure out and understand. 
// I wanted it to be interactive in some way and I thought "what if you get to "paint" it?"
//  To my surprise, I was able to figure out the painting portion quite easily. I also wanted the 
//  pixels to be more than just squares or circles so I decided to use a phrase that I constantly need to be reminded of: "Believe in yourself"

What it will look like once fully painted

Looking Outwards 09: A Focus on Women and Non-binary Practitioners in Computational Art

Creator’s Name: Toni Dove
Title of Work: The Dress That Eats Souls
Year of Creation: Feb 2018

This eerie yet beautiful piece of art is incredible to look at and the experience of interacting with it seems to be quite as impressive. While many concepts are spoken about through this dress with a robotic bodice, it explores our interaction with technology, so powerful, it has the potential to consume us and our experiences. When an individual stands in front of this dress, it mimics their motion, and POV video allows the person to watch through the eyes of those who have worn the dress and hear their inner thoughts. To create this dress it must not only be built physically to make certain movements but programmed to replicate the movements of others which is quite impressive.

Toni Dove works in New York to make interface technologies that create interactive performances. She has worked on many installations and she describes The Dress That Eats Souls as “an interactive cinema and robotics installation”

https://tonidove.com/the-dress-that-eats-souls/text/