Final Project

These are my first and second drafts for my final project proposal. I do not doubt that there will be a few more along the way. As for the color palette, I notice it was cut off when I initially scanned it, however, I'm not sure if I will be using it after all. Also, here is a copy of my proposal...

Perception

My original interface design was to eliminate the boundary between man and computer in such a way that the technology and user essentially become one. The technological component would be so intuitive that the wants and needs of the user are presented completely and without flaw, tailored to the exact specifications of each individual user. This is achieved by tapping directly into the brain of the user and using his/her experience and personality in the portrayal of the interface within a virtual reality environment, entirely within the mindscape of the user. In my personal presentation of such a VR world, it was very technological and futuristic in appearance, however, that environment can change with any other user. Someone might use this device and his or her environment would be a tropical rainforest, a kitchen, or possibly even a desktop computer (although in my opinion, that would be somewhat limiting).

In my original presentation, I indicated that all that happened within the VR world was completely metaphorical and no actual action was being taken, but rather, thought was all that transpired. One would ask how I intend to present mere thought? The same can be said about how to present sound or time within a piece. Well, thought has many different meaning to many different people. Not everyone will have the same response to that question, while similarly, not everyone will have the same interface environment. It is simply a matter of perception. Whatever a viewer envisions their interface design to be, will be visualized within the scope of the piece I intend to present.

My project will consist of a triptych presentation of abstract paintings meant to elicit different responses according to each viewer. As I mentioned, thought and the interface environment are entirely dependant on the perception of the particular user or viewer, so, the whole point of using abstraction as a tool is to see exactly what a particular viewer sees within these paintings. In essence, these are the person’s thoughts, and subsequently, their interface environment.

I intend to use a similar methodology originally used for the exercise of visual punctuation (used in one of the lectures) in order to find some “sub-categories” of thought to better visualize this idea. Once I have a basic framework of what I want to present, I will proceed in creating the final paintings.

The materials I intend to use for these paintings are canvas and acrylic paint. I was considering using some other media to add more conflict to the piece, but haven’t quite decided on that yet.

MAC Report

Alexandre Castonguay: Elements

This piece is an interactive installation using old cameras, projectors, and circuit boards. Basically, a video camera photographs your image as you walk by, and this image is then shown onto the wall through a projector attributing a specific effect, whether it is a water ripple, crystallizing effect, etc, etc. The digital images projected onto the wall change with every action or inaction you make, thus making the piece interactive and terribly interesting when you analyze it in the several different levels the artist intended (or at least the levels I believe he intended).

The first point I wish to address is the fact that this particular installation had several different projectors, as opposed to just one. I’m sure the artist could’ve achieved the technical results with only one set of a camera and projector, but the piece would then be lacking in what I believed to be one of the crucial elements, which is several points of view. The fact that you can view the room from several different angles is important because everyday people often view the same set of variables in different ways, or rather from a different point of view. Because one is standing in a different part of the room, he quite literally has a different way of seeing things, and thus of interpreting information.

Furthermore, the different visualizations also accentuate the idea of different perceptions of the world around us. One camera and projector deals with the image of me walking by in a much more different way than another set of a camera and projector. These cameras can be interpreted as the optical scope of a given person and the digital images on the screen can be understood as how this optical scope interprets the visual information presented before it. Although the basic camera function is the same, or rather a person’s optical nerve, the perception may be different when running it through a different set of computational parameters, or rather being interpreted by a brain that has had much more varied experiences and cultural background than another given person.

A person’s perception is paramount when dealing with matters pertaining to personal preference. Within the realm of my final project, I will be dealing with how a person creates they’re virtual world around them from the base of mere thought. The presentation of my abstract triptych paintings will force the viewer to develop a personal interpretation of what they are viewing, and conclude what it means to them. This conclusion is a base process for discovering what reality they will be soliciting when “logging on” to their personal interface.

Color exercises

I know this is a little late, but here are my color exercises. I wasn't able to find the one I made for anger, but as soon as I do, I'll attach it to this blog.

The sequence of these pictures is happy, melancholy, and hungry. I didn't exactly stay within the initial parameters of the exercise because I just wanted to experiment a little more. Surprisingly, I don't have much to say this particular posting, probably because I have moved onto working on my final project and am focusing more on that right now.

Color

Color has always been a great mystery for me, especially from a design standpoint. (Consequently, much of my better works have been in black and white.) I was never able to fully explain or understand why a certain design piece "worked" based on the color scheme, but I was able to say if it "worked" or not. (The only reason I use the term "works" is because of a certain design teacher I had who never took the time to explain these fundamentals to me, despite my repeated efforts to ask him about it. The only thing he ever told me was, "...it either works or it doesn't. That's all there is."

I guess what is inherent in every human being is a fundamental consensus that certain colors work with others so completely that there is no question to the contrary. I, however, require more than that. I want to know why it works. This would take light-years off the development of projects rather than having to experiment in every color combination that I think may "work".

In any case, the lecture in class with Joey's friend (I can't remember his name and it isn't on the course syllabus), significantly complicated my life. There is so much more I hadn't considered when dealing with color that must now be dealt with. First off, the idea that the human brain can't remember color as well as music is troublesome. No matter how much you would want to engrave a "work" into a person's mind, the colors will still vary from individual to individual. Also, the very important fact that colors are contextual, where one red won't operate on the same level with different colors. Furthermore, the exercise on the color scales made my head hurt. I wasn't able to accomplish it as well as I had hoped. I new it wouldn't be easy from the start, but I still thought it would turn out better. I started off the darker portion of the scale with too much subtlety and then, because of a lack of squares, I jumped too much from dark to light. It was decent but could use improvement.

In any case, I think more study is required into the color theory field, and I believe I will start by picking up a copy of that book by Joseph Albers.

Sound

The idea I chose to explore for this homework was sound. At first, I was a little uncertain, but I realized it was very difficult to define sound, which led to more and more intrigue with this word. I have been a musician for years, and it is curious that this concept of sound is only now fascinating me.

I first started with some word association with sound: tone, music, rhythm, A440, noise, intonation, beat, vibration, communication, voice, resonance, etc.

Then I attempted to define it, with no luck (the best thing I could come up with was that it is just there!). But, I know that one of its defining properties is vibrations on the ear-drum that are interpreted by the brain, and that sound exists everywhere (or does it?... if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?). The key point I decided to stick with was vibration, and, one of the most intricate tools in music is a tuning fork, which vibrates considerably.

My first piece is of a tuning fork, which is emitting vibrations of sound. I added some physical relief to add a more aggressive texture to it, and illustrate the point a bit better. I tried to portray the very essence of sound (vibration).

The second piece is more an illustration of how sound comes into existence. Again, there is a tuning fork vibrating away. Then the oscillations in the air are picked up by the ear, and subsequently the ear-drum. And finally, the brain interprets these vibrations on the ear-drum to be a certain pitch (EUREKA! vibrations = A440).

I still feel that there is much more to be explored with this, but I have already spent hours on it and am running out of time. These ideas must be posted before they vanish, and well, before they are due!

Until next time true believers!

Pause exercises

This exercise on pause was very interesting to me, and I actually had a good time doing it. My example is more of a sculpture piece, in that, you need to manipulate it in order to understand how it represents pause.

I used some Dot Matrix paper and put some electrical tape on both sides of the two surrounding sheets of paper, forming a continuous line. This way when you hold the paper when folded up, it has a fluid line running all around it. However, when you open up the paper, the center sheet has a break in the line, only continuing on the other side. That is where the pause comes into play. The basic idea is that you are never sure when a pause will occur in the span of any given events. So, you can continue flipping the paper over and over again, until, you decide to open it up and take a pause from the mundane line.


I also partook in a collaboration with Josie-Anne (forgive me if I have misspelled your name). She initially had the idea that passengers on an airplane take a "pause" from the world below them when taking a flight. Upon making a generic paper airplane and I then suggested we try to construct a model to look more like a Boeing 747. Once that was accomplished, we suspended the airplane (upside-down) from the projector with electrical tape. The effect on the class was not our initial idea, but rather, the object seemed suspended or paused in time, before a fatal crash. It still showed pause so I was happy.

PS. I prefer the spelling "aeroplane" rather than airplane. It seems more chic but MS Word doesn't seem to recognize that word, so I played it safe.

Interface Design

I am still not entirely sure that this particular design is much better than the initial one I dreamed up, but I did make a few improvements (both on an aesthetic and practical level).

This interface is meant to be used as a computer, by today's standards, but what I tried to do was eliminate the barrier or boundary normally experienced when using a desktop/laptop computer and tried to make user and computer one.

First off, this interface is a complete virtual world within the scope of your mind's eye. It functions with the basis that your thoughts control the entire "computer", and with that carries an incredible intuitive capability. The only physical instrument you would need is the piece of technology (seen in picture 1, slot 1) that fits behind your ear. This would basically interpret all your thought processes and create a virtual world (tailored to user preference and character) in which you can interact with, however, all this interaction (motion, speaking, etc.) would be completely symbolic and nothing but thought would actually be transpiring (the reason for this being is that the human brain usually needs some sort of physicality to associate with an activity). Furthermore, the VR realm I depicted in my interface design is one I suppose would be particular to my user preferences.

Much of the environment, or "kernel", I conceived of was inspired by the coding world shown in hackers (i.e. electronic building symbolizing the internal architecture of a computer). Certain programs and utilities are specific to a certain sections (i.e. buildings) of the virtual world, and because of the 3D aspect, you can navigate all around the system instead being constricted to a screen or 2D space.

As I mentioned, all motions are merely symbolic for actual thought, so when you point to a program you want to run, you are actually thinking of it and initiating it with the same ease as daydreaming of being somewhere else. Also, the saving of pertinent information or material cannot be saved on the device, but rather must be saved on the unused portions of your brain (ever hear the expression that you only use 10% of your brain?). The advantage to this is that if your device ever gets misplaced or damaged, your files will still be intact. However, if you ever suffer brain damage, files might be lost, but I would imagine you would have bigger problems than worrying about about a paper you're writing.

I added the slides, buttons and other console-like devices simply to illustrate what controlling certain elements within a program could look like, but they are in no way meaningful, because, as I mentioned, it is metaphorical for thought.

And finally, when immersed in this VR world, you are not completely catatonic but still susceptible to external stimuli. This way, at a moment's notice, you can log off and go about your physical routine.

Response to the reading (my first non-picture post)

Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies

Metaphor 1.0

The first point of interest that I would like to discuss is man-machine interaction/dependency. One particular example is the movie "Metropolis" because it portrays the idea that no matter how much we get ahead of ourselves, machines will always be dependent on us to "survive". (Although, I don't quite deem it survival because machines don't seem to have the same instinct for survival which is embedded in every living thing.) In this "futuristic" movie, the machine simply cannot function without the human creators to operate it. Another movie which illustrates this point magnificently is "The Matrix". Although humans are no longer needed to actually build and maintain the machinery, they are still needed as an energy source to keep the "wheels turning".

I believe the dependency between humans and machines is actually more inverse than the movies would have us believe. I think we are more dependent on technology to live than machines are dependent on us for the simple fact that they do not have that inherent will to survive, as I mentioned earlier.

Metaphor 2.0

I think the use of many "palm pilot" type devices, as demonstrated in Star Trek TNG, tries to put forth the point that no matter how futuristic a device can get, it will always fall back on the traditional paradigms that have been proven in the long run. The "tablet PC", as it was called in the reading, and transfer of information from there to the wall display, is simply transcribing information from point A to point B. Teachers have been doing that for ages, transcribing their notes onto the blackboard so that other may view the information. Although it seems crude and obvious, the futuristic adaptation of Star Trek makes it look impressive, although using an ancient methodology.

Metaphor 3.0

I thought this is a fairly obvious metaphor, but the biometric scans of a person walking into an establishment and the computer automatically knowing his/her consumer habits (Minority Report) is an obvious pointer to Big Brother and consumer bombardment. The idea of a computer keeping detailed files on me, and watching every movement I make is rampant with Big Brother references. Also, in today's society, advertisements and consumerism is become so omnipresent, that it is hard to get away from it for even a moment. Imagine advertisements following you wherever you go, enticing you to buy their new wares? I shudder at the thought.

Metaphor 4.0

I enjoyed when the author went into the use of hand-gestures in the use of operating I/O devices, like those mentioned in "Minority Report" and "Johnny Mnemonic". The metaphor in these cases are actually quite literal. The idea of opening a computer file by simply, physically opening a file in a virtual world (Johnny Mnemonic) is both intriguing and comical. The same goes for clearing ones virtual desktop by gesturing in a sweeping motion, as if to clear your desk (also mentioned in the reading while discussing Minority Report). Such actions are simple and straightforward. One would ask why not implement these ideologies today? Although the idea is simple, the development in such technology is actually quite complex.

Secret to world peace (icon sentence)

I believe that "apple pie is the key to world peace." If everyone had apple pie, maybe there wouldn't be so much fighting.

Quite honestly, I had quite a bit of trouble forming a sentence with the symbols I originally chose. I think it may have been because some of them were kind of ambiguous. Also, I believe that intent has to come first in language rather than the tool to build it (i.e. symbols or the alphabet). I find it difficult to express myself before knowing what it is I want to express.

Symbols

These are the four examples of icons I found for class. Two out of the four have obvious meaning, while the remaining are more ambiguous.

The first is a bald eagle, which usually signifies freedom and power, especially within the American culture. The second is a fictitious symbol of an alien culture known as the Vulcans (Star Trek), who are known for peace and logic. The third is the male and female symbol. And lastly, the fourth symbol is the Myrddin Knot (a.k.a. the symbol of Merlin) that can be used to signify mysticism and magic.

Hungry

Although most people in the class opted for the idea of being hungry for food, I decided to go a different route. If this route isn't apparent, well, I pity you.

(Hint: hunger for sex)

Anyway, there isn't much to say about this collage. Fashion/women's/teen magazines contain a wealth of sexual content and pictures. Basically, I just cut and pasted those, giving consideration to the focus of the eyes of the subjects. They all seem to be looking at the object of their sexual desire. I was thinking of having the eyes of all the subjects follow the viewer of the piece but that is terribly beyond my scope of talent and would be kind of creepy.

Melancholy

Melancholy was fairly interesting to put together. It was a little tricky to conceptualize that emotion because there can be so many different avenues to pursue and situations to consider when thinking about depression. I decided to use very common symptoms of depression to show this emotion.

Firstly, sometimes a person feels very small and insignificant when feeling sad, depressed, etc., which is why I used a small figure to be the victim of depression. Subsequently, I moved on to creating the victim's headspace, in which her world (i.e. the original picture) was torn apart and in shambles. Very little sense can be derived from her world and that is what I believe to be one of the realms of depression or melancholy.

Angry

A lot of people in the class seem to have reacted quite strongly to this piece. I am pleased with this. Although many of my classmates, and Joey, think I may be a serial killer, I still think it conveys the anger I feel towards this person quite well.

I don't care that others may think this is inappropriate. It is an accurate portrayal of my feelings and it has incredible shock-value, which can be very useful in art.

Happy

I am not particularly happy with this collage of "happy". I originally wanted to creat one with a scan of literally hundreds of beer bottle caps I have been collecting for ages. Unfortunately, I can't find them (I moved a little while ago and never quite finished unpacking), so that idea did not come to fruition. However, the essence of happiness due to alcohol still was there, so I put this together instead. It illustrates my point adequately, but not to the full effect I would have liked.

Flying

This collage pretty safely shows "flying". The reason I used a very "comic book" or "cartoony" picture is because the idea of flying, to me, is fictional. It really doesn't mean anything to me beyond the fact that I see it on television, movies, cartoons, etc.

I have never flown, through super-powers, airplane, or otherwise (incindentally, I can't jump very high either), so I have no reference of what that would feel like. The only frame of reference I have is fiction, so that is what I decided to run with.

Monkey

This is also a very literal demonstration of the essence of a monkey. I basically used a landscape to portray nature and then a picture of men in "monkey-suits", and between them I drew chain with a few broken links. It's not a real brainteaser, but I like the ties in the pictures.

34 > 12

This is a very literal interpretation of "34 is greater than 12". The "3" fish and the "4" asparagus equal the number "34". The buildings, from a poster of the movie "Metropolis", exude a feeling of greatness. And then the obvious number "12", which I made terribly small just to drive the point home.

I'm kind of hungry for asparagus now.

Self-portrait

This is my self-portrait, which I believe to be pretty self-evident and explanatory. Of course, for those of you who don't really comprehend, I'll give a brief explanation.

Basically, the android-esque head represents my initial being, demonstrating how I usually see things as a machine (i.e. yes or no, black or white, on or off, o or 1, etc.). The light bulb is fairly straightforward, showing the beginning of an idea. That idea then progresses into several different paths.

The scribbling demonstrates how I have a jumble of different thoughts on what I would like to do. That is coupled with the "motion" lines going towards infinity, which shows how I sometimes would like to develop a very epic and interesting idea. More often then not, that task becomes entirely too daunting and difficult. Then, the symmetrical symbols to the far left show the very balanced and particular plan I have in mind, but that sometimes gets fragmented, which is shown through the broken down pieces of the door.

Sidebar: I liked the fact that I used a door because it is such a simple and basic paradigm for a project, yet even those somehow can crumble at the slightest of artistic change.

Anyway, that is my self-portrait. It describes me to a certain degree (i.e. some artistic aspects of my character), but I think no one collage or work can completely describe who a person really is. I suppose if it were that easy, we wouldn't spend a considerable amount of our lives trying to know and understand people.

Symmetry

I am rather fond of this piece. It comforts me in a way the others don't. I suppose it is because it creates the illusion of certainty and balance. Although there is some ornamentation, which normally would bother me, in this context it doesn't seem assaulting because it is encompassed within a stable universe (the rectangle).

I particularly like the fact that I decided to add small elements outside the "universe" because it hints at the idea (in the context of my analogy anyway) that there is something outside the scope of what we, as humans, deem to be the universe. It sort of gives hope that there is something more than what we can see with our eyes, and experience with our senses. Something else out there exists, and although we can't see it, perhaps we still have an intuition that it is there. And perhaps with this intuition comes with it an everlasting feeling that we are all somehow connected within this realm of the rectangle and there are subtle lines connecting all of us together.

That is it for now, but I'd like to end by saying, "just keep looking towards stars and burn for that heavenly connection to the starry dynamo."

End transmission.

Interruption

I am not sure if I succeeded in this context. My first two attempts didn't really pan out for the simple reason that they did not illustrate interruption. You got the impression that the object was on top of the other instead of interrupting it, all because of the quality of lines. I thought that maybe this one, because of the correction of my first mistake, would work, but I am so confused at this point, that I'm not even sure.

Something of interest that I just noticed: the lines are so faded on this version of interruption, probably because I shaded them really lightly, gives the impression of my uncertainty of what I am doing, and thus of the entire idea before me.

Motion

I think my example of motion is very straightforward and boring. I am having trouble thinking of ideas that are not obvious. When walking around the classroom and viewing other examples of other work, I often ask myself "how come I didn't think of that?"

I think my problem is that I analyze things too much, and am not used thinking of a way of introducing an idea without illustrating my point as clearly and directly as possible. I have trouble thinking "outside of the box", which I believe is an important facet of art and dealing with technology. Problem-solving in most any realm involves coming up with ideas not normally apparent, and developing a way of tackling an issues that constitutes 'avant-garde' thinking. I am not sure in what way I can develop this skill, but I hope I can somehow pick up on that in this class.

Reduced Line

This was the best of my "reduced line" drawings. The others weren't terribly impressive, so I decided not to include them. To summerize the exercise, we needed to draw an object using five lines, then three, and finally one.

I found it considerably more difficult to draw using only one line rather than five. I prefer having more details, but I suppose there is value in trying to draw something with as few lines as possible. Logically, it should train you to have general outlines and forms of objects before proceeding directly to details.

Homework assignment

Well, just to give a brief summary, the homework was to draw an object from a close distance, medium distance, and finally, a far distance. I chose to draw, initially a door or rather, a doorknob in the first drawing. I began sitting approximately one foot away from the "subject". Then for my subsequent drawings, I moved five, and then ten feet away from the door.

I think I was able to demonstrate the idea of distance, given by the fact that my drawings are of different scales. This is not terribly obvious with the two drawings of the doors because the scans imported into Photoshop used only the scan area over the drawing and not the whole sheet of paper (to save time and space), but I can assure you that the second door drawn was smaller than the first. I should have probably accounted for that when I initially scanned the two doors, but I guess it's really too late to cry about that now. However, my error does express the point that in order for distance to be shown, proper scale must be applied. And for proper scale, you must have a larger work area (i.e. sheet). As was mentioned in the first reading, the same sized object on a large surface as opposed to a small surface will not appear to be the same size.

Also, the fact that there are different levels of detail does add to the portrayal that there is distance between the object and me. However, that can be further accentuated through scale, as I previously mentioned.

Aside from the fact that I can't really draw (I think I've already mentioned that), I think this exercise was a success.

Mechanical/analytical line

I think I was able to demonstrate exactly what I wanted to in this drawing. It is a very straightforward (much like my thinking sometimes) representation of the light bulb. The only problem I can notice is that there is no difference in the texture of the lines. They all have the same weight and composition, so there doesn't seem to be a demonstration of growth from what we've been talking about in the lectures.

I leave you, the critic, to decide if this is an accurate analysis.

Cross contour

I think this is the exercise I understood the most. I was able to execute it with a vengeance. I understood that I needed to use the lines to portray a 3D aspect to the object, as well as rounded contours. I think it was 'ok' on my part. Everything was going marvelously until we were told to crumple a piece of paper and start using 'cross contour' to draw it. That is when everything went a rye.

I did not end up scanning that particular exercise because, well, it didn't look like anything. It was just a massive blob of pencil sketches that had no real form. Also, I felt it did not really exude the point trying to be presented. In any case, it is now in the trash because I ended up cutting that particular page to shreds for the collage exercises.

All this to say, I don't think I really got everything I should have gotten from the exercise. I was hoping this was the "one", and some holy revelation would come of this, but so far, this hasn't been the case.

Semi-peak contour

I believe the quality of lines are slightly better in the semi-peak contour exercise, however, I don't think I took full advantage of the fact that I could peak at my paper. This still looks very much like the blind contour.

Surprisingly enough, this is not in fact the same area of my hand, yet, the lines and organizing principles of the drawing seem to be oddly similar. I suppose you can take into consideration that both drawings came from the same organic being and similarities would be evident, but the saying that "no two fingerprints are alike" or "no two snowflakes are exactly the same" springs to mind. The likenesses of both drawings are too evident, which brings me to the conclusion that I must have been cheating. I'm not quite sure how, but I must have cheated in some manner that I was not conscious of, and therefore, this drawing should be stricken from the record.

Or I may just be over-analyzing this...

I think at the end of the semester, I may just have a poll concerning this. I'm curious to see what the results would be.

Blind contour

So, this is my blind counter attempt. I must say it is somewhat intriguing to look at because, in my opinion, it is the best drawing I have ever done. I don't have much of a talent for drawing, and I think the fact that accuracy isn't key in this exercise, really played to my advantage.

I am not sure I am understanding the entirety of the points trying to be conveyed in these lectures but I believe one of the main ideas is attention to detail; moreover, an attention to the quality of lines (i.e. thick VS thin, texture, etc.) and contours (fairly obvious given the name of the exercise). I still do have trouble remembering to keep these things in mind when moving from one exercise to the next. I keep being pre-ambled with giving realistic qualities to the drawings, not always giving consideration to the fact that the quality of line is primal in conveying realism. In other words, I keep trying to jump to the end to get the final product, while not giving attention to the basis of the structure (i.e. lines). If I were an architect, I would be canned.