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Secuencia (2014) Doc.

Secuencia(2014) 

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“First we flutter, then we can soar, until we become infinite.” – Secuencia

Secuencia is an Installation piece that explores the ideas of ambition and that dreams should always be reached for no matter how high they are. In this playful narrative, Secuencia reveals in sequence beautiful and vibrant colours of images that fill up from one canvas to the next when the viewer is present.

The two frames consisting of origami butterfly and bird figures sets the narrative to reveal the third canvas which is completely blank. The viewer can see these figures in an elevated position as they form into the next frame to the last.  When the viewer waits to see the unveiling of the third piece they are graced with the presence of stars going off into the night sky. Secuencia can be seen as other forms however viewers should not forget the significance of this piece. Only the viewer can initiate the narrative because our presence brings Secuencia to life. we can chose to keep it alive or leave it be for it to be awaken again.

Secuencia was created with Keystone. A surface map library that is used in processing. All images were created in Photoshop and then taken into after effects to be animated. The device that starts the entire installation is known as a Ping detector. It measures the distance between itself and to whatever is in front of it. Once the detector signals the programmed number in processing it acts as an on and off switch for the piece.

Technology used:

Short throw Projector.

A distance ping detector.

Laptop.

Processing Keystone library.

Here’s  a video of the piece.

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Secuencia in action

Dark space: check

Setup overall: check

Interactivity: check but could still use some work :/

Last week’s crit went well without a hitch 🙂 but now before the exhibition I need to think on a few things:

I need to re program (or maybe just re-position)  the ping detector so  people can walk around the space where the piece is instead of standing around watching. Then when they leave the space it turns off.

The photography studio was great but maybe I can move it either to a different bay or into one of the new media galleries.

Overall I’m really happy of how the crit turned out and Can’t wait till the exhibition 🙂 Here are some pics!

These were all taken in the photo studio at the I.M.A bulidng 🙂

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Digiplay Space at the Tiff Bell Lightbox

2 weeks before crits, I went to the Digiplay space with my classmates 🙂 It was really cool seeing all these new media works and apps for children there. I found the children games innovative and smart in the ways we teach kids to learn things such as strategy, reading and recognizing. I had so much fun playing around with all the works.

 

Here are some photos I took while I was there!

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Secuencia Update

After three weeks I have completed the technical aspect of Secuencia. Now I all I need is to setup stuff, make stuff fit, and of course do some paper folding. Projection mapping was done this week too now I have to fold the origami for frames one and two and Secuencia will be done! well 95% done. I need a dark room to set up my piece. 2014-03-25 12.27.16

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META 2014

I went to the 4th year new media show this year and saw a lot of really cool pieces. It was a great turn out with a lot of people and a huge success. As a viewer however, I did feel like I missed out on a lot of the pieces concepts, meanings and full user experience. Either because there were a lot of people, or because the pieces themselves weren’t remotely built to interpret to the user what we’re suppose to do with the piece or feel about it. For example, “In Flux” by Yulia Karelina used a great deal of projection mapping on a set of triangular pieces. But I prefer projections in dark settings as much as possible to bring the colours out. I was also confused on why the triangles were pieced together the way they were and what I was suppose to take away from this piece conceptually. “The Third Eye” falls under a similar situation. Another piece, “Wave” by Melissa James was interactively beautiful as the user could touch the waters to make ripples on the screen. However, I did not know users were not suppose to step on the dock yet it looked inviting that we should due to it’s height and others previous experience of docks.

A very powerful piece that really impressed me was “[uh-ten-shuhn]” by Samantha Totera & Kimberly Yap. User could focus their brain energy on a set of liquids to make cool designs in them using this head piece. It was by far most a really brilliant piece and something that relates to the topic of distraction. Imagine what we could possibly due with our brains with a little focus. It was beautifully crafted and well thought out.

Overall the arrangement of the pieces in the gallery space threw me off. It was difficult to experience most of the works and I felt I was in a carnival. I preferred last year’s meta better maybe because the arrangements of pieces were better and there were less works. Perhaps next time META could either get more floors to accustom to a number of pieces instead of  clutter everything or so many on one floor. It was a great show with a lot of talent and a lot of hard work had payed off 🙂 If execution to display these works for user experience had been better, I’m sure the public would have seen these work at their full potential.

Below I have a series of images of the night:

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Antonin Fourneau

An Artist by the name of Antonin Fourneau came all the way from France to install his works at our very own, Tiff Bell light box. He came in three weeks ago to talk about his craft, developing projects and experience as a new media artist with us. A lot of his works dealt with video games and the japanese background that was introduced in the games stood out to me too. It made me wonder if he was inspired by the culture of the electrical aspect of japan’s development in games. One of his works that really stuck out to me was “Water Light Graffiti”.   An installation that allows you to put water on an electrical canvas of lights. It sounds incredible that an element that is meant to destroy something technical can be moulded to create something beautiful. I learned a lot from Frourneau that day and it was an interesting experience to see continuing new media careers outside the classroom and in the real world.

Antonin Fourneau

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User Test

Everything before the user test was stressful. I really wanted to get the experience of activating the pictures with the Ping detector but I could only manage to present the three surface maps with the videos on them. On the bright side, It was a great start! After the user test I’ve been getting closer and closer to that experience. I have managed to initiate the sequence with a key letter on the keyboard and got the ping to work with the Arduino. Now all that’s left is to put the pieces together. I’ve also learned how to sauder in bits and pieces of a GVS shield properly after carelessly wrecking the first one. (It was a stressful week ok?!) Anyway it all worked out well in the end. This project started out as an ambitious dream with little idea how I was going to execute it with the little time I had. Now, each day I work on it I can see it over and over again getting closer to reality. I’m super excited for Secuencia!

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Research Review on “Three Wishes”

 Ann Cutler.(2010) “Three wishes.” Journal of College Science Teaching, 39.6 (Aug 2010), 6. Print 

This article looked at where people’s wishes and dreams were most desired in stages of their life through this 1969 study. It was done by Jean Groth who wanted to provide better counselling for young women. She believed that our wishes reflected our motivational states in our lives.  Cutler explores the Abraham Maslow’s (1943) that was used in the study. It’s a famous hierarchy pyramid with 5 stages. Psychology, Security, Love/belonging/ Esteem and Self-actualization where psychology is at the bottom and self- actualization at the top. The most basic levels of needs must be meet in order to aim for higher desires in the hierarchy.

361 participants ranging from the ages of 10-70. these were the results :

“At age 13, the young men were concerned with belonging and the young women were wishing for achievement and mastery, indicating that their need for group affiliation had been met. However, as they aged further, young women apparently regressed, wishing more often for belonging and inclusion as social expectations of dating, pairing, and maintaining a family intensified. Their needs for affiliation were primary until they were about 40 years of age. Men, on the other hand, increasingly sought achievement and recognition after the age of about 14. Affiliation and love were met needs for these men as they proceeded through late adolescence and early adulthood. Consequently, they focused on mastery, achievement, and success in their careers” (Cutler, 2010)

Where does this fall in my research?

Wishes vary not only from person to person but also in different parts of our lifetimes. which is interesting to illustrate because in adolescents they desire to belong and fit into their peers (according to the study, but it is true in real life due to school, work etc. ) Which means they already feel fulfilled in basic needs. However as they get older they’re needs intensify with responsibility, age and expectation. This was seen in women more than men. Men strived to aim higher and become successful where as women wanted to fill in the demands of expectancy (find love, get married, have a successful career etc).

I believe this table has given me some ideas of what age specific groups might aspire to wish for due to social ideas.

This refers back to what I’ve been saying “We always start low then we aim high”

With this peer review article, the ideas of desires during lifetime fluctuates due to social situations in one’s life as you get older. For example, when you were a kid you probably wanted to be a princess or a fire truck, but then as you grew up you desired more needs as you got older and started to think realistically about your future, your needs and what you strived to achieve.  You set realistic goals for your self also dealing with the desires that are life fulfilling to you.

Also take note that this study and hierarchy should not be taken too seriously since lives are not realistically based on categories and charts but this article has high lighted some interesting ideas of wishes, wish fulfilment and aiming higher for personal goals.