Sara's Documentation Blog

Shanghai Natural History Museum

My first impression of the Shanghai Natural History Museum was that it was pretty accessible for non-Chinese speakers in the sense that there was a good  amount of English, whether it was on the signs or the captions. As someone who can only read a limited amount of Chinese, I appreciated that I could still participate in and understand the museum experience without having to know Chinese. 

The next thing I noticed was that there were many children at the museum. This initially confused me, since we went on a Wednesday afternoon, but I just assumed that they were too young to have school. I saw that although they didn’t read the captions on the things that they were looking at, they were drawn to the interactive portions, whether or not they only wanted to press the buttons. I experimented with the touch screens myself and found them to be fun and entertaining, even though there were a lot of touch screens that didn’t work. 

In addition to interactive touch screens, the museum had a lot of things that either moved or showed movement, which was very engaging and made the museum feel “alive”. These movements and noises contributed to the overall museum’s atmosphere in a way that made each exhibition feel very welcoming. 

 

Adding on to the welcoming aspect of the museum’s atmosphere, I personally thought that the museum did indeed feel like a natural history museum. Since we started at the beginning with space and dinosaurs and ended with modern animals and civilization, I really felt like we were walking through history, especially with so many exhibits being visual and movement. These things made the museum’s experience very immersive, like we were walking through the time of when these things were happening. 

Even for for objects that didn’t have movement, it still felt like an immersive experience because of the use of dioramas. Dioramas allow for the viewer to see a 3d image of what the surroundings of the object looks like. Instead of only seeing the object, we get to see the context of the object and what their role is in an ecosystem. 

As there was an abundance of children, and therefore an abundance of families, I liked that there were a lot of things catered to those types of experiences. There were paths in the brochure that people could follow depending on the age of their children and purpose of their visit. There were also many resting areas for people to stop and sit at incase they got tired or needed to rest, which is useful with families of both children and the elderly. I also saw accessibility for the disabled, since there was a lift next to the stairs. There were also many accessible bathrooms for people to use, which makes the experience easier and more convenient. 

The museum was also located in a very good location, since we were able to walk out and admire the sculpture park afterwards. There was also Starbucks on the other side of the street which would make it convenient for people who want to eat or drink.

Museum of Scent

Bee & Flower 

SANDAL WOOD SOAP

This is a bar of soap gifted from my late grandmother. It would be the soap that she would use when I lived with her and she would always give me more. The scent is really nostalgic and calming to me, and this bar of soap is basically like a good luck charm to me now.

 

Reflection:

I took the advice I received from the first exhibit and printed out my caption. I even folded it into a triangle so it can stand up by itself. I also thought to put both my soap and the caption on a white piece of paper to make the exhibit more cohesive and seamless, which I thought looked pretty good. 

However, there was still room to improve. Since my soap was so old and not as easy to handle as a newer item, it was hard for people to actually smell it and see the significance of it. I received feedback that I should include an interactive portion, either with using the soap to wash our hands or to have it cut up while keeping the original soap intact. 

Museum of Childhood

 

Artist: Shanghai Ballet

Work Title: The Nutcracker

Date: December 26th, 2022

Medium: Paper 

Collection | Courtesy of: Shanghai Grand Theater

While The Nutcracker ballet was a huge part of my childhood growing up, this is the first time I have seen it in China with a full Chinese cast.

 

Reflection: 
Because this was my first exhibit, I was not as knowledgeable about how to present my item and how to maximize the experience. Some feedback that I got were that it would be better to make the caption physical instead of having it shown on my laptop screen, and that there should be something attached to the ticket to visualize the experience (for example, does the QR code reveal anything when scanned?).

Trip Report

neXtlab INNERSECT exhibition 

When I got to the exhibit, I saw that there were some empty lots because the exhibitions were ending, but I still got to see most of the lots that were complete. The atmosphere felt a little bit isolating because I was in the area by myself and there was nobody else around me. The exhibition was mostly quiet; when in a big area, this made the noises in the exhibition really hollow, which contributed to the isolating feeling of the exhibit. 

One of the exhibits had a bell-like chime noise attached to it, which matched the hollowness of the exhibit. There was movement in the exhibit where one of the figures cried out a waterfall. This scene was very entrancing because the movement and noise of the waterfall was a stark contrast to the silence and stillness of the rest of the exhibition. 

 

There was one interactive exhibit in which a temperature sensor was built in, and your figure would show up as different colors on the screen. I think that the interactive technology worked, because even though it wasn’t very obvious and blended in with the exhibit, people would notice once they walked past it and saw themselves on the big screen. 

Another lot that I found very interesting was a room where everything was made of carpet. There was a vending machine where all the items you could buy were made of carpet, which induced an interactive experience. There was also a basketball machine that added to the playfulness of the room.

I then went upstairs to view the art gallery. The entrance to the exhibit was inside a gift shop and next to a cafe, which made the space seem much more welcoming than the one downstairs. The staff were very welcoming, saying hi when I walked in and letting me know that I could go into the exhibition for free.

The gallery had an entirely different atmosphere than the area outside, with the primary colors being blue and white with a lot of open space compared to the warmer tones and more populated area outside. When I entered the exhibit, I saw that there were two girls taking photos in the corner. I do not know if they had admired the artwork already, but once I got to their side of the gallery, they quickly moved to the other side, only taking photos again.

Otherwise, I liked that the gallery had an unspoken path, since all the painters and curator had large biographies at one side of the gallery, which then led into the paintings. I also like that there was a contrast between the two parts of the galleries themselves, with one side being bright white and the other being dark blue. However, the display of the art pieces and the lighting stay the same, which ties the two parts together, making them seem like a cohesive exhibit.  

The captions were very simple, only showing the basics of the piece without any description. Some of the paintings had boxing gloves attached to the canvas, which enhanced the experience of the painting, since there was also a 3-dimensional portion in contrast to the 2-dimensional painting. I would have liked it if there was an interactive portion with the boxing gloves so that we could understand the people in the painting. 

Overall, I had a good experience with the exhibitions, but I wish there were more information about the exhibits and they were easier to find, since I was mostly confused during my trip there. 

 

Memory Soundscape

A. Concept

The memory that I want to pick as the subject for my Memory Soundscape project is the memory of walking down a city street in the winter (or even during Christmas season). Some aspects of the memory that I aimed to convey to my audience is the elements of a city and strong winter weather. I knew I wanted to include elements of walking outside and elements of Christmas in my soundscape.

 B.   Process

  1. The sounds I used for my soundscape were walking with heels both indoors and outdoors, sounds of background noise both indoor and outdoors, car noises, and the sound of a sink being turned on and off. I recorded all those sounds by themselves. I had initially wanted to include sounds of snow crunching and the jingle of bells, but I was unable to find and record those sounds. I compromised by using the song “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey to emulate the feeling of Christmas, before I knew that I couldn’t use a song.
  2. My editing process was pretty smooth, since all I had to do was combine the sounds into one coherent track to listen to. However, one challenge I had was the my cuts were too harsh. I tried fixing this by having my sounds fade in and out to signify a change in atmosphere. Another one of my sounds was too short for what I needed it to be, so I had to duplicate the recording I had to make it longer. I found that my background sounds were a little too loud for my liking, so I had to lower their volumes. 

 C. Conclusion

If I had more time, I would have wanted to look for sounds that could replicate the sound of feet stepping in snow, and record the sound outside during a windy day so I can have the feeling of being windy and cold. I could also have looked for a set of bells that the school probably has and used it to further emulate the feeling of Christmas without having to explicitly use a song. 

A feedback I received was that I was not allowed to use a song, which I could have replaced with other sounds that also convey the Christmas feeling, 

Hito Steyerl – The Uncertainty of Documentarism

  • Steyerl talks about how the “unbroken belief” of the documentary form is challenged. What does Steyerl mean by this? Certain movies and films are based on a true story.  How does truth inform the fiction? How might fiction inform the truth?

What Steyerl means by the “unbroken belief” of the documentary form is challenged is that although documentaries are known for showing reality and the truth of the events, they are now more emotionally driven, which turns away from reality. In terms of films and movies that are based on true stories, the truthful event informs the fiction of the film, but the inaccuracies of the fiction can lead the the truthful feelings and emotions during those events. The inconsistencies in these films and documents are what create the “uncertainty”, since we don’t know what the truth and reality is. 

  • What is the significance of the authenticity and representation of the truth in the media that you consume on a daily basis? What is the role of a live broadcast?

The media that we consume on a daily basis is never truly a representation of the truth, since the information will always be coming from a biased standpoint. There are always multiple sides to a story, and people will take advantage of that to market something as the “truth”. The role of a live broadcast is to attempt to eliminate bias, but like in documentaries, even if their intent is to be as authentic as possible, the filmmaker is able to shift the focus to themselves in the situation. 

10.R Interface Art

https://saramui.github.io/CCLAB/Sara-miniProject10/

https://github.com/saramui/CCLAB/tree/main/Sara-miniProject10

 

I thought that my imaginary creature mini-project would be a good project for me to integrate with html user interface elements. This is because there are different variables that I can use html buttons to change.

My first idea was to have my creature start and stop walking, so I made buttons for those functions. I had trouble with actually implementing these buttons, because I tried putting the walk function in an if statement, but then my character wouldn’t even appear on the page. I fixed this by first declaring and making my creature show up on the page, and then defining his movement in the if statement. 

Another set of buttons I implemented was to change the background color of the project. Since my original background was light blue, I decided to call that ‘daytime’ and add a dark blue to represent the ‘nighttime’. This also initially did not work, but I soon realized that it was because I had declared a variable with the same name as a preexisting function. After I changed the name of the function, the backgrounds ended up working. 

I also struggled with the background. When I initially uploaded the image, it was a weird size and ended up showing up again next to the first background image. Because I only wanted one image to be my background, I looked up what to do and saw that I could use no-repeat to ensure that my image only appears once. 

One challenge I couldn’t fix was the way that the framecounts of my project would continue to change even after I pressed the stop walking button on my creature, which would mean that when I pressed start walking again he would teleport to another part of the canvas. 

Project Proposal Prompt (Project B)

1) Working Title and Elevator Pitch

Coloring Music

This project uses synesthesia to visualize music using colors.  

2) Concept

I wanted to explore the topic of synesthesia as well as base my project around the concept of sound visualization. As someone who does not have chomesthesia, I wanted to create a platform for people who also don’t have it to experience what chomesthesia is like.  As someone who is very interested in music and likes looking at pretty images, I thought this would be a perfect chance for me to connect these two into an interactive experience that everyone can enjoy.

I wanted my project to be generative enough that it would yield a different output for every input, which would make interacting with my project more interesting. 

I also wanted my project to be easy to understand and use, since not everyone is familiar with how a piano and the process of chromesthesia works.

3) Sources / Related Art & Practice

https://www.soundoflife.com/blogs/experiences/seeing-sound-hearing-colours-exploring-the-concept-of-chromesthesia

This article taught me what synesthesia and chomesthesia are and how they work relative to the different senses that are used. I also found this image, which I can use as a reference for which colors I can use for each key. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMBx6AYaRXc

I really liked the visual and the movement of the video. I also really liked the translucent circles of the image and wanted to combine the two to be the visual in my final project. 

4) Production / Methodology

I plan to use keys on the keyboard to replicate piano keys so that one button can match up to one key on the piano. I decided to use piano notes because I thought that it would be the best way to represent chromesthesia, since their research was done on piano notes. I also thought that it would be the most familiar to people, whether they have piano experience or not, just by being able to tell notes and what their intervals were with each other; they would be able to use my project to play real songs that exist if they want to. 

The visual portion of my project will involve shapes that are triggered to draw when the note is pressed. I want there to be some kind of movement in my visuals to accompany the moving sounds, but also some kind of stability so that the project isn’t too visually crowded.

Project B. Code + [ ]

https://saramui.github.io/CCLAB/final/

https://github.com/saramui/CCLAB.git

Sara Mui

Playing with Colors

Using colors to visualize musical notes.

This project is a demonstration of the way that chromesthesia works. When each musical note is played on the keyboard, the visuals on the page change to the color that the sound is associated with.

In this project, I wanted to explore the way that people with synesthesia see and experience the world. I wanted to combine that interest with a way to do audio visualization, where playing sounds induces a visual. I combined these two by matching a color to a note. I used a graphic to scientifically match the colors and sounds to stimulate the experience of chromesthesia as closely as possible.

I decided to present my project two ways, one to show the animation of the visuals while the notes are being played, showing the visuals and process someone with chromesthesia could see when they are listening to different sounds, and one that creates a still image, ultimately an ‘art piece’ that someone with chromesthesia could envision. 

the home page explaining what chromesthesia is and some inspirations I had.

the project page in the animation feature, showing the header.

the project page in the still animation feature with the reference alert pop-up.

 

Reflection:

1) Process: Design and Composition

I wanted my visualization of the sound to show movement as the note is playing. I was inspired by the concept of raindrops dissipating in water and wanted to play with the size opacity of the shape: as the sound of the note gets softer, the size of the shape expands and the opacity of the image gets less opaque. I wanted to experiment with pushing and splicing arrays, since when a note disappears, the image should too. This was also because I had really slow code for Project A and didn’t want that to happen again. 

I decided to include two modes, because my goal all along was to include different versions of my projects. At first, I had wanted to try different color palettes, but after doing more research I decided against deviating from the original theme of my project, where there are scientific findings about a certain note matching to one specific color. I then decided to create two modes based on where the background is being called in the code. I thought this would be a good idea because in the Animation mode you are able to see the circles decreasing in transparency and can see the different circles popping up and disappearing. I thought of this as more of an experience that someone with chromesthesia would have while listening to music. The Still Piece mode was inspired by people who use their chromesthesia to make still life art pieces. I thought that if each circle drew on top of the other it would be able to create an art piece that was representative of the musical piece itself, with every image being uniquely different since there are random variables in the code. 

I also thought that it would be a good idea for there to be a reference of which key on the piano corresponded to which button on the keyboard without having to go back to the home page (since I didn’t include a button and it would take a lot of time to go back and forth). However, I didn’t want to have an image on the project page because I only wanted the project page to be the project’s canvas for the entire window. I then realized that the alerts would be the best option to use in this case.

 

2) Process: Technical 

My initial code of having a keyIsPressed function spawning circles that increased in size while decreasing in opacity was pretty simple to implement as a class, especially with the ability to push and splice objects. The first challenge I faced was how I would be able to change the color of the objects whose color was previously defined in the constructor of the class. I was then told by a classmate that I can define keyCodes in the update of the class, which is what I ended up doing. I also did not realize that I needed to have each rbg value for a color (since one of the values can be 0) until I tried testing my project and found that the colors were weird when I didn’t define one of the values as 0. After fixing that problem, it was only a matter of using an external keyPressed function to play the sounds and the basis of my project was finished. 

The next challenge I had was implementing a form of variety in my project, since I had wanted it to have multiple modes. My initial idea was to have different color schemes, but the deviation from chromesthesia and the way that I didn’t know how to code that stopped me from pursuing that idea. I did end up realizing I could have different modes by having the background called in either setup() or draw() because when I first coded it I had background in the wrong place, which made the animation look wonky. My next challenge was being able to implement that, because background can’t be called in both at the same time; it would make my project look weird. I ended up thinking of using booleans and linking them with html buttons on my website. If a certain button was pressed, it would call one of the background functions. I really liked what that ended up being. My next step was trying to create a clear background function for if someone was finished with the Still Piece and wanted a clean slate, but was ultimately unable to do that without clicking on the animation button again. 

 

3) Reflection and Future Development

I think my project is a good reflection of what I had initially set out to do. I had wanted to create a connection between hearing music and seeing visuals, which is what I ended up making. 

Some critique that I got was that there should be different shapes, more contrasts in color, have the animation appear overtop the still piece, and for the background color of the page to change colors when a key is pressed. 

Some stuff that I would’ve liked to work more on is the ability to have circles of multiple colors appear when multiple keys are pressed. I would also like to have circles of a color last until they’re spliced, even if the corresponding key is not pressed. I would also have liked to have my buttons be on top of the canvas so that the canvas could have been the true size of the window.

In terms of future projects, I would always like to have a clear canvas button, and buttons that link each page together.