Week 10: November 8
Week 10: November 8
This week, I tried again to explore playing with the printer after I saw someone on Tik Tok doing it (I lost the Tik Tok, the video may have been one of the removed ones from my favorites.)
I put a random phrase that I got from a generator, and placed it in photoshop after choosing a font, the printed it. I them scanned the printed images, and manipulated it as it was scanned, causing the text to come out distorted and wavy. I then also generated a random object to go with the random phrase, and would print an image of that and manipulate it as I scanned it. Finally, I would put the manipulated image and text together back in photoshop to form an interesting composition, and to see what connections were made between the random phrase and objects.
In this scan, the duck may not be a fish, but it does swim in the water like one, and it is out of water. Compositionally, I think that this scan is the most interesting.
This scan I had the most trouble finding a connection between the phrase and object. I actually more noticed the differences between them, as the fluffiness of the ideas of a cloud and the sharpness of the scissors contrasted in my mind.
In this scan, shot made me think of basketball, which made me think of a basketball, which is a ball just like a beach ball.
I also looked a little more into Surrealism since the critique last week. These scans kind of remind me of a combination between The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali and The Treachery of Images by René Magritte. The images and text have the same melting quality of the clocks in The Persistence of Memory, but have the format of a “mismatching” object and label like The Treachery of Images. In a similar way, it brings into questions what is meaning, and how do we even decide if an image goes together or not.
As mentioned above, my creative research was mostly focused on surrealism this week. I looked at The Historical Dictionary of Surrealism by Keith Aspley.
Citation: Keith Aspley. 2010. Historical Dictionary of Surrealism. Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=341973&site=ehost-live.
Link: http://ezproxy.stevens.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=341973&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_3
Summary: The Historical Dictionary of Surrealism relates the history of this movement through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 600 cross-referenced dictionary entries on persons, circles, and groups who participated in the movement; a global entry on some of the journals and reviews they produced; and a sampling of major works of art, cinema, and literature.
Particular sections are highlighted below:
Here, Surrealism “refers to the artistic and literary movement that attempts to express the workings of the subconscious mind and is characterized by incongruous juxtapositions of images, probably needs to be approached from different angles: chronological, thematic, and linguistic, among others”. This definition is important because it emphasizes the importance of juxtaposition in the movement.
This quote talks about some terms that are used in surrealism.
This book was a great introduction to the Surrealist movement, and does a good job of explaining its history, timeline, terms, and notable figures. I like that it emphasizes juxtaposition as a key part of the movement, as meaning is made through the juxtaposition of images, text, and what the viewer is expecting.
Overall this week, I learned a lot more about Surrealism, where it came from, and how works from this period function. The article I read related well with the artwork that I made this week, which ended up seeming like a combination between The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali with the melting images, and The Treachery of Images by René Magritte with the image caption format. I further explored how connections are made between unlike images and phrases through this work (going back to how our brains will jump to find the pattern). This actually might be my first exploration that includes both images and text. I really liked the visual effect of the scanner as well, and thought that these pieces came out visually interesting as well as relating to my topic. Next week I plan to further explore meaning, as well as make something digital (maybe video?)
More Posts from Rachelcapstone and Others
Week 4: September 27
Last week, I talked to Nancy about how juxtaposition was a difficult topic to research, as it can be sort of a generic word that can be about the comparison of any two things, from scientific topics to art. This means that when researching it, it can be difficult to find articles that relate to it in the art/design context that I am looking for.
Links from Nancy on juxtaposition:
https://arttalks.com/exhibition/juxtaposition/
https://kayleyhutchinson.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/juxtaposition-composition-and-deconstruction/
I was thinking about how Nancy said that movement can be a medium, which also reminds me of the images I reposted on here from Wassily Kandinsky, who published two essays on his theory of form. The essays were accompanied by photographs and abstract drawings. Gret Palucca, a pioneer of the new expressive dance, was the model for the abstract drawings. The Palucca-inspired sketches are originally based on photographs by Charlotte Rudolph
This reminded me of another article that I found about dance notation, and how dance is recorded and notated in a 2D form:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1567163
They’re not really standardized, but I just love how beautiful and intricate the pieces in this article are, and it reminded me a bit of when I was looking into data visualization. I also shared this article with Arianna, as I thought it related to her topic as well.
For creative research, this week I was thinking about what Toni said when I talked to her about making something people could walk through. I was thinking about a garden arches, or tunnels, or doors. I actually made a door that people couldn’t walk through for 3D class as a freshman.
Detail shots
I was really into iridescent paper
Cutting through the door after
So I’ve been thinking about maybe making some sort of collage or juxtaposition related tunnel that people could walk through.
I first started thinking of those wire or metal garden gates that people have.
I though about what if there was a collage or multimedia piece that people could walk through, and see a variety of colors/materials, or maybe collage themes or topics that people could walk through. I like the idea of light being able to pass through it as well. I made a mockup in photoshop here using the garden gate shown above
I was also thinking about quilts and how they can sort of be a collage, and maybe I could make something quilt like and drape it over a structure that people could walk through. It would be cool if some of it could be transparent too….
Overall this week, I feel like I’ve been thinking a little differently than previously, and about movement and medium. I think the problem with the mockup that I made above is that it is beautiful, but I’m not sure how well it conveys the message of my topic. I also still feel like I need an exact topic for my juxtaposition though, but hopefully I am getting closer. I’ve reposted some other images this week that also interest me. This week I will also focus more on refining exactly what I want to make, and will go to the studio to make my inspiration board on the cardboard given in class. Next week I may try to make a small model of the mockup I made today.
Thinking through new statements
I am interested in the design convention of juxtaposition and the phenomenon of how our brains naturally create connections between disparate imagery. I hope for my audience to be more aware of when this phenomenon happens and how it can change our viewpoint.
I’m an interested in the phenomenon of juxtaposition and how psychologically connections are created between disparate items. I hope to learn how juxtaposition can be manipulated to create beauty and harm, and to make people more aware of its soft power.
I am interested in juxtaposition’s importance in design and psychology, and how we tend to make connections between disparate imagery. I hope to demonstrate this phenomenon so that people are more aware of it and can detect when the brain is creating these connections.
Hi!
This page is dedicated to explorations and updates about Rachel’s senior capstone project.
Final Crit Notes
Week 9: November 1
This week for creative research/inspiration I went to a special exhibit at MoMa called Never Alone: Video Games and Other Interactive Design.
Note that I will be attaching videos here since the games are better depicted as videos of gameplay.
Flower
By Jenova (Xinghan) Chen and thatgamecompany
“In flower, the player becomes the wind. The game is presented as a potted flower’s dream, in which the wind blows one of its petals away from the city and into a verdant landscape. The wind picks up more petals as it goes, and the pleasantly aimless journey becomes increasingly vivid and intense. There is no goal, only complete immersion in nature and whatever sensations that brings - whether thrilling, soothing, or contemplative”
Walkthrough of Gameplay:
My notes when playing:
There is only a mouse. You can move the mouse around, but can’t do much with the buttons.
You can move up, down, left, and right
You have to stay above ground and can only go so high
There is a glowing orb in the center of the petals that is the center of control for direction.
Is very simple in the sense that there are not to many signifiers or menus
There is a sky and a ground that is a landscape
Grass at the bottom blows in the wind
There are some sparkles, especially near the grass
You are an orb and petals move in a whirlwind trail behind it
Sometimes there is a glowing trail or two of sparkles beneath you reflected on the grass like a shadow if you are close enough
The glowing orb that is the main center of control is mapped to the cursor. Moving the mouse up causes you do move up, down causes you to move down, left causes you to move left, and right causes you to move right
Going through the grass causes the grass to part, and sparkles to fly around, as expected would happen based on physics
You approach with a sense of curiosity because there are not too many signifiers on the screen, and the colors and simplicity draw you in
It is contemplative because you just wander the environment
There is a sense of thrill because you are able to fly, and the moving petals and grass provide a continual sense of movement
You pick up petals as you go along
The backstory was given through reading the wall, as well as in the beginning of the game
There isn’t really a goal, but you can pick up some petals as you go along, and some areas gain more color as you go through it
You get more colors as you go along
When you get closer to the ground, there is a glowing path that follows you.
The grass blows in the wind and moves out of the way when you go through it
There are swirls of color in the grass
It is understood that the user is supposed to use the mouse as it is the only input interface. Based on prior experience using computers, it is understood that the mouse moves you up, down, left, and right when you move it in the same direction
Flying Letters
By John Maeda
My notes:
You can right or left click with the two buttons below the touch pad
The rectangle in the middle of the screen tells what areas of the screen are actually active/you are able to interact with
There is a menu with numbers 0-9 in boxes that you can right click on to access a new interaction. The mode you are on will have a white box with black text, while the others are inverted with white text and black background
The cursor arrow only appears when hovering over the menu to show that you are able to click on it
Is very simple. There is rectangle in the center that tells what areas of the screen are actually active/you are able to interact with
There is a menu on the right labeled 0-9 that lets you select a new interaction mode
There is only a touchpad with a left and right button to interact with
The touchpad is on a table that is waist level, and the screen is an old fashioned computer above you, pointed down in you direction. You have to look up to see the screen.
The numbers 0-9 on the menu map to different letter interactions you can play with
The letters follow the cursor, and act in a way that one would expect in real life. In one mode, the cursor is the front letter in the word “Flying letters”, and the other letters follow it. Each letter follows in the letter before it’s previous position, making the letters flow as they follow the cursor. Letters that rotate on an axis in one mode move up, down, left, right depending on what direction the cursor moves. In another mode, the word ‘vertical’ is written in all caps vertically across the screen, and horizontal in all caps horizontally, and the cursor is the intersection. The cursor controls where the two words intersect, and it moves up, down, left, right with where the finger is on the touchpad to drag that intersection point across the screen.
There is a sense of curiosity. When clicking on a new mode, you don’t know what it will do at first, and some of the interactions are surprising.
There is a sense of wonder because you have to look up at the screen.
Letter interactions are satisfying
No particular goal
You play with each mode until you understand or are bored or satisfied, and move into the next one
Everything is black and white
Older screen provides some movement because it flickers just a little
No sound
Letters follow where the player is touching the touchpad, and moves up, down, left, and right in a way that would be expected. It does pull from interactions the user has had before. The sphere made of letters rotates like a 3D one, or the horizontal and vertical lines create an intersection that can be moved like maybe the user has seen before in other apps. The interactions are simple enough though that it can be figured out just by moving around on the touchpad.
Getting Over it with Bennett Foddy
By Benett Foddy
Foddy bluntly says, “I created this game for a certain type of person. To hurt them.” It’s the kind of player who feels entitled to make progress and eventually win - an expectation Foddy delights in thwarting. The goal is to climb a mountain of rocks and garbage, but the character attempting it is awkwardly stuck in a cauldron, and the game’s controls are infuriatingly - deliberately - clumsy. Players cannot save their progress; mistakes can tip the character down the mountain. This near-futile exercise prompts reflection on what we expect from a game, and what keeps us playing.
My Notes:
There is only a mouse as an input interface
You can right click to grab onto something with the ax
There is a slightly transparent white circle where the cursor is, which controls the tip of the ax.
You can click to grab onto something
There is only a mouse
Is very simple in the sense that there are not to many signifier or menus
There is a sky and a ground that is a landscape, and lots of rocks and trash to grab onto. The rocks and trash create a mountain to climb.
Otherwise relatively desolate
Player is stuck in a cauldron.
Occasionally text appears at the bottom, which is the maker of the game sort of mocking you
The semi-transparent white circle represents the tip of the ax and is where the cursor is, so the player can control how the ax is swung
The ax movement is limited by range of the human arm, and can really only be moved up or down in a circle, so the ax moves with the cursor, but only to an extent
Incredibly frustrating
You get frustrated because it feels a little bit like the controls don’t follow exactly the way you feel like they should
Also it’s very easy to lose all your progress
Make it’s little hopeless, but when you do make progress it fills you with determination
You start at the bottom of the mountain and climb your way to the top of the trash/rock mountain. You generally move right.
It’s incredibly hard to control the ax accurately to pull yourself up the mountain. You only can use the ax because your legs are useless because your lower body is stuck in a cauldron
Even when you make progress, a mistake can send you all the way to the bottom. There is no real way to save your progress
Along the way the game maker will talk to you and sometime sort of mock you, which can add aggravation
Somewhat realistic color palette
Background is cloudy and green, it seems rocky, industrial, and desolate other than the rocks and trash in the foreground
Dusk can be kicked up by the ax
Water can slosh out of the cauldron you’re in
Some sound effects from the metal of the cauldron hitting the ground, and the sound of the ax hitting the rocks
Sometime game maker will come in and talk/make fun of you adding to frustration
Relatively quiet otherwise for concentration and also no distractions so you can fully feel how excruciating the task is
It is understood that the user is supposed to use the mouse as it is the only input interface. Based on prior experience using computers, it is understood that the mouse moves you up, down, left, and right.
Tweenbot
By Kacie Kinzer
Tweenbots are human-dependent cardboard robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, they rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal. The Tweenbot’s success is dependent people’s willingness to step outside of habitual actions and engage with a technological object in the city space. As emotive characters placed in the improbable setting of the city, Tweenbots create an unexpected interaction, disrupting the narratives of our everyday experience, and offering a fleeting and playful connection in the context of the city street.
Tweenbot description
Tweenbot
I love how tweenbot is made of such simple materials, yet is such a powerful project. Its design is super cute, which maybe makes it more friendly for people to want to approach it. I also like the level of involvement and interaction that a tiny robot is able to cause. Strangers are all working together to help Tweenbot reach its goal. It is a little heartwarming.
Visiting this exhibit taught me a lot about designing interfaces, and not just for games. It taught me how people interact with things in museum on display, and the proper amount of information needed for someone to understand how to interact with an object. For example, the labels all also have icons at the bottom that showed what the user was able to use to play the game (mouse, keyboard, touchpad, etc.). I also liked Flying Letters, and thought about what if there were letter interactions that juxtaposed each other, sort of like the horizontal and vertical line interaction that it was able to do. There was a horizontal line made with the letters HORIZONTAL and a vertical line with the letters VERTICAL, and you could play with where the lines intersect.
For scholarly research this week, I looked at an article called “Why Did Humans Evolve Pattern Recognition Abilities?” by Aditya Shukla.
Citation: Shukla, Aditya. “Why Did Humans Evolve Pattern Recognition Abilities?” Cognition Today, December 4, 2021.https://cognitiontoday.com/why-did-humans-evolve-pattern-recognition-abilities/.
Link: https://cognitiontoday.com/why-did-humans-evolve-pattern-recognition-abilities/
This article is similar to the previous one I wrote about about Superior Pattern Processing (SPP), but in more accessible language. It discusses why people are wired to see patterns evolutionarily, the brain structures in places that allow this pattern recognition to take places, and some of the side effects of this pattern processing. It also discusses how pattern processing is linked to memory and our senses like smell. This is part of the psychology of juxtaposition, which depends on pattern recognition or associations with symbols. Some important quotes are highlighted below:
This quote is about how we impose patterns even when there is none. This explains why in previous creative explorations, when I put random works together, I would form connections between objects where there wasn’t necessarily one.
Pattern recognition is evolutionarily advantageous for us, as it allowed us to recognize something we’ve seen before and behave accordingly, This is why it is so ingrained into the brain - part of it is always active seeking patterns. Again, why we see patterns sometimes when there isn't necessarily one - we are always on the lookout for it.
Pattern recognition can also lead to some negative things like confirmation bias and jumping to conclusions. This ties into some of the negative aspects of soft power, as this can be taken advantage of.
Overall this week, I got some really good inspiration for how and interactive work can encourage the audience to interact with it with the right discoverability and signifiers. Flying Letters also maybe gave some ideas for how I can make something related to juxtaposition interactive. I was also inspired by the simple material of the Tweenbot, and how it encourage people to come together to help it complete a goal. The article I read provided some clarity to the previous on on SPP, and more directly related to juxtaposition (How it works because of the patterns and connections we are able to make), and soft power (how pattern processing can lead to confirmation bias and jumping to conclusions).
Week 5: October 4
For scholarly research this week, I found an article from NASA’s Color Usage Research Lab (that existed???) about successive and simultaneous contrast.
Citation: “Simultaneous and Successive Contrast.” Using Color in Information Display Graphics. NASA. Accessed October 4, 2022. https://colorusage.arc.nasa.gov/Simult_and_succ_cont.php.
Link: https://colorusage.arc.nasa.gov/Simult_and_succ_cont.php
“The terms "simultaneous contrast" and "successive contrast" refer to visual effects in which the appearance of a patch of light (the "test field") is affected by other light patches ("inducing fields") that are nearby in space and time, respectively. The names are somewhat misleading since both simultaneous and successive contrast involve inducing fields that are close in both time and space.”
Basically, it means that we see colors differently depending on what it’s surrounding colors are. This is a color theory related topic, but I just think it’s interesting that NASA has done research on this, as it’s a bit unexpected.
For creative research, I made a model of the mockup I created last week out of jewelry wire I had laying around, tissue paper, and other craft materials I had. The clear transparent material that is on the frame is two ziploc bags.
It was a slight failure, and it came out a bit wonkier than I expected, but it was probably still good to go through the process of making it. I’m still not sure about the exact works/materials that I would put on the windows. I used various textures, and definitely tried to keep with materials that light could shine through. I feel like it looks a bit childish though because of the use of craft materials….
If I actually made this, I’m realizing I would probably need to use several different arches and connect them on sight, so it could be easily transported and disassembled. Maybe I could use a shower curtain in place of a ziplock bag, and that was I could just drape that over the arches, and just make sure all of the squares are lined up.
I was a big fan of the successive and simultaneous contrast article from NASA, as I feel like it was a good bridge between the graphic design and psychology side of my topic. I am a bit disappointed by my creative research this week though, as it didn’t turn out as beautiful as it was in the mock-up. I am concerned by the lack of specificity of what I want to put in the windows and how I feel like it looks nice, but doesn’t completely convey the message of my topic. It would definitely need an explanation. Maybe I’ll get some feedback during crit next week on that.
