Archive for the ‘General postings’ Category
WordPress publishing from an iphone
Just got an iPhone and downloaded the wordpress app to see how that works. Could be the catlyst to get me posting again.
I’ve added a phto from a client’s building just to test the feature.
Good net art / not so good net art
Good: http://www.once-upon-a-forest.com
I really wanted to show the Joshua Davis experimental Flash art site Praysation but unfortunately that has now been retired. This site is a good example of one of his products though – it’s art generated by algorithm according to a set of rules applied to some aesthetic assets. I like this as a concept because it uses the power of the medium and is presented through the web only. Funnily enough I’m not that keen on the products themselves aesthetically!
Duff: http://www.mappalujo.com
I still like this project, which I put together in 2002 with the writers Jeff Noon and Steve Beard. The (literary) work is good but I think I missed a trick in not managing to get across what the piece was all about and the set of rules and techniques that were used to create it. It would also have been nice to capture viewers’ versions of the texts and solicit other kinds of user input. However, my skills weren’t up to that at the time! It was, however, a piece created purely for display on the web – wether you consider it Net Art depends on whether your definition of Art includes literature!
Fun with Processing (part 2)
Things really started to get interesting with Processing when I started exploring the video library. It’s really easy to set up and use if you’ve got a mac with a webcam built in – but apparently (according to the documentation) unreliable once you try to distribute it – for example it would probably not work very well for most people in a web environment.
Anyway, here’s the result of an app that captures the video and then lets you scribble all over it:
And here’s the code:
import processing.video.*;
Capture myCapture;
boolean scribble;
boolean hasDrawn;
void setup(){
background(0);
size(600,480);
myCapture=new Capture(this,width,height,30);
smooth();
scribble=false;
hasDrawn=false;
}
void captureEvent(Capture myCapture){
myCapture.read();
}
void draw(){
if(keyPressed){
if(scribble){
scribble=false;
if(hasDrawn){
save("scribble.png");
hasDrawn=false;
}
}
else {
scribble=true;
stroke(random(255),random(255),random(255));
}
}
if(mousePressed){
scribble=true;
hasDrawn=true;
strokeWeight(3);
line(pmouseX,pmouseY,mouseX,mouseY);
}
if(!scribble){
image(myCapture,0,0);
}
}
Fun with Processing (part 1)
I really enjoyed working with Processing – it’s a very nice application with instant gratification. The Java-esque programming style is very familiar to me, being similar in syntax to PHP, Actionscript and Javascript, all things I use daily for work.
My experiments started off with the Turtle graphics as part of Ollie’s tutorial but I really started to enjoy it when getting into user input. Firstly here’s my ‘tapeworm’ drawing app! I had actually intended to do something that put a black stroke on a white line, but that was a but tricky with processing as layers are difficult to implement. Looks fun though!
Here’s the code:
float myStroke;
void setup(){
size(800,600);
background(255,0,0);
stroke(255,255,255);
smooth();
myStroke=0;
}
void draw(){
if(mousePressed){
myStroke+=0.2;
stroke(0,0,0);
strokeWeight(myStroke*1.2);
line(pmouseX,pmouseY,mouseX,mouseY);
stroke(255,255,255);
strokeWeight(myStroke);
line(pmouseX,pmouseY,mouseX,mouseY);
} else {
myStroke=0;
}
}
I also had a play with the 3D engine within Processing and came up with this shape which you can move around in space with your mouse. The mouse movement influences the camera position rather than moving the object – it’s actually quite hard to spot the logic of what your movements are doing but it’s interesting all the same!
Second Life thoughts
It was interesting experiencing Second Life yesterday, especially from the point of view of people who are really engaged with it from a creative point of view.
Things that sprung to mind are mostly about where Second Life would need to go to really catch my interest, the thoughts I can remember are:
- The over-arching computer game (Doom 3D engine-esque) aesthetic does put me off a bit, I think I’d like to see the potential to be more ‘modernist’ – less decoration with dull bitmaps etc.
- On the same theme I’d like to be able to affect the rendering style of the environment – how about a rotoscoped look, or film noir, or a pastiche of an arts style and so on – some the things you can do with 3D software.
- I’d want to know more about the audiences that would be there for the work
- I was impressed by the ‘installation’ we saw, much more than the rendition of 2D artwork within the environment – the installation seemed to be more ‘true’ to the medium. Having said that, I did like the room with the photo exhibition where the creator had taken a lot of effort to create a lit ambience. Although that was faked up, it does indicate where it all could go.
- Discussion afterwards (over lunch) brought up the idea of what boundaries of political freedom there would be within the system – is there a Second Earth First monkeywrenching the virtual system to reduce the power consumption of the servers!
Here we go!
This is my personal blog, expressly for the purpose of logging my activity at the MA for Digital Media Arts at Brighton University.
