Looking Outwards Assignment 1 – Rosey Denton

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gusJeslMbLc?rel=0&w=640&h=360]

This project is a fountain in Osaka Station City which uses falling water to display things like the name of the station, the time, and various designs for the enjoyment of the passerby. To me, it’s extremely interesting to watch the way the creators have used such precise timing to turn falling water into an art. I think that while this is a good start to a technology that has potential to be utilized in many places for a different kind of aesthetic pleasure, but perhaps the designers could experiment with some extra things like the idea of adding color to this using something like laser lights. I’m sure this fountain was inspired by other more traditional fountains, but now taken a step further by utilizing timing of the falling of water instead of just playing with a constant stream like many others have done.

http://www.talkingdogstudios.com/ar/faceball/

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKIv3Pt6zjI?rel=0&w=480&h=360]

This is a video displaying a small group’s efforts with using Augmented Reality technology. Using a marker and tracker, you can display various things on camera – in this case, a copy of your own head. Though this technology is not widely known yet, I think it has a lot of potential to be utilized in things like interactive books and games and the way it combines reality and computer generated imagery is pretty neat. Though this is obviously something made just for fun, the project could be taken further in the future and there is a potential for AI to get mixed up with AR technology, which would lead to even more interactive possibilities. If you look around the web, a lot of people have toyed with AR, one of the more well-known would be Nintendo and their 3DS, though they are certainly not the first. AR technology seems to still be in production, but it seems like with the track they’re on, it won’t be long before it makes a bigger breakthrough into our everyday lives.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtbBHR8LC6Q?rel=0&w=640&h=360]

This group became known during their audition on the NBC show America’s Got Talent. They use lit wires in a dark environment to perform various musical-based skits. To me, it’s amazing that they can get such realistic-looking movement out of the creatures that they create with the wire and create the illusion that it isn’t humans operating everything.  I think that if they continue creating a wider cast of animals and make longer, more narrative story lines they would have a fantastic show to offer the general public. In the past, I have seen videos of groups that have done a similar feat using lit wire (Team iLuminate, WRECKING CREW ORCHESTRA, etc), but this is the first group that I have seen which goes past using just the body and creates different creatures using this light-in-the-dark technique.