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:

CART351: Week 5

Reading Responses:

- Michel Foucault. Discipline & Punish (1975), Panopticism

I had read the text "Docile Bodies" by Foucault in my CART theory class last semester which I thought was very interesting, and we compared it to Deleuze's "Postscript on Control Societies". In Discipline and Punish, Foucault focuses on historical documents but his issues become relevant in modern day society. He exams the social mechanisms of change that occured in the prison systems where he challenges the idea of prisons are being a form of punishment. Similar to the Docile Bodies chapter, he focuses mainly on the body and power where the prison is a form of discipline like schools and hospitals. The system creates disciplinary environments to create none delinquents and a controlled body. In all, Foucault says that discipline creates "docile bodies", bodies that function in factories, military's and schools.

Following this idea, the "Panopticon" relates to Foucault's theory of a disciplined body by designing a prison where all prisoners are under surveillance without knowing when they are being watched. Jeremy Bentham created this with the idea of power in mind; cheaper prison with less staff, and the observer would have all the power. Foucault invoked the idea in his text by refering to the Panopticon as a metaphor for modern disciplinary societies where there focus is on observing and normalizing.

- The database as a genre of new media by Lev Manovich

This text makes a good point when stating that the computer age tells no story, rather it is an accumulation of individual items with each the same significance. The author goes through the different types of digital storage medias and how the Internet constantly grows forming new links. Then he moves on to talking about a different kind of new media such as video games that follow no database logic, instead, they are ruled by another logic. Hence the term algorithm is introduced. This is where the player must execute an algorithm in order to win. All in all, computer culture does not have the same status as database and narrative. In some way, all new media objects are databases because they organize material on different levels.

- The Next Big Thing in Humanities, Arts and Social Science Computing: Cultural Analytics an interview with Manovich.

Briefly, in response to this article,

- William Gibson on Google - nyt

We are use to being cradled by search engines but we forget that they are only tools and need us in order to function. "We perceive much of our world through [Google]", this statement is quite powerful and discouraging when we think people can't think for themselves. It is true that we never imagined artificial intelligence to look like Google where empires and nation-states use to be the evolving structural unit, except they were not being the center of human like perception. This text also refers to the first article about Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon design since it is a metaphor in digital surveillance but does not really suit an entity like Google. They are both two difference kinds of human surveillance. I do agree with the author of this article when he states: "Nor do I take much comfort in the thought that Google itself would have to be trusted never to link one’s sober adulthood to one’s wild youth, which surely the search engine, wielding as yet unimagined tools of transparency, eventually could and would do".

CART351: Week 4 (Holzer)

Review/Reflection on DHC ART, "Jenny Holzer":

Jenny Holzer, for thirty years, has created analytical work combining typography and installations. Her recent exhibition at DHC ART pairs text with US government documents of war and digital mediums. Seeing the exhibition twice helped get a better and deeper understanding of what her work is about. Without reading about her series before seeing them, it leaves the viewer lost and confused.

For the first part of the exhibition presented, she did not use her own texts. The "Redaction Paintings" were not eye-catching except for the purple painted canvas' representing wounds and bruises. She could of done more with the data and information she had. The second series was the "Water Board" and "Thorax", both placed in the same room but made with two different mediums. This made me question her use of analog works versus her LED pieces. Why overpower a painting with a brightly flashing LED thorax? Thorax catches the viewer's attention in an instance while Water Board was forgotten in the back. Still today I don't understand the meaning of the Water Board painting.

Following this is "Ribs" which is identical to the Thorax piece but presented vertically rather than horizontally. I do like how she repeated the tints of purple in her works as the idea of human bruises and wounds. Also, briefly speaking, there was the series "Lustmond Tables" which in previous exhibitions people were allowed to touch. Not being able to touch the bones did make the piece more personal and really make the viewer have to move around to understand it. The two last pieces in the other building are "Monument" and "Chicago" which were bigger than the other series but not much different.

All of her LED works, I thought, got really repetitive in terms of colour, shape, and motion. Likewise, her analog pieces lost my interest and lacked a personal touch or connection to the other works. I felt as if she had run out of ideas for her two last LED projects: Chicago and Monument, where she just programmed them to do anything and change paths after an hour or so. In addition, I'm not sure DHC ART had spaces large enough for her LED works which may have affected the way we look at them. Though these series are just a quarter of Holzer's entire exhibition, I recommend to see it no more than once or else you will be prone to getting a heading or nausea.

CART345: Week 5

Responses to reading:

Blackwell -

David Carson, the most influential graphic designer of the 1990's. His work was so different but everyday typography that nowadays everyone creates works similar to his without knowing who he is. I wish I had known this guy before because his work is beautiful - they resemble more an art piece than text. The article was a little difficult to follow since everything was all over the place but nonetheless, my focus was on the visuals. Thus, I would respond and state my opinion on the text if I had really payed attention to every word, but in all honesty, the visuals were too powerful and I could not resist looking at that.

Bellantoni. Ch. 1 Precedents -

The first thing I noticed reading this text and the previous one was the visuals; it caught my eye before I even realized there was text. No doubt, their main focus was mainly on the visuals of this reading and kept the writing as minimal as possible. It is up to use the reader to decide how we want to read the text and which comes first since it is not structured like usual articles or texts. Now, my response to the text, it discusses the use of film titled over the years and how artists began with more analog versions of titles to then experimenting with digital. I find a lot of the art pieces are very simple but very effective, and are done step by step. The way the title of a movie is presented has a large impact on the viewers who then have an idea of what the movie may be about or simply keep their interest and make them part of this title. These artists use typography not only as letters and words but as images and objects. I found this to be very interesting because of the way it is presented and explained step by step on how film titles are created.

Here is a link which shows a variety of different typographic treatments created digitally or analog:

Typography Served

Here's another fun link: Typography

This is a short video of typographic works from Ray Gun created by David Carson

CART351: Week 3

"Data Knitting" by Arjen Mulder :

This text, if I am understanding it correctly, discuses about programs and softwares where data is organized into a complex knowledge system. The body, mind, and language is an archive of experiences, and that our history is a database where facts can be retrieved. Relationships between individuals data are now being stored and analyzed. I find this article is confusing and talks about multiple ideas at once. I am not sure about the relationship between archives, softwares and data as one.

Gerhard Richter's "Atlas" :

Without searching about his life or background education, I analyzed his work by making assumptions and using my imagination. His work is quite beautiful and well structured. He seems to be documenting older photographs maybe of his ancestors or just found ones. I like how they are shown in chronological order and the colours are kept the same, no photoshop seems to have been used on the photos. It is a different way of collecting data, it looks very similar to a scrapbook. Though they are photographs, the title of the data- Atlas- suggests that he may be collecting pictures of people around the world over the years.

CART345: Week 3

Fonts and Expressions:

Today in class we had to take pictures of ourselves and show the specific emotion through the photograph of course but also through the font. Katherine and I decided to both do it together to make it entertainin, and used the effects on the Macbook Photo booth to express in a more obvious way the emotions. Here are the emotions and the pictures:

Sad-Mistral
Surprised-Eccentric std
Angry-Cracked
Happy-Hobo std
Embarrassed-Baskerville Old Face

Confused-Webdings

CART351: Week 2

Response:

The work of artists in a databased society: Net.Art as online activism. (Features).(Internet standards and a Free Society)(Excerpt) by Richard Miranda Zuniga

- I found this article to be quite interesting because it is hard to define the limits of the Internet and it's pros and cons for keeping it public or controlled. The term data is presented in both this article and the following one because of the wide range of information being presented that has a great importance and impact on today's society. He also mentions that present day art in our generation is generally all digital and reflects this idea of avant-garde, socialist works. Thus, artists continue questioning as well the idea of having digital media public or controlled. Do we really want a society like the Panopticon suggested by Jeremy Bentham in 1785?

10 ways data is changing how we live (article from the Telegraph)

- After reading this article, I was surprised and amazed at finding out not only was data does but how it affects us in our every day lives. Shopping, relationships, business deliveries, maps, education, politics, society, war, advertising, are a few of the categories chosen to discuss in details the data implied in each and its function(s). I do agree with the article when they mention that most data is useless or unconnected. The one that shocked me the most was online dating websites where the data calculates the most absurd information for "data-based date advice". I don't really see how data calculating the perfect profile picture or how most users make themselves appear taller and/or richer, has changed how we live. We are almost being reduced to numbers if we actually count how many pin-card numbers we have, how many passwords hold all our information.

CART345: Week 2

Response:

rucker. The Visible Word, Chapter 2 Visual and Literary Materiality in Modern Art

Bringhurst. Chapter 1 The Grand Design. Recommended: Chapter 7 Historical Interlude

Spiekerman. Chapter 3 Looking at Type. Recommended: Chapter 4 Type with a Purpose

CART345: in class

5 typefaces:

I like: Zoom in

I liked the 3D ascept of it as well as its simplicity and calm shadows.

I like: Santa font
It adds a touch of uniqueness since it looks like the persons own writing and not as much a digital font. The sketchiness of it makes it easier to relate to.
I hate: Blazed
I don't like the cheesyness of the fire added and it looks like really cheap hotwheel stickers vput on toy racecars.
* This one was choosen in our group for the most dispicable since it was boring and not appealing.
I hate: Heartland
It is as cheesy as the above font and very boring. The hearts overwhelm the letters too much and make it almost impossible to read.
Not sure: 3D let
I liked the 3 dimensional view of it but at times it seems hard to read especially if it is too small.

The one font the group agreed on as the most interesting is: Ice Baby because of its texture and depth. It looks realistic and very different from other fonts we have seen.

CART351: Week 1

Mapping Project:

The idea of the project is to map out something and produce it visually - except from presenting a world map. We had a project to do in the previous CART211 class where we had to map our surroundings in an interactive way. A few of the examples shown in class I was already aware of so it inspired me to do something with physical layers rather than have it digital. Using these physical layers brought forth the idea of mapping out my family and how we are connected by DNA. My family and I are relatively close - by family I mean my mother, father, and brother - and by being very close, we constitute to a whole as well as individuals outside of home. Hense, this is why I used transparent layering. I used my hand print, my mother's lips, my father's finger print, and my brother's foot print. They are each printed on a single acetate and when they are combined, they become a whole like DNA.

The way I did this is I put the prints on paper and scanned them largely enough to print them bigger on an acetate after. A few complications arose; it was either too pixelates, too blurry or not dark enough. After wasting 10 sheets of acetate, I managed to come to an end result which I am fairly happy about. If I had more time I would of done a better job.

After having my project criticized negatively, I decided to change it a little by adding pins and putting space between each acetate to almost show a discectomy of my family. It was very hard to keep the sheets perfectly straight and not have them wiggle. Taking pictures of it was also a challenge because of the flash that kept reflecting in the sheets.

CART345: Week 1

Lupton - Type Workshop

On Ellen Lupton's "Thinking with Type" website, she touches interesting points by explaining the anatomy of letters, the spacing and alignment of text, and the grid or structure of paragraphs. Never have I deeply analyzed typography which is why I am amazed at the fact that the height, width, and baseline are precisely measured and always placed in the exact same manner. Size of a word can really differ from screen to print; for example, one may have a higher x-height. When it comes to text, I find the spacing between letters - called kerning - is sometimes impossible to notice. Tracking is another term I am learning while reading these texts, which adjusts spacing across words, texts or columns. Depending on the text, it always needs to be structured a certain way to have effect. Weight, size, spacing and placement are relatively important to express part of a page. Lastly, if grids were not used to structure text on a page, it would be a mess to read.

Type basics are composed of exploring basic issues in type design. It seems to be a repetition of what was previously explained by Lupton but with a few additions such as caps, italics and bold, and digital texts. I thought the sketches to be more useful and easier to understand on this particular website because of its simplicity. I have seen many different kinds of typography in my years but never have I taken the time to appreciate the detail and differences of each. From graphic novels to billboard advertisements, they may seem identical but they aren't always. I have explored typography a little but mainly calligraphy by making tattoo sketches for friends. I went with my naked eye and not by measurements.

Typography Animation:

I stumbled on these videos a while ago and I thought they would be relevant to show the difference use of text and placement. The voice is perfectly synchronized with the text appearing.

Not only does this video use words, it also uses characters and symbols which relate to the first assignment we are given for this course.