On Thursday Nov. 15, EMPAC will be screening works made with Processing.

onedotzero

You can attend the screening and write a review of the show for extra credit.

MEDIA STUDIO IMAGING: FINAL PROJECT

DUE: In-class critique, last day of classes

Your final project is an art project with a self-directed theme.  Pick a subject to explore – it can something tangible, like people or places, or something intangible, like ideas or emotions.  Whatever your subject, it should be something which you can explore in multiple ways to create a series of images, video or processing sketch.

For images:  Create a series of 3 to 5 digital prints exploring this subject, using whichever techniques you prefer – digital photography, collage, illustration, process, or combinations of them.  Use the VCC to print out your images.

For processing sketches:  Create an executable sketch exploring your subject.  You can create a series of small sketches or a large sketch.  You will present your sketch on the projection screen.

Project proposal and research

Due:  Tuesday, November 20: Write a 1-page proposal describing the subject material for your project, your particular interest in the subject, the techniques you plan to use, and why.

Begin with a sentence or two describing your concept.  Then explain how your work will explore the concept. You can talk about your motivation and what kind of questions you hope your work will raise.  Also think about how the techniques you plan to use will help communicate your ideas.

Choose 3 artists (any medium) who relate to your project.  Describe their work, how it relates to your subject matter, and what you find inspiring about their artwork.

Final Project and Critique

Print each of your images and bring the series to class for critique on the last day of classes.   Upload your images files and processing sketches to the class server along with an artist statement about your concept and your artistic process. Work must be complete, printed before the crit, and up on the critique board at the beginning of class or on the class file server. Unfinished or unprepared work will have points taken off.   Project grades will also include your participation in the critique process, both for your own work and for your peers.

Unusual formats are allowed, and even encouraged (book, site-specific installation, custom-printed T-shirts, etc).

Media Studio Imaging

Portfolio 2

Assignment 1:  10/24 end of studio

Create your own digital drawing in Processing using 2D primitive shapes or 3D primitive shapes if you’re so inclined.  The drawing can be abstract or representational.  Use basic programming constructs (loops, branching, randomness, etc) as needed for the image you’re creating.  The sketch should demonstrate:

• understanding of relevant design principles, such as color and compositional balance
• ability to use Processing drawing commands and basic programming techniques effectively
• visual creativity

Resolution: 1080×720

Artists to look at:

Bridget Riley

Sol LeWitt

Jean Tinguely’s Metamatics

Cy Twombly

Ellsworth Kelly

Ed Ruscha

Piet Mondrian

See also Off the Grid, a 2010 exhibition featuring artists working with different kinds of grids and formal structures.

http://irvinecontemporary.com/otherExhibitions.php?eventID=107

Assignment 2:  Due end of studio 10/31

Add animation to your drawing to create a loop of 10 seconds or more.

This can be like a flipbook, where each frame is a unique drawing, or you can create animation by changing parameters in your program over time.  The animation should show some kind of progression over time, and can be either representational or abstract.

Assignment 3: Due end of studio 11/7

Add user input to your sketch.  Allow the user to influence the image and/or animation using mouse or keyboard.

If you are feeling ambitious, use an external device for input, such as a webcam, microphone, Arduino, or Kinect.

Read and write a response to:

Hackers and Painters

There are 2 ways of working with kinect in processing:

1. the OpenKinect (libfreenect) drivers, which are 100% FOSS and give you the image and 3D point data
2. OpenNI/NITE, which is free but only partly open source, and includes skeleton tracking and hand gestures

there is also the Microsoft Kinect SDK, which is similar to OpenNI, but only runs on Windows.

Simple OpenNI: an OpenNI/NITE wrapper for Processing
http://code.google.com/p/simple-openni/

Using OpenKinect with Processing:
http://www.shiffman.net/p5/kinect/

You can also combine either of these with OpenCV to use additional computer vision techniques with the RGB or depth data:

http://ubaa.net/shared/processing/opencv/

Portfolios should be uploaded before class Wed. Oct 10.  We will be having crits during studio time.

Simple Tutorial for creating web portfolios using Adobe Bridge

Assignment 3

Pen tool Exercise

Media Studio Imaging

Collage : Fragmented Reality

The practice of collage emerged as a way to rupture the illusionistic surfaces of images, particularly photography.  Collage can create new and surprising combinations of images, transform everyday images into something radically different, and provide a means to critique and deconstruct the slick surface of mass media.

For this project, create a collage using found images.  The images can be from any source, but should be high resolution and high quality to avoid visible compression and scale artifacts.  Images you scan from print media will generally be higher quality than images you find online.  Use transform tools and image adjustments to fit the pieces together.

The collage should transform the meaning of the original images, and should demonstrate your understanding of composition principles:

• balance
• foreground, middleground, background
• implied line and dynamic composition

Left to Right: Hannah Hoch, Richard Hamilton, Max Ernst

Info about how to access the file server:

http://www.hass.rpi.edu/pl/helpdesk#files

PDFs from the powerpoints are in the course content section of LMS.  Also an updated syllabus is up on LMS.

Reminder:  Rough draft of Assignment 1 is due at the end of studio 9/19.

You will upload a psd file and a jpg file.  The layers in the psd file should not be flattened.

The files should be named as followed:

lastname_firstname_assignment1.psd

lastname_firstname_assignment1.jpg

These files will be uploaded to the class folder on the school’s file server. Information about the file server can be found here: http://helpdesk.hss.rpi.edu/pl/file-storage