A RESEARCHER'S BLOG

A hub of thoughts, concerns and visual research.

[yumixko]

Can Graphic Design Save Your Life?

https://wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/WZwh4ioAAJ3usf86

I had no idea whatsoever such an exhibition was taking place in London!

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Other Skills

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Technical Skills

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L.W

A dear friend asked me to turn him into anime.

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Yumi of the country of Wa 2

Second illustration of my homebrew D&D character.

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KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU NO BORUTO!

As requested and dedicated to a good friend.

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The benefits of New Media Arts in Healthcare / Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy means treatment with anti-cancer drugs. These are given to cure some types of cancer, to reduce the possibility of the cancer to come back in the future, to control cancer cells for some time or to relieve symptoms caused by the cancer. There are over
50 different drugs, which may be given on their own or in several combinations. Chemotherapy enters the bloodstream and reaches all body tissues. It damages cancer cells so they cannot divide and grow, however, it also affects normal cells causing some side effects.

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The benefits of New Media Arts in Healthcare / Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy uses high-energy radiation, usually x-rays, to damage the DNA of the cancer cells. The type and amount of radiation is carefully calculated to cure, sterilise, control or palliate many types of cancer in almost all parts of the body. Radiotherapy stops the cancer cells from dividing properly and as a result they are destroyed, however, some healthy tissues may be affected producing some side effects. Nowadays, radiotherapy is planned in a very sophisticated way, using modern equipment in order to avoid as much healthy tissue as possible. 

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The benefits of New Media Arts in Healthcare / Hormone Therapy

Hormone Therapy blocks or lowers the amount of hormones in the body to stop or slow down the growth of cancer. Hormone therapy is mainly used to treat prostate and breast cancers that use hormones to grow. It is most often used along with other cancer treatments to make a tumor smaller before surgery or radiation therapy, to lower the risk that cancer will come back after the main treatment or to destroy cancer cells that have returned or spread to other parts of the body. Because hormone therapy blocks the body’s ability to produce hormones or interferes with how hormones behave, it can cause some side effects, which are not usually severe and do not frequently have a significant effect on quality of life.

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The benefits of New Media Arts in Healthcare / Medication & Side Effects

Side can occur not only during the period of treatment delivery but also months or even years after the treatment. All therapeutic options for cancer, i.e. surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy can cause side effects. Most occur during treatment, depend on the type of treatment, they can range from very mild to serious, they vary from one patient to the other and most importantly their effects on patient’s daily life, activities and quality of life varies as well. Patient information regarding possible side effects and their management plays the most significant role.  The day cancer treatment ends a new chapter begins. Some survivors may leave cancer behind and continue life with few or no problems; others might have ongoing physical challenges. 

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The benefits of New Media Arts in Healthcare / Psychological Support

Psychological Support: services can assist people in making positive lifestyle changes and in managing the various difficulties that a cancer diagnosis and treatment can bring. Some services may help with physical difficulties while others with social and emotional worries. Psychological support, acupuncture, art therapy, relaxation techniques, physiotherapy, massage therapy and reflexology, occupational therapy, are some of the services which may benefit and assist people in leading an active and productive life. The impact of a cancer diagnosis can have a significant effect on patients, family and friends. Information about practical help and support on living with cancer, as well as about cancer itself is very important. Finding the right information and support can help individuals and their families to cope in a better way. 

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The benefits of New Media Arts in Healthcare / Balanced Diet

Nutrition: is an important part of cancer treatment. During the course of the disease, both the illness and its treatments can cause symptoms that affect eating and drinking. These can include nausea, vomiting, taste changes, sore mouth or bowel problems. In addition, the way the body tolerates certain foods and uses nutrients may be affected. The needs of people with cancer vary, but eating well helps not only to keep up energy, strength and body weight but also to better tolerate treatment side effects, to heal and recover faster.  Eating well means a balanced healthy diet including protein, water, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals. The so-called “special diets” for cancer patients recommending particular foods or avoidance of other nutrients to prevent cancer recurrence, have no scientific proof and should be avoided.

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The benefits of New Media Arts in Healthcare / What is Cancer?

Cancer is a genetic disease, it is caused by changes to genes that control the way human cells function, especially how they grow and divide. Abnormal and excessive growth of tissue cells is called a tumor and can be benign or malignant. Benign tumors are usually slow growing, they only cause problems because of their size, they do not spread and once treated they don’t usually cause any further problems. Cancers or malignant tumors also start within a limited area but they can spread to nearby organs or tissues. Cancer cells may be carried in the lymphatic system and in the bloodstream to distant sites in the body, forming new tumors called metastases or “secondaries”.  Cancer is a word used to describe many different diseases which have different causes and which are treated in different ways. All cancers can be treated although not all can be cured. Although many illnesses may have a worse prognosis than most cases of cancer, cancer is the subject of widespread fear and taboos.

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FOLDER OF EVIDENCE 12. / CDME 4001

Experimental Practice module & Digital Media Practice II module

EXPERIMENTAL PRACTICE

NEPENTHES letterform - 

Experimental Type Design consisting of bones.

watch the animated versions of the letter, here > link

DIGITAL MEDIA PRACTICE 

Osteoporosis awareness video, LOVELY BONES.

Nepenthes’ bone letters were printed on various mediums, however, for this project I used those that were printed on rice paper. They were cut in small pieces which I put in a bottle with water and froze them. Later on, the frozen mass was left in room temperature to melt and it was filmed in time-lapse and macro sequences.

watch the short film of LOVELY BONES, here > link

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FOLDER OF EVIDENCE 11. / CDME4001

Interview with Graphic Engineer, Thanos Saringelos.

Tell me a few things about the techniques you are using to produce your interactive art pieces. 

I try to use the latest tools and technologies there are in web development (which is my area of expertise) so I can give the users a new experience and maybe new perspective. Some of the techniques are Motion Sensoring, Stereoscopic Effect, 3D modeling, Virtual Tours, Live looping and Camera Animations controlled by the user. Most of the techniques as described above can be done inside the browser environment without any external plug-in or software that makes them accessible instantly by any user.

The technological advancements paved the path for the New Media Arts. Augmented reality is one of them. Tell me how important is to deliver interactive or immersive applications to the audience?

Immersion and interactivity are vital aspects of an application. All these past years applications and products where mostly consisted of 2D Graphic content on a screen and the farest you could get was to have a joystick for controlling and interacting. Today, with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality the level of interactivity and immersion have reached high levels and keep going up. Users now can experience differently an application or a piece of art. Augmented Reality gives you the ability to be present and use your body and the environment as means of controlling, exploring and creating the content. Nowadays, your phone and an AR app can be combined with the natural world and let you decide what to see, where to see it, when to see it and what to do with it. You can actually get out of your home and still use your phone to experience the content of an AR app by interacting with what is around you. On the other hand, you can just be at home, and while watching your surroundings some wild 3D objects can appear which are combined harmonically with the real environment. This result to high interactivity and immersion which make the user intensely attached to the application or piece of art and allow him to be consumed by the moment. It would be a pity to use these modern technologies and not aim at high interactivity and immersion. Thus, the importance to have these 2 key features in your application/product/art is totally essential.

Artists usually tend to reflect their personality in their work. How do you infuse yourself in your work?

My personality has traits like creativity, desire for exploration, distaste for boredom, hunger for knowledge and also a big love for music and arts in general. So, I try (consciously or subconsciously) to infuse these in my work. I try to make my applications interesting, entertaining but also educational, interactive and enabling the user to be creative and attached to the moment.

Is the audience familiar with New Media Arts/Technologies?

Not quite yet but it is growing rapidly. I predict that in the future this area will be very popular.

Some of your works have educational purposes. Can you foresee an application of Augmented Reality in Medical Care? 

Currently I am working in a company that uses Augmented Reality to enable the doctors and students to participate remotely on a live surgery and interact with it be using 3D tools, drawings and their hand overlayed on the actual surgery. I have also seen other companies that use AR to let the users see actual parts of bodies and showing them some 3D animations about them at the same time.

Visually speaking, what design elements make it easier for the audience to comprehend the functions of human body?

3D models of the human body of parts of it that are animating are surely a god start. Then you can add transparency to the external parts and use color animation to highlight the internal parts. Tours are also a good way to give insight to the user of a human body function. For example, the camera could move inside a 3D vein, letting the user watch what is inside and maybe freeze it for some second to pay more attention at something.

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FOLDER OF EVIDENCE 10. / CDME 4001

VISUAL RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION 4.

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FOLDER OF EVIDENCE 9. / CDME 4001

VISUAL RESEARCH AND INSPIRATION 3.

A list of some animations/films that inspired me:

Anatomy

ANATOMY

Animated Anatomy of the Clitoris

Future Anatomy: 1972 Bicycle 

Anatomy Book. Presentation

Human Anatomy