#2 (Due 1/30)

This set of Deliverables is due at the beginning of class on 1/30, and has the following components:

  1. Looking Outwards: User-Driven Generativity
  2. Face Readings (No Written Response)
  3. Digital Mask

 1. Looking Outwards: User-Driven Generativity

Do some internet research. Write a Looking Outwards report about a project in which users/participants “create media, creatively” within an interactive system.

 

2. Readings

Please read “Face as Interface” by Kyle McDonald” and “Más Que la Cara overview” by Zach Lieberman. There is no written response required for these readings.

3. Mask

Inspired by an assignment by Lauren McCarthy.

Create a digital mask, and perform with it.

Consider whether your mask serves a ritual purpose, a practical purpose, or whether it works to some other end. It may visualize, muddle, or obfuscate your personal data. It may allow you to assume a new identity, including something nonhuman or even nonliving. It may have articulated parts and/or dynamic behavior. It may be part of a game. It may blur the line between self and other, between self and nonself.

Record the use of your mask in a performance, and upload a recording of this performance to your project webpage. It is permissible to ask someone else to be the performer(s). Your performance may be of any duration, but if it is longer than ~120 seconds, you are requested to upload an excerpted version.

Some code templates and resources for face tracking are here.

Here’s an assignment checklist:

  • Create your mask software.
  • As appropriate, script and rehearse a performance with your mask.
  • Record your performance. Edit a video which is (ideally) under 2 minutes in length. Be sure to include credits for your performer(s) if appropriate.
  • Create a blog post on this site.
  • Title your blog post, nickname-mask.
  • Give your blog post the WordPress category, Mask.
  • Embed the video recording of your performance.
  • Also embed an animated GIF of your performance.
  • Write ~150-200 words about your project: what it is, what inspired you, and a description of your development process, but also and especially, write about: the relationship of your mask software to your performance.
  • Embed a screenshot of your project at the highest resolution you can. It’s ok for a small image to link to your higher-resolution screenshot (WordPress does this for you).
  • As appropriate, include documentation of your process: additional screenshots, scans of your notebook sketches, GIFs of intermediate states.