ALL POSTS
Drawing on Everything
This collaborative experiment ended up coming together quite nicely!
The midi inputs are visualized as ellipses along a grid; their position is dependent on the note and the diameter is dependent on the velocity. If the wacom cursor passes through one of these ellipses before it has faded, it will play the note again at that velocity.
I added some last minute functionality that makes for a more expressive experience: the pressure of the wacom pen controls the stroke weight globally, clearing the canvas is enabled (which can also create a pulsing effect, or turn the line into a fleeting white dot), and holding down a key while passing through an ellipse will echo that ellipse as 1/8th notes until it fades away.
I think, once we practice, we can get something beautiful going. But for now, a clumsy collaboration/ exploration with Yotam on keyboard and me on the Wacom:
And for your additional viewing pleasure, a bunch of code:
//PRESS b while drawing within a dot to initiate repeat
//PRESS c to clear canvas
import codeanticode.protablet.*;
import promidi.*;
MidiIO midiIO;
MidiOut midiOut;
Tablet tablet;
//set these each song
int tempo = 102;
float minPitch = 21; // set these depending on the number of octaves (small keyboard 48)
float maxPitch = 102; //set these depending on the number of octaves (small keyboard 73)
float numOfPitches = maxPitch-minPitch; // this is to set how many spots the notes can appear.
PImage curs;
int numberOfColumns = int (sqrt(numOfPitches));
int numberOfRows = int (sqrt(numOfPitches));
ArrayList <Dot> Dots = new ArrayList();
void setup() {
size(850, 850);
frame.setBackground(new java.awt.Color(0));
background(0);
tablet = new Tablet(this);
midiIO = MidiIO.getInstance(this);
midiIO.printDevices();
midiIO.openInput(0, 0);
//open an midiout using the first device and the first channel
//good ones: 4, 5
//10- space bells
//12 – decay bells
//fine: 8 – vibes
//7 computer beep
//14 harmonic church bells
midiOut = midiIO.getMidiOut(12, 1);
curs = loadImage(“cursor.png”);
cursor(curs);
}
void draw() {
// background(0);
ArrayList<Dot> keepList = new ArrayList();
for (int i = 0; i<Dots.size();i++) {
Dot d = Dots.get(i);
d.update();
if (!d.done()) {
d.drawDot(); //this would draw the specific dot that has been created in the noteOn function below.
keepList.add(d);
}
}
Dots = keepList;
if (keyPressed) {
if (key == ‘c’) {
background(0);
}
}
}
void noteOn(Note note, int device, int channel) {
int vel = note.getVelocity();
if (vel != 127) {
int pit = note.getPitch();
// println(pit);
noFill();
Dot d = new Dot(pit, vel); //here I am invoking the constructor, and making the parameters specific to the actual note that is coming in by using my own variables
Dots.add(d); //this adds my new dot or “pushes it” after a note has been played
}
}
void mouseDragged() {
float tabPressure = tablet.getPressure();
strokeWeight(10 * tabPressure);
stroke(255);
line(mouseX, mouseY, pmouseX, pmouseY);
//test every circle to see if which circle has been touched by mouseX/mouseY
//backwards loop so that the note which is played is the LAST one!
for (int i = Dots.size(); i>0; i–) {
Dot d = Dots.get(i-1);
if (d.drawnOver(mouseX, mouseY)) {
d.playNote(tabPressure);
if (keyPressed) {
if (key==’b') { //32 is the key code for spacebar
d.dotClicked = true;
}
}
break;//exits the loopdadoop
}
}
}
class Dot {
/*
CLASS VARIABLES
*/
int fadeShade = 255;
float pitch = 0;
int velocity = 0;
float dotX, dotY; //these are the dot’s drawing position
float radius = 30; //if you want to decide this something based on the input, do it within the Dot constructor.
int lastPlayed = 0;
boolean dotClicked =false;
float maxVelocity = 1;
/*
CONSTRUCTOR
*/
Dot (float _pitch, int _vel) { //this is the constructor. I am setting arguments for dot: the pitch and velocity of the note
pitch = map(_pitch, minPitch, maxPitch, 0, numOfPitches); // maps the incoming pitch to the number of pitches (makes 48 into 1, for instance);
velocity = _vel;
radius = map(velocity, 0, 127, 2, width/numberOfRows);
dotX = map(pitch%numberOfColumns, 0, numberOfColumns, .05*width, width-.05*width);
dotY = map(floor(pitch/numberOfRows), 0, numberOfRows, .05*height, height -.05*height);
}
/*
CLASS METHODS
*/
//called every loop
void update() {
fadeShade-=2;//subtracts by two (as opposed to — which subtract by one);
if (dotClicked) {
playNote(maxVelocity);
}
}
void drawDot() {
noFill();
float tabPressure = tablet.getPressure();
strokeWeight(10 * tabPressure);
stroke(fadeShade);
if (dotClicked) {
fill(fadeShade);
}
ellipse(dotX, dotY, radius, radius);
}
boolean done() { //boolean replaces void because this function will return a boolean about whether or not the dot is ready to dissapear
return fadeShade < 1; //this is how you have something get returned, it’s called a return statement
}
boolean drawnOver(int mX, int mY) { //this boolean is used to say whether or not it’s true that an X and Y are over a Dot;
float xDiff = dotX-mX;
float yDiff = dotY-mY;
float dist = sqrt((xDiff*xDiff)+(yDiff*yDiff)); // this is an equasion used to find the distance between the passed in point and the center of my circle
return dist<radius/2;
}
void playNote(float maxPressure) {
maxVelocity = maxPressure;
int now = millis();
int timeDiff = now – lastPlayed;
int eighthNote = 30000/tempo;
if (timeDiff > eighthNote) {
int mappedPitch = (int) map(pitch, 0, numOfPitches, minPitch, maxPitch);
int mappedVelocity = (int) map(fadeShade * maxVelocity, 0, 255, 0, 127);
Note note = new Note(mappedPitch, mappedVelocity, eighthNote);
midiOut.sendNote(note);
lastPlayed = now;
}
}
}
GIF: GRAPHS GIRAFFES
This is a gif of giraffes and graphs. The video projected on the left was documentation taken from the point of view of my camera (my perspective) of the house where my mother lives (and, not coincidentally, the house where I grew up), where she has a prodigious giraffe collection (the current count is 164, which is only 20 short of the population of actual giraffes in Niger) The camera would come into focus when it fell upon a giraffe.
The giraffes at Mom’s are a varied population:
Though I grew up surrounded by representations of these creatures, I rarely related them to the actual animal, but have a strong yet separate fascination with giraffes themselves. The data analysis, the righthand projection in the gif, juxtaposed infographics of giraffes found in the wild, captive giraffes, and mom’s giraffes: average lifespan, subspecies, population densities, etc. I chose to render them in watercolor and pen in an attempt to evoke nostalgia/ the precious.
I think that, as discussed in class, the weakness of this project was tying together the two portions of the diptych in a way that carried a more concrete message. While I did attempt to filter the video so that it resembled disposable film (to echo the watercolors aesthetic), I agree that something broader was missing. I think it takes a long time to sort out the meaning of a project which involves the personal.
Marina suggested that, if the video on the left was to recall a safari (which is what I had, to some degree, intended), I should have dressed up in proper attire and allowed my image to be more present in the video itself. The class responded with an follow-up edit to the aesthetics of the graph portion, so it might reflect something you’d find in a national geographic, for instance. I think that these are excellent suggestions, but would hope to be able to do so while keeping the element of mom’s giraffes’ tender position in my psyche present: I wouldn’t want to purely lampoon.
As I mentioned in class, I hope to expand on this project by investigating other middle age ladies’ animal figure collections. I know they’re out there, and they’re waiting to be explored. In the future, I’d like to try to find out more from the curators of these collections: where did each figurine come from? What percentage where purchased by the collector? This, however, becomes less about the collected animal perhaps, and more about the collector. Which (to be honest) is okay by me, as it seems that these collections often have little to do with any feature of the animal itself.
OUR OBJECTS
here’s a link to my response to this week’s assignment on object and place. while this iteration was absolutely an experiment, i hope to expand on some of the ideas here in the future.
arrows to move, mouse to look around!
THREE OSTRICHES
Donald’s Ostrich
When I was a kid, I loved this cartoon. As I’m watching it again now, I still find a lot of things about it that are lovable. The animation is wonderful, the sound design is rich, and the gags definitely hold up. But it’s also clear that a lot of the sentiments behind the characterization of the ostrich harken back to the gender dynamics of the time. Before the action even starts (and this may have been unintentional, though it’s still interesting), Donald, our star, is using an ostrich feather duster, establishing his position of power of the ostrich. And strangely, even though they’re both birds, Donald can talk (well, sort of), but the ostrich can only coo and squawk. This is a strategy Disney often employs to establish the power dynamic between two characters: think Goofy versus Pluto.
As soon as the ostrich enters the scene, it makes advances at Donald, which makes Donald uncomfortable because Donald assumes he’s a man. So, outright, we experience the homophobia which is common at the time. Although, judging by his feather patterns Donald would be correct in his assumption, we find out shortly after that the Ostrich is in fact female, which quells Donald’s fears, and the ostrich can go about perpetuating the a stereotypical ditziness characterized by the Ostrich’s urge to eat everything in sight. The character design plays with the features of the ostrich that are considered desirable for American women. It’s long legs, long eyelashes, and voluminous caboose all contribute. Yet, the ostrich isn’t sexy. Like many women in the eyes of many men at the time, her clumsiness and lack of common sense makes he nothing more than a flirtatious annoyance.
Joust
Joust is an American video game developed and released in 1982. It features knight riding flying ostriches attempting to defeat knights riding buzzards. My impression is that this game uses ostriches in part specifically for their novelty. Many early games were built on ludicrous premises (Mario? Seriously?) and what more bizarre than a flightless giant that seems almost half camel?
I find two interesting things about the portrayal of the ostrich in joust. First, most obviously, for some reason this ostrich can fly. Wikipedia makes the choice of the ostrich as a flying bird out to be somewhat of an afterthought:
[The developer] felt that the primary protagonist should ride a majestic bird. The first choice was an eagle, but the lack of graceful land mobility dissuaded the designer. Instead, Newcomer chose an ostrich because he thought a flying ostrich was more believable than a running eagle.
It’s description as “majestic” is what is most pronounced to me about the ostrich’s depiction. On the arcade cabinet, the birds neck is posed in such a way to emphasize its long neck and with its head turned slightly upward. This pose is reminiscent of both nobility and snobbishness.
Second, in the gameplay itself, the birds take on a kind of heraldic symbology. While it seems somewhat happenstance that the bird is rendered from side-view due to the common graphic tropes in video games of that time, the medieval world of the game calls for this interpretation.
Inflatable Ostrich Costume
The thing that makes me cringe about this costume is really the look on the ostrich’s face, and its posture in this picture in particular. It’s looking up with its big cartoony yellow eyes at the douchebag on top of it, begging for the humiliation to end. Its legs are bent looking like its about to collapse under the weight of the rider, and its reign is basically a choker, in the literal sense.
That isn’t to say that I don’t find the costume *kind of* funny. I like that it plays with what is already odd about riding an ostrich (which, I guess is a mildly common practice?): the ostrich legs and the human legs seamlessly meld together. It’s almost believable, if you kind of squint your eyes, that when a human rides an ostrich that the human becomes a sort of weird, ostrich-penised bird-centaur. Here, that image is actualized.
ANTHILLS
These anthills are the subjects of a study at the metaphysic neurobiology research laboratory, formicidae division. The researchers at the lab are near certain that by using a cutting edge technique, anthropomorphic projection, they will gain new and profound insights on these superorganisms that will be not only analogous, but eventually completely transferable to human social structures, including political models and gender dynamics.
IS THIS YOUR HOMEWORK? WHAT DO YOU DO?
I kept thinking that an idea was going to come to me for this assignment (“Audio Story in Three Parts:Three different perspectives on a single subject; Three components necessary in completing a single tale, etc.”), and it didn’t. In the end, Paty and I decided to get through the creative block by collabing. Since we had both used up a lot of time waiting for that perfect idea to come, we were little pressed to find participants. So, we decided I would just meet up with her and her roommate at her apartment, record a conversation, and then reedit it.
HOWEVER, when we got to her apartment, it was just the two of us. After a couple hours of making prank calls (which we thought would go better…. but was more like: prank call fail…well, actually Paty was pretty good at holding it together in subsequent attempts) we decided that, however fun, it wasn’t really the right direction.
Then thankfully, Paty’s roommate Dinorah came home, and made a skype call to her friend Mara. The four of us did end up having (and thankfully recording) a conversation for about 45 minutes. Which was great! I still am getting to know Paty and have only met Dinorah once, and had neve met Mara (and technically still have never met Mara), so we had a lot to talk about.
The conversation was about forty-five minutes in the end, and not very cohesive as a piece (obviously). So, as a challange, Paty and I decided that we would try to distill it down to something else, each making our own edits. I gave myself the extra constraint of editing it down to 1 minute.
The first one, I made kind of as a joke but I think sounds beautiful. This is 45 minutes in a minute:
1minute
This one I “took more seriously”:(with yet another constraint added on, because as it turns out I am addicted to constraints): conversation supercut
I planned on making a third one (or more? or not? I can’t think of anything not as a serial project) but the second one took way longer than I anticipated and it’s quite late now!
At one point, we all decided to draw some cartoon characters and guess what the other was drawing.
Paty’s:
Mine:
Dinorah’s:
Mara’s:
My favorite, absolute favorite part of the night was when we all tried to guess Dinorah’s. I hope Paty includes that part in her edit so I get to relive it again. It was Dinorah’s idea to do the guessing, ahhhahahaha.
ANIMAL SELF
When Marina said to spend not too much time deliberating on which animal, I decided to do exactly the opposite.
First, while trying to make a school of fish self portrait, I gave up and doodled giraffe-self in the corner:
Giraffes have a strange significance for me, because the house I grew up in was overrun. But painting myself as a giraffe is basically painting myself as my mother, which is complicated?
For a time I contemplated lemurs, otters, various sea creatures, and in the end just began painting a selfie to see what animal it felt like to me as I was painting it.
Which was no animal. But the next day I thought of a sheep, which my old friend Alex always says that I smell like (?). I thought, yes, I can turn this into sheep self, and it will be a little wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Sheep get anxious when alone.
This still wasn’t quite right…
In the end, I felt a little mumbo jumbo and decided to disavow finding a special animal just for me blah blah Marxism blah blah blah and wanted to acknowledge that not only is the body an entity made up of microbes and cells in internal systems, but that we are also functioning together as a superorganism (esp new york, it feels, lol/blahblahblah).
so:
and finally:
An interesting fact, from wikipedia:
Many animals can learn behaviours by imitation, but ants may be the only group apart from mammals where interactive teaching has been observed. A knowledgeable forager of Temnothorax albipennis will lead a naive nest-mate to newly discovered food by the process of tandem running. The follower obtains knowledge through its leading tutor. The leader is acutely sensitive to the progress of the follower and slows down when the follower lags and speeds up when the follower gets too close.