My website

My website is at homepages.utoledo.edu/vmeyer

Review of a processing artist or project

I went to openprocessing .org to look for something to write about .

A processing artist that I like is Edward Porten. You can view his projects at http://www.openprocessing.org/portal/?userID=6535.  One thing that I like about his projects is that most of them are interactive. He also lets people choose what to see a lot of the time. For example, one of them does fly overs of planets and you can choose which one by selecting an image. One down side of the fly over sketches is that they are slow to show any detail. His 3D fractal explorer lets you choose what to see from a list.  I also like the color in a lot of his projects.

He has a lot of skill with processing. He writes his own functions and knows how to use music and sync motion to it. Bezier Boogie is a good one for that. It’s fun to watch. He uses animation and 3D rendering. He’s okay with people taking his code to learn from and answers questions from people.

A project that I like is the Tiny Sketch project which was on Rhizome. It was a challenge they put on in 2009 to make a sketch that would be interesting using only 200 characters or less. All sketches had to work correctly on the internet and couldn’t use any libraries or external files. I like this project because it shows many things that people can do with processing without a lot of code. The archive for this project is at http://www.openprocessing.org/collection/70 .

Project 4 critique

I wasn't completely happy with my project because I couldn't get it to do exactly what I wanted it to. Barry suggested that I might have to have the user put the animals on the page without seeing them first. He also suggested that I make them bigger and maybe make an array of different backgrounds to use. I explained that I made them the size that I did to fit with the background I was using. They could be used in different sizes with different backgrounds. Since they didn't work right with the svg file type, I would need to have different size png files to use or find out what the error I got with the svg means and if there is a work around for it.
I think it would be easy to make it have several backgrounds. I'd prefer to let the user see the animals before placing them, but maybe there would be a way to show the various animals first, pick one to place and where to place it. My problem with this project was that processing keeps running the draw and makes the key press last for more than one cycle through draw. That makes it hard to assign values to an array while running. I solved that by placing animals in an array first and then the user just had to chose them and the program found it instead of putting it in the draw function.

A processing project I like

Here's a link to a project I like:  http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/110146 This project is by carrie chang. The code is easy, so anyone in class could make this. I like it because it looks really cool.
The first part of the code makes a black background and a shape with many triangles with a white stroke. After that more triangles are added on top of it which are different shades of red, pink, purple and orange.

Project 3

I think the critique went well. Barry said that I should make the font bigger for reading when displaying to the class. I will keep that in mind for any text I use on the next project. I was able to make this project do everything that I wanted it to. If I were to extend it I'd make it pause to make it easier to make a screenprint. Also, I had to comment out the part that used coded keys to make screen prints of it because I had them clear the screen. This caused the screen to be cleared when trying to take a screen shot until I commented it out. I think I'd prefer to work on something else for the next project rather than extending this.
I used techniques not discussed in class in making my project like writing my own functions. For others in the class who don't know me, I have a degree in computer science and engineering and worked as a programmer for 3 1/2 years. Even though I am new to processing and only used Java in a class back in the 90s, I have general knowledge of how to go about programming so learning this is mostly becoming familiar with the syntax for me.
Here are some screen shots of my project:

 

Here is the code:

 

 float angle=0.0;
float r;
float s;
float t;
String shape;
String direction;
PFont font;

void setup(){
  size(600,600);
  background(0); //set background to black
  smooth();
  font = loadFont("TimesNewRomanPSMT-48.vlw");
  textFont(font);
  textSize(18);
  text("Press t for triangles, e for ellipses and q for quads.  Move by using the mouse. Press a coded key to clear the screen. Press 1 to rotate in a clockwise direction and any other key to rotate counterclockwise.",75,150,450,300); 
}
void draw(){
  translate(mouseX, mouseY); //move axis to mouse location
  rotate(angle);   //rotate axis
  r=random(255);      //set 3 random numbers changes every time run
  s=random(255);
  t=random(255);
  fill(int(r),int(s),int(t));  /*convert random numbers to int and
                                 use to generate random color*/
                                
  if (shape == "triangle"){                              
    triangle(20,20,60,150,85,115);  //show triangle
  }
  if (shape == "quad"){
     quad(30,30,60,90,150,150,300,100);  //show quad
   }
   if (shape == "ellipse"){
     ellipse(10,10,150,225);  //show ellipse
   }
   if (direction =="counterclockwise"){
     angle += 0.1;
   } else{
       direction ="clockwise";
       angle -=0.1;
   }
      
  if (keyPressed && (key == CODED) ) {
   // background(0);  //clear screen
    }
    if (keyPressed){
      if (key == '1'){
      direction = "clockwise";  //change rotation direction 
       } else {
       direction ="counterclockwise";
       } 
    }
  if (keyPressed){
    if ((key == 'q')||(key == 'Q' )) {
      shape = "quad";
    }
    if ((key == 'e') ||(key == 'E')){
      shape = "ellipse";
      } else
      if((key == 't')||(key =='T')){
      shape = "triangle";
      }
   }
   displayShape(shape);
   selectDirection(direction);
     }

//This function sets the shape displayed
String displayShape(String shape){
    String newShape;
    newShape = shape; 
    return newShape;
  }

//This function selects the direction of rotation 
String selectDirection(String direction){
   String newDirection;
   newDirection = direction;
   return newDirection;
 }

Processing images

Here are two images I made with processing using basic shapes.

size(600,600);
background(255);
fill(255,0,0,128);
triangle(300,300,300,450,400,570);
triangle(300,300,450,300,570,200);
triangle(300,300,300,150,200,30);
triangle(300,300,150,300,30,400);
ellipse(300,300,300,300);

 

size(400, 400);
stroke(255);
background(192, 64, 0);
ellipse(100,200,100,100);
fill(52, 95, 300);
ellipse(200,200,100,100);
fill(255);
ellipse(300,200,100,100);
ellipse(200,100,100,100);
ellipse(200,300,100,100);

Nothing fancy here, just basic shapes.

Non-linear website critique

On this website, my instructor didn't like that some items are based on photography and others are illustration. Personally, I don't have a problem with that. I thought this is supposed to be like the psychogeography type of traveling where you don't know what to expect. Obviously, the way I did it was not what was expected. I suppose if I'm going to mix things up maybe every page should have a mixture of photography and illustration. That would make it clear that this is what I intended. Although it wouldn't be something that would make people think about what they expect when surfing the web.
Another problem was the size of some things was smaller than others. Again using the whole screen was mentioned. I discussed what I think about that in the post on the critique of my website.
Someone mentioned that she found the animated gif of the running cat distracting on the pages with videos. I can understand where that could be distracting. Too many things competing for attention on the same page.
I guess my navigation wasn't clear, although every page linked to at least two others. I didn't think it was required that I put the navigation in only small spots. It makes sense to increase the difficulty in a linear project such as a video game, but who wants to start out with easy navigation, progress to something more difficult and then go back to the easier one since this is non-linear. I guess I didn't do what was expected here either.

Website Critique

I should have posted this a while back. The feedback on my website was that I need more content and need to make it more visually interesting. A photo or other content on the homepage would help. More text would also help. Right now no one would be interested once they got to my homepage because there isn't much there. I agree with that feedback.
Also I have a link at the bottom of some pages that doesn't have enough contrast to show up well. I really put that there for myself because I didn't want to have to go all the way back to the portfolio page to check out the different content under drawings or photos, etc. I'd want to list it so that when you look at portfolio there would be the plus sign to open up and then have the links show for the various content under portfolio, but we haven't covered that yet in class.
I'm not sure what to do with it to make it more interesting to look at. Another thing that was mentioned was to make items larger on the page, to use more of the page. I do have one problem with that. The problem is that most people viewing web sites at home don't have the large screens that are in the classroom. I know I don't. To even see the entire picture for any of the works I had there, I have to scroll down and then they almost fit on the screen. I think it is better to make something that will fit on the screen of someone who doesn't have as large of a screen as an organization like the University.

Project 2

Project 2

Psychogeography

I found the reading about psychogeography on Wikipedia to be difficult to understand.  I agree with the issues listed at the top of the article about it being too technical and lacking a single coherent topic.  After reading the article, I also read the article “A New Way of Walking” by Joseph Hart from the July/August 2004 issue of Utne Reader and viewed some blogs with photos of what may have been encountered using a psychogeographic way of exploring the world. Viewing some other pages relating to this topic helped my understanding of just what psychogeography is.

My understanding is that psychogeography is exploring the environment especially in the city in a way in which you are not certain what you may find. It is not wandering aimlessly, but following an algorithm like take the first right, then the second left, then the first left and repeat this pattern as many times as wanted. The idea is that since you don’t know what you will find, whatever you find will be more interesting.  It is meant to be both playful and a way of observing one’s reaction to whatever one finds. It makes one more aware of the environment in which one is in. This type of a walk or travel is quite different from what we normally do which is going to the same places over and over. This purposeful  method of travel gets us from place to place, but we tend to ignore what we are passing because it is the same every time (with perhaps only slow or minor changes). My normal travels through Toledo consist of going to work, to the museum for class, going back home, to the grocery store and to my parents’ apartment. I travel the same routes over and over and can drive them even if my mind is on something else completely.

Traveling according to a pattern such as the one above that was suggested in Joseph Hart’s article makes one aware of everything everywhere that one goes because one does not know what will be encountered on this journey. This type of travel has no function other than to see what is encountered and how one reacts to it as one travels.

This type of travel relates to the project we are working on in class. After visiting one page of our projects visitors will have choices in which they do not know what they will encounter next. The projects may contain a surprise and people can also observe their reactions to these pages. Traveling from page to page any number of things may be found. This project is about exploring what is there and seeing how one reacts to it more than about trying to convey a specific message. There are many artists’ works that are about expressing something that the artist or patron feels. Some of the more modern forms of art such as performance art are more about seeing what happens and observing the result.

Response to The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

I am writing today about the article The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by
Walter Benjamin. In this article Benjamin talks about the reproducibility of art. Replicas have
always been made, however the speed and accuracy in which they can be made has increased. Also the amount of skill needed to make a replica has been reduced. At first replicas were made only by
students and people seeking to make money by selling reproductions. The amount of reproductions
and ease of making them increased first by woodcuts and engraving, then by lithography. Now works
of art can be photographed and exact copies of the photo are indistinguishable from the original.
Any number of copies of a photo can be printed. Digital technology also allows copying of works. A
photograph or digital work can be copied and saved to another computer and not be distinguishable
from the original.
Benjamin talks about original works of art existing in a particular time and place and showing
changes in condition due to passage of time. He stated that the quality of a mechanical
reproduction does not affect the original work. Reproductions of art works tend to have
differences from the original. For example, a photo of an artwork in a textbook may not have the
same color as the original work. It is dependent on the amount and quality of the ink used in its
printing. Also, the size of an original work is not reproduced in print. It can be printed larger
or smaller to fit the format of the book. The texture of the original work isn't maintained
either. Copies of works of art loose the effect that seeing the original work has. Also, the
original work loses some of its effect due to people having seen a copy of it.
According to the article the way people perceive art works is dependent upon one's time in
history. An example of this would be that in some historical times a person who was depicted as
larger meant that he was more important. Today it is more likely to be seen as him being closer.
This article also discusses people wanting to see an art work up close by seeing a reproduction of
it. This is a reason for reproductions and photos of original works, because it can be difficult
to get to the place where the original is. Reproductions allow people to have knowledge of
original works that they have not seen for themselves, however it is always worthwhile to go
somewhere to see the original art if you can.
The article goes on to talk about art originally being created for ritual and religious reasons.
Later it was created for beauty and art for art's sake. Art has now also been extended to art
created for a concept rather than to represent something or for beauty. Some art is even ugly when
looked at from the standpoint of aesthetics rather than the concept behind why it was made.
He mentions that asking for an "authentic" print of a photograph doesn't make sense. Today stating
that you want the original work of art for a work that is digital makes no sense because the copy
is the same as the original. The only way that such a statement makes sense with reference to
digital works is if you are asking for an original copy of a work that the current work was
derived from.
As far as his statement about photographs and artworks in general having a hidden political
meaning goes, artworks throughout time have also been used to support political agendas. Works
such as the statue of Augustus Caesar in Roman times were made to increase his status politically.
And artworks depicting the outcome of a war always have often favored a specific political
viewpoint. Even the statues of the Egyptian Pharaohs were political.
A lot of the article after this talks about film. He states that it "copied the exterior world".
Now, it has advanced to the point that it can express the "fairylike, marvelous, and supernatural"
mainly due to advances in technology. He also discusses the fact that movies are a distraction
whereas earlier artworks require contemplation because with a movie before you have time to think
it has gone on to the next scene.
He also states later that "the distinction between author and public is about to lose its basic
character. With the internet, anyone can be a writer and publish their thoughts or creations for
anyone else to read and see.
Although technology has changed some things about art, the older methods are still around to be
used. New methods and ideas have evolved and will continue to do so.

Website layout

I am designing a website for my work. Here is the layout I have planned:

From the home page the viewer will be able to navigate to any of the 4 pages under it. From the portfolio page there will be links to the 3 projects. The projects will also be linked so that the viewer can navigate to the next project without having to return to the portfolio page.

Artist websites I like

This blog is about digital art. I'm going to start by talking about some artist websites that I like.

The first website is http://justinmaller.com/.  Justin Maller's website is visually appealing. It has pictures that are links to more of his work on specific projects. Another part of his site has some awesome wallpapers that can be downloaded. Justin Maller creates art for a number of well known companies such as Nike, Coke, Under Armour, ESPN and Verizon.

Another website I like is http://www.henningludvigsen.com/. Henning Ludvigsen's home page has a slide show of various artworks that are linked to other photos of the work that can be clicked on to view a smaller or larger view of the art. His gallery also has photos of his work that link to other photos of his work and have links to websites for the project. His work consists of 2D and 3D art, trading cards, board and computer games and a section of personal art. I like that this site loads faster than the one mentioned first. This site also contains tutorials which I think will be interesting to look into when I have the time.

The third site I like is http://sebastianschmieg.com/. I don't like the homepage as much because it is not very appealing to look at, but when the cursor is placed over the links on the page pictures appear on it. What I liked most about the projects listed was the Search by Image videos which starts with an image then shows other images that were the results of searching by the original image. When the search is reiterated using each successive image the results can be far different from the original search image. Unfortunately the live version is down for maintenance.