'Database of Narratives and Chance' is an interactive application that takes something meaningful, such as a personal story, and disrupts its significance through chance processes, abstract imagery combined with destroyed recordings, and random number generators. Although associations can be made and meaning can be extracted, the user will be taking a chance each time he/she carries out an action, as they will lose some of the content, but be presented with something new that may or may not be related to what they are presently seeing on screen.
My project can also be found online on: http://www.mariacamilleri.com/chance-narrative/ where there are extra features such as dragging & resizing the visual works (this was going to be frustrating for the user on the touch screen so it was eliminated for the exhibition). Unfortunately the online version of my project is on free hosting so it is quite slow (the sound of the water colours takes a while to load properly). I will be moving this onto a better hosting space very soon.
My project can also be found online on: http://www.mariacamilleri.com/chance-narrative/ where there are extra features such as dragging & resizing the visual works (this was going to be frustrating for the user on the touch screen so it was eliminated for the exhibition). Unfortunately the online version of my project is on free hosting so it is quite slow (the sound of the water colours takes a while to load properly). I will be moving this onto a better hosting space very soon.
Evaluation:
In my first proposal I specified that I wanted to create something that mergers the traditional with the digital, and also something that transports the viewer / user somewhere else. Although my proposal has developed over time, when I look back at my initial aims I am finding that I have still managed to come up with a project that satisfies them, but that obviously has much more research and thought behind it.
I have found this project to be a great eye-opener. The research has led me to find various theories, ideas and beliefs that I have used throughout the development of my body of work. I chose to work with David Lynch’s theory that everything is connected, and that even unrelated work will come together in the end. I have also followed the idea of coexistence that I found out whilst looking at the writings of John Cage. This has led me to chance, and to approach my project with a less controlling attitude, and to work with a number of people, both professionals and the general public for stories and participation. Of course coming from a background of graphic design and illustration, losing control was difficult but also extremely liberating for me. Everything did come together in the end, and even though chance was the idea behind my project, I have found that there is always something that connects unrelated elements together.
I have found this project to be a great eye-opener. The research has led me to find various theories, ideas and beliefs that I have used throughout the development of my body of work. I chose to work with David Lynch’s theory that everything is connected, and that even unrelated work will come together in the end. I have also followed the idea of coexistence that I found out whilst looking at the writings of John Cage. This has led me to chance, and to approach my project with a less controlling attitude, and to work with a number of people, both professionals and the general public for stories and participation. Of course coming from a background of graphic design and illustration, losing control was difficult but also extremely liberating for me. Everything did come together in the end, and even though chance was the idea behind my project, I have found that there is always something that connects unrelated elements together.
In the feedback of my first unit, my tutors expressed concern over the fact that the water colours and the films were still not linking together in a way that made sense. This was also something that I was feeling at the time and I knew I had to give them some kind of purpose in the interface (even though it is hard to make sense out of chance sometimes). The water colours seemed like an interference in the interface, so I came up with the idea to have a somewhat destroyed story attached to them, as to further emphasise the destruction of meaning. I feel that through this I have still kept what did not make sense in the first place, but also gave it a purpose for being in the application, and made the general experience more interesting and abstract.
The case studies that I have carried out were a great way for me to see how someone who was an alien to my project, would interact with it. There were various surprises, and not all positive, but I have used these results to modify the interface and hopefully get it to generate curiosity rather than frustration.
The project is also a product of the conclusions of my research paper, where I have found that the fusion of digital technology and nature in media is closely linked to our internet culture. I have presented digitisation and nature through database and chance, by employing a database style of editing and application, as well as chance interaction and processes. (My Manifesto & Process)
Future Development:
I am glad that I did the two year part-time Masters course rather than the one year full time because I feel that I have had some bonus time to put into my work, especially when it came to idea generation. My project was quite wide and in the beginning I felt that it had no direction, however once I started looking at what I was really interested in, and eliminated all other material that was popular in the digital art world, but was not finding a place in my project, everything came together.
I feel that the key element that came out of this course through research and practice, and that I want to develop in the future, is the further study on chance and its integration within visual media. The main reason for this is of course that two years on I am still largely interested in the subject, and when I now use my application I am still fascinated by the results of the combination that random number generators can produce. I find it really interesting that each time I test my project, I get different results. Sometimes they don't seem to make sense, but other times everything fits, and yet I eliminated the option to be able to save that moment, because I feel that that is the beauty of chance; the ability to capture an accidental moment just once.
Aside from delving deeper into chance in visual media, I would like to further investigate a continuous loop between traditional and digital art. I want to explore how water colours can be digitised and animated, and then printed in 3 dimensional form on a transparent material such as perspex, or directly printed using a 3d printer. I then want to film the 3d water colours (these can be floating structures) and edit the footage digitally. From the edited footage I can then extract new forms that can be reprinted in 3d. This is a process that can go on forever; basically a never-ending loop that alternates between digital and traditional art experimentation. This loop reflects the results of my research paper; the need for both digital and traditional, nature and technology, database and chance, controlled and organic and how a combination of both can result in various interesting experiments.
Another project I have in mind is an interactive chance based film/game. In this project I would like to take a story and construct a flowchart to see how many shots will need to be filmed for every player decision. This can be an online multiplayer film where players will need to decide the turn of the story. I would also like to incorporate an element of chance, whereas some decisions will be made at random so the story is not always the same for everyone. I haven't given enough thought to this second project however I believe that with further research on gaming and interactive film, it can be an interesting way to finally make interactive film work without making it feel forced.
Blog Tour:
My Proposal(s) and My Initial Proposals
My Research Paper
Unit 1 Assessment
My Manifesto & Process
This Part includes the main rules and boundaries that I have followed in my project. It also features case study results.
Final Show sketches and notes
First Symposium and MPR
Experimentation / Documentation
Experimentation includes all of my work from idea generation phase up until the final visualisations. Documentation shows the development throughout the project; mostly pieces that I have used in my final project rather than all experiments, as well as the compiled book.
Inspiration / Research /
Inpiration and research both include sources that I have found interesting and relevant to my project. Inspiration includes general pictures and video, whilst 'research' goes into more detail, as well as documents my research paper.
Sketchbook
Parts of my idea generation process. All my ideas start on paper.
Video works / Water colours
Development of my visualisations.
Interface
The step by step building of my interface and application.
Recordings / Music
Processing
Something that was dropped later on in the project, but that I am glad I experimented with to become more familiar with code art.
I am glad that I did the two year part-time Masters course rather than the one year full time because I feel that I have had some bonus time to put into my work, especially when it came to idea generation. My project was quite wide and in the beginning I felt that it had no direction, however once I started looking at what I was really interested in, and eliminated all other material that was popular in the digital art world, but was not finding a place in my project, everything came together.
I feel that the key element that came out of this course through research and practice, and that I want to develop in the future, is the further study on chance and its integration within visual media. The main reason for this is of course that two years on I am still largely interested in the subject, and when I now use my application I am still fascinated by the results of the combination that random number generators can produce. I find it really interesting that each time I test my project, I get different results. Sometimes they don't seem to make sense, but other times everything fits, and yet I eliminated the option to be able to save that moment, because I feel that that is the beauty of chance; the ability to capture an accidental moment just once.
Aside from delving deeper into chance in visual media, I would like to further investigate a continuous loop between traditional and digital art. I want to explore how water colours can be digitised and animated, and then printed in 3 dimensional form on a transparent material such as perspex, or directly printed using a 3d printer. I then want to film the 3d water colours (these can be floating structures) and edit the footage digitally. From the edited footage I can then extract new forms that can be reprinted in 3d. This is a process that can go on forever; basically a never-ending loop that alternates between digital and traditional art experimentation. This loop reflects the results of my research paper; the need for both digital and traditional, nature and technology, database and chance, controlled and organic and how a combination of both can result in various interesting experiments.
Another project I have in mind is an interactive chance based film/game. In this project I would like to take a story and construct a flowchart to see how many shots will need to be filmed for every player decision. This can be an online multiplayer film where players will need to decide the turn of the story. I would also like to incorporate an element of chance, whereas some decisions will be made at random so the story is not always the same for everyone. I haven't given enough thought to this second project however I believe that with further research on gaming and interactive film, it can be an interesting way to finally make interactive film work without making it feel forced.
Blog Tour:
My Proposal(s) and My Initial Proposals
My Research Paper
Unit 1 Assessment
My Manifesto & Process
This Part includes the main rules and boundaries that I have followed in my project. It also features case study results.
Final Show sketches and notes
First Symposium and MPR
Experimentation / Documentation
Experimentation includes all of my work from idea generation phase up until the final visualisations. Documentation shows the development throughout the project; mostly pieces that I have used in my final project rather than all experiments, as well as the compiled book.
Inspiration / Research /
Inpiration and research both include sources that I have found interesting and relevant to my project. Inspiration includes general pictures and video, whilst 'research' goes into more detail, as well as documents my research paper.
Sketchbook
Parts of my idea generation process. All my ideas start on paper.
Video works / Water colours
Development of my visualisations.
Interface
The step by step building of my interface and application.
Recordings / Music
Processing
Something that was dropped later on in the project, but that I am glad I experimented with to become more familiar with code art.
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