Category: Uncategorized

duq-LookingOutwards04

The project that I selected is “That Time I sold My Dreads Online” by E. Jane. This piece is a simple image of a small plastic bag containing several pieces of dread labeled to be “Locks From E. Jane’s Head” on ebay. I found it interesting because I think it is a very blunt, no-frills conversation about the dilemma that many artists face. Artists can choose to make art that they truly believe in but will often have trouble supporting themselves or they can create art that they may actively dislike making or find disgusting simply to be able to afford living.

CrispySalmon-FaceReadings

I thought this one is hilarious. People are intentionally using the flaws of the algorithm to their advantage.

2. The privacy concern of using facial recognition is always a heated debate. Last summer, I was flying from Beijing and there was this new kiosk at the airport where you can simply scan your face and it tells you your flight information right away. At first I was amazed at its convenience because I don’t need to pull out my boarding passes. But then it struck me that I never scanned my face when I was checking in nor when I was purchasing the ticket online. I’m not exactly sure when did the system logged my face in and I started to be more concerned about facial recognition and where it’s harvesting the data from.

Sneeze-Creature

Project Link

The creature I created is named Jelly. Jelly is being puppeteer by the user’s mouse and will swim following the cursor. Jelly’s tentacles can grow if the user clicks their mouse on the screen. I used a lot of bits and pieces of other people’s code to create the mechanism. The most difficult part of this was understanding code that was not mine and understanding it enough to manipulate it to the outcome that I wanted. I used a spring mechanism for the tentacles and a particle system for the moving dots.

spingbing-Creature

My creature is called Sping. In coming up with the concept for the interaction with spings I imagined that of a chihuahua who hates its owner but still needs them in proximity for comfort. I wanted it to always be biting the mouse but also chasing it out of need for company. It is also dumb, like a chihuahua, and will not avoid its poop, so the user should try and clean the poop before it gets there.

This idea was not super developed. I have issues with the entire thing, but it is what I could manage given balancing my other classes. A way this could be improved simply is to expand my creature to be more than 3 rects to give more of an impression of a living thing. I also could change the poops to be more poop-looking.  Everything overall would benefit from more time.

spingbing-landscape

This landscape is meant to depict a bumpy, pimply, hairy back that the user appears to be flying over.

Link

Process: My personal criteria for this project were:

    1. I did not want to create a literal response to the landscape prompt.
    2. I wanted to instill some sort of feeling in the user, whether that be due to beauty or fear etc.
    3. I wanted to experiment with the WEBGL feature of p5.
    4. I wanted it to be dynamic.

I believe that was able to achieve my goals. This piece is still in the works – I want to add lights to actually showcase the 3 dimensional nature of this project. I am not sure if the lights will affect the “floor” – I would like to figure that out.

Sketch/Planning:

Still:

 

Solar-Reading03

Question 1A: Clouds exhibit effective complexity. They are created by water vapor that has turned into liquid water droplets. While they are formed by the same molecules, they appear random in the sky and are influenced by factors such as temporature and altitude. Hence, there is order in how they are formed and but randomness in their formations.

Question 1B: I have always felt conflicted about the problem of authorship when it comes to generative art. When I was learning about generative real-time visuals for the first time using Touchdesigner, I felt I had little control over what the real-time visuals would look like and since I was a beginner, I would just play around with different parameters and functions and end up becoming pleasantly surprised by the product of my “creation”. Looking back at it, I would say the machine was more of a creator than myself because I had no control over the end product. However, now that I have more experience with the application, I can effectively create my ideas instead of letting the computer determine them. In this case, I believe I have then gained authorship over the work I create because the computer has become a medium, just as paint on a canvas, to help me create my art.

Solar-LookingOutwards02

https://www.behance.net/gallery/85060381/buiiin

I chose buiiin by Manolo Gamboa Naon. The piece instantly reminded me of Hong Kong at night, looking out at towering skyscrapers. I found this piece extremely clever because from afar, the piece heavily resembles skyscrapers but when you look closer, some areas seem fictional, as if there are floating buildings. However, the colors the artist uses which contract the black background render some shapes to seem like reflections of office lights.

spingbing-Loop

Final:

 

Colored (video):

This piece exists in a shaded color version as well as this black and white version. I had originally set out to make a colored gif because my idea was to create an image of pulsing intestines. The colored version looks more like actual intestines because it looks more three dimensional with the shadows, but I think the lines on the monochrome one are sufficient in giving the allusion of 3D. The project is also interactive in that the user can draw their own version. I think the noise makes this successful in looking “alive”, but it does not give off a clear image of intestines, as I had originally intended.