My variable face project was based on a much more detailed portrait sketch of my friend. I had to tone down the details into a more minimalist and abstract face to make the project more manageable for myself in code. When the mouse is clicked, the color of the eyes, blush, and lips change randomly, and so does the face shape variably. I wanted the background to change colors through the black and white, however, with the initial stroke color being black, it would be harder to see the face. So, I used an “if” command so that if the background was closer to white, the strokes remain black and when the background is darker, the strokes turn white. What was difficult for me was working on curves. It took a lot of practice for me to define the curves that I wanted, so I used a mixture of lines and ellipses added to it as well.

https://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/591827

For this project, I just drew a simple face with bezier curves and ellipses. The anchor points and control points are all randomized. One of the issues I faced during this project was that each time I clicked the mouse, the face would randomize several times instead of just once.

OpenProcessing Link: https://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/592596

• Image of static face:
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• Animated GIF of variable face:
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• Description:
• I made a simple version of a portrait of my sister. The mouse-click version varies in shirt color, hair length, open/closed eyes, eyebrow angle, cheek color, and mouth shape. These parts of the portrait portray different emotions. I had difficulties especially with the angling of the eyebrows, and I ended up rewriting my code several times because my code was lost after saving several times in Open Processing.
• Link: https://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/591270

 

For the variable face project, I took my portrait of a dog and simplified it in code (it used to have a body). When the mouse is pressed, the dog’s ears “move” and the dog itself is colored by the shades of a randomly selected color. The dog is also going to have a random mouth from 3 options: a closed mouth, an open mouth, or have it’s tongue sticking out. The sizes of its nose, mouth, and tongue is also random with each click. The placement of the dog’s eyes and nose will be random somewhere on the top part of the dog’s face. While working on the project, I had difficulty with showing off the different mouths the dog could have. When the mouse was clicked, the dog would show a mouth, but only for a fraction of a second before “erasing” it. This issue was solved when I moved the if statements relating to the mouths into draw() instead of mousePressed().

Link to project: https://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/590649

link:https://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/588605

My portrait depicts myself eating ramen and feeling blissful. I got this idea when I was hungry at one midnight.

As the mouse is pressed, number of noddles in the ramen bowl starts decreasing, shown by the fading yellow color inside the bowl.

As noddles start to enter the mouth, the yellow ellipse inside the mouth gets more yellowish, representing more noodles inside.

My face also grows fatter because I’m filling my stomach with calories.

Meanwhile, the blushing on my face starts to become more reddish, because ramen makes me feel warm.

When I am eating the ramen, my facial expression is changing constantly, with hair, brows and lips moving.

I encountered some difficulties when doing the work, such as specifying the coordinates of curves. The problem was solved after I started to use the curve tool on Creative Coding class website. In addition, at first I didn’t label the meaning of each sentences. So the codes were a bit messy. After labelling the sentences, I could identify their uses easily.

Vera-Maria Glahn

I was interested in this person because it said that she was a designer for new media films, and I’m very interested in films and movies. When I saw her work, it was not at all what I expected but it caught my attention. Her artwork is very vibrant and colorful, which I like and it’s really fun to look at. Vera-Maria Glahn has made art and designs for Nike, Adidas, and Toyota among many other associations. I chose this particular piece of artwork because I think it captures the essence of this artist’s work and it’s very mesmerizing.

      

photos by Eric Simpson

Luminoid Garden, which is created by Filipa Valente, is an interactive installation that creates a bond between the audience and their surroundings. The garden shows a kind of breathing behavior depends on the light, temperature, pollution, and the actions of audience members. This project is also collabarated with Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre, who performed with the artificial blooms making connection between environment, people, and the city.

I chose this project mainly because of the element “light.” Light always plays a crucial role in various ways. In movies, the alteration of brightness and darkness can represent hope and hopeless. As for a photo, it can help the audience focus on the part or feel the emotion that the artist wants to deliver. Not to mention one of the most popular art event “Tokyo Art City by Naked,” which uses particles of light to reflect the human activity of Tokyo in multiple dimensions.

SinCosLines

This virtual interactive artwork was created by user Henrique Bergamo on OpenProcessing. Defined mostly by intertwining white points and lines, it is consistently spinning and slowly unraveling around itself. When the user clicks on it or clicks the space bar, the design instantly changes to be a different, but still spherical pattern. Using the left or right arrow key causes the design to change spinning direction to various speeds, ultimately transforming the pattern. The interactive distortions captures the eye to follow along each line as they move to create something new, similar to a kaleidoscope effect.

Artwork like this intrigue me because they seem so simple, yet extremely complex at the same time. With it constantly moving, it’s difficult to notice every detail that has been put in precise place to achieve the full experience. The lines move and interact fluidly through coding, making what may appear to be random transformation actually very intentional. Working with software allow for art to be virtual, therefore possibly more personal as it can respond to touch and human interaction.

I found Kate Armstrong through the Artist Resources. She created “The Problem of Other Minds,” in 2006. It is an art display featuring a robotic sculpture. The sculpture contains voice recognition technology, and whenever it hears words it recognizes, it rolls out some of the spool of paper inside it. The paper has thoughts and notes written on it, to be revealed.

I initially was interested in this project because I thought the title of the display is ironic/intriguing, and probably is more related to what is written on the spool. It is interesting to see someone using voice technology in order to make something physically move. It’s really common to see voice recognition used in order to make a device follow instructions within itself, but we haven’t really seen this utilized to move physical objects. I think it’s a creative notion, and there’s probably much further use of what she started doing here.

This artwork is a web-based dynamic model called In the Air. It shows the components of the air which people cannot see through raw eyes. People can also learn about the chemical or physical change of the air.

This is very new to me, since the air is invisible. The only way I feel the air is through the wind; however, the air is necessary for human. We always say:” I need some air,” but we barely know about the air pollution. Since this project shows the real pollen and diseases in the air, I believe that audiences will realize how grave the atmospheric pollution is through the project. As a result, I chose this artwork to support the idea of protecting our environment.