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Above is a snap shot taken from the simplfied web version of Valance created by Ben Fry in Processing. The original was done using C++, Perl and OpenGL code. All the versions are investigations into the structure and relationships located with very large sets of information. The information can come from any medium as long as the text is digitally available and allows the user to navigate around it in a 3D space. As the program progresses words link and partner each other as the overall shape morphs and twists.
This project is very intriguing as it directly targets how we read, communicate and use vast amounts of text. An idea that is not too far away from my own. Also interstingly as the digital program conitinues to grow in the 3D space it almost starts to become creature and organic like in animation.
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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Final Year Studio - Research - Data Visualisation - Valance
Final Year Studio - Research - Data Visualisation - Brownian Motion 2D
Above again is a Processing application that doesn't map data but I just like the aesthetic style. Created by Stephen Williams the program simply plots random scribbly lines that blur over time. It is very simple but by scribbling and bluring, makes the cold crisp digital pixels almost look natural. You can imagine the lines being abstract visualisations of rivers, valleys and mountain tops.
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Final Year Studio - Research - Data Visualisation - Deconstruct 2D 3D
Above is a snap shot image from a little Processing application that investigates into the idea of two and three dimensional space. First of all as you randomly click the 2D image the initial plotting points change, but still radiate from the centre. Then as you press the direction keys the graphic starts spinning on various axis and the nodes start carving the now 3D space up using lines.
It doesn't actually map any kind of data, but I just thought it was a beautiful way of plotting points in 3D space. As it spins it almost takes on a planet like character and the nodes spinning around the centre create an orbital sense of being.
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Final Year Studio - Research - Data Visualisation - VisitorVille
Animation courtesy of www.visitorville.com
VisitorVille allows the user to view their internet traffic in physical enivronments such as buildings and even entire cities. It opens up the 'associative bandwidth' in regards to perceiving internet activities, a good example is the animation above. Here users of the internet using various search engines are being visualised, not by an abstract styled graph showing how many people clicked 'Search' and how many clicked 'Back' to the results page, but an actually 'hub' of communication transfer for the physical world, a bus station. This program uses the 'subliminal signals' of real life situations and environments to display information to the user, in this case the users definition of when an area is 'busy' or 'crowded.' This way of displaying information has a universal, un-lingual attribute, the only problem is that it requires the users past experiences of enivronments to decipher the information correctly. This could be a problem as an individual living in a rural area will have a different perception of an environment being 'busy' than, say, a city dweller.
This specific work is a key influence to my project as it directly attacks the 'associative bandwidth' of the Internet and how we perceive the medium. It is important to note that the above animation is from the 2D version of the program and there is also a true to life 3D edition, widening the 'associative bandwidth' even more. I hope now to look at more conceptual styled data visualisation, hopefully 3D as well as 2D to develop me idea further.
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Sunday, October 28, 2007
Final Year Studio - Research - Art Deco - Cassandre
Inspired by Cubism and Surrealism, Cassandre was a graphic designer that actually designed adverts for a cabinetmaker displaying at the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes and through the period of Art Deco became one of the most influectial graphic designers of the 20th Century.
By setting up his own advertising agency in the 1930's called Alliance Graphique he set standards for designing adverts that could be seen from fast moving vehicles as well as adverts for fast moving vehicles. Using forced perspective, gradients and custom designed fonts in his train, plane and ship posters he and his agency created memorable images that have influenced how design is both taught and implicated today.
Above is just one of his most famous posters 'Nord Express' and this along with other similar works will help me in, invisioning how to 'romantisize' digital information communication. This will hopefully allow me to give warmth to the medium of screen interaction and widen the 'Associative Bandwidth' associated with it. It will also be beneficial to look at the connections between analog to digital, and visa versa, information interaction.
Final Year Studio - Research - Art Deco
Although this specific art movement happened in the 1920's and 30's it wasn't until 1966 that the term 'Art Deco' was coined. It took most of its initial influence from the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. An exhibition that unlike ones before it let the decorative arts in such areas as architecture, interior design and industry take centre stage. It emphaisised the modern and in some cases excluded types of art that depicted previous art movements.
It involved such art movements as Avant-Guarde, Cubism and Bauhaus but wasn't part of the Modernist movement as it was purely created for decorative and aesthetic reasons, a key factor maybe why it was so influencial to commmercial design for new mechanical and material industries. Its effect was so strong that even the Amercians who were not represented at the exhibition developed their own style, known as 'Streamlining.' This was design using clean lines and strong curves, and is most notibile in the production of mass produced items such as cars, architecture and furniture.
This movement is going to be a key graphical influence to my project as it was the first time that aesthetics were thought about as manipulation tools for depicting and easying the understanding of visual information. Even the American notion of 'Streamlining' attaches itself to the idea that strong lines and shapes can effect how we perceive coplex information, widening the 'Associative Bandwidth' of a medium.
Final Year Studio - Research - London Underground Posters
Images courtesy of http://www.ltmcollection.org/, originally uploaded by Jimbo (Alan James Wellock).
Interested in the concept of depicting and in the sense of 'branding' information I decided to have a look at early 20th Century posters designed to advertise the tube transport system. Art Deco and Avant Guarde in style they clearly define the notion of 'conncections' and 'romantasize' the idea of communication and transportation. They do this by using powerful shapes and perspective in conjunction with the 'roundel' logo to depict a modern safe way of travelling around the capital.
This 'romantisizing' concept interests me as the designers and marketing people of the time were trying to give humanity and warmth to a very cold industrial subject. This is not too far in comparisent to the problem Bruce Mau calls the 'Associative Bandwidth' of the Internet and the notion of it being a cold detached medium for communciation and information transfer. This is a core theory to my project and I hope to develop a digital interactive system that combats this 'coldness' but brings to light the sacrafice we have to make for it.
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Final Year Studio - Research - Travel Time Tube Map
Image courtesy of http://www.tom-carden.co.uk/
An interesting new take on the London Undeground map is Tom Carden's processing application that allows the user to interact with the map and select a station. As he or she does this the map animates, expands and contracts depending on how long it takes to get to each from station to station. To emphasise this Carden displays the tube map in a geographical layout and uses shaded zones to depict every ten minutes of travel. This results in a very effective way of displaying time using shapes and animation.
This to me is intruiging as it like Harry Becks original uses the most up to date technology to depict visually the different journey times and works much more effectivily than simply showing a table of destinations and times. It will be important as I progress through the project that I keep looking for new ways for depicting previously static text based information effectivily in the digital medium, to influence my own ideas.
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Final Year Studio - Research - London Underground Map
Images courtesy of http://www.ltm.gov.uk and http://homepage.ntlworld.com, originally uploaded by Jimbo (Alan James Wellock).
One of the most influential peices of information mapping graphic design of the Art Deco movement was draughtsman Harry Beck's 1933 design for the London Underground system. After over a quarter of a century of trying to map an ever expanding tube system around the city of London, the amount of information needed to be shown had simply got too much for the orginal maps (bottom image) geographically proportioned layout. Becks solution was to disregard the geographical scaling in favour of a technique more associated with electrical wiring diagrams. He did this by opening up the centre of the map where most stations were situated and closed up the outer dispersed stations. This in conjunction with straight simple lines created a map that was easy to use (middle image) and over time instantly recognisable (top image).
The map over the years has been deveoloped in various states but still is added to, using Becks rules and guidelines, although he went out of favour with London Transport and was made redundent from the project early on. In generel the London Underground is seen as one fo the first 'corporate identities' and created the Art Deco style font, Gill Sans, for easy and quick reading.
With the maps fusion of Cubism, science and colour it is more like a circuit diagram than a map and even though it was designed without any interest in aesthetic beauty it is now seen as a design classic and hangs in the New York Art Gallery. Using 'ticks' for stations and 'blobs' for intersecting points, transport systems all over the world now use a similar style of design for displaying their networks.
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Final Year Studio - Initial Idea - Datamotives
So to develop my idea further I intend to look into various examples of how artists have visualised the aspect of searching for data as well as looking into traditional maps that have revolutionised how we perceive information. I am also interested in looking into the Art Deco movement and it's romantic take on the age of mechanical communciation mediums such as the train and plane, in the early 20th Century.
Final Year Studio - Initial Idea - Datamotives Installation Environment
This idea will have two parts, the first being an interface like below, the second being an environment that emphasises the idea of waiting for information and communication. For the greatest effect I will try and model the interface's surrounding on a train station waiting room, hopefully connecting some kind of analog display such as a 'Split Flap' screen to show the arrival times of each website (Datamotive). It will be these kind of attentions to detail that will add to the overall 'Associative Bandwidth' of the piece and hopefully make it more successful at challenging the audiences notion of information interaction and bandwidth.
Final Year Studio - Initial Idea - Datamotives Browser Screen
Finally as the website (Datamotive) enters the station it opens the page in a browser, but only allows the user to surf it for a limited time only. Again emphasising the traditional attributes and problems of accessing information traditionally. There will be a departure counter in the bottom right of the window and once the website and departed the user must wait for it then to arrive again after all the other results have passed by.
Final Year Studio - Initial Idea - Datamotives Mapping Screen
The next screen will then search for whatever the user has inserted. Routes expanding from the centre of the display (station) will grow to various points on the screen and plot a website at each one. This website will not let the user click and access themstraight away though as a normal search engine would. The user must wait for the website to travel down the route and arrive at the station. This will directly target our societies obsession with instant access to information and mobility. Instead the user will have to plan when and where they are to gain access to the specific informaiton they require.
Final Year Studio - Initial Idea - Datamotives Introduction Screen
Datamotives is an idea that attacks the present day idea of access of instant information. Using either Processing or Flash in conjunction with PHP it will act as an 'alternative search engine' application. Firstly the user will be beckoned to type in what they want to search for by the above screen.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Final Year Studio - Research - David Rozin - Wooden Mirror
Video courtesy of omoiden at YouTube
This specific peice of work created by artist David Rozin was first displayed in 1999. Consisting of 830 wooden squares and servo motors, control electronics, video camera, computer and wooden frame, this peice stands at a size of 67" by 80". It works by using a video camera to capture an image, which is then compressed into 830 pixels. The computer than reads the values of these pixels and rotates each peice of wood to a certain angle and because of the spot light, shade. This creates a distinct but graduated image very close in relation to a grayscale low resolution version of the video. Also being wood it explores the line between digital and physcial by using a warm organic material such as wood to mimic like cold digital pixels. Rozin also developed this mirror technique and created the Trash, Shiny Balls, Circles and Peg Mirrors in the same light.
This peice is very useful to look at in relation to the idea in my sketchbook called, 'Mixels' (Mirrored Pixels). Here mirrored squares will move and react to room activity, constructing and breaking up a projected image depending on how the audience view the peice. The aim would be to change the audiences perception of what they know of as a screen and encompass them within the pixels them selves. This would change the enivronment they populate and its 'associative bandwidth.'
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