Sunday, 5 June 2011
see music
Finally I found this website that I remembered when you said you would like to make patterns for traditional music of Korea.
Friday, 3 June 2011
Wednesday, 1 June 2011
James 500 words
HRH The Prince of Wales: A Vision of Britain: A Personal View of Architecture
This particular book by Charles Philip Arthur George (a prince) is basically in his opinion ‘[a book] to try and create discussion about the design of the built environment; to rekindle an alert awareness of our surroundings; inspire a desire to observe; but, most of all, to challenge the fashionable theories of a professional establishment which has made the layman feel he has no legitimate opinions.’ I find it interesting as to what would be the relevancy of such a book, if it is the personal view of one person who also acknowledges has no expertise in the area.
Not many books have a front cover which when illustrated is irrelevant to the subject area. Charles Philip Arthur George takes up half the cover pulling a most peculiar facial expression and dithering his right hand to take up more of the cover blocking that out of focus architecture in the background. It’s understandable though as like Charles Philip Arthur George says he is a layman and lacks expertise on the matter.
On the inside flap we are told of how in 1984 Charles used ‘hard-hitting phrases’ for the first time about his views on modern architecture in some speech in 1984 (this book came out in 1989). His words ‘alerted the nation to his deep concern about the effect some modern architecture has had on the environment and on people’s lives.’ So this book is really nothing more than one person’s opinions. His issues lie within modern architecture and how it doesn’t fit in or disrespects architecture of the past with its presence or scale. He has an issue with contemporary architecture and believes ‘it can and should be something as admirable of the past. What should not be missed is Charles’ idea of an architectural Ten Principles (terrible attempt at pun?) ‘- a set of ‘sensible and widely-agreed rules, saying what people can and what they cannot do’.
Obviously this book only exists for one single reason, the man’s status. The book exemplifies his lack of any understanding of what feels like everything, and not just architecture. He seems unsurprisingly very much out of touch with people’s lives and priorities. I have no idea if this book was a successful seller on it’s release, but when its current second hand value is nearly 300 times less than it’s cost of postage (1p www.amazon.co.uk), I doubt that it is regarded as a relevant book. It greatly suggests that had he the power to dictate over the country this one man’s desire would be priority over that of his subjects. Although he does actually try to interfere with the development of certain buildings, and does sometimes prevail.
The point is, what is the importance and relevancy of a man’s status if they did nothing to achieve it. If it gives them some power and somehow entitles them to a (false) sense of importance, what is the benefit of that and why should that be a given?
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
Amaya /
Rapture and curiosity. We expect both sensations when considering a book. However million of them have been published, we still want to feel utterly delighted and surprised, in a way. These books envelopes must be unique, stand out from the crowd; it is a key point in the process of catching our moody attention in the shelves of any bookstores or libraries. Once they are in your hand, it’s a balance of words, colours and format that will bring you opening it and discover what’s actually happening behind the cover.
Judith Schalansky achieved my ideal representation of a book. What her Atlas of remote islands suggests, is a total perfection, from it first idea to it realisation. Award as the most beautiful German book in 2008, it has been acclaimed for it delicacy and avant-gardism.
The subheading of the book (Fifty islands I have not visited and never will) highlights with humour the distance graphic designers may have to take with their subjects. Obviously it would have been impossible for Judith to go and visit these islands, but remains that thought which is: How can we talk about a subject we don’t know while keeping a total credibility? In information design, visual techniques of representation (eg. mapping) should be use conscientiously. And Judith takes a great care on pinpointing her island with a great accuracy. Each of them is represented on a globe, for an overall point of view; plus, she added the distance, in kilometres, from the closest countries. The visual system she uses to reflect hills and valleys, though it is fairly poetic, re-use some graphic codes we are familiar with, which makes it perfectly understandable (eg. The density of dots suggests a radical change in altitude / the thin fluo details, in contrast with the grey of the nature, represent a human activity. It could be roads, as well as habitations).
I also fancy the guideline she follows: a mixture of objectivity and subjectivity. One part is pure geographical representation of the islands, historical and social datas such as the number of inhabitants and a time-line of some main events. The other part, by contrast, is a narrative: a story about an event she picked and choose to describe in her words. However it is sticking to facts that actually happened, she gives it a touch of romantic that make it less down to Earth. Eventually her book gains a storytelling angle. It’s not anymore a simplistic representation of islands.
It’s in this field that I would like to heighten my efforts: How to create subjective mapping? Which means avoiding a content that would be purely sticking to a technical representation.
How to mix a subjective and an objective approach? Or how to condense divergent ideas about style in a single project.
How to follow a minimalist approach? Being able to convey lots of information with a purist representation.
How to build a book from A to Z? Judith did actually the whole book, from writing the stories to creating the type (Sirenne) and editing it with a great care on details (Pantone and colour settings).
John 500 words
I am hoping to make a program based around a user-controlled feed-based command system, which could be used for a variety of separate programs or apps for use with the ipad.
My project was initially about helping combat the recognized drop in reading interest experienced by children aged 9-11. Whilst researching this it became apparent that the future of the printed word is looking somewhat bleak. It also seems that in the ever expanding world of digital reading devices the ipad will *probably* come out on top, due to its ability to adapt to changes in the digital environment. It also has a sensitive and potentially multi-functional touchscreen, which can be used in a number of ways.
As previously discussed, I have ideas about implementing satellite tracking, voice recognition, multiple non-linear narratives, and a levelling-up and reward system with a view to getting kids to read. I’m happy with the way these ideas can help determine and customize the story, narrative and reading level to suit the child, but it seems a bit boring to just have the text displayed on screen as it would be in a book. Until recently I had no way of displaying text in a way that allows it to be read differently to the printed word, and, crucially, it’s important that the device is able to keep track of how much the reader has read, otherwise skipping ahead and ‘cheating’ would be too easy.
I think I can combat this with the idea of ‘strings’, in this case a string ‘feeding’ from the back of the screen (or horizon) to the front, with words displayed in different sizes according to their ‘distance’ from the front of the screen. The child could read along with their finger, following the path of the string, with the words they have read ‘disappearing’ off the front of the screen and the new word feeding in from behind. The string could loop where there are big words to make the finger hover longer, giving the reader time to read the words, or, seeing as the ‘speed’ of the string is determined by how fast the child reads, they could stop it altogether by simply removing their finger. At this point another facet of the program could come into play, breaking the word down into syllables or spelling it phonetically, if so desired.
How much the string distorts, and from what direction the reader deciphers text, could also be constantly evolving to suit the user. So far I have only thought about this with a view to presenting a new way of reading, and have not considered the implications it could have for narrative impact.
When I was thinking about strings it made me draw a comparison to the Rock Band/ Guitar Hero series of games, as they feature a set of commands on a rail, constantly moving towards the player. This made me think about how a touch screen could be used to convey this sort of ‘rhythm action’ game, and, on the ipad especially, I think it presents some exciting opportunities. Firstly, the Rock Band guitars allow for the use of 5 buttons on one hand and a lever with the other. If playing with an ipad on a flat surface, a string-based rhythm action game could have up to 10 points of command (one for each digit), allowing for a far greater scope of interaction with the game. Also, the player would essentially be tapping or dragging commands over the screen, meaning even if they cannot hear what is happening on the device, a viewer would still hear and see a coherent rhythm taking place.
Perhaps most exciting is the idea of allowing the ipad to access personal files to customize your playing experience. A series of correct notes could trigger a shape to appear on screen, then the next would make an outline appear to be drawn next to it, and eventually it would become apparent that all these elements add up to create a photo of the player (or their friends, or parents, or dog etc.) drawn from the memory banks of the ipad itself. Internet connectivity means that the ipad can recognize where the player is, take a photo of a nearby landmark from google maps and present that to them as they play. This would be especially great if playing someone from another country over the internet, and having their landmarks show up. Maybe a photo from each players ipad could be combined into one image somehow. I dunno.
As it also ‘ties’ in (arf) with the string idea, I am considering switching the focus of my project to the strings, and producing the first five chapters of a story, maybe two songs/levels of the game outlined above, and a bunch of other ideas, including a photo viewer and social networking timeline. I have not even thought about customizable strings usage, for which I’m sure there are many ideas. This way I won’t have to focus on writing a coherent children’s book, which is an MA in itself, and I can present a whole bunch of opportunities using the strings idea.
Pablo 500 words
People and objects. A special and sometimes mysterious relationship.
People has a designed life, from the moment you wake up, everything you see have been designed in some way. We use these products, we need them; but the reality is that we don’t really know anything about them.
There is a documentary called OBJECTIFIED which shows a different point of view of the relationship between people and objects. It also explains how and why these things are made. But for me, the strongest point is that the storytellers are the designer. In fact, you can feel what they are talking about.
These are some of the questions I have sometimes, or questions we should know about. I think we have a horrible education as consumers. In a way, we accept everything as normal, because we don’t know anything about the products we are buying.
– Where came they from?
– Which material are they made from? (Are they toxic?)
– Why they look like that? (Is it the best possible result)
– (If I don’t know how to use a product) Is it my fault, or is the product not really well designed?
– Are they useful or just a luxury item? (Do we really need it?)
– Why we have to buy the same stuff again and again? (Is it normal? Can they produce something better/long-lived?
–
These are two examples/ links of this documentary:
–Trailer
–Jonathan Ives /MacBook Air
Another point in which I’m really interested is the relationship between person and object as something really human or emotional. How an object can become essential for somebody, like a part of the owner.
I found these books really helpful for this part of my research:
–Boradkar, P. (2010) Designing things: A Critical Introduction to the Culture of Objects.
–Norman, D.A. (2005) Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things.
In some cases the relationship is really strong. Imagine an amazing car, and somebody driving it. The person who is inside is using it having a new appearance, exactly like an Avatar. In fact people can have an appreciation of this person just looking at his/her car, clothes, house, etc.
The way I’m looking at this theme make a close relation between people, objects and time, because objects and its evolution can define time. In fact, it’s known that people over 50 years tend to define their life’s based on objects they had or have.
The reason I chose this project is because, I feel I don’t have a deep knowledge in this are but at the same time I’m so implicated, I’m surrounded by this every second of my life.
At the beginning I was wasting time trying to “fight” with technology, just by looking at the past, forgetting the good things technology can do for us. So now, my new point of view is trying to use it, looking at the future and the possibilities new thing and evolution bring to us.
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