REFLECTION

The creative process of my three assignments I believe was quite successful, I am very pleased by the outcome of all three studies, however, I do believe that there is further refinement that can be done. I have never previously used MAX thus the creative process throughout these three studies have been more tedious as a lot of the learning had been done through the many mistakes in which were made. Due to my unfamiliarity with the software, it was difficult during the creative process as I would conceptualise various potential studies yet I would realistically not be able to construct them on MAX. This is why for study one I began with something extremely simple, I think that it was quite important for me to base my first study upon what I had learnt within class, as these are some of the most imperative commands in understanding the software on a basic level. I believe that my improvement as a creator is quite evident through the transition from study one to three, as my confidence in the software had gradually improved, as through experimentation my knowledge of what can be achieved had broadened.

I have recently learnt quite a lot about what defines user interactivity and I find the concept of giving the audience agency upon the outcome of an artwork very interesting. I was very much aware of the numerous forms/ techniques of interactive art, however, using this form of technology in order to achieve numerous different effects was very much new to me. I had never even heard of the required software and new little about this more tactile form of art. Yet through these studies, I’ve realised that being simplistic within the design process can still make for a very engaging piece, this was evident within my and many other of classmates first studies that were mainly kept quite simple. This is also evident with various interactive artists in which I have studied, complexity is not imperative in order to create an evocative artwork.

What I believe would be the most successful aspect of my work is that within all three of my studies, I had achieved what I had envisioned, to a certain extent (being realistic of what can be achieved under time restraints and minimal knowledge of MAX). I am pleased with all my creations as I constructed quite evocative pieces in very different ways, eliciting varying emotions, however, all invite the audience to engage. I believe my work to be successful as it relies on the participation of a user to determine the outcome of the piece, which was what I had hoped to achieve within all of my studies.

I believe that many things can be improved upon, I understand that most likely I will never be completely confident with this software, however, I will continue to create and broaden my knowledge of different things that can be achieved. Using external sources of information has most definitely aided my creation process In addition, I found that the use of the help and reference windows had also been extremely useful upon using particular objects in which I was not familiar with. The exploration of these windows will definitely help to advance future creations of mine.

I also find that I have been simplifying my initial ideas for the purpose of staying within time restraints and conceptualising an idea that can actually be properly achieved with my minimal knowledge of the programming software. I have challenged myself most definitely when constructing my third study, however, I hoped for so much more for my visual synthesizer, artistically. It was beautiful and playful but perhaps in the future with further research and refinement, I could input a song of choice rather than a keyboard, or even have the sound correlate to more intense colours and shapes. Something that I would like to explore further within future artistic endeavours are textures, when I say this I mean I want the visuals within my piece to be more complex, more layered, involving much more depth, I feel as if that will be very interesting to research further. I want to see how much I can possibly create visually with this software, being a very artistic person I want to explore this element further. Particularly how the user can be able to alter these visuals accordingly (dependant on visuals, sounds etc).

So far I’m quite enjoying this studio, much more than anticipated. The idea of programming and needing to attempt something that I never previously have made me apprehensive, but I am very pleased with what I have achieved so far. I hope to learn to further refine my studies, constructing more complex yet efficient patchers and improving my overall artistic processes.