MAJ: Looking Outwards #2
Admiration: <OASIS – sand>
Created by Yunsil Heo and Hyunwoo Bang, <OASIS – sand> allows one to create a pond and view the creatures inhabiting it by moving around particles of sand. The creatures react to changes in the pond’s shape, avoid pebbles placed into the pond, and react with surprise if a pebble is suddenly dropped onto the pond.
I’m impressed by the mix of complexity and simplicity this project creates. I imagine that the surface the creatures inhabit must have been custom made, so I’d like to know more about how the different elements of Oasis interconnect. Is the table itself the computer that senses sand placement and spawns creatures? Even the creatures themselves are complex, as each kind seems to have some sort of flocking behavior informing its movements. The element of simplicity is the user interface, which allows all of the intricate code and machinery to become an organic experience.
I would like to see the ideas behind <OASIS – sand> applied in a gaming context. Could different pond shapes and rock placements result in different ecosystems? Could individual creature populations be monitored and messed with? What sorts of feedback cycles might result?
More information about the Oasis project, such as <OASIS – water> and Oasis II, can be found here. To see more of Yunsil Heo and Hyunwoo Bang’s projects, visit their website by clicking here.
Surprise: Birds?
Created by Frédéric Granon, Birds? appears to exhibit some form of flocking behavior.
I was drawn to Birds? by its overall visual effect. The simplified shapes and color palette are attention grabbing, and I keep re-watching in an attempt to understand how the flocking behavior works. I could see Birds? working well as a title sequence, or possibly as a background element for a menu screen. There’s not really anything revolutionary about Birds?, yet it appeals heavily to my sense of style.
Frédéric Granon’s website can be found here.
What Could Have Been: Poster Generator
Created by Universal Interaction, Poster Generator was made for the Shutterstock Analog Mensch Digital Exhibition in Berlin 2014. Poster Generator appears to take multiple images of the same subject and combine them in definable chunks to create a new image.
While Poster Generator certainly looks cool, I wouldn’t want to use it as its namesake. The designs it is capable of making are unattractive to my sense of taste. It’s possible that this is a fault of the documentation, but as the program is not available online to play with, the documentation is all I have to go on. Regardless, I could see some form of Poster Generator as an add-on for something like Photoshop.
Universal Interaction’s website can be found here.