²

Phase 2 Brief (And later discussion)

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Basically right now I am in a state of creative block. So what I have just done (with two days till the group proposal) is spend hours and hours looking at the best inspiration I could find on the net re: what I percieve to be the subject at hand. The result is a large number of amazing ideas but sadly no sparks of inspiration just yet. Rather than dispair though, I think I will sleep on it and show the rest of the group my findings tomorrow. With luck even if we have no amazing new flashes of inspiration we can cut and recombine the existing ideas in order to progressively move forward.

Here is the list of links I have covered today. I am not going to post a description just yet but I will soon as I feel they will be important for the next step in the process.

Inspiration

http://moodstream.gettyimages.com/

http://www.weboffate.com/visualization/

http://www.brendandawes.com/sketches/redux/

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/06/urgently_infosculpture.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

http://www.semiconductorfilms.com/root/Magnetic_Movie/Magnetic.htm

http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/diggrings/

http://www.bestiario.org/research/videosphere/

http://www.semiconductorfilms.com/BN_Exhibition.htm

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/06/stop_motion_graphic_equal.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2008/05/massive_digital_ceiling_clock.html

http://labs.live.com/photosynth/

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/09/timetube-the-timeline-that-youtube-should-built/

http://www.designsupremo.com/index.cfm?action=product.detail&department=art&product=a-b-peace-terror-etc--d0

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

http://www.abigailreynolds.com/mntF/mntFmain.html

http://www.flare-facade.com/

http://creativity-online.com/

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2008/07/lasercut_sound_analysis_sculptures.html

http://www.spectrumatlas.org/spectrum/

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html

http://www.avoision.com/experiments/pi10k/index.php

http://lastgraph3.aeracode.org/

http://iwantyoutowantme.org/

http://www.core77.com/competitions/GreenerGadgets/

http://www.yankodesign.com/index.php/2008/01/14/saver-clip-shames-your-electricity-usage/

http://marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm

http://social.cs.uiuc.edu/projects/conversationclock.html

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2007/10/the_impact_of_social_data_visualization_infovis_workshop.html#extended

http://www.digital.udk-berlin.de/en/projects/summer07/haupt/bodytech/googlering.html

http://www.urbaneye.net/

http://www.nickdlobo.com/wordpress/

http://www.christianmeinke.com/2007/04/10/wiimote-communication/

http://youniverse.com/personality/feedback/de9dbf85eb0ccc0a03e452175a5bef1a

imagini.net

oskope.com

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2007/02/browsegoods_visual_shopping.html

http://infosthetics.com/archives/2007/08/adobe_building_semaphore.html#more

http://content.stamen.com/som_transbay_tower

http://www.snibbe.com/scott/public/youarehere/video.html

feel fine

Ideas
Making something generally invisible visible
LED Shirts to display information/pictures
Creating a wearable device that transfers/converts data into something usable (weather reports change t shirt colour using W/Networks, for instance)
Visualising sound in 3D (even in physical form?)

Interaction (with 3D Space)
Using a wiimote with MAX/Processing to locate an object in 3d space/Head tracking
Motion sensors mapping movement to 3d space on a projector.

Taking data collected externally and visualising it in an interesting/comprehensive way
Taking social experiments (psychology) and visualising the results on video/3D sculpture 2D Artwork
Modelling mathematical abstractions in rapid prototyping (already done)

Peform a social experiment and then visualise the results
Observing people/events/phenomena, take a dataset using some method that deliberately provokes thought/discussion and then present that data in an unexpected way
Present data out of context (much like Borat or Michael Moore) in order to influence how people think about it, and THEN present that same data in context

Notes
Digital vs reality... or even mixed reality (video?)
A digital format would be more asthetic, but a real object would be more permanent. Combining both (circuitry with say, a sculpture and a video camera) would create a bigger impact on whoever interacts with the piece.
Art vs Design
Our instructors have been (deliberately?) ambiguous with this, but I would like to produce something interesting, although whether it is useful or not I think is not all that important at this stage.
Innovative approach
Not having much (if any) money to spend will surely have an impact on what we do here. But such emerging technology as camspace, combined with Processing (free) and about $40 of kit has the potential to create a fully functional VR space. If we are capable of this in the times we live in then if we can get access to a camera/arduino/rapid prototyping through AUT then I see no limit to what we can potentially create here.
Presentation Methods
In my research I have found many contemporary techniques of presenting data such as tag clouds, various kinds of graph, relating size to frequency/quantity, relating colour to mood etc etc. I would seek to question these rather than conform. I think that 2D presentation methods are approaching staleness while 3D methods are all looking very sharp in order to introduce that 'design' edge. Again, I would question that through discussion with my group.

Infact in a sense the lack of limits is the equivalent of being given a blank page and a pencil and a white room. This is perhaps the opposite sensation to the 1000 poly limit we had last semester! But I digress... =)