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Month March 2011

Entries 9 Total

myths -4-

Mar 23, ’11 3:31 PM

Doing

Soft wear

I found using the coding language quite tricky and felt it took some time to get used to the form, order and language/syntax used.

The moving element of the image created interested me so I decided to develop my piece in that area. I thought the 3D element was really interesting but I wanted to keep my time constraints in mind and not over plan.

The first sort of piece I started with was to get a ‘bee’ flying around within the parameters of the screen and have some sort of backdrop, so I added trees, learning how to keep the trunk and the circle of the top in line.

When I got the brief ‘myths’ I looked at various ones and made a list of the myths that interested me the most, such as the greek myths and E.A. Poe and his writings, in particular his book Tales of Mystery and Imagination and within the stories themselves there are myths created, I remember in particular MS. Found in a Bottle, which is about seeing the world from the myths point of view, yet the myth dose not know it is a myth.

First I read a book about how the Greek gods came to be, and from reading this I saw the pattern created. The gods would multiply, giving birth, and would lessen in numbers, when the gods eat each other and also they would split, one god would cut another open to free the previous gods eaten. So I thought I could represent this in processing. I hoped I could program it so when the mouse was pressed a new circle would appear and start moving around, if it collided with another circle then there would be a chance that it would; bounce off, split one or both or merge into one circle.

However I found this tricky and didn’t manage to get a working piece. With time limitations I decided to look into what else I could do, working with the bee and tree model.

I used the code of the tree making multiple still objects to make multiple still other objects, stars, supermoon and planets. The supermoon that was Sat the 19th March 2011, last weekend, inspired me. I decided to look up a myth that I could weave into what I was working on. When reading Jorge Luis Borges, The Book of Imaginary Beings, 1967, I came across a chapter/story called “Animals in the Form of Spheres”. I found this to be a really interesting piece about spheres being living beings, both dead animals becoming spheres to ‘roll’ into their next life and planets as living beings.

“plato thought the world to be a living being and the Lawss(898) stated that the planets and stars were also living as well. In this way, he enriched fantastic zoology with vast spherical animals and cast aspersions on those slow-witted astronomers who failed to understand that the circular course of the heavinly bodies was voluntary.” Jorge Luis Borges, The Book of Imaginary Beings, 1967, pg 21.”Animals in the Form of Spheres”)

This seemed to be a fantastic myth and also very fitting, as what was bee is moving into the realm of the planets. So the processing piece becomes a sort of picture book with a moving element. I was hoping to have a interactive mouse element however I have been struggling learning how to do this; I managed to get a sphere/spirit attached to the mouse that can move however it dose not interact with anything within the screen apart from following the mouse.

With the myth being about planets and spirits I wanted them to have a slight glow feel to the aesthetic, so I added a stroke and stoke weight and I think the aesthetic works very well for the myth.

I looked at the following processing examples to try and work out how to use the code to become interactive.

http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=7686

http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=2847

http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=6456

http://www.openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=2847

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train~ myths -3-

Mar 23, ’11 3:28 PM

Attempting to get to uni on time Tues morning there was a power black out in cardiff making travling difficult, adding 3 hour delay! So I tryed to use this time to read more about myths whilst waiting for the train. (As much as I wanted to read the book I ordered in; textile futures, alas flu and assessments beat me) I read through Jorge Luis Borges, The Book of Imaginary Beings, 1967. Which is a fantastic collection of mythical beings and tales from histories and some described by writers. This is such a fantastic collection I spent some time drawing ideas from it, which I will load to here and update as soon as I can.

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Supermoon -2-

Mar 23, ’11 3:16 PM

Sat 19th March, 2011.

The name SuperMoon was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, defined as:

…a new or full moon which occurs with the Moon at or near (within 90% of) its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit (perigee). In short, Earth, Moon and Sun are all in a line, with Moon in its nearest approach to Earth

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermoon)

I found this quite a fantastic sight, and very inspirational towards my work within ‘doing’ assignment myths. I was very glad that although very ill during the evening I managed to be awake to watch it rise over the buildings surrounding the house and to what appeared to be from where I was the middle of the sky that I could see.

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textile futures

Mar 19, ’11 11:18 PM

Ordered a book through the book shop and it was in 2 days later, and I have been attached to it since. ‘Textile Futures ;  fashion, design and technology”

by Bradley Quinn, 2011. The book has a great selection of textiles and where they’re used, great pictures too. Once this flu I have allows me to stay awake for more than a few hours at a time I will read through it thoroughly.

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Greek myths / legends and E.A. Poe -1-

Mar 12, ’11 2:41 PM

Since the brief for the final piece myths was issued I have been reading a bit about the creation of the greek Gods in a little book I found at home. After I read it I realised that it was very much about these ‘god’s or higher beings giving birth and eating each other in hope to protect themselves. This got me thinking it was very cell like in a biological way, that some cells absorb others and then multiply and as with the Greek myths the numbers ever with the eating of each other increased quite steadily. So to put this to processing I could find a way in an aesthetic that fits the Greek myths of the absorption/consumption and multiplication/accumulation. I was also thinking about the sirens calling in the sailors of the sea and perhaps incorporating sound into the processing environment to almost simulate a motion towards the sound as it cries out.

Also I am a great lover of E.A. Poe and his writings, in particular his book Tales of Mystery and Imagination and within the stories themselves there are myths created, I remember in particular MS. Found in a Bottle, which is about seeing the world from the myths point of view, yet the myth dose not know it is a myth. For those who would like to read this without it being spoiled

http://tiny.cc/f1lxg <this links to E.A. Poe’s book on google books, MS Found in a Bottle begins page 39.

The following is a quick summary of the story,

A ship goes through troubled waters and when they begin to see the end a crew member is thrown onto another ship. He then spends his time creeping around the vessel to find out what it is, sending messages off in a bottle to tell the outside world. As the story goes on he hides less as even when he is stood in a crowd no one seems to perceive him. Yet at the same time Poe gives you hints that the crew of the ship he has come to have heard of a ghost ship and are on edge about the myth. Of course EA. Poe’s story is fantastically written and if you havnt read it I highly recommend it, also my summary is just to get the point of the myth within the story across. I like how its almost a twisted myth, so not only is the myth about the character in focus, the character in focus has no idea he is the myth.

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Creative web~ sustainability dance

Mar 12, ’11 2:03 PM

From the final project session it looks like the whole group will be working together. I think this is fantastic as everyone seems to have something great to offer the team, so together we should be able to produce a really fantastic piece. I havnt worked with such a varied team before; we have a dancer, musician, fashion designer and project manager, writer and me, I have worked with video, animation and editing as well as putting what Im learning in processing and web knowledge to the test!

I put forward an idea of sustainable dancing at first, that perhaps you could have a dancer filmed and in a variety of times begin to seem to fall, then the observer would have to hit a button, click something with a mouse, etc. to stop the dancer falling and a new edit would kick in for another dance. On the screen would have a timer going so you can see how long the dancer has been sustained, and for example in a gallery style environment you could be taking over those before sustaining and when you want to move on allow the next person to continue watching and be ready to save the dancer.

This was just something on the spot that I thought would incorporate the skills of the team. So from emails and posts on the blog it looks like we’re going with dancer/s and perhaps something inspired by the scene with the globe in Chaplin in The Great Dictator; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJOuoyoMhj8

Which sounds good, so Im looking forward to discussing this further with the group and planning the stages of putting the piece together.

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Intelligent textiles

Mar 11, ’11 2:02 PM

From attending the first Future Ways of Living I have been really excited. For many years I have wanted to study in this area, intelligent textiles, but not quite found the door, now I am excited about intelligent textiles and the current abilities and possibilities more than ever and am thrilled that there seems to be so much going on.

http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/academic/scd/whatson/news/fwol

Next week Helen Storey’s work is around Newcastle uni on Tuesday, there is also an opening to her work on monday, though I only found out about this earlier this week and it is sold out. Im trying to find a way to get a ticket/in, but I may have to just keep my eyes open to make sure I don’t miss any in the future.

http://www.newcastlesciencefest.co.uk/events/catalyticcampus.html?

This is the Tuesday event on campus ^

I was also told about a conference in London, however their student price is £250!! (apparently full price is £999!!) so sadly I don’t think Im going to be able to attend, perhaps next year.

 

 

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Doing

Mar 11, ’11 1:28 PM

2 doings at once as I am catching up on last term as well as doing this terms:

2.Processing~ I have not done any of this before so I feel kind of slow getting used to the language and pattern of the method. I seem to be working on multiple trees and a moving bee currently. I managed to get it all done once then lost it and spent a few days trying to re-write it, which was very helpful and I definitely remember what I re did better now. The brief Myths is quite interesting, I havnt decided what to do yet, Im looking forward to further sessions to see what else is possible.   I have a few ideas ~

maybe look at the pyramids, myths and legends around them.. I have quite a few myths I have always been fond of, Dante’s inferno-perhaps more of the poetry but I feel it has become quite myth like, Orpheous-greek Mythology, Jūnishi - myth of the 13 animals of the chinese zodiac(13th being the cat that the rat tricked into being late for the banquet of the zodiac),

there are of course modern myths as well, I will briefly do a wide span of research to see what i feel connects with my work, the brief and the beginnings of ideas.

 

1.Arduino~ this project is from the first term so its what i am catching up on. I managed to get a experimentation kit to use though wonder if it would have been better suited for my interests to get the lilly pad, wearable, arduino. so i plan to see this as an experimentation, getting a bit used to the methods and process and abilities of the hardware. The brief is “relay” and I have been thinking around its many definitions of what I could do with this, where it could lead.

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Thinking

Mar 8, ’11 12:08 AM

Just to catch up a bit as I am just about getting the hang of  blogging as I tend to just writing thoughts down to refer to. I have been reading theory for a few years now, though much out of picking pieces to read my self and getting the odd recommendation. A lot of what I found I found through articles I deemed interesting whilst going through the Leonardo press archive in whilst in Plymouth. As I came onto the course I was told Hiedegger was a big part of the last terms theory so I  read most of “Heidegger, A Beginner’s Guide” by Michael Watts (publishers Hodder&Stoughton, 2001). From what I read I see why he was slow to become a established philosopher due to World War II and his position at the time. His concepts on Being are interesting as are the writings on concious, though I feel I need to reread some and read more to gain a better understanding.

Jean Baudrillard, I have read his works before, The perfect crime, some bits of Fragments, Conspiracy of art and a few others. Theory session 7/3/11, simulacra and simulation,  I skyped in as the session was on a Monday rather than Weds. This I now realise is not a good method for joining a theory discussion, as I couldnt hear most of what was said and there was extra reading given out (to my great regret I also realised I have the book the reading was set on, in my locker in Uni…)

So an example of simulacra and simulation, I have been thinking about the examples I could make, I had written out music-ipod-inpod-eyepod(futurama-hyperreal) during the session. However looking at simulacra and simulation from reading the chapters send in has confused me, I read part of the book entitled simulacra and simulation a year or so ago and I have since read his later works, where he develops the ideas of simulacra and simulation and they do not really take course in 4 stages or in fact any kind of numbered stages. It is only his early work where he is just beginning to write, simulacra simulation written in 1985 apposed to his work post 2000.

So an example is an event happens, such as the minors getting stuck, this event is a simulacra, as the people are simulacra, the mine is a simulacra of a mine, the reporters are simulacra’s. This is then mediated and shown to the masses over news, TV, the image could be seen as a simulation but the story being told is a simulacra of a story this is then made into a book, a film each another state of simulacra and then a video game of a simulacra of a narrative and this continues.

Im still a bit unsure and struggling with memory as i left my Baudrillard books in Newcastle, so as soon as I get a chance I will read further and check that this is all about right.

 

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