Tweet tweet

When asked to find an interesting post:

 

Why the surveillance post? Why not the biohacking? One, the surveillance post was cleverly phrased, with the play of words on festival, two, the post made sense as a stand-alone sentence, and three, I recently had a discussion with a friend over a news article we’d both read which mentioned that Great Britain has the most security cameras per capita than any other country in the world. Additionally, it was one of the most common debate topics in my highschool. This same quotation was always brought up:

Benjamen Franklin once said,

He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.

It merits thinking through every time.

Let’s Draw

 

Instructions: 

Have one clean sheet of printing paper and pencil ready.
Turn paper portrait view.
1) Shoes have laces. Move to 5.
Shoes don’t have laces. Move to 7.
else Move to 8.
If bored. Done.

2) Use non-dominant hand.
Draw your favorite animal next to other shape.
Animal is mammal. Move to 11.
Animal isn’t mammal. Move to 12.
Cannot be determined. Move to 13.
If bored. Done.

3) Use non-dominant hand.
Draw rectangle.
Length of rectangle longer than other shape’s diameter. Move to 2.
Length of rectangle shorter than other shape’s diameter. Move to 10.
Length of rectangle as long as other shape’s diameter. Move to 14.
If bored. Done.

4) Clap your hands to a rhythm.
Draw out your rhythm.
Rhythm is fast. Share it with a friend.
Rhythm is slow. Share it with an enemy.
Rhythm is just right. Hum it out loud.

5) Untie Shoe laces.
Grab clean paper and draw circle on page.
Fold paper in half so the shorter sides meet at the bottom.
Unfold.
Circle in top half. Move to 3.
Circle in bottom half. Move to 4.
Circle on fold. Move to 6.
If bored. Done.

6) Glance around the room secretly.
Choose an object as your target.
Object is female. Move next to object and continue to 8.
Object is male. Move around object for 20 seconds and continue to 3.
Unable to determine gender. Grab object. You have won.
If bored. Done.

7) Draw laces on paper.
Imagine a color for your laces.
Color is warm. Move to 11.
Color is cool. Move to 2.
else. Move to 4.
If bored. Done.

8) Cross your legs and shake your feet.
Crumble up your paper.
Unfold.
Straighten out your paper and reposition landscape view.
Choose a corner of the paper and draw a contour line starting from that corner to the other
side of the paper until done.
Think of a number from 1 – 100.
Number between 1-33 included. Move to 9.
Number between 34-66 included. Move to 14.
Number between 67-100 included. Move to 3.
If bored. Done.

9) Think of an animal you would like to devour.
Imitate a mating call to try and lure the animal in.
Successful. Move to 4.
Unsuccessful. Move to 2.
Want to try again. Repeat step.
If bored. Done.

10) Fold paper into plane.
Unfold.
Write your instructions on the back of the page.
Refold.
Throw it to an unsuspecting victim.

11) Use dominant hand.
Draw the largest spiral you can manage.
Spiral overlaps something on page. Move to 10.
Spiral doesn’t anything on page. Move to 8.
If bored. Done.

12) Fold paper in half.
Paper is too thick to fold. Unfold and trace lines.
Paper is still foldable. Repeat step.

13) Draw biggest shape possible.
Draw smaller shapes until finished.
Grin.
Hand paper to person closest to you and ask them to sign it.

14) Attempt a cartwheel.
Successful. Describe how you feel on paper.
Unsuccessful. Describe how you feel to another person and draw their response on paper.
Undetermined. Move to a sunny spot and describe your next attempt on paper.
Results: 

instructions-1 instructions-2 instructions-3

instructions-4 instructions-5

Analysis: 

The style of my instructions originated from the tests used to classify difference between subspecies in biology. Each questions contains 3 choices that lead to different choices which each also contain 3 different choices and eventually comes to an end result. Along the way, the test subject’s choices, personality, and preference changes his or her result. What both surprised me and confirmed my hypothesis was the vast differences between results. Although the test itself seemed very long, one result came out to be fairly simplistic.I knew that even if two people chose the same path, their drawings will come out differently through little details in drawing style or positioning, dominance of hand and longevity of patience. If I had a choice to edit my test, I may make some questions a little more ambiguous or simple, so the user is able to apply more of his or her own imagination and understanding of the questions.

Reverse Engineering

img002

Instructions:

0. Every line you draw can run over the page and connect to another line. It cannot completely cross over another line.
1. Draw several nonparallel lines.
2. On each side of each line, draw a perpendicular line. The entire set of lines you just drew is the “original series”.
3. On each new line you drew, draw a series of perpendicular lines varying in length. Space these lines apart so that, as they get closer to the original series line with which they are parallel, the space between each line decreases.
4. Repeat 3 three more times.

The way I thought of this piece was like a bird’s eye view of a city. I imagined the main streets to be more densely packed. I probably added too many lines in my own drawing because, visually, I was compensating for the lack of color in mine compared to the original drawings. Overall, this was a really fun assignment because I can definitely see how this relates art and code. It really opens my eyes to all the possibilities!

Tweets!

https://twitter.com/CreatorsProject/status/373125138684071936

This tweet was interesting to me because I found the title, “RPG OKC: A love story set in the world of 8-bit fantasy games” very interesting. I had to laugh since it reminded me of all the other 8-bit fantasy games I used to play as a child. When I looked into it, I found that I was very interested in the video as well as the artist who made it. the video was both, hilarious, clever, and heartbreaking; I found myself on the edge of my seat the whole time.

 

Reverse

1) Pick one point that isn’t touching the edge of the paper.

2) Draw At least four lines from the point that are not perpendicular or parallel to each other.

Lines must somehow touch each other, but not cross over each other.

3) Pick one line a draw at least one line perpendicular to it. The new line need not to be perpendicular to the surrounding lines. New lines must not overlap any other lines on page.

4) Continue to repeat step 3 with existing lines and new lines until satisfied with image.

5) Repeat steps 1-4 at another point on page if desired. New design cannot overlap existing lines.

End result.

Reverse

Draw me a Quadrangle

IMG_3864

Drawing the quadrangle through Sol Lewitt’s instructions paralleled the experience of coding. Sol Lewitt’s instructions were precise and specific, similar to the code or “instructions” a programmer would type into a compiler. When programming, one must be extremely careful to include every little detail and check every case, so that the compiler doesn’t become confused. It’s often quite easy to assume incorrectly that the compiler is “smart” enough to know when to automatically check for certain cases. Sol Lewitt exaggerates the importance of detail by over emphasizing direction, position and relativity to other lines on the page which he instructs the audience to draw. Creating the quadrangle proved to be extremely tedious and unnecessarily time consuming because it was actually too detailed. Now I realize that it is amazing how compilers can take over-detailed instructions, analyze and reproduce the product in a logical correct procedure. For compilers, relativity is everything. As a human, we can only contain and consume so much information before comparisons between points or positions start to become confusing. Our intelligence and ability to make assumptions ironically becomes a hindrance.

IFTTT

ifttt

When I am just thinking about stuffs and ideas pop up, I need to write them down, because I have a disgustingly bad memory. But paper and computer are not always on hand in these situations, so I need to rely on my phone. Now, the Evernote app for my phone is rather slow, and during that wait time for the app to load, I might lose my thought (this definitely happened in real life). Instead if I just text the thought to Evernote directly, chances of me forgetting decreases. I am impressed that APIs can be used as pipes to pass output of one program as input to another, essentially upgrading the Formula for Computer Art to become a chain.

I am however conflicted. A part of me is excited for the possibilities generated. But when I was giving IFTTT one permission after another to link my many isolated accounts, I grew fearful. One of the primary reasons I have many accounts is modularity; I do not wish to lose everything should any single account be compromised. However, now I am centralizing all my emails in Gmail, my files on Dropbox, and my notes on Evernote by giving all read-write access to IFTTT. What if IFTTT is attacked? What if IFTTT turns out to be not what it seems to be?

I also do not want to relinquish my direct control over my accounts; I refuse to allow something I did in one site to automatically change something else while I am not consciously aware of it, because some API is listening in on everything I do. So after testing out my recipe to make sure it works, I disabled it. I will only actively use IFTTT again when the gain in productivity far outweighs my loss of control.

fried chicken, beef jerky (and other things)

Instructions:

Please orient the page vertically.

Unless otherwise stated, you must use your non-dominant hand to execute the instructions.

  1. Draw a small square with sides that are longer than the length of your nail.
  2. Draw a rectangle, with a length of that of your index finger, beside the largest shape – leave a small gap between them.
  3. Draw a shape next to the square and rectangle. The three shapes together should have the form of a square. Ensure that the three shapes are not touching.
  4. Repeat 2-3.
  5. Repeat 3-2.
  6. With your dominant hand: Inside each of the empty shapes, draw contour lines until finished. (remember to switch back to your non-dominant hand afterwards)
  7. Outline the figure.
  8. Take a deep breath. Hold it.
  9. Repeat 2-5 until you cannot hold your breath any longer.
  10. Repeat 2+5.
  11. Repeat 6-7.
  12. Write, in capital letters, what you recently ate at the top of the page.

So, it turned out that some parts of my instructions ended up being more vague than I had intended them to be – mostly because I myself was not completely sure how to describe certain steps. This resulted in a huge amount of variation between the drawings, which may or may not have been a desirable outcome. In the future, I should aim to give my instructions more specificity, without completely omitting the element of ambiguity.

At the same time, the intentional vagueness of some instructions – more specifically ‘draw contour lines’ – had worked the way I wanted them to and produced interesting results. What I found particularly fascinating about the ‘contour lines’ instruction was that you can (for the most part) discern those who have more artistically-oriented backgrounds from those who do not, which was exactly my intention.

Some other things I noticed:

  1. Putting things in bold does not necessarily guarantee that people will follow the directions.
  2. Many people tend to follow instructions like interpreters – they simply carry out the instructions line by line, as they go along. This was interesting for me because I personally have a ‘compiler’ mentality when following instructions; I read everything through once, and then perform the tasks afterwards.
  3. Twins are not at all very identical.
  4. People can’t hold their breath for very long.

fried chicken popeyes pizza noodles sandwich beef jerky

{email + wordpress = ?}

Screen Shot 2013-08-31 at 10.36.12 PM

While this recipe is probably mostly useless, I find the quirkiness of it to be rather endearing. Perhaps this recipe may not be completely ‘useless’ after all though – since it provides a means for me to personally document / organize my blog writings in an easily accessible area. At the same time, I still find it a little unsettling that IFTTT has to parse the content of my emails in order to create a blog post, despite how I have technically granted them access to do so. Regardless, the paranoid tinfoil hat-wearing girl in me cannot help but wonder: if a site like IFTTT has access to all these personal accounts and information, then wouldn’t that mean that its members are leaving themselves vulnerable to the potential compromise of sensitive information?

via Gmail

On APIs and Computer Art: Before reading Jer Thorp’s article I admit that I had very little knowledge on APIs and was hardly able to remember what it stood for. Now I understand that APIs are simply a means to transport data from one location to the next, to ‘bridge one piece of software to another’. The fact that this data can be outputted / conveyed in a number of different, meaningful forms demonstrates how APIs are conducive to many possibilities. Concerning computer art, it could be argued that APIs could be used as tools of art creation; with regard to Jim Campbell’s Formula for Computer Art, APIs similarly take a form of input, runs the input through processes, and produces some form of output that may be meaningful, useless, or something in between. Simply because an API is not conventionally viewed as a means to create artwork, does not mean that it cannot be used to do so at all. For instance, I consider Jer Thorp’s API that returns a list of people in his twitter feed, equivalent to the number of people killed in the most recent drone strike, to be a powerful piece of computer art that blends socio-political commentary with a hint of dark humor.