#dat 203

[robandhisdat]

203 Module overview

Overall, i feel that this module has given me an insight into how technology interacts with, and is starting to become integrated into our day to day lives. Using the knowledge i have acquired in this module, i will partake in a group project come the new year, and we will investigate ways to interact with our environment. Should be interesting.

[robandhisdat]

Psychogeography

Psychogeography is the idea that the environment around us affects our psyche, our mood depending on the feeling that the surrounding area gives us. To see how it would affect me, i took a map of Plymouth, picked a random location and then drew a standard pint glass sized circle around it. Then, in relation to where the circle was, i traced round the roads, giving a route to closely match it to the circle as possible. Following the route, the strongest thing i had felt was the feeling of familiarity, as i traveled most of the roads, beforehand. However i did feel a sense of calm as i traveled close to the sound and barbican, although this may have been due to the time of day that i traveled this route, namely late at night. However, i do believe that an environment definitely has an effect on how people feel which is why urban planners exist to utilize these feelings in public places.

[robandhisdat]

XML Data feeds in processing

In this lecture, we learned how to utilize XML feeds into a variety of different uses in processing. By taking data from these feeds and creating an application with them, we can code something that is able to run in real time, giving live feed back and representing different data depending on the feed. In the examples we went through we we able to create different visuals depending on the data taken from the feed, such as different colored bar graphs depending on the temperature outside of the local area. We also discovered that the same could be done with images and put into a visualizer. I feel that these feeds could be useful if doing a real time based project, as long as it's based in processing.

[robandhisdat]

Sound Editing

This week, we were tasked with collecting sounds from the environment to eventually mix together in a sound art piece. The task was designed to open up audibly in an environment, not just occularly. After collecting various sounds i chopped and edited each sample into my soundart piece which can be heard via soundcloud.

https://soundcloud.com/webed123/a-sonic-tonic-2

I feel that this changed my perception of sound around me as background noise is a great deal more noticeable when it almost becomes the main focus.

[keatsdat203-blog]

Week 6 - Augmented Reality...

So, getting a bit futuristic now, Augmented reality!

For the next few weeks we will be focusing on AG and to do this, we will be taking a look at the layar app! Layar is an app available on most smartphone platforms that allows you to see a digital imagine ontop of a physical one out in the real world. This is done my sensing the physical thing that the  devices camera is pointed at, and layering a digital graphic over the top of it.

We were asked to think of ideas that we could layer over the top of things around the city. One of my ideas for this was allowing the user to see an insight into life during world war 2. This could be done by allowing the user to point the device over certain areas of town and seeing what they were like during that time. A few examples of where this could be done would be the barbican, buildings that were knocked down and rebuilt and the hoe. These places have changed significantly since the second world war. On the layar ap it could show buildings much like the ruined cathedral further down town, just digitally overlayed on top of actual buildings that are there now.

[keatsdat203-blog]

Week 5 - Google Maps API

This week we were introduced into the Google Maps API. This can be used to highlight key places within Google maps. This could be used when a larger area is needed to be put across, sometimes a postcode is just too small. Highlighting a large area would be useful for larger scale projects where a larger area needs to be examined. 

We used this API to place a square around Lichfield, and then write some javascript to place every CCTV camera around the city on the map.

https://developers.google.com/maps/

[keatsdat203-blog]

Week 4 - Sensors!

So this week it got a bit more technical, we played with Arduinos and sensors! 

The sensors we used were standard house motion sensors. These send either a 1 or 0 depending on if it detects motion or not, the motion is detected via it's infra-red sensor. We used a bit of code on the Arduino to detect this 1 or 0, if motion was detected, then it would turn an LED on, if no motion was detected, the LED would remain off. Even though this is simple, it is a great starting place for a much bigger motion detection project.

[keatsdat203-blog]

Week 3 - Psychogeography

So, onto week 3, almost into the swing of uni life again!

This week in 203, we are learning about psychogeography. This is the psychological effect that the things around have on you. How different places effect your mood and how you feel.

For this weeks task, we had to get a map of plymouth, put a glass on it and draw around it lightly. We then had to draw in darker routes around this circle, following man-made paths and geographical ones that had to be built around.

Unfortunately, I missed this task due to being ill. I imagine this task could cause you to feel annoyed if you had to take a route with a massive detour just because there was an impassable object in the way, such as the sea in Plymouth's case? Other times, it may make you feel happy if it makes you pass down a road/path you rarely ever walk down and you discover a funky new shop (often found in smaller roads because rent is cheaper). You might also observe new bits of art and other pieces of intervention work put in place by others (such as walking round the back streets of Bristol, where you would often see work of the famous street artist Banksy).