Research_01

By jhclaura in Blog, Thesis - MASK 0 Comment

Artists – John Baldessari, Bruce Nauman, René Magritte

  • long and vague titles
  • mixed media
  • viewing things with different angles, dimensions
  • displays a collection of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things
  • open-ended, making you wonder and be bit a more imaginative for a while
  • playing with reality and illusion, constant shifting back and forth
  • contradiction, allusion
  • provocative, surreal

       

To me, I’m most impressed about how they reminded me of everyday objects/events, also to view them in different way. Simply altering of angles, locations, combinations, scale, or colors seems to be enough to create big conflicts.

 

Literature – I LOST MY NOTEBOOK! So to be finished… T_T

Book to read: Philosophy of Nonsense, The Intuitions of Victorian Nonsense Literature.

And this is a part I’m fond of in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:

“Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.

This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I—I hardly know, Sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.”

“What do you mean by that?” said the Caterpillar, sternly. “Explain yourself!”

“I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, Sir,” said Alice, “because I’m not myself, you see.”

Subject Matter Projects

Sensory Masks – Lygia Clark (super related<3)

  

Sensory masks were gas mask-like hoods, that had herbs and aromatic seeds at the end of the “nose” or small mirrors at the location of the eyeholes. Thus the senses of the people that wear them are cut off the external world and a different vision is provided. However, there’s a darker side to the work as well; the masks could be seen as an entrapment, an imprisonment and prohibition of contact with the outer world.

These artifacts force us to rediscover the meaning of our routine gestures, to turn inwards. These objects help to experience rather than to been looked at.

Maxence Parache, Hyper(reality) – Maxence Parache

It uses a Microsoft Kinect to scan your physical environment and display it inside a virtual-reality helmet, so you can rotate the visual angle any way you like, with an Arduino-powered glove equipped with force sensors. In other words, you’re still able to physically interact with all the “real stuff” around you, but you can also pan your “mind’s eye” around the scene separate from your own body, just like you would in a video game.

A Way To Go – Studio AATOAA

It is like a grey squirrel balanced on a branch, fearless. It is a game and a solace and an alarm, a wake-up call to the hazards of today. At a moment when we have access to so much, and see so little, Way to Go will remind you of all that lies before you, within you, in the luscious, sudden pleasure of discovery.

Bonus: Bla Bla.

Augmented Hand Series – Golan Levin, Chris Sugrue, and Kyle McDonald

It is a real-time interactive software system that presents playful, dreamlike, and uncanny transformations of its visitors’ hands. Our investigation takes a position of exploration and wonder. Can real-time alterations of the hand’s appearance bring about a new perception of the body as a plastic, variable, unstable medium? Can such an interaction instill feelings of defamiliarization, prompt a heightened awareness of our own bodies, or incite a reexamination of our physical identities?

mushroom. intervention. systemic.

By jhclaura in Blog, Fungus Among Us, Spring 2014 0 Comment

First thought after reading “Unruly Edges: Mushrooms as Companion Species”, “Arts of Inclusion, or, How to Love a Mushroom”, and the interview with Oliver during weekend is that, I kind of found the purpose of a project, what can I do about it and what’s the possible future of a project. As an artist, I can start from

"love"

, start from developing deeper and knowing thoroughly about what I love, and then gradually, with the creative interventions, I can bridge worlds between public and the field where my passion lies.  Quoted from Anna “… my stories tell how advocacy for mushrooms can lead to projects for democratic science and publicly inclusive wellbeing.“, I’m inspired to search what I’m crazy about and immerse myself in it. Before that, I don’t really understand the goal of this class now I’ve found it. It’s not about just trying to use fungi in your projects and trying to involve Led, motor, Arduino, but trying to intervene this mysterious field with your point of view. Then as a messenger, you expose the rarely-knew info and make it connect to the public.

Thus, simplifying and more comprehensive project update:

2014-02-19 08.08.44

Idea

  • One line description: See the world through fungus.
  • I want to build up connections between fungus and people, and further take fungus as a bridge to connect people with the world beyond fungus. Thus being aware of what fungus is, what fungus does, how does it affect the planet.
  • The idea is playing with the notions from “Mycelium Running” by Paul Stamets,
    • “I see the mycelium as the Earth’s natural Internet, a consciousness with which we might be able to communicate. Through cross-species interfacing, we may one day exchange information with these sentient cellular networks. Because these externalized neurological nets sense any impression upon them, from footsteps to falling tree branches, they could relay enormous amounts of data regarding the movements of all organisms through the landscape.”
  • One particular thing I’d love to highlight is fungus’s decomposing ability. It is the key of the nutrient cycling system, and also degrade or remove toxins from the environment.
  • So yes, it’s a project with eco-friendly aspect and hope people will be more aware of the environmental issue.

Content

  • Upon a box of soil, are 5~8 mycelium lights hanging and changing between bright and dim gradually.
  • In the background screen, playing the collage of the mycelium activities(growing, moving, etc) video footages, representing fungus’s daily life.
  • Once  someone comes near(detected by ultrasonic sensor), the mycelium lights speed up changing, and forming a pattern of spreading. Also, the screen’s content turns to show the interactions between fungus and humankind, including foraging, pollution, infection, bio-chemical etc.
  • If time permits, the soil will be pushed by the solenoids beneath, amplifying fungus’s awareness of us.

Materials

  • Mycelium Lights * 5~8
    • wrap mycelium(post-blender) around balloons, and poke the balloons once mycelium eats all the materials
  • Wood sticks * 4
  • Wires hiding in flax ropes
  • Wood base
    • soil in wood box
    • ultrasonic sensor attached
    • solenoid beneath(if time permits)

mycelium_ball

Also about the case study, one thing interests me that most of the projects from reading and from Oliver, all have certain degree of public influence, and create new behavior. I wonder how many artist originally had this kind of visions and how many artist eventually made it and change the real world? Or are they actually all make it through but just in different level? And how can we keep our vision and passion vivid and lively?

perform test & 5 patterns of emotion

By jhclaura in Blog, Coding for Emotional Impact 0 Comment

Group perform test w/ audiences!

And below are my 5 patterns of emotion.

The emotion accumulates through the weaving of three stories. At first, the emotion is unsure and blur. And gradually, the similarities of three stories appears, and the emotion goes higher and higher. In the end, huge amount of happiness burst out. The pattern of emotion reaches pick. And the result makes the sweetness linger into the end.

 

For music, similar to the 1st piece, emotion starts low and then goes high. What’s special about this is its “swinging” feature. By swing low makes the high even higher. And the competitive pattern create the anticipation from audience and creates more sense of involvement.

 

I see the pattern of the weaving from up to down. Not only the lines, the different materials and textures bring and add another layer to the pattern. It’s like the extra details on the high and low points. Besides the pattern of wave, different genera.

 

It’s an unusual pattern I’d love to challenge. Unlike the easy-following pattern, the abrupt fault shift the layers as whole, so although it’s easy to tell from looking at distance, it’s difficult to tell in close-up view. In the way to express, I’d imagine the “style” will change abruptly and unrelated at all. Altering without clues. And after that, gradually and gradually, viewers(or receivers, more broad) MIGHT realize the changing. Hopefully.

 

It’s a raw meat pattern. Less linear, more circular. It’s like a linear pattern without the end. Ending is always the beginning. Love the variation of width of layers. Difference of width, curves, and colors can add up producing a rich experience. Not good for real performance definitely.

Thoughts about Fungus(update)

By jhclaura in Blog, Fungus Among Us 0 Comment

doodle

This semester I’m taking class of “Fungus Among Us”, and I’ve found some aspects of fungus I’m particular interested about, and would love to develop project based on them:

Gift to Gross Out People

Every time I google “fungus”, I can always have some valuable “wtf” moments, and I think it’s an amazing power deserved to be explored. Is it because fungus usually comes along with rotten, dead stuff and thus build up the association? Are we scared of its decomposing ability because it makes us relate to our future death? I’m interested in how we can do this kind of power of horror.

Super Adaptive Behavior

Fungus grows and prospers anywhere it lands. I’d love to grow them on different materials and different locations, and see how different the fungus will be. After that, I plan to gather those fungi together and see how their information/consciousness network work. Will they merge into each other and become a new kind of fungus?

Peculiar Round Shape

Fungus usually has circular shape because it grows by spreading out in all directions from a central point, where the original spore germinates. It’s an interesting feature I’d love to try with computer vision. The different looks of Pileus and there different functions can be inspirations for interactive devices too.

 

So, for the possible future project, I would either

  1. try to grow fungus into terrifying one, as horrible as it can be, and see how the power of horrors can be apply to(psychology aspect), or
  2. grow same fungus in different environments and see how people’s affect them, and after that see what they will communicate with each other by meshing up, and it might somehow representing the meshing up behaviors of people’s(communication/network aspect)? Or
  3. explore more about the structure and function of different shape of Pileus and see how it can be applied to enhance the communication/interaction among people as a wearable device(pcomp project).

 

responds to Form And Fungus, Magic of Mushrooms, Paul Stamets’s TED talk

website philross

sources are-fungi-earths-natural-internet, what role do fungi play in food chain,

Application_What’s your definition of time?

By jhclaura in Applications, Blog, Fun 0 Comment
a glass of wine and a clip of time.

a glass of wine and a clip of time.

It’s a response to Einstein’s Dream, written by Alan Lightman. Einstein’s Dream is a novel depicts several kinds(approximately 27, I counted) of world views, based on Time. In one world, time is circle that bends back, in one world cause and effect are erratic, and in one world time has changed plans thus sometimes people can glimpse the future. Beautiful and sad stories happen. Being a fiction novel, the book well translated the vision of Einstein in an artistic way.

As for my thoughts  –time exists in each individual’s mind. We can decide our own setting of time, just like what the book depicts. It might flows backward, or it might be in what people live just one day. Once our mindset changes, we can live in whatever kinds of the world the book depicts, and of course in the world you define.

Right now, I live in the world where everyday is the day before due. Chased by deadline, sometimes I work hard to try to win the race against time. Like trying to occupy all the seats in a hall against time. Compared to my rush and anxiety, time moves on gracefully in its pace. Or sometimes, I ignore the existence of deadline in the  “Oh Whatever” way. I explore the environment leisurely and spend time admiring surprising details of life. It’s like comfily curling in a sled, and let time drag me forward. I still do my work, and it probably just turns out being ordinary, but I’ll never be left behind. I can choose to be either kind of person. It all depends.

But this is not my ultimate dreamy setting of time. The one which is closest to my ultimate dreamy setting, SO FAR, would be –time is like the video clips you can stroll around on Youtube. Sometime at night, after all the work, it’s time for a glass of wine and a clip of time. Vividly, you see the beloved eyes from your grand grandmother, the ones without wrinkles, and you interpret the words from her that you couldn’t before. Or it’s a chilly random night, you and he continued the first acquaintance at bar to a 24/7 breakfast branch. You re-cover the taste of alcohol with eggs and pancake, and re-cover the talks of non-sense with visions of future. Or it’s an unexpected museum visiting, and you re-feel the shocks and touch of amaze from the first time of seeing the workpiece of your all time favorite artist.

In this closest to ultimate dreamy definition of time, that each clips of time is reachable, I can hold the one I thought I’d never be able to hold again, and I can recapture the sudden emotion pulse I thought I’d never be able to feel it again. Dose it sound too beautiful to be perfect? What’s the drawback of this? And what’s your ultimate(or the closest)dreamy setting of time? Those are the questions I’d love to quest you guys 🙂

 

ICM_ToxiclibsTest_Mushroom

By jhclaura in Blog, ICM_Processing 0 Comment

First attempt to use amazing library Toxiclibs, mushroom-like water creatures with big head and jumpy acts. Cursor is an attractor to pull them closer to each other. And it ends up with a beautiful mistake oops.

As you can see, the frame rate of it became super slow because I put addBehavior() in draw() instead of in setup(), or in the constructor of the class. If I didn’t have an office hour with Daniel Shiffman I’d never know! But after I rewrote my codes, having all of the adding-force stuff happen just once, my sketch became less interesting, as below.

 

Less violent and less organic : Still trying to figure out how to solve the problem –> Making the violent/organic/electric movement without dragging down the whole system.

Here’re the codes: v.1, v.2.

inspiration_Nick Yulamn

By jhclaura in Blog, Fall 2013, PComp_Physical Computing 2 Comments

Acoustic Drum Machine_Nick Yulman(( click me to see magic ))

Reading through the reading of PComp and found this ITP alum guy doing amazing stuff with servomotor and solenoid to make an elegant drum set! So artistic done with small drum from Borneo and snail shells! That’s exactly what I want to do, delicate stuff with low-fi appearing. Simply blown my mind. And this work was done in ITP during 2010 I guess.

UNBELIEVABLE.

Inspired at the same time. Thank you(who?) so much to let me become part of ITP. Thank you(who?).