This week kicked off the beginning of Semester 2, and the beginning of our studio Online Video Through the Looking Screen of VidCon. To both my delight and despise, vlogging is back! Initially when Brian announced our weekly vlog assignments I filled with dread, but once I sat down in front of the camera, I couldn’t help but feel excited. The feeling of familiarity I had with vlogging really made the experience enjoyable. Since the last time I vlogged for this course I’ve learned much more about cameras, editing, lighting and just general media knowledge, and I can visibly see the improvement.

The ability to use knowledge and articulate my thoughts on camera, and to be able to show my personality at the same time is most definitely enjoyable. Although I know this semester will be a hard one for me, I know that vlogging will for sure make it more fun and enjoyable.

The initial class this week was mostly dedicated to getting to know the studio and watching ‘Vlogumentary’, a documentary about youtubers made by youtubers. What stood out to me and something I think is important to consider, is how each content creator creates different, unique and personalised content, all through simply just being themselves. I’ll most definitely consider this through my own content creation and through looking at my peers’ work.

Vlog 1: https://youtu.be/QRYG_GElMQ4

 

Jake 

This was so much fun! I definitely had my interaction sustained with this project. Everything about this was so great, from the graphics to the actual patcher and technical stuff! Genuinely started getting nervous about when the bomb would go off, and I think this really adds to the experience. The game was super easy to use, it’s nice not having a list of instructions to read and refer back to constantly. I thought it was really great how you created a set of numbers for it to reset back to, definitely shows a lot of hard work and time that’s gone into the project! Really the only thing to be ‘improved’ on maybe just place the graphic so that it’s centred and you don’t have to move it around a bit to fit it all in the screen. Other than that, it was amazing!

Saskia

It’s really cool to have seen Saskia’s idea develop from Assignment 1 to now. I really really enjoyed this project and it was certainly aesthetically pleasing to use. It was simple and straightforward which was really great and made it super easy to navigate. The videos that played at each location all felt the same, they felt like they were all filmed by the same person, which really kept up the calm and visually pleasing experience. The sound also really added to the project, and set the tone and mood for your ‘journey’. Honestly, the one thing I’d like to see developed more is more countries and locations! I definitely felt like I wanted to keep clicking around and exploring so it would be cool to do this on a larger scale.

Charmaine

THIS WAS SO FRUSTRATING!! I played around with Charmaine’s solo project in the classes prior to the due date and oh my god the frustration was real! There were definitely times I was convinced there wasn’t a number on the screen but Charmaine and others would be telling me there definitely was. This was so much fun to play with and I really got a good laugh out of it, and maybe a self-diagnosis of being colour blind. I think the idea is so fun and cool and I’m honestly jealous I didn’t think of it! The execution was so good and it’s definitely one of my favourite works I’ve seen all semester. 🙂

At the beginning of this assignment I really set ambitious goals, hoping that with the 4 weeks we had to work on it and with everything I’d learnt about and seen done in Max, I would be able to execute something I was really happy with. I decided to take an idea from another group’s project from Assessment 1. I really liked the idea of playing around with something and making your own decisions and decided I’d have my own take on the concept.

I certainly set myself more work than I thought. I intended on filming a whole bunch of mini videos correlating to all the questions my work asks, but with trying to do 3 other assignments at once and struggling to find time and motivation, I didn’t quite achieve all that I’d hoped. I really wanted to create a long lasting/interaction sustaining piece of work, and I think if I’d organised my time better and put more planning into this assignment I could’ve been closer to reaching my goal. I definitely think if I’d had better organisation and thoroughly planned out filming times, what I’d film, where I’d film than I really could’ve shown my full potential.

I knew of these issues throughout the final days leading up to the due date, and evidently you can see I had to make up for lack of video content by using Adobe Illustrator to make quick little clock/timers for one of my questions.

Despite the flaws in my project, I do think I’ve certainly improved and succeeded in some aspects. Although the technicalities to it are quite simple, I’m pretty proud of the fact that I managed to make something more technical on my own, and was able to source audio files, film my own videos, organise and make the patcher, and just generally navigate my way around Max a lot easier than I have in the past. The concept is evident, yes it’s not all that great, but I know I succeeded in creating a simple version of what I wanted. If I had the opportunity, in future I would definitely like to see how well this assignment could be done with more effort and time.

As for the group project, this time around we were certainly more prepared than we were with Assignment 2! Charmaine was super helpful and definitely the strongest team member, she found on image and divided it up into about 36 pieces, all equally shaped. The pieces were just rectangular, making it more difficult compared to that of the regular jigsaw shaped pieces, which you can kind of see which ones fit with which. We decided on this 1. because it was easier, and 2. because it makes it more difficult for players. We intended on having a reset button for when players finish the puzzle, but discovered that unfortunately wasn’t going to work with how Presentation mode works and it would mean that we’d have to have pieces moved by keys rather than by the mouse (which we wanted. Camille very thankfully gave us the great idea of having it reset automatically on a timer. This added bit of fun, although it was tedious work, was really fun to see in action. As infuriating as it is, it sustains the interaction for a number of minutes as each ‘round’ only lasts a minute, and then the pieces reset to their original places. I don’t know that any of us have even been able to complete our own puzzle, so it’s definitely sustained our interaction!

In general, these assignments and this whole semester showed me how broad the creative process is. I had never heard of Max before this semester and hadn’t really ever had interest in this kind of software, but after 12 weeks of learning how to use the program, I’ve definitely learnt a lot about a whole different form of Media to what I was used to. This class allowed me to really trial and error my creative ideas, and it also allowed me to gather insight into so many other concepts and ideas created by my peers and tutor.

Sustained Interaction – SOLO STUDY

conceptual aims – themes/ideas to explore, intended meaning/s

I’m actually quite fond of my idea for my solo project. Camille explained that for this assignment we were able to rely on pre-existing projects and ideas, and that they don’t even have to be our own. I started thinking back through the semester and pinpointing which ideas and concepts stuck out to me most. I couldn’t help but remember the group assignment from Assignment 1, and how much I enjoyed another groups project. It was really fun to play around and pick and choose what to do, you were able to construct your own museum outing, and I definitely think this idea would be great to develop further. I’ve decided to create a game/activity called ‘The Choice is Yours’ (or something along the lines of that). Similarly to their group project, you’ll pick a soundtrack at the start, this will be your vibe for your day. You’ll continue to answer a number of questions about your day, things like what the weather is like, where are you going, what you are doing and so on. Although the idea isn’t super colourful and bright and fun, I do think it has good potential to sustain interaction for a couple of minutes, as audiences will most likely play around with all the options before deciding what they choose.

technical aims – skills/techniques to develop, expected challenges

We’re in week 12 of the semester so at this point you’d hope that I’d be capable of something a little less simple, but honestly, I’m pretty okay with my idea. I think it’ll be interesting to see how much I understand Max and how much I can do with this project. The idea is relatively simple, but I think it’ll be a good way for me to demonstrate to both myself and Camille, that I am capable of using Max with some understanding. The main objects and such I’ll be using for this project include jit.pwindow, messages, playlist~, jit.playlist and obvious ezdac and buttons. The main challenges I’m anticipating with this project are organising my patcher and having the display (in Presentation Mode) look good. From what i’ve developed so far, it’s looking kind of messy. I’m also slightly concerned for finding all the materials I need. For each option that you click I’m aiming to play a little compilation of associated clips (that correspond to what the option is), and ideally I’d like to film them all myself, but I’m just not all that sure that I’ll manage to film everything.

Sustained Interaction – GROUP STUDY

conceptual aims – themes/ideas to explore, intended meaning/s

Our concept for our group study is quite simple, taking an old fashioned game and turning it digital. We’ve taken upon the idea creating a jigsaw puzzle (maybe multiple) and having audiences (players) have to piece every individual piece together. We’re planing on splitting an image into over 30 pieces, and adding a slight twist to the game. Players will have one minute to attempt to complete the puzzle, after the minute passes the puzzle will automatically reset to being placed randomly. We originally hoped to have a reset button for when players finish the puzzle, but with discussion with Camille I think we’ll take his idea of having it reset on a timer. This added twist attempts to sustain interaction for a while. Players are bound to become frustrated when their first few attempts don’t get completed before the reset, but after they continue playing a few times (a few minutes) they’ll (hopefully) complete the puzzle. The game aims to be frustrating and addictive, players won’t want to stop until they’ve completed the puzzle, nor will they be satisfied until they manage to beat the timer.

technical aims – skills.techniques to develop, expected challenges

As for skill development and such in this project, I’d personally just like to show myself and my peers that I’m able to create something that will sustain interaction for at least a few minutes. I want to show myself that I know how to create something creative and fun, like this puzzle. I say this, but I also would like to figure out how to make a ‘reset’ button of sorts for our puzzle. I think if I’d known how to do this earlier on I may have been able to use it for other ideas I had for assignments. I’m not sure I really know how to make a reset button and it probably takes a bit of work, but hopefully in time and with discussion with Camille, we figure things out. Challenge wise I’m sure there’s bound to be some (as per usual). As it’s the end of the semester, each of us are bound to be caught up in all the stress and will for sure be busy trying to balance everything at once, and I worry that we may leave things last minute again (not as much as last time, hopefully). I think we just need to remind ourselves to communicate with one another and make sure each of us are on the same page and understands where we’re headed with the assignment.

Unfortunately last week I couldn’t make it to the Melbourne Museum excursion, so instead Camille asked me to look at and talk about an interactive app I’m intrigued by.

I thankfully remembered  I had this app installed on my laptop which is actually quite fun to play with (I ended up playing with it for about 20 minutes oops). The game ‘Bind: Brain teaser puzzle game requires you to connect same coloured dots without overlapping the lines, and to pass each level you must fill in all the squares on the game screen. There are heaps of levels, which makes it super easy to end up interacting with for ages.

I really enjoy how colourful and addicting this game is, once you start playing it’s really hard to stop, and I think the idea of creating something really really colourful and addictive is something I’d definitely like to develop further. I don’t know what exactly I would do, but addictiveness and bright and fun feel the app has is something I think I should definitely take into consideration.

 

Lili

I don’t know if I was just doing something wrong it was just my computer, but unfortunately, Lili’s project wasn’t working for me. I looked around a bit in the patcher trying to figure out what I was or wasn’t doing, but I’m still unsure. It worked I think for a brief moment, and from what I gathered by playing around at that moment and just generally looking at the patcher, Lili’s project looked extremely well put together and the concept was super creative and cool. Lili really clearly demonstrates an understanding of the newer stuff we’ve learnt in Max, and it was really interesting to see  3D movement, colour and audio all used in the one project. There really isn’t much that needs to be improved! (other than me figuring out if I was using it incorrectly)

Jake

This project was so fun!! Despite the fact that those around me were probably really annoyed by my constant clapping and cheering, I really enjoyed playing around with Jake’s project. I thought it was really cool that different reactions (clapping and/or cheering) triggered different visuals (words on the screen), it made it really fun to play with. I’m definitely amazed at how well put together this project is, allowing different types of audio to trigger different things was something I didn’t really know how to achieve, but Jake shows a really great understanding of pairing audio and visual together.

Jenna

Again, like with Lili’s work, I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong, but Jenna’s project, unfortunately, wasn’t working for me. Despite the project not working for me, by looking at the patcher, I could clearly see that a lot of time and effort had been put into conceptualising and creating. Jenna’s idea was extremely creative, and if it had worked for me, I think it would’ve been really enjoyable to play with. As I don’t actually know if it works, all I would say to improve the project would be to have instructions that are a little bit simpler/clearer as I found I was a bit unsure of where and what to click. I’d also suggest double checking that you’ve added things to Presentation Mode as when I clicked it, nothing came up so I had to go back to the patcher. Overall, great concept, just a few minor improvements could be made.

Reflective Statement: Solo Study

I think it’s clear in my solo task that the concept is there, and I am in ways content with some aspects of it. I think this assignment overall was a learning curve for me, both with my solo and group study. I’m going to admit I left this all quite last minute, I was underestimating what it would take to create the work I wanted, and really didn’t have much motivation because for most of the time we had to work on this assignment I struggled to conceptualise. I think it would’ve made it a lot easier for me if I had just stuck with any idea that had come to me, rather than spent weeks not really getting work done cause I didn’t have a clear concept. It’s important to understand that the creative process isn’t always linear or easy, I think I needed to understand that the process may be quite a bit of trial and error and really I could’ve allowed myself to get more creative from day 1, leaving me more time to ask questions and play around, which would ultimately allow for me create a more thought out and creative project.

I think what I’m learning through this course is that the process of creating interactive art, especially with Max, is never going to be all that easy. Acceptance of struggle is what I need, and I guess I’m more so accepting of it now, and I’m certainly realising that I’m here to learn, and thats what Camille is here for, to teach us and guide in the right direction when we’re unsure. Max is a complex program and we can’t expect ourselves to be fully understanding of it after only 8 weeks of using it. I’ve certainly learn’t that things wont always work they way you want, but thats okay because in some cases, this can lead to greater things and unexpected, but good outcomes.

I do believe there is success in my work, it does in fact work. By moving around the screen or waving your arms around, a couple different sound effects play in the corners of the screen. I think in future, if I had a little more time and was more proactive in asking for help, I’d be able to find a way to add a lot more sound effects to really give it more of a DJ feel. I’d also like to develop a way to change the visuals on the screen by movement too, or sound even. I think it would be interesting to be able to use your body or voice to trigger visual changes as well as audio playback.

I do know my project has its flaws. I had more of a vision of something a little more fun audio-wise, I planned on finding more musical sound effects, like different beats you’d hear in mainstream music. I hoped I’d use a lot more than just 4 or 5 sound effects, but I got kind of lazy and frustrated by the end and really just gave up. It’d be cool to maybe have a base layer of audio that constantly plays, and then you can move around to make your own unique ‘song’. If I’d spent a bit more time working on this project I definitely think this would’ve been achievable as I did attempt to have this base layer of audio, but gave up because I was taking too long to figure out how to make it work.

Essentially what I’ve gathered from this task is that my project both succeeds and fails, and that’s okay. Improvements could definitely be made, but I’m aware of them and have greatly learned from this assignment that art takes time, and its worth investing time into it.

Reflective Statement: Group Study

Well, this is going to be one interesting reflection. To point out the obvious, our originally planned idea was to create a game of sorts, where you would essentially play as a 3D model of Baymax, avoiding incoming needles. We knew it was an ambitious idea, but what was even more ambitious was leaving it until the week it was due. With how hectic everything has been for all of us and the semester break essentially being 2 weeks, the motivation and drive to work on this project was at an all-time low. It came to week 8 (this week) and it got to a point where we hadn’t done very much at all. It was really not ideal for us to have left the assignment so last minute but there was nothing we could do, unfortunately, there is no way to go back in time and work on it for longer. I am quite frustrated with us for not starting earlier, because it did mean that it came to the lesson before it was due and Camille very kindly advised that we don’t start working with moving a 3D model with bodily actions so last minute, and in all fairness he was correct, but that’s not to say that we weren’t frustrated. Camille suggested we inserted create something more audio based if we wanted, something that might be much simpler and ideally achievable in the short amount of time we had left before the due date.

With only a short amount of time before we were due to submit, we really had no choice but to do something simple and realistic. We searched for ages for 3D models, and with constant trial and error, we were feeling hopeless. None of our downloaded models were working and we were getting sick of it.

Eventually, Kay managed to get a 3D model of a plane to work, and with some discussion, we decided that we would still like to use the concept of body movements controlling the movements of a 3D object, so we decided to work towards making the plane the object you control. To add a bit more to our last minute work, we googled a free downloadable cloud background to be playing in the background of the plane model, making it as though you’re controlling the plane flying through the sky. Considering the time we had, I think we executed our concept well. We managed to make something that functions and I’m really happy with it.

Really, once we had conceptualised, we definitely had a much greater sense of direction, and this certainly motivated us because with the combination of time pressure and this newfound sense of direction, we were able to show ourselves we know more about Max then we think. It is frustrating that we didn’t get to execute the idea we intended to, but I think if we had better managed our time we would certainly be capable of doing it.

Overall, this was definitely a major learning curve for myself as a student and creative. Never have I ever left an assignment so late. As much stress as this last minute idea change was, it ended up showing the 3 of us that we are more capable than we think, and have a decent understanding of the new tools we’ve learnt about. We definitely succeeded in creating something that works, and we should be proud of that.

 

Artist’s Statement: Solo Study

My main intention for this solo study is to create something fun and easy to interact with. I’m looking to create something that allows audiences to interact with a screen and trigger different sounds, more specifically certain beats or instruments really. The kind of ‘meaning’ and intention behind this is to allow anyone intreating to be their own DJ I guess. I wouldn’t say there’s any sort of intellectual meaning behind this, or anything that intellectual, but the aim is more to create something enjoyable, fun and easy to interact with, and something that each person will have a different experience with whilst they create their own music essentially.

In all honesty, I’m going into this assignment with very little confidence. I still feel very unsure and lost in Max. I worry that my idea is also a bit too basic compared to that of others. I’m mostly just planning on playing around in Max mostly, maybe playing with the visuals and altering their appearance (saturation, contrast, screen rotation) to create something a little more creative and personal, rather than something anyone could easily do. I think playing with the visuals, and pairing them with distinct sounds could really make this project successful.

I do also hope that in doing this task I end up with a slightly better understanding of Max and that maybe by the end of piecing it all together I have a bit more confidence in myself and my ability with the program. I would hopefully like to ultimately be able to understand how to use the new objects we’ve learnt, I’d like to show that I can use both audio and visual based objects, and connect the two together and create something enjoyable to interact with. I know i’ll struggle a bit, as all of this is very new and confusing, but I do have faith that with help from my peers and Camille, I’ll succeed (in some ways at least).

Artists Statement: Group

Through this project, myself, Charmaine and Kay aim to develop a non-tactile sort of game, basically allowing you to play as Baymax (a recognisable character from Big Hero 6) and avoid being ‘popped’ by incoming needles. The game requires you to move your body parts as though you are Baymax and need to swipe the needles away. We realise our concept is quite ambitious considering our skill level and current understanding of Max, but overall we just want to create something fun, addicting and satisfying to play.

As I said earlier, we understand that the concept of our project is a bit ambitious, but I believe going in with this idea of ambition could potentially motivate us to create something we are quite satisfied with, and something that demonstrates a much deeper understanding of ways to use Max, as well as demonstrating our understanding of non-tactile interaction. I think we’re also aware however that ‘understanding’ Max is not always easy, and a lot of the time each of us struggle to understand the program. I know we will face challenges with knowing how to use the zip file of the 3D model of Baymax, and we’re all also a little afraid and puzzled by the whole ‘jit.world’ thing, and all the 3D stuff. Although we (maybe mostly I) have doubts, I do have hope that we will succeed in using the 3D Max technology (with the help of Camille of course).

Dewei Low

A simple, yet fun and creative way of making interactive art. As piercing as some of the audio was at times, the visuals were entertaining and the ability to modify them with ease was really fun to play around with. I think the level of tactile interaction is really great and fun and works super well, the colours and audio show a good understanding of how to connect visuals with sound and they come together really well. As for potential improvements and such or further developments, I think it would be interesting in future to see a larger variety of visuals, and maybe a more diverse range of sound that may be a little less piercing to the ear.

 

 

Chi Kay Wong

Such a wholesome and fun project to interact with! At first my laptop wasn’t reacting too well to the patcher and the wrong images were popping up with the letters but after a quick force quit and reopen it worked perfectly! The instructions were easy to follow, although I would’ve liked for them the writing to be placed maybe below the camera window and maybe just a bit bigger too to make them easier to see. As for other improvements, maybe in future just add more animals I guess, other than that there’s not much more that ‘needs’ to be improved!

 

Justin Harvey

I really enjoyed this solo project, it demonstrated a really great understanding of the audio based objects and tools in Max and showed me that you don’t always need to include video objects to create a visual image. I thought it was really well thought out and I really liked that the visuals were representative of sound, having an appearance similar to that of soundwaves. Improvements that could be made could potentially be using a deeper sound, one that isn’t as numbing to hear for more than a minute, other than that, really good!

 

This first assignment certainly proved to be challenging, but in a way that benefited me. It’s safe to say that the creative process is not always easy. With minimal experience in using Max, I was already limiting my ideas to what was realistic. In my solo project, I decided to take the idea of an association between visuals and audio, but in quite a simple way. I chose to select colours and songs that I found a connection between, and then created what I called a ‘Colour Playlist’. I simply opened Adobe Illustrator, made some rectangles and played around with the colours until i created ones I personally liked. I then went through many of my Spotify playlists, listening for ‘soft’ songs, with minimal lyrics and more just sounds that I found fit well with my chosen colours. Once I had my materials, the process of actually creating the interactive art on Max was my next daunting task. I definitely overestimated my struggle. I think I doubted myself way too much when it came to creating my Patcher. My notes on what objects meant/did what were a lifesaver, and with assistance from Camille and my peers, I managed to figure things out over the course of the week. That isn’t to say that I didn’t struggle though. Even with notes and help, when on my own the mess of wires and my overthinking ended up with me confusing myself, even if what I was doing was pretty simple. I did eventually figure things out and have now gained more confidence in connecting audio and visual objects, as well as finally understanding how to connect certain actions to keys on the keyboard to allow for them to be triggered with ease. I am happy with the outcome of my solo work, but as I came to the end of creating it, I couldn’t help but consider that maybe making it more interactive would make it a better interactive art piece overall. In future, I’d like to think I could potentially develop the work so audiences can create their own places. I could allow them to piece colours and songs together, allowing them to express their differentiating options and ideas as to what songs they feel match what colours.

As for the group task, my group had a solid idea, each of us seemed content with the concept and through our discussion and planning, we had big ideas to include audio, create a broad range of filters and incorporate audio. Unfortunately for us, our experience and understanding with Max wasn’t enough to reach our exact visions. We had written in our project plan about having a diverse range of filters, and hopefully audio to go with each of these, but after a lot of trialling and playing around in Max, we realised we may have been biting off more than we could chew. Our idea was strong, but the process was hard when none of us were comfortable or educated enough on the program to execute as we’d hoped. For most of the process of creating our project, we found things quite complex and messy, we definitely got majority confused with all the wires and boxes scattered over the screen, and that was only after creating 2 filters. With the due date approaching soon, by Wednesday the 20th we’d decided to scratch the idea of audio, and decided instead of a diverse range of filters, we would only create a saturation, hue and brightness based ones that could be controlled via one object (BRCOSR). It’s unfortunate that we gave up on our original goal, but I think with more time to work on it and experience using Max, we’d be able to definitely fully develop our original concept. We definitely succeeded in partially developing our idea, although we limited ourselves I think we’re all relatively satisfied with the outcome. If we were to come back to this task at the end of the semester I believe we’d definitely be able to reach our full potential and develop the idea in full.

Overall, these tasks have definitely shown me that I know more about Max then I give myself credit for. I found towards the end of developing the work that I was using more of the keyboard shortcuts and was remembering the names of objects, messages and other items with ease (jit.pwindow, playlist~, toggle, message functions). I think I should be relatively content with the outcome, considering it is the first assignment, I think I’ve done what I could, although things could definitely be improved upon, I have to give myself credit for what I did do.

Artists Statements: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/lauren-bisignano/2019/03/20/artists-statements/