Category Archives: Looking-Outwards

Paul Peng

30 Jan 2014

I remember at the very beginning of this class Golan was like “you should really make sure to do these looking outwards posts” and I thought “I’m going to do these looking outwards posts!” It is now the third week of the semester and I have just made my first looking outwards post.

Manfred Mohr – Early Works

manfredmohr-uhf81 CIS:E.105-2008 manfredmohr-geometrichints

I am so happy that I found out about Manfred Mohr. More accurately, I am so happy that I remembered about Manfred Mohr, since I was briefly introduced to his Random Walks last semester in Electronic Media Studio II but was probably too busy playing Forget-Me-Not to remember his name. The main reason I enjoy his work and his earlier work in particular is due to the combination of the facts that it is computationally generated and that it is very stripped down, especially in comparison to the flashy color-filled compositions and fractals that populate the realm of generative art today (god I fucking hate fractals). His work is clean, concise, classy, and relies not on infinite levels of detail and vibrant colors but instead the raw power and mutability of an algorithmic composition, relying not on complexity of the surface but a much deeper complexity. Although this minimal aesthetic is probably due to limited resources at the time, I find his early works to be highly refreshing and indicative of the look I seek to build off of when I make my own generative compositions. His later works are okay, I guess.

Matthias Dörfelt – Mechanical Parts

matthiasdorfelt-mechanicalparts1 matthiasdorfelt-mechanicalparts2 matthiasdorfelt-mechanicalparts3

In this project, the artist programs a robot to make drawings for him. At first I thought it was dumb since I thought the robot would just draw out prerecorded drawings from the artist but then it turned out that the drawings weren’t prerecorded but instead randomly generated based off of a set of linear forms programmed into the robot, who would draw them in arbitrary combinations to produce decidedly not-computational-looking two-dimensional forms. This project surprised me since for some reason I never realized that you could utilize pre-drawn marks in generative art to as flexible and varied of an extent as this project demonstrates, even though it should have been obvious that you could since plenty of people already do that with literature. It really stretched my notion of the type of images that generative art is capable of, and also acts as an interesting way of preserving the artist’s drawing style from this period of time. The drawings are pretty cute as well, although a few of them are super phallic for some reason?

Various openFrameworks Users – Dolphins

alg-dolphin-saves-jpg dolphin-f Dolphin_color

When it came to picking out a work that I was highly disappointed in, I quickly chose the numerous dolphin-centric apps created using openFrameworks. The reason I was highly disappointed in these virtual dolphin experiences was because none of them actually existed. It’s a real let down when you hear about the flexibility and power of so-called “new media art” and yet you can’t find a single application about dolphins. :(

Looking Outward 5

https://github.com/roxlu/ofxGLM
This allows 3d models to be imported. For any project that requires a 3d world or 3d models it would be necessary. I tried writing a c++ .obj loader once, it wasn’t fun.
 

https://github.com/egradman/ofxNetworkArduino
ARDWINOO
If I’m feeling rebellious and want to take a project into the 3rd dimension. Servos, sensors, led arrays all become available.

https://github.com/kikko/ofxEmbree 
A raytracing engine lib ray. Allows pretty models —> pretty pictures. Rendering has been the part of the 3d pipeline I have given the least interest. Exploring methods of computational rendering could be fun.

Andrew Sweet

30 Jan 2014

ofxAnimatable: With this, you can smoothly and dynamically control all animations with ease. This allows for an elegant-iOS-feely interface that responds appropriately, and transitions smoothly between different views or states.

ofxWorkQueue: With this, it’s easy to thread activities and ensure you that anything process-intensive can be threaded and dealt with appropriately.

ofxVolumetrics: With ofxVolumetrics, openFrameworks can support volumetric renderings.

With a combination of the three, a powerful user interface for manipulating a 3D object could be possible. It could move fluidly and operate with optimal CPU usage. Many of the ofxAddons I ran across seemed to enhance current capabilities, or aid with cross-platform communication or execution. JSON-parsing, iOSTestApp switching, etc. Many of these tools could also be used to allow for the appropriate platform to display whatever tool this could become.

Sama Kanbour

30 Jan 2014

I have chosen these three addons because they seem compatible with Windows Visual Studio 2011, therefore can be potentially used for one of the upcoming projects.

ofxRemoteUI

Description: this addon allows you to remotely modify the properties of your variables. It uses the client/server model to establish the connection between two programs that could be installed on different devices.

Significance: this addon may be helpful for remotely manipulating volume or luminosity for instance, or control animated visualizations from multiple devices.

Github

 

ofxMidi

Description: ofxMidi enables developers to add a musical digital interface to their projects.

Significance: adding sound to projects always makes them more fun and desirable.

Github

 

ofxUI

Description: this addon helps developers create and customize user interfaces. UI elements include buttons, dropdown menus, labels, sliders and so forth.

Significance: ofxUI can help developers focus on the functionality of their features rather than their visual rendering.

Github

Collin Burger

30 Jan 2014

ofxGenerative by Reza Ali
While this addon seems very much like a work in progress, it includes a ton of physics-based tools for making generative works. I haven’t done any work in this area, so this seems like a really good starting point for me to begin looking at some code that goes into generative artworks and start to play around.

ofxRP2A03 by Shintaro Matsushima
It’s an emulator of the classic synthesizer from the Ricoh 2A03 microprocessor featured in the Nintendo Entertainment System.  Needless to say, this microprocessor is responsible for creating some of the most iconic 8-bit sounds ever heard.  What’s not to like? You can play with an online version here.

ofxFft by Kyle McDonald
The FFT, or fast Fourier transform, one of the most essential tools for signal processing.  Its purpose is to extract frequency information from signals.  It’s just plain useful.  This addon for openFrameworks makes it even easier to use a Fourier transform on streams of audio input to the oF application.  I plan to use it in my ofxAddon assignment to determine the fundamental frequency of voice input.

Emily Danchik

29 Jan 2014

Whoops, I did the OFX addons for looking outwards 4, so I’ll do the OFX projects post here:

An important contribution to the field:Clouds
Hey, Golan worked on this! If I understand correctly, part of what makes Clouds so interesting is that it isn’t the same any time you watch it; the interviews segments get restructured, the people are visualized in different ways, etc. This could drive the future of film, especially with 3D cameras, which would allow the producers to move the frame of the shot to its optimal location, even after filming is done.

Seems quick but interesting: Spinning Vinyl
This seems super quick, but I like how the developer used the iPhone in a novel way. I can’t think of another application that relies on actually spinning the device around and around! It might be interesting to look into similar novel uses for a future project.

Number three: Starry Night
I like how this visualization is of something familiar, but reimagined in a new way. Seeing the movements of the brush strokes and being able to interact with them brings such life to the painting!

Shan Huang

29 Jan 2014

ofxLeapMotion

I’ve started playing around with LeapMotion since last semester though I struggled to find an environment to best render my graphics. Mere OpenGL + C++ seemed a little too low-level. Leap+Unity worked pretty well for me but running my projects with the whole Unity engine attached seemed too cumbersome. It’s wonderful to find out that OpenFrameworks also has a Leap addon and I’m excited to try it out.

ofxBox2d

I’m thinking about making a game that uses the Leap Motion controller. The game needs a physical engine, and ofxBox2D seems like a handy physical engine that I can borrow right away.

ofxTimeline

For my game I’d want to programmatically edit my animation clips, and possibly blend between clips via coding. I am not sure if ofxTimeline could get the job done but its demo video seems pretty promising. So I think I will give it a shot.

Shan Huang

29 Jan 2014

Laser & Pixel Graffiti – A cool and surprisingly moving project that might be a breakthrough

Make sure to check out the part after 2:55. I love digital graffiti idea. The dripping graffitis were projected onto the most suitable background – the context they belonged – giant real buildings. The scale of the projections helped distinguish this project from other projection based arts. But I was also very moved by the fact that they used the eye tracker to enable an ALS patient to draw again. Seeing the word “TEMPT” projected onto many buildings gave me the feeling that “this is what technology is all about.”

Hand from above – A fast but fun OpenFramework project

As many artists stated in various sources, people like looking at themselves, and they tend to search for themselves first when they see an art piece. This project puts into a display of an ordinary street scene an annoying hand that keeps fiddling with passersby in the street. People may see their images pinched, chased or even removed by the hand. Some may find it a little offensive, but I love the humor of it.

Chase no face – A project that is visually interesting

This video just looks so amazing… It’s also fun to see visuals projected onto unusual surfaces like people’s faces, rather than plain flat walls. I like the way the visuals react to her facial movement.

Wanfang Diao

28 Jan 2014

ofxCv

since I am currently interested in computer vision and took the CV course last semester, I plan to explore more in this addon. This addon have various top in CV from homography to tracking. It will be vary powerful in creating interactive system by a camera and projector.

ofxSequence
This is one of machine learning addon for classification and recognition of numeric sequences. With this addon, I may recognize interaction mode and give different feed back. If combined with computer vision addons or audio input addons, it will be a powerful tool to connect physical movement to digital space.

ofxBox2d

This addon is very cartoon style, and the interaction between 2d boxes and line is natural and interesting. I think this addon may help me to create cartoon style games or interactive animation.

Looking Outwards 4 (Celine)

openFrameworks

DESKTOP 0 by Nik Hanselmann

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/7497525]

DESKTOP 0 is a project that creates glitch art out of your desktop. I love the idea of having the “canvas” for a work of art reach beyond the container—here, going beyond the app window to wreak havoc with your desktop’s display. It’s kind of like digital installation art, that can be explored in a personal and individual way. I also think a lot of graphical glitches are beautiful (I actually have a collection of screencaps when unexpected graphical glitches happen to me) and so I’m pretty drawn to interesting uses of glitch art. It’s a pretty self-contained idea, but I think it’s really funny and well-done.

Balletfont for WK12 + Fashionbuddha for the Oregon Ballet Theatre

Balletfont is another interesting motion-tracking typographic project. Ballet dancers performed particular typefaces (performing motions to trace the shape of certain letterforms), and the tracking data was cleaned up and manipulated to create vector files for a typeface called “Ligne”. I love how the variable weight of the characters suggests some kind of variable motion—they look very fluid and expressive. I think there’s some interesting strategy here in terms of what motions the dancers chose to illustrate the letters, using which parts of their bodies, &c. The character of the typeface is very curvy and dance-like and clearly shows the medium of the original data.

Darkstar’s “Gold” music video by Sembler

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/15391189]

Sembler was commissioned by Darkstar’s record label to make a music video for the single “Gold”. Their intent was to visualize the idea of memetic contagion, and the growth and transfer of ideas within the mind and between minds. The result mixes video and openFrameworks-generated particle animations (3D point clouds cast on models of each band member’s head). I think sometimes the video relies too much on depicting typical such technology much code wow kinds of screens that look kinda cool and CSI-y to a non-technical audience, and that trope isn’t very interesting to me. But the visualization is really, really beautiful, and I really like the idea of “digital mixed-media” where fairly clinical/rigid 3D models and medical-scan-esque images of the faces and brains are juxtaposed with the more fanciful particles. I do wish the particle growth/changes were animated a bit more!