Category: LookingOutwards01

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Project Puppy Interaction - Marisa Lu

For this first looking outwards, I'll be discussing one of my favorite p5 sketches. This sketch was a week long individual project created by the brilliant Marisa Lu for the fall term of 15-104: Computing for Creative Practice.

Although not the most complicated or exploratory work of computational art, it represents a personal milestone for myself. This work made me realize just how delightful even simple digital interactions can be when done well. Among others, this sketch helped foster my love for creative computing, which has come to define my education at CMU as well as the early stages of my career.

The extraordinary nature of this project lies in its simplicity. Although sketch is made up of no more than a few basic shapes and a rudimentary mouse based animation, it is undeniably engaging. Its success lies in a clever understanding of proportion and dimensionality as well as a deft ability to communicate character and personality.

 

One interactive/computational project that I found to be interesting, appealing, and relevant to my interests is this:

 

https://vimeo.com/239407215 by Eran Hilleli.

It's a 3D animation program that you interact with using a MIDI controller. The base code is credited to the original creator, Keijiro Takahashi who made this:

https://vimeo.com/104780871

Both are visually appealing, with smooth and interesting animations and populated with shapes, lights, and sounds that work well together to create a cohesive experience. I believe that both people made these projects by themselves, and I'm not sure how long it took either of them.

I love what Hilleli did with the source code by connecting it to character animation. Although the end result is slightly unsettling, I think it's a playful interactive project that has a lot of potential to be made into cool things in the future. We see how there are so many options in using the MIDI board to control and blend different visual and audio effects, and relating to my personal interests, I think it's possible to use this tech to make very dynamic and interesting stories. Perhaps stories that change and grow in real time, in response to audience reactions.