Month: February 2017

Thoughts about Teamlab

February 20, 2017 / Zac / 1 Comment

Perhaps for me the greatest take away from teamlab was the mentality in which they choose to approach their art.

Ar t that makes people happy.

Teamlab’s ideology is a response to the modern world looking into the art world. It is a reaction to the instagram culture, to the generation of people who grew up with digital technology in the palms of their hands. It is not just ‘cool’ , or ‘fun’.

Teamlab’s art, unlike most art nowadays, is relevant.

While unlike certain art works, teamlab doesn’t simply strive to say big things with big ideas and big words, it is a reflection on the old , blending in old Japanese aesthetics and values into modern technology to create a harmony not quite often seen. It is inclusive, anyone can enjoy and appreciate what they have created. It social. We do not simply frown in front of a canvas wondering what does this mean, while projecting our own thoughts on to it. Teamlab simply ask us to come together and enjoy.

I have heard artists respond to that idea with a kind of rejection. Some might argue that art is supposed to make you think, not make you happy. I can understand where these people are coming from, yet i disagree with them.

The act of thinking need not to be a traumatic experience that is disturbing. In the serene world that was so beautifully constructed, I found myself wondering and reflecting about the beauty of the world, slowly watching water level rises with a warning of what is to come. I left the space a second time feeling just as amazed as the firs time I’ve seen the works. It is not the merely that the works were interactive, but as a whole the works provided insight into a world carefully crafted in the minds of these amazing people, and they continue to rebuild and reconstruct this worlds.

2 fishes + kinect

February 15, 2017 / Zac / 0 Comments

Favor- gamification of kindess

February 14, 2017 / Zac / 0 Comments

FAVOR-A pay it forward app

GAMIFICATION OF KINDNESS

Objective

Through the use of gamification, create a community that is willing to help others and doing favors for other people in exchange for Karma points

Observation
1. People posting about themselves on the internet when they do something good- taking that a step futher.

Question: why do people do that?

It feels good to be acknowledged for doing something good. However there has been many backlash that these people help others to show off on social media. Hence their intention is not genuine. However many argue that posting things online will inspire other people to take action and hence leading to a kinder society.

Problems with that is that favors can be quite intangible and easily forgotten. Also there is no social obligation for you to help another person if no one knows about it.

Solution. Translate the favors into points that you can used to ask for favors from the community.

Everyone starts with no points. You have to help someone first in order for you to be able to ask for a favor.

This changes the mentality of a player from someone who just receives help (passive) from other people to someone who is has the option to find someone who needs help and help them first (active) .
How is it being used.
1. Every one starts out with 0 Karma points.
Karma points earned from helping someone else calls in a favor. Favors will be shown on a dashboard.

2.You collect points by helping people do tasks in the dashboard.

3.You can give away your Karma points to ask for help.

4.If you wish to organize events such as voluntary works, please submit your request to the developers.

Cool stuff you can do on Unity

February 14, 2017 / Zac / 0 Comments

Basically everything on this guy’s website

https://www.instagram.com/mklgustafsson/

https://dribbble.com/mikaelgustafsson

Process and failures

February 10, 2017 / Zac / 0 Comments

Over the past week I’ve been working on a few components.

Fluid simulation and integration with existing game/scene.

This was done using a fluid simulation, the camera is taking the xy values of the mouse and moving the fish to it using a transform function.

This was also taken to the truss room to test for resolution as well as effect

Exploration of form of fish using 3D

One of the objectives was also to redesign the fish so that it would suit the design of the installation.

Exploration of form of fish using 2D

This was done digitally using a software known as rebelle. Currently the process might be to create a 2d texture of the fish and then map it on to the 3d model. 2D texture needs to be animated .

SMART NATION

February 6, 2017 / Zac / 1 Comment

What is it and what are its goals and vision?

Advances in digital technology have opened up new possibilities to enhance the way we live, work, play, and interact.

Singapore strives to become a Smart Nation to support better living, stronger communities, and create more opportunities, for all.

And “smartness” is not a measure of how advanced or complex the technology being adopted is, but how well a society uses technology to solve its problems and address existential challenges. Citizens are ultimately at the heart of our Smart Nation vision, not technology!

5 Key Domains

For a start, we have identified five key domains that will have significant impact on the citizen and society, and in which digital technology can have a needle moving impact:

Objective: Create Impactful solutions to address our challenges.

Why would you need this and who does it serve?

Singapore seeks to harness technology to improve urban living. Some areas of focus include

enhancing public transport networks,

enabling successful ageing

ensuring a secure but open data marketplace.

To encourage innovation and collaboration between citizensand companies, open data is made available at government portals such as Data.gov.sg and Datamall.

I think that we the world we live in is growing and changing at such a rapid rate that it is no longer possible or even feasible for the government to handle and attempt to solve every problems that the nation faces. In a way Singapore is looking at how we can better rethink actions and counter measures as well as how Singaporeans as a collective effort can better react and take initiative.