Hello, hello!
Well, here it is! I finally got a chance to show my work in a public space, and it was great. A big thank you to Johnathan Pavan for giving me the chance to exhibit. The reactions were fantastic, including a few awesome offers to show again, but I’ll mention that when I’m certain about it. Ultimately, I learned a few more things about my project and its bugs.
Death Tunes is a minecraft-based generative artwork that uses the random element of death and a piston piano to create a tune. I am proposing this work as an experiment for my abilities to create generative musical artwork in an engine out of my complete control. Minecraft is a game about building homes and exploring a vast magical world. Redstrone, an electrical wiring system is rarely used to enjoy the game to its full potential, which is why it is a different experience to use redstone for unconventional uses. My use of redstone is the creation of a machine that generates a musical piece based off of a random element in the game, death. Death is considered bad in any game, but it is a fundamental exercise for this work, providing uniqueness to the project.
When our concepts were exchanged in the class discussion, I soon came upon the realization that my concept was way over my head in terms of programming experience. However, it was to my salvation that Alex Lalonde proposed a generative artwork inside a video game, Minecraft. His concept was to use the element of death in minecraft to create a piece. Death, in Minecraft, take all the blocks you have in your inventory and throws them in every direction with varying speeds. Thus, each death is a random pattern of flying blocks hitting the ground. Alex though this could be used to his advantage as putting pressure plates under those blocks would trigger something he could use to create art. In his proposal, the product would be a painting of lights or colour based off of the death pattern presented. I thought this was genius, so I proposed to him the use of his concept in my own adaptation, using music instead of blocks. With his permission, I was allowed to work on my own version of this concept, taking the random pattern as an input for sheet music for a piano. The product of my creation is Death Tunes, which, with the randomly generated pattern of blocks thrown in death would be used as the sheet music of a piston powered piano that could repeat this pattern over and over. Please watch the video below for a technical breakdown of the piece. This will also let you get a better visual of project as I explain it in concept.
The capability of this project is vast, as it could be as large as possible. This piece follows the use of generation as the pressure plates are the “rules” for how the piano is to function. As a proof of concept, I allowed my piano to follow a simple note per plate basis, creating a very simple ruled piece. However, this project could go even further in the sense that more intricate rules could be applied to each pressure plate. With the complexity of restone, naturally, comes the possibility for greater things. An example of this concept could be allowing a single pressure plate to trigger multiple instruments in succession or at the same time. The music could then be lengthened while keeping with the basic input map I have created in the generator for the notes. All in all, I am very happy with this project as I am thankful for Alex Lalonde’s brilliant ingenuity.
Oh yes! It is the Kung-Fu Network. This multiplayer online video game is action packed with self-immersion! Perhaps my largest project, Kung-Fu Network uses face and colour tracking to simulate a face-defense game where it is the objective of the host to protect themselves with their hands. Mounted with LEDs, the hands become blocking squares! The host must use their kung-fu excellence to defend themselves against the onslaught of magical ninja projectiles that shoot from out of nowhere! The projectiles are actually other players sending their projectiles on their screen as clients. The data of their projectile is sent over the net where the data comes as a packet of information that the server stores and uses to add a new class or projectile. The form of transmitting the information is OSC an throughout this documentation, you will be seeing a local version that has been hooked up using a router! So let’s begin.”
Here we have the splash screen that all the players start with, client or server.
This is the setup documentation. In this video, I show you the elements of the project, and even include how to set up the colour tracking. As you can see in the video, the face location is also sent back to the clients so they know where to shoot. That’s it unfortunately for this video. It is important to mention that the players fire their projectiles on a click and drag basis on their own screen. It’s that simple. Continuing, I will show you some photographs of the game in play.
These are the clients at the time. They are shooting projectiles at my face!
This is me, who is currently blocking a projectile above my head.
This is the game play from the server’s point of view.
Another Live shot.
The project was lots of fun. I hope you enjoyed the documentation. As for those of you who were there, I hope you enjoyed playing Kung-Fu Network.
This week, we touched base some more with creating scenarios. The goal of the exercise is to put the project into practice by situating it in a narrative. The outcome would show some positives and negatives of the project as it is now. Our group whipped up a scenario for an average Joe business man to see how that person would react to the project as it is now. Last week, we really refined our idea for the TTC arcade using the large ipad style advert screens. We implemented this technology into the narrative, and all turned out alright. The exercise brought a new factor into our problem solving: time. We realized that the games have to be short in order to fit the schedule of some “players” on the TTC. This change fit the narrative quiet well, with an added benefit to most scenarios, so we were happy with the change.
In this week’s lecture, we focused on different forms of prototyping for our project. As it was described, these methods are tools used to help us refine our project in the sense that we experiment with what we already have and put that into a practical position so that we could analyze the outcomes. In a nutshell, we sketched scenarios of people using our TTC arcade, and even had the time to come up with a new interface for our arcade, building on last week’s revelation of using the advert screens. The first method of prototyping was Sketching a scenario. Using Ash’s fantastic sketching skills, we were able to analyze a student using an arcade machine. As before, the realization that the arcade boxes took up too much space, coupled with the fact that some people have really huge school bags, we realized we needed a new interface. That’s when we looked into paper prototyping, a different form. We had me create a paper prototype of an iPhone app that would be used as a social tool for the TTC arcade, and another that mocked the advert screens. I ended up drawing the four different phases of the screen that would be seen: video hook, game selection, play, and high scores. The third phase of prototyping, the rapid prototyping, is what really made the change in our project. This type of prototyping is meant for quick bursts of ideas, using random objects. We were discussing using different controllers when we picked up the idea of using an iPad as the controller (I had my iPad with me at the time). We later came upon the idea of making the advert screen of the TTC a GIANT iPad…well, more like a giant touch sensor. All in all, these prototyping methods allowed for a productive class.
This week has been another work period that allowed to us further develop our concept on the TTC arcade. So far, we have had a few problems, but it has come to the point where they are on their way of resolving themselves as we further develop the idea. The part of the project that I have become a big part of is the design of the actual games that the users will be playing on the TTC arcade. When we started with the idea, we thought about going retro, using the last few carts as the actual arcade. We realized that this would be a huge problem considering the amount of people that may want to try the games will have to cram themselves in those two carts. Also, the non-gamers would also be going crazy considering they are already complaining that the TTC cant compensate for the amount of people we have at rush hour. So, this week, we did a Behavioural Map of the TTC, where we discussed space in terms of people, and how that impacts the arcade. We realized we would need to remove the big box style arcades as that would compromise the space issues the TTC already has. With some modern ingenuity, the group came up with using the advert posters as the screens for our TTC arcade! It would save space as chairs would be more folded in for the arcade, and create new space for those who would rather stand than sit to make room.
In the weeks to come, it is our assignment to further our research project, figuring out how we can solve problems we are facing and might be facing in the new future. In our discussion of how to face these problems, we were introduced to the IDEO Research Techniques: creative, viable, and keen on solving big problems. A focus on these techniques is research for future problems, and prototyping for productive execution. To learn more about these techniques, our class was given different cards proposing problems, research, and solution options. Upon discussion and study with our groups, and collective review of each card, our group decided that the best technique for our current situation would be Empathy Tools. This technique revolves around the idea of recreating situations. For us, this meant having to go through the experience of using the TTC with and without the arcade option. Going through this exercise, we simulated using, watching, and queing up for working with the arcade machines, along with being the common spectators, watching the screen. Recovering practical data like this could be a good step for figuring out problems we could face when people of all ages and sizes are to use our service. One creative approach to this technique was made by Alex, who thought, “what If we had a student with a large backpack? How could this effect the arcade experience if he was to use a machine?” This got us thinking through the problem, and even bringing up some more. Empathy Tools allowed us to look at the TTC arcade with a new perspective. Our research of user experience has furthered our efforts in developing the idea of the TTC Arcade.
In this week’s lecture, we were presented with some research methods for art and design. The first of these methods, which is research into art and design, we looked at a pyramid like form of conducting research, starting from the top. We begin with a question and gather information we can use to answer that question. After much research, the information gathered transforms into a database used for answering multiple questions. Research into art and design has a literal meaning as this is exactly that: research into what forms of art and design there are in the world. This is a very common form of research as it provides a broad spectrum of knowledge for the researcher. The second research method we were proposed with, research through art and design, is a more experimental form of research. Using active methods, we are to understand art by going further into it, going so far as to create new art out of the art we research. Lastly, research for art and design, is sort of like the opposite of the first research method, where we start with a broad idea and begin to narrow it down into single concepts. The greater goal of this method is to end with with small but powerful ideas aimed at a certain concept. These three forms of research each have their own ups and down, but it is important to explore each one in out studies and our future as artists.
Today we reviewed how to manage research questions. This included stakeholder analysis, problem framing, and opportunity statements. Given three options of a certain topic to discuss and outline, we chose to work on the TTC and its trasnportation service. The group assignment we were given was to create a proposal for a new type of service using the template of “How can the TTC be more like a ______?” For us, there we’re many ideas scribled on a very large piece of card. After much discussion, found very exciting ideas showed themselves the best of the group. These were: How can the TTC be more like a hotel; How can the TTC be more like a church; How can the TTC be more like a supermarket; How can the TTC be more like an arcade? My personal favourite was the arcade idea. Users, or passangers, would take the last two train carts to play the arcade games. These games would have their own form of currency using the TTC tokens. Users would play and sumit their scores. Play times would last a certain number of stations depending on the user. As for the other passangers, each TTC seat would come with a headphone jack to accompany the view and experience of seeing the gameplay through TV screens mounted on the roof of the traincarts. The people who commute will always have a way to entertain themselves through their long journey.
After we got the main idea. We got down to the business. We discussed the stakeholders, who was effected, what was important, and what our solution was for the TTC. Our discussion was great, and it even allowed us to combine some ideas to create greater hybrids of the service. We took the idea of the TTC supermarket and their produce stands, and adapted these to be game, snack, and currency stands on every station.
We will use this idea for next week to discuss it futher.
Welcome back, New media.
Long summer, but either way, on to business.
My first blog for the semester is to be written for a coffee shop. Timothy’s coffee shop, that is. During my first lecture, a lot of discussions took place, one of which was about studying the atmosphere of establishments using certain methods. The assignment: venture forth and snoop out a coffee place. The catch: only one place per group. Having the usual spots taken, I led my group to a Timothy’s I knew wouldn’t be chosen as another group’s destination. I was right, of course, but for the wrong reasons. See, I knew this place wouldn’t be popular, but damn, that was apparently the popular thought for everyone in College and Yonge street, Toronto. When we arrived, it was lunch time. The smell of sweet pastries and teas mixed in with the absence of customers (or servers). Oops. The assignment has been to study the norms or the establishment. The norm for this particular establishment was apparently cleaning the tumbleweed off the floor. Oh well. We finished the assignment and headed back. To our dismay, the opportunity for answering questions was blocked by the lack of answers. However, one particular question could easily be answered: “If there was one thing you would improve about this coffee shop, what would it be?”
Ding ding ding. You know what I would change about this coffee shop? LOCATION. SIGNAGE. How did I know this coffee place existed? There is a Dollarama down the hallway. That’s it. No signs. No references. No stories. So what would I do to help the place out? Put a sign outside the building. Put a sign on the window. Put a sign SOMEWHERE. Even my group had no idea where I was taking them. Whispers of a murder mystery ensued during the walk. It figured. It is then reasonable that my answer remains so. A coffee place cannot provide their valuable service (I’m sure. Caffeine free here.) without people to serve. People flock because they know a good place when they see one, and remember the event. Unfortunately for Timothy’s coffee on College and Yonge, that see-to-be factor doesn’t hit home.
Vitali Zatroutine's Blog 