Notes 07/11/14

Interactivity in art :
input + outcome = meaning

History:

• situation and audience involvement in the process of sensmaking
• specificity of interactive art resides less often on the use of computers, instead it depends on quality of proposed situation and audience involvement of sensmaking. nonetheless...Computers do make the task easier and opens the realm of possibilities of contemporary art
• some of the earliest examples are dated back to the 1920's
• artwork was a kind of optical allusion
• 1960's inappropriate for artists to have all the power when creating art. Give part of power to public. interaction and engagement had powerful part to play within creative process 
• 1970's use new technologies such as video and satellites.
• 1990's computer based interactivity

Forms:

• installation art
• interactive cultures
• interactive films
• art games

Impact:

• not in achievement of the formal shape BUT in design of the rules

Tools:

• Anduino
• I-Cubex
• Max/MSP
• Processing
• Pure data
• Unity games engines
• Scratch + pico board

Art game:

• interactive media digital software art
• sub genre of serious game movement
• video game as work of art
• not just a form of entertainment, made to cause a reaction 
• beauty and complexity in design

Origins:

• Dada
• Surrealist games of 1920's
• Fluxus (1960)
• Marcel Duchamp
• OULIPO

= Procedurality took a central position of certain forms of art, brought into lime-light of art world

Ian Bogost's procedural rhetoric:

• rhetoric is not sufficient to explain how video games communicate meaning
• addresses process that occurs in computer environment or game process
• Individual can only grasp meaning by interacting with model instead of simply looking at it = more convincing
• understand better using models (board games is an example of a model)

The artwork of Borduas and of the Automatiste groupe was very raw and spontaneous. Each painting had different themes, motifs and emotions but the underlying idea for all of them was that art needed to be automatic to mean something and make an impact on the world.

Borduas wrote the total refusal which was a written manifest opposing Quebec culture. This manifest had a huge impact on Quebec's culture. It is said to be one of the causes of the quiet revolution. The quiet revolution occurred in the 1960's after the "grande noirceur" of the 1940's. This period was marked by drastic change in Quebec's culture

Childhood: Paul-Emile Borduas was a Quebec artist born in Saint-

Hilaire on Novemeber 1st, 1905 . He was the fourth child. His

father was Magloire Borduas, a carrier, and his mother was Éva

Perreault.  His first known artistic activity was bricolage. He only

received five years of primary school education- to age twelve.

When Borduas was sixteen he became the apprentice of Ozias

Leduc, a Quebec church painter. Borduas learned all of his basic

skills from Leduc. He also helped young Borduas get into the

Montreal fine arts school.

Backround: The Quebec in which Borduas lived in was vastly

different from modern-day Quebec. He began his work as  painter

in the 1940's. This period as marked by extreme conservatism and

religious ideas. The prime minister at the time,         was a religious man with questionable ideas .   His ideas where not questioned at the time. Borduas was one of the few who openly opposed the ideas represented in the time. As a painter, Borduas showed his opposition to the strict nature of his society through his artwork.

Influences: His mentor and teacher, Ozias Leduc as well as

Borduas had a tremendous influence of Quebec art as well as Quebec culture. In     , he created a group named the Automatists. The Automatists were a group of young artists with similar negative feelings towards Quebec's rigidness. They expressed their dissatisfaction through their abstract, surrealist art. The group\s main concept was that true art is automatic. Artists should not learn their techniques in an art school. Artists should not wait for inspiration to strike them. True art came without thought. It was free of inhibitions and worries as well as social norms. When an artist made an automatic art piece, they were learning about themselves in a way that would not be possible with though-out artwork. This kind of artwork allowed the artist to let their feelings, thoughts and emotions flow out in a truthful, natural manner.

Draw-bot

My experience creating the Draw-bot was quite interesting. I had never attempted to make a robot that can draw with such simple materials. Although I wasn't able to create a robot that easily drew n the paper, my partner and I came pretty close. I would like the opportunity to try making another rbot, now that I understand the concept

metro poem

strangers on the metro

fixing her hair in the reflection
open book, studying the most important section
baby held close to his chest
student wearing school's crest
looking down at the bright screen
what could their conversation mean
drinking coffee- dark roast
eating peanut butter on toast
We're on the metro for more than a mile
would it kill you to give a smile

09/26/14

Divergent vs. Convergent

Divergent thinking: thought process that follows logical steps to attain solution.
There are many different solutions

convergent thinking : ability to give answers to standard questions that do not require creativity
HIGH I.Q ALONE DOES NOT PROMOTE CREATIVITY
curiosity, willingness to take risks, persistence
creating lists of questions, meditation,, brainstorming, subject mapping , keeping a journal , creating artwork and free writing are all techniques that help creativity.

most effective in situation when answer already exists, simply needs to be recalled. no room for ambiguity in answers

linked to knowledge as it involves manipulating existent knowledge by means of standard procedure.

used as tools of broken solving- use critical thinking
often used in conjunction with divergent thinking
there is one best solution although it is difficult to determine

when it's too complex, you have to rely on intuition, gut feeling

by finding a solution, you are changing your world view
targets your conception of the world as a whole - there is a relation to the conception of the fast and world view
when you solve your own problems, you become stronger, problem-solving skills are improved

mind maps help organize info 
organization 
key words
association
clustering
visual memory
outstadingness
conscious involvement 
how can we make cycling in city the safest and fastest possible?