Interactive Architecture Brainstorm

Interactive Architecture

I preferred the room with the delayed mirror because I thought it was interesting how it wouldn’t immediately play back your actions. To be completely honest, I didn’t understand what the other two rooms did at all. To me, it seemed like you just were supposed to talk to this machine that would show you completely random pictures and at the end you pulled the levers on a different machine with light up faces. I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of it, so the delayed mirror was my favourite. I think it would especially be cool to see what other people did in the mirror before you like an odd movie. It was unique because you would be standing in the exact same spot as they were when they did those actions.

I think that the giant LED screen could be considered a piece of interactive architecture because it temporarily transports the viewer to new world by surrounding them with visuals as they walk. They could feel like they were walking underneath a spaceship or as if they were underwater or on a mountaintop depending on the visual projected onto the LED screen.

This is a piece of art because it is a very modern and conceptual way to create the impression of being underwater. It is essentially representing the ocean through the medium of lights on ropes. It would take a lot of coordination, creativity, and work to create this piece of art.

Brainstorm

a.      I think that the less-used stairs next to the cafeteria could benefit from coming alive. Not many people use those stairs, but if they did it would mean less traffic on the main stairs and less crowding in the east wing hallways.

b.      This space could be brought to life through the use of colours and sounds. When you go up the stairs, each step would light up in the pattern of your shoe print that would fade away after a few seconds. Depending on the speed of the person going up the stairs, the lights would be different colours. Green would be for a good pace and red would be if they were going very quickly. If you went up the stairs at a good pace, each step would play a note so by the time you had gotten to the top you would have played a song.

c.      The message of this is to slow down and enjoy life more. Today everything is so fast paced and you can get lost in trying to do everything faster and more efficiently. The song would be like a reward for taking the time to relax a little. It creates a conversation with the user because it responds to their movements, rewarding them for taking the time to ‘smell the roses’ and relax versus frantically rushing everywhere. It would be especially important for teenagers because it would, in a way, encourage them to be on time everywhere so they don’t have to rush.

d.      The viewer can interact with this piece of art simply by walking up the stairs. The stairs would respond to the speed of their movement.

One World Flag Reflection

Shawna P.

One World Flag

Adobe Photoshop

December 10, 2012

***Update November 17, 2015 ***
To people wondering if they can use my flag (or an overlay of it etc) on their Facebook or other media: I'm honoured that you like my work and want to use it. You're welcome to use it wherever you like, though credit and/or a link back here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much!

Technical

I found a lovely vector image of the world that was absolutely MASSIVE so I scaled it down and used the background eraser tool to take out the white background, leaving me with just the land. I scaled that to my liking and coloured it green, because green is the universal colour for earth and environment, so it wouldn’t be particular to any one colour. I crossed white lines across the screen diagonally, horizontally, and vertically, then combined them into a single layer and used the twirl option in the distort menu to twist it left, then right on another layer. I duplicated the layer again and twirled it less this time, forming a sort of web around the world. Next I found vector art of men and women and children to surround the world like paper doll cutouts. I had to add arms to the little boy and girl, which I just cut out from the parents and made smaller to add on.

Idea/Concept

I knew that I wanted to use circles in my art, and also convey that all people were connected. Thus I put the world inside a circle and had people surround it, holding hands in a circle. I hadn’t planned on using the web around the earth, however, that was a happy accident when I decided to fiddle with the twirl option. I quite liked the effects, so I altered it to my liking.

Influences

I didn’t have any particular influences on this project. I haven’t really seen any other renditions of a ‘world flag’, so any similarities to existing world flags are coincidental.

Composition

I balanced the composition rather symmetrically, except for the world in the centre. This is because most actual country flags that I observed were very simple and symmetrical. I drew attention to the map of the world in the centre by having all of the outside lines connect to it and weave around it like an interconnecting web. The bold black of the people surrounding the world is the next thing you notice, and because it’s in a circle it draws your attention around the ring and back to the centre, where the world is. I wanted the world to be the focus because this is a world flag and every country is shown within it.

Motivation

I wanted to see if I could create a professional-looking flag with very minimal pictures and texture, and I think that I succeeded. Most of our Media Arts assignments focus on blending pictures and putting it all together so that it makes the viewer think, but this assignment was more of a challenge because it had to be direct and simple, yet still interesting. It was a challenge I gladly took up.

Critical Assessment

I was very happy with how the web behind the world turned out. Because I created it by just experimenting, it made me very happy and was a nice surprise to have it look so nice. It worked for the picture as a whole because it represented how everything was interconnected in a web.

I originally had the background as white and the outline of my circle surrounding the earth in black, but by changing the background to blue and everything else to white, I was surprised by how much things popped. Suddenly the whole picture was much more eye-catching and appealing through a simple change of colour.

I would have liked to come up with a better colour for the people surrounding the earth, since I think that perhaps the black is too bold and should be toned down slightly. I originally had tried colouring each person a different shade of grey to represent how everyone is unique and no one is simply black and white, but the resulting effect was not what I had wanted so I discarded it in favour for the black.

One World Flag Brainstorm

Do a Google search of World Flags.  How many colours does the average flag have?  What are some characteristics of flags?  (Ex. Solid colours, clean edges). 

2.  Brainstorm five words that make you think of world unity.  Beside each word, write the name of a picture that could represent the idea of world unity.

The average flag has red in it and some black and white, either as outlines to objects or as stripes, stars etc. Everything has clean edges and there are no gradients or merged colours. Each colour is distinct from those around it. Most of the shapes that they use are very simple, too, such as stars, moons, and triangles.

World Unity:

-All races

-Circle

-Peace Symbol

-All the continents together

-Holding Hands

-Cycle (arrows in a circle) 

Artist Resume

Well, I do have my Artist Resume done, however, I don't particularly want to post it on the internet for all to see. So this is simply a post saying that if you happen to want to see it, just ask me, since I have it on my USB.
Thanks!