Author: Vivien Hao

Question 1:In your own words, please explain the difference between having your for loop from Step 2 in setup() as opposed to in draw().

Having the for loop in setup() would only draw the image once. But if I put the for loop in draw(), it would draw continuously. 

Question 2:What is the benefit of using arrays?  How might you use arrays in a potential project?

By using arrays, we could put same type variables under one category instead of repeating them separately for several time. I think I might use arrays for a project in which I want several shapes to be presented simultaneously at different locations with different speeds. 

int rad = 60; 
float[] ballx=new float [100];
float[] bally=new float [100];
float[] ballxspeed=new float [100];
float[] ballyspeed=new float [100];

void setup() 
{
  size(640, 360);
  for(int i=0;i<ballx.length;i++){
    ballx[i]=random(width);
    bally[i]=random(height);
    ballxspeed[i]=random(20);
    ballyspeed[i]=random(0.1);
  }
}

void draw() 
{
  background(255);
  for(int i=0;i<ballx.length;i++){
    strokeWeight(1);
    stroke(60);
    int c = color( 90,0,150,random(0,255));
    fill(c);
    ellipse(ballx[i], bally[i], rad, rad);
    rect(ballx[i], bally[i],10,10);
    triangle(ballx[i],bally[i],ballx[i]+10,bally[i],0,0);
    ballx[i] = ballx[i] +  ballxspeed[i] ;
    bally[i] = bally[i] +  ballyspeed[i] ;
  if (ballx[i] > (width) || ballx[i] < 0) {
    ballxspeed[i] = -ballxspeed[i];
  }
  if (bally[i] > (height) || bally[i] < 0) {
    ballyspeed[i] = -ballyspeed[i];
  }
  }
}

Recently I have visited the Chronus exhibition with the class. I went to a similar exhibition place last year with Professor Parren’s RAPS class field trip. The Chronus exhibition is quite different from the one that I had visited last year. The Chronus exhibition requires more interaction between the projects and the viewers. For example, there was one project called Artificial Intuition. In that project, the artist includes ultraviolet rays. By using the ultraviolet rays, the artwork could detect any movements that the viewer is making. And then, the artwork would imitate the viewer’s movement. The artworks that I saw from last year’s RAPS field trip were quite different. The artworks from that field trip were more descriptive. Those artworks required less interaction. I remember we had to go into a dark room and stand in front of the huge projection screen. The screen just kept showing the video that the artist wanted to show us. The artist incorporated lights, sounds, and some effects together. But there was not much interaction needed. We only figured out one part that required some interaction. There was a corner in the room that could echo if we make some sounds.

         I have researched on some interactive projects. Several projects have caught my eyes. Firstly, I would like to talk about a project called the bomb. The artists of that project want to make the community understand how effective nuclear weapons could be. How nuclear weapon could affect people’s daily lives in some negative ways. The bomb communicates this idea in a less solemn way. In the article “An Experience at the Heart of Nuclear Annihilation”, the author mentions, “the bomb is an immersive film, music, and art installation that puts viewers at the center of the story of nuclear weapons. VICE went behind the scenes of its premiere at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival in New York” (1). This project includes film and music that could help the audience understand what nuclear annihilation would look like. Growing up in a military island, Guam, I always pay close attention to the updates on new weapons. I know how effective military weapons could affect my life. For example, after World War Two, Guam’s soil was being tasted with a high percentage of lead, which means everything that grows locally would contain lots of lead. My family would not eat much locally grown stuff due to that high percentage of lead in soil. This is an issue that the locals have been facing post-WWII. We, locals, know how severe it can get be. However, my friends from outside of the island do not really understand this pain when I mention this story to them. The bomb’s intention is to make people aware of how severe this issue can get. I think these artists do have a strong intention. However, I think they could make it more interactive. After watching the video, I felt like they are just trying to imitate the environment. I do not see much interaction between the participants and the bomb itself. For my project, I hope I can also illustrate such a meaningful purpose with some interactive processes.

         In addition to the bomb, another project that has caught my eyes is Artists Show Us How to Make Outrageous Costumes for $100. In that article, the author talks about how several artists self-make costumes. Even though this project might not seem to be very interactive, but I think it could be developed further and add some interaction processes onto it. If I have the opportunity to work on something like this, I think I would build a device that would help the participant to make the costume if the participant is willing to provide his requirements and carefully follow the procedures that I have set up. I think by doing that, this self-make costume idea would be limited only to people who have tailoring skills. Everyone would be able to enjoy the process of self-make costumes and take part in promoting sustainability. I believe that everyone has his own thoughts and ideas about costumes. Everyone has inspiration. For example, one artist says, “It’s basically myself in the future. Sci-fi costumes are always my go-to, and I wanted to incorporate some elements having to do with my Transformational Makeover project” (3). If the project/device could be built in a way that helps people to put their inspirational ideas to become a true item, I think it would be very meaningful. I am personally very interested in the fashion field and also do have a concern about the unsustainability issue that we are encountering currently.

         From my previous two projects, I think I have had similar definitions of interaction. I think interaction is simply asking a participant to interact with the device, and through the processes, an expected outcome would arise. However, when the participant is not following the procedures properly, the expected outcome would not appear. My definition of interaction aligns with the definition from one reading we had read at in the beginning of this semester—What exactly is interactivity? In that article, the author mention, “interaction: a cyclic process in which two actors alternately listen, think, and speak” (5). According to the author, the two parties—the participant and the device—have to participate in this process. They both have to contribute some effort in order for the interaction to work properly. Both projects that I have analyzed above somewhat incorporates interaction throughout the process. However, interaction features might not be so obvious in the processes. Like I have mentioned above, there are ways to make these two projects to be more interactive. Without a doubt, these two projects do give me inspiration for the project that I want to work on.

References page

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3kvwaw/an-experience-at-the-heart-of-nuclear-annihilation

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kz3zme/artists-show-us-how-to-make-outrageous-costumes-for-dollar100

http://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/ima-wp/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/08/05164121/The-Art-of-Interactive-Design-brief.pdf

In this exercise, I have learned how to draw a circle in processing and add the changing size feature in coding. The logic did not make sense to me at first. It worked backward. If the circle reaches the maximum size it can get, then I should put a negative number in the coding in order for it to decrease to a smaller size. Vice versa, if I want the circle to get bigger, then I should put a positive number for it to increase.

The first exercise I have used mousepressed. If I press within the range, then the colors would change. I did that for the two squares, excluding the innermost square. The second exercise I just followed the instructions on the website and made the circle increase and decrease in size and also change the hue as it changes its size. 

Merry Christmas—Vivien Hao—Professor Inmi

Context and significance:

In my previous group project, we were mainly focused on solving an existing global issue. For this midterm project, my partner and I wanted to do something different. Our initial intention was to make the process of learning music to be more interesting to kids. Since both of us started learning the piano when we were young, so we understand the feelings to be bored by the black and white keyboard that lies in front of us. With that being said, it is obvious the targeted group of audiences for our project would be kids who have not started learning music but have the interest to do so. It can also be interesting for adults who do not have much musical knowledge. They might get a self-satisfied feeling when playing with the project. One of my friends came up to us and played the project for a couple of minute, and he told me that he felt like he was also a music while he was playing with it. He felt satisfied.

Before we started working on this project, we had done some research on how to make our project interactive. I went back to the projects that I have researched for the group research project. “The Evil Eye-Optical audio record by Indianen” was still something that stood out to me. In that project, the artists really required the participants to give inputs to the project constantly. For example, the participant was expected to put an audio record to the project in order to move on to the next step. Then it would ask the participant to do another task, etc. When I was introducing this project to some of my friends, they were questioning the purpose of this project. They were making a point by saying that music box is an object that has been existed for so long. So how is my project different from the existing music boxes in the market? I remember I have told them that our project does function like a music box, but it is not just an ordinary music box.  Our project requires more interaction between the project and the participant. The participant has to twist the potentiometer in order for the images on the motor to be moving along with the music. However, we did not have this part ready for the final presentation because our jump wires kept falling off. But it could have worked if the wires were working. For the future projects, if we could figure out a way to solve the wire issue, I think we would be able to build more.

 

Conception and design:

Throughout the entire process, we tried to think from the participants’ perspective and imagine how they would interact with this project. However, we did have some biases since we already have so much information about this project. We were not aware of some existing issues. For example, we were not aware of the issue that participants might move the plate in big circles and cannot figure out the music being played or might even be ended up breaking the project. And then she gave us the advice to make the plate into a larger piece that it would add difficulties for them to move the plate super quickly. We took that idea and made a bigger plate. And it did work out. Participants could not move the plate too quickly. We used 3D printing for our plates. For the first plate, we used wood. For the larger plate, we decided to use plastic material instead. We just thought that plastic might be stronger than wood.

Fabrication and production:

         From my perspective, I think the most significant step in my production process would be figuring out the codes and how to correctly build the breadboards. We were experiencing difficulties with the codes and the wires. I do not even know how many times that our project would not function in an expected way because we had a small issue in the codes, or one wire had been connected at the wrong spot. For future projects, I think I should be more thoughtful and careful when I am building a breadboard because sometimes one small error would prevent the project from functioning properly. In the User Testing Session, we did not have a box ready. There were no Christmas decorations on the table. All we had was the motors and the small plate that they could play with. I could tell that the participants were a bit confused about what they should do and how is the purpose of the project. We had realized this issue. After the session, we had decided to print the box immediately and create some Christmas decorations on the box that would give participants an obvious outcome to their inputs. After we added this to our project, I think the final presentation went better than the User Testing.

Conclusions:

         The major goal for our project was to encourage musical interests among children and adults who do not have much prior knowledge of music. The end results for the projects do align with our definition of interaction. The participant had to constantly interact with the project in order to have an outcome. The project itself would not give the participant many outcomes unless he chose to interact with it. However, one part of the project that hinders the definition of interaction. The stepper motor seemed to be a decoration. But in fact, it was also meant to require interaction. Like I have mentioned earlier, if we could solve the wire issue, then the project would fully meet our expectations of being interactive. If that issue was being solved, then the project would not give any outcomes to the participant if he chose not to interact with it. The audience, more or less, did interact with the project in expected ways. They were moving the plate and trying to figure out the music. Some of them started out at a fast pace ,and some started slower. They were adjusting their speed in order to figure out the music being played. If we had more time, I think we might add different scenes on the box and put different music with each scene. I think that would make the box more interesting. In addition, I would also like to make this box reusable. For example, I would like to make the scenes on the box to be replaceable. After this project, I think we definitely have learned some technical lessons. Moreover, I personally have also learned that for future projects, I should try to ask people for feedback and suggestions before the final decision. For this project, if we had asked the Professors and our friends for some advice, I think the project would be in a better format. Even though the project is far from being perfect, but I think it could be considered a small accomplishment for both of us. I personally think that for this project, we had done some good plannings. We were not procrastinating things to the last minute. I think overall, the project did meet up expectations, encouraging musical interests among kids and adults who do not have prior knowledge in music. But I think the project could be more interactive. And if we could master our technical skills, in the future we could really build something that could be used to deliver this idea better.

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