[Final Project] Audio, Drawing/Painting, Identity

http://www.fastswf.com/YfE2Jxc
http://www.shareswf.com/game/35255/nutcracker-march

(either link works fine)

For my final project I have the 3 keywords: audio, drawing/painting, and indentity. I went through a lot of planning and finally decided to challenge myself by doing an all digital project. I started with the idea of "audio visual / music visualization," regarding how we see visuals through melody and rhythm. I find this an important topic to explore because many artists are often inspired by music (Kandinsky, pop art, contemporary). Furthermore, in my field observation I also found out that many adolescents enjoy listening to the music while making art. Thus, I am interested to explore the relation  between these two forms through digital media.

There are many softwares online called the "music/audio visualizer" that people have created to visually represent sound. For me I chose to "map" a music clip that is significant to me. From Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, "March" to me is the first classical music I recall. Ever since then I have developed great interest in music and have been taking piano classes for 13 years. I debated greatly whether to apply to music or visual arts for undergrad degree. Though I ended up choosing the path of visual art,  music is still very dear and important to me. Through this artwork I want to commemorate my relation with music, that both music and visual art consititute to my identity. 

I used Flash for this project. The idea is that each note corresponds to a particular color: Do (red), Re (orange), Mi (yellow), Fa (green), So (blue), La (indigo), Si (purple). Each paint drop also drops on the location same as the note on the staff. The size also corresponds to the volume of each note. I am not so familiar with Flash so it took me quite a while to figure out the procedure. The hardest part was to coordinate the drops to the music. There are still spots in the final work that don't quite match after rendering but I tried my best. In the end I combined audio and "painting" through a video that I feel best represents me.

[Project] Scratch Mini Game

Dog chasing the ball~ 
Using "up, down, right, left" arrow keys to control the the baseball. Avoid the dog!

[Video Game Artist] Ryota Kuwakubo

Ryota Kuwakubo is a Japanese artist who has created works mainly using electronics since 1998. His works appear to be gadgets but focus on the phenomena that occur on the borderline between digital and analog, human and machine, and information sender and information recipient. His work challenges us to rethink our relationship with electronic devices by combining flawless hardware design with interactivity.

loopScape

loopScape is a shooting game for 2 players with wireless controllers. However, this artwork appears to be an unusual battle game where two players move around the cylindrical display when they play. The two players can enjoy this game and move their bodies as if they were playing a sport. With a change in thinking that connects "this side" and "the other side," this game changes our perception on conventional battle games.

"PLX"

This is a one-on-one battle game in which two players though face to face, play different games based on a shared program. In an one-on-one conversation, people often speak about different subjects though they think they are talking about the same topic. This work expresses these gaps in communication in the form of a game.

[Video Game Artist] Feng Mengbo

Feng Mengbo is one of the pioneer Chinese artists to work video game and digital media as an art form. He combines this with cultural influences of China to produce narrative pieces, full of computer game images, mixed with symbols from communist China. Some of the video games he created with Chinese themes include 'Game Over: The Long March' and 'The War of Resistance against Japan'. 

'Game Over: Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy'
Digital image from computer game (1994) 

"...I'd rather be considered a game artist than a Political Pop artist...This doesn't mean that I don't care about history, simply that I can't be responsible for it." 

Long March: Restart (2008)

In 2008 he produced Long March: Restart which was featured in MoMA during 2011. It is a large-scale fully functioning and interactive video-game installation. It resembles imagery from classic games like Street Fighter II and Super Mario Bros., along with propaganda motifs from Communist China. Visitors will direct the hero, a Red Army soldier, using a wireless controller to combat the various enemies in his digital path.

I find it very ironic how he transformed video game, usually associated with entertainment, into something so political and loaded with strong messages. It totally makes sense in a way because people do invest much emotion while they're engaging with video game, through the interaction audience also expereince artist's manifestation of emotion and ideas. 

[Project] 100 People Project

For this particular project, I was inspired by the recent phenomenon of people posting photos on facebook and requesting for "likes," in order to gain some personal reward.

I find it interesting as to how many likes this photo could collect from strangers all over the world, reaching 1 million hits. It is amazing that through social media, strangers among the world could participate in the same event and helping strangers to achieve a personal goal. Therefore, for this 100 people project I decided to use social media (Facebook) in similar manner by posting a photo on my facebook wall. Instead of  asking for likes, I asked a question, "what is art?" to my facebook friends and requested them to leave comments on my photo.

I have acquired 114 comments from my friends within just 2 days, which is really unexpected. The answers show a wide range of variety and some answers really surprise me. I have  put together the answers using tagcloud to show which theme is the most predominant. It is not a surprise that "expression" proves to be the most common answer, followed by "emotion."

[Reflection] Working with Smart Material

Heat sensitive fabric: one of my favorite smart materials. 
I find it simple and serves a introduction of technology to students. 

Creating the simple circuit proves not to be so simple as I expected. I enjoyed using the conductive pen. However, my design was not well designed so I had a lot of difficulty making the LED light to light up. Though it was hard, I find it really rewarding the moment the light went on. Technology can be so frustrating at times but it really challenges me and enable me to develop my problem solving skill. 

I really like the video presentation showing different types of smart materials and high technology. It really opens up my mind and promts me to consider the types of technology to introduce to students. The concept of paper as smart material is particularly interesting.

[Project] Designing with Adobe Illustrator

After exploring with Adobe Illustrator in class, I have played with the software at home. I tried to combine different shapes together and this is the animal I came up with. I also played with colors and texture to further enhance my design. I had a lot of fun.

[3D Printing Designer] Iris Van Herpen

Dutch designer Iris Van Herpen, is one of first to create fashion garment made of 3D printing technique (Spring/Summer 2012 Haute Couture collection show in Paris). Van Herpen collaborated with Materialise and architect to create a 3D printed dress made from lasersintered plastic. She developed a innovative new textile(TPU 92A-1) which is credited as the first printable material that is flexible, durable enough to be worn and washed in the machine. Van Herpen also printed a cape and skirt that are built up out of two totally different materials; one soft and one hard which were printed together. It was the first attempt to combine different materials in a single 3D print. 

           

3D printing has made it possible to produce precise sizing and mass production. It could also allow startup labels to produce small orders to avoid unsold stock, and allow easy customization. This indicates that there are more possibilities in specifying on flexibility within printing a garment.         

Iris Van Herpen

http://www.irisvanherpen.com/home

[3D Printing Artist] Freedom of Creation

Freedom of Creation is a design and research company specialized in design with 3D printing technologies. The Freedom of Creation concept is based on Janne Kyttanen’s project which explored the possibilities of using 3D printing technology and Augmented Reality as viable technologies when changing production and distribution logistics on a global scale. Since the world is becoming ever more digital, decentralized and connected, people will be able to create their own products with great ease. As a result, the value for consumers will increase and waste will decrease. 

First Augmented Reality video by Janne Kyttanen in 2000. This project looked into the possibilities of people being able to upload virtual information into their living rooms and they could then interact with the designs, change certain features in them and when finished, the products could be produced by 3D printing.

FOC Collection includes many exclusive design objects, furnishing complements, lighting and accessories which are all for sale online. 

Macedonia Space Divider

Exclusive Furniture

Trays

Lighting Designs

Freedom of Creation

http://www.freedomofcreation.com/

[Project] 3D Printing Design

Designing 3D printing with Tinkercad:

Designing a 3D sculputre to print is much easier than i expected. The interface is simple and easy to navigate. I designed a cheese under 10 minutes which is unbelievable. I feel this could be an interesting lesson to do with the students in which there are so many potential themes to explore: space, dimension, perspective, relationship between objects, 2D vs. 3D design, from, addtion and subtraction. This also can be combined with other subjects such as math and science.  Although my cheese was incompleted, I ended up liking the texture of it. It is very awarding to see a design come to life in 3D form.

[Connection] Design Lesson Plan

Student:

12^th grade, 15 students

Activity:

Student will create an original T-shirt by producing a design that expresses emotions.

Material:

Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, vinyl cutter, iron, fabric, baseball cap

Objective:

Student will learn that different combinations of colors and patterns express different emotions. Students will also learn that art and design is closely related and applied in commercial product.

Students will plan color arrangement on Photoshop first to determine their color combination. They will then transfer their choice of colors into a form that they produced on Adobe Illustrator. The design could be abstract, representational, or cartoony. Students at the end would create a runway show exhibiting their design.

[Designer] Duncan Shotton

Duncan Shotton is a young British designer based in Tokyo, Japan.

“My mission is to create products that engage users emotionally, promote happiness and ensure people love what they’re doing, wherever they are and whoever they're there with. My work covers product, packaging, graphic and user interface design.”

Some of Shotton’s design includes Rainbow Pencil, a pencil made from layers of recycled that creates rainbows when it is shaved. His other design, Real Boy Pin, is a Pinocchio-inspired push pins in which the nose serves as the pin. The Cloud Keyholder in which a simple design can evoke humor; the hidden magnets can hold three sets of keys underneath the wall mounted cloud to represent rain.

All of Shotton’s design are simple yet the aesthetics are balanced well with the function and the design shows much personality of the designer. 

Rainbow Pencil

Real Boy Pin

Cloud Keyholder

Duncan Shotton

http://dshott.co.uk/

[Designer] Kobi Levi

Kobi Levi is an Israeli footwear designer who started off by designing unique and creative shoe styles that challenge the standard definitions of design and uploading up to his blog. As his blog grew more popular he received lots of requests leading him to create his own studio that produces limited editions of his designs for sell.

Levi’s shoes are inspired by various everyday themes from animals (elephant, swan, shark), occupations (officer, girl scout, stewardess), hobbits (sing, write, baseball) to whimsical themes such as chewing gum and blond ambition. These designs capture the physical characteristics and the spirit of the subject into the simple form of shoe by carefully selecting and arranging the colors and shapes. The outcome are humorous and original as well as functional. 

ORCA

CHEWING GUM

WRITE

Kobi Levi

http://kobilevidesign.com/index.php/