Dynamic Interactive Painting

Hey everyone hope you had a good Christmas.

Over the past two weeks I've been trying to collect all my research to work out a final idea for this project. I've had a few different ideas ranging from an installation giving interactors an experience similar to the Synesthesia syndrome, to an interactive piece working as a chain where interactors form a story by engaging and reacting to previous interactors actions. However the more I tried to visualise these ideas as actual pieces giving users interactive experiences, the more I disliked them and felt stuck. So it took me a while of going through lots of different thought before I finally cracked it. I think I am now getting somewhere with an idea of an interactive installation in the form of a dynamic paint by numbers.
Interactors will be drawing (on different computers) parts of a huge image. A small piece from a larger image (divided into individual parts in a grid) is given to them to copy in their own style. Every time an interactor has finished drawing their piece it is automatically uploaded onto the large image. The gradually changing large image is projected onto a wall in a public space to give members of the public a sense of a fixed artwork yet with dynamic movement from the continually changing gridded parts within the image. To ensure that movement is always taking place, the already existing individual parts will be continuously looped at random times.
This will only be a proposal for an installation as it would be technically difficult to make in the short time given.
More description will follow.

























I remember helping out students at Northbrook College with this huge painting which works on the same principle except from being painted in real life not on a computer. This was what inspired me to this idea.

The original image used for this work was from Chuck Close website http://chuckclose.com/

I also found this site inspiring: http://www.chuckclose.coe.uh.edu/

The projected painting would look a little bit like this:

Inspiration for physical computing by Rona Innes

Useful links:
wiring.org.co (look at exhibition)
arduino.cc
processing.org
nastypixel.com/instantsoup

CONTROLLING FLASH WITH A WIIMOTE
Windows
http://wiiflash.bytearray.org/?p=52

Mac
http://screenfashion.org/releases/motedaemon/

Book:
Physical Computing by Dan O'Sullivan and Tom Igoe

Links for Interactive work:

http://www.kirupa.com/developer/actionscript/microphone.htm -Flash animations using microphone
http://imm.sheridanc.on.ca/imm2004/chin/tutorial/ -blowing grass
http://www.nastypixel.com/prototype/?page_id=73 -webcam motion detection
http://www.nastypixel.com/prototype/?page_id=86 -Gesture controlling Google Earth
http://gskinner.com/blog/archives/2005/08/flash_8_webcam.html -snowstorm & game etc
http://members.westnet.com.au/lmwan/projects.html - Wan's webcam experiments
http://www.protozoo.com/?p=179 - generate and pop bubbles
http://www.discombo.co.uk/cam-experiments.htm - cupid game etc
http://www.webcamtastic.com/ -webcam goo
http://www.extendedreality.com/webcam_games_info.html - eyetoys type games
http://cam.playdo.com

Distance changes face perception?

http://www.doctorhugo.org/illusions/illusion1.html
This is probably one of the best illusions ever! Please do the following: look at the above images from your seat in front of the computer; Mr. Angry is on the left, and Ms. Calm is on the right. Now, get up from your seat, and move back 10 or 12 feet. Who’s the angry and calm now? This illusion was made by Phillippe G. Schyns and Aude Oliva.

Gathering some thoughts

What are the elements that I want to explore/play with in this project?
Element that contradict or correspond with the idea of interactivity

Immersed <------> Distracted

Curious <------> Apathetic

Tempting <------> Repelling

I am interested in the question of whether curiousity and temptation are what drives us to take action? This question seems important to ask for the sake of interaction and what makes us interact with something in the first place.

In a game we move forward because we want to unfold, discover and realise the plot or goal. If a door is closed in the game and we have to solve a puzzle before the door will open, we will spend hours trying to solve the puzzle just to see what is behind the door, in other words quench our curiousity. If we have a particular question that we know there is a particular answer to, we will equally spend hours searching (the internet) for the answer. We particularly spend longer if we believe the answer is within our reach. This stubberness seems to be driven by human instinctive curiousity as well as a want to prove ourselves. It is a mixture of irritation of not knowing and the challenge of finding out which keeps us busy because we know that if we do we will be rewarded. These two feelings needs to be finely balanced in order to make the overall experience joyful. If we have to work for too long before the answer is given we become frustrated and give up, but equally if the task is too easy we loose the feeling of being challenged and the reward seems less earned.

These observations are all concerned with the idea of "play" and "fun" which we mainly know from games. Computer games are often the first medium mentioned when talking about interactivety, as these are highly interactive. We can illustrate how interactivity has progressed over time by looking at a film which is not interactive at all to second life which is as interactive as a game gets. But can we say which of these are better? Films are still highly popular today.

3d Magic Eye Tetris

http://www.lutanho.net/play/magiceyetetris.html

Ideas and thoughts so far

These are some rough notes to gather all the ideas/thoughts I have had so far:
Working around the idea of temptation and curiousity - what makes a person want to interact with a medium? Could one play around with the idea of temptation and limitation through images or sound?
Work around the idea of optical illusion and how we memorise. Do we memorise through sound or visuals? Do we always link our past to the present?
Are 3D magic eyes interactive? Could you build on the idea of something being interactive without requiring the user/viewer to physically interact much?

Memory through sound or images?

I've been thinking about sound because recently I've been listening a lot more to the radio rather than watching TV. I've found that radio programs stick much better in my memory than TV programs. I think it may have to do with the fact that when you listen rather than watch, you create your own images. But maybe it's just because we are so used to visual information and are slightly overloaded with this form of information. I was wondering if I could build this idea into my project in some way, perhaps I need to research if there is any truth in this or if it is only my experience that sound is more effective in terms of memorising than visuals. Maybe each individual remembers things differently. I've always wondered if some people memorise more in images, and some people memorise more in sounds, words or numbers. Either way this subject relates well to the idea of how our brain works in terms of how we memorise.

3D Magic Eye - A different form of interactivity?

I started thinking about the old idea of magic eye images. These are in a way very interactive as they require the viewer to focus in a particular way in order to receive a 3d image. It is quite a different form of interactivity as it doesn't require much physical involvement by the user, just a long time staring. I was thinking how interesting it is that the way you look at these images (with a blurred focus) is quite similar to when you are in deep day dream, or completely immersed in a painting or landscape. I can't think of any other form of interactivity where you get this completely uninterrupted experience, where you can almost switch off. Perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps video games have a similar way of drawing the player into an almost "dream like" state.

I remember the first time I was introduced to one of these magic eye images, and how eager I was to be able to see the 3d image. I got really frustrated after 20 minutes when I still couldn't see it, but when i eventually did it truly seemed like magic.

Anyway just out of curiosity I started looking into how these images are made and came across this flash website where you can make your own 3d magic eye image, you draw the content that you want to appear in 3d.

Try for yourself here

Here is one I made

Maybe one could expand on this idea of an image becoming alive without the viewer taking any action, either by speech recognition or movement sensors. I like the idea of something being interactive yet time consuming or in other words the viewer having to take some time over a particular piece before moving on. Perhaps sound could also help in setting a particular pace.

I also like the way these images often have patterns made of smaller images that gives clues to the larger 3D image. In the above example the roses are a metaphor for love giving a clue to the 3D image being a heart.

Thoughts on Interactivity:

Idea Generating Exercises - answers to Carolyn Hadler Miller text.

1. What traditional ritual have you participated in, or are you aware of, that reminds you in some way of an interactive narrative? What is it about this ritual that you think is like a computerized interactive experience?

If Guy Fawkes Night can be considered a traditional ritual then it seems a good example of an event that could be compared with an interactive experience in a multi player online game. In Lewes each year on the fifth of November people celebrate the night by dressing up in old costumes and participating in the big procession parading through the small town. Bonfires and fireworks are used as a reminder of the big gunpowder plot that nearly killed the English parliament and King James 1 in 1605 . The big theatrical show taking place throughout the evening follows certain traditional rituals that brings people together with a sense of social belonging, importance and common goal similar to players in online games.












2. What game or sport have you played that you think could be adapted to a work of interactive entertainment? what would remain the same, what would have to be changed, and in what way?

I remember a game I used to play when I was a kid named 'I declare war', this was an outdoor game with chalk. A big round circle was drawn on the ground, the circle was divided into even parts, one for each number of players. Each player represented a different country and had a part which was there land. One player would through a ball in the air and say 'I declare war against....Italy' the player representing Italy had to catch the ball and say STOP whilst everyone else ran away from the circle. When stop was called out everyone had to stop and stay where they were. The player who had caught the ball chose the nearest other player and took 3 steps towards this other player as well as a spit, where the spit landed he could see if he could reach the other player from here and if so he was aloud to try and take some of this players land by standing on one leg in the centre of the circle and drawing as big a piece of land as possible out of the other persons land and naming it Italy. The idea was to get as much land off the others as well as keeping your own. Who ever had the most land at the end of the game had won.
I think this is typical example of an old game that has many ideas
now used in an interactive games. In fact the game Risk, which is both a board game and a computer game draws on similar ideas. Claiming the oppositions territories.

3. What work of traditional storytelling (a novel, a play, a movie, or even a comic book) have you read or seen that contains a narrative technique that could be applied to a work of digital entertainment? What is this technique, and how could it be used?

The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware is a comic book that uses clever techniques to engage the reader at a much deeper level. Colours and various grids are used to hump through the story in a way that is much more like a in a film. When ever the background is red the main character Jimmy is feeling anxious. I theink this form of narrative technique could be applied to a film or game.




















5. Can you think of any work of traditional entertainment (poem, short story, novel, play, movie, TV show, etc.) that breaks the "fourth wall"? Describe how the fourth wall is broken in this work. Could the fourth wall be broken in a similar way in an interactive work? Why or why not?

Lars Von Triers - The Five Obstructions is an experimental film. Lars Von Trier challenged his mentor Jorgen Leth, to a one-of-a-kind director's game: von Trier gives Leth rules, or obstructions, by which Leth would have to remake his own 1967 short film "The Perfect Human"--five times.
I think this film breaks the fourth wall as it lets the viewer not only see how this film is made, but almost makes the viewer feel as if he/she has been part of making this film due to the way the film is styled as a documentary emotionally engaging the viewer in the same journey as leth is taking. Besides Leth and Trier dosn't know any more than the viewer what the outcome is going to be. Brilliant piece of work in my opinion, everyone should watch this.

http://worldfilm.about.com/od/scandinavianfilm/fr/5obstructions.htm

Research for Design for Interaction Project

http://www.aec.at/en/index.asp
http://www.aec.at/en/archives/pp_center_inst_chronolog.asp
http://www.setpixel.com/

Wikinomics Book

I found this in the latest Edge Magazine
Christmas 2007 p.22
After having discussed this subject in class and come across it loads since through other readings, I really want to read the book myself.

Sutte Træ i Frederiksberg Have

Project: Design for Interaction Nov. 07 - Jan. 08

We have been given a new project brief which involves developing an interactive project that explores/plays with the concepts surrounding the process of interactivity. The brief suggests that we look into other areas, than just screen based design, where audience interaction is an integral part of a concept. The final piece could include; a game, an experimental website, an interactive art-piece, a non-linear story, or a design for an interactive environment, such as retail space, a museum, a learning zone or as a response to a public arts commission.
I am not sure what I would like to do for this brief yet, however I like the idea of something that is less screen based and more experimental. After hearing about how the games developers at Kerb makes games that grow and stay alive on the Internet for an incredible amount of time, I started thinking how great it would be to create something that potentially could live and grow forever. I am not quite sure how this could be achieved but it is an interesting thought. Previously I made an Interactive Poetry Installation in collaboration with another student, this gave me a good idea of how a successful interactive piece is achieved. I think the key is a careful process of constantly asking questions and evaluating any ideas and decisions made, as well as always referring back to the goal or main purpose of the work. I really enjoyed making an installation so maybe I should consider the same area for this project. Back then I realised how important it was to be two people working together as we were able to feed off each others ideas and form much more in depth realisations of what we wanted to achieve due to long discussions and criticisms together. It was a really exciting process, I hope I can use some of the same principles for this project and take advantage of tutors and class mates to discuss my ideas. This blog is probably not a bad place to start, if everyone can help each other out, people are bound to achieve something far greater.
I am going to start my research by raising some really basic questions such as:

What does interactive mean?
What does Interactivity involve?
In what different areas is the concept of interaction used?

Artists I know about who work around the subject of interactivity, installation art or audience participation:
Lev Manovich
Bill Viola
Blast Theory
David Rokeby
Camille Utterback

Book: Interactivity by Design by Ray Kristof & Amy Satran

Alistair suggested I had a look at this website:
We-make-money-not-art.com

Exhibitions

John Maeda

Why it would make sense to live in chaos.

Guys you have to read this! It really made me laugh.

For those of you who insist on dwelling on supply chain management to the detriment of your social life, one fascinating idea in that field comes from Stephen Ho, who just got his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ho calls his idea, which will only work once RFID is on every product, "location-relaxed storage." It's a funny euphemism in the tradition of calling a bald person follically challenged.

Basically it means that instead of organizing a warehouse by putting items in their carefully defined proper places, RFID will make it more efficient to just throw everything everywhere. It's the total chaos warehouse.

How can that possibly work better? Well, picture an Amazon.com warehouse. A worker is looking at an order for one copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beagles and one copy of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Chances are that the spot for beagle books is far away from the spot for T.S. Eliot books. The worker has to zoom around the warehouse to fill the order.

Now let's say every book has an RFID tag. Whenever a truckload of books arrives at the warehouse, instead of sorting them into defined slots, workers just shove them anywhere there's an empty space. Copies of Idiot's Guide to Beagles and Prufrock are scattered all around the building.

RFID readers placed around the warehouse constantly ping all the RFID tags to learn what books are where. The readers send that data to the warehouse's central computer. Then a worker filling an order picks up a wireless handheld computer and uses it to ask the central computer where he can find the nearest copy of each book.

Because the books are scattered around the warehouse, one of each is likely to be nearby, making the worker more efficient — he might just have to walk a few steps to get both books. Ho mathematically proved that the chances are greater that both books would be closer when using this chaotic, location-relaxed storage system, vs. using an organized warehouse.

Of course, if the electricity goes out, the warehouse is hosed.

Though Ashton didn't say so, there might be some contradictory elements to these RFID concepts.

If it's true that in an RFID world it's more efficient to fling everything around a warehouse than to use space as an organizing principle, would that also apply to your home? It might be better to let everything in your house go to chaos, then use an RFID reader to find what you're looking for.

I would love to try this ridiculous system out at home one day in the future, wouldn't you?

I also wandered if this concept could apply to your computer one day. No need to save things in the correct folders, just shove things where ever you want, much more efficient.

Taken from: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/maney/2004-10-05-maney_x.htm

http://www.closertotruth.com/topics/technologysociety/210/210transcript.html

http://www.project2061.org/publications/sfaa/online/chap3.htm#issues

Thoughts from reading "the socio - cultural horizon" from the book vision of the future by Philips

My understanding of the text:

The text seems to imply that fifteen years ago people were trying to cope and keep up with a rapidly changing society. Demands of modern life and an ever-accelerating rate of living meant people were experiencing time and space in an entirely new format. Technology enabled people to manage multiple tasks simultaneously and things such as work, play, education and entertainment no longer seemed strictly separated. This created new patterns and behaviours amongst individuals and in society. Moments of rest, absorption and reflection between activities were slowly neglected. As people gradually started to restructure according to new criteria, the danger of people losing sight of themselves and their roots began to emerge. The outcome of this vulnerability was a desire to try and restore the balance between activity and rest, between being swept along and being anchored. People were starting to seek meaning by looking at their own personal lives and bridge the gap between the past and the future. Such tendencies, of people wanting to clearly define their space, could be witnessed on a number of different levels. Break-up of former communist states, religious fundamentalism and people generally withdrawing into their own homes and social groups rather than participating in community activities and projects. A trend often referred to as 'cocooning'. An act of insulating or hiding oneself from the normal social environment, which may be perceived as distracting, unfriendly, dangerous or otherwise unwelcome, at least for the present.

How is this relevant today and in the future:

By looking at what people and society in the early nineties were like, considerations on how things may have changed since can hopefully help predict how things may develop in the future.

I think the principle of 'cocooning' is interesting, as this trend has continued since the nineties but also changed slightly. When the term was first used , technology was making people stay at home and become isolated, for example by watching TV rather than going to the cinema. Today although people may physically be as isolated as before, technology especially due to the Internet, has allowed them to socialise through cyberspace. Online gaming, forums, blogs, skype, msn, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace etc. are all places were people can share amongst each other, form small communities and work together. In a way, we have become more sociable, more accustomed to cyberspace and less alienated and frightened of new technologies. It seems like nothing in terms of new technology would surprise us any more, anything is possible, and we are not as sceptical as users as we used to be. Services providing easy solutions and ways for saving us time has lead us to acceptance. Most people have no issues with Internet banking, online shopping or giving out personal identification for membership purposes any more. Whether this is a good or bad thing, is saving us time or driving us into new avenues of time consumption is all a matter of debate. One thing is certain, it is the way things are going. One could argue that humans have been facing such challenges for a long time, when the bank was first introduced people would have been hugely sceptical about putting their money into someone else hand.

So how will these new ideas progress in the future? I think that now we have become used to the new pace of living, found trust and acceptance in technologies used in everyday situations and realised the potentials of improving services, sharing information and socialising in cyberspace, we will seek ways for making these more accessible and mobile. As with most things in history, different needs and desires tend to go round in circles. Now that we have been through a period of 'cocooning' in front of our screens, it would only seem natural that we would want to be more active, manoeuvrable, deeper involved, wanting to make a difference, and have options to freely use technology when wanted and needed. I suppose there are signs of this happening already in mobile technology. Blackberries are the newest in this direction, with access to emails and the Internet through your mobile. So to summarise what I believe to be the coming trends regarding future technology:

• A continuing want for quicker easier accessibility in services.

• Products made of, and providing, greener solutions.

• A continuous desire for mobility.

• Many devices brought together into a single device (less things to produce, keep in order and carry around).

• More intense, realistic, immersed virtual experiences.

• A continuing need for user centred products you can customise, personalise and get feedback from.

• Further want for socialising in very selective communities.

Guest Speakers

Ellie Rees
06/12/07
http://www.ellierees.co.uk/

Kerb
22/11/07
Alistair McDonald introduced us to Kerb an independent digital marketing agency specialising in online viral flash games. He works as a programmer amongst a team of fifteen others who have different roles ranging from animator, project manager, producer, business developer, technical director, office director and so on. Kerb has been going for eleven years and used Flash all this time. They specialise in games for the young audience. We were shown stills giving a flavour of the style of characters and games they do, these reminded me of the characters from gorillaz video, and manga animations. Kerb specialise in viral marketing meaning they purposely make games for websites that are easy to steel with the intention that they will spread their work much quicker and easier and therefore promote them automatically. This technique works brilliantly and means that often they get contacted for work rather than having to look for work. There are only two things you have to remember when doing viral advertising, to make sure you make money and that people know who did the work and can get back to you. Kerb ensures that they can check up on and measure how many play their games and nick them, the statistics are impressive. The other interesting thing about this is how long these games stay alive, as Alistair put it. "you don't expect a website to last for many years, but these games do". He also told us that these casual games are mostly played y woman in their mid twenties-thirties, this is not really what you would expect, but this is a true fact. Another fact is that around $ 2.5 billion float around the casual games market.

http://kerb.co.uk/

Semiconductor
01/11/07
Unfortunately I missed this talk but have found some information on their work through their website.
www.semiconductorfilms.com/

Soheila Sokhanvari
25/10/07
Soheila is an artist originally from Iran but currently living and working in the UK. She studied science, but later did a masters in Art. Her work has been influenced by her mixed eastern and western upbringing. Through her studies, she specialised in the subject of how we relate to others with an emphasis on eastern and western views of each other. She told us that at Chelsea Art College they were always challenged to do work that they wouldn't usually do and think about new ways of presenting their work. In her case she was encouraged to think about art through drama and performance. She talked us through her final piece for her MA which was an installation, in the form of a game, that played with the audience reactions to powerful war images. The idea was to present images, that we normally see in the media but have become desensitised to, in a new way that somehow would confront us differently. The installation consisted of a small dark room with a scent of gunpowder and florescent light glowing from the wall and floor. The audience would enter the space in pairs of two and be greeted by a games master explaining the rules. Soheila was also in the room wearing a full costume also painted with florescent light. The game involved the participants shooting, if they wished to, on to the war images which were projected one by one on the wall. If they did shoot Soheila, who was their attacker, would start shooting on to their chest plates to try and drop their health and her health would equally drop according to how many images the players hit. The game would go on until either she or the participants ran out of health. The audience reactions were mixed, a lot of people didn't want to shoot on to these images but others were keen to win the game and didn't seem to care too much about the content. Weather you chose to shoot or not you were confronted with some horrific images in an environment you wouldn't normally experience.
The second project Soheila talked about involved a miniature gallery, inside an old sewing box, placed on the London tube. Travellers on the tube could look at it and use the attached headset to listen to happy music at the same time. The idea was to break the usual awkward atmosphere you get on the London underground. This worked a bit like a social experiment, testing peoples curiosity and reservations towards each other. Soheila was sitting a little distance away from the gallery pretending she didn't know what it was. A friend of hers was also on the tube, and every time a stranger had gone up to look at the gallery the friend would offer them a sweet. After a while everyone started chatting to each other and slowly it transformed into a little mini party on the tube.

Some notes from this session:
Every element is important in your artwork
As an artist you really have to think bout how you can present your work best. How can you get the strongest reaction from your audience.
The artist becomes the audience, the audience become the artist.

Simon Morse
18/10/07
Simon introduced us to his art works by explaining his long grown interest in systems of viewing the world. His artwork is very much influenced by this way of thinking and as h













http://simonmorse.co.uk/

Dan Mellor
15/10/07
Dan introduced us to his work by showing us his very impressive show reel. He works as a freelancer in 3D, After Effects, motion graphics and animation. He originally studied sculpture, then worked on props and finally became a freelance web designer. Before becoming a freelancer he worked for a TV company where he got involved in big projects including a viral campaign in 2000 which was quite a new thing at the time. Now as a freelancer he get a lot of his work through pitching. He showed us some of the work he had done for a pitch and gave us some advice on how to go about it. It is a risky but equally exciting way of finding work and it sounds like you learn a lot from it. It is a fine balance determining how much work you do for a pitch in case you don't get the job. Dan gave us a realistic insight into the industry by letting us know that it isn't always as fantastic and romantic working in this field, it is hard work and there is a lot of competition in this industry. You also have to be careful with back pain and RSI if you are working long hours in front of the screen. Another aspect that was mention about this industry, is that it is important not to under value the prices for paid jobs. If graduates don't charge enough for the work they are doing the are bringing the standard of the industry down in price which is harmful to professionals. Finally we were shown some work done for the arts council in Brighton this involved big projections on to houses.
http://bliink.tv/
studio@bliink.tv

Some notes from this session:
- Petes plugins - free to download (kaleidoscope)
- WiredSussex - really good for freelance promotion
- Brighton and Hove arts council - artists news letter - they have money left over to donate to artist who will come up with ideas for projects that involves getting the community together.

Angie Taylor
11/10/07
Angie mainly works as a 2D and 3D animator in After Effects. She originally did a BA (Hons) in Sculpture in 1986. Since then she has moved around working in many different fields such as prop making, Dj'ing, music & technology, demo work for Adobe Apple and more recently as a freelance AE animator. She has also written books on After Effects.
We were given some tutorials on multipass compositting and expressions in After Effects. Angie also advised us o find an area of Multimedia that we are good at and show this as our specialist area in our portfolios.
http://www.creativeaftereffects.com/

Some notes from this session:
- LUA - creativecommons.org - to distribute your work
- bliptv/angietaylor - for tutorials
- creativeaftereffects.com - for tutorials
- Book - How to cheat in Photoshop
- JJ Gifford - Good for expressions
- aenhancers.com










Rona Innes
11/10/07
Rona creates storyboarding, illustrations and 2D animations. She showed us a selection of her storyboards and other pieces of work. The work range from content for e-learning, viral campaigns for organisations such as Greenpeace and one-off commissions for museums and shop windows.
In storyboarding you usually work as part of a large team alongside programmers, animators etc. Ronna explained in further detail two interactive pieces she was commissioned to do for the Churchill Museum Cabinet War Rooms in London. She did a ballot box with projected comments sliding into a slot and a video installation with original footage from 1946. This was a huge project, with lots of artists responsible for making different pieces for the museum. She showed us photos of some of the installations, and explained the whole process of being involved. We also talked about how to go about setting up as a sole trader freelancer.



Moshimachine.com

Some notes from this session:
- chimwag - good agency for jobs
- koniti - creative catapult. A new scheme with workshops for graduates on how to "pitch". New coarse starting in December.
- UHC - a company that only works for ethically sound companies.

Mike Blow
08/10/07
Mike works as a freelance 'creative technologist' with an interest in art and science. He showed us some of his projects from both the past and more recent years. Most of his work seems to be closely related with ideas and observations found in nature and biology. In my opinion these projects and ideas seem quite unique simple and appear to be more concerned with the process of discovering and making, rather than perhaps the end results. He also presented us, in more detail, with one of the latest projects named 'Machines for Singing'. This project was a physical installation where one could hear and experience the sounds from within a building in the same way as the building would hear it itself. This involved acoustic sensors placed around a building to pick up various sounds that we wouldn't normally pay attention to, including the ones out of our hearing range. The result was a rather gloomy sounding piece. One thing I found interesting about this installation, was the unexpected reactions of the audience. Mike said that they had deliberately made the space as empty and simple as possible to avoid any distractions for the visitors allowing them to just absorb the sound and atmosphere. The room only had a small circle of seats, with a sub woofer in the center, placed in the middle of the room. The idea was that people could sit with their back to the sub woofer and look outward and experience the sounds coming from around the room, however mike told us that a lot people decided to face inwards and place their hand on the subwoofer to feel the vibration. This was an unexpected reaction, and shows how people in general likes to have some way of interacting with a piece more physically.
www.evolutionaryart.co.uk


Some notes from this session:
- Karl Sims, William Latham & Stephen Todd
- Arduino & Phidgets
- An issue with interactive work is that often too much is distracting from the actual point / essence of a piece

Sam Butler
04/10/07
Sam Butler works as a visual designer for a web company in London. He introduced us to the work environment and the different roles involved in web design. A thorough breakdown into the process of making a website was presented, from meetings with clients to working in a team with different responsibilities. An IA (Information Architect) is responsible for the feel of the site not the look. He/She will produce a flowchart to organise the pages and use wireframes as a layout template to organise the positioning of every element within the website. Wireframes consist of boxes and the size and positioning of each box will often determine the importance of this information. A Visual Designer is responsible for the look of the website. He/She will have a meeting with the client to form some ideas about the style they want. Following this, the Visual Designer will produce some mood boards so the client can choose different things within these that they like. From this information three designs are produced, and the client agrees and signs for one design to go ahead. The Visual Designer then makes all the pages and passes them on to the rest of the team. A design handover guide with instructions is also produced and given to the client. A site may also need a CMS Content Management System to allow client to update information regularly.
We also talked about Web 2.0 styling, which is a guide to web design where the focus is on the user experience rather than the designer showing off. Usually the philosophy of this is lees is more. We looked at examples where web 2.0 was applied and where it wasn't.

Some notes from this session:
- Jesse James Garret - The elements of user experience
- Stock Photography - isostockphoto.com or stockexchange for free images
- To make stock images more interesting crop them.
- webdesignfromscratch.com - useful site with info about web 2.0 styling
- N.M.A - New Media Age Magazine + Website - good for jobs, look for top 100
- Jacob Nielsen - Graphics are evil

Daniel Pryde - Jarman
01/10/07
Dan introduced us to his gallery Grey Area, a small independently run art gallery tucked away in a dark cellar near Brighton Station. He put forward some of his own thoughts about art and culture in general and presented us with some of the work that has been displayed in his gallery previously. This led to a discussion in class where subjects such as high & low culture, online galleries, street art and conceptual art was discussed. Some interesting points were raised, is the Internet a good or bad way of displaying art? In a real gallery an artist can control precisely how his work is displayed whereas on an online gallery the control is taken away from the artist because screen sizes, colours and lighting will change from different computer monitors. The general belief in class was that some art was more suitable for an online environment than others. The Marchel Duchamp, fountain 1972 was talked about, some thought it was reasonable to call this art, others didn't except this as being true art.
One thing I noted down from this session is the term pooterism, which from what I understand means something self-indulgent, dull and mundane. I am planning to look up more about this term, as it seems to tie in with some of the ideas I have for my dissertation.

http://www.thegrey-area.blogspot.com

Some notes from this session:
- Robert Smithson, Cultural Confinement.
- Kasimi Malevich 'Non - objective art & suprematism 1919

The possibilities of Mobile Phones

Link to website

The future of mobile

Mobile phone technology is advancing rapidly, but what can people expect to be using in 2015? What will their mobile be able to do and what will it look like? Nokia has collaborated with Industrial Design students from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London to come up with some ideas.

In pictures: Fu

Regenerate

Nicola Reed

It aims to get people to be more green. It collects information on how much electricity and gas you use, how you get about, the type of products you buy and how you dispose of waste. It works on a reward system and you can earn free calls and texts by being environmentally friendly, like walking to work instead of driving.

Get your friend

Ik-Soo Shin

The aim was a user friendly product that gave an emotional relationship, like a friend. A new generation of mobiles with Artificial Intelligence will be able to express a user's feelings, such as anger. The phone will also automatically recognise the voice of the user, allowing communciation between them and their mobile.

e of mobile

Project: Design Futures Sep. - Nov. 2007

So... just over one week into the current project, Design Futures. We've been asked to come up with a concept that addresses the future and the use of new technology. This could be in the form of a product, tool or service and should have a defined rationale behind it. Initially this sounds pretty straight forward but in actual fact it's quite hard and requires a lot of broad research. It seems that one has to consider a lot of facts about where we are currently in our society, to come up with a concept for the future, that is both realistic and potentially successful.
I have started the project by looking at areas in society where technology is most likely to change and improve things in the future, such as in entertainment, health, education etc. One thing I realised when brain storming today's culture in relation to technology is that most things overlap somehow. Where ever possible we are trying to melt things together to gain quicker and easier access to information. Another thing that is noticeable is a desire for quite self-centered activities such as facebook, YouTube etc. However these are also examples of a growing trend for sociable experiences, where you can communicate and share with others. With this in mind I looked into how GPS on mobile phones could provide options for sociable networking within some communities. Parkour would be the obvious circle where it would be useful to be able to track down where these activities were happening out on the street at any time. However GPS as a tracking devise on mobile phones carries some dangers concerning stalkers.
I have especially been looking into new possibilities for mobile phones, I think we could have a lot more options to control things from these, wherever we are, in the future

So far I have looked at:
-Newly emerging technologies
-Technologies that help organise, structure & simplify daily tasks
-Ideas about the future
-Different Design Principles
-The potentials & issues concerning GPS on phones