Extinction Clock – Final Production

Sara Ro and I continued to work on our Extinction Clock for our final.

First, a recap:

We’re developing this piece to audibly present data to promote conversation and action around conservation. Our goal is to present the data and immerse the viewer. Unfortunately, essential data can go unseen and, when shown, can be overwhelming. We are exploring new ways to make this data accessible.

We call the piece Extinction Clock; however, instead of a traditional visual clock, we will be working with audio and “vocal” message from individual species. Users will dial in the clock to a specific year and listen. The clock’s dial will be linked to the population data of the species, and whatever year had the highest population density will be mapped at total volume. As the population recedes or grows, the volume will change accordingly. We will call the API data to link with our audio files. We believe that using audio of species paired with the data will help viewers feel more connected to the species and think of them as living beings rather than numbers on a chart.

Single Page Application

When the viewer clicks on a year, a herd call of African Elephants will play, and the population size will be presented. The call volume is related to the species’ global population in that given year, with the Early 1800s being at 100% and the volume decreasing throughout the years.

We decided to reference an old clock with buttons going across the top for the final build.

Problems:

We’re still facing a couple of problems. The server is working perfectly. We’re receiving the calls correctly, but we have the buttons to call the server incorrectly. We need to change the code only to ping the server during a state change. This will prevent the 100+ calls from happening each time a button is pushed. Second, our audio is not working correctly. For some reason, it is distorted. Our next step is to re-wire the amp. We’re hoping to fix these problems over the break.

Below are our process images.

The Greatest Show On Earth

The Big Bang’s Playing on TV
“Several members of the NASA Goddard COBE teamwork on WMAP. Like COBE, WMAP scans the sky repeatedly, soaking up the ancient light from the Big Bang known as the cosmic microwave background. Microwaves are a low-energy form of radiation but higher in energy than radio waves. The cosmic microwave background blankets the universe and is responsible for a sizeable amount of static on your television set–well, before the days of cable. Turn your television to an “in-between” channel, and part of the static you’ll see is the afterglow of the big bang.” – Background Explorer and the Science of John Mather – NASA.Gov

For this piece, I wanted to explore the idea of the cosmos and the formation of our solar system. While researching, I came across a fact that made my head spin; a portion of the static on old analog televisions is radiation from the big bang. This is truly the most incredible show on TV. After acquiring an old tv on eBay, I built an infinity mirror inside a wood housing for the static to be projected into. The viewer looks through the peephole and is surrounded by static. I filtered it blue to cut down on the overall luminosity. I’m hoping the viewer takes a moment to reflect on their existence and the formation of everything around them. I intentionally left the television exposed, so the viewer has a familiar object to relate to.

Below are some construction and process images. A huge thank you to Eric Kelab for helping me construct the walnut peephole.

Virtual Production

Final Week!

This week I wrapped up my portal and worked with the camera crew to place targets on the levels for camera movement.

I was still having trouble uploading the entire portal to the class’s final project. Todd helped me re-organize my folders and push the file one more time in-office hours. It worked perfectly!

Portal Building and OSC

Portal Building:

Errors: I lost all my materials and shaders after migrating the final portal to my level inside the classes project. The shape of the overall portal was also changed. I started going through the blueprints and reconnecting the materials that had errors to no avail.

Update: I came to class early to discuss the issue with Todd. He had me delete my asset from the classes level and upload the portal as a level itself. The portal seemed to work much better, but there are still some connection issues. I will report back after the shaders finish building.

OSC

I had Mac Problems this week, so I worked with Philip to get OSC up and to run. We connected the Bang protocol to activate the shockwave. Something we noticed was the connection between Max and Unreal. There seemed to be a delay; we found out there was a setting that conserves CPU power. Once we shut that off, the connection was live and working well.

Portal Building

This week has been focused on portal building research and building and completing the Live Link for Performance Capture class. I love a good portal, and I haven’t landed on the type I want to build for the final. Do I go particles? Classic spiral? Or window? My goal is to wrap this up by the end of the weekend.

Assets:

Extinction Clock Progress

Sara and I are developing a new piece to audibly present data to promote conversation and action around conservation. Our goal is to not only present the data but to immerse the viewer. Unfortunately, essential data can go unseen and, when presented, can be overwhelming. We are exploring new ways to make this data accessible.

We call the piece Extinction Clock; however, instead of a traditional visual clock, we will be working with audio and “vocal” message from individual species. The clock’s dial will be linked to the population data of the species, and whatever year had the highest population density will be mapped at total volume. As the population recedes or grows, the volume will change accordingly. Users will be able to dial in the clock to a specific year and listen. We will be calling on the API data to link with our audio files. We believe that using audio of species paired with the data will help viewers feel more connected to the species and think of them as living beings rather than numbers on a chart.

Experiments with bio – plastic

Final Pitch

For the final project, Philip and I will collaborate on a piece exploring Bioplastic as a beautiful object. We want to keep the base plastic the same, but each sculpture will use different water sources like the ocean, Gowanus canal, or tap. The goal is to highlight particulates in each water sample.

We haven’t landed on the final shape; we are deciding between a frame and orb.

Experiments with Bioplastic:

I ended up making three different bio-plastics with different levels of success. To get started, I made the basic recipe of

9 tablespoons cornstarch = .5 cup + 1 tablespoon

36 tablespoons of water = 2.25 cups

Three tablespoons of vinegar

Three tablespoons of glycerin

I split this recipe into two pours, a Tupperware container and on a sheet. The molded piece dried fine, but as it hardened, it continued to separate and crack. The base is very soft, while the top is more rigid and flaking. I also thought it would be transparent, but it turned out to be a foggy white. The second pour was on a plate covered in plastic wrap. That was an absolute disaster. The bio-plastic stuck to the plastic wrap and tore apart when I tried removing it.

The second batch was with Agar.

Glycerine 2.7 grams

Water 40 ml

Agar 1.6 grams

This worked out well. The plastic was still too flexible for what I was looking for, but it was pretty transparent.

The final attempt was purely an experiment.

Glycerine 2.7 grams

Water 40 ml

Agar 1.6 grams

Shaved charcoal from a fire pit 5 grams

I love the texture/color/and flexibility of this plastic.

Asset search

Asset Search:

Below I broke the assets I found by scene—first, the desert.

Can we use this surface trails asset for footprints in the sand? I think this could be beautiful.

Dorm room-

There are a lot of drinking scenes throughout the piece. Vampires love their bloody marys. I think a realistic glass/goblet that can be duplicated throughout the entire piece would be great. Is it too fancy for college-aged vampires? I couldn’t find a solo cup.

What’s great about the dorm rooms is that we can repeat these items over and over.

Moving on to the city scene.

Ever since I received this asset, I have wanted to try and use it. I think it will be exciting to make a procedural cityscape that the character can bicycle through.

World transitions: There are three world transitions in our piece. I think it would be interesting to incorporate some visual queue that is happening. I’m not 100% sold on these particular orbs, but I haven’t come across anything better.

Time Final

I’m tossing around two ideas for my final project.

The first idea is a solar-powered television, set to a static channel. I find it fascinating that 1% of the static on old television screens is the leftover glow from the big bang. To power, the display with the sun seems to be fitting. I would build a custom housing to place the television in and leave it permanently on a static channel playing the most incredible show on earth.

Reference article here

My second idea is to carve a globe on the lathe. I’m thinking of creating two bowls that can fit together inside the bowls will be the circuit to power a light. The light will rotate around the globe like the sun.

I started testing my lathe skills today and like the results.

Bio Materials – Mycelium Project and Cyanotype Experiment

This week I’ve been researching and thinking about Mycelium. It might be because I’m moving into a new apartment and I love building my own furniture but I can’t stop thinking about making an end table or lamp out of it.

With that in mind, I started my research. I think that it’s fascinating that I can grow bricks or other forms and fuse them together with further growth. I also think it’s a beautiful thought that my piece can be composted, is lightweight, and does not rely on the production of new materials.

While looking for inspiration I found these two videos. I do not have access to a huge oven so I’ll have to start small.

I also continued to work on my Scoby Cyanotype process experiment. Something really interesting happened immediately after coating the Scoby with the cyanotype solution it reacted and turned the deep blue that typically happens only after exposure. Below are two images of the exposure process you can see how the Scobys are blue while the paper is green, which is typical of the process. The only thing that I can think of is the acidy in the Scoby might have made the chemical react prematurely. Unforchentely, since it reacted I wasn’t able to print a silhouette on it. It did dye the Scoby a beautiful blue. Below the exposure images are images of the washing and re-drying processes. I don’t think this is a failure just a shift in the expected outcome. I would like to test this idea on other materials that we work with.