Welcome to my crib! This is a documentation of our work and processes from Computation in Design, Year 1 Semester 2.
Welcome to my computational graphic design journal! As a student in this exciting field, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to document and share my journey with you. This website serves as a digital space for me to showcase my learning, growth, and creativity throughout this course.
Throughout this journal, you will see my progress as I learn and experiment with various software and tools, p5js and Blender. I will share my thought process, design choices, and the challenges I face as I work on each project. Beyond simply documenting my work, this journal also serves as a way for me to reflect on my growth and progress as a designer.
Over the semester I participated in 4 different workshops covering topics such as Creative Coding, Projection Mapping, Making, and Physical Computing. Personally, I really enjoyed this semester's workshops much more than the last semester's projects. I think that having these workshops really enabled us to find the fun and practice our own kind of creativity in our projects. Having the code be digestible and brief enough for us really enabled my projects to be more personal. We worked in teams for most of the projects, and this was a really interesting opportunity to see how my friends react to a brief. We bounced ideas off each other, and created some really interesting outcomes that I'm excited to share. I really hope you enjoy the projects presented in this website.
Click on these links to jump to workshop one, two, three or four!
An experimental and explorative approach to image making.
What does a place sound like?
We often don't pay enough
attention to the sonic and
audible qualities of a place.
I find myself stuck in my own head and thoughts all the time when I'm not otherwise drowning
them out with music or a podcast.
This was an opportunity to take time to listen to the sounds around and translate the sounds
around into visuals.
We started by creating ambient music, layered over recordings from Clementi Forest — A popular hangout spot during the Covid Lockdown. Inspired by the likes of Brian Eno and Hiroshi Yoshimura, our music aims to capture meditative moments one finds themselves experiencing in solitude. We then paired the sounds with a a visualiser that resembles a clock, a tree trunk, representing slow growth and grounding in moments of solitude.
Tools used: p5.js, Adobe After Effects, Ableton Live
Link to watch Meditations in Clementi Forest
“We are stardust brought to life, then empowered by the universe to figure itself out – and we have only just begun.” — Neil deGrasse Tyson
There are 8 billion people alive in this world, every single one so different from the other. All our experiences, thoughts and emotions culminate to form our mind and body, everyone so different from one another. To draw a parallel to code, depending on the amount of perimeters you set, there are endless permutations on the final result.
Tools used: Blender, 120gsm Black And White Paper, Pen Knife, Metal Ruler and Double Sided Tape
In our frustration of looking for a concept that we could use for our project, we started ranting about how difficult and problematic AI, especially with a lot of people abusing AI for uses that we consider to be unethical (ChatGPT is still up for debate).
We decided to personify AI into a physical object that we could beat about and vent our frustrations on. Upon slapping our object, we are delightfully greeted with a psychedelic explosion on-screen. The aim is to give the viewer a way to turn their frustrations into art.
Tools used: Arduino Sensor Kit, Foam Sphere and Pen Knife
It took us quite a bit of trial and error with this project, testing the amount of light
received
by the sensor depending on where it was. The code took us a while before we were finally able to get
result that we wanted. Alas, we ended up with a pretty wacky object, pun intended.
"Home Is Not A Safe Place" employs various metaphors to convey the contrasting emotions of anxiety, terror, and peace that can coexist within a familiar home. The piece visually represents both the positive and negative aspects of the house we cherish and the demons we confront within it. The concept was inspired by the realization that a place we consider home can be both a safe haven and a perilous environment.
To explore the juxtaposition between peace and destruction, we use 2 videos: A forest as a symbol of peace and serenity, juxtaposed with a forest fire to represent destruction, fear, and anxiety.
Tools used: Pen Knife, Glue, Foam Board and Projector
"I code, therefore I am… constantly frustrated."
by Me
What have I learned over the course of this semester? I think my biggest takeaway is, no matter how hard something might seem, you can make lemonade out of lemons. These exercises were good practice in using concept and visuals to communicate a message, and that's what I want to always do when designing. No matter what the medium is, print, video, code, there's always fun in coming up with the best solution you can.
Some of my most interesting findings this semester are? Projection mapping was the most eye-opening to me! I think there's so much I can think to do when using projection mapping to value-add to a project. Using perspectives, being able to choose what you want to be seen from a certain angle, really gives you another tool in communicating your concept. This kind of interactivity really adds to the emotional and physical quality of a design/artwork.
What are some of my achievements? I've managed to complete 3 projects here with friends! I think I got lucky with friends who were able to bounce ideas off each other and come up with a concept we were all happy with. It's a really fulfilling feeling when you get to make something that everyone is happy with/contributing to. It makes the process of learning something hard just a little bit easier.
