This website is a compilation of the workshops I went through throughout this semester. As someone who once had reserved views on computation within the field of design, my world spun in a different axis as I progressed through each session. Each week presented with new opportunities and techniques that are undoubtedly useful for the future. Having the privilege of working in groups and as an individual enlightened the way I perceive, and developed my personal style.
I'm a 24 year old budding creative whose belief system in design is based on emotions and life experiences, and tries to seep those thoughts and recollections of perculiar happenstances into my works.
At the end of the day, it's all about the vibe.
Throughout the semester, I participated in 4 different workshops covering topics such as Creative Coding, Projection Mapping, Making, and Physical Computing. Here you will discover some of the process documentation and deliverables that were generated in small teams of up to three persons or independently.
For the Coding session, we decided to work on the Model Viewer Starter with a shared interest in Augmented Realities. After discussing and drawing out mindmaps, we eventually decided on the theme of ‘Virus’ and researched on the forms of different viruses to gain inspiration for the AR shapes. Each person in the group came up with abstract, unique shapes that blend well together, resembling viruses in the air whilst previewing it on the Model Viewer Starter. Walking around the school and documenting the different environments, we managed to successfully capture the shapes interacting with different elements in the environment they were projected in within the scope of the AR.
Optimising the shapes to be able to reduce the file size was a slight hassle but produced satisfying results nevertheless. As the starter required the use of the same IP Address, we were only limited to documenting our models within the premises of the school.
This was a pretty exciting project with many great results, and work that we can collectively be proud of.
For our projection mapping concept, as our group had divided ourselves to three different facets of distress - Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual. To keep our visuals complementary and not stray far from each other, we agreed on a colour scheme. The colour scheme included pretty bright colours that were contrary to our theme of distress, but we wanted to use these colours to form a sense of distortion and warped reality to the viewers through the ironic use of the colours. Our personal styles were very different but I think that the absurdity and freeform-ness of the concept and art direction pulled through for us. Our paper models were also unique and achieved the goal of having three distinct facets of our theme.
After enough adjustments and going back and forth this process, we finally mapped our visuals seamlessly onto the surfaces. All the visuals looked really good with each other and didn’t overpower each other.
Our teamwork really paid off with this project and this was an end product that we were really proud to show our classmates at the end of our class, and received compliments for it as well.
Mainly taking inspiration from trees struggling to grow in harsh conditions, ‘reach’ is a project that encompasses the personified sadness of a stoic and unmoving living being. The overall shape points towards a certain direction where light can reach it first, but in its faltering state it is accompanied by the black and blue of reality. As a communication designer in progress, it was important for me to be able to express these emotions into a concept that conveys this message.
Each step of this project required intricate thought and care put into - even choosing the right paper was essential in the making process. I faced multiple fumbles and redos to strive for results that I wanted, and the end results were satisfying to see.
It was fun to see our progress come from a 2D code sketch to a full 3D paper model, and it has opened my eyes to many techniques and knowledge for this process.
With a burning passion for ducks, our group decided to create a landscape of a duck in a pond while utilising the paper circuit and the Arduino board. We were mainly inspired by origami and paper folding, which were techniques we used in the making of the landscape. Testing different folding styles, different placement of the lights and figuring out the circuit and piecing everything together produced an outcome we were all proud to call our work. The duck of our dreams came to life with this project, and playing with different settings using the Arduino board made things more playful and interesting.
This session helped me outgrow my war flashbacks as a physics student, and amazed me at how simple application could produce such interesting results. It also helped me understand how circuits work through the mistakes we made and the obstacles we’ve faced.
While we faced many challenges during this project, we walked out of it accomplished and satisfied with the results.
I was exposed to many different techniques and skills throughout this semester and especially this module in particular. From using blender to create a paper model template, using a p5js code to map visuals to surfaces, learning how to use VS code and learning what a gtlf file is to create visuals in AR, creating circuits out of copper tape and LEDs, and most importantly being exposed to RJ Paper. The list goes on and on, and I definitely came out of this module a way different person, and I’m grateful for the enlightenment.
If you want it, and the more you keep hearing you can't have it, you just go and get it.
Cardi B
What have I learned over the course of this semester?
I learned many techniques and capabilities of machine learning and applications of computing in design to physical hands-on work, which has enlightened me in picking up skills that I will reuse during the rest of my tenure in this school. I learnt a lot from the lecturers who had many words of advice for the industry and how things are slowly evolving around us.
Some of my most interesting findings this semester are:
Being exposed to the selection of paper at RJ Paper, learning that projection mapping isn’t as daunting as I always thought it would be, seeing shapes that I created on blender come to life in Augmented Reality. This semester was a very hands-on experience that I much preferred, and got me very involved in every step of the process.
What are some of my achievements?
Getting things to work - seeing how different things work or don’t work together, ideating concepts that come to life, being able to identify problems within certain aspects of the process on my own, and most importantly, seeing my works displayed at the Open Studios. Each of these made for a fruitful semester.
