Flipside

Looked over some development for the augmented reality game/experience and realised this semester I’ve had some common themes.

Perspective.

Old View of the future.

 

I’ve been quite obsessed with perspectives, and how they change our experiences / views of things. I’ve recently read about forced perspective, which is a weird way of saying “something which looks closer or further away than it actually is” the most common examples i’ve found have been a disney land, where many of the buildings are actually smaller at the top, to make the top seem further away (and thus the building appears taller), walls are curved but appear straight, and peoples perceptions are changed.

In a location like that, people are wanting to be tricked and to believe, keeping this alive is very difficult if you are making objects for practical purpose, however there have been many things invented in the last few years which can surely be used to continue to create great illusions.

 

Taking a look back 30 years, pretty much the entire world was under the impression that by 2000 we would be catching the bus to the moon for school trips, our lives would be pretty easy, stress free, and we would all have so much time to enjoy ourselves… fast forward to today and it seems that instead we have just found a way to try squeeze more into each day, more work, busier work, more stress…. its not really what our parents were dreaming of when they were kids.

this link http://www.futuretimeline.net/21stcentury/2040-2049.htm shows a fairly current idea of what the future will provide for us, which isn’t really that exciting, there is a lot more negativity there than positivity, certainly the future appears to be more Matrix and less utopian, which isn’t anything to get very excited about.

So I’ve found quite a bit of inspiration in creating something which is more like the “imagined present” then imagining the future and making something as i expect things will be.

 

Ongoing

Have hit pretty much rock bottom recently, achieving almost nothing and not enjoying it at all.

Unsure quite how to move forward from this but the thought that it is almost the end of semester is a sign of relief on my mind.

This semester I tried to avoid working as a way of not burning myself out, but have found that the lack of external stimulation has left me with almost too much time, and I’ve been as non-productive as i ever have.

at this moment I’ve gotta rebuild before next year, find some enthusiasim, (and some spelling skills) and most of all get a bit more in control of myself.

with things not going so well I’ve been trying to reflect on why quite a lot, probably too much, but I think I have come up with a theory;

The way I get a lot of my work done is through passion for an idea, this gives me energy and belief, devotion, and motivation. But this semester I haven’t really got that into anything to get motivated in the sort of way I do. This is something which worries me as I’ve been unable to turn it around, but I just have to hit the ground running for next year, and hopefully that will be enough to get the motivation flowing again.

Tom

Frustration

I haven’t posted on here for the past 2 months, and only just realised this today. Its been a hugely frustrating time where i have questioned a lot of what im doing, why im doing it, and if it leads to anything.

The only thing which is keeping me going right now is the memory that last semester i found that after a huge amount of frustration i had quite an enjoyable time… i dont see that happening this time, but i didnt see it happening last time either… so i’m trying to hold on and see what happens.

one thing which seems different this time around is that i’m not in the minority feeling frustrated, and i think everyone is really feeling the strain at the moment.

oh well. hopefuly it gets better and i have something to show from my work.

 

Tom

 

 

Something’s got to give.

I was trying to get this journal to become much less like a diary, and more like an exhibition… however I’m really struggling with it all, I’m finding the workload at the moment to be quite extreme, this semester seems to be a big step up compared to last, and I’m finding that now, when i want to be pushing on and getting ahead of the game, the shorter projects are really tough.

as this week begins we have a bunch of new projects being set.
Make a game.
Literature review – 3000 words.
Make a tube map for the Auckland rail network.
Build an instrument.

So I’m trying to walk the fine line between ambition and failure, a line which I didnt walk too well last semester.

Tom

Aural week 2 – Circuit bending and performance

In our second week of Aural Terrains, we looked at circuit bending devices, and did our first performances to our class.

I did a trial performance the night before, (http://soundcloud.com/tom-tyer-drake/composition1) and tried to focus during the performance on allowing enough space for the other performers.

I had enough loops ready to play which could have fully filled the sound space, and it was interesting choosing what to play based on what tones and notes were being presented by the other performers in my group.

I had thought of using stereo panning with different gains on my channels to add some distortion to one channel while allowing a full dynamic on the other, and shifting sounds between each side… however during the performance the mixer was configured in a way which wouldn’t allow that.

Because we didnt have enough leads, I was unable to record the entire performance, which would have been very nice, however I will have to make up some more leads to ensure i can record future performances.

 

 

Sound, noise and music.

I’ve been told repeatedly during the past few weeks that I’m going to be prejudiced against liking this project, that because i have audio skills and experience I’m going to find it difficult to appreciate sound properly.

I’m reacting badly to this project, or module. Its not something I am enjoying at all, to put it bluntly I dont want to be here for the next 3 weeks. I can feel t

I feel like my intelligence is being insulted daily at the moment, with people stating things as fact, which just arent true, or show a biased understanding at best, and its this bias which is really making it hard for me to take information in in an open way.

once someone has lost credibility I find it very hard to get that back and to listen openly. this is the case now. and I will have to work through it in the next few weeks to survive…

Art 2

Second lesson today involved an introduction, and a mathematical viewing of some artists work.

Again there weren’t many surprises there for me, once I had my ‘seeing the maths’ hat on I found it really easy to see the symmetry, translations and transformations in each example. The parabolic growth in spacing and sizing, and how this changed the whole work.

So at the moment I’m waiting for a ‘wow’ moment, when i see something and a lightbulb turns on…

This class takes me back to the work we did in week 1 with geffi (obviously spelt wrong) where i spent quite a while trying to work out how to use algorithms on the data table (which im pretty sure you cant)…

I think Data is amazing, the more of it we have the more we can do with it, and within it there are patterns which are waiting to be shown, sortof like a carver ‘releasing’ the shape within some wood or stone. or a landscaper realising the beauty of a garden, within data i believe there is a picture, a relationship, waiting to be shown.

Getting philosophical here.

Tom