Final project proposal (Final draft)

For my final project, I will use Processing to create an interactive version of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. I will use images that I have drawn to illustrate the story and use Processing to progress through the story by having the viewer perform certain tasks, such as clicking a series of buttons on screen, aligning objects, pressing computer keys, and possibly frame differencing from the camera. Processing may also be used to add effects to the illustrations, for example if a scene took place in a dark forest, I would apply a tint over the illustration so that the viewer would use the mouse as a flashlight so that they could see what was happening and read the directions. I would like to have background music playing during the entire program, but I may merely have sound as a reaction from some of the other interactions.

Final project proposal (rough draft)

For my final project, I was planning to use Processing to create an interactive story. I would use images that I had drawn to illustrate the story and use Processing to progress through the story by having the viewer perform certain tasks, such as clicking a series of buttons or other tasks. Processing would also be used to add effects to the illustrations, for example if a scene took place in a dark forest, I would apply a tint over the illustration so that the viewer would use the mouse as a flashlight so that they could see what was happening and read the directions.

Screenshot of Flower

"Computer Vision for Artists and Designers" by Golan Levin

This is a useful paper that talks about some of the ways computers can use algorithms to "see," or at least track, moving objects. It clearly explains several different methods of computer vision, such as detecting motion and detecting presence, as well as explaining how the computer can make sense of the interactions that happen once it has detected the object.

"KQED interview of Natalie Jeremijenko"

It was very interesting to learn about the 100 trees project and see how Natalie is experimenting with the way different environments can affect trees that are genetically the same. When I hear the words "interactive environment," I usually think of a man-made environment, something mechanistic or virtual that immediately changes. But watching this video reminded me that there are also environments that change slowly that are still interactive.

http://kqed02.streamguys.us/anon.kqed/spark/nataliejer.m4v

Interactive Art from WIkipedia

This article has a nice description of what constitutes interactive art, stressing the fact that interactive art is a "responsive environment," meaning that the viewer affects the environment rather than merely watching and environment that changes. It was also interesting to learn that there were pieces of interactive art made in the 1920's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_art

Full resolution of the nine photos stiched together

"Top 15 Criteria That Define Interactive or New Media Art"

Near Future Lab's Top 15 Criteria for interactive art is a rather amusing short article that highlights some of the ways you know that your art is in fact interactive. I have had experience with numbers fifteen and fourteen, "15. It doesn’t work. 14. It doesn’t work because you couldn’t get a hold of a 220-to-110 volt converter/110-to-220 volt converter/PAL-to-NTSC/NTSC-to-PAL scan converter/serial-to-usb adapter/”dongle” of any sort..and the town you’re in is simply not the kind of place that has/cares about such things."

And it seems as though there is a number seven for almost any type of art regardless of the medium, "7. Someone in your audience wearing a Crumpler bag, slinging a fancy digital SLR and/or standing with their arms folded smugly says, “Yeah..yeah, I could’ve done that too..c’mon dude..some Perlin Noise? And Processing/Ruby-on-Rails/AJAX/Blue LEDs/MaxMSP/An Infrared Camera/Lots of Free Time/etc.? Pfft..It’s so easy…”"


http://www.nearfuturelaboratory.com/2008/09/05/top-15-criteria-define-interactive-or-new-media-art/

Processing code for concentric circles using "while"

size(400,400);
smooth();
background(255);

int i = 0;
float y = 300;
float x = 300;
while(i < 150) {
ellipseMode(CENTER);
ellipse(200,200,x,y);
x = x - 30;
y = y - 30;
i = i + 15;
}

--I am currently having trouble making the interactive code work.

Nine photos stiched together

"A Short History of Looping Music"

It was interesting to learn about how people experimented with different methods of looping with recordings, such as Riley's "Time Lag Accumulator," or by actually playing a repeating pattern.

"Rules for YouTube: Make Art, Not Bore"

"Rules for YouTube" is a great article and is rather instructive. I agree that there needs be a reason for sharing the video, although the purpose of some videos can be questionable and it would probably be better if they had not been shared.

"What is Art For?"

For some reason, I was unable to access the article.

"The Way of All Flesh"

"The Way of All Flesh" is somewhat similar to the Daily Photo Project, but these still photos of the woman give the viewer more information about who she was as a person growing up, as opposed to the rather impersonal Daily Photo Project. It's fascinating to see these snapshots of her life at different time periods and see how she has changed with the various fashions.

http://tbl.squareamerica.com/archives/2007/04/the_way_of_all.html

Faked Rumsfeld

The faked Rumsfeld videos show how easy it is to alter a video and put it in a completely different context by adding something.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67s3TlRd_VQ

Daily video projects

It was very interesting to see the the way the people in the first two videos age. As you watch the people, you can see some patterns from their daily life emerge, such as how often they get their hair cut, shave, etc. It's also interesting to be able to see the people change and yet you know absolutely nothing about them other than the fact that they took a picture of themselves a day for a certain amount of time. The third video is just a spoof of the daily video projects.

1, 2, 3

Star Guitar

The video portion of "Start Guitar" fit very well with the music. I really liked the way the image seemed to be continually moving in the same direction even though the images were being repeated over and over. The video never felt uneven or like it was stuttering.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBgf2ZxIDZk

Between You and Me

I liked the way the short film "Between You and Me" seemed like a hand-filmed documentary because of the way the pictures were shot. I also was impressed by the fact that the entire film was comprised of still shots. The sound track added some life to the film and helped it seem more believable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-5cJse8_Zk

Norm McLaren

I really like McLaren's whimsical dancing doodles. The way he makes simple lines and shapes, solids or outlines, dance and play along with the music is fascinating and amusing. Boogie Doodle was impressive because he drew directly on the film. Spook Sport was a very clever little "film ballet" with the amoebic lines dancing to Saint-Seans' "Danse Macabre."

Boogie Doodle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgJ-yOhpYIM

Spook Sport:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnLJqJBVCT4

Oskar Fischinger

It's very interesting to see the way Fischinger uses different shapes and colors to add a visual texture and emphasis to the music, as well as the way he can tell a story with shapes that matches the music. Even without an accompanying music, he can still tell a story with the shifting, turning, and changing shapes and colors.

With music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1dUBxTSuA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scVtQOVy0Ww

Without music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tD6bpJNsz0

Surprised face in processing

Adding myself to a picture

"Ethics of Digital Manipulation"

The differentiation between photography as art and photography as a truthful report of reality is very important. If a picture is going to be used as art and is labeled as art, digital manipulation is acceptable because the viewers know that it is not a representation of reality. If, however, a photo is supposed to be factual and truthfully depict an event, there should be no significant manipulation. Altering the levels, contrast, and brightness so that the photo is clearer should be the most manipulation used. The changes should not alter people's appearance.

Hybrid face

The eyes and nose are from one face and were added to the other face.

"The next 5000 days of the web"

I found Kevin Kelly's comparison of the web to the human brain fascinating, especially his statement that if the web continues to expand at it current rate, by 2040 it will “exceed human processing power.” His prediction that there will be this one “machine” that all electronics and people will link to, through their data and ideas, sounds like something straight out of science fiction, yet it may become possible. I don't really agree with his statement that as the web, the “machine,” grows and becomes more personalized, we the users and creators of the “machine” would need to become more transparent. My personal information is my information. Would it be easier for identities to be stolen in a completely linked and transparent society, or would the “machine” have become smart enough to recognize each individual by, say, their fingerprints or DNA when they attempt to purchase things, or create something? How would an individual stay individual in such a connected world?

"Building a Culture of Teaching and Learning"

I agree with Dr. Tae 100%. College classes have become “depersonalized,” and being lectured at for 50 minutes three days a week by a professor who doesn't care about teaching is worthless. In high school, I loved chemistry, so I took a chemistry class at ASU as my general studies science. It was the worst class I had ever taken, because the professor did not really care about teaching us. The labs experiments that we performed were extremely boring as well, and half the time we weren't really sure why they were useful. I had a psychology class that had about 300 students in it, more than my chemistry class, yet the professor managed to keep most of the class engaged. That's because he liked to teach and wanted to teach. Students can tell when a professor likes their job, and if it's obvious that the professor does not like teaching, the students immediately disconnect and don't learn.

"Making college relevant"

I liked this article because it clearly states the quandary college students are in. We are encouraged to try different things, explore different majors, yet we are also pressured to major in a field that will have good paying jobs when we graduate. I think that one of the reasons college student specialize too quickly is that the interesting classes in different fields are often only major specific, which prevents students from exploring other disciplines.

"Transform Education"

I agree with Sir Ken Robinson that the American school system needs to be rethought. Schools do need to diversify what they teach, but they also need to diversify how they teach. More and more people are right-brained, visual and kinesthetic learners, and if the presentation of the material was changed so as to engage children more, they would enjoy school more and actually want to learn.

"Digital detectives discern Photoshop fakery"

The information in this article about how to detect faked or altered images, such as mismatched shadows or repeating patterns, was extremely useful. It also was rather interesting and slightly disturbing to find out that the metadata in picture could be used to find the owner of the camera.

More practice with RGB channels

Practice with RGB channels

“Matt Webb- Scope”

Using a “macro-scope”, seeing where you are in context is very important for creating a relevant design. What is its purpose? How does it benefit the people who use it? What is its short term effect? Its long term effect? I liked the statement that what we now consider to be classic art was once contemporary art.

“A vision of todays students.”

I agree that most students would need about 26.5 hrs per day for everything that they do. We have to multitask in order to finish our work. We have been told that multitasking is great, that we should multitask because it is much more efficient, that we must multitask. Yet studies are now showing that multitasking is one of the least efficient ways of working. The prices for textbooks are outrageous. Scantron tests really don't test what you need to know. In a lecture class, 100-300 or more students are expected to all learn at the same pace. Do these methods work? Perhaps. Are they the bet methods for learning? Absolutely not.

“Bruce Mao's Manifesto for Growth”

I loved this article, especially number four “Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.” I never would have thought of failure as being fun, yet discovering what works and what doesn't should be a fun experience.

“How to give and receive criticism”

I thought that this article did an excellent job of explaining the correct and incorrect way of criticizing works. I know from experience that constructive criticism only occurs when the person understands what purpose the work is supposed to serve. An art assignment would be criticized differently from a graphic design assignment, and a poem would be judged differently from an academic essay, because they serve two distinct purposes.

Blog icon

"Beauty is in the Processing-Time of the Beholder"

Winkielman does make a rather valid point about how difficulty level of processing information can cause us to like or dislike something. There are some books that I cannot stand reading, not because of the content but because the typeface used in the book makes it extremely difficult to read; a case of sans-serif vs. serif type. Instructions for constructing bookcases, desks, or similar objects need to be easily processed whether they're just pictures or a combination of pictures and words, otherwise the person constructing the object becomes frustrated and dislikes it.

"Confidence game"

Looking at the pictures of "untrustworthy" and "trustworthy" faces while reading the article made me think of times I'd misjudged people based on their facial expression, thinking that they were really nice people or that they were somehow "untrustworthy," after talking to them only a little bit. The article also made me think of how "untrustworthy" and "trustworthy" faces are stereotyped in comic books and the way they matched the computer generated images.

Response to "The Naked Face"

I was intrigued by the amount of information that's available just in the human face and the way Yarbrough and Harms used that information to make snap judgment calls. The article made me think about actors and the way they demonstrate the emotions of their characters, and caused me wonder how "authentic" their expressions are. Tomkins' ability to see the character of people in their faces reminded me of The Picture of Dorian Gray, how the choices he made altered his face.

Average of ten CD cases

Average of ten design/art students I know

Response to "Faces, Faces Everywhere"

I found it rather interesting that there are about 12 "relationships" between facial features that that cause us to recognize something as a "face."

Response to "I Use This"

Hello, my name is Hannah. I'm a sophomore at ASU and a first year in the Graphic Design program.

Hardware

• That really depends on what I'm doing. My main computer is the new aluminum 13in MacBook (2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2 GB of RAM, still running Leopard), and I use it for writing, homework, web browsing, etc. When I'm working on artwork or design stuff, I use the Windows portion of my Dell Inspiron 530 (2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2 GB of RAM, running Simply Mepis 7 and XP) because I only have Windows versions of Photoshop, AI, and InDesign. Unfortunately, I haven't used the Linux part of my computer in several months.

Software

• I mainly use OpenOffice (word processing), Firefox, ical, itunes, Photoshop, AI, InDesign, Audacity, and Garageband. I use Gmail through Firefox for my email, and I use Safari on my itouch.
  

Cell phone

• Blitz, from Verizon.

Pencil

• Mostly any mechanical .5mm pencil. For art/design I use Derwent sketching pencils.

Websites

• Gmail, ASU, Blackboard, Facebook, and Amazon are the ones I use the most.
  

Class1-Average of ten people