For this project, I am using stop motion and paint to retrace my steps in the past two weeks.
This project was inspired by me and my friends joking about how we’re coming out of the fall break replenished, but will be walking dead in about a week. It was also inspired by my friends joking about how difficult it is to find time to do the things we want to do.
By using the form of a stop-motion animation on a white canvas, I can visualize the monotony of school week in straightforward, convinsing way. I attempt to capture how being trapped in the circle of school “muddies up” a person. The colors, even though bright and clean at first, becomes tainted and lose their shine after repetition and repetition of this circle.
The final step in the video is of a depressing color, but it breaks out of the circle and walks toward a new direction represented by the white spot. (Hopefully that will be me tomorrow :< )
Process:
I recorded the locations that I’ve been to every day since the end of fall break on my phone:
Then, I used red paint to represent Mellon Institute, yellow paint to represent campus/ETC, and blue to represent my home on the canvas. I then used my two fingers to “retrace” my steps among these locations.
To create the stop-motion video, I reused the processing code for the stop-motion capture from the lecture. I also implemented a quick auto-clicker using Python, where the program can click the left mouse every five seconds. This frees up my hand from touching the computer repeatedly when I’m manipulating paint.
Software testing using my lil pumpkin 🙂 :
Setup for recording the stop motion:
Inspiration:
A project that greatly inspired me is a performance art by Zhilin (直林) for Alienware laptop promotion. In this performance art, he captures the monotony of stay-ar-home working routine trapped in a house, which is a norm nowadays because of the pandemic.
