Inspired by Text Rain and Typeface2 by Mary Huang. In the process, I became intrigued by painting with type, with one’s face movements.

// a template for receiving face tracking osc messages from
// Kyle McDonald's FaceOSC https://github.com/kylemcdonald/ofxFaceTracker
//
// 2012 Dan Wilcox danomatika.com
// for the IACD Spring 2012 class at the CMU School of Art
//
// adapted from from Greg Borenstein's 2011 example
// http://www.gregborenstein.com/
// https://gist.github.com/1603230
//

import oscP5.*;
OscP5 oscP5;
// num faces found
int found;
float[] rawArray;
//which point is selected
int highlighted;
String word = "HelloWorld";
//int wordIndex = int(random(wordBank.length));
float textX;
float textY;
//float speed = 1;
float speed = .01;
//float posX = rawArray[0];

//float textSize = random(0 30);
float textSize = 30;
float rgbColor = random(255);

void setup() {
size(640, 480);
frameRate(30);
oscP5 = new OscP5(this, 8338);
oscP5.plug(this, "found", "/found");
oscP5.plug(this, "rawData", "/raw");

textAlign(CENTER);
textX = random(width);
}
void draw() {
//background(255);
//stroke(0);
//noStroke();
//background(255, 0, 0, 10);
textSize(textSize);

if(found > 0) {
for (int val = 0; val < rawArray.length -1; val+=2){
if (val == highlighted){ fill(255,0,0);}
else{fill(100);}

//ellipse(rawArray[val], rawArray[val+1],8,8);
//text("Use Left and Right arrow keys to cycle through points",20,20);
//text( "current index = [" + highlighted + "," + int(highlighted + 1) + "]", 20, 40);
//println(rawArray[val]);
fallingWords();
}
}
}
void fallingWords(){

float rgbColor = random(255);
textY = textY+speed;
float x1=map(textY, 0, height, 0, 255);
fill(rgbColor+x1, 102, 153, 80);
textSize = rawArray[128]/5;
rotate(rawArray[100]);
text(word, rawArray[100], textY);
if (textY > height){
//reset text's falling placement (textX, textY) and speed
textX = random(width);
textY = 0;
//speed = 1;
speed = random(.01,.1);
background(204,204,204);

}
}
void keyPressed(){
if (keyCode == RIGHT){
highlighted = (highlighted + 2) % rawArray.length;
}
if (keyCode == LEFT){
highlighted = (highlighted - 2) % rawArray.length;
if (highlighted < 0){highlighted = rawArray.length-1;
}
}
}
/////////////////////////////////// OSC CALLBACK FUNCTIONS//////////////////////////////////
public void found(int i) {
println("found: " + i);
found = i;
}
public void rawData(float[] raw) {
println("raw data saved to rawArray");
rawArray = raw;

}

 

A lot of people like the general design. Admittedly, I did too. I think my success came from keeping it simple and smooth– the motion was coherent and corresponded to every other element. The elements that people didn’t like were the motion of the smallest circle– they wanted it to be on the outside of it’s path-circle and the colors. I definitely understand the color criticism especially given that I had not put much consideration into that part of my project. I was more focused on the movement of the circles at the expense of the color consideration. As for the criticism about the placement of the circles: I tried many different combinations of which circles go inside which and had carefully considered this component. Perhaps this is just a difference of opinion.

Moving forward I will consider color more and I especially liked the suggestion to xor the colors.

sketch-34.js

T – Seconds / I – Minutes / M – Hours / E – Milliseconds

How to achieve the rotational placement like an actual clock (M is at 58 minutes, or I is at 12pm)?

I really loved Stephanie Posevac (and the small startup interaction firm she works with in cali) when I was first introduced to this area of new media arts. I found data visualization incredibly exciting, both as a creative problem to work out how to best show complex data, but also to make the silly mundane things in life hold more meaning.

(short blurb on Stefanie – she’s a UK based designer who has made lots of  work with data projects that involve language, literature and science while illustrating for various books and exhibiting at the MoMa…like HOW COOL IS THAT?)

Eyeo2012 – Stefanie Posavec from Eyeo Festival // INSTINT on Vimeo.

But anywhooo – her work was the stepping stone that brought me interests further into data visualization. (Golan talked about her (or mentioned offhandedly?) during our first lecture as well) I really admired how beautiful her data aesthetic was – the aesthetic sells just as well as the functionality of the design.

Something along those lines – but not quite so aesthetic – also enables effortless data/information transmission;

An older project – but still one of my favorites- called NeuroViz is especially exciting because and it’s an incredibly simple tool for “visualizing the activation and inhibition of nodes within neural networks such that those within our brain.” Being able to communicate the complexity in a straightforward incredibly effortless way takes so much effort. I appreciate these more knowing the iterative process behind it.

Jet’s program:

Jet’s sketch

Eyeo 2015 – Zach Lieberman, From Point A to Point B

Zach Lieberman is an American new media artist and programmer who has “a simple goal: he wants you surprised”. He describes the core of his work to be “augmenting the body’s ability to communicate”. He is the co-creator of openFrameworks and currently teaches at Parsons School of Design, where he received his MFA in Design and Technology.

Immediately upon speaking, Zach seems like such a down-to-earth, fun, and approachable guy, asking if the audience, “felt like family”. We all went on a “journey” because his talk was so humorous, engaging, deep, and human, and this latter point is want I was to discuss about Lieberman.

Zach stated he’s been to Eyeo 4 times and it’s been an emotional ride, where the first time he was really happy because it was his first time, the second time he was heartbroken for some reason, the third time he was happy again because he had just opened a new school (School for Poetic Computation), but in this fourth talk, his father had just died three weeks ago. I was really moved because Zach still came to Eyeo to give his talk, making it a tribute to his Father’s belief that “The world needs stories. We are drowning in data, and we need people to weave stories.”

What struck me was how genuinely passionate he was about his work, you can just hear it by his enthusiastic tone and the number of times he said he was “obsessed” with things like how a line (he talked A LOT about this, it was so cool) can be used to separate or disconnect people, how the “world is all around us, we just need a way to see or hear it”, and how everything is about connections. To me, his work doesn’t come off as computational or cold, which is what I associate with most programmers (but then again, I haven’t had much exposure to a lot of creative computing projects yet so more to come in Looking Outwards :^) ).

I really admire this because I think some of Lieberman’s work can be considered human-centered design, which is what I’ve been learning in the School of Design. I think the way that he talks about his thought process for his Play the World piano radio is inspirational for me as a designer. I saw it as another way to think about creating products that are engaging, emotional, memorable, and understanding of natural human behavior. Basically he created a program that makes the keys on a piano have the same pitch as a random song from around the world, so people can see and hear what African music might sound like and then suddenly from Rio de Janiero (go to 27:19 in the video to see how excited kids and adults got when they played this piano). One guy who played it said to Zach, “I need this in my life”. The current, sad stereotype with technology is that we’d rather be spending time on our smart phone screen than with close family and friends. I think Zach’s attitude and work shows that technology can touch upon topics that get people to see other people’s world views and stories, making it seems like the technology that we interact with now (mostly phones, tablets, and computers) is just the beginning and we will be having more intricate and thought provoking experiences.

Other cool projects that I didn’t touch upon:

• Last year, I designed a font with a friend, but Zach created a program to visualize a car’s movement into a font :O
• Zach, my instructor Golan (!!!!!!!), and others worked together to create an abstract, playful speech performance

Symphonie Cinétique – The Poetry of Motion (2013), Joachim Sauter (ART+COM) X Ólafur Arnalds

Symphonie Cinétique is a collaborative piece created by Joachim Sauter and ART+COM, with Icelandic composer and pianist Ólafur Arnalds. The group of artists, designers, engineers and programmers that is Berlin’s ART+COM built five large responsive pieces to create a kinetic composition that translates music into mechanical motion.  It took this large interdisciplinary team over five years to create the pieces, which were exhibited at MADE in 2013.

This one one of the first pieces of responsive art that completely captured my interest and made me determined to learn how to create responsive and interactive work. Seeing the designers, and engineers work with the musician to create an instillation over five years is an inspirational moment for interdisciplinary collaboration. I always understood interaction to be “if I kick my work, it should kick me back”, but this piece helped me understand interaction is more than simply action and reaction. The musician and the pieces are creating poetry together, and while both are independently beautiful pieces of art, they create a surreal experience when in harmony.

From what I understand, almost everything ART+COM creates is in house, and for 20 years I believe they would be considered First Word art. Since 1995 ART+COM has been working to visualize concepts that are seem intangible. This is simply another iteration at an attempt to create a physical piece to visualize something we cannot see. While Arnalds has composed for many dances, which one could say the human visual interpretation of music, he has never been able to truly see his music. I imagine both Arnalds and Sauter were inspired by other interpretations of music visualizes and interactive mechanics.

Hi here is catlu:

test again

The first thing I thought of as I was reading this was the quote, “Amateurs borrow, professionals steal”. If the world was really judged solely by if it were “First Word Art” then we’d all be screwed, not everyone is Haydn or the flip side Beethoven in the music world, or Da Vinci in fine arts, or the Beatles in pop music, or Steve Jobs for Apple.

For me, I don’t consider myself even close to a creative genius, which I believe contributes to creating either First Word Art, or Last Word Art, one offs basically. But I definitely consider myself creative because I’ve always enjoyed drawing and playing music ever since I could remember. It began with learning classical piano, then taking art classes, then loving to draw anime (seriously), then switching to the Trombone, then learning Jazz Trombone, then taking my first graphic design classes, and now today, where I express myself through design style drawing and most of all photography. My interests are obviously not about mastery and delving deep into one area, but learning across instruments and ways to draw. I find that whenever I start with a blank canvas, whether it’s the beginning to a jazz improvisation or a new illustrator document, my first thought is thinking about all the work that has already been produced, especially the masters. Then I think, what can I offer? How can I still be novel? And the answer is usually through developing and honing a voice as well as understanding one’s world values. The latter is still a work in progress, but now being a third year design student and having so much more experience seeing what others have already done, I find that I’m “borrowing” less and less from others.

Another quote that First Word Art and Last Wort Art reminds me of is original work. Paul Rand, a famous graphic design who designed the IBM logo once said, “Don’t try to be original, just try to be good.” I think this quote is more relevant than ever now that the internet and social media provide a platform to share content and see each other’s lives. It’s becoming harder and harder to stand out when everyone is learning from each other and sometimes knocking off from other people’s styles on platforms like Instagram and Tumblr. Aside from all the plagiarism and copyright problems the internet has caused, I personally think the internet has allowed for people to find new outlets of expression and do innovative work. It does constantly feel like there is a lot of First Word Art being produced because people are getting so good at their hobbies and using new technology.

Overall I think what I’m trying to say is that I think the internet and technological advancements have shaped our culture to become more creative and collaborative. I think it’s such a wonderful thing to be able to google Beethoven and also hear about how a new kid, like Joey Alexander is the “next big thing”, even a reincarnation of past legends. We can constantly get inspiration and feedback from each other to product our best work. Some people are just better at thinking and design and drawing and painting with more innovative techniques and naturally produce First or Last Word Art. I think a lot of people might get caught up between being the first or last because they want to be acknowledged or remember. In the end, the truly great artists are just focusing on their work, and it’s really up to how his or her work affects people on an emotional level that allows his or her work to transcend beyond eras.

This is a test post.