a framework for toolmaking
- How may separate “timelines” can you think of and describe for the situations listed below?
- What are the hierarchies?
- What’s repeated?
- What has its own movement, what is still?
- How far down is “relevant” or “interesting” to you?
Example:
Flock of Birds (still observer, basic)
1) The flock moving across the sky
2) Each bird
3) Each set of wings
4) The tail
(notice that I have chosen not to go down to the feathers, the head, the beak, each part of the beak, any mites, the cells, the mitochondria in the cells… know when to stop.)
A car driving on a road?
In a pocket watch?
Your email software?
TV Sports Cast or News Casts (think screen graphics)?
Dance floor?
A tree? A forest?
A heard of horses?
Pick a medium you are learning or are trying to rethink. This can be a physical medium, coding language or gestural language. For 2D medium, represent 3-Dimensionality.
- Create a Circle, Square and Triangle as frames.
- Create a Circle, Square and Triangle as a solid plane.
- Create a Sphere, Cube, Pyramid, Cone as hollow shapes
- Create a Sphere, Cube, Pyramid, Cone as filled shapes
Questions
- When you created the frames, did you carve them from one piece or assemble segments or did your approach vary for the different shapes?
- For filled shapes, why does this matter? when doesn’t it?
- Are there any mediums that doing 3-D that are filled or solid is prohibitively time consuming? Are you sure or are you giving up?
- What was frustraiting to you about the process? About the result?
- What do you like? What was enjoyable?
- Do a google image search on “Color Wheel” or “Color Picker” or “RGB Color Wheel” or “HSV Color Wheel”, “lab color” etc. to see some traditional ways of representing color spaces and pick your favorite.
- Pick three non-color based things to replace the primary colors/values (fork/knife/spoon, Biology/Chemistry/Physics) and create a “color wheel” using images, text or symbols
- Create a found-object mosaic. Use one of the following (or pick your own) to reproduce a photograph. Do not cut, dye or otherwise alter the objects.
- Make sure the subject matter of the photo and the object you choose have a specific relationship that you can explain.
- Notice that some of these objects have movement…
- Cross-stitch patterns, Reduced resolution digital images, making a paper cut-out collages all might be able to help you plan
Hand Prints/Finger Prints
Leaves
Grains
Sugar Cereal
Keys
Light Bulbs
Pinwheels
Soda Cans
ASCII Letters
Flowers (dried, cut or living)
Wind-up-toys
Video Feeds
Pre-Defined Flash Symbols/Java Classes…
Questions
- How is creating an image by placing objects different from drawing it by hand?
- How would you go about designing an image with the object you selected instead of just duplicating one? Try it!
- RYB, RGB, CIELAB, CMY, CMYK, HLS, HSV, YUV, YIQ, Pantone, Munsell, etc. these are all color models for different media - digital, physical and conceptual. Spend some time converting at least 4 colors between at least 3 of the different color spaces using each of the following tools.
http://www.forret.com/tools/color.asp
http://www.easyrgb.com/calculator.php
http://www.nacs.uci.edu/~wiedeman/cspace/
If you have it: Photoshop color picker (make sure you click on the different radio buttons)
Next Steps
Try building your own converter in your language of choice.
Some math to help you out:
http://www.cs.rit.edu/~ncs/color/t_convert.html
http://www.easyrgb.com/math.html
- Can you add a level that is missing like oil paint pigments? ceramic glaze colors? musical pitch? gestures? What are some of the problems of mixing non-screen based color systems with?
- Basic is fine, but think about layout/usage… do you want to pick up a color in a jpeg, from a video camera, find color harmonies/ see relationships? What about color is important to you?
Options
- If you don’t feel up to writing your own software program yet, how about building a template for a cross-medium cheat sheet for the colors you want to use?
- How about a personal color wheel? http://handprint.com/HP/WCL/color7.html is an example of a water color oriented wheel.
How do you brush your teeth? 15 steps minimum… but wait… write it from the last step first.
Use the Mona Lisa as a template and copy it using your medium of choice… anything other than paint, pastels, colored pencils or classical 2D medium. What would it be like in Flash or C++, ASCII, with Jelly Beans? Motors? As a dance? Could it react to sensors or is stillness part of the work?
Options
You can pick a different painting if you like, but it must be a PAINTING and NO LATER THAN 1900. Really. There is a reason.
What you’ll need:
A white board or a chalk board or a wall with paper taped on it and a marker. Tape measure or string.
Exercise:
Stand with your feet together -
What is the longest, straightest line you can make with your right hand without removing your feet from the floor?
What is the longest longest, straightest line you can make with your left hand without removing your feet from the floor?
Stand with your feet hip distance, repeat.
Stand with your feet 2-3 feet apart, repeat.
Options:
- You can place sticky notes on the wall at your far points if you absolutely can’t find anything large enough to draw on.
- Alternately you can use a video camera and tape a transparent sheet on the surface of the screen and trace your movement.
- How do you think each these alternatives would change your result?
Questions:
- How much further can you go if you allow one foot to lift a little on either side?
- What happens when you try to do the same thing with just rotating your elbow? Just moving your wrist?
- What happens if you change the paper and try to do it again? is your mark the same? What would you need to do to make the mark identical every time?
What you need:
Two boxes, one AT LEAST 3 times larger than the other. Tape, something heavy to fill the small box.
Exercise:
- Take a large/medium sized cardboard box tape it up empty.
- Take a small box (less than 1/3 the size of the large box) and fill it with sand, shot, a paperweight or other HEAVY material and likewise tape it up.
- Try to make the two look as similar as possible from the outside.
- Place both on a table (or the floor) next to each other and push first the large one about a foot, and then the smaller one.
- Wait a little while and do it the other way.
- Drop them both… which one is louder? What are the differences in the sound?
- Try to convince a couple of friends to play… separately have one push the big one first and the other the small one first. How did that impact how much effort they expected to expend moving the second one?
Questions:
What kind of clues do you think you could have given on the outside of the box to indicate their different weights?
Which one would be harder to carry over a long period of time? Small and heavy or big and light? What if the big one was foldable?
Which would you rather do… carry something heavy in on an escalator or something light up a flight of stairs?
What quantity of the following can you hold in your hands?
-Oranges
-Marbles
-Rice
-Sand
-Water