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Finished Assignment 5: I am extremely happy with the finished project. The pictures above are of the final plastic pieces that we shared with the class. I was especially excited by people's reactions to our project. Our presentation started with Spencer and me talking about our project, with the rest of the class still sitting in their seats looking at us, but soon, people began standing up and walking over to get their hands on the game. Clearly, people were curious and excited to build their own avatars through our system, and that is how I define success!

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Be sure to view full size by clicking the images. Some of them are cut off by the thumbnail on this blog.

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Assignment 5: Zodiac Identity Puzzle (Instruction and Artist Statement)

(Here are the instructions and "artists' statement" type write up I created for our project:)

Instructions:

Flip over all the wedges so that the text sides are facing up.

Pick four wedges that you feel describe yourself.

Turn over the wedges, so that the patterns are facing up.

Piece together the wedges like a puzzle to form a half circle.

Observe the patterns that come together to represent your own avatar.

Mission:

According to the zodiac system, a person is pre-determined to embody a set of characteristics based on the date they are born. While this system may sometimes be accurate, astrology propagates a rigid view of pre-determined identity and representation. An individual’s personality is more often a unique set of characteristics. Through this game, the user is given the power to concretely create a pattern that depicts their unique combination of traits.

Patterns and meaning:

There are four wedges for each of the twelve zodiac signs. Each zodiac sign is portrayed through a unified, unique design (see “Key”). Each pattern is as an abstract representation of the astrologically defined characteristics. Beyond unique patterns for each zodiac sign, each of the twelve signs belongs to one of four elements (earth, wind, air and fire). Each sign’s elemental classification is depicted through a border that reflects the specific element.

As the user chooses which characteristics they feel adequately describe themselves, the semi circle created is an avatar of how the user views their own personality. It is possible for the user to choose all four wedges of a single sign. If this is the case, a pattern will seamlessly come together to represent unification between the user’s views of themselves with the structure of the zodiac. If the user chooses wedges from different zodiac signs, the pieces will fit together, the outlines of the borders will line up, but the patterns of each wedge will be varied.

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Assignment 5: Preliminary designs of zodiac units

Top: Aires (fire), middle left: Cancer (water), middle right (air): Gemini, bottom: Taurus (earth)

Elements are represented through the borders. Characteristics are displayed through conceptual/abstract patterns.

Explanation coming soon!

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Source images for Assignment 5 graphics

As avatars are reflections of personal characteristics, we are choosing to look at the zodiac signs, their associated characteristics, and the tendency of these definitions to constrain people and their understanding of their own characteristics. For example, no person perfectly aligns with the zodiac definition of their sign. People are instead a mixture of different zodiac characteristics.

Many of these zodiac defined characteristics are emotionally charged, such a relaxed, overzealous, nervous, etc. I want to show people's personality and motivations through abstract designs.

Goals for design: accurately depict the characteristics/mantras/elements of each zodiac sign through abstract two-toned graphics

Constraints/reasoning: We are etching the designs into colored plastic, therefore my designs need to be two-toned (etched plastic and un-etched plastic). I also want to veer away from using realistic images in my designs because I do not want to just create stereotypical "zodiac" designs (ie rams, scorpions, etc). I feel as though abstract art is more closely associated with intrinsic emotions/emotional responses.

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Assignment 5 - Project development, questions

-What program should we do the designs in (so we can then send them to the laser printer to print)? Do they need to be vectors/done with the pen tool? Etc?

-What dimensions do we want our designs to be? Depending on how big the piece of plywood we use, we should do some dimensions off of that so we can fit all 12 pieces on one sheet. We also don't want these things to be too huge either... I also think we should try to stay within a set handful of shades of a color (for example, each design can only use 3-4 colors max... black, grey, white... because the laser cutter can burn in different shades but can't print color) to keep all the pieces unified.

-Where should we get materials/where are we making this?

-Conceptually: Source: http://www.astrology.com.au/astrology/12-signs-of-the-zodiac/

+12 zodiac signs

+ each of which fit into Fire, Earth, Air, Water (maybe depict this through a border? each design for Earth, example, will have the SAME border. that way if people pick 3 different "things", if they are all the same element they will still achieve some unity)

+ Break down each sign into 3 puzzle pieces

--- mantra (ex. Taurus: I am the best yet I am humble)

--- key life phrase (ex. Scorpio: I Will)

--- characteristics (okay, maybe have the user pick 2 of these, so making 4 pieces) (ex. Pisces: Loving, sensitive, intuitive, spiritual, idealistic, victimised and moody)

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Assignment 4 - Rear Window, finished thoughts

Our final project would be profile the elements of the film and how they influenced the audience. By combining the visual and auditory elements, we strived to display how they directly impacted the narrative sequence of events and audience reactions.

As the user rolls over each data point, the main image on top (the shot of the movie) changes, and there is a short sentence describing what is happening in the movie at that moment. Additionally, a significant sound plays. By adding a variety of cinematic elements to our data visualization, the user is more immersed in the subject being profiled. It also invites the user to draw their own conclusions about their own reactions under the same circumstances.

The bottom graph maps the viewer’s feelings of either being bored (0) or curious (10), while the top graph maps the viewer’s understanding from being clear on what’s going on (0) to being confused (10). Each data point is taken at a 5 minute interval, and the film’s time progresses from left to right. It’s interesting to see the wide range of emotions experienced by each viewer. For example, Noalee’s boredom-curiosity steadily increased as she watched the movie, while Spencer’s boredom-curiosity spiked substantially up and down throughout the movie.

I am also intrigued by my own outlier relative to everyone else’s curiosity at the beginning of the movie. At the beginning of movies, I am typically extremely curious about what is going to happen and what is going on. I guess everyone else goes into a movie bored, just waiting to be shown WHY they should be curious!

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Rear Window - Working Towards the Final Project

My job was to pull the images out of the film to be used in our final map. Each member would be recording their emotions every 5 minutes, so I needed to take the image that they would be relating to. These images will be used on our final map by being shown as the user scrolls over each data point/time mark. I also found and edited images of each of the significant characters for Spencer to use on his visual map of the movie's story space.

The image must accurately reflect the event that the audience would be reacting towards at these time marks. This required some subjective, and often biased, judgement on my part as it was my personal opinion to decide what was the most significant visual shot at these 5 minute intervals. I chose to expand the time I could choose images from to be about 30 seconds BEFORE the given time mark, not exactly at the 5 minute mark. For example, 15 mins exactly could be mid pan between windows on a brick building, when 10 seconds before then, the dog had died. The data point/emotional reading would most likely be based on the dog dying, not the next scene coming up.

In addition to sourcing images and heavily participating in the group brainstorm and idea development, I created and edited a google doc spreadsheet for the team to use for us to compile our results and set a time frame for execution.

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Rear Window - Planning the Project

My team ultimately decided to change the focus of our project to Rear Window. We saw many issues with a video game in measuring intangible elements. Video games can be variable as the experience generally reflects the skills and abilities of the player. Also, many people in our group had previously played Limbo, and therefore, they would not *truly* be able to measure their "authentic" intangible emotions while playing again. With a movie, each person in the group would be experiencing the same exact sequence of events/watching the same program.

I thought of doing the movie Rear Window because of the complexity of the plot, and the uniqueness of the perspective. I had heard that it was a murder mystery plot from the point of view of a man sitting in his apartment watching his neighbors. The single perspective would allow for a very interesting tangible map as we would be following the vision of the protagonist as the rest of the world comes and goes outside of his apartment. In this way, the viewer is trapped in the room with him.

When planning this project, my group and I tried to pull out what we saw as the key elements of the movie and plot. The main focal point of this movie is voyeurism, as Jeff sits in his apartment viewing his neighbors through his window, and often times through his camera. The visual scenes Jeff/the audience witnesses are the most crucial elements of the narrative. However, many "clues" are discovered through sound, almost hinting at the limitations of vision in revealing truths. The combination of these two elements lead to emotional states, bored to curious & clear to confused. Members would rank on a scale of 1 to 10 their feelings on those conditions every 5 minutes.

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Brainstormed prototype/sketch

Explanation/key:

the layout shows a linear progression of the game, therefore is the tangible part

INTANGIBLES:

represent the intensity of each chapter through the shade of grey: almost black = 1/not intense, white = 10/utmost intensity

represent the confusion of gameplay progressing through that chapter by the line to the next chapter, straight = 1/straight forward, really tumultuous = 10/"WTF"

gratification: ??? maybe line weight/color surrounding the icons? grey could mean no gratification, a bright yellow could mean lots of satisfaction?

challenge: ??? maybe size of icons, could metaphorically represent how big of a "looming fear" that chapter had over the player

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Limbo Game metrics brainstorm

RESEARCH ARTICLE: Researching player experiences through the use of different qualitative methods by Wannes Ribbens and Yorick Poels (here)

What sort of data should we try to record about our experiences with this game?

Intangible experiences:

Baseline expectations statement: from each user about what they expect their experience to be like, what their general expectations are for the game

SCALES to be assessed before gameplay, during (noting during/after which situations) and after completion: on a scale of 1-10, expectations for the following in game play: difficulty (1 no challenge, 10 impossible), confusion (1 not at all confused, 10 WHAT THE F**** IS GOING ON), gratification (1 no satisfaction, 10 extremely proud of what was accomplished) and intensity (1 bored, 10 enthralled).

End of gameplay review statement: players express overall satisfaction with the overall game, compare this to baseline

Tangible:

completion of chapters of the game (researched: 24 "chapters" but are only revealed as so at the completion of the game)

pick a notable symbol/character (icon) from each game and represent that "task" as the picked icon

as the game is a linear progression (there is only one path to reach the end, so straight line as opposed to branches/network), the map should follow a clear "cause and effect" path

Integration:

map intangible moments to these tangible moments

find correlation between tangible moments with intangible emotions

represent the "swelling" of intangible emotions through enlargement and/or colorization of icon

-->colorization, since the game is monochromatic, colorization would have a really strong and noticeable effect. For example, if we used red to represent stress/a strong emotion, it would deviate stylistically from the game and show the "attachement"/external emotion that is being LAYERED onto the game

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Assignment 3 Feedback

One aspect of my film that people seemed to have the most issues with was the jaggedness of the type movement. While this was an intentional decision on my part (as opposed to the words coming in smoothly), the purpose of this movement was not clearly conveyed to the audience. Many people also suggested different ways I could accomplish conveying the "time punctuation" I was aiming for. Some visual ideas were to have a still image, like a polaroid, placed down on a desk so it was clear that it was a series of snapshots. I could also accomplish this snapshot effect by having a film projector clicking noise in the background, in rythm with the text movement. However, my favorite comment was from Royal who suggested the sound a clock ticking. This, I feel, would completely convey the notion of time passing that I was aiming for. But also, I thought, having the ticking turn into the sound of a lamp being turned on (the chain pulling noise) would transition into the idea of night and the necessity of artificial light to replace natural sunlight.

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One of the constraints of the static text poem was conveying the motion of shadows and sun throughout the day. I really played around with the movement/tweening paths to play off of the motion of the ideas I was trying to convey. I also decided to pull colors into my animation instead of making the whole movie black and white/overly simplistic. The addition of color adds to the depth and warmth of the words. For example, the colors of the text start out light but then become progressively darker and sharper. This follows the sun metaphor.

I also decided against using photos of MY dorm bed, and instead using a sourced image from Flickr (source here). As I composed my own images, I thought that the nature of my room was too cluttered and possessed way too many distractions. This, I felt, would extremely deter from my simple and strong message of sunlight's behavior. But also, when I tried to zoom into my window to minimize outside distractions, the image was not clearly a window (this was also a concern in the initial part 1 critique session). The image I ultimately chose provides an interesting color palette is clearly referential, and still simplistic.

In the end, I am happy with my animation. I do wish some of the tweening would have been smoother, but that may be one of the constraints of Adobe Director and/or my skill level with working with the program. I had quite a few technical difficulties along the line, but I was ultimately able to either find solutions or let these "mistakes" become thoughtful creative decisions. For example, when I rotated some of the text, it became pixelated and sort of jagged. At first, I really thought this was grungy and not the style I was going for. However, after further inspecting my background image, I realized that the the sunlight was diffusing through the blinds in a pixelated manner as well, and that the jaggedness of the text made the text feel more "organic" in the scheme of this photo.

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After reading the passage for this week's class, "Stop Stealing Sheep", before I even got up from my futon, I just sat in my dorm room and begun to stare at every instance text around me. I realized the text that surrounded me on my posters, products and objects were suddenly a lot more emotionally charged than I had previously inferred. I then wanted to try to analyze the emotional/characteristic-referencing motivations these graphic designers had when choosing the type face and a style instead of only considering the visual aesthetics of their compositions. By analyzing the use of text around me, I am hoping to gain a better sense of how to represent the physical and emotional sentiments of my own messages through type.

Straight ahead of me, I see the "Join or Die" flag. Specifically looking at the main phrase "J O I N , or D I E." I noticed the power the formatting of the individual characters. The capitalization of the action words "join" and "die" distinguish them from the "or", signifying that they are the most powerful ideas being represented. Additionally, through the kerning of the letters in the verbs, they physical scale of the words increase, and therefore, they seem more powerful. A narrow kerning would create a sense of containment, but instead, the words are growing. This textual reading would enforce the political mission of the poster, that is, to stress the importance of union among a growing threat of danger.

Next, taped to the side of my bureau is a newspaper feature listing the "50 things to do before you graduate at Wellesley". The first thing I noticed was that the main heading/title was planted WITHIN the list. The designer could have created a conventional list with the heading at the top and the list flowing beneath, but instead, this framing suggests that many activities perspire from this central idea (being activities to do prior to graduation from the College). The smaller list items crowd around this clear heading, which also creates a sense of business, leading me to feel a sense of urgency towards the list items. Now the heading itself uses 3 distinctive flavors of type to convey the meaning of the 9 words displayed. The 50 is the most prominent/strongest type. It additionally occupies the most space in relation to the other 2 stylized pieces ("things to do before you graduate at" being 2/3, "Wellesley" being 3/3). It sits strong, bold and commands attention. "Wellesley" in a script type is the second most noticed chunk as it has a high contrast value to the "50". The style is more relaxed, natural and light. The other chunk (noted as 2/3 before) is a standard sans-serif font.

Quick notes about the other pictures:

The script font used for "whipped" captures the lightness of the product, while "cream cheese" in the more display type is predictable, and thus, reliable. The juxtaposition of the two suggests that the addition of the whipped feature does not detract from the reliability of the product.

It was fun to look at each book spine and try to relate it to the tone of the story it describes. Some books handle this better than others, which arguably gives credence to the cliched saying, "don't judge a book by the cover". This was a valuable activity for me because it forced me to consider how the typeface choice and formatting informed the content of the material described.

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Final version of my subverted advertisement

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Looking at other soda advertisements (new and old) to see how they present their product. The Fanta ad (and bottle design) are of particular interest to me because they really stress the fact that they based off of natural oranges.

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