Christian Cook's Blog

IDAT106: Final Project

2009-05-10T13:05:00.001-07:00

As mentioned before, the basis of my final project for IDAT106 involves using the ArchOS data collected from the Portland Square building, and to be presented on the Portland Square building's greenscreen. The greenscreen itself is an array consisting of 50x80 RGB LED pixels. When designing projects for the greenscreen there are several different factors you need to think about. The first is the dimensions of the screen itself, its been recommended that the source media is to the resolution of 330x500 pixels onscreen; so what can be displayed is very limited by this factor. This got me thinking visually what im going to display on the screen and what scale its going to be.

First off I researched different style types such as grunge, minimalistic, retro, futuristic etc and found that a very basic retro style was the best way to go forward. When I say the style retro I mean very basic block images with defined edges such as graphics seen in very early video games.

In the games above both of them seem to use a sort of tile based system consisting of a grid of squares. Inside these squares different shapes/colours are used to show different directions/solids. This idea of using a grid system to define tiles seemed like a really awesome way of creating simple yet effective boundaries between transparent and opaque.

This lead me onto my first idea for a visual look on my project, by creating a grid of patterned tiles in a 8x12 grid, to the size of the screen (330x500). Each of the tiles could either be opaque, transparent, or a mix of the two.

The above image is a possible outcome of a randomly generated set of tiles, with a mirror along the middle to create a great visual effect. This mirroring idea lead me onto a great idea for how I could manipulate the ArchOS data to generate these funky pattern designs. After a discussion with fellow members of my course, the huge contrast of the transparent/opaque look makes the design look like a sort of ventilation system on the side of the building. I then took this idea further and thought about doing a contrast between the temperatures inside and outside of the building, so I could open and close up individual vents depending on the difference between temperatures inside and outside of the building.

After many hours of planning and coding, I managed to create an algorithm which managed the flow of the 'ventilation' tiles, which over time opened and closed the vents to adapt to the temperature change. For example if it started getting colder outside of the building, the vents would start closing up to seal more of the heat inside the building and vise-versa.

Click here for a link to Tiles v1

IDAT101: Interventions

2009-05-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

Previously for my IDAT101 project entitled "Site Specific Brief" we collected and processed data found in the Plymouth main Train Station. This data was not only just numbers on a spreadsheet, we also managed to record a general ambient sound emitting from the station, as if we were capturing the environment at the time.

For my original idea I planned to play footsteps back into the same environment and record the surroundings on video, to do this I would have to submit a video protocol.

After not being able to get permission to record video in the Plymouth Train Station I decided to take the contents of the station and place them elsewhere!

...such as the University of Plymouth Student Union (UPSU). At the UPSU there is plenty of people that will be passing by and a whole different environment to the train station. I played the environment recording from the station into this new environment to see how people would react to the changes; this is what happened.

IDAT106 Workbook: Final Project Proposal

2009-03-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

For my final project I am definately going to be working closely with the greenscreen linked to the Arch-OS system.

IDAT106 Workbook: Workshop Synthesis

2009-03-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

From the previous workshops I have taken particular interest in the last segment of sessions. By combining the Arch-OS system with the greenscreen a very powerful and interactive application can be developed. The first set of workshops made me alot more aware about re-visualising our surroundings and how it can be visualised. This also links into the second set of workshops by visualising the hertzian space around us which a more digital aspect of the previous workshops. By using ideas from the first 2 sets of workshops something special can be conjured up and displayed onto the greenscreen to the general public. By doing this you can make the general public alot more aware of their own surroundings and the invisible space around them.

IDAT106 Workbook: Introductory Greenscreen Project

2009-03-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

As we had to complete a practical piece for this section of the workshops, we were asked to build a small application using either video streaming or the use of ArchOS and the greenscreen. For my project I decided to use the greenscreen as it had the higher interest for me. I looked into different types of applications and decided using a combination of Flash and the Arch-OS system was the best way to go. We were already provided with a basic XML parser for Actionscript 2.0 with use in Flash but we have recently been taught how to use Actionscript 3.0 which uses a whole new language system, so the old code would not run and contained tons of errors when compiled in the new language.

In the IDAT102 module we have been taught the basics of AS3.0 but didn't really get told anything relevant to using the Arch-OS XML parser. After hours of slaving over helpbooks and browsing various Internet pages I managed to code my own XML parser in Actionscript 3.0 which utilized the Arch-OS system and output values which I could use to manipulate objects in Flash. I then studied the values output from the system and noticed that the most commonly updated values involved using the wind speed and direction from the wind vane on top of the Roland Levinsky building.

After experimenting with different ways of outputting this data onto the screen and for other users to make any sense of this, I managed to conjure up a nifty application called the "Wind Clock". The Wind Clock operated by drawing a line depending on the wind direction, and its thickness determined by the strength of the current wind. Each second a line would be drawn in progression to the previous, slowly making its way down the screen until the next minute arrived. After a couple of minutes the display would build up a sort of linear spirograph showing the history of the winds direction and strength.

IDAT106 Workbook: The Territory - Arch-OS

2009-03-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

The Arch-OS system is a huge network running through the Portland Square building, containing heaps of information about the building itself. The system is interpreted as the buildings "Operating System" as if the building was actually alive. It is capable of monitoring all sorts of data about the building and relaying information back to itself. Not only does this let the building actually manage itself, it allows others to research the data collected and study how to create a more environmentally friendly building to use.

On the Arch-OS section of the Plymouth website any user from around the world is capable of looking at selected sensors placed throughout the building and is able to use this data for their own devices. In our section of the workshop we were asked to use this Arch-OS data and create a very simple Flash application which utilises this data and outputs it into a more user understood way.

http://arch-os.scce.plymouth.ac.uk/live_data.php?refresh=5

In the link above there is a live feed of all of the values output from the Arch-OS system to the web. It contains all sorts of different sensors ranging from lecture theatre temperatures to wind speed/direction.

IDAT106 Workbook: The Territory - Greenscreen

2009-03-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

The next segment of these workshops revolves around the use of the greenscreen, located on the front of the Portland Square building. The greenscreen is a grid of bright LED lights layed out into a square grid of 50x80 LEDS, each capable of performing a full RGB spectrum. The recommended resolution of graphics for the greenscreen is 330x500 pixels where you can run any multimedia application such as a flash document or video stream. The recommended use of the greenscreen is to use as much contrast in colour as possible and alot of motion to be able to notice a difference in the picture.

The following video is entitled "Connected Environments" which was a workshop held the previous year in using the greenscreen combined with processing Arch-OS data.

All in all, the greenscreen was designed as a public interface as to where any type of information can be relayed and displayed to the public. Some of the examples in the previous video change the way they look depending on the environment surrounding the screen (wind, temperature etc.)

One other great example of work used on this greenscreen is the Noogy project. The Noogy project was a visual character displayed on the screen of whom that reacted not only to values relayed from the Arch-OS system, but was also capable of watching the public through a video feed and receiving messages via an SMS text system.

IDAT106 Workbook: The Territory - Video Streaming

2009-03-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

In the last set of workshops for IDAT106 we moved onto working with live video streaming across the Internet. Not only did we stream across the room from computer to computer, but also managed to stream a live video feed onto our mobile phones using a technology called Qik.

We first started working with the Quicktime Streaming Server which allows the user to stream a video feed or pre-recorded video on the persons computer to the Internet from the original computer. The problem with this method of streaming is if the source computer is on a sloppy connection and it has 100+ users all connected requesting video stream data then the connection will choke and fail.

This is the reason why we moved onto using the Qik service. Qik is an online website capable of receiving video streams not only from computers, but if equipped with the correct phone/software its possible to stream to the website directly from your phone. After the video was streamed onto the website, users can either log onto the Qik website to watch the broadcast or they can even watch the video from another mobile device.

IDAT106 Workbook: The Territory - Introduction

2009-03-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

"The notion of transformation in and through emergent media. a, the act or an instance of transforming. b. the state of being transformed as enabling an evolution of form, a transformation from solid to the immaterial, the object to the process and the script to the algorithm. The projects generated for this brief should exhibit ‘symptoms’ of the transformative qualities of digital media while retaining critical references to traditional contexts. Projects will make use of the Arch-OS attempts to liquefy buildings through base data."

In this workshop we are mainly focused on working on streaming video across the Internet and working closely with the Arch-OS system to gather data and visualise it onto the green screen.

IDAT106 Workbook: Hertzian Space - GPS Mapping

2009-03-10T12:33:00.001-07:00

In the next set of workshops we were focused more on the idea of locative media and in particular working with GPS Mapping. The task set within the workshop was to conjure up an image that was capable of being drawn onto the landscape from a top-down perspective using roads, paths, fields etc to define the edges and lines. To draw the actual image itself we were required to physically draw the map out by carrying a GPS plotter device and walking the outline of the image ourselves. Because it had to be done in such a short period of time we were restricted to using only the university campus area as our canvas. After fiddling around with a few ideas from a campus map an image of a yacht appeared perfectly on top of the map.

I then scribbled down the route I would have to take to draw this map and took plenty of photographs on the way to show my journey of the route.

The GPS plotter was quite temperamental whilst working with it but I managed to work up a rough image of my original yacht idea. When I managed to get the co-ordinates from the GPS plotter onto a visual map an array of small Dots were displayed over a map of the area.

As you cant see its not really possible to visualise the yacht on the map unless you know the original shape of the drawing, so to save confusion heres a picture with both the dots and original line plotted on top of the map.

IDAT106 Workbook: Hertzian Space - Frequency Investigation

2009-03-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

In this workshop we were asked to investigate how to map out a choice of frequency in the location of our choice. In our group we decided to pick the easiest frequency available to us; Bluetooth. Each of us carried a mobile device capable of picking up bluetooth frequencies and listing out their relevant ID names. Each mobile had a rough range of 20-40 metres so we could not just pick a small area. We decided to use the Roland Levinsky building and its floors to carry out our investigation.

It wouldve been an interesting idea to use WiFi as part of our data collection but that would have required carrying around a laptop picking up WiFi signals from the surrounding area, but as it is university campus there was a high chance of only picking up the campus WiFi.

With the Bluetooth data collected, I managed to create a map of the Roland Levinsky building purely out of the data and the locations at which we recorded the data.

By creating a visual map of the data shown above, it creates a whole new way of being able to view hertzian space. Its no longer just a compiled list of names collected from a mobile, its now a map containing a fraction of the hertzian space around us.

IDAT106 Workbook: Hertzian Space - Introduction

2009-03-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

"This part of the workshop is a Space oriented and space based workshop, aims to explore different way to access, perceive, construct the space. The workshop approach will be driven by spatial experiences. We will work on challenging spatial awareness and navigational skills, on redefining reshaping or recasting familiar spaces and ultimately on cross-cultural spatial models. We will also try to understand the way in which a location operates. There will be opportunities to work with GPS technology looking at current practices but at the same time try to contextualize those project in a conceptual, theoretical and historical concerns related the field known as locative media. This practice-based module will intensively use old fashion documentation tools like collage, sound recording, maps and moreover some exercises will be done re-enacting experimental art practice of the avant-garde artists."

In the second set of workshops for this module, we intended to focus on the hertzian space around us. Hertzian space is the invisible space around us which still exists physically, including different frequencys carrying mobile transmissions, Bluetooth, WiFi etc. We also set out to focus on locative media which is defining on location based services such as GPS (Global Positioning Systems).

IDAT106 Workbook: Ecology - Paper Moulding

2009-03-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

On the last part of this workshop we were asked to print off our collage drawings and then mould off the printed paper along the lines defined. By doing this you can create a 3D scene of your original collage without having any of the original information there whatsoever.

IDAT106 Workbook: Ecology - Model

2009-03-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

Now that the "time-based photograph" and the "time-based drawing" was complete, the next stage of the workshop was to create a "time-based model" based on the interactions that I observed in the photographs and drawing. The model was to be made physically out of clay and then incorporated back into the collage via photography. In my observations I highly focused on the movements of the hand and the actions involved with it. Because there was alot of gripping of objects in my observations I decided to take a mould of my own hand in a gripped state rather than spread flat.

Here is the final piece of the moulds placed on top of the previous layers; the sound and movement.

IDAT106 Workbook: Ecology - Drawing

2009-03-09T12:55:00.001-07:00

After creating the "time-based photograph" we had to then structure a "time-based drawing" from the collage created previously. By creating the time-based photograph alot of notation had to be collected from the collage as a whole and each photograph, then applied back on top of the image as a visual drawing. Examples of "stuff" we had to notate on the drawing were hot/cold, dark/light, fast/slow, loud/quiet and hard/soft.

In the time-based drawing I created I mainly focused on the fast/slow elements and the loud/quiet areas.

Sound:

Motion:

Merged:

Personally I think my time based drawing came out alot worse than expected. I had lots of ideas for representing the interactions sorted out in my head but once used in the drawing it come out completely wrong. I might have just misunderstood the idea entirely but I gave it my best shot. The straight lines represent vision and movement, whereas the round circular waves represent sound and volumes.

By doing this task I did learn lots about the interactions between people and it made me think alot more outside the box about the environment and interactions that go on around us every day.

IDAT 106 Workbook: Ecology - Collage

2009-03-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

The title of our first piece for this module was the "time-based photograph" where each person has to collect their taken images from the picnic and create their own "time-based photograph" expressing their personal and social interactions from that day. The photos collected were taken over quite a few hours and demonstrate the interactions between the picnic group.

All of the photos taken were from my point of view in the picnic, which helped when building up a collage of the area. Once I had the basic collage down of scenery I picked out the photos which had interactions and then focused on particular motions from the people in my group. In particular I found the gripping of the hand was the most common and interesting motion observed in the photos.

The first revision of my collage is as displayed below:

In this collage I tried to recreate the entire afternoon through a time-based photograph in one image, which is quite hard to achieve. By layering the differences in movement and expressions over time next to each other it is quite visual of some of the interactions that took place during the picnic. Alot of hand motion was involved in expressing views and opinions, as well as interaction with the environment around.

Personally I found this field trip quite handy not only for learning about the course, but about learning the people around me.

IDAT106 Workbook: Ecology - Field Trip

2009-03-09T12:29:00.000-07:00

"Working in groups of 5 (no bigger than 5, no smaller than 3), using your workbooks as the primary tool of investigation, construct a time-based photograph documenting the social interactions between the people at your picnic on Mount Edgecombe. This photograph must consider specific aspects of the members in your picnic. You will be expected to have an understanding of body measurements and calibration forming a design philosophy. This photograph will form the groundwork for the drawing in the following week."

In the first session of workshops we begun to study human ecology; the interactions between people and their environments. To do this we had a class field trip to Mount Edgecombe where we would hold a standard picnic in small groups, taking plenty of pictures from our own perspectives and noting down peoples interactions.

On the day of the field trip we had excellent weather which provided us with brilliant lighting for our photography. It was suggested that every person from the picnic took a large sum of photos each suitable to be used for a collage in one of the later sessions, I ended up with more than enough photos which came in handy later on.

IDAT106 Workbook: Introduction

2009-03-09T12:10:00.000-07:00

Within the next few blog posts I will be writing about my experiences through all of the 15 workshops held throughout the IDAT106 module. Within the 15 workshops there are 3 different fields of work consisting of:

Workshops 1-5: Field trip collage (The Picnic) - Ecology
Workshops 5-10: Hertzian space, bluetooth and GPS - Hertzian Space
Workshops 10-15: Geocaching, Internet streaming and Greenscreen - Territory

In the first set of workshops "ecology" was the main focus of terms we were working towards. The workshop was carried out to give us a better understanding of social interactions between people and how it can be represented on a visual basis.

The second set of workshops produced were focusing on the term "hertzian space" which I think is about mapping the invisible space around us.

The last and final set of workshops carried out focused mainly on "territory" but also links into ecology, sort of a blend of both hertzian space and ecology. These workshops were more about streaming video across the Internet and representing basic numbers into a visual representation onto a public viewingspace (greenscreen).

IDAT106: Archos XML Parser in AS 3.0

2009-02-20T07:30:00.000-08:00

Seeing as the previously distributed parser was AS2.0 and we are being taught AS3.0, heres a parser I developed in AS3.0 specifically for the Archos feed.

Feel free to use etc, just please no more Actionscript 3.0 questions, im getting tired of them!

Download! (C3.TheSevens.Net)

IDAT102: Project 3: Creating a Design Document

2009-02-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

The key to creating a successful game is to create a full-blown design document containing detailed specifics about each part of the game.

"While there is no set way to write a design document, all design docs have one thing in common - they tell a programmer or an artist everything they need to know to create your game."

bbrathwaite (2008) http://bbrathwaite.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/creating-a-game-design-document/

If you read through the source to the previous quote, it tells you the entire specifics to a successful game design document. Without a design doc some features will often be left out and forgotten, the structure of the project will be everywhere and no one will have a clue what they are doing.

IDAT106: GPS Mapping

2009-01-20T14:01:00.000-08:00

In the brief of this short project we were asked to draw out an outline of a graphic we would like to use and draw this outline using GPS. This GPS map had to be drawn within the boundaries of the university campus, using roads and alleys to define the edges. I decided to draw a yacht type outline, as it was the first thing which popped into my mind looking at a top-down view.

Here is the raw GPS data placed onto a google maps satellite view, you cant quite see the outline perfectly, but you can get a rough idea of the route that was taken.

Also here is an image with a combination of the satellite view, the GPS dots and the original photoshop drawing together. As you can see with the base of the mast I didnt realise the shape of the side alley through the car park, so I had to take a small detour around the edge.

IDAT101: Train Station Data

2009-01-15T02:26:00.001-08:00

Below is a spreadsheet of the collected data showing how many people walked through certain areas of the station every 5 minutes.

IDAT101: Video Data

2008-12-12T03:46:00.001-08:00

Here are a few videos where we have re-interpreted the data into a visual form.

This video is where we captured some live sound from inside the train station, capturing sounds of passers by.

This video is a raw screen capture of Google earth zooming into the train station.

IDAT101: Mind Map!

2008-12-11T04:51:00.000-08:00

(Click to Enlarge)

IDAT106: Bluetooth Mapping

2008-11-14T08:52:00.001-08:00

A few weeks back we collected bluetooth data containing peers inside the Roland Levinsky building. Here is that data mapped out into a visual representation:

On this map I have displayed all of the bluetooth data collected, and displayed accordingly to which floor the signal was received. The interesting part of this data is about how some signals were received on multiple floors; this has been shown by giving multiple branches on some bluetooth names.

IDAT107: Super Imposing

2008-11-13T03:00:00.000-08:00

Oh I do love Gianni's lectures

IDAT102: Project 1: My Personal Website

2008-11-06T15:59:00.000-08:00

Module Brief: 'Project 1 will require you to create your own website using Dreamweaver and HTML, apply style using CSS and add interactivity using JavaScript. You will need to show planning, creativity and technical competence to meet the requirements.'

I got bored and decided to have a go at creating a design for this personal website thingy. Because it's a 'personal' website ill style it to express me.

Went for a usual block layout with the header sitting at the top, followed by a horizontal navigation bar with the content sitting underneath.

Grunge is probably my most favourite design style, but its pretty damn hard to create some convincing grunge without brushes. After scouring the internet I stumbled onto Digg where users can share content and link others to cool things, which brought me to this website:

www.noupe.com

This site has links to external websites like peoples DeviantArt pages, these ones of which carrying awesome brushes available for download.

After playing around in Photoshop I mocked up a little something that looks like this.

(Click for larger view)

Too bland? thought so too. After a few hours playing about with grunge tools and a lick of colour I produced this; which I am rather happy with:

(Click for larger view)

Once again a few hours later (I was on a roll!) I had finally finished diving up the photoshop image into suitable slices for use on the web. All I know now is fighting to get DIV tags to be in the right place is temperamental, you have to trick the browser into displaying it where you want. This reminds me of an old diagram which always makes me laugh:

Oh yes, Internet F****** Explorer. I always seem to forget that IE6 has problems displaying PNG24 image files (the transparent parts go a yucky solid grey colour), and that it doesnt like displaying list elements sideways (they seem to go into a stacky mess of tags).

So this is where Flash comes in to save the day, and since I ventured into Flash I thought why not make it a bit... Flashy? So yea I went a bit overboard and chucked some in for a laugh and it looks quite neat!

Until I get briefed more on this site I cant really do much more else so go take a look:

El Click-o

IDAT106: Collage Layers

2008-10-28T15:29:00.000-07:00

WIP...

IDAT108: Relevant videos to 'Man with a Movie Camera' (1929)

2008-10-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

Was just browsing around www.play.com when I stumbled across this:

http://www.play.com/DVD/...BFI-75th-Anniversary-Box-Set...

Seems this media I have never heard of is actually more popular than it seems.

IDAT101: Train Station Project

2008-10-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

For our site project me and Gavin have chosen the main Plymouth train station. There is so many types of data which can be collected/observed in so many different ways.

IDAT106: Cast Photographs

2008-10-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

Last week we all met up at Gavin's house prepared with 2 packs of DAS and a lot of strange ideas. I decided to take a cast of a clenched fist, as from observing hand postures in my collage there is alot of gripping and clenching going on.

IDAT106: Initial Collage

2008-10-24T08:12:00.000-07:00

Members of my picnic: Myself, Gavin, Sara, Greg and Josh

Overall we took about 400 photographs between ourselves each taking turns with our own sets of photos. Quite alot of the images werent usable but there are several good images which I used for my collage.

Here is my initial collage image, not quite happy with it yet so i'll add on more later.