Re-Bus = Do the Bus again?

Standard

Rebus of my Mandarin name.

In all honesty, it was pretty hard to figure out what I wanted to do but I decided that I wanted to create a quirky one. That’s because I feel that I am all about being weird and strange but that is what encompasses me. An urn, a Kirby, a Bee, all these are elements that do not have any relations to each other. This is as a result strange and baffling. The words the rebus is supposed to depict is my mandarin name, which is essentially my identity as a Chinese girl who grew up in Singapore. The art styles of all the images I have chosen have very different artistic qualities as well, which adds on to the quirkiness and strangeness of my rebus.

 

Picture credit to:

https://www.deviantart.com/fomle-chan/art/Fluffy-Bumblebee-311262664

http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/File:Kirby_-_Walk.svg

https://pixabay.com/en/vase-urn-clay-pot-amphora-clay-jar-30597/

Night Lights Festival | Interaction Designs

Standard

Questions:

  • Interaction created for participants
  • Intention of this interaction
  • Can you identify the anatomy of this interactive system?

The Leap of Faith by Teng Kai Wei

Faith is taking that first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase, trusting that it will lead you to your desired destination. Oftentime, we underestimate the importance of how every little step we take paves the way to a complete and fulfilling life journey.

Teng kai wei shows how we grow stronger from difficult situations, and how the experience gained allows us to navigate better and closer to our dreams. That, in itself, is the sweetest life brings- when we take the leap of faith.

This installation is awarded under the singapore night festival’s open call.

The interaction for this art piece starts from seeing the big Chinese character for ‘people’, representing one’s lifetime. Coming closer, it is as though you are approaching the inside of your life. Each step lights up when you step on it, indicating how you succeed lighting up and completing that step in life. When you leap from one step to one that is further away, it is seen as though you have succeeded in overcoming a difficult hurdle in life. The interaction created seems to allow someone to experience going through their life from start to end, sometimes allowing them to cross different paths (different decisions they make in life) in a physical representation. Every step taken is important in paving out life journey, and we are the ones making that decision each time. I assume that this art piece is a creation from pressure sensors and touch sensors which triggers the lights. While I couldn’t really complete the path properly because there were so many kids playing, but looking at the kids repeatedly play makes me wonder if it would be possible to interpret that as the kids not giving up in going on their path of life.

 

Ember Rain by Starlight Alchemy

 

Create a mesmerizing downpour of sparkling embers as you pedal on a bicycle in this interactive fire sculpture. The sparks generated represent catalysts of ideation and innovation, while the tower’s lotus-shaped petals symbolize the rebirth, purity and beauty of ideas flowing through space.

Ember Rain is meant to symbolize the rebirth, purity and beauty of ideas flowing through space whenever you work hard into creating them. The sparks, raining down when one pedals on the bicycle linked with a pulley system to shake the sparks down, are beautiful and illuminated in the night sky. The audience will get to feel that they have to physically, tirelessly work their feet off in order to keep the beauty of ideas flowing- nothing is free in this world. These embers are mesmerising to look at, showing how the human brain is so capable of creating equally beautiful ideas. The harder you paddle, the more sparks will rain down and prove themselves true. This intimate humanity is also further emphasized by how the cycling was not exactly smooth (has obstacles), how the sparks imitate a flower growing, and how you have to work for the wishes you put into the bucket.

Research Critique 1: Introduction to Interactive I

Standard

Questions, I guess:

  1. What is the situation or interaction created for the participants?
  2. What is the intention for this interaction?
  3. Come up with 3 thoughtful questions that will benefit the class with regards to today’s topic.

One of my favourite artistes involved in Interactive Media has to be Blast Theory. Their projects are intriguing, deep and affectionate.

Sandra Carluccio at The Royal Albert Memorial Museum

Ghostwriter.

Image from https://www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/ghostwriter/

Ghostwriter (2011)

Other than its very attractive name, Ghostwriter is a very intriguing project to me because of how it makes use of your 5 senses to create a wholesome experience.

According to Blast Theory on their official website,

” Visitors ring in and hear a woman whose voice gently draws you into the museum. She describes her surroundings and they seem to match yours. She describes an object in front of her and talks about its role in her life. But this line between her surroundings and yours is unstable. At times she says things that suggest she is somewhere else looking at a different object. And you can interact with her, jumping in time and space or even making a recording of your own about an object that resonates in your life.
Ghostwriter has echoes of the museum guide, of the radio heard late at night and of the writing of Paul Auster. It has a spare, metaphysical style that is part detective novel and part internal monologue. Its ghostly tenor and rich atmosphere act as a mysterious lure towards the reinvented RAMM. “

As the audience, you listen as the lady speaks to you, and she describes your very surroundings as though she is right there with you- the smell of the area, the colours, the lighting, the atmosphere, etc. It is eerily mysterious, yet you are tempted to find out more and to experience what she sees. I guess one of the intriguing points of this project is about how different people have different mindsets and thinking. No two person have the exact train of thought. As a result, we become curious and yearn to find out more about what another is thinking about, and to compare how they interpret things.

The situation created for the participants is one where they are able to observe their surroundings, and they are able to put in their own train of thoughts, through communicating with the main voice that has been conversing with them and spelling out their emotions while being in the same environment.

Then intention is most probably to create a quiet atmosphere where participants can be deep in their own thoughts while also having someone almost telepathically involved with them on a more emotional level.

I’d Hide You

Image retrieved from https://www.blasttheory.co.uk/projects/ghostwriter/.

I’d Hide You (2012)

This project is one of the more exciting ones they’ve done, me thinks.

According to their site, it is about:

“In I’d Hide You, see the world through the runners eyes as they stream video: ducking and diving, chatting to passersby, taking you down the back alleys to their secret hiding places. And play against your friends online at the same time. Use your wits to choose which runner to ride with. Get a snap of another runner onscreen without getting snapped and you score a point. Get snapped by someone else and you lose a life.”

This is almost like a virtual reality stage for the participants because they are very physically involved with their interactions with other players. They have to communicate while physically avoiding and attacking other players, which allows them to utilize everything they have- their own thoughts, their environment, and even their intelligence. The situation then becomes a thriller movie for each player. The intention for this project is probably to make participants be involved in both passive and active ways, and as a result causing an interaction that is very stimulating.

The Beginning of the History of Design

Standard

History of design; a study of design based on its aesthetic qualities during different time periods. I believe that design started from way back in history, the moment people started creating items because only with a mindset about how things would and could turn out, would subjects be formed. With no definite time period indicating where someone out there started creating things- even God- we cannot determine when history of design begun.

 

Maybe the trolls did it. To laugh at everyone.

 

Image from culturainquieta.com.