communication technology

A Brave New World

2009-11-25T12:27:00.000-08:00

So I've frightened myself a little, as far as I've come as a graphic designer in this brief alone there still so much I've realised I want to learn. The data bending and corruption has kind of lead me to gain a real understanding of how to process data and source codes, and the possibilities out there are endless. Through the help of Mike, James and Samantha Jones, I have been put on to several new pieces of software. The least daunting is Quartz Composer, a Mac developer program that contains all of a Mac OSX's processing capabilites. It works through source code as well as a manual way of creating, manipulating and triggering data in so many different forms. Much of the software you see on shelves for Mac's is created using Quartz. I'm really excited about learning to get to grips with the endless possibilities it provides.

As well as this James and Mike have are in the process of setting up Jitter for me on a computer in the AV dept. A 3D and real time video processing software, using MAX coding language. The evidence of things you can create through MAX/MSP literally gets my heart rate pounding (I know, I'm a geek).

(A custom patch built by Autechre)

Finally, and the one I've started to get stuck into, processing here's an example of my first ever full coding language-generated visual...

Really unimpressive I know, but its got me pretty excited. It was weirdly satisfying typing for a while - which is visually pretty mundane - then clicking to reveal a little image. My guide so far had been this huge encyclopedia of the history, processes and theories surrounding the program.

I'm obviously at very basic stages and didn't expect to have anything to exciting before the deadline but Processing seems to be an amazing digital environment for me to begin to truly understand data and coding language. I really feel like I've taken a baby step into a whole new world.

Camera Feedback

2009-11-25T02:36:00.000-08:00

I spent several hours down in the AV department experimenting with recording and documenting the communication error between the camera and on-screen preview. Matt had never attempted to use the new high speed cameras, which was one of the things we tried out. Unfortunately the results produced by this were very unfruitful, the only method we could use was filmng the onscreen feedback from a standard HD camera, which was too slow to have any effect on the high speed model, so it was just a film of a film of a film...you get the idea.

However, using the XD Cam (in particular a Sony PMW-EX1) we managed to generate an array of amazing forms created by static, experimenting with the gain, shutter speed, shutter angle, zooming in and out, messing with the iris and just generally working with almost every possible setting to see what it would produce. I had over an hour of recorded film, so considering the final edit was five minutes long there was alot of unused work. Here are some screenshots from stuff I didn't use.

There was alot of this, and it looked great on the big screen when I was actually filming it, but it didn't work as well with the more erratic fast-paced feedback in the movie, it was a resulted of putting the camera out of focus at a very slow shutter speed.

We played with creating movement between the camera and screen, producing interesting results , however I felt they disrupted the flow of the final piece.

The ghost of the 'frame' of the television set was included a lot, but I decided to not again actually showing the object of the television set cause similar flow-disrupting effects.

The first 10-20 minutes of filming there was a lot of text on-screen, which I thought was pretty cool at first but when we removed all the menus from the screen, it seemed more easy to get lost in the feedback uninterrupted by text. I enjoyed using the text as a reference to the 'glitch' in the final piece and they allowed a questionable 'transition' between the more organic feedback sequences. Apart from not having any luck with the high speed camera, this experiment flowed pretty smoothly, and I'm very happy with the end results. It was also good getting used to using the AV Department and while I was there speaking to Matt and seeing what else they had an offer, I'll definitely be down there more in the future as there's a ton of things I'd love to try out. Anyway, this is the compressed version of the final piece uploaded on Vimeo, I'll need to figure out what format I want to provide the final HD movie on.

Communication Error from Joe Durnan on Vimeo.

Although from research and common sense I was aware that this sort of feedback was a result of a optical loop between output and an input. Matt joked that as an infinity curve, it was the answer to a range of Einstein theories. Saying that a simple process like this could be used in education as a visual reference to certain scientific space-time theories.

The Universe Corrupted

2009-11-25T02:11:00.000-08:00

The full episode of The Universe (S03E09) is about an hour long so I've uploaded some highlights from the datamoshed .avi , at first it seemed it was going to be impossible to edit at as no player would accept the corrupted file. But I managed to open and edit (only to a certain extent) on MPEG Streamclip. Thankfully, once saved through MPEG Streamclip, I could open in Quicktime and easily removed the audio, which was a less interesting result of the corruption.
What I'm guessing has happened is the corruption of the data has caused a misplacement of the key frames, so the transitions between 'scenes' are the most interesting.

Part One

The Universe Corrupted pt.1 from Joe Durnan on Vimeo.

Part Two

The Universe Corrupted pt.2 from Joe Durnan on Vimeo.

I chose this TV program not only because I was interested to see the result it had on the complex cgi environment, I also felt it was critically appropriate in terms of the texts I've been reading and the concept of 'simulations' to aid our undrrstanding of the 'unseeable'.

Datamoshing

2009-11-24T12:14:00.001-08:00

The DataMoshing community - like the world of Data Bending and Glitches - is a pretty niche, underground phenomena, however its interesting to see its use in a commercial environment, outside the world of creative computer geeks and as a result its increase in popularity. Embedding was for some reason disable on this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ7jCWufP00&feature=related

Creating Geometric Shapes

2009-11-23T13:32:00.000-08:00

So using a very very simplistic form of applied mathematics I attempted to create some geometric shapes from the static produced by raw files. As best I could I would use pixel measurements to define the shapes I created using the eliptical marquee and the custom-shape polygon tools...

Using a standard layering process and simply changing the Levels and Variations of certain objects I created some pieces I'm quite happy with. I'll admit I changed them a little by hand to get the shapes I wanted. Just a little experiment.

On this I used all 4-Channel interlaced raw files to create the shapes from, as well as editing Variations.

Corrupting Files

2009-11-22T06:45:00.000-08:00

Corrupt USB Flash Drive...

I've been trying to work out exactly why this USB stick does this to any files placed on it but it's all pretty hard for me to understand and this was the only article I could find that properly explains how Flash Memory works. What I assume, from the research I've done, is that because USB Drives work electronically not mechanically there would have to be some sort of communication error to do with the tunneling, a process that alters the placement of electrons in the cells of the chip containing the flash memory, perhaps a loss off memory in the targeted area of the chip erasing some of the data of any files stored on it?

What I just said could be wrong in so many ways, and I guess it would be interesting to open up a working USB Flash Drive and tamper with it to see its effects, but I appreciate the fact that this is a happy accident as Iman Moradi put it a 'Pure Glitch'.

It was interesting the different effect it had on different file formats, for example any audio I put on it was completely uneffected, as were bitmap files. Large jpeg files reacted in similar ways, they would start with subtle lines appearing across the right hand side, before some much more dramatic changes in loss of data. This is a 1.3MB jpeg file, orginally a photoshop file (which was unneffected as a psd).

For some reason, files would not change if you placed them onto the computer and back on to the flash drive. They had to first be altered in some way, ie. rotated on Preview, or the levels changed slightly. So it became quite a slow process but it was fun seeing the progression of the corrupion of these files.

These images were generated using found images online (jpegs) of the Witch Head Nebula, using the same process, the effects were quite different in that there was no subtle data loss to begin with and a lack of the ghosts of the original image seen in the larger file above...

I got a little obsessed with using pictures of nebulae, I just fully loved the contrast of the blocky corruption in the amazing organic shapes. Totally preferred the more subtle, initial corruption over the complete pixelated messes..

After that it just got ugly. PNG files would just die right away after the first exposure to the USB drives corruption...
And my favourite.. a full episode of The Universe as a corrupted avi file. Its an hour long and no video editing software would accept it as some essential codec/header was deleted through corruption. So all I can show at the moment is screenshots from VLC (the only program that will play it), until I figure out how to upload it (its over an hour long) or edit it.

Autechre's Myspace

2009-11-16T10:05:00.000-08:00

I loved this - MySpace is open to all forms of customisation by its members, any sort of personalisation is done through coding and in my case, it was the first experience of using/generating code I've ever had and I'm sure it probably is the first and only coding experience for a lot of people. Its better having a proper look for yourself, and seeing how much of a nightmare it is to try and add them, but Autechres myspace is like completely torn apart in terms of the coding norms.

HexEdit // More RAW

2009-11-15T14:14:00.000-08:00

So the second thing Joe Gilmore put me onto was a Yahoo group called Databenders. Now I was aware that was a community of people actually making glitch-influenced work, but this was a pretty big group - it has almost 1,200 posts. It would be quite easy to immerse yourself in this niche source hacking culture, it's not just visual, I think more than I realised music is a huge part of it. I already new about musicians like Atom TM, Pixel and Alva Noto on the Raster Noton Label but there were people promoting a ton of events in this group in the vain of these avant-garde audiovisual artists. It's funny 'cause I've pretty much spent the last two years trying to work out where my visual practice met my music production and there's never been a more obvious connection. Anyway, thats a whole other story, what I found in one of the posts was a link for HexEdit, it does pretty much the same job as TextEdit, but it organises any files data in a completely different way. I was almost starting to see patterns in the code, I felt like Keanu must've felt in The Matrix....

I tried similar techniques as before to glitchify data images, this was the file shown in the post showing the process of it being torn apart through source deletion in HexEdit...

Alternatively I compiled it as a looped animated gif here.

It was interesting exploring the process of taking apart an image - considering its just a data-sourced image in the first place - until it was unrecognisable as the original. Just after the last one shown, it was un-openable as a jpeg and had to be opened as a .raw file again in Photoshop, this created visuals I hadn't ever seen before, because the file was corrupted so much, there was far less of a pattern to these. Here the are in various different settings...

I think more than anything I learnt from this task how little I know. At least HexEdit made a little more sense in terms of the way it organised the source code, but I still have no idea what meant what, I feel like I need to stop thinking about what I can make go wrong and start by actually learning about how to make a code work, from scratch. I may regret saying this so late in the game.

'Glitch Aesthetics' Iman Moradi

2009-11-14T23:42:00.000-08:00

Glitch Aesthetics (available here) is adissertation documenting and analysing the glitch as an art-form. Iman Moradi categorises the visual glitch in two criteria: 'The Pure Glitch' and 'The Glitch-Alike', defined below..

This was interesting because I imagine like many art forms the glitch would have been discovered by accident, like no-one 'invented' the glitch, I guess there was just an increase in appreciation for the aesthetics of the glitch. And of course now people like myself actually seek out ways to create these accidents. Moradi spends some time discussing the glitch as a communication, or a way of representing a meaning. An example he uses is the corruption of the 'perfect' image in a media portrayal celebrity (see below)..

Moradi traces the glitch back to cubism and references artists like Jackson Pollock in relation to the planned accident of Glitch-Alikes. He makes interesting comparison to both art forms (cubism and the glitch) as a fragmentation of reality, but in what context is the 'real' imagery reality? To me, Picasso's later work is as real as his earlier more 'true-to-life' etching work, in cubism, reality is just represented in a different form. The exploration of communication error between man and machine - that causes the sort of glitches I have generated - creates a visual from what is to the human-eye a non-visual, it is merely the computers visual interpretation of data.
Moradi makes a really good point that kind of sums up the way I'm feeling about the exploration I've been doing recently. When talking about the aforementioned 'representational' glitch-alikes, he makes the point that without a "...source image the glitches would simpy not exist."
Basically I just feel kind of like I'm corrupting, or in an even more pessimistic sense, tinkering with ready-made work, which I guess is why I was desperately using work I'd previously created rather than someone else's. I can't decide whether or not this is a good way to start understanding a computers programming language.

RAW Files

2009-11-14T16:26:00.000-08:00

So Christian casually announced that he was friends with Joe Gilmore - one of the main facilitators for Glitch: Designing Imperfection and qubik.com - who I've been talking to via email, which opened up a ridiculous amount of possibilities. First of all, there is the simple task of opening any file as a RAW file, simply by changing its file extension (ie. WAV, TXT etc.) to .raw, this means that any file can be turned into visual data. Once the file extension is changed the file is opened in Photoshop and you are given options on how you would like to view the file, ie. the dimensions (limited within the file size), the amount of channels, whether these channels will be interleaved or not, whether the image will be 16bit or 8bit.

Smaller files tend to just produce static, as far as I could work out this was because there were so few bytes it was impossible to produce more the one channel for the image, resulting in a monotone bitty mess...

However, large uncompressed files like could produce some really interesting imagery. This was actually my PPD presentation from last year, it had huge amounts of info, so there were far less limits in terms of the amount of channels etc. these are just a couple of experiments with the channel interleaving and dimensions, they produced some mad colourful static.

As I messed with larger files it became clear that there needed to be a bit more of a balance in file size. Many of the files had too much going on and ended up just looking like static as well, in order to generate more interesting patterns for example, this was a fully uncompressed wav of a track I recently finished (featured on this), the files like 33.9mb and produced similar levels of static...

So I tried a shorter track of the same bitrate, a synth laiden intro I created for a mixtape a while back, which created some really interesting patterns...

This was the first image that generated something that actually reminded me of the original file, it looks alot better zoomed in on as well, this was the image at 400% minus the yellow channel. Not sure what use any of these have, but I feel like they're kind of little baby steps towards actually understanding whats possible in terms of unorthodox creativity with computers.

Laura Brothers

2009-11-14T15:50:00.000-08:00

I've spent hours looking at this artists' work, its so intricate and charming despite being so obviously created digitally.

I think one of the reasons I'm drawn to it is it reminds me of the graphics on the first computer my mum and dad bought, I think it was a Macintosh Classic as far as I can remember.

Theres an unusual harmony between user and computer in her work, theres no way it a computer could create as human a piece of work without an artists' influence and equally an artist would struggle to create this without a digital aid.

See more of her work here

The The Best of Creative Computing Volume 3 (1980)

2009-11-14T15:43:00.000-08:00

Something from the Atari Archives, a book published in 1980 compiling the best of the 1977 issues. Its kind of like a Comm Tech of the era, pulling together an assessment of the possible futures of the technology of the time and reviewing its social and cultural consequences. There is some fascinating analysis of the technology of the time as well, a lot of which still seemed relevant to the technology of today. you can read it all here.

"Electronic music studios predated computer art studios, leading a number of visual artists to seek information about computers from university music departments."
There's such a natural connection between the visual and the audio side of creative computing, they just seem to go hand in hand. Plus it's funny because there's amazing similarities between the two, like the emergence of computer based art was most prevalent in Germany and America - the first Computer Art exhibitions were held in New York and Stuttgart - two countries where electronic and synthesizer based music was at its most innovative by far. And the connection is more than relevant today, visuals have become an integral part of any forward thinking club night, Britain's most established electronic label Warp has an incredible array of computer based artwork, interactive art and web orientated visuals, plus there's so much software available that ties the two together.
Another quote I like that is still applicable to today's creative practice was the reference to the computer as
"..a tool for enhancing the on-the-spot creative power and productivity of the artist by accelerating and telescoping the creative process and by making available to its user a multitude of design options that otherwise might not occur to him"
Still totally true when considering the increasing availability and accessibility of creative tools, allowing artists complete spontaneity with their work, a computer can completely change the user's perspective on a project just by purely using certain software.
In reference to the 'glitch' work I've been doing this totally grabbed me, the idea of using computers to...
"...produce combinations of forms never seen before, either in nature or in museums, to create unimaginable images."
Of course the more aware of computer art you are, especially now rather than 1980, things become less 'unimaginable'. But every time I try something new I feel like I'm creating forms I've never seen before, forms I didn't even know I could generate.

Qubik Reverberations

2009-11-14T14:30:00.000-08:00

These images are all on invites for a series of events/workshops, entitled Reverberations. The word is used as a metaphor for the initial influences of the work the featured artists' now produce, my assumption is the artists' are the reverberations of this influence. Apparently the images were generated as a direct relation to this theme. I like the fact that a lot of work i've come across recently has been described as 'generated' rather than created, I reference to the coded element rather than an artist 'drawing' or 'painting', like there's more of a 'science' to it. For example, when I was doing as much geometry-related research as my brain could take in, I found an article on a 'Demienneract' or a '9-demicube'.

Basically what happens when you click on this link you are shown a preview of the image in the SVG format mentioned in an earlier post, so rather than what usually happens when you right-click/ctrl-click an image (ie. option to 'save image as...' or whatever), it allows you to view the image source. When the source code is viewed is there is an insane amount of x and y heights, showing the painstakingly numerically constructed images code. There's a real balance between maths and art.

Translab

2009-11-14T11:44:00.000-08:00

After hours of scrolling through the goldmine that is this site , its become pretty apparent that the history of computer art lies within a creative community of mathematicians and scientists.

One of the standouts for me was Herbert Franke who created amazing amorphous structures using random number generators and mathematical problem-solving techniques to create numerically-controlled works.

Edward Zajec's work reminded me of the image source deconstructions I've been working on

- the have a kind of broken logic to them. Except instead of deleted chunks of text, Zajec uses an IBM 1620 computer to distribute linear elements on a rectangular lattice in different spatial and rhythmic combinations according to varying probabilities of occurrence.'

No me neither.

Glitch // Image Sources

2009-11-14T11:42:00.000-08:00

I picked this up in Analogue Books in Edinburgh, it was like a load of artists who had kind of found 'wrong' ways to produce computer generated imagery. Some of the works were a lot more impressive 'looking' than others, but the ones that weren't seem to have more interesting contexts or techniques involved in their creation. It made me realise how little I knew about creating work on computers, so many of the techniques were well over my head, terms I'd never even heard of before - and I kind of saw myself as the biggest computer geek out of most of my friends - clearly I've got nothing on these people. Like, I can use software all I want as a means to create certain things, I can work out what does what on pretty much anything - but I've no idea what lies behind it, all the terminology, codes and numbers mean so little to me.

Of what I could understand, I tried to see what I could do for myself, I noticed that a lot of the works were things 'forced' into wrong programs, opened in incorrect formats, so I attempted this in the only way I understood it. The images below were photographs I took for Ballers Social Club in Glasgow (the originals are among the rest here), which I opened in text edit, the code was then altered (deleted, parts copied and pasted into the wrong places etc.) and then saved as a jpeg, sometimes this worked sometimes it didn't, it was a proper trial and error process. Mainly because no sane person could recognise what any of this meant...

I think these are the most successful source edits

The more I deleted the more unrecognisable the images became.
By the way I chose an electronic club night because it seemed appropriate, it wasn't just a random selection of images, one of the bands booked played on a load of broken synthesizers - go figure.

One thing I noticed was that you had to leave the majority of the top, say, quarter of the source well alone if you wanted any visible results, clearly this is an essential element of the code i guess. For example....

Wrong in a bad way??

Geometric Shapes

2009-11-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

I've had a minor polygon obsession with my work recently, it seems to be that the first things I start drawing are triangles, rhombuses, etc. I thought it would be cool to experiment using bitmap-image creating software, rather than all the vector ones i'd been using previously. This way I could be alot more detailed, using more rudimentary software like microsofts Paint application and the Mac alternative Paintbrush. These were so much fun to use, i guess because it felt so much more like real drawing in comparison to vector programs, everything was kind of more in MY hands rather than the softwares. This took a lot longer than I'd hoped...

Basically what I did, because the software is like super lo-bit you can zoom in (up to 1600%) and click, using the paintbrush or line tool, adding colour literally bit by bit.

The process was pretty long, and you'll notice the many little imperfections the closer you zoom in, everything blends pretty well from a distance. Working with something like paint made me feel a little more like it was me, rather than the computer doing the work, like I was a lot more in control of how things were going to look, similar in that sense to screen printing. There something far more satisfying about you kind of 'instructing' the computer to do certain things, and not just working with in the confines of a certain piece of software.

iii

2009-11-14T01:03:00.000-08:00

iii from Tina Frank on Vimeo.

Composed from the data from doc files

John Baudrillard 'The Precession of Simulacra'

2009-11-12T10:47:00.000-08:00

This text wasn't initially an easy read, but once I got my head round Baudrillard's simulation theories and the very dated reference points he used (for some of his theories), it was very insightful and helped shaped my understanding of simulacra in a social context.
Baudrillard has an incredibly negative opinion when it comes to simulacra, his theory is that in the Precession he discusses the simulation will finally result in the demise of that which it simulates. This is the process of 'Pure Simulacrum'

"-It is a reflection of a basic reality
-It masks and perverts a basic reality
-It masks the absence of a basic reality
-It bears no relation to any reality."

In reference to software I've explored so far Corel Painter would perhaps - unlike other pieces of creative software I had used - sit in an earlier stage of the 'Precession' Baudrillard describes. What I mean is that it reflects basic reality more so than anything else I have come across so far, Corel Painter was a more rational mutation of the real artists studio. In the instance of Illustrator or much of the Open Source software I've used, they've transcended the need to appear 'real' as Baudrillard puts it..
"It no longer has to be rational, since it is no longer measure against some ideal or negative instance."
It is not expected of these virtual environments, they're capabilites transcend the need to do to have an obvious reference to any basic reality.

In terms of the aforementioned negativity towards the simulation, Baudrillard sights more cultural referents. He touches on some interesting points, the idea of a simulated acceptance of a culture - such as Native Americans - Baudrillard mentions the colonisers, the 'modern' American immigrants, use this acceptance as "proof of superiority of civilisation". The simulated acceptance of a culture ultimately destroys that culture

"Demographic 'mutation', therefore is just one more step towards symbolic extermination."

Its interesting in a design context, to look at Baudrillards theory of Operational Negativity

"..a hormonal treatment of negativity and crisis. It is always a question of proving the real by the imaginary, proving the law by transgression, proving work by strike, proving the system by crisis.."

If we consider in a less extreme context the emergence of 'simulated' computer-based artwork as the crisis, more traditional 'real' methods are the treatment. I think digital environments are unavoidable in the design world - a lot of designers will use methods such as screen printing, monotype, dry point and hand drawn work as a reaction (conscious or unconscious) to the emergence of the of computer based art. 'Real' art is only 'real' because it is measured against that which comes from the 'unreal'. Through the operational negativity of digitally produced art it proves its reality through the "dispossesion of its object" that is computer art. these traditional methods need computers as a reference point in order to be traditional, sought after methods, without computers, surely this kind of art would be the 'unreal' considering in itself most artistic creation is traditionally a reflection of basic reality in the first place and is in fact a simulation.

So what does that make computer based art? A simulation of a simulation of a simulation of a...?

I think it is important not to take Baudrillards work out of context as he refers mainly to cultural simulations in 'The Precession..'. That aside reading this text has been very inspiring in the development of my critical and artistic theory.

All quotes: Baudrillard; Jean, 1983. Simulations: The Precession of Simulacra. trans. P Foss, P Patton. Semiotext[e], New York.

Screenprinting Illustrator Work Pt. II

2009-11-12T05:52:00.000-08:00

Round two; my first CMYK printing experience was really, really frustrating at first. I assumed that process colours were just mixed in a similar manner to spot/pantone, and stupidly decided to use my initiative and began just mixing process colours, before being looked at like an idiot and told that precise measurements were needed.
This was after I'd printed out several positives from the computer at a dpi that was far too fine for CMYK. After these two mishaps, I began printing Yellow first - assuming again, like spot colours, that lightest comes first, and had to clean up and start again. Of course these all seem pretty obvious now, but I guess I couldn't of worked these out otherwise and the more annoying way I find out the more likely I am to remember these things in the future.
Anyway, the finished product came out so, so much better than the first spot-colour piece, this was owed almost entirely to the Registration Marks. Being a total nerd I actually appreciate the aesthetic of this kind of left-over working, however as helpful as these were in lining the work up perfectly, I can't imagine if any commissioned screen printing work came about that the presence of these in the finished piece would be an option. A majority of the staff in Vernon Street kept pushing me to tape them up because they would be 'unsightly'. So I guess I would have to perhaps crop them out in the future.

Colour-wise I'm really happy with the finished piece as well, having not printed CMYK before I was unsure how similar to the original on-screen piece the colours would look, but I think they look amazing despite the lack of likeness. I guess this was kind of a happy accident - but I've learnt a lot from it. Now that I know the aesthetic differences between the two as well as the practical, I feel comfortable about making judgements on the appropriate process for future work in the screen printing studio and the fact that there's a huge amount of options available for me to engage with dependent on the work I would like t produce.

Team Print

2009-11-10T15:55:00.000-08:00

Our groups' little day trip that Paul organised to Team Print studios was actually incredibly inspiring. It made me realise not only how much of an industry their was and how much graphic designers rely on something like this, but also the amount of different processes, technology and possibilities there was in a well equipped digital print warehouse like this. The dude that took us around was really friendly, he gave us presents and drove us home, it was the best day ever. The warehouse was massive, I didn't expect anything like that size, but as far as it seemed Team Print were a pretty successful company; they had a decent flow of jobs coming from all over the UK. What was good to hear was how closely they worked with designers, like you could take work for mock-ups and try a few different processes until you got it the way you want it. There was a huge array of different printers for big and small jobs, a lot of the different printing techniques were well over my head, it was a whole new world to me, but in a good way.

It looked like the future for print studios like Team Print was the proper massive ink jet style digital printers, that printed continuous lines rather than dots like on a normal litho printer. At the moment they can only do up to A3 and were a lot better for smaller jobs but they definitely produced much higher quality prints, so it was interesting to see that in action. Also, some of the work like templates for business cards needed to be done through other businesses so felt like that was a little bit of an insight into how the industry worked.

Corel Painter

2009-11-04T17:27:00.000-08:00

Corel Painter is a very strange creative virtual environment, its as if the developers attempted to create as 'true-to-life' a piece of software they could create. You can mix paints, choose an almost infinite range of brushes, pens, pencils, different canvas textures, its a pretty complex software. It's weird that can you use all these 'life-like' tools but it includes the more 'unreal' tools like the paint bucket and an eraser that rubs out any style of brush plus you can position any brush strokes as layers like Photoshop/Illustrator. I set up a few custom brushes just to see what sort of strokes they would create...

So, I spent some time changing the canvas settings and varying brush pressures, mixing colours and seeing what different kinds of virtual marks I left onscreen - keep in mind that this is just exploration and experimentation, clearly not me at the height of my artistic capabilities...

I can't say I felt immediately comfortable with this piece of software as a whole, thats not to say with more time spent on it I couldn't get used to using it and I would like to, considering the insanely complex work thats been produced by artists using it. The main problem at first was that this was also the first time I had used a graphics tablet and it didn't recognise the different brush pressures so I had to download the drivers for it from the Wacom website. After that it worked alot more smoothly but I still found the whole experience a little strange, using the tablet instead of a track pad, I think even using a mouse feels a little weird now that I'm so used to the feel of it.

However it's clearly worthwhile practicing using this, I reckon I'm going to get one of the new Wacom Bamboo Pen tablets just so that I can sit on my computer and get as used to as I have with a track pad. There's a world of difference between taking it out from college every so often and actually having one of your own. The only reason I'm comfortable with Photoshop - and now Illustrator - is just having it there with the freedom to practice and explore whenever I have the time.

Interview with Bill Kendrick

2009-11-04T14:49:00.000-08:00

So I messed about with Tux Paint wrote about it on this blog and get a comment from its lead developer!

After emailing Bill he very kindly agreed to do a little interview with me on issues I was considering, when looking at the kind of critical/contextual aspects of communication technology and the idea of 'social change' mentioned in the brief. Was really inspiring talking to someone with some real experience in developing creative technology...

1. How do you feel the software you've developed has effected creative practice, do you take into consideration (big or small, positive or negative) its social/cultural ramifications?

I'm not sure how Tux Paint has affected the creative process as a _whole_, but I suppose it's given a lot of young kids the opportunity to play with computer art who may have not had the chance otherwise. For some adults (myself included), the somewhat limited functionality (compared to, say, Photoshop) actually makes it easier to be creative.

From another perspective, since Tux Paint is multilingual and used by kids around the globe, we do have to consider cultural differences of our users. We sadly haven't done much in that direction yet, but there are a collection of tasks, changes and enhancements sitting on the copious number of 'back burners' a project like this amasses.

2. Do you take a particular audience into consideration when developing software, how do you go about communicating the ideas behind your software?
For Tux Paint, definitely. I assume it will be used by very young kids, and try to make it easy to use without too much assistance. Obviously, since it's more than just a big emtpy screen to paint on -- there are multiple tools, load/save, undo/redo, colors, etc. -- the youngest users will need some help. I've tried to design things in such a way as to not confuse or frustrate them, though.

3. Your background is in computer science, so what lead you to become a more creative developer ie. stuff like games and tux paint?
It really went the other direction. I started playing video games on the Atari VCS (2600) back in the early 1980s, and was given my own computer as a kid. I learned to program BASIC, and spent a lot of time trying to re-implement the games I liked from the game console, games I had seen elsewhere but didn't have on my own computer, and of course creating games based on my own ideas.

I went into computer science because I knew I wanted to be a programmer, and was especially interested in making games. So far, I've only done it professionally for a short amount of time (less than 5 years), and I'm doing web application development again at the moment.

Aside from Tux Paint, I've created a number of other open source games. By far, Tux Paint's been the most popular, in terms of both users and gathering volunteers to help contribute.

4. What do you see in the future for creative technologies, educational software in particular?
Being an open source advocate, you won't be a surprise to hear me say that open source is important, especially in education. There are many open source applications that are suitable for educational use -- GIMP, Inkscape and Tux Paint for graphics, as well as OpenOffice.org (office suite), Stellarium, Celestia, KStars and Marble (astronomy and mapping), and hundreds of others.

Being open source means both no cost and no licensing issues; run it on as many systems as you like, without using any of the school's budget or going through the slow procurement process that school districts usually require. Open source apps are alsooften cross-platform, meaning you can run them on Windows, Mac or Linux.

Now think about this: when teachers want kids to be able to access the same application at home as they do at school, open source means worrying a lot less (if at all) about: cost, compatibility, piracy and viruses & spyware.

So Tux Paint is just a drop in the bucket. It's a fun one, though. ;)

Screenprinting Illustrator Work

2009-10-27T13:46:00.001-07:00

So this was the first time I properly screen printed some of my own work, the overall process was extremely satisfying, although there's clearly a lot of things I need to work on. Because I chose quite a specific palette of colours, I thought it best I mix them and print them as spot colours - clearly this was a bad idea. I love love the way the colours came out but the process was incredibly long winded, and this piece was the first in a series of three (and the one with the least colours). The most tasking (and soul destroying) part of the process was the final part, the wafer thin black outline, of course because I'd already printed three colours some would be slightly off from where they were supposed to be exactly. As a result it was extremely frustrating attempting to line up the black lines with the rest of the piece and I ruined several of the pieces as a result. The Vernon Street print room staff were really helpful so the last few came out pretty much perfect. What I reckon I'll do in the future, and on the other pieces is either use different tints for the spot colours to lessen the amount of layers or (and it would be worthwhile to try out anyway) just go with the straight 4-layer CMYK and see how the colours turn out, cos trying to screen print every single one of these separations??!
What was suggested I could do to combat the problem of jaunty layers was using Registration Marks when printing them out from the computer and maybe having the colours slightly wider than before so they fill the black lines more easily.

I definitely feel more confident using the print studios now and the beauty of having a kind of triptych of work is that I have three similar pieces to progress with and address different problems I come across, the only problem maybe that the third and final piece will be ten times better than the first. Considering I'm starting with quite complex work to begin with I reckon working in the studio will be a lot easier with less complicated prints.

Pixia, Inkscape and Other Freeware

2009-10-25T04:07:00.000-07:00

So the web is like totally awash with freeware and open source software for creating, editing and manipulating computer aided art. Above is Pixia, a PC only software, which was actually pretty fun, I went crazy with the drip tool, started by creating some vector triangles and diamonds and generally messing with all its different tools and filters. There wasn't a huge range of them but enough that you could probably create some decent work with. It is developed in Japan and was created for manga/anime style illustration - not completely relevant to me as a graphic designer, but there are some things I could work with none the less. It's similar to Corel Painter, and from just playing with them both I've realised I really need to get myself a graphics tablet if I'm going to fully utilize the possibilities of more freehand drawing software. Stuff like Illustrator and other Vector Software such as ArtWeaver which I've also been playing with on PC is totally workable with a mouse or touchpad - although with ArtWeaver that couldn't be achieved through similar means on Illustrator.

Above is Inkscape, one of the first bits of vector art freeware I downloaded. Rather than BitMap like most of the old paint programs, Inskcape uses SGV (Scalable Vector Graphics), which is good for exporting in and out of other vector based software and is supportable in most web browsers without plugins. It wasn't really appropriate for anything I wanted to explore at the time I started playing with it, it seemed kind of constrained in comparison to similar programs, although I liked certain tools such as the kind of 3D cube thing pictured. The problem is with time constraints, I don't feel I have to really properly explore every aspect of every program I come across, and this didn't feel like something I should spend too much time on.

Plotter Drawings

2009-10-25T03:53:00.000-07:00

"My artistic interest is centering on the adventures arising from the difficulties in mastering the plotted line as a means of artistic expression. Three fascinating aspects contribute to my interest:

1. The fascination of the mechanically guided pen.
2. The fascination of the monochrome line.
3. The fascination of the generative code.

The technology of mechanical drawing is almost extinct. It has been supplanted by other print technologies in the course of technological development. As a metaphor, the moving pen in the grip of a plotter in action resembles relatively closely the process of the hand engaged in drawing. Interesting consequences of artistic concern arise from this observation. Historically, drawings have been around since the beginning of art, and drawing is an enormously rich domain of art. It is a universe, indeed, that is complemented by the equally rich universe of machine-generated drawings, also a universe in its own right.

It is a big artistic challenge to work in this universe, to invent strategies and code them into programs from which drawings can be generated that possess identity and uniqueness and that demonstrate with great clarity that they belong to the machine universe."

-Hans Dehlinger

Source: http://www.generativeart.de/main/index_eng.php

A Visual Reference

2009-10-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

An example of how technology allows us to 'see' the 'unseeable'

'Narrative As Virtual Reality'

2009-10-21T06:08:00.000-07:00

So I've been reading 'Narrative As Virtual Reality' by Marie-Laure Ryan, its basically a discussion of the social/cultural influence of various electronic media with reference to people like Baudrillard and Pierre Levy. In one of the earlier chapters Ryan talks of the "quasi-human" language that computer programs are written in - a kind of binary code translation for non zero one zero zero people-brains. I think it's funny when you start looking at the software we use, how we need all these reference points to understand what certain 'tools' are for, like how you can turn your 'paintbrush' into a 'magic wand' in a single click. In some ways these are reference points in others, computers are programmed in order to simulate specific tools of the 'real world'...
"As a machine a computer has no intrinsic function. Through its software however, it can simulate... existing devices and human activities, thus becoming a virtual calculator, typewriter, record player, storyteller, teacher, bookkeeper or adviser.."
I like the idea that we need a visual reference point in order to understand how something works, that programs have to be 'designed' with complete human accessibility in mind. I think this extends much further than the computer world, for example in the science world, in textbooks we are given diagrams of what atoms and protons 'look like', of course they don't look like anything we could ever imagine, just as in the complete opposite end of the spectrum trying to picture the shape and size of the expanding universe, or what lies outside the universe, what 'nothing' looked like before the big bang etc.
"We live in simulacra because we live in our own mental mode of reality. What I call "the world" is my perception and image of it."
In this case we need a 'virtual' depiction to understand what these things are, a necessary simulacra. Our view of an atom is not "reality", as humans we cannot "see" atoms but we can envision them only by use of a referent. This is not necessarily unreal, just our interpretive model of the real in order to understand "genuine" reality. With this view in mind, the progression of technology in creating 'virtual' learning environments, is a positive one, it allows us to be creative in ways we couldn't possibly be before, a greater sense of accessibility and interactivity in world's of virtual film editing and design studios, paint buckets and swirl tools. Through these visual reference points artists' with no knowledge of coding or computer programming can use various creative means to explore our view of "the world" as we see it.

All quotes

Ryan; Marie-Laure, 2001. Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

Tux Paint

2009-10-18T12:53:00.000-07:00

So this is like free software for kids to mess with in school, so it was kind of just fun messing with it, no REAL work could really come out of it. The software in itself was quite a well put together piece of work, the rainbow tool was cool as hell (see top pic) and there was a lot of fun little 'magic' tools along with a helpful, albeit slightly demented looking penguin. It also makes sure you when you quite that you definitely, DEFINITELY don't want to save work, and I know that when i was playing with stuff like this in primary school I would quite by accident all the time and go crazy over it, so thats gonna be helpful for kids. You also can't save/export any work as any kind of useful format. So anything that I may use from this has to be screenshotted.

I guess this kind of made me think the whole 'hyperreal' concept of virtuality (see post above), in terms of arts and crafts classes I remember getting in primary, you know, finger painting, making pictures of fireworks by scratching black paint of crayons, that sort of thing. I'm not sure how much virtual painting and creative software for children is used in primary schools, nurseries etc. but it's interesting to think that this could perhaps replace the 'real' hands-on kind of creativity. Whether there will be a development in more accessible children's computers rather than just software, and whether A-Level/Higher Art teachers will have to have experience in digital arts such in order for stuff like Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator to be taught as part of the basic education curriculum?

Blenheim Print Room Induction

2009-10-12T03:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't heard that many good things about the Blenheim Walk print studio, but they seem to have a really good range of facilities, as far as I remember they've got pretty much the same deal (maybe less?) with screen printing as Vernon Street, but it's a lot more textile orientated. I don't know much about screen printing so it was good trying out the vacuum and just kind of seeing how it worked. We practiced doing a CMYK screen print which seemed pretty easy but I can imagine it going wrong if I was left to my own devises. We were shown general safety etc. before we got to have a go at flock and foil printing. The example ones we were shown were pretty lame, but I can imagine them being of use in the future, it all seemed quite simple in process but you could easily produce some really interesting work. I'd definitely like to practice the multi-colour screen prints and peel myself away from the computer a little.

Adobe Illustrator // Design for Print

2009-10-08T04:29:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be best to start with technology that was most easily accessible, Adobe Illustrator. I'm familiar with a great deal of Adobe software but have never actually fully engaged in the possibilities of the different tools available in Illustrator. In all fairness the Adobe Creative Suite has so many crossovers, I wasn't sure - being pretty comfortable with Photoshop - if there was any point in using Illustrator until attending the workshop/tutorial, where I was made aware of the possibilities, particularly the Pen Tool. There is clearly a great deal more freedom in creating original graphics rather than feeling like you're just kind of 'tinkering' with old work on photoshop. I used the pen, elipse, rectangle, line segment, warp and slice tools, used the pathfinder and a host of other tools and options & generally explored and experimented with the possibilities in creating graphic work. I found there was a sense of rigidness when working with illustrator, its more obvious you are using computer software whereas with Corel Paint you can kind of get lost in drawing - especially when using a graphics tablet - and forget your just sitting at a screen sending commands. Not that this is a bad thing - I like the result of the rigid vector graphics I used to create the little fantasy world of triangles, diamonds and complex linear structures.

I exported the images as png's into Photoshop, adjusted the levels slightly and started messing with different swatches, initially, it seems the Pantone coated pastel swatches worked nicest, but this is before I've attempted any 'real' printing

Once I'd finished adjusting all the colours, I used the colour seperating tool to print my silkscreen printable copies, splitting them into the necessary CMYK components. I felt that there wasn't much point in attempting a spot colour with this version so i created an alternate colour version to see how that could work. Next stop Print studios!

Avatars

2009-10-02T04:12:00.000-07:00

So I've been reading 'Alter Ego: Avatars and their creators'. It gives a really interesting insight into the reasons people immerse themselves in virtual worlds, some of the people featured in the book made money of purely playing games in order to up the level of other peoples' characters'. Others found it as an escape route from the problems in the 'real world'. This was quite a poignant quote from the books' introduction by Julian Dibbell;

"We fall in love there. We lust for power and for wealth. We seek adventure and escape from the tedium of our more enduring, realer lives. We say they're only games, these little worlds, but often we end up devoting more time to them than to any other realm of our existence, until it starts to make less sense to think of our avatars as fictional characters than as our second selves..."

It's kind of daunting thinking of the possibilities the future holds for this kind of immersive gaming culture, like what sort of level of virtual worlds will people 'play' in in years to come. However, I think its important to add that there is the more accessible, interactive, kind of more passive gaming offered by the Wii, PSP etc.

Concept

2009-10-02T03:56:00.000-07:00

Although this brief focusses on the process and exploration rather than a particular concept, I thought I'd lay one down in order to give me a little bit of direction...

I plan to explore the world of 'simulations', whether this be gaming culture, the digital versions of nearly every aspect of creativity and our progression into a 'virtual reality'. In order to create work that reflects this concept, I plan to look at, and work with artists and communicators involved in this industry and explore appropriate technologies and software to create relevant visuals.

I don't want to get too tied down to the concept so I want to keep it slightly open so that it can be used in a way that allows me to explore communication technologies important to me as a graphic designer.