CART345: Week 11

Response to readings:

Graffiti Research Lab. Impeach the Motherfucker, Light Criticism.

Troika. SMS Guerilla Projector.

CART351: Week 12

Final Project:

Since my previous project took longer than expected, I decided to continue it and make it bigger. My curtains are made out of photo slides that measure 7 by 17 photos each curtain. I got help from a friend to complete it since its extremely time consuming and takes patience. The result is beautiful and quite practical since they act as a curtain as well as an art piece. When there is sun going through the curtains, the photos are projected on the ground and the walls. Eight holes are drilled in every slide and tied with pieces of string that make it move in a smooth way. This is how I chose to represent a large amount of data that is then recycled.

CART345: Week 10

Critique:

Jason Lewis' "What They Speak When They Speak To Me" and David Jhave Johnston's interpretation of poems were both visually and interactively different. In Lewis' piece, it required interaction from the user and it really grabbed my focus since I had to pay attention to where to click and how to read the phrases. Though this piece seemed self-explanatory, I did not really understand the purpose of it until I read the description on the side. I liked how the letters really followed the movement of the finger. Each sentence seemed to tell a different story that made me want to read more. In relation to the fact that these sentences are part of a journey, I would like to know as to why only use black and white for the background and letters?

As for Johnston's piece, I liked how the poem excerpts were integrated into the visuals, for example one of them the text was moving along with the wind. It didn't require interaction from the user but it had some sort of movement and manipulation of text/words. I thought it was more engaging that each short video was independent rather than if it were one entire poem. I did notice that his style of manipulation of text did change throughout each poem and I was curious as to why? I didn't like how the museum presented this piece because to read the entire poem it was in french and the actual visuals were in english. Thus, we should of been able to have the entire poem in english as well and not only french.

Nonetheless, these two pieces were compelling and thought-provoking, and fit well with the context of our class.

Readings:

Mr. Softie.net

NextText.net

The first reading was very short but focused mainly on this application that allows the user to manipulate typography. I have heard of it before but I have never tried it, the name Mr. Softie seems a little strange. Nonetheless, this seems like an interesting program and has a variety of controls to use on text. In the gallery, the works are amazing and vary in appearance, as if they were each created using a different program like processing or flash or photoshop.

NextText is

Making Future Magic is a beautiful piece that uses stop motion animation by moving an ipad with 3D imagery on it. It creates a futuristic looking film as if they were moving LEDs.

CART351: Week 9

This third project took me a while to get a good developed idea. After going through all the numerous data possibilities, I decided to use slides (des disapositives) since my parents kept shoe boxes full of them. The slides I took date to before I was born, pictures my mother took. I thought it would be interesting to use older data instead of taking my own pictures with no purpose behind them and get them put into slides. They are pictures that both my mother and father took before and after they met around my age.

Following the idea of using slides as my collected data, I attached them into a curtain. I got inspired from other projects done with slides like lamps/lights. Returning to the idea of the curtain, it is to be placed inside a home and not in a public place to show the privacy of the images. When the curtains are closed, it brings the viewer close up in this personal and private space. Though when the curtains are open, you get a sense of the more social side of the piece but also becomes more of an object(curtain) than actual pictures (slides).

I used a total of 140 slides. I had to drill in 8 holes on each slide and tie them each with individual piece of string. It is a very long and tedious process that takes patience but I am happy about the result.

CART345: Week 9

Readings:

Simonowski. "Digital Literature: Interview with Noah Wadrip-Fruin".

Wadrip-Fruin. Screen (video), Talking Cure.

Utterback and Archituv. TextRain.

Knuth. "The Concept of a Meta-Font", pp. 289 - 295 of Ch. 15 in Digital Typography

The first text is really short but the main focus is on Noah Wadrip-Fruin's work including writings. I own the book the New Media Reader but I had not noticed before that he had edited a few of them and collaborated on others. A few of the links on the text were disfunctional, though I was able to see his piece called "Taking Cure" which is really a compelling work with enthralling visuals. Noah seems to have futuristic yet aesthetic view of the digital/new media world in his few writings.

The second link posted shows two of Noah's works. I would love to try out his piece called "Screen" since the user is almost inside the text itself. Interactive text along with a virtual world creates an even more fascinating experience for the users.

Following these works by Noah is Utterback and Archituv's piece called "Text Rain". It is a very serene interactive piece using text that falls on whatever is in front of the screen. It employs a different interaction in comparison to Noah's work because the text falls rather than already being placed on the screen(s). I find this interactive typography to be quite beautiful and really simple visually but works conceptually.

Interactive Typography : this website is an interesting and interactive way of learning about typographies.

I stumbled across this piece and found it really beautiful both visually and with the motion. The way is moves with the person interacting is almost flawless. Very creative interactions.

CART345: Week 8

Response and reaction to readings:

Maeda. Creative Code, pp. 81 - 95. [W]

Cho. Ch. 3 of Computational Models for Expressive Dimensional Typography.Alphabet Zoo, Letterscapes, Wordscapes.

The reading, as well as the letterscape and wordscape, showed good examples of what we can do for our upcoming project. It is nice to see someone create three dimensional letters in a different way that simply using boxes and spheres and linear edges but rather beveled extrusions and smoother looking. From a two dimensional shape to a sculptural form, he gave a personality to each one of the letters. The Letterscape project, I enjoyed playing around with it and trying it out, finding it to be quite creative since each letter is represented differently when clicked on. As for the Wordscrape, it is a continuation of Letterscape whereas they created different environments for the letters and form a one word poem. The interaction is with the mouse that reveals denotations and connotations of of words. It is built with processing, making it amusing and visually appealing to look at.

Muller. For All Seasons.

This seems like a very beautiful piece but I was not able to view it. From the images, it looks like an interactive piece with a wide range of visuals. I would of liked to know what program or language he used for the making of this typographic work. It amazes me how much can be done with just words and give them a whole new meaning. The first two images which look like grass are quite beautiful which means he must have really accomplished what we originally had in mind.

Here are two compelling links that I found with interactive pieces except most of them are analog. It is impressive to see the difference between the digital and analog as well.

Miles Blanco

Generator.x

CART351: Week 7

Response to reading:

"Database as symbolic form" - Lev Manovich

Continuing with the subject of database, this text begins by explaining in detail what are the different types of databases. The title comes from his idea of the database of the computer age as a new way of structuring our experience of ourselves and the world. This text really surprised me at how much one can talk about databases and the different types such as ones in movies (computer-based). There is a range of possibilities offered by the camera which is what makes it so rich in content. Vertov was able to merge database and narrative into a new form, and pushes this for other artists about to experiment with this.

Data Visualization

CART351: Week 6

Readings -

"Dreams of a New Medium" - by Aden Evans

This text slightly relates to last weeks readings about the computer and databases but this text by Aden Evans is a bit more complicating. I am having difficulty following what he is talking about with web 1.0 to 2.0, therefore it is hard for me to picture what he is discussing about visually. When he talks about virtual reality, it is unclear because I have read Baudrillard's text on virtual reality and cyberspace where he explains a different version of VR and its other facets. Thus, what exactly does he mean by VR?

If I am understanding correctly this text, he wants to erase the gap separating the user and the computer. He plunges into this historical methodology by examining web 2.0 in terms of both the medial and the ways that it generates a different relation to mediation. Like many new media technical dreams, his idea of web 2.0 evokes a desire for immediacy. Also, the Web then "becomes a reflexive nest of perspectives on itself". So far, this is the most I have gotten out of the understanding of this text. I would of liked it if he would of explained more in detail what he meant by dream of the digital or technical dreams, is it how people want to interact with the Web? Nonetheless, this was still an interesting text to read but I wish I would of understood it better.

CART351: Week 5 (Project)

Php Project 1.2:

Since I did not know nor understand php, I decided to pair up with katherine. We came up with plenty of ideas of what we wanted to do, what data to use but when we started trying to do it, nothing worked. We decided to finally keep it simple and do our best by creating a search engine specifically for Flickr data. You type in whatever keyword you'd like and press click, it will show you all the Flickr images that have that keyword tagged in it. We wrote the code so that only 99 pictures show up since it will lag if there are too many photos. It is pretty simple but we are happy we managed to make something work. The data may not be the most insightful but it is interesting to see what random images come up with whatever keyword of phrase you type in considering Flickr images are photos that people posted themselves on their page.

Here is the link:

Flickr Search Engine

CART345: Week 6

Response/Review of Readings:

• Bolter. “Seeing and Writing”, ch. 47, pp. 679 – 690 in the New Media Reader. [W]

Bolter developed a concept of writing space which he explained in this text. He shows how the acts of storing and displaying text that are inseparable, are now torn apart by technology, thus coming up with new ways of dealing with and understand text. The media infiltrate the act of writing, resulting in creating their own necessity as media. I found it to be a very complex and detailed text, and he does prove a point because digital media has completely modified the way we perceive writing and how we write as well. Bolter suggests that seeing is not so innocent, nor are subjectivities so stable.

• Vanderlans and Licko. "Ambition, Fear".

I think it is important to know the different methods for which designers and artist use digital media for their work. New media is constantly evolving, leaving no room for boredom for these designers. Since we are just beginning to explore all the facets of the computer and its capabilities, the work that generates from these artists almost resembles caveman paintings. As mentioned in the text, "we are once again faced with evaluating the basic rules of design that we formerly took for granted". In order to create a design using the computer nowadays, one most know both specifically and formally what to use and what not to do. Thus, this is an exciting time for designers to create different types in the abyss of new media.

To check: Nick Sherman Design


This video does not really relate to the texts but I thought it was a nice addition to what can be done with letters in an analog form and how typography can be manipulated to represent something else:



This is also a different way of playing around with typography, mainly letters in this video, quite beautiful. The background sound is the voice of someone saying the letters that are being placed:




Lastly, here is a very powerful text about language relating to the project we are currently working on: