Monthly Archive for September, 2005

Façade and Crimson Room

Published
by
kate
on September 20, 2005
in Communications Lab
. 0 Comments

Façade
coming soon…

Crimson Room

The game directs the user to the goal immediately at the start. The user can collect items, which are then listed on the right corner of the screen. These objects are also little mysteries. Through experimentation, the user will soon develop a sense of how and where to apply them. Every new discovery feels like a small accomplishment.

There are, of course, times when the user may not discover something for a long time. This leads to frustration, which can easily be cured by either taking a break or discovering something new. It has a kind of addictive quality to it, actually.

In terms of graphics, there is nothing extraneous. It seems as though everything serves a purpose. This minimalist approach is both good and bad. It seems very easy to figure out because the actual visual is not so complex. Once you realize the game is actually a bit more complicated than you had originally expected, the lack of objects in the room makes the “stuck” feeling even worse. Not only are you stuck; you are stuck in a room that feels like there is no escape.

It was interesting to play a game without all the bells and whistles that other games have. It was helpful to know from people who have played it that there is a way out of the room. Had I not known that, I might have given up a lot sooner than I did.

The World’s Shortest Story

Published
by
kate
on September 14, 2005
in Communications Lab
. 0 Comments

Write a Story in 55 words. Try to create an original story or narrative with only 55 words. Pick your genre- romance, philosophy, mystery, murder, humor… whatever.

55 Word Challenge- Rules

“The Usual”
by Kate Bauer

Hungry for more, he leaned in close.
thighs so warm and tender,
On the hard wood table surface.

Time flew by quickly.
His body could take no more.
Exhausted, he let out a deep sigh.

“Ready for more?” the waitress asked,
glancing at the empty plate of fried chicken.

“Just the check, please,” he answered.

Development of a Three Dimensional Form

Published
by
kate
on September 14, 2005
in Spatial Design
. 0 Comments

Objective: To place yourself - as the viewer - inside an existing space, for example your home. The viewer can seat on a chair, lie down in bed, stand against a wall or wait in other positions. The viewer does not move except for eyeballs and head rotations. Record the experience using the media of your choice - cardboard model(s), drawings, photographs or videotape - (2 minutes maximum). Build a small model in order to explain what can be seen from the point of view of the viewer. Define a specific place which is the origin of your design, the same way Hitchcock defined a specific place for James Steward in “Rear Window”.

Make a model with opacities, windows, and translucent panels. Work with sheets of metallic mesh, foamboard, transparent acrylic and mirrors.

model_outside.jpg
Model of Bedroom, 12×8x5″, chipboard, mirror, transparency paper & glue

model_inside.jpg
Model of Bedroom (Inside), 12×8x5″, chipboard, mirror, transparency paper & glue

Vito Acconci

Published
by
kate
on September 13, 2005
in Applications of Interactive Technologies
. 0 Comments

acconci.seedbed.jpg

Seedbed
Vito Acconci
1972, 10 min, color, silent, Super 8 film

This film features rare documentation of Acconci’s seminal 1972 performance/installation Seedbed. In this famous piece, Acconci lay hidden underneath a ramp installed at the Sonnabend Gallery, masturbating. The artist’s spoken fantasies about the visitors walking above him were heard through loudspeakers in the gallery.

________________________________________________________________

- Experimental poet, pioneer of conceptual & video art, dedicated to architecture
- How to travel over a page vs. how to travel within a city
- Concentrating on self/ body changes, adapts to stress

“a public space is occupied by private bodies… public space is the last gasp of the civilized world”

- Art as a kind of exchange between people
- Viewers have to struggle to “get” art
- Question habvits/ conventions
- Gallery/ Museum- always a private place; never public?
- Re-invent architecture/ body as a cause of architecture

“studio works bext when people argue a lot”

- If something starts out private, can it later become public?
- Viewer adapting to art, rather than art adapting to you
- How do we attach to a specific building?
- Architecture from the bottom up; inside out

“People’s lives don’t change by standing in front of art.”

Writer > Performance Artist > Architect

Architecture as Operation:
Operation I: push & pull
Operation II: split/ separate (an architecture of strips and strands)
Operation III: stretch (architecture of landscape)
Operation IV: twist/ warp/ morph

Art as:
a.) verb
b.) noun

Tradition of art as “do not touch”

Art as isolation

Notion of things being available to everyone

When you’re designing a space, you’re inherently designing people’s interactions within a space.

Introduction to Processing

Published
by
kate
on September 12, 2005
in Intro to Computational Media (ICM)
. 0 Comments

Objective:

1. Play around with Processing
2. Concentrate on making shapes and working with color
3. Write a program in processing that will draw the image of shapes that you drew in class.
[Think building blocks and make a simple constuction — like an alien, a little creature (i.e. a triangle with lines), a car (i.e. a rectangle with 2 circles).]

creature.gif

Shapes
Creature

Painting with Space

Published
by
kate
on September 7, 2005
in Spatial Design
. 0 Comments

Objective:
1- Create a create a shoe box size model of a white room, built from a 2D collage drawing using white paper, cutter, glue and cardboard.
I suggest to check examples of light studies at http://itp.nyu.edu/spatialdesign/light.pdf (2 MB)
2- Control the light sources with small mirrors in order to modulate the light color and intensity inside the box.
3- Record on videotape 2 minutes maximum with sound track or/and with voice

Make a sketch model projecting shadows with foam board. Work with sheets of foam board, paper, translucent plastics and mirrors.

LightBox.gif
Light Model, video stills

model.jpg
Light Model, 20×4.5×5″, foam board, vellum, mirror & pins

Heather Greer

Published
by
kate
on September 6, 2005
in Applications of Interactive Technologies
. 0 Comments

malawiboy.jpg

Heather Greer is interested in bringing technology to people who would not typically have access to it. She has traveled to many third-world countries with her video equipment and computers, enabling people to create their own work and present it around the world. She is slowly increasing access to motion capture.

Greer is known for her projects in collaboration with Save the Children in African countries, such as Malawi. In addition, she has contributed to the many individual projects including a Holocaust Memorial and a politically-driven film project called, “The F-Word.” the Holocaust Memorial was made up of two walls of touch-screens. When a person touched the screen, a story would appear and remain only as long as the viewer’s hand was on the screen. Greer wondered out loud,” What makes people survive, despite difficult ciurcumstances?”

She organized a Greek Tragedy play that combined the actors with the images of Cy Twombly in the background. This helped to focus the audience’s attention throughout the play, as the lack of scenery is typical for this kind of play. The images also mirrored the emotions of the characters, building a strong connection between the two.

One important point that was mentioned dealt with the use of technology. Heather Greer said she first thinks of the project.. what is the idea? Then after the idea is formed, what is the technology appropriate for that idea?

Self-Evaluation

Published
by
kate
on September 5, 2005
in Communications Lab
. 0 Comments

Write a self-evaluation of where you are now, your perception of the field, what you know, what you want to know and where you want to go. Keep this to a page or two. At the end of this course, it is very useful to look back at this writing to see where you were.

Self-Evaluation