Category: Spring 2021

sree.Lauren McCarthy Talk

To be honest, I couldn’t be there during the whole talk because as internet had it it kept pulling me in and out of the call. However, i’d found enough of the talk interesting for me to go back to her website. The pieces that stuck out for me were TALKING IS DANGEROUS and Follower.

In talking is dangerous, the thing that mattered to me the most was how present it was. Often I’ve found art that is trying to converse “to the moment” often feel a bit too baseless or un-depthful. This piece just made sense, and as with a lot of my interests, I think it boils down to the simplicity of what’s happening. While I’m not sure how agency the user had in “conversing” the form itself felt very honest. In a way it felt like a rant that she was having, about just how it felt to exist in this moment, but then as a piece and with interaction with humans. And yet, it’s safe! as she mentions again and again what’s so cool is that the piece is only digging deeper into the omnipresent requirement of safety, but still engages in conversation, catharsis, and community.

With follower, though the UI reminded me of how old apple used to look like, again, it’s the conceptuality that struck me. While its clear that Lauren works deeply with neural networks/AI-type stuff in most of her pieces, in this one, it was remarkable how in practice/ work is about the human, and figuring ways to inspect the human condition. The piece really inspired me in thinking about my Project 2 as well, and thinking about what emotion and reflection I want the piece to work with. What is it reflecting on. I would love to see more of here work and also look into P5.js, but that’s for later

P 2 idea/ Sree

Transformation Idea:

The transformation for me is from taking the pictures/assets I have to making them a navigable experience in a rectangular room ( like a corridor/room in our dorm) I want it to be work more on the auditory experience and introduce Fog and discernability. The push would be for the images to become clearer as I approach closer, And for the sounds to lead the experience. In a way I want it to feel like these objects exist in the room and they are being unveiled.

Navigation of Space

While I might try out the navigation experience, I still want the navigation to be relative to the room. For this version, I’m thinking of using a very specific dimension room and making the app-specific to it which is a typical 4 bedroom dorm room. As of now this still looks like augmented in terms of being in the space.

Key Interaction

  1. Finding Source of Audio
  2. Uncovering Artwork
  3. Touching something to have it make a noice/spew objects

Sky Base

How my space will evolve:

I will be cutting out the castle from my first project and transform the rest of the space into a floating defense base recycling the turrets and platforms already made in P1. I plan to replace the castle with a landing pad. This would be done to increase the performance by having something less complex and would also for a more open ended space for exploration. The main feature of the sky base will be a command node where the player can click buttons to activate turrets or make them fire.

Navigations:

The command node will be accessed by a ladder. The player can move around by walking . There would be some drones hovering around that you can click as hotspots to get a better view. If there is time I might add a camera filter to the drones to make it look like you are looking through them.

Interactions Ideas

Click on objects to trigger dialogue or comments from the player about them. The command node buttons to make turrets do something special will also be interactions. The drones will also be a fun form of interaction.

Video/Images: I just came up with the idea so lots of modifications need to be done at the moment.

P2 Idea: Magic Forest in AR

  • How my space will evolve:

I’d like to add more storytelling aspects to it, I want the forest to feel more lived in with more things like the camping chairs I included in my project one. I was thinking about changing the story to the user wanting to make the forest feel more alive (Including more in the interaction ideas).

  • Navigation:

Walking normally with the phone in addition to being able to climb up all pine trees to see a wider view and a few teleportation hotspots for the sake of people with smaller spaces.

  • Interaction ideas:
  1. Enemies: Similar to project 1’s enemies but more thought out including the user’s hands in order to attack and having a more responsive experience rather than just clicking them with one tap.
  2. Planting: The user would be planting more mushrooms and plants in order to make the user help the forest grow and prosper.
  3. Populate the area with creatures/Take care of creatures: Adding various animals to make the forest feel alive. Or there would be creatures and the player would be able to feed them and pet them.
  • Images:
  • Screen recording:

Lauren McCarthy talk

I really enjoyed Lauren McCarthy’s talk about her artwork as well as the art making process. I especially liked the Follower app and the questions it raises about surveillance. She mentioned the irony of the fact that while we hate surveillance, we also have this need to be watched/viewed as evidenced by our activity on social media, etc.

It also made me think about surveillance with regards to who is being watched. Who decides who is watched and who has the privilege of hiding from surveillance? Looking at the website, there was one sentence that stood out to me: “The Follower stays just out of sight, but within your consciousness.” This makes me think about our awareness of being watched, something McCarthy talked about as well. It’s interesting how we have such varied reactions at being watched; we’re sometimes uncomfortable and sometimes we like the attention.

The Follower also takes a photo of the followed person and that’s all they’re left with at the end of the experience. I began wondering about the traces we leave behind as we move around the world (as explored in Professor Heather’s work as well) and whether we actually own those parts of ourselves that we leave behind as ‘waste’.

Project 2 Idea

I think I’m changing my topic slightly- I can’t incorporate an entire murder mystery narrative into my project, so I’m making the narrative more geared towards finding a diamond (or something else) hidden somewhere in the house.

I want the viewer to be able to walk around the room (free navigation), and for sounds to change as they move closer or further away from objects- like the fire gets louder if you move towards it, and the wind gets louder if you move towards the door.

I’m considering making my project more sound dependent, so maybe you discover more clues as you move towards different sounds.

Also- just in terms of details- I’m planning to add windows and wind blowing outside. Considering making the windows interactable so you can open or close them. Also will add books on the table maybe, just fill up the room a bit more and make it bigger, right now it seems a bit bare.

To make the environment creepy, I’m going to dim the lights further, so the only source of light is the fire and the windows.

Interaction 1– you swipe at the globe and it spins around (with the sound effect “whoosh” or “spin”), maybe opening a secret passageway which you can climb down (like the climb up thing we learned in class) leading to another room (not planning to have this room super detailed though) behind a locked door.

Option 2- Alternatively, the globe has a keyhole.

Interaction 2– There’s something peeking out from underneath the carpet so you kick it aside with your foot (no idea how to do this, will go to office hours) to reveal a key but you have no idea where it goes- maybe opens the locked door downstairs. when you discover the passageway it gets “highlighted” sort of like spidey senses.

Option 2- The key goes into the globe which turns on other lights in the room.

Interaction 3– You look at a window and it rattles, swinging open and shut, with the sound effect “creak” and the wind gets louder.

The screen recording doesn’t have interactions yet, it’s just a converted AR format- I need more help with interactions. I also need to make my own globe asset so I can separate the globe from its stand to spin it. Also may need to do the same with the rug.

the video auto rotated and I’m not sure how to change it back

Project 2 Idea: My World of Despair AR

My World of Despair AR vs My World of Despair VR

This AR world will allow users to navigate freely in the space provided. They will get a sense that they are walking, climbing, or falling as if they are in a real world. In the VR world however, users feel like they are entitled to go to those specific locations because they need to click on a hotspot to relocate.

Interaction Ideas

1. Free Navigation

Similar to my VR world, users will be placed in the middle of the ruined city to heighten their curiosity and sense of exploration. However, instead of jumping from one point to another, users now have the ability to walk to where their hearts desire. They could use their hands to open doors and pick up objects. To climb buildings, they could use their legs to push them up and hands to grab on to the buildings’ bricks.

Inside a building
2. Free Fall

My AR world will also include several teleportation hotspots. When users step on these hotspots, I imagine the following could happen:

  1. Users will be teleport toward the sky and then they will fall down toward the ground. As they are falling down, they can see all the buildings below them getting bigger and nearer. They can move their arms as if they are swimming to slow down their fall.
  2. Besides falling through space, users are also falling through time into the past. Thus, in addition to seeing buildings becoming bigger and nearer, they see those buildings reverting to their pre-destruction conditions. As they land on the ground, they will notice that their surrounding has changed dramatically.
Falling from the sky

Project 2: Pinball in AR

The environment of my fantasy pinball will be transformed into AR for Project 2. I am hoping the space will evolve with more navigation options that would enhance the user’s experience of feeling trapped in a pinball game. I am planning to expand the layout by adding enclosing walls (as show in the sketch above) that you could climb up but not be able to escape the space anyways. The environment is navigable through walking, hotspots (for a larger perspective on where you are) and climbing.

The interactions that I am curious in implementing here are:
1) being able to kick the pinball with your foot
2) play with the flippers by tapping on the screen
3) jumping over the ball

Unfortunately, I am currently experiencing several issues. My project 1 layout had a lot of 2d backdrops for visual effects but they do not show up properly as you can see in the recordings. Also, my hotspots and totem objects don’t show up when the app is running on the phone.

Project 2 Progress

Navigation

  1. An app screen recording of the navigation in action
  2. Some answers for these questions:
    • Why do you choose to navigate the space in this way?
    • How does the navigation affect the user’s feelings about the space?
    • In what way can the environment interact with the user when navigate?

Interaction

  1. Based on feedback, pick one interaction to implement for Project 2
  2. Storyboard the interaction with sketches, and detail the plan to inspire the user to carry it out:
    • Why do you want to carry out that action?
    • How do you inspire the user to carry it out? What’s the cue?
    • How to satisfy the expectation?

Project 2 Idea

  • A screen recording of the WIP app
  • Few screenshots of the WIP app
  • 1~2 sentences of:
    • Thoughts on how will your space evolve with this transformation
    • Thoughts about “In what way makes the most sense to navigate this space”. Consider how can the world view of the space benefit from the navigation
  • Identify 3 key interactions for your Project 2 (Suggestion: why not try something weird and uncertain?). Think of actions involving one body part (hand, foot, head, etc) and an “object”. For each interactions, consider why and how