body/object/code » archive for 'Research Notes'

wish jar journal

  • April 13th, 2005

wish jar journal

http://www.kerismith.com/blog/

Starts to be the first “Artists Blog” That really feels right.

A lot of texture, excercises, writing… its on its way.

- Scans of stuff is wonderful
- The attitude is casual, but the pieces are quite finished… finished is a problem?

Journal as artist’s book

  • April 13th, 2005

Journal as artist’s book
http://www.wellesley.edu/Library/Wintex/Journal_as_artist%27s_book.html

Exhibit profile of some really tactile personal objects. The book itself is a work of art.

I should do a search on Artist’s book, too.

Very tactile, but not informational… too much of the warmth. Not enough distance.

Designers Toolbox

  • April 13th, 2005

Designers Toolbox
http://www.designerstoolbox.com/

Resourse, notes… online “tools”
Lorem ipsum generator
Paper sizes and foldings
Special Characters list
CSS generator
Awards calendar
resource directory

Sweet deal.

Art Blogs - list and sparse comments

  • April 13th, 2005

Overview: Varied examples. Some are basically just a thematic Blog. Some show works in progress. Not really journal journals yet. There is a lot of that kind of committed to, but not really. Why is this model a failure?

(has actual information)
http://andrew-hall-artist.com/journal/

http://www.bigcrow.com/anna/journal/home.html
http://www.csott.com/
http://gawkingatthecreativemind.squarespace.com/artist-journal/
http://ruizpaulwilliam.blogspot.com/

(1998 Style!)
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cullmann/artists.htm

not recorded - totally totally lame ones, abandoned ones(some barely made it past that), started and never looked at again ones…

14 Reasons Why Artists Keep Visual Journals.

  • April 13th, 2005

http://www.busywomen.com.au/visual_journal.htm

By Joan Martine Murphy
She sites references and influences

EXCERPT

(I’ve cut, the emphasis is hers)

  • Keeping a visual journal helps the artist develop a sense of self–discipline.
  • The chronological nature of the journal means that you are automatically recording your personal improvement. 
  • A journal can become for you a ‘place’ where you can work out what themes are developing on the journey. 
  • The working out of a theme also gives the artist a sense of completion when that thematic response has been followed to its logical conclusion.
  • Style is a process of evolution. 
  • Once you have begun to develop the habit of creativity you will also have begun developing an intuitive awareness.  You will see things that stimulate curiosity and provoke fresh and new ideas.  You will not be able to keep up with them.  Jot them down.  Keep your journal at hand at all times. Make sure you always keep it handy and small enough to fit into any bag or in the glove box of the car.
  • Regard your journal as your personal safe place. A collection of experimentations. No one should be looking over your shoulder …it is your space for trying out techniques in a non-threatened way before committing to a more public form of artwork. 
  • It is also a means of communication, a holding place for ideas to share with other artists and students who wish to learn.  So keep it with you when mingling with other artists.  If you are making preparations for submissions or to win contracts make sure you are keeping your notes in this way as it can facilitate discussion at a later date if this becomes necessary.
  • Your journal is your note-takers paradise … as a place where ideas can be kept in the written form as well as visually…  Keep the writing short and precise but do write down any ideas that come to your head as we often forget what stimulated our visual inspirations and the writing may be useful.  Supplement your scribbles with poems, haikus, prose, and songs what ever is helping shape your thoughts and ideas at the time is relevant and may become useful.
  •  Keep technical notes as well make sure you are learning about mixing colours, learning theory.
  • Set your self-learning tasks of specified natures with a particular learning outcome anticipated. For example record atmospheres by going for a walk in the same place on a daily basis for a month but at different times of the day.  Draw or paint in watercolour exactly what you see.  Or go to a different place but at same times of the day.  Don’t just look for atmospheric or natural effects look to at the kinds of activity you can find.  One example of this might new going to the same street corner at different times throughout the day – even the expressions on the faces of the people will change as they come and go.  Try it you may be amazed.  Another way of creating a learning exercise is to look at and examine objects from all sides and views.  Keep on setting yourself small learning tasks like this and you will be amazed at how much you improve and how your understanding of techniques increases.
  • Again your journal is a safe place where you can experiment with abstractions finding ways to express emotions and feelings.  You can make your artistic journey a catalyst in your personal development by recording dreams, daydreams and locating meaning in them through exploration and analysis.  Again the Internet is a great place for subscribing to discussion lists where people want to explore self-empowerment and personal development.
  • Above all this safe haven of personal expression can become for you if you let it a source of relaxation.   A ready breathing space in a busy way of life.  Learn to do relaxation and breathing exercises before and after you draw not only so that you tap into the more intuitive side of your brain but that so that the discipline of drawing and the artistic pathway becomes a source of great personal pleasure.  Your journal should never be a chore but something you look forward to as a little breather in the busy pace of life.

  • Eventually your journal will naturally evolve into your precious planning tool. It will be a place where compositions are mapped out over a period of time before any major painting is begun.

  • Journaling is best if it is done daily.  It is also easiest to remember if it is the first thing you do when you wake up of a morning.  Start the day by recording a drawing of your dreams.  Or if you haven’t dreamt throughout the night, simply draw the first thing that occurs to you when you wake up.

Bea’s Diary -a wandering artist’s journal

  • April 13th, 2005

Bea’s Diary -a wandering artist’s journal

BEAUTIFUL… not a blog… actual visual pages “Wandering artist and fictitious alter-ego of Keri Smith.”

http://www.beasdiary.com/archives/caftan.html

This is a work of art by Kerri Smith who has an award winning writter’s site

http://www.kerismith.com/

Which is getting its own reference…

Howard Pennings artist journal documenting the daily creative process, or lack of it. - artist journal

  • April 13th, 2005

Howard Pennings artist journal documenting the daily creative process, or lack of it. - artist journal
Today I own equipment far superior to anything I used at school, yet I can’t imagine using any of it to produce artwork.  I use my computer to  display and distribute it instead.  It says more about how far computers have come in the last 15 years than anything else.  Computers just weren’t capable of producing images of high enough quality.

Online Baby Book

  • April 13th, 2005

http://www.babysstory.com/
http://www.babysstory.com/Journal.asp

What - Website that has the ability to create an online baby book among other things. Run by Leaning Post Productions. (http://www.leaningpost.com/ “Software for art education, website design & development, and works of art.”)
Why - Looking at TYPES of journals. Baby book has some good metaphors, intimacy with subject, gradual evolution…
Differences - To cutesy of an idea. A LOT of kick back when I brought it up as a metaphor, which I thought was interesting in and of itself.

You can influence a kid… but can you “edit” it, change it as it grows? More about pure documentation than the experimental aspect.

This version of a baby book kind it is weak because it doesn’t have the warmth and patterns and tactile bookness. It fails in that regard. A related problem is that the questions are too general, which makes it more potentially personal, but the openness means that the user really does need to already know HTML to get any kind of pretty formatting, that it would definitely need to be appropriately personal… and if I know HTML why am I using this form?

Ideas - A lot of information, structure ideas. In some contexts the vague leading questions would actually be quite useful. Journal’s front page layout could be a good style for a short cuts page.

Excerpts & Notes

Categories of pages and examples of

- baby’s first year -

birth announcement - Write a birth announcement. Include the time, date, month, and year of birth and the baby’s weight, length, hair color and eye color. You may also want to include the sign of the Zodiac (Aquarius, Aries, etc.) with a birthday horoscope and/or the Chinese zodiacal birth year (Dragon, Snake, etc.) with predictions.

homecoming - Writing tip:  What day and date did the baby come home from the hospital?  If you adopted your baby, tell about your experience. Describe where you live?  Who was at home when you arrived?  What mail and phone calls have you received? How is the nursery decorated?

first day - Writing tip:  When did labor begin?  How long did it last?  What time was the baby born?  Describe the baby and who he or she looks like.  Who was present at the delivery?  What was mom’s reaction and what was dad’s reaction?

news of the day - Writing tip:  Describe the important local, national, and international news of the day your baby was born.  What was the weather like?  What was new in sports?  Describe radio and television shows, movies, music, theater productions and art exhibits.  What clothing was in fashion?

first year growth and development
important firsts
baby’s favorites
feeding and sleeping
learning to talk
first year holidays and vacations
first birthday

- parents -

mom’s diary
dad’s diary

choosing a name - Writing tip: What name did you choose and why?  What does the name mean and what nationality is it?  Is the baby named after anyone special?  What are possible nick names?  What other names did you consider?

cards and gifts
thank you
babysitter check list

- family -

family tree
about mom
about dad
about mom’s parents
about dad’s parents

- health -

medical record
doctor visits
dental record
growth chart
family medical history

- holidays -

new year
valentines day
easter
national
halloween
thanksgiving
hanukkah
christmas
kwanzaa

- early learning -

discovering - Writing tip: What kinds of toys, videos, sounds, music, and different environme nts have stimulated your baby’s early learning? Describe any reactions and change

pre-school
kindergarten
religious beliefs

- age 2 to 6 -

second year
second year growth and development - What are your observations?

Your 13th to 14th month old will probably. . .
indicate wishes by sound and gesture, say 3 to 6 words including names, roll a ball in participant games, and walk alone quite well.
Your 15 to 18 month old will probably. . .
show and offer toys, walk backwards, spontaneously scribble, fed self with spoon, build a three block tower, and name familiar objects.
Your 19 to 24 month old will probably. . .
kick a ball forward, throw a ball overhead, put 3 words together, listen to stories, look at pictures, turn pages by self, handle a spoon well, make a 6 block tower, run well, open a simple door, begin to wash/dry hands, and help with simple tasks.

second birthday
second year holidays and vacations
third year
third year growth and development
third birthday
third year holidays and vacations

fourth year - Writing tip: What are your child’s favorite toys, pets, books, clothes, excursions, foods, and places.  What is she or he curious about, afraid of, and most proud of?  What challenges have been overcome?  Describe any special interests.  In what form has imagination and creativity been expressed?  Write about playmates and friends.

fourth year growth and development

fourth birthday - Writing tip: How did you celebrate? Describe the party location, decorations, cake, and other food served. Who were the guests and what gifts were received?

fourth year holidays and vacations - Describe your holidays and vacations together. Where did you go and what did you see? Include special activities and new experiences.

fifth year
fifth year growth and development
fifth birthday
fifth year holidays and vacations
sixth year
sixth year growth and development
sixth birthday
sixth year holidays and vacations

Artist’s Way - Not so much for this

  • March 30th, 2005

There are a lot more than this, but these are what are relvant, really to this more applied process than spiritual awakening. Hers are very very text/writing/thinking lifestyle assesment that I’ve decided to move away from this round.

Chapter 1 - Basic Tools

  • Morning Pages
  • Artist Date
  • Sign the Contract (commit)

Nature of Code - EXCERCIES

  • March 30th, 2005

Excerpeted from http://stage.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/nature/ Daniel Schiffman’s Nature of Code Class for Spring of 2005

PART I: Motion

Week 1 — Jan 19
Class Intro

 Class Overview

 Processing review

 Object Oriented Programming review

 Vectors — motion basics (velocity / acceleration).

Assignment

  • Sign up for the class mailing list.
  • Sign up for a presentation slot.
  • Read through the source code from the above examples and examine the object oriented structure and syntax. Where are the class definitions? Where are the object instances declared? When does the constructor get called and what arguments are required? Write down and bring to class any questions related to OOP.
  • Get up and running with the new version of processing (instructions on class e-mail list). Run one of the above examples and post it online as an applet
  • Optional: Develop your own Processing example based on this week’s material.
  • (Choose one or more of the following…or create your own.) Extend one of the examples into 3 dimensions.
  • Apply the concepts of velocity and acceleration to something other than the usual 2D motion. (what else changes in a digital world — rotation, color, etc.)
  • Using a single primitive shape only (square, ellipse, etc.), create a "personality" for your object by affecting its velocity & acceleration. Can you make it appear to be "alive" and/or have intelligence?
  • Extend one of the above examples to include multiple objects using an array or ArrayList. Can these objects interact with each other somehow?

Week 2 — Jan 26
Forces

 Attraction/Repulsion, Friction/Drag

Assignment

  • If you haven’t already, sign up for the class mailing list.
  • If you haven’t already, sign up for a presentation slot.
  • Develop your own Processing example based on this week’s material.
  • (Choose one or more of the following…or create your own.) Extend one of the examples into 3 dimensions.
  • Examine the first example which implements a "drag" force. Can you make a liquid class (moving the code out of the main program)? Can you create a system of multiple objects moving through multiple "liquids"? (click here for an example of one solution.)
  • Can the concept of "force" be used as a metaphor for some other situation? What other forces are there in the digital worlds you create?
  • Research and implement another type of force not covered above.
  • Can you use the notion of gravity to create a "repulsive" force, rather than "attractive"? Taking the last example above, can you develop some tricks to keep the system stable enough stay within the realm of the window?

 Week 3 — Feb 2
No more random numbers

 Probability Basics

 Distributions of Random Numbers (Uniform, Non-Uniform, Normal)

 Perlin Noise

Assignment

 (Choose one or more of the following…or create your own.)

  • Create a visual system that is built entirely by random numbers (random shapes, random locations, random sizes, random colors, etc.). Then, using the concepts outlined above, recreate this same system without any purely random input. Can you design some new methods for "controlled" randomness?
  • Take one of your previous assignments involving forces and vectors. Add elements of probability and Perlin noise to your system.
  • Use object oriented programming to create a "random walker", i.e. an object that moves around the window randomly (see below for an example). Use the techniques above to move the walker around the screen in a more interesting way. Can you expand the walker to have more advanced physics (the example below it only moves one pixel at at time)?

 Week 4 — Feb 9
Making Waves

 Trigonometry

 Oscillations, Pendulum

 Graphing waves (perlin noise waves)

 2D trig equation graphing ("graphing inequalities")

Assignment

  •  Develop an idea for a two week assignment. Divide the work for this assignment into two parts. For next week, post your progress with part I (as well as a written description, a few sentences is ok). Everyone will present their progress through "part II" on Feb 23rd.
  •  For example: Using the techniques we’ve seen up until now (velocity, acceleration, random number generation, oscillation) design a virtual creature that moves according to various rules. For part II, extend that single creature into a particle system of many creatures.
  • Take one of the existing systems we’ve looked at (gravitational bodies, sine wave, etc.) and leaving the algorithm intact, develop an entirely new way of visualizing the system. In other words, change only the drawing code.
  • Combine linear motion with oscillation, i.e. consider a point with velocity and acceleration that moves about a space. Make that moving point the center of origin for an oscillating body

 Week 5 — Feb 16
Particle Systems

 Advanced Object Oriented Programming — Inheritance and Polymorphism

 Week 6-
Review

  

PART II: Life

Week 7 — Mar 2
Simple Rule-Based Systems

 Recursion and Fractals

 1D Cellular Automata — Wolfram

 2D Cellular Automata — Conway’s Game of Life

Assignment

  • Develop your own recursive system to generate complex, fractal-like shapes. What are the parameters of your system? Can you make the recursive drawing an object with instance variables associated with those parameters?
  • Read through the chapter 6 discussion of L-Systems. Can you develop code that generates strings from an Axiom and Ruleset? (Step 2 is to draw to the screen based on the generated Strings, but feel free to stick with just the text for now).
  • Redo the Game of Life example with object oriented programming. Create a class for each individual cell as well as one for the whole system itself.
  • What types of systems can you model with Cellular Automata? Consider allowing cells to have more than 2 states and develop your own rules for changing states.
  • Examine the Predator/Prey System described on p. 191 of Computational Beauty of Nature. Can you use the principle of cellular automata to model and visualize it?
  • Consider the state of a cell to be its color. What types of image processing filters can you create using the principles of Cellular Automata?

 Week 8 — Mar 9
Autonomous Agents

 Steering

 Craig Reynolds’ Boids — Alignment, Cohesion, Separation

 Week 9 — Mar 23
Genetic Algorithms Part I

Week 10 — Mar 30
Genetic Algorithms Part II