Posts tagged digital media arts
Social Media and Creative Flow
Feb 24th
For the Social Media and Creative Flow project, some elements are still looking pretty open ended and although the ideas are flowing, nothing is formalised for either the group Creative Flows project or my individual project. As I’ve been researching I’ve been bookmarking articles and sites of interest via Delicious.com.
Using this blog post, I’ve organised these findings into relevant section to try and organise my thoughts and inspirations on Social Networking in an attempt to solidify my research into a workable idea. Links marked with the * I found to be particularly inspiring for the forthcoming projects.
To communicate the concept, public engagement (collaboration/interactivity), data visualisation and a strong aesthetic using the exploration of colour/colour psychology have become strong themes throughout research. In order to deliver the concept augmented reality, using webcams and mobile devices to interact with the environment both on and offline are fascinating concepts that would definitely warrant further investigation for the Creative Flows project.
Collaboration
Google Chrome Logo
Google Chrome Project - Using people in the real word to submit their Google Chrome Icons to the Google Chrome Project. I like the idea of mixing real with online projects.
Creative Commons License – share, remix, reuse – legally
Wiki – “is a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used to create collaborative websites, to power community websites, for personal note taking, in corporate intranets, and in knowledge management systems” Source Wikipedia
Google Wiki is also simple but useful. It’s a browser sidebar that enables you to contribute and read helpful information alongside any web page.
Kollabor8 – (actual website unavailable) is a virtual gallery displaying individual sequences of digital photo-montage, an ever-evolving collaborative work of art. Exploring the transitory nature of internet content and the capacity for spontaneous creative synergy between unassociated artists, the images are displayed sequentially like threads in a forum, automatically archived and viewable as part of the process.
Swarmfest Collaborative Sketch – another collaborative visual canvas for online, distributed design: each week a popular search term is chosen to become the sketch subject. Collaborators can then vote on the opacity of the line submitted by other users.
*Wallright – is a live public painting community platform, that allows several people from around the globe to draw on a physical wall at the same time.
Digital Technology & Environment
Image by Panda Yogourt
Digital Cities: ‘Sense-able’ urban design – a Wired.co.uk article discussing the effect of digital technologies on the urban environment. I’m specifically interested in using mobile technology in the real world environment and its effect.
The digital revolution did not end up killing our cities, but neither did it leave them unaffected. A layer of networked digital elements has blanketed our environment, blending bits and atoms together in a seamless way. Sensors, cameras and microcontrollers are used ever more extensively to manage city infrastructure, optimise transportation, monitor the environment and run security applications.
*Visualizing Memory in Architecture – “While standing between the two screens, viewers will see themselves along with visual memories of that place. Continuously washing over one another in painterly portraits of individuals and the surrounding environment, these images relate past and present in uncanny ways, creating a non-linear impression of history.”
Augmented Reality
James Aliban has fantastic examples of augmented reality, as well as processing and generative art on his blog. Also check out his Augmatic website for more of his work.
*Motion Trails v01 is particularly inspiring using web cams and Processing.
Motion trails v01 from James Alliban on Vimeo.
BMW – just have a go!
Data Collection
Google Trends – compare the world’s interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they’ve been searched on Google over time.
Data Visualisation
Hint FM -
Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg are research scientists in IBM’s Visual Communication Lab. The two became a team in 2003 when they decided to visualize Wikipedia, leading to the “history flow” project that revealed the self-healing nature of the online encyclopedia. They are currently exploring the power of visualization as a mass medium and the social forms of data analysis it enables.
I particularly like Luscious which is a celebration of colour.
It’s Been Real WWWords Project – Stefanie Posavec explores methods of visually representing text and visualises the differences in writing styles of different authors.
Twitter Perceptions of Google Buzz – Social media monitoring and analytics company Viralheat put together this graphic that shows the initial positive response to Google Buzz on Twitter, followed by shifts in opinion based on events in the developing privacy story.
ColorSpinner – ColorSpinner is a web interface to a database of over 3000 words and their associated colors and shades using the Prism algorithm.
The colors algorithm (workname Prism) matches a color palette to any given subject. It retrieves colors for apple (which would result in soft greens, yellows and reds) with the same ease as retrieving colors for jealousy (which would result in bright yellows and sickly greens).
Generative & Interactive Art – 2D & 3D
*Processing - a programming language, development environment, and online community that since 2001 has promoted software literacy within the visual arts.
Alchemy – a way to explore and experiment with alternative ways of drawing
NodeBox – allows you to create visual output with programming code. The application targets an audience of designers, with an easy set of state commands that is both intuitive and creative.
And Finally…
Another concept I’ve come across is geo-networking. An exciting concept in social networking using digital technology and social media based on real-world patterns to “unleash your digital footstream”. Check out Wrrrl to find out more.
V&A Talk on the Digital Pioneers: ‘Chance V Control’
Feb 4th
The MA DMA students were treated to a talk at the new V&A Digital Pioneers Exhibition with Honor Beddard, last week. Digital Pioneers celebrates the impact of the computer in art in the last 50 or so years.
Digital Pioneers is one of the outcomes of The Computer Art and Technocultures Project, which is a major study of the history of Computer Art, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. As computers became more accessible after WW2, the scientists and programmers who had initially been the operators of computers have been joined by artists and designers in exploring the computers creative potential.
Homage a Paul Klee, 1965, Frieder Nake
What became apparent to me during our talk is that in the production of most digital artwork , there is a large aspect of chance vs control. Using programs, algorithms and random variables, these early pioneers were producing beautiful experimental imagery that, in my opinion, still looks fresh and quite stunning. The fascinating ‘Homage a Paul Klee’ by Frieder Nake, 1965 may look simplistic, but is one of the most elaborate pieces of algorithmic art for its day. Roman Verosko’s plotter drawings such as ‘Manchester Illuminated Turing Machine #1′, 1998, are just beautiful and well worth seeing in a gallery setting.
'Manchester Illuminated Universal Turing Machine, #1', Roman Verostko, 1998
What’s interesting is the geometric, minimal aesthetic defined initially by the limitations of the technology more than 50 years ago, is a preferred and proven aesthetic by many designers and artists working presently. A lot of work produced in Open Source programs such as Processing, or Nodebox, or simply using Photoshop alpha channels and transparency settings, features very delicate, subtle imagery.
I know in my own practice, using Photoshop I’ll have an idea of what I want to achieve but I’ll allow Photoshop to process my images in unexpected and interesting ways. Like traditional artistic methods it is the ‘happy accidents’ that can be the most exciting.
AARON Digital Print, Harold Cohen, 2003
Further more, another aspect I have enjoyed exploring the digital artists, past and present, is the link between digital and traditional art processes and ideas. Harold Cohen, a painter, began experimenting with computers in the 1960’s. He concentrated on developing a programme known as AARON to generate works of art, with very painterly results. AARON was Cohen’s way of exploring whether successful imagery, underpinned by a codified system
Artist James Faure Walker’s ‘Dark Filament’, 2007 uses a mixture of digital technology in conjunction with physically painting on the canvas. He will manipulate imagery digitally, project it onto canvas, paint, scan and rework the image. Walker’s uses this process to achieve a layered, somewhat chaotic but, again, painterly effect.
It is was really good to finally see a coherent exhibition describing the history of computer/digital art and putting it in context with today’s digital art practice. It has also whet my appetite to explore further the relationship between traditional and digital artistic processes as well as the development from art of the past and it’s influence on the digital and contemporary works of art, today.
Thoughts on Playful Interaction and Digital Inclusion
Jan 18th
At last Tuesday’s lecture with Chris Hales, Post-doctoral Research Fellow in Interactive Film at SMARTlab, we explored the idea of interactive cinema and the interactive film narrative. Analysis of audience response to many of these films formed part of his practice-based PhD ‘Rethinking the Interactive Movie’ (2006). Chris also explores the wider historical context of interactive cinema which dates back to the Kinoautomat of 1967.
Using the movie as the interface, Chris showed us some of his works including the very amusing, slapstick inspired ‘Jinxed’ which utilizes an effect for hot spots in the movie eg a slight bulge appears on the protagonist’s nose or the slippery soap, and if the user clicks on the bulge, some rather unfortunate event is triggered. Another piece, ‘12 loveliest things I know’, based on interviews with children, explores more subtle ways of linking. Chris wanted to test whether colour and movement of the objects could hint at how to proceed to the next clips. Small movements as triggers for small events and sensations are also used in his landscape pieces Sketchbook and kesä.
I found the playful element and reaction of people in the room really interesting. These somewhat ‘unsophisticated’ show reels produced by a one man band in Director and After Effects were triggering reactions and laughter within our group and engaging people. With a keen interest in experience and emotion around digital technology whilst thinking about possible research topics for my MA, this lecture whet my appetite to explore the concepts behind interactivity further.
What do we mean by interaction design? What makes for a good user experience? How can we better that experience or make it more accessible to people with disabilities for example? How can we use the digital environment and technology advantageously and perhaps therapeutically? Although innovative technologies have provided substantial benefits to society today, there are still a large number of people who cannot enjoy them due to the lack of accessibility features.
I’m really encouraged and inspired by some of the projects at SMARTlab including InterFACES which utilises assistive technology. InterFACES includes projects that look at tools for tracking eye movement as a control mechanism for communications by people with little or no other voluntary muscle movement. This imaginative use of technology has allowed James Brosnan, journalist and music fanatic, to use his laptop to jam with musicians, despite having cerebral palsy and being in a wheelchair.
I’m also still inspired by Martha Lane Fox, Digital Tzar, who spoke at Lucky Voice In Brighton a few weeks ago and the importance of bringing digital media to socially disadvantaged groups with the Race Online 2012 Campaign. Teaching has made me particularly aware of people who frankly find technology intimidating. My approach to teaching is encouraging experimentation and play which seems to frighten people at first! As a passionate advocate of technology and digital media, the importance of user centered design and and good HCI to encourage this experimentation and curiosity, I believe should be high on the list of any designer or developer working in digital media.
Following on from these ideas, another blog I have come across today is Andy Polaine’s, Playpen. Andy Polaine co-founded the award-winning new-media collective Antirom and his interests include play, interactivity and interaction design, experience and service design, creative processes and collaboration, online teaching and learning and emerging cultural technologies. He spoke at last years Flash on the Beach in Brighton about play and the interactive experience:
Over the past few years play has become a common theme in designers’ presentations. It’s no wonder – play is a pre-verbal, powerful and universal activity and is our starting point for interacting with the world around us. Play can lead to some of the most pleasurable and intuitive interactive experiences. With a plethora of interactions demanding our attention, the playful ones are the ones that will survive. It’s not for nothing that the iPhone’s icons do a little jiggle dance, after all.But why does play feel so natural and intuitive and how can we use it in interaction design? What is play and why is it so hard to pin down?
These ideas took me back to the Decode exhibition at the V&A (see my Decode blog) as well as the myriad of websites whose purpose serve no real function but allow people to simply explore, experiment and perhaps be inspired. Polaine’s blog led me to the magneticNORTH website – a fun portfolio website with a playful interface. I’ve been admittedly bah humbug about this sort of interaction design but found this website mildly additive. I shall now return to my Flash project with renewed enthusiasm.
Decode: The Importance of Interactivity
Dec 28th
As a Christmas treat I took my 7 year old son Zac to visit the Decode exhibition at the V & A in London. The V & A is one of my favourite museums and all the exhibitions I’ve seen there have always been really well executed. Kids go free and as a student the entrance fee was only £4 plus we received a beautifully designed exhibition brochure so I was pretty happy before we had even entered the exhibition space.
Decode, a collaboration between the V&A and onedotzero is showcasing the latest developments in digital and interactive design, from screen-based graphics to large-scale interactive installations. Work from familiar names in the digital field are there including Joshua Davis, John Maeda, Flight 404 and Golan Levin among many others. As Zac and I entered the darkened room and walked through a field of interactive lights that reacted to our footsteps there was much ooing and ahhing. As I stopped to admire the power and beauty of processing by artists such as Joshua Davis and CEB Reas, Zac was in his element…being able to touch things at an exhibition was obviously a huge novelty! From the touch screen ‘House of Cards’ by James Frost, to ‘Solar’ from Flight 404 which reacts to and visualises sound (not surprisingly this was particularly popular with the kids as they tried to outdo each other on the volume).
We made our way around completely engaged with the exhibits which were not only awe inspiring but beautiful too. My personal favourite is ‘Dandelion’ by Yoke which responds both visually and audibly to a hairdryer with an infrared beam installed, that you point at the screen to blow the petals away – delicate, smooth, gorgeous! In addition, ‘Oasis’ by Yunwoo Bang and Yunsil Heo inspired a playful element to the exhibition and was far more interesting than having a real fish tank (you’ll know what I mean when you visit the exhibition). In fact this exhibition was just that: ‘playful’ and as an MA Digital Media Arts student it was also ‘inspiring’ As a result Zac is now becoming quite knowledgeable in the art of Processing as I have returned home and plunged in my Processing books 
Perhaps my only, very small criticisms would be the exhibition could have been sightly larger. More importantly however some of the exhibits weren’t always working which was disappointing especially when you are paying to enter the exhibition. However I would highly recommend this exhibition to not only Digital Art enthusiasts but also to parents who want to introduce their children to the wonders of computer art and its possibilities. Watching my son other people of all ages at the Decode exhibition only cemented further my opinion that the digital environment and interactivity has a huge potential to encourage learning, experimentation, playfulness and the ability to enrich our overall daily experience.
Zac and I decided to continue our interactive adventure at the Science Museum, just around the corner from the V & A, in the ‘Launchpad‘ section, a permanent and free exhibition giving children the chance to explore concepts of science and technology with hands-on exhibits. We took advantage of the free demonstrations, including a bubble show and launching a water propelled rocket. During our day at the Science Museum and the V & A, we both found things that inspired us, we both learnt a lot and most importantly we had a huge amount of fun too!
A message to the curators of all future exhibitions: engage your audience with digital technology and interactive exhibits so we can inspire and educate young minds and finally say ‘Do Touch!’
Presentation Notes…The Story So Far…
Nov 25th
Outline of initial proposal:
- The production of a professional HTML website, with biographical information and examples of work divided into relevant sections.
- An experimental section with an interactive piece developed using Adobe Flash and After Effects based on interests on the philosophy and psychology of interaction design.
- An ongoing blog with updates on processes and findings
- Sharing my work via social networking sites such as Flickr and DeviantArt
Progress
To date, viewers will find (the unfinished) website at www.georgiefurst.co.uk consisting of the sections - home, about, portfolio, experimental and contact. The website aims are:
- To appeal to a far reaching demographic but mainly to prospective employers (as part of my freelance operation) and the wider design community.
- Represent my visual style and approach.
- A digital home for commercial and personal projects as well as work in progress.
- Apply a clear concise style of navigation.
- A place to investigate further the fundamentals of interaction design.
After deliberating and frankly wasting time with the technical aspects of the web build I decided to ‘reawaken’ skills learnt in my initial Multimedia degree and build the site in HTML/CSS from scratch. This instead of using a CMS system or a Wordpress hosted site for example. This also enables me to have complete control (and understanding) over the website structure and updates.
My blog, ‘A Furst Blog’ www.georgiefurst.co.uk/blog has been setup to feel like a slightly separate entity from my main website, via Wordpress – to act as an online notebook/sketchbook. The blog allows me to be more playful since I am often posting information about industry news, inspiring artists, thoughts and information related to the MA. I feel I can more ‘expressive’ here.
Like my website the blog is currently a work in progress and requires further customisation particularly the design.
Next Steps
- Finish customising the blog
- Upload the content to the website
- Begin the experimental works in Flash & After Effects
- Add additional functionality and interactive elements
- Testing & Troubleshooting
Experimental Work
The experimental works will be built in After Effects and Flash to not only build upon my skill set but also to explore the fundamentals of interaction design and its psychology. I have been looking into the subject of the user experience in a digital environment. As a teacher I have experienced quite extreme reactions – some quite emotional – to software and websites. How can the digital environment appeal visually, be intuitive to its user whilst fulfilling its purpose and communicating to the end user?
I am also interest in creating an interactive ‘painting’. I intend to experiment further with texture, sound, code (eg actionScript or Processing) to recreate the process of creating a digital painting to recreate the ‘happy accidents’ that quite often emerge from simply taking part in the process of creating a piece of artwork.
MA'zed & Confused
Oct 21st
It was with wonder and apprehension that I attended our first seminar at the Lighthouse yesterday with Michael O’Connell. We looked at and discussed Lev Manovich’s ‘The Paradoxes of Digital Photography’. I must say that I have a sense of quiet excitement as the plans and processes I have put into place to actually attend this MA have come to fruition after a quite few years of frustration. It almost feels like an indulgence.
It was the in last 5 minutes of the seminar and over the next 24 hours that I have had a prolonged ‘Eureka’ moment. We were asked to think how we would best utilise the university facilities and Brighton (if we weren’t studying for an MA and therefore didn’t have that as our motivation) and what would we do if, say, 2 years down the line, we knew we were going to have our MA’s?
My answers to these questions are motivated by my past work experience being very corporate, running my own business and also being a mum. My background has meant I’ve been very involved in deadlines, routines, meeting the needs of others and putting a lot of my own plans on hold. Therefore this MA IS an indulgence for me but positively so.
A trip to California and then my involvement with therapists, psychologists, occupational therapists both as friends and professionally coupled with my passion for the arts, inspired my fascination for psychology and art therapy. So I’m inclined to use this opportunity to experiment and work quite autobiographically, exploring the potential of digital media as therapy.
I’m about to write a 500 word proposal for our ‘Cultures of Multimedia Authoring & Web Design’ module for tomorrow. I’m still somewhat confused and I am writing this blog post as a means of ‘thinking or writing aloud’. What I’ve realised is that this MA means working on personal thoughts and ideas, which I’m finding pretty scary actually.
Missed Opportunites
Oct 14th
OK, so here I am looking forward to throwing myself in the MA in Digital Media Arts…I’m raring to go. Our first lecture is at the Lighthouse, with Roman Verostko a digital art pioneer who recently received the ACM SIGGRAPH distinguished Artist Award for a lifetime achievement in digital art. Except, as I was about to excitedly board the train to Brighton, stuff happens, life gets in the way and I couldn’t make it. Grrrr ….
So instead I have tried to rectify the situation and my disappointment in some small way. I’ve delved into the internet archives to find out a little more about Roman Verostko.
- Born in 1929, Verostko’s art emanates from the tradition of early 20th Century pioneers who sought to create art using pure visual form. “The theory and practice of Mondrian, Kandinsky and Malevich led me to explore what Henri Focillon identified as “the life of forms” in art…I have sought to create original forms that are unique realities without reference to other objects or images.”
- In 1970, through a programming course at the Control Data Institute in Minneapolis, Verostko experienced the form-generating possibilities coding procedures coupled with computing power could realise. “Clearly the dreams of the pioneers could be realized! With this technology we could create instructions for generating visual forms; we could now compose the “score” for drawing!” This discovery along with the continued development and sophistication of personal computers, Verostko began writing elementary drawing instructions, or ‘algorithms’. Verostko has become known for his algorithmic pen and ink drawings.
- Algorists are ‘artists who create art using algorithmic procedures that include their own algorithms.‘ The term was introduced in 1995 to identify artists who employed original algorithms in the process of creating their art. For more info read Verostko’s ALGORITHMIC ART, Composing the Score for Visual Art
- For over 30 years a set of drawings lay unused, that he had created for an ‘Upsidedown Book’ in the 1970’s (later released in August 2008). He used these upside down drawings as a mural for the Fred Rogers Centre on the St Vincent College Campus in Latore, USA. Inside the main entrance of this impressive center the Upsidedown Mural rises over two stories.
For further reading on Roman Verostko’s fascinating work check out the following
On the man, www.verostko.com
On the algorists, www.algorists.org
On those beautiful dancing ‘Miroesque’ figures www.upsidedownbook.com
Interesting Verostko Essay digitalartmuseum.org/essays/verostko01.htm