Feedback on Clocks

Overall Remarks by our External Reviewers:

Tega Brain:

I feel I may have graded your students quite harshly (in an Australian style where the average is a B/C.).

Lauren McCarthy:

This was really interesting to see your students’ work and also your materials and instructions, thank you for the invitation. Some of the pieces were very impressive, and I have a newfound appreciation for the clock assignment. I hope my feedback is ok.

My general feedback is:

choosing a non-default font shows you care
consider visual hierarchy
a second pass through description text can elevate it from stream of consciousness to meaningful points
embrace interesting accidents and break expectations!

Aliot

Tega Brain: A great result, the varying rotational velocity of each circle is very satisfying to watch. At the time of viewing the color choice could be improved by a more careful consideration of the palette variations. Check out http://colorbrewer2.org or other color palette tools.

Lauren McCarthy: Satisfying balance of abstraction and functionality, the “puzzle” of figuring out how to read it draws you in, good documentation of concept and process.

Peer Feedback:

I like the design, but I wish the second ball was inside the minute ball, following the pattern of the rest of the clock. Color scheme is kinda ugly
I think this is quite successful, simple and intuitive, though I wish the seconds / milliseconds circles were inside the minute circle, like the other ones are. That would make it feel more visually consistent. Also color feels like a missed opportunity! Random colors can make it look so bad if you get unlucky.
I love the idea. Very readable, but still abstract. One thing that might be nice is if the second “hand” were inside the minute circle instead of outside. That way, they would all be nested and it would be consistent. But it looks really pretty either way!
Achieves the balance between legibility and physicality but random colors don’t really look nice.
Effective and communicative. Minimalistic, but….would like to see a more refined color palette.
I enjoy the smooth movements of the orbiting circles. It definitely is a good middle-ground between legibility and physicality.
Your idea has simplicity and effectiveness. However I think you need to devise a rule for generating the colors. Sometimes they look nice but sometimes the colors just don’t go along with each other. Besides, do you know that nested circular motion can leave a very interesting trail? You might want to give it a try.
It bothers me that the circles which represent seconds do not fit perfectly within the outermost circle while it is making its revolution. I feel that the math could have been thought out a little bit more carefully. Otherwise, very simple and elegant idea!
I like the way the color changes when you click it!
Nice interaction with the click to change color. It sort of looks like a face.
Really cute idea that hides well the fact that it has a lot of math involved
Simple but sleek. I wish the seconds circle spun around the inside of the minutes circle like all the rest of them do. I like how the colors change over time. Making it change to have really nice color pallets at any time of day would be cool too.
I like the simplistic concept but wish the color schemes where better coordinated

Anson

Tega Brain:A creative and quite surreal response. The strange, almost landscape like quality of this sketch is a good aesthetic direction – but take it further! This would have been improved by incorporating hour() and or minute() data into other elements of the sketch eg. changing the colors or the amount of ellipses showing. Pay attention to small layout errors, like the triangle overlapping with the minute markers.

Lauren McCarthy: Lacking description, no sketch documentation. Needs more visual and conceptual refinement.

Peer Feedback:

the head on the bottom of the screen makes this project.
I’m unsure entirely what is going on here, other than the longest edge of the triangle tracking the current seconds of the minute? Wish there was more time related information or it was easier to understand? Washed out pink+ face profile gives a kind of vaporwave vibe though.
I like the visual style of this, especially the face at the bottom. I don’t quite get the point of the circles at the top but that’s art for you, I guess. They don’t detract at all, though. I sort of wish it could tell time in some way, though.
Gives me vaporwave feels. idk how i feel about the pointer being a triangle pointing to two points
Curious visuals – what’s the concept? Interesting and draws viewers in because it’s hard to understand. Uncomfortable color choices.
I really like how the triangle pivots from the central point of the canvas; it does a good job at reflecting the current second. Although it clearly explains what the current second is, I do wish you went a little farther and maybe incorporated the circles for telling the current hour/current minute.
The series of circles on top and the rock at the bottoms are confusing. What are they for?
I had trouble getting the video to display… sorryyy…
I really really like your attention to composition and color. The face at the bottom is great
n/a
Am confused by the face, some backstory/process/reflection would be nice to read
The face at the bottom and the pale peachy background give it a vaporwave aesthetic. I’m not really sure I understand why its all put together in the way it is, but I wish the colors at least were more cohesive. You could write in some more context to what your intentions were.
Its interesting, I think it would be improved if the triangles did not intersect the circles

Antar

Tega Brain: This clock has a distinct and well resolved aesthetic. The blossoms and curves work well visually however the resultant clock is near impossible to read – trying to fit up to 60 blossoms on each branch makes this extra difficult. This would be improved with some more experimentation e.g. could branch length vary as the hour progresses or blossoms fall etc. etc. Perhaps branches should only refresh every minute rather than every second. See this article for the fascinating history of using botany to encode information.

Lauren McCarthy: Clear concept and description of process, sophisticated illustrated sketches. As you acknowledge, resulting program doesn’t have the visual refinement of the sketches, but it works. It is nice to see your goals for the semester. Towards that end, I might suggest starting with a simpler technical problem that you can completely wrap your head around, and pushing the aesthetic potential of that as far as possible. Then layering more loops etc.

Peer Feedback:

Nice! Would be cool to find a way to make the vines grow, rather than just generating new images
I love the original concept, but this feels quite a few steps away from that. I’m still kind of unsure how to read it, are white lines hours, little curved arms minutes and the pink things seconds? Either way it jumps around so quickly it’s hard for me to count or read. Perhaps if less elements changed each jump, and there was some sort of ‘passive’ animation that the plants used in between seconds?
I like this idea, and your sketches look great. I would love to have the clock you drew in those. However, the clock as it turned out is not so elegant, and the constant changes are a bit jarring. I personally would prefer if the vines/blossoms were randomly generated once, and then swayed in the breeze or something that made them a bit more flower-y.
Admirable goals. Am a little put off by how it redraws instead of slowly growing over time.
Lovely process and very delicate final execution. Overall pleased with visuals, but the functionality/sudden motion transitions throw me off/don’t mesh with the sensitive visuals. Very beautiful though.
Fantastic concept in terms of telling time off of the vines. Personally, I would have loved to see the vines flow more than abruptly shift around. Maybe the abruptness of the seconds can be replaced with a more flowing movement? Regardless, awesome work!
Your idea is cool. The colors are nice. However I wish the transitions are smoother. You can probably use multi-dimensional perlin noise with time as one dimension to achieve that, so the vines will look as if they’re wiggling in the wind.
It’s a very simple concept but you managed to do it so stylistically! Although it doesn’t flow as nicely as you might have wanted it to, it is still pretty cleverly designed. You were very economic with your strokes, the simple squiggle for the flowers and the simple curves for the vines definitely depict less being more. Well done.
This looks great! I feel like the change is very segmented, maybe the growing could happen more naturally by changing over milliseconds rather than seconds for a smoother transition.
Beautiful concept an execution. It recalls Japanese paintings with its simplicity and content. Can you make the flowers fade as they grow rather than hard cut to the next iteration?
Really pretty! And very laggy. The colors could be a bit better though.
It’s really pretty, but because all the branches were changing so often, I couldn’t tell if it was a gif or your code that was running. Changing fewer elements at a time would help with that. I really like all the random little squiggles for the flowers, they’re fun to look at.
I like this, the concept has transitioned and the clocks is clearly represented through flowers. animation is too sudden in my opinion

Arialy

Tega Brain: The slow moving particle system at the heart of this sketch is mesmerizing to watch however this work does not yet read as a clock or time piece. Having the rings indicate the hours left in the day is not intuitive and I am uncertain as to whether quantity of small circles indicates anything? Simplify and concentrate on your design decisions in equal measure to your coding. A technically complex solution, does not necessarily correspond with a strong design outcome. That said, well done for successfully tackled a particle system and object orientated approach in your code.

Lauren McCarthy: Great technical skill, needs more visual development. The uniformity of the field movement, color, and shape leaves the piece without a strong focal point.

Peer Feedback:

Pretty! Had no idea how time was being represented, but liked it.
First off, nice particle system usage. I like this clock as a whole, the metaphor of things breaking apart into smaller pieces makes sense with the idea of time. That being said I think it could have been made a little more clear with maybe different color particles for hour and minute, or maybe each hour is a different color, and therefore the particles it leaves behind are different colors?
This is one of my favorite clocks that anyone in the class made. It’s simple, but I totally get what’s going on. It was a really creative idea to have the circles break apart, and allowing the users to click to re-set that gives them the chance to count how many hours have passed, if they really want to. In my opinion, it would be marginally better if the bigger circles bounced off of the walls as whole entities until they broke apart, rather than the piece-by-piece bouncing they do now, but that’s very minor and probably very difficult.
Cheerios
Delicate spore like particles float around to give the piece a beautifully ephemeral quality.
I really like the concept and think you did an awesome job at representing it. My only critique is that the program runs a bit slow because of the amount of particles.
The visual effect is cool. To make it even better you might want to try a different initial velocity for each particle. Also using physic simulation seems unnecessary and slow. I think simple transformation of coordinates is suffice for achieving this effect.
This is very stylistic and the glowing little orbs of light are so magical! Very impressive that you were able to convey some sort of serenity through this code, and in a way which really captures the nature of light. My only problem is that I don’t think the clock aspect of it is working. It does not seem to be showing the correct time. Also a bit hard to read, though I can understand this being more about the feel than the functionality, so I don’t really care that it’s a clock that’s hard to read. It would be nice if it told the correct time though, but that’s more of a technical problem. Anyhow, go YOU!!!!! Nice work!
I really like the decision you made to put it on a black background, it really makes the pieces feel like they are glowing. I had a bit of a hard time reading it as a clock though.
Reminds me of bacteria or lightning bugs. It is difficult to see this as a clock, but very relaxing to watch.
This is really cool, reminds me of slow motion fireworks. Varying colors might look cool too.
Very relaxing to watch. The explosions of the circles are satisfying. It reminds me of Cheerios in a bowl of milk, but instead of milk, it’s the night sky, and the Cheerios fall apart into lightning bugs/stars.
Very fluid and the concept is very readable, the design is nice.

Cambu

Tega Brain: This is a great attempt at a clock and a well documented project. Your sketches and code experiments are particularly revealing of your process. Your design is well conceived however at the time of viewing the hours showed up as squares containing gradients and your seconds showed as a solid white box. The two elements do not fit well aesthetically and I think your design would have been stronger with more consistently between the hour() and second() visual elements.

Lauren McCarthy: Minimal aesthetic works, but this piece lacks the dynamism of the animated gif inspiration, what of it’s strongest points. It’s also hard to get a sense of it at different points, it’d be good to include screenshots of different states in documentation.

Peer Feedback:

Was no clock when I checked 9/17
Embed isn’t working. Idea sounds cool but I can’t quite visualize it without seeing it working, so sorry. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
No clock yet…
Interesting how squares aren’t built up per second
Visually minimalistic and clean. Not particularly dynamic or interactive, but I think that’s fine. It’s effective enough and fairly interesting as a visual idea.
I like the building of the blocks (hours) and how they begin to fade as the next hour continues. The simple nature of the piece makes it easy to look at and easy to understand the time.
I like how the gradient works. It has the feeling of passage of time and mortality.
Very simple and abstract representation of time. I understand it, and I like that I understand it as soon as I look at it. From a user’s perspective, it makes sense. I like the gradients, I’m curious to watch this for a longer amount of time to see the change in hour. Good!
gradient looks nice. Your clock looks like a 2d version of the gif it was inspired by.
The blue gradient is nice, gives a slightly three-dimensional feel to it. It is difficult to see the white seconds animation.
Very modern looking! It might look cooler if the current min/hour (the white block) was also the same gradient, but drawing itself.
Around noon it’s pretty hard to tell what’s going on. I’ve seen it at other times and you have some good notes and sketches that explain what should happen. The sketches and diagrams are more visually interesting than the final product because it moves so slowly over time.
simple + readable

Catlu

Tega Brain: Dan Shiffman is also my hero and I strongly support including homage to him in your comments. It’s great that you have developed a coherent concept and run with it in this clock. Carefully consider your design decisions, for example, the white box in the larger black box is not helping your design and I think this would work better just to have the flames fill the whole sketch. Also consider your palette. Although you are using fire as a signifier here, I think this would have been stronger with less literal color choices. Explore a tool like http://colorbrewer2.org/ to improve your use of color. Also for biological clocks, check out the amazing Cohen van Balen http://www.cohenvanbalen.com/work/artificial-biological-clock

Lauren McCarthy: Personal and thoughtful approach to the project, but the final solution feels literal and didactic. Good technical use of perlin noise. Visual design could be pushed further, perhaps this is a place to capture more the emotional experience you describe in a more nuanced way.

Peer Feedback:

So cool. I like the representation of paper. Lots of thought put into concept
Love the concept and the use of perlin noise is well done, but I will admit I didn’t see it as fire burning a paper when I first glanced at it. I think if it’s going to be a 24 hour cycle, maybe make the fire a bit less big and flame like. Because obviously it’s not real but a fire that size would burn a paper that size in like 10 seconds. Also, the frame around the paper confuses me, like I understand it’s for visual reference but I can extrapolate where the bottom would be by looking at the top. Also make the paper white not grey, perhaps?
I think the idea here is really creative, and totally resonates with me as a student. My main complaint would be that I have really no way to figure out what time it is? Looking at the clock, I don’t know how to read it other than “When it’s lower than it’s later.” Maybe that’s all you need, but I’d like something a bit more quantitative. Still, the fire looks really great considering it was made in p5.js!
Flames look great, concept is great, metaphor is great. Is great.
LOL – love the process documentation. Interesting computationally and visually, but not particularly communicative or captivating. Overall liked it though!
The realistic movement of the flames is really appealing. Also, the simplicity of the piece makes it that much more enjoyable. Nice work!
Your idea of burning paper is genius. However I didn’t figure out what it was when I first look at the piece. I thought it’s a fire burning behind a large rock. The white frame is a bit too bright and becomes kind of damaging.
I find your thought process quite interesting, and it is puzzling as well as amusing how you went from uterus drawings to creating a clock that depicts fire. I think that it’s awesome that you put so much research into it and that researching/teaching yourself about Perlin Noise really worked to your advantage. I don’t know if I am frightened by seeing the progression of the fire across the paper/day, because it’s already 3:30 as I’m typing this, I personally feel like most of my day is gone and have anxiety already, but when I look at your clock, it does the opposite and takes that anxiety away (not really) because it appears as though there are so many hours left! I don’t know if you made this a 12 hour clock or a 24 hour clock, but if you want to accomplish creating that pang of fear in the viewer from realizing that most of their day has passed, I would make this a 24 hour clock so that the fire accumulates. Very original idea. Awesomeness.
I really like the concept of this clock. Thinking about time as a burning piece of paper was a really great idea! And the final piece really does the idea justice.
This reminds me of an old computer game – I really like the retro feel. It is visually minimal and effective. I love your biological concepts and would be very excited to see your menstrual cycle clock. Also shout out to Dan Shiffman.
Very unique and cute project! The fire looks really good- both cartoony and real feeling. The choice of having it fill a box is interesting too, very out-of-the-box.
The fire looks really nice. The embers at the bottom were a really nice touch as well as the layer of smoke. If you’re burning away your days, maybe you could add something to it to indicate that it’s a day, like instead of burning the rectangle, it can burn away something that looks like one of those tear away calendars with today’s date on it.
Honestly this is super pretty i really liked the design and the visuals came together really well, I also appreciate the thought process you went through

Claker

Tega Brain: This is a fantastic outcome. The drawings are exquisite and it is so impressive that you built a drawing tool to produce them programmatically. Displaying the drawings as a mobile also works beautifully. Seeing each overlap, separate and come in and out of perspective is captivating. Well done.

Lauren McCarthy: Strong concept, great execution, especially the creation of custom tools for generating drawing coordinates. Visually refined, the motion and drawing style complement each other well.

Peer Feedback:

reminds me of a baby mobile. I dig
I’ll say off the bat that it looks like there’s an issue with the embed, you specified 800px in your tag but its rendering more like 200px so I assume I’m not getting the correct view. I do see some line-art animals cruising by though, and read the description so I can kind of piece it together in my head? Is it like a line-art animal carousel where they rotate around you and each animal is drawn over the course of an hour? So at the start of the day I see almost nothing rotating then at 3am I see 3 animals rotating? Very cool and looks (from the code) well executed.
From an art perspective, I love looking at this. It’s really cool and stylized in a way I don’t see a lot in digital art. Still, I wish it were a little easier to tell what time it is? I get that it’s abstract, but I really have no idea what’s going on… Something even somewhat countable would be nice.
Waaaat. 10/10
Confused….is it running? Oh – nvm, I see lines moving. Um. Not much to critique on. This the draft right?
The drawings of the animals are really well done. The entire piece kind of reminds me of a baby crib toy (the ones that rotate to help the baby fall asleep). It’s a little hard to tell what time it is because the animals are constantly moving on and off the screen.
I love the wireframe animals and how they turn around and around. However looking at your code i find parts of it repeating themselves too much. It might make your code harder to debug and expand on. You can probably put all the animals in an array, write a single function that handles the drawing of an animal, and use that function on all the animals with the help of a loop.
My soul is crying tears of joy. This is really awesome, and your approach to accomplishing this end result is very clever. To even imagine that creating a mobile-like movement on a two dimensional looking image thingy is incredible, I can’t say I would have thought imitate movements which show this dimensionality, and now that you’ve shown me that this is possible, I think maybe it is something I will consider more when I create art through code. Inspiring! Thanks! Great work!
This is a very clever and highly expressive form of a clock. The drawings have a very clear style, and it is so playful! The way this was created is clearly an example of not being limited by the system but rather utilizing it to uniquely communicate an idea. Very nice! I want it in my house.
This is so creepy and amazing, its so unique! I dont know how to tell the time from the get-go, but it really puts a unique ‘spin’ (hehe) on a clock project!
I really like this one, it’s probably my favorite. The drawn out animals really do look like bent wire on a mobile. The way you traced them into coordinate shapes was pretty cool too. Maybe try something could be done with just the plain white background, or keeping the animals from going out of the window. Maybe those things won’t add to it though. Good job!
this isnt loading on my laptop

Darca

Tega Brain: A resolved aesthetic with good use of color. This response prioritizes clarity, presenting time in a traditional way. There is scope here for more unconventional ways of showing the passage of time (to get away from the standard clock layout). For example the idea of the mouse eating crumbs to show every second that passes is a wonderful idea to elaborate on.

Lauren McCarthy: Clear concept, strong visual design, technically well executed. The next question is how you could challenge the viewer’s expectations a bit more. I felt excited by the gif at the bottom thinking it was a part of the composition before I realized it was documentation of a glitch.

Peer Feedback:

this is so cute. I love the slightly abstract quality of the cat, how she’s not entirely filled in.
I love the paragraph narrative associated with the clock, but other than that this looks like a standard wall clock? Hours hand, is top paws and tail, minutes is lower paws, and seconds is mouse. I would have loved to see something a little more unique or a special interaction between the cat&mouse that happens on the hour? Well documented process and very cute sketches too!
What a cute idea! I love the art style and the little story you have written about Charlie and Ron. It’s super readable and did I mention SUPER ADORABLE? Anyway, I wish I could see what it looks like at other times. I might check back later and do that. In the future (if there is a future for Charlie and Ron), it would be amazing if Charlie stretched to a wider variety of poses throughout the day. It might make the whole thing more dynamic. But as it is, I still love it.
Nice aesthetic, very cute.
Very sweet – the narrative take makes me want to coo at the clock. Execution of the cat visually could do with some tweaking because it’s not immediately understandable.
I really enjoy the dialogue you’ve created with the audience and yourself through the telling of a story. I think it’s cute, fun, and it gets the job done (in terms of serving as a time telling device and keeping the viewer engaged). Awesome!
The cat is very cute, however you might want to find a way to better connect the body and the limbs so they look less like hacked off. Also your cat might need slight movements from a noise function to appear more alive.
I think Charlie’s broken… I don’t know if you intentionally separated his body parts this way, I think it was an interesting choice but I can’t tell if it was intentional. I can’t decide if I like it, part of me likes it but the other part of me feels like it’s sloppy? But the overall concept is very cute, and pretty well executed. It works. Nice.
cat! I really like the way you chose to draw the cat. It has a very unique aesthetic.
So adorable – love the colors, and the clever concept. It is also clearly a clock. The line drawing is very expressive.
This is a cute clock, i love how the mouse is running around. The cat looks a bit incomplete though.
I love cats so I think your clock is pretty adorable. The mouse moves so smoothly, I wish the cat moved just as smoothly instead of the jerky jumping around.
Very cute but the arms and legs dont always match up with his body 🙁

Drewch

Tega Brain: The ocean animation is mesmerizing to watch and it is impressive that you’ve deployed a perlin map for this. However remember that a technically complex solution, does not stand in for careful design considerations. Your clock does not read as a time piece as it is visually consistent throughout the passage of time. How could you have your landscape vary throughout 24 hours, or throughout an hour? This could be done in many ways through color, storminess, tides, wave interval etc etc. More experimentation and conceptual thinking is required to have this address the brief.

Lauren McCarthy: Nice abstraction of time, successful immersive environment. Some more visual variation would draw me in more, focal points to attach to, rather than the piece feeling like a background.

Peer Feedback:

It’d be cool if you made the cloud have a similar linear style as the ocean and the rain
I’m biased because I love the sort of ambient / slow / moody aesthetic of the clock where it’s more about the vibe than telling the time, but that aside, it would have been nice to have an hour or minute indicator that accumulates over time. Like the sky color? or the size/shape of the clouds? Also I’ve got an idea about how you could make the perlin cycle once per second: take a sin wave oscillating at 1 peak per second, then use perlin noise to jitter/offset those values by an acceptable amount so it’s not exactly repetitive but still has an overall sinusoidal rhythm to it?
I like the idea here, and it’s nice to look at, but I wish it looked a little smoother. The cloud, rain, and ocean all seem to be in a different art style and that makes the image sort of jarring. Maybe that was the intention, though. My main complaint is that is isn’t super useful as a clock, or even a timer. I can’t count the milisecond rain, and the eight-second ocean is not a measure of time I really care about. The one-cloud-a-minute rule is nice. I’d rather everything else be so nice and quantifiable.
wow what a punk
Not particularly exciting as a clock – not insightful or exciting as a new twist on old convention – as in the entire box was side stepped so it’s hard to say how ‘out of the box’ it is. That being said – WOOOOOOW. THIS IS VERY COOL. PROPS FOR DOING WHATEVER YOU WANTED. THIS IS AWESOME. I WANT TO LEARN
The visuals are very nice and calming. The movement of the ocean, the rain, and the clouds is very fluid and almost puts the audience in a trance. The only thing that kind of takes from the fluidity/calmness is the abrupt changes in the sea level (when the ocean resets).
Your animation is very beautiful and calming. However when I look at your ocean I see perlin noise and grids. There might be a way to conceal that so that when one look at your ocean one sees ocean.
Perlin noise seems to be such a beautiful way to emulate nature through computer graphics. Really gorgeous view of the ocean, you say it’s simple, and I suppose it is, but it is also really complex somehow. Very nice, super creative, A+. Looking forward to see if you create more content based work later on, but aesthetically, very impressive to me.
Nice! I like this use of Perlin noise. I feel like the way you drew the cloud could have used the same white lines the rain and ocean had for a more cohesive composition.
The gentle movement is peaceful though it also feels ominous – there is a storm on the horizon. It is hard to read the clock in this, and I feel like the style is something I’ve seen before.
This is a very dramatic clock, and I would love to have this projected on my wall in my room.
Typical Drewch with the stormy waters. Very you.
This is super cool and looks really interesting

Guodu

Tega Brain: This is a creative variation on a traditional clock and despite the technical hitches, it is clear to see how this works. The movement of this clock would be satisfying without the glitches, however remember to pay careful attention to your design decisions. Your palette choice and treatment of the lettering could be much improved and at the moment looks careless and like you have used a lot of the default settings.

Lauren McCarthy: Lacking description, sketches. If the focus is on typography, it would be nice to use something more considered than the default font. Movement paths of letters is unexpected in sort of good way, but it doesn’t feel intentional — either embrace this and push it further, or get the code working toward original vision. Nice feeling of rhythm.

Peer Feedback:

I like the incorporation of letters. Your interpretation is a bit literal, but after seeing all these abstract clocks, I don’t mind
Pleasantly simple and relatively readable, but something seems to be off with the rotation of the T, like it’s jumping around too much, perhaps a radians to degrees issue. Also why on earth did you make the units go: T – Seconds / I – Minutes / M – Hours / E – Milliseconds (because its like second smallest, second biggest, biggest, smallest) which took me ages to figure out if I or M was hours or minutes, especially with wonky-T hopping around. Colors feel like a missed opportunity, make it more vibrant!
I love the typography idea! This clock looks really sharp, and I think it was a good decision to have the ‘E’ pause at the top of each rotation. That being said, it is a little hard to read, especially the ‘M’. Styling it such that it was a bit nicer to read would be my main suggestion.
The clock asks me a question, but I cannot answer it. It taunts me so
Really cute idea! I love the incorporation of text – no one has really thought to bring that aspect in yet. Could be visually more appealing if given more time.
Simple, yet effective. You definitely get the job done. The only thing that’s a little concerning is the randomness of the “T”. Sometimes the “T” will discontinue its clockwise rotating and kind of freak out.
Do you know that rotate() in p5.js rotates in radians? So instead of having for example rotate(-360/S) for your second hand, you might want to use rotate((PI*2)*(S/60)) to have the rotational placement of an actual clock.
This is super cute. Very playful, I feel like maybe the color palette could have been a little more considered, maybe even the choice of text could have been a bit more considered, I really like the idea though. Very cool.
This reminds me of high end designer clocks. I like the typography choices you made.
This clock makes me feel a little anxiety when the e spins around so quickly. It reminds me of art from the 1950’s – i.e. modernist aesthetic.
This project has potential but seems a bit simple, just rotating numbers
I like the concept. The little text at the top and bottom along with the way the letters jump around give it a thoughtful/meta vibes like it’s trying to mess with you. It’s hard to tell the actual time, but I think that adds to the effect.
Parts of the letters go off the screen and the animation for not ‘E’ is not fluid enough, i think it would have worked better if the pivot point of the letter was actually part of the letter and not the corner of th e box around the letter

Hizlik

Tega Brain: A polished design and color choice although as a clock, this remains quite hard to read. It’s great to see you tackle recursive trees, but might the passage of time be exaggerated to make it easier for your viewer to understand? See this article for the fascinating history of using botany to encode information. Also check out the p5js tutorial for debugging (on the site) and we are also about to release one on unit testing that would help you to test your code more efficiently. Well done.

Lauren McCarthy: Very strong work, visually refined, technically impressive, good use of random to create a different experience each time. The transitions between minutes / hours take it up a notch further.

Peer Feedback:

really beautiful. no complaints.
Great composition, animation, effective use of color, and (after reading the description) readable as a clock. Love it. My only question is why the horizon is so curved? Kind of throws off my sense of space in the scene.
This is a really nice clock. It’s easy to understand (if not completely easy to read), and it’s very pretty. One thing I’ve noticed (and yes, I’ve checked back enough times to notice this, so that’s a good sign) is that the text in the upper left hand corner that displays the time numerically (a nice touch, by the way) sometimes doesn’t show. I don’t know why this is, but it might have something to do with the background being a bit different at different times, and the font color?
Love when the minute changes.
Lovely – rather stark. The tree’s random branch grow is nice….but also uncomfortable – would rather there be just a little more regularity to the branch growth (i.e. limits on the branches further out on length because sometimes it reminds me of a daddy long legs). Would prefer blossoms to be solid and flat to mesh more consistently stylistically. Overall loved it though!
Beautiful tree rendition! Your work is very calming and pleasing to look at. It’s even more effective with how well the program runs (how smooth the visuals look). Good job!
Very beautiful and smooth. To make it even better you might want to observe and study how a real tree of the species you want to simulate grows. In fact, this is what I did for a project very similar to yours two months ago.
This is beautiful! It executes in very smooth motions, is very carefully and elegantly crafted, and it is a simple concept but visually, it is very well done! Show us more!!!
This clock was not working on the blog, but works on your personal site. I really like your attention to detail, and the way the flowers float off of the tree when a minute changes.
The aesthetic is clear and the floating / fading blossoms have a nice peaceful affect.
n/a
Very pretty and elegant. At midnight it looks a bit phallic, but at other times of the day the way the branches grow is really nice, the last time I looked at it, it was leaning pretty far to one side like a well manicured bonsai tree. The way the blossoms fall off is really nice too. I really like the more abstract clocks that don’t necessarily tell the time and lean towards just more time based movement.
Great design and execution it works really well

Jaquar

Tega Brain: This is such an anxious quivering clock! The animation and jostling of the numbers and circles is satisfying and compelling to watch. This could be further improved by some more careful iteration on your visual design decisions. Choose your palette carefully ( check out tools like http://colorbrewer2.org ). It also it might be a glitch, but the bottom circles seem to be overlapping and they would be better packed. Overall, a strong result, well done.

Lauren McCarthy: Visually compelling, technically sophisticated, good description and analysis.

Peer Feedback:

I think if there was a highlight color, as well as a size change, the clock would be a little more effective.
Probably my favorite one of the bunch. Dead simple, immediately readable, and compelling to watch. Thank you for also using color reset appropriately and making it a nice monochromatic palette and not some rainbow nonsense. Only complaint is with the jittery-ness of the colliding particles, but I know that is kind of inevitable when doing that many collisions at once.
What the fuck is this?
The circles fighting for dominance is a really clever twist on the ball-numbers clock
Technically on point! Sensitive and delightful physics!
I really like the physics you’ve implemented. It’s fun to see all the balls crash down! I also really enjoy the simple aesthetic and how each ball grows when it reaches its given time.
Your idea has simplicity and effectiveness. However the physics can be improved. Your code is quite long, yet the balls still jerk weirdly, so you’re probably doing it the wrong way.
Very fun! Nice use of gravity, I think it’s aesthetically appealing and I think I would have a lot of fun if this was on a giant touch screen on a wall and people were able to physically interact with it. Cool!
Woah! I like your use of collision, and changing of size as a way to represent time. It reminds me of bingo for some reason.
This is a very satisfying version of a clock. I like the physics of this, as it seems to mimic some type of arcade game. Nice change of colors, and the time is clearly read, perhaps most clearly of all the clocks.
amazing! I love it, love how the bubbles grow/shrink. I just wish the minute numbers would grow as fast as the second numbers grow/shrink. It’s a bit hard to tell what time it is during transitional animation period
The physics that you implemented on this one are pretty nice with all the bubbles pushing each other around. The jittering and constant movement of all the bubbles keeps the energy up but also make it seem a bit herky jerky. Quieting down a bit of that noise would could fix that.
Nice color schemes and very readable, its a bit jittery though

Kadoin

Tega Brain: This is a pleasing landscape and the color change through time is enjoyable to watch. Great color choice and your design decisions are strong. Looking at your code, use functions and loops to make your code more modular. Eg. You could have a rock function that takes number of vertices and x y location as arguments so that you do not have to repeat similar code over and over. This will save you lots of time.

Lauren McCarthy: Clear concept, visually strong, nice use of abstraction. The subtle changes create a sense of discovery and intrigue. It would be best to load star points as an external file, to make the actual code more readable. I think the code could be also be simplified a bit by using random instead of hard coding every vertex.

Peer Feedback:

love it, especially the mountains.
Wow. This is an insane amount of thought, functionality, and work. Like clock aside, the detailed landscape, parallax scrolling view, and the math that went into this is mind blowing. I read the description twice and I still can’t tell what time it is, however. Awesome stuff and intricately coded, but lost some clock-ness along the process.
I think this is super creative! The clock part is easy to read, and the planet is fun to explore. I love how the sunset changes all of the colors. The only thing that sort of bothers me is the fact that the grey color in the “map” and compass is a color that exactly matches the sky sometimes during the transition from dark to light. When that happens, it looks weird. I wish it wouldn’t do that, but that’s a pretty minor complaint.
Aside from the code being very funky, the aesthetic is great, love the feel of alien planet
Wonderful color choices and overall sensitivity makes the piece something to scroll through for hour on end.
The landscape you’ve created is awesome! I love the desert wasteland feel and how the sky is reflective of the actual time! The interactivity is also really fun, especially because of its simplicity.
Beautiful effect. However if you procedurally generate the rocks with perlin noise instead of drawing them one by one, it will save you a lot of time and add variety to the looks.
Your clock really blows me away because it is so imaginative. It would have been interesting if you further personalized this extraterrestrial landscape but I think that you’ve already accomplished a very stylized representation of time. I also really enjoy the fact that you are able to move left and right. Very neat!
This is awesome! I really like the idea of planets as a way to represent time. Also your terrain looks great, and is a nice attention to detail.
Very wonderful. I enjoy the narrative possibilities here, and the variation in line weight and color sense is well executed. Highly impressive transition from day to night as well. I think you should be a video game designer.
This is very impressive, just like a game! The map is so crips and clear, very perfect choice of strokeweight and colors and everything. Love the atmospheric colors as the day progresses, and the sun/moon!
A+
super cool and looks great, gives a fun sense of exploration

Kander

Tega Brain: This clock works well as you describe, and it abstracts time but not beyond being able to read it. This outcome would be dramatically improved by careful consideration of the speed of your balls. Slower movement would make it much more meditative and mesmerizing. This would also be improved by randomizing the bounce angle so that the paths of the balls change more. Well done, this is a good outcome.

Lauren McCarthy: Straightforward concept, good execution. Balls sometimes get stuck on the edge feeling glitchy, the checkCollisionWalls method could be tweaked to fix this. The visual quality and motion could be pushed further.

Peer Feedback:

So, red/yellow balls are minutes, every second a blue second ball appears, where are hours? I like that it’s fun and chaotic and even though I can’t count them I still have the gist of what time it is. I still don’t quite understand the interaction between the two and why they are accelerating? Why don’t minutes collide with each other it seems like only seconds speed them up?
This is one of my favorite clocks here. It’s totally easy to understand, and it looks really sharp. It’s simple in a good way, and the color scheme is really nice. The only problem is that, sometimes, the bouncing balls will get stuck on the edge of the image, and then they’ll sort of sit there and vibrate. That doesn’t look very nice, so my only suggestion would be to fix that.
Sometimes balls freak out, and sometimes hard to count, but otherwise a nice ball-clock
Technically on point – fun idea though not particularly captivating.
Your project is very appealing with its simplicity! I do wish the objects would bounce a little slower, however. It’s harder to count when they’re all flying around. Lastly, sometimes the balls glitch on the sides. Although this is actually a really cool effect and I would like to see how implemented glitches could be used, I don’t think it’s what you were going for.
The balls are moving so fast it feels disturbing. Some balls get stuck in the edges and never get out. Otherwise great.
This is fun! You kept it very simple. I feel like the speed of the bouncing circles is a bit overwhelming, I think you could have definitely slowed down the hours but I think that’s just preference. Good job.
Nice! While the balls are moving a bit fast, I like the way they bounce off of the walls.
This is very fast to watch and makes me a little uncomfortable. The colors contribute to this sensation. Is this what you were after?
I had a few pink balls glitch into the wall a few times but this is a very high energy clock, a nice rendition of the bubble project Golan showed. Interesting choice to have hours as the fastest moving balls rather than smaller numbers like other projects
Chaos! I like it. There are a few bugs where the balls get stuck and vibrate until they’re off screen but they come back after a little while. I bet it would be like a big sigh of relief to go from 11:59 to 12:00
Good color scheme and nice visuals, i think the big circles are moving to fast though

Keali

Tega Brain: The animated sensibility of this sketch is well done, with good use of movement and fades to create the atmosphere your describe. Despite your description, reading the time from this is very difficult and not intuitive. Could you exaggerate the changes between intervals? Also how might you vary the overall appearance of this over a longer period like a day or a week?

Lauren McCarthy: Strong concept and elegant execution. The use of opacity and gradient adds a lot to create a rich environment. The subtle movements and changes emphasize time passing. Solid description and analysis.

Peer Feedback:

good job with the background and stars.
Subtle and visually pleasing, I like it! Personally I would have made a greater difference between stars and seconds (seconds smaller?) because at first glance I didn’t catch the difference. Also, if you could use the code from the first assignment to make sure the constellation lines don’t intersect, that would be awesome and make them read more clearly as shapes.
This is a nice idea for a clock, and it looks really pretty! I had to look through your code to figure out how to read it, but once I did, it was pretty readable, which is good. It might be a little nicer is the constellation lines were a little less random looking and formed more standard abstract shapes. But that’s pretty minor. It doesn’t look bad at all.
Goal is achieved, very nice to look at for a while
Relaxing and lovely. LOL – I can’t tell the time though!
The atmosphere you’ve created is beautiful and calming. I really love your attention to the shading of the sky and the twinkling of the stars. It reminds me of home.
Your piece is beautiful and calming. However the stars are appearing and disappearing too abruptly. A fade in/ fade out might help.
Very interesting depiction of time.
This is really beautiful! I love the subtle background gradient and the way the stars turn.
This is lovely and a clear execution of a concept. It is so pleasant I could watch it for a while. Nice abstraction of time into constellations, and nice gradients.
This is a very pretty clock, calming and a nice difference to the active, energetic projects others have made. Meditative and possible educational (? based on real constellations?) I love your sketches too
This would be cool to have projected on your ceiling at night when you’re going to bed. It definitely gets at what you’re going for with the calming nature scene. The 5 pointed stars make it seem a bit more child’s bedroom than actual star gazing but it’s still comforting to watch.
Looks cool and has very fluid animations

Kelc

Tega Brain: This is a good starting point for a clock, however the night sky is a well trodden reference. The constellations did not seems to be changing at an even interval for me and the time passage of time through the day is not legible. To further refine this design, this could be improved by having existing stars light up, so that they are being highlighted rather than just overlaid on your background. This would also be more compelling if perhaps the constellation changed more gradually, transforming from one configuration to the next incrementally over a minute? Or fading in and out? How might you incorporate difference over longer time periods like an hour or day?

Lauren McCarthy: A bug prevents sketch from appearing in embed. Error results from line 101, where star() is called outside of setup or draw, looks like a bracket scope issue. Concept isn’t entirely clear from description. Could use more visual refinement.

Peer Feedback:

Maybe expand on the concept somehow? It’s a little dull
I read the description but I still don’t quite understand what I’m ‘reading’ from the constellations? Are they corresponding to minutes/hours as a sort of translation of the time below? are they month/day and the time below is just the time? The period between switches seems like more than a second so… hmmm. Pretty but a bit unclear.
Well, your clock is pretty readable, because it has a numerical display of the time at the bottom, but it’s kind of boring. It doesn’t look bad, but in my opinion it isn’t as engaging as some of the other clocks. The features you mentioned wanting to implement if you had time sound like good ideas that would address this issue.
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Conceptually interesting! Though, not as much sensitivity to refined motion or transitions
The aesthetic you’ve created is very enjoyable; I like how constellations are made out of current stars! Although it’s nice to see these constellations, it’s a little hard to concentrate because of the cluttering of the stars around the edges. I think less of these objects would allow for more breathing room.
Error on line 125: TypeError: 150 is not a function. (In ‘150 (millis()/1000)’, ‘150 ‘ is 150)
Seems that you had an issue with embedding? Oops.
The code was not working so I copy and pasted it and it ran fine on my computer. I like the stars, overall it is pretty simple. I cant tell if the stars are responding to time?
It’s a little plain, but the time is clearly read.
clock does not load on page
Seems like a cool idea. I like outer space. Space is cool. I copied to code and tried to run it in the editor but it seemed pretty buggy and couldn’t get the full effect. It’s good to push yourself, but sometimes sticking to a simpler plan that looks clean and finished is better.
this isnt loading for me 🙁

Krawleb

Tega Brain: Welcome to the challenges of programming in high level languages! As you have found you need to be strategic to counter the performance challenges of javascript. Take a look at this p5 tutorial on performance if you haven’t yet seen it. That said, this is an interesting and visually intricate result. The visual decay from your particles in the background produces an interesting effect but something similar could be achieved with trails that may be less intensive. Your clock is working with biomimicry – check out the work of http://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/ if you haven’t already! Well done on the detailed documentation of your work.

Lauren McCarthy: Interesting concept and visual result. The changing looks over time are intriguing. This is a complex piece, and the scale makes it hard to fully explore. The next step would be to solve performance issues and be able to scale larger.

Peer Feedback:

I watched this at 10:06 and it looked fine to me. I really like how simple the concept is but the flowing of the color seems very unartificial
N/A this is me.
I like this clock. The hours are generally easy to read, although the minutes really aren’t. That’s fine, though, as it’s clearly designed to be more pretty than practical. I like the sharp contrast between black and white. I don’t really have a lot of complaints, but it is too bad that it is, as you say, an “inefficient and slow mess.” It might be better if there weren’t so much going on computationally.
Is actually very cool to look at when there are only a few circles on it.
Simple, sweet and delicate. (Looks a lot better for certain times of the day)
I really enjoy the aesthetic you’ve created! It’s really cool to see how other patterns flow within the clockwise movement of the black paths. Once you get the program to run more efficiently, I would love to see a bigger version of it!
Cool visual effect. You can try pixel manipulation instead of using lots and lots of particles to make it run faster and more efficiently.
Seems like you had an issue with embedding? Oops. Anyhow, judging from the examples of specific times you had at the bottom of the page, this seems super interesting!
this is awesome! I wish it were a bit bigger. The examples later in your post all look great
This is really great. I love the variation in the (computational) mark making – it reminds me of ink wash – and specifically the Sigur Ros album cover with the parentheses. I would have this in my house. In fact I would like this for my phone background.
this is definitely a mind-boggling project, both from a conceptual standpoint (how do i read it?) and a technical one (how did you make it?!) I love it. Nothing like i’ve seen in processing/p5 before
The smokey effect is visually pretty awesome. I think it would look cooler if maybe there was more color and it was bigger.
looks realy cool , I like it

Lumar

Tega Brain: Some impressive work and experimentation with color gradients across circles here and your choice of palette is great. However, this clock is almost illegible because of the way that the letters are layered in addition to the extra ellipses that follow the mouse. Be ruthless when looking at your design work and remove what is not working even though you may have worked hard on the code. More != better. The shapes on the mouse do not add to this work but rather make it messy and confusing. How might you differentiate more clearly between letters? Could be done with color or speed? Keep up the experimentation.

Lauren McCarthy: Color palette and scale variations create strong composition. Use of interaction and time based movement create a layered feel to the experience, but right now they feel like very separate systems. Perhaps adding some easing to the mouse controlled drawing would make the motion feel more integrated. Description and process description was thoughtful and extensive, but could use a bit of structure.

Peer Feedback:

nice to look at, but ran really slowly in my browser, even with a strong connection
This is super strange and I love it! Took me a second to get it, but then I got it and it’s readable, but doesn’t feel like text (in a good way). Only complaint is that the mouse interaction feels a bit unnecessary and has some bugs if you move the mouse on and off the canvas a bunch.
This is a really nice idea, and it’s mostly very well executed. I love how the numbers are drawn out; that’s really original! But after a while, the clock fills up with lines that make it sort of hard to read and also make it look kind of messy. If the lines could fade away after a while, and/or if they could all be a more unified color scheme, it might solve that problem.
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HAHA. er. This is mine.
The 3D effect you’ve created out of the shading of a rotating ball is clever and very pleasing to look at (it oddly enough reminds me of the tubby-custard from Teletubbies). Awesome work!
Fun to play with.
It is quite evident that you put a lot of time into this. I really enjoyed looking at your thought process, and think that from a user’s perspective, your clock is very fun to watch. Nice! Very impressive. Very clever process that you used to achieve the final result. Good work.
cool!! this is a great idea. I feel like the ability to draw new circles with the mouse is excessive though.
This is very bodily and reminds me of intestines or red and white bloodcells. I love the user drawing interaction. The creation of numbers is clever.
This is definitely a cool looking piece but I’m not sure how the self-drawing aspect goes with the automatic nature of a clock?
This is super fun to play around with and you almost forget it’s a clock because the numbers are almost hidden in plain sight.
I think this is a good project but I wish that the canvsa was bigger or the elements where smaller because stuff is cut off in a distracting way that makes it weird

Ngdon

Tega Brain: A fantastic result. I would have enjoyed seeing the sticks bounce slightly on landing, however the movement of the changing letters is very satisfying and well designed. The walking movement as they enter and exit is also a nice touch. Well done.

Lauren McCarthy: Strong concept, beautiful execution. The entire system had interesting variation but felt overall connected and coherent. Sophisticated movement and design.

Peer Feedback:

really cool. I like your next concept of having the sticks goof off when the user hasn’t given the comp. any input for a while
Excellent. Animation is smooth and very well done, and overall concept has personality and is intuitive. My only question is about what the last digit represents? It’s not seconds? 10s of seconds? Sometimes it changes quicker than that. Unsure. Overall, great.
This is a clock I can watch for a while, and that’s a good thing. It was really smart the ways you figured out all of the numbers’ transitions. My only complaint is that when I first looked at it (which was around 12:30 am), it was hard to understand what it was doing. The clock just said “308”, and the last digit changed to slowly to be seconds and too quickly to be minutes. I didn’t get it at all. Looking at it again later, I understand that the first two digits are hours, the next two are minutes, and the last one is tens of seconds, maybe? Adding some colons or other dividers between the hours, minutes, and seconds would help.
Brilliant code recreation of the wooden digital clock
Lovely sensitivity and refinement of motion. The transitions are drool worthy. I applaud the designerly restraint.
A simple clock that really engages the audience. I found myself waiting multiple minutes to see how each strand from the clock would react with one another. Incredible piece!
The sticks are hideous and disgusting.
Truthfully, I saw your clock and was about to just write “cool” as feedback because I looked at it and went “well, it’s a clock!…” But then I saw the little line that traversed along the bottom of the app and flew up to the number and everything changed. That minute detail made a world of a difference in giving your piece some character/stylizing this somehow.These little lines that fall from the time are like little creatures that you’ve managed to bring to life, and your clock is very very amusing! Neato!
this is awesome ! such a great idea and execution.
The motion of the lines crawling and flipping has an animated character feel, while also being very minimal. The clock clearly comes through, which makes it usable to tell the time.
One of my favorites from this project! It’s so cute and fun and i couldn’t stop watching it despite it’s very simple idea. I coudln’t understand what the last number was for the longest time, however.
Clean and simple, but very well done. The swinging and rolling lines have a lot of personality and make it fun.
I really like this clock I think the animation is really effective and fluid and its very readable and pleasing

Takos

Tega Brain: The graphical elements here are harmonious and well considered and the result reminds me of a mandala. The use of color in this clock is excellent, with the exception of the difference in blues in the second hand which makes them hard to see. The different directions in rotation of the different time intervals is also aesthetically effective and compelling. Spend more time and care with how you describe your work, communication of your concept and process is important. Well done.

Lauren McCarthy: Visually strong, technically well executed. Good use of abstraction and animation, this is a piece that’s interesting to look at even before you know it is a clock.

Peer Feedback:

I love this! Color scheme is great (as well as which elements are which color), and the design is really nice
Has a hypnotic mandala-like quality to it. I like that it still feels clock-like but is not at first glance, a clock. Colors are done well, but I’m curious why minutes has both the skinny arms as well as the arrowhead triangular markers at the end. Why not decorate the hour polygon more to make it match the others and make it stand out more?
This clock always looks really pretty. Despite being very simple, the rotation and second lines make it fun to look at. My favorite part is the color schemes. You’ve chosen patterns that are all very different, and all really pretty. I know I used the word “pretty'” already, but this clock is just so pretty… Good job! It would be nice if the transitions between minutes and hours could be a little smoother and less jumpy, but that’s not a big deal.
Its fun to watch the seconds populate
Love the somewhat dizzying optical component. The color palette is lovely and very refined.
Your clock is very enchanting! The development of the seconds (middle circle), the randomized colors, and the rotation of the clock itself makes me want to continue to interact with it. The only thing that throws me off is that it’s a bit hard to tell what hour it is based on the sides of the shape (as the numbers grow larger, it gets harder to tell what time it actually is).
Your idea has simplicity and effectiveness. However more variations/changes will probably make your piece more interesting to look at. Perhaps the colors can change over time? Or maybe the size and the arrangement of the shapes?
The color schemes that appear upon each click are very nicely coordinated! The design of the clock itself reminds me of some sort of weird antique compass that’s in a digital form, or maybe some sort significant design from a particular culture? It really depends on the existing color scheme, I guess. But yeah, very subtle design elements that pulled this together.
Beautiful! I love the color schemes that change when you click.
This one reminds me of trendy prints in boutique hipster stores. This would fit in very well in Brooklyn. I like the clicking to change colors, and the very thin lines in the center.
My favorite part about this clock are the colors- I’m not sure if you have random colors for every section every time I click, or if you choose from a pallete of colors, but it’s beautiful!
Yours in my favorite clock in terms of the color schemes. The concentric star patterns spinning around each other make me think it should be a screen saver or something on those apple watches. I don’t have one, I think they’re a bit silly as they are now, but if I had that on my wrist, I’d feel hip and cool.

Tigop

Tega Brain: This is a compelling way to explore time through data. Where is the statistic of 3 hours 42 minutes from? Is this a statistic of the time taken to a water source for some communities? When doing data visualization it is important to cite and reference your data, either in your work or in the accompanying text. Your clock functions well although the child is hard to see because of your color choice. Also, how might you have refined your design so that your could leave out writing the time in text? This would be stronger with out the text as an abstracted data driven animation. Well done, this is a novel and interesting approach.

Lauren McCarthy: Strong concept and nice metaphorical interpretation of the assignment. Visual and motion design needs a lot of development, it doesn’t do justice to the underlying message content. Non-default font would be much better.

Peer Feedback:

cool concept! I like that there’s a meaning behind it. I wish you’d used rounded rectangles instead of circles
I understand the meaning behind this after reading the description, but got none of that from the clock itself. Interesting but somber look at these statistics, but can you bring that to me as the viewer through the artifact.
Making a clock with a message like this was really creative. It illustrates your point well. My main issue with it is that isn’t very nice to look at. This is just my opinion, and maybe that was your goal anyway, but the green and the red don’t go well together, and the vertical stripes’ colors just look sort of weird. It’s definitely a good concept, but I would have maybe done the art itself a bit differently.
Who will finish the race first, the enthusiastic seconds circle or the lethargic but true hours circle??
Love the idea of data visualization on an important issue, though the visual translation is not as communicative as I would have hoped. Props for aiming big!
I really enjoy your concept. I could tell you put a lot of thought into what you wanted to do and how you wanted to go about doing it. I do think you could improve upon the visual representation of the objects, however. Improving upon these visuals will convey your message a lot better!
Interesting concept. You probably need a better font.
Cool! I like that you tried to get a deeper meaning across in your clock, but I don’t think I would have picked up on that if I had not read your statement.
Clearly tells the time. The contrast of the red and green is a little overwhelming visually.
This is a bit plain and not interesting, the colors could also be better in addition to the execution.
I appreciate your clock a lot more after reading your description of it. What it’s representing carries a lot of weight. From just the visuals, I wouldn’t have gotten the story behind it though.
I wish the concept was more evident and that a different font was used but I like it

Xastol

Tega Brain: Great to see you using object orientated programming and classes, however there is plenty of room for the further development of the conceptual and designerly aspects of this work. If these are creatures, develop them further so that they are not all ellipses, how could you give them different personalities rather than simply numbering them (I’d also like the stars to be in the background)? Your aesthetic could also be pushed further – this almost has an Atari game palette and aesthetic but this could be further exaggerated and explored! Well done.

Lauren McCarthy: Solid concept, good execution. Color palette and upward movement of the white bits enhance the feeling of the void. Something other than default font would be nice.

Peer Feedback:

love the debris, nice touch
Interesting but you are mixing so many visual metaphors that I’m thrown off. Why do hours and minutes have a drop shadow effect if they are like these entities floating in space? Why do only minutes and seconds have numbers but only 1 hour has a number? What do the different shades of minutes correspond to?
Design-wise, this clock looks really cool, but I don’t understand what’s going on. Are new balls added every second/minute/hour? If so, that’s not a bad idea, but I have trouble finding the most recent one in order to actually figure out what time it is, especially because some of the balls are so similar in color to their number that I can’t read what’s on them. That being said, this is supposed to be abstract, so readability doesn’t really matter. As a piece of art, it has a simple but interesting design, and it looks great.
Nice aesthetic, I like how the circles are coded as creatures.
Similar to Kander’s and Jaquar’s – effective, and technically fine. Entertaining though not as stimulating conceptually.
I like how your circles wiggle. However when they are generated they appear abruptly on the screen. To make a smoother experience, you might want to generate them outside the screen, and then have them move inside.
I feel like the color palette was so poppin’ that it really served as an element to make this piece more exciting to a user. It’s a very simple concept but you made it your own, also really appreciate the layering of the circles to create a dimensionality. Cool!
Cool! I like the way the bubbles move. It feels very much like a carbonated clock beverage.
Reminds me of “fizzy lifting drink” from Willy Wonka. It also reminds me of chromatic abberation in digital photography. It’s fun, but all the numbers make telling the time a little unclear.
I like how the circles are 3D, or rather, tablet-like and it’s a nice addition to have the white void “specs” moving upwards. the animations seem a bit “wobbly”
I really like your space vibes, but I don’t really get void from it. A void is empty nothingness and your clock if full of things. It does remind me of the vast chaos of outer space though. The colors of the overlapping circles are really nice too.
Only complaint is that the numbers are to faint to read but it looks rad

Zarard

Tega Brain: The typeface you’ve created is satisfying and has lots of potential, however your clock does not appear to be telling the correct time. Perhaps there is a glitch? This clock needs further iteration. If snake is your inspiration, take this further – how could you draw on the mechanics and aesthetic of this classic game more? Currently I wouldn’t have recognized this if you hadn’t stated it. Great to see you tackle matrices here, but there’s lots of room for you to be more experimental with your concept.

Lauren McCarthy: Limited description, very static sketch. Description mentions animation but blocks seem to just snap into different positions on minute change. More interesting visual design or movement would add to this.

Peer Feedback:

A little confused about the concept (didn’t see the snake part)
Read the concept, sounds interesting (I was thinking about doing something with snakes too) but I watched it for 2 minutes and nothing happened, the numbers just appeared like a regular digital clock. Unsure if that’s a bug or it was unfinished or something else.
I like the idea of a snake slithering into the shape of different numbers. However, at least when I was watching, that’s not what happened; it just looked like a pink digital clock that jumped between numbers. Now, that’s not all bad, and as a digital clock it looks pretty neat, but I would definitely advise making the snake part of it work. That would really bring the whole thing together (a digit to represent single minutes, and not just tens of minutes, would be nice too).
Ah, a digital clock!
Basic and effective. (designerly restraint on point! But…..is it just me or is the clock embed cut off?)
Cool concept in regards to making the numbers change like a snake. I do think the numbers move a little too fast, however. On my end it seems as though the numbers are just changing and aren’t actually slithering around. Adjusting the program so that they move slower would definitely benefit your piece’s effectiveness.
Interesting idea. I’d love to see it finished.
Concept makes sense as soon as I look at this piece, I think your minutes are broken though… But yeah, also very nice, the pastel/baby pink against the white. I don’t know if it does this, but it would be pretty darn cool if it changed color at each hour! Something to consider maybe? Or even play with the background upon each passing hour, just to spice things up? Good job.
Cool!! I like how simple and clean this clock is. Though the embedding seemed to cut off the last strip of blocks.
Matrices! This is a nice homage to the traditional digital clock – reminds me of a font. I wish the number at the right didn’t go off the screen.
The project doesn’t really follow the spirit of the project (thinking outside of displaying a normal clock) and it looks a bit like a digital clock that goes off-frame to me.
From your description were you trying to relate it to the video game Snake? The only snakey part is the block numbers, but it’s not like a snake is eating the numbers. Maybe it needed a bit more time to get some of the details in but right now it’s just a regular digital clock that’s too big for the window.
wish it showed seconds so we could see more action but its cool