Reflection:

For the last 3 studies I feel as if my creative process has become a lot more fine tuned than what it was in the beginning of this semester. If you asked me to create something at the start of semester I would’ve had no clue where or what to start in order to achieve my end goal. I think one big factor for me at least is whenever I struggle to find some inspiration I can just have a look at what other people have made through the google drive. I find it interesting all the different pathways people are taking in this class and now I feel as if I can truly create something of my own. In some respects I am happy with these 3 studies, but once again I also feel as if I’ve failed to accomplish some of my goals. Studies 4 and 5 gave me some real trouble with being glitchy and just a pain in the back. And I know that studies 4 and 5 are far from polished and that doesn’t feel great but in order for me to have finished them to the level I want it’s just totally unrealistic with my slowly developed skill set.

During this design process I think I kind of learnt more than I did comparative to the last assignment. The positives that I can take out is that I still keep the idea relatively simple. I think that keeping the idea simple in turn lends itself to a better finished project. And I guess at the start I thought simple idea would mean simple execution, but this study has proven me quite wrong. Classic example is studies 4 and 5. Our group thought it was a simple idea, but the execution was just too hard for us to make a fully polished piece of art.  Comparative to my major study where it was a simple idea, and execution was rather simple compared to studies 4 and 5. I think this simple idea of thinking clearly shows a better project as I am much happier with my major study than my other two. Studies 4 and 5 almost made me feel as if I was in the early weeks of the semester, learning how to use max again which ultimately wasn’t a great feeling. Especially because I am the sort of person to set a goal and really want to achieve it no matter how great the task is.

In the end though, I believe my work has been far more sophisticated than what I had previously making and that’s a really good feeling. During these 3 studies I found myself looking or watching tutorials online, and I also spent a lot of time on the Max forums. This is completely different to the pervious assignment where I was just asking for help in class. I started to realise when I was in the forums looking for specific things that my skillset was begging to become wider and I was getting to the point where I had to look at other information sources to find things that I wanted. I also think a large reason as to why my research has been more in depth is the fact that these are non-tactile studies which led myself to actually thinking outside the box. Taking away the tactile part of interaction seriously made me think of how I am going to create something that can engage and interact with my audience and have the same effect as using tactile interactions.But I still feel as if I have a lot to learn within Max and I’m keen to see what not only max holds for the future but what I can achieve in the years to come.