MEDA 301 Wk 12

In week twelve, my group members and I knew exactly what we were doing as soon as we got to the workshop, we had the footage we needed and the audio we had created from the tapping beats of the hands had actually made quite a catchy tune. All we needed to do was set up and make sure everything worked together as one.

We set up the roof mounted projector with a large fist entering from the top, this fist was the bass note.  The remaining six hands were projected evenly from the three other projectors using a splitter attached to a laptop, this way we did not need to use three usb’s or three laptops, we could perfectly sync up the video to the audio every time.

After we set up, we were pleased with what we saw. We had created a work that explored the themes of unity and community. All these different hands working together as one to create something, in this instance, a song. As you walk in front of each projector, different hand disappear to represent that people come and go, but what you have created will always remain. I found it interesting and caught myself staring for lengthy periods of time, trying to pin point which hands are creating which noises.

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Looking back to the first week when we joined together as a group, its great to see that some of the elements which interested us in the first place, are still clearly very involved int he work but also shows how we have progressed from that work in the week seven.

MEDA Wk 11

For this week my group an I decided to incorporate not only our own video into our project, but create sound to accompany it. We also chose to change the direction of our narrative, and follow more of a unity theme.

We talked about using footage of out faces layered over each other, but eventually decided that it would be to difficult to key out the background around our faces. Instead we came up with the idea to use hands instead of faces, because in my opinion a persons hand represent them more than anything else, a persons hand can tell a story of its own. This process would work well alongside the audio aspect as we could create a beat with our hands.

We borrowed a camera and set up on a green wall, we then tapped our hands and fingers in seven different ways but keeping it in the right beat and tempo. This filming took up majority of the lesson and did not leave us much time for rendering so unfortunately we could not present anything at the end of this workshop, but we will have something to work with from the get go next week.

MEDA Wk 10

In week ten, we tried to discuss what we could do to incorporate more of a narrative in our work, something that we can draw on to say why we are doing certain things in such a way. We ended up deciding on using ourselves within the image, to somewhat create characters that the viewers can gather thoughts from. We chose to take pictures of ourselves sitting around a table looking at our phones. We chose to do this as it followed a theme of looking disconnected from the world and shows how technology may be dominating peoples lives.

We again used photoshop to create four images this time, one of the table with no one there, then the other three with three of us separately. The one of the empty table was projected from a roof mount to ensure that this image would remain unobstructed.  The three remaining images were placed similar to the previous weeks so they could be walked upon.

The results were ok, the images that disappeared gave quite a cool effect, but the execution of the photography and photoshop may of let us down as the actual images itself didn’t look that great. But we followed a narrative and we felt that it was portrayed through this work, which is what we set out to do this week. Next week we will try filming our own video, and see what sort of effects we can achieve with that.

 

MEDA 301 Wk 9

During week nines workshop, we tried to incorporate moving images into our work. As I unfortunately wasn’t present during this weeks workshop, I had to rely on communication from my group members for this weeks blog.

We explored the use of stars and moving galaxies to see how they would look being projected on top of each other and if obstructing different projectors would have as interesting effects as last week.

We used a whole black background image, an other image of a galaxy/nebula type thing and the last one with many many stars scattered around. With a bit of editing we were able to make it look as though the stars were moving towards us, sort of like the hyperspace effect from Star Wars but not nearly as fast moving.

The results from this weeks exploration were not as positive as past weeks, we found that the images were too dark to really be able to make out what it was, the moving image effect didn’t quite work as it seemed quite static and you could not really tell what you were blocking and what you weren’t when you stood in front of any of the projectors. Next week we will look at creating perhaps our own images, something that we can plan ahead with.

MEDA 301 Wk 8

This week we were pushed to re-work our project from the previous week with of your chosen theme into an experiment based on your own research and pitches. Last week we talked about using lines or maybe pictures in this weeks testing. Like last week we wanted to use projector again, with the ability to step in front and obscure the image. Ive always had a interest in illusions, and thought that it could create something interesting if we incorporated it into our works.

After a bit of research I came upon this image on google and as a group we decided to use it as the base image for our work. The image is a painting of two people overlooking a lake, along with a swan and a man in a boat.

 

As you can see above, the overhanging tree, along with the arrangement of the other subjects in the painting, an ageing mans face is created. With this image, we began discussing what sort of reworking could we do to incorporate not only our chosen theme, but also our work from last week.

We chose to create two separate images, one of the man and woman in a black background, the second image of the scenery without the man and woman, this image was also photoshopped to fill in the black where the couple were.

We set up the two projectors the same distance apart as we did the previous week as we thought that didn’t need changing.  The result was positive and the feedback we recieved from the class was also positive, I caught a few people walking back in forth a few times!

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MEDA 301 Wk 7

In week 7, we were separated into groups based upon our interests in one of the following five themes.

• Expressing Digitality
  • Textuality and expression
• Variable Materiality
  • Materials and immaterial processes
• Multisensory Interaction
  • Light, shadows, and displacement
• (Re)configuring Spacetime
  • story-telling through sound,  image and interaction
• Generativity: Difference and Repetition
  • Algorithm and Reproducibility

I followed my interests in photography and working with lights and projection and chose Multisensory Interaction, which grouped me up with Rob, Mackenzie and Chloe.  We were instructed to choose an artwork to re-create and as a group we picked Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Your Uncertain Shadow’. A work which consisted of five different colours projected onto a wall, for people to then walk in front of and create colours and other effects. This work appealed to our group as a whole it created very interesting visuals, something that we were all interested in recreating.

To recreate this work, we borrowed three QUMI projectors and set them up on platforms about 60cm apart. We then projected a red screen and green screen and blue screen on to the same surface, resulting in very similar effects to Eliasson’s work. As people were blocking out certain projections, other colours were becoming more prominent and vice versa.

After recreating this work, my interests definitely still lied in creating something with projectors, and creating an artwork/exhibit that people can interact with and feel like they are a part of. I suggested to my group that perhaps next week we try using photography, and real images to see what sort of effects we could achieve using that practice. We also discussed moving images, and perhaps using lines instead of colours. These ideas would be tested in the weeks to come.

DIGC310 Dossier Final Blog

 

Line Up is has progressed hugely since my last blog. Its combination of a board game and puzzle makes it an interesting concept, thats a little different from your normal game. Just for a quick re hash, the game can be played with up to four players and the player who starts chooses which corner they would like to begin from, with the following players choosing after. The first player will then roll the die, depending what number it lands on, to make this easier to understand we will just say they rolled a 7. This would mean that that player has 7 moves to use. They can move their token, or they can move tiles. The moves can be split between the two options, but they token must be moved first. Before any moves have been made, the player must elect a symbol in which they will be receiving points off. If the player selects the circle and moves across 3 circle tiles, they will receive 3 points for their turn. Each player will have their turns until one player reaches the 21 points

Throughout the play testing, I found that the eight-sided dice was much more effective than the standard six-sided as it gave the players a better chance to make a better move. I also used cut out paper and coins as the pieces for the game which actually worked really well, which led me to the decision to have this game available for Print and Play. Print and Play is a better distribution method for this type of game as there aren’t many different pieces or complicated pieces, everything required can just be cut out of a piece of paper.

The artwork and design of the pieces started off very simple, just being three different shades of green to determine there difference. Due to issues with how each person can differently view colours, I chose to add 3 different shapes to each of the shades of green. This way I am able to still keep the simplicity in the artwork, but different enough for all people to be able to play. 

Line Up has developed into a very functional game, that my friends who play tested it found it to be a competitive, quick fire game that would be perfect to whip out with the family or challenge each others skills.

MEDA301- Critical Analysis

Catwalk, Rivet and Vittra from Stigma to Style: 3D Printed Prosthetic Covers, 2016, UNYQ

The Exhibition visited in week 5 examined the place and impact of new digital manufacturing technologies. 3-D printing is a technology that has become more and more renowned as a new method to create art and art installations. Many of the works at Out of Hand: Materialising the Digital use this practice to design and build their works. UNYQ harnesses state-of-the-art 3-D printing and photogrammetry software in their exhibit Catwalk, Rivet and Vittra from Stigma to Style to create beautiful custom prosthetic limb covers that offer amputees unprecedented levels of protection and comfort. A selection of the covers were shown at the exhibition and they immediately stood out to myself as an interesting concept to explore.

Catwalk, Rivet and Vittra from Stigma to Sytle: 3D Printed Prosthetic Covers, 2016, Artist Statement

Various options of fairings available, UNYQ, 2017

UNYQ’s founders, Eythor Bender and Manuel Boza met in 2003 while both working for Össur, a world market leader in prosthetics. Bender was the president Ossur America, while Boza was an engineer who specialised in above-knee amputation and was managing Ossur’s sales in Southern Europe when he became captivated with 3D printing. Boza became increasingly frustrated with the design options of prosthetics offered to himself and his fellow amputees, so he started researching the idea of prosthetic covers, and this was around the same time that 3D printing was becoming more known. The passion possessed by Bender to help people with disabilities or loss of limbs to regain mobility and healthy lifestyle led him to the position of Executive Director of the first companies in the world specialising in bionic suits: Ekso Bionics and Rex Bionics (UNYQ, 2017). These two worked alongside several engineers and designers to start creating the UNYQ Armour, that had a few of its styles on show at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.

Eythor Bender, CEO

Manuel Boza, CCO

UNYQ Armour is 3D printing technology, being used to create beautiful protective prosthetic covers that help restore symmetry to amputees’ silhouettes, and inspire confidence. By creating personalised and attractive covers, UNYQ is able to help shift the perception of a prosthesis as a reflection of tragedy to an expression of personality (Marshall, 2015). The prosthetic leg and arm covers can come in many different types of styles and colours. The idea is to have the person who will be wearing them, to design the cover that reflects them as a person. Every cover is designed to perfectly fit the wear and created using 3-D printing technology. The covers are made with a highly resistant polymer that ensures consistency and durability. The customisations they can make can also change the materials used such as leather, ballistic nylon fabric, chrome plating and tattoos. The covers, more commonly known as fairings are also extremely light, ranging from 400-640 grams depending on the requirements and the measurements of the persons prosthetic (UNYQ, 2017). The reason they would use such a light material is to increase comfort and range of motion, but these are also two main ideas that they wanted to build around as a company. They wanted to create unique, trendy looking fairings that not only turned heads, but actually improved your movement, comfort and well being at the same time. UNYQ covers are like tattoos. Tattoos are something that a person would get to express themselves and express their personality. The idea behind custom designed fairings was exactly the same thing, they wanted fairings to be a powerful way for someone who has maybe had problems expressing themselves due to there disability to be able to show off a part of them that they shouldn’t be ashamed of. The fairings give them a chance to tell their story. Katherine Crawford, an amateur actress, who’s career is built on their image said that “losing a limb can have a devastating impact on your sense of self esteem. 

UNYQ Customer, Pinterest

UNYQ gives us the freedom to create our own fashion statements and express who we are with confidence.” UNYQ have recently added UNYQ Align, a scoliosis brace with the same intentions as their covers, but also have incredible health advantages too. UNYQ seem to have healthcare at the top of their list of priorities and that shows by using 3-D printing as their method of production as it has been proven to be at the forefront of the health industry with its advances in organ, bone and cartilage development.

Out of Hand: Materialising the Digital features works that framed by seven themes. The work by UNYQ proudly uses all of these to show how they are materialising the digital. The first theme is Analog to Postdigital. Catwalk, Rivet and Vittra from Stigma to Style displays this as prosthetics and fairings were not always built with 3-D printers, they were built by machines and engineers with much higher labour and costs. The second theme is modelling nature, and this one is pretty self explanatory as the developers and designers are creating limbs and body parts, i.e modelling the natural human form. New geometries is the third theme and this is referring to the advancement in the computers understanding and visualisation of the mathematical form. UNYQ is using new and innovative technology to create their fairings and is constantly searching for better ways to do so. The fourth theme is Rebooting revivals. This speaks about the reference to historical artworks and past designs. Although every cover they make is UNYQ, they are still drawing their inspiration off past prosthetic designs, and past fairing designs. They are also rebooting the use of art and self expression to combat an issue. Pattern as Structure is the fifth theme and it relates to the human urge of creating patterns and to identify patterns, whether it be in art, design craft and even scientific investigation. UNYQ uses patterns to help design their fairings both mechanically and aesthetically. Digital advances have inspired a re-examination of the body and the representation of the human form in art and design, which leads into the sixth theme which is remixing the figure. UNYQ’s products are doing exactly that, they are taking the human form and remixing what would conventionally be a source of anger and shame and turning it into something of pride and dignity. Finally the last theme is process, and this I feel is the most important one due to the perfectionistic approach to creating their products. UNYQ design every single fairing unique to their buyer, making every product different, but every process the same. They take several images of the prosthetic and using the information gathered create a uniquely designed fairing for the buyer.

Example of the variations to choose from, UNYQ App

UNYQ are producing quality products designed to help people both physically and mentally, along with being flooded with artistic praise due to there sleek design and attractive attributes. When it comes to innovating through digitalised medicine, UNYQ is not alone. There is a wave of initiatives to harness 3D printing and new materials to create prosthetics for fingers, arms and legs. What’s exciting to see is that the aesthetics are becoming just as important to designers and amputees as the function. We are no longer leaving people with an incomplete sense of self (Marshall, 2015). UNYQ are constantly advancing their abilities to materialise the digital for not only the purpose of stretching the creative bound of 3D printing, but to help people grow confidence and self worth through expressing themselves with their own piece of art.

References

Halterman TE, 2015, UNYQ and 3D Systems Join Forces to Develop 3D Printed Orthotics & Prostheses, 3Dprint.com, date viewed 28th of April 2017, <https://3dprint.com/55551/unyq-3d-systems-join-forces/

Marshall J, 2015, The History of Prosthetics, UNYQ.com, viewed 29th April 2017,<http://unyq.com/the-history-of-prosthetics/&gt;

Pangburn, DJ 2015, 3D-Printed Covers Bring a Stylish Touch to Prosthetic Limbs, Good viewed: April 19th 2017, https://www.good.is/articles/unyq-3d-printed-prosthetic-covers

Whittaker M, 2014, The history of 3D printing in healthcare, The Bulletin Archive, date viewed 29th April 2017,<http://publishing.rcseng.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1308/147363514X13990346756481?

Information Sources

http://unyq.com/team/

http://unyq.com/faq/

https://www.fundable.com/unyq-funded

DIGC310 Game Pitch

Initially for this project, I had planned to create a smart phone gaming application using the infinite runner concept to build my game around. After many difficulties and many crashed applications I decided that it would be to complicated due to the time restrictions and my prior knowledge to game development. Although I chose to throw away my app idea, I still liked the idea of an infinite runner, and how I could possibly translate that over to a board game. Most of the board games that are seen are set out for you already; they don’t have any randomness to them. An infinite runner, such as the incredibly addictive Doodle Jump, are programmed to give you a different course every single game, therefore making no game of doodle jump the same. I liked this concept and tried to research for board games that every time you played, you played a different course or board. Obviously there are games such as Game of Life and Monopoly, which you can follow a different career or invest in alternate properties from one game to the next, but it is always on the same board. Therefore I came up with the concept of Green Out, Green King, King Green… Something to do with green, I haven’t really decided on a name yet.

 

It is a four player board game, in which you build your board the way you want, creating chances for you to receive more points then the other players. The items you will need are; 4 coloured tokens, 8 sided die, 24 dark green tiles, 24 green tiles and 22 light green tiles.

To begin the game, all players must place the all tiles out randomly until this arrangement is completed. (pls note that all colours must be random to prevent any advantages.)

After all tiles are place out, the players then roll the dice to decide who starts the game. The player who starts chooses which corner they would like to begin from, with the following players choosing after. They first player will then roll the die, depending what number it lands on, to make this easier to understand we will just say they rolled a 7. This would mean that that player has 7 moves to use. They can move their token, or they can move tiles. The moves can be split between the two options, but they token must be moved first. Before any moves have been made, the player must elect a colour in which they will be receiving points off. If they player selects dark green and moves across 3 dark green tiles, they will receive 3 points for their turn. Each player will have their turns until one player reaches the end amount of points.

 

RULES

– A player cannot move tiles before they move their token

– A player cannot break the connection between tiles (there must always be one big island, corners don’t count)

– A player must use all of their moves

– A player cannot go back on the tiles they or any other player had been on in the last round

– A player cannot move a tile that another play is currently on

This picture above may be an example of what the board may look like after a few rounds of turns(not the tokens, just the board).

 

These board games materials will all be kept in a what will look like a smaller deck of cards to make it more accessible for people to play whenever they feel the need!

 

The game mechanics that this game is based around is the concept of building because it requires you to create the highest scoring options for yourself. It also goes on the concept of chance/luck, with the element of dice rolling. I chose to use an eight sided die so they players would have more moves to use, hopefully making it a better flowing game. The middle gap of tiles at the beginning is to entice players to work towards the empty space at the middle, not just building their paths around their starting point. I hope to try and get this game to bring out the forward thinking ness of the players, but also I hope to see how willing the other players will be to sabotage their opponents by taking the tiles close to them. All of these thoughts I will be able to develop further after I begin to start play testing this game, and see what needs to be improved.

MEDA 301 Wk 6

PROJECT PITCH

After spending the last six weeks researching my practice, and working towards trying to come up with an idea that demonstrates materialising the digital. After choosing photography as my practice, I felt like I wanted to choose a certain niche of photography, so I chose motion blur photography. This type of photography has always peaked my interests as to me it’s a smoother and more aesthetically pleasing way to capture a moment in time. So I had my practice, now I needed to do some research on where it all began, and how it as a practice and as a profession has evolved over time. With all this information, and research done for my practice I came up with an idea for my project and a second possible idea due to a slight adjustment.

In a black box room in the gallery space I will set up a digital camera sitting atop a tripod in the middle of the room facing a white wall. Next to it will be a table with a laptop and a projector facing the black wall behind the camera. As the audience member walks in front of the camera, it starts taking photos every 1-second and sends it immediately to the computer which is linked to the projector which projects it straight on the wall in front of them. By doing this every one second, it will give a slow shutter effect and hopefully make an aesthetically pleasing effect.

Now with a simple adjustment, a second possible idea arises that adds another element to the project. Projection mapping is when an image is specifically ‘placed’ or ‘mapped’ onto the features and contours of an object. Projection mapping can be achieved by projecting the image that was just taken of the audience member, back on to the audience member. Obviously the participant would have to wear protective goggles and would not be able to see the art work they are in, it will give the rest of the audience an interesting perspective of ‘live projection mapping’.

Either if of these works would be a recreation of other works such as the work being created by Urban Projections, an idea started by Multimedia experimentalist Rebecca Smith. From lo-tech pieces of string and cardboard to the latest audio-visual applications and hardware, they specialise in combining hands-on creative activities with cutting edge multimedia application, to deliver stunning mixed media experiences. This is one example of the projection work that they do. Its from a series called Future Curious. On their website, Smith talk about what inspires her to do this and she says, “Inspiration comes from the really mundane things, or from the want to make someone smile. Friends and other artists that I meet, and then collaborate with, also play a big part in my creative process.   I’ll see someone’s work, and then get a spark of inspiration for how it might collaborate into a new piece.” This is why I want to create this work, I have seen the work being done at Urban projections and think I can recreate it with my own touch.

 

 

Bibliography

Urban Productions, 2016, date accessed 03 April, <https://www.urbanprojections.com/about&gt;