Trippin' - 2/21/2011

The field trip was a good break in pace for the class, and it let me realize that UITS had more of a purpose than being the people to yell at when the internet is slow.

The Cube was really neat. I had an idea for a Capstone that would involve Kinect, but the Cube could be a way to do the idea in a similar way, but on a larger scale. The 3D stuff didn't work all that well, or at least no that consistently, which would be a problem for a project because you don't want the technology to take people out of the experience you're trying to give them.

However, the most mind-blowing thing I saw was that NUI-device that lets you use a stylus to interactive with digital objects in "real-space." The first time I made contact with that cube, I was sure that I was hitting the wrist-rest. Then, I looked under the mirror, and proceeded to spend the next minute or two just toying around with a fake box in a digital environment and was more immersed by playing with a CGI-box than the best video games I've played. The only downside to it, on a Capstone-thinking-front, is it's very small scale. I don't know how they're laid out (which I'm going to rectify by going to Capstones this year), but I would like my Capstone (if I go with my current idea) to be something that someone can easily see and understand while walking around. I would need to see what I could do to extend the scale and/or combine the Cube and the NUI-thingy.

The super-hi-res monitor was neat, but Chauncey sort of introduced and destroyed the main reason I would want to work with it at the same time: high resolution image creation/manipulation. Photoshop ran worse on that machine than on my laptop.

The other 3D setup was fine, but I would think that if you're going to work wit a 3D environment, the Cube would be better every time.

Regret is a energy drink on an empty stomach - 2/21/2011

Inspiration - Inspiration is a very broad step in my workflow, and it encompasses both an artist and a designer: this is the step where you realize an idea or concept you want to play with, experiment with, make something with. This could be an emotion, a tool of creation, whatever you are interested in.

Idea - Typically, I don't even realize that I've completed the Inspiration step until I've already come up with my idea. I have to analyze the idea to understand where it came from. The idea step is when you take the object of your inspiration and flesh out a general plan of what you would like to do with it. This plan is typically pie-in-the-sky, and potentially impossible to fully realize.

Concept - In this step, you take your idea and think out what would be involved in creating it within the timeframe you would like to complete it by. In this step, you rough out the work and will likely end up taking away pieces of the idea that you believe are not truly necessary to the core "goals" of it so as to make it more reasonable to create. At this point you have likely envisioned your Product to look like/feel like/be/etc.

Trial - This is the first step to willing your Concept into existence. Taking the steps you've fleshed out in the Concept step, you try to create what you feel your final Product should be. Depending on how broadly you envisioned your Product, this step may involve creating "rough drafts" that are dramatically different from one another in look and feel but share the same ideals.

Refine - Here you take the draft(s) created and examine it/them. Do they live up to the ideals of your object(s) of Inspiration? Do they feel as if they were borne of your Idea? Once you've answered those questions, you determine whether the answers suggest you polish one of the drafts, combine elements of the drafts, or go back to the Trial step.

Product - The only real creative acts in this steps are reflective. Once your Idea has been realized in a product you ask yourself questions: "Am I happy with this?", "What could I have done differently?", etc. Typically the answers to these questions won't affect the Product, but will help you continue to refine your process.

I like the "equation" for the most part. The only change I would make would be to have Inspiration be a "sub-step" of the Idea, as in my workflow I've really never been cognizant of the Inspiration until the Idea has either started to form or is fully formed.

I don't agree with the black and white demarcation of New Media vs. Art; primarily because I consider Art a subset of New Media. I equate "New Media" with Designs which I consider to be Art with an outward-facing purpose. Of course, now that I look at how I just described New Media, I essentially just agreed with it. Designers make things that are going to be used by other people, so they have to think of them while making them. However, good products/designs/etc. are not dictated solely by what the intended audience will think, otherwise it would just be gray, unrecognizable, paste.

In my workflow, a New Media person can't start with the Product unless (s)he has already created it. The difference between an artist and a designer in regards to the workflow is the idea does not have to be something that people will be able to interact with unless you're a designer. However, that does not mean that the designer's idea is going to be the same as the product. Often, it will be the perfect version of itself, something that will fit the audience's every need, and be stylish/attractive at the same time. By the Concept step, though, the designer will have grounded the concept into something that will be reasonable to create.

For my test-case of my workflow, I created a concept-design for what I think a tablet computer running an operating system similar to Windows Phone 7 would look like.

The inspirational factor for this project was the design philosophy Microsoft used to create the aesthetics of Windows Phone 7: what they call Metro. They looked at the current UI paradigm and abstracted all of its elements to its simplest forms. Metro dictates that "buttons" are squares/rectangles with text or an icon in them. No faux-3D effects, just the base shape. Microsoft says it's "authentically digital" which is marketing bullshit for "we're pretty sure you know how to use a button."

The idea(l) was to create a functional mock-up of this imaginary device. Sadly, I did not have the time to learn and implement the knowledge necessary to program even a simple mockup of what I had envisioned, so the concept became just an image.

The trial/refinement process involved me deciding what design elements of Windows Phone 7 would suit a horizontally-focused orientation as well as additional screen real estate, as well as making adjustments to placement, sizing, and content of the filler content.

I'm not convinced that thinking through the process and trying to work through it made any major impact on the result. I'm happy with the Product, but I don't feel "proud" of the workflow. I feel like being inspired by an already existing thing is bullshit, but I also know that it is nigh-impossible (if not just truly impossible) to have a truly immaculate idea with zero link to an existing product/idea/etc. However, I'm terrible asshole to myself when it comes to my work, so I decided to try another creation.

This was inspired by being brutally tired this morning. Due to the strong genes on my mother's side of the family, she and I both have a reputation of looking more tired (or even angry) than we actually feel. So I decided a picture of my face could possibly demonstrate my physical and mental state.

To my surprise, I didn't appear to look as tired as I feel, so I did a little touch up in photoshop to increase the "tiredness." I did not intend to have text with the image, but the phrase was a thought that came into my head this morning, and I felt it fit my concept well. I didn't want to separate the text from the picture in an obvious way, so I had originally tried just placing the white text where it is without any background.

However, I knew that I would probably feel obligated to present my work, and figured the white-on-gray wouldn't hold up so well with the jacked-up contrast of a projector, so I attempted to recreate the effect in Photoshop to see if I was right. Indeed I was, so I added a black background to the text with some modifications to let it "blend" in better. In the end, I'm not terribly thrilled with the final Product, although I imagine the knowledge of the amount of work is skewing things for me. I am however, happier with the Inspiration/Idea side of the workflow on this project.

I wanted to destroy something beautiful... and make it beautiful again

This assignment request that we anaylze the consequences of breaking a rule in "our field of study" and then break said rule. Wtih "Media Arts" utilziing Photoshop and elements of Graphic design, I decided to break an unspoken rule of  graphic design, at least as it pertains to creating forum signatures: don't use photoshop filters.

While creating the initial piece, I decided to also break some other design rules: the rule of thirds, make sure your focal point guides he viewer's eye throughout the piece, and keep you graphic within the its own borders. The obvious consequences are that any finished piece would look ugly and/or amateurish. This is what I made:

Awesome, right? I then gave myself the task to salvage this, using filters only and I couldn't undo anything. I ended up creating this:

No, I didn't upload a horribly copied Jpeg, that mosaic look comes from a filter. While I liked the way it was looking, I felt the piece needed a "layer" of obscurity, to hide in plain sight, so to speak.







I'm not particularly proud of this project. I feel like I didn't "do it right," and I'm not entirely sure why. I was under the impression for most of the week that this assignment was about breaking a rule in general, and ended up not knowing what to do until this morning when I decided to write up a bullshit post about a rather interesting idea of breaking the rule of "You can't rewrite history", and then discuss in class why I had so much trouble making that project. Then as I began to write it, I looked at the assignment page that mentioned a rule "in your field of study," and the projects that were already turned in reflected this. Maybe everyone fucked up here, but I feel like I just did what was necessary to fit the directions of the assignment and that's it.

The impact of "the concept" and art as therapy

While discussing everyone's weekly projects, we brought up the unspoken truth that the perceived amount of effort has an impact on how we feel about it, highlighted by the green door project. This began a discussion as to why this is the case (which was never fully answered) and what impact the artist's concept for his/her work has on its reception.

The effort thing is entirely cultural. The US, for better or worse, was based largely on Puritanical beliefs, and by God did the Puritans value a hard day's work. We are conditioned to expect to be "repaid" in equal measure for the amount of effort put into our work, so when we understand that someone put more work into a project than we thought initially, the Pavlovian response is to drool and then appreciate the creation more.

Much like the effort topic, the importance of "the concept" matters entirely on the quality of the final product. If you did not successfully execute on the concept, then it doesn't matter how cool it was or how much effort you put into it. The only works that are aided by knowing the concept or the effort put into are products that are "good enough" where the concept can be appreciated on some level without being told. An OK work is made better by knowing that the person hand-crafted it versus clicking two filters in Photoshop and calling it a day.

Something I wanted to talk about beyond what was discussed in class was the idea of Art as Therapy. I thought it was interesting that Sharayah used her project as a means to force herself to do something she doesn't enjoy. Looking back, my project was therapeutic as it forced me to notice things about myself and share them. I was kind of surprised that no one asked me why I was so unclear as to who I am really am. Of course, hypothetical hindsight is better than 20/20 and I'm somewhat appreciative for that as I'm not sure what I would have said in response.