Final Links

http://www.ryanmcphersondesign.com/BFA/watersite/
http://www.ryanmcphersondesign.com/BFA/carbonsite/
http://www.ryanmcphersondesign.com/BFA/garbagesite/
http://www.ryanmcphersondesign.com/BFA/surveyFormSiteIpad/

Questions done!

Another short update. I have finished the questions for the survey (they number 19) and inputting the values that each answer will reflect. I may have to do some balancing to make sure that the values come together correctly (make sure my calculations for footprints are at least ballpark. All of the values are based off data I could gather from various sources, but I had trouble finding full breakdowns of any of the average footprints, so I had to piece a lot of it together.

 I'm not too worried about getting too exact, as my purpose was never to fully and perfectly calculate someone's footprint, but rather to create an estimate and display it visually to get viewers to think more about their daily lives. However, I don't want one person to come along, and input data to find that they have a water footprint of 2 gallons a day, and another person to come along and find out they have a water footprint of 15,000 gallons a day (unless they legitimately eat A LOT[and by a lot, I mean a couple pounds a meal] of meat, which if that's the case, they need to be more worried about their health than their ecological footprint...)

That being said, the water footprint can be surprisingly high. If someone eats a pound of beef, three meals a day, every day, their daily water-footprint from that alone is 5400 gallons a day.

That's an EXTREME case...but there could be someone out there. You never know...

Connectivity!

Just a quick update: I HAVE CONNECTIVITY. More specifically, I found a way to update and read xml.

As it all begins to fall into place...

So I've had a bit of an issue coming up with solutions to some of my issues. ISSUES WHICH I AM NOW REALIZING HOW TO SOLVE!

Problem: How do I deal with the scenes once they begin to fill up too much?
Solution: I zoom out!

Problem: How do I zoom out?
Solution: I make a repeatable image for a background, with "bookends" that all resize as I need it! I HAVE AN EXAMPLE HERE!!!: file:///X:/BFA/garbagesite/index.html (There's a button in the upper right hand corner that I used for debugging this)

This problem also helps me solve the problem how the water and garbage scenes don't look alike, because I'll have to redesign the water scene for this anyway!

I'm getting EXCITED! CAN YOU TELL?! NEXT PROBLEM!!!

Problem: How do I do this resizing thing with the canvas?
Solution: Probably the same way, but I'll have to reset the canvas, and resize the objects in canvas. I might have to do a bit of messing with things, but I'll make it work! I KNOW IT'S POSSIBLE!

Problem: What do I do with the garbage falling? I have the fluid simulator for the other two, but that doesn't work for garbage bags!
Solution: All I have to do is look up a way to simulate gravity with javascript. THERE ARE TONS OF RESOURCES FOR THIS! I FOUND WHAT I NEED IN LIKE FIVE SECONDS! IT'S SO MUCH EASIER THAN THE WATER SIMULATION!! I'll have to figure out how to do collision detection, BUT I KNOW THAT CAN BE DONE! I've seen it!
(example for the gravity: http://codetheory.in/basics-of-implementing-gravity-with-html5-canvas/)

I may be moving much slower than I would like, but I can already tell that things are about to start speeding up very soon!

I'd call it more coding, but I've already done that, so here's "Forms and sites"

So I've got my survey to work (more or less). It needs a few more features, but it now accepts any number of questions and dynamically creates the buttons and assigns functions to the buttons.

I also have it up here(best viewed on iPad):http://digitalarts.bgsu.edu/portfolios/rmcpher/BFA/surveyFormSiteIpad/

I'm also working on the different questions and figuring out how each will relate to each scene, I have a spreadsheet here(it is not an extensive list because I have not yet had the time to enter in all the prospective questions): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlF5TuUPwR8ZdC10OVozLXYtMVlhaDRXRV9CcXdBdGc#gid=0

I am ALSO working on the layouts for the three scenes (something I admittedly should have done long ago) in html. I'll show more on this when this actually yields results.

Even More Coding

I don't have much more to show YET, but I am starting to make good progress on the coding. I've figured out xml to a point that I can extract and process data. (now I just have to figure out how to write data to it)

I've also been working more on my survey. I've managed to make it so that it can dynamically adjust to any number of questions I insert, including only the number of buttons needed for answers, and dynamically setting what the buttons do when they are clicked. I still have to mess with the functionality a bit, but things are starting to move along with the survey to be sure.

More coding

So after far more time spent on it than I'd like to admit, I've realized something about the fluid simulation code I've been toying with:

It's not something I can recode.

It's way too complicated for me to fully understand what it's doing, it utilizes some code that I'm completely unfamiliar with, and if that all wasn't bad enough, it's needlessly confusing code (as in the original programmer didn't clean it up as well as he/she could have).

However, I've also realized that I understand how to manipulate the code well enough to do what I need it to do. There was one specific thing I was trying to get it to do, that I won't be able to get it to do (at least I really don't believe I can), but I don't think it's entirely necessary anyway.

So considering the code was free to use for anything, I should be set on that little side track.

Codeblocks

Currently, I'm trying to get XML (something I can use for my database to make the project work correctly) figured out and trying to dissect the fluid simulation code. Unfortunately, both of these things aren't going so well. I'm going to keep poking at the fluid code, but in the end I think I'm either going to have to mostly include it as is, or try and rewrite the whole thing.

Luckily, we're covering AJAX, XML and soon PHP (read: The stuff I need to make my project work) in one of my classes, so it shouldn't be too hard to get things rolling once I figure out the fluid simulation.

One thing I am currently worried about, however, is that I need to use canvas for this stuff, and canvas seems to be having performance issues when I up the scale (not even upping the number of objects). We'll have to see what happens, and see if I can't make it work anyway.

Water, water, and....well a LOT of water

Primarily, I have been slowly coming up with questions based on everyday life that I plan to use for to calculate personal footprints through the questionnaire(the development of which is currently being mildly delayed due to learning jQuery in another class, and the realization that use of jQuery could save TONS of coding time.)

I've also been playing with design ideas. I thought of the idea of creating a design that was over 3000 pixels tall, that would incorporate each of the footprint displays on top of each other (carbon, garbage and water, top to bottom) but I don't quite like the direction it was going. I will however put it here to show process/see if someone else likes it:

It was about the time that I started working on the bottom of the design that I realized it really wasn't working how I had envisioned in my head, hence the funky coloring at the bit. Instead I decided to try and go with my garbage footprint design (with some modifications of course) and I'm working on the water footprint area.

I thought the area might be a bit big at first (it's meant to be like a quarry or a canyon stream)...and then I looked up the average water footprint per person (something I'm surprised I hadn't looked up before)...the frightening bit is I might not have thought BIG enough.

You see, here is the original scale I was thinking on:



Each of those blue squares? Each one equals 2000 gallons of water, and there are 256 of them. Quite a lot of water huh?

THAT ISN'T EVEN THE ANNUAL WATER FOOTPRINT OF ONE PERSON! The average American water footprint per day is just over 2000 GALLONS. A DAY. I knew this was going to be quite a bit, BUT I WASN'T EXPECTING A NUMBER THIS STAGGERING FOR ONE PERSON!

So knowing that 356 objects per person isn't going to be something that a browser should be able to handle, I've decided to try looking into fluid dynamics and trying to do it that way. Sounds a lot harder right? Well I found this online: http://codepen.io/stuffit/details/hszvg

It's a free to use/modify/whatever code for fluid dynamics (it includes gravity, though the base example uses 0 as the gravity). I've already played with the code a bit, and it should be easy enough to incorporate into the scene, and if I add lines on the side to indicate the actual amount of water it is representing, it should be fine. (of course, still having scale indicators. Though it's going to be a tiny human if I go that route)

Creating the Survey Form

Work up to this point (from last point obviously) has been spent on creating the survey page, mostly on layout. What I have so far Here.

iPad Form Design

In an attempt to keep things natural and as simple as possible, I've decided to try and design a simple yet interesting layout for the survey that modifies the rest of the piece.

I'm currently working on the idea that the survey will be conducted on an iPad that is fixed in front of the three computer screens. The user will be asked questions and will be provided with a selection of buttons to press to enter their answers. Here is an in-progress example:

I was trying to keep the interface as interesting as possible without making it too busy. I am also doing research into what questions to ask, trying to keep mainly in the realm of daily activities. I also want to have as little text as possible, but I don't want the answers to be too confusing.

Formal Defense Presentation

Link to Prezi:

http://prezi.com/qikmuptosk7n/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy



Picture is mostly unrelated.

Research(And complete and utter lack of direction or ideas)

After quite a bit of thought, and research into climate, bees, and the state of the world's flora, I've come to a single conclusion: I have no idea where this project is going, nor where I should take it, or if I even should bother continuing in this direction as opposed to starting anew, or if I could even come up with another idea that would even be half as far fleshed out as my current line of work (that admittedly isn't even fleshed out at all.)

~I can't think of meaningful ways to tie the scenes together.
~I can't think of meaningful interactions with the piece, using traditional input devices(mouse + keyboard) or special input devices (touch screen, pressure pad, ect.)
~I can't think of a backstory or concept or anything that would make this piece anything more than a complicated flashy toy
~And honestly, the more I try to figure it out, the more I try to think about what I can do, the more I start to freak out, and the more my thoughts become a constant stream of "I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do..."
~And beyond that, stepping back and trying to take my mind off it doesn't help, because it either stays in the back of my head and freaks me out because I'm not actively thinking about it/working on it, or leaves my mind completely, and the freaking out due to not working on it all hits at one time once I remember about it/try to work on it again.

As such, I have signed up for Heather's office time tomorrow at 9 a.m. Also hoping that because I've signed up for the office time, and because I've put up this post that's basically a cry for help, maybe some idea will just come to me, though I doubt it.

Design and Testing

Up to this point, I have managed to get a base landscape planned out, and although I plan to revise the artwork and style a bit, especially as I move into scene into multiple versions of itself (differing times/states), I am rather happy with what I have currently:

It's a bit tough to try and resolve the ink-style painting with the woodblock style, or color, or honestly even itself. Further research into the sumi-e style has given insight to multiple different approaches.

But being as this is an early stage model that was intended more for layout reasons, so I'm not so worried about getting the style exactly down as trying to nail down exactly what I want for the style, and being able to start loosely laying out objects on a page.

In fact, I currently have a test page that is mostly laid out, and I've been fiddling with javascript interactivity, though more in an attempt to remember exactly what I'm doing than anything else.

Unfortunately, I also lost about an hour and a half of work time to an attempt to create a subtle animation of the big yellow tree (like a light rustling in the wind). Mostly I learned that that the liquefy filter in photoshop does some weird things to an image besides the intentional distortions.

Progress for Monday: Sept 16

Spent the weekend writing down interaction words (such as push, pull, kick, grab, ect.) and words that were actions that created change (Destroy, repair, crush, erode, build, so on...) and trying to think about how I could incorporate different types of physical interaction with my piece that could have a meaningful effect on the environment in my artwork.

Admittedly, I had a bit of a block, but I'm starting to piece together various ways I could make it work (such as a pressure pad that a viewer could step on near the first scene that could maybe crush some plants, causing some changes in flora, such as type, placement, size, or abundance, in the future scenes).

My goal is to have a range of consequences that range from minor/natural (for example: trampling of plants creating a natural path over time) to long term disaster/devastation (perhaps building a city in the distance that causes enough pollution that plants eventually just stop growing)

Obviously the exacts are still being figured out.

I've also started work on creating the primary scene for this artwork. More on that when it get's further along.

BFA Contract

What I'm working on:

I will be working on a multi-page interactive website that will be displayed on multiple, side by side computers, each displaying a different page. Despite the multiple computers, and pages, this will be a single work.

The concept behind this piece is unintentional consequences, or more specifically, the idea that an action not only has an immediate, obvious consequence, but can have potentially far reaching consequences that may be difficult to connect to the original action. This will be in the form of three to four environments that are connected in some way, most likely, the same area at different times in history.

The final result will be visually reminiscent of the sumi-e brush style, but with more of a focus on color that will be used to visually distinguish between different states in time.

As for the final format of the piece, it will be displayed on up to four computers, side by side in the gallery space against the wall.

Production Equipment:
Drawing Tablet
Scanner?

Display Equipment:
4 Computers with necessary accessories (keyboard, mouse, power cable)
Pedestal/platform/table that can hold each computer side by side

Calender Dates:

Mon Sept 16: Have necessary research/plans finished/ Have preliminary environment design finished
Wed Sept 18: Have expanded original design into variations for different time periods


Mon Sept 23: Have fine tuned designs for interactivity.
Wed Sept 25: Have significant progress on the piece's back-end code.


Mon Sept 30: Make sure all sites are at least laid out correctly.
Wed Oct 2: Have 1 page's interactivity started

Mon Oct 7: Formal defense
Wed Oct 9: Formal defense


Mon Oct 14: Have at least one page's interactivity finished, and another page started.
Wed Oct 16: 2 pages finished.


Mon Oct 21: Third page at least started, if not significant progress/finished
Wed Oct 23: Third page finished. Made progress on forth.

Mon Oct 28: Forth page done.



Wed Oct 30-Dec 3: Revise artwork/debug code/add more interactivity if possible.

Mon Dec 3: Final Presentation of completed work to DA faculty
Tues Dec 17: Final Exam/Body of work due in Exhibition Format

Self-Assessment Essay

Interactive art is most definitely my strongest medium. My technical skills with designing, drawing and digital painting are not as strong as I would like them to be. To make my art stronger, I create the strongest visuals that I can, and use coding, a skill I find myself more proficient at, to push my artwork to new levels.

Theme-wise, I find myself inspired primarily by ancient Japanese mythology and traditional East Asian art styles, such as shodō (Japanese Caligraphy), sumi-e (Ink wash painting), and ukiyo-e (Woodblock print). I often find myself trying to create interactive environments as well, trying to avoid leading the viewer, but instead trying to invite them to explore.

Style-wise, Tenshō Shūbun's artwork provides a great example of the type of artwork I draw inspiration from. He had painted some absolutely beautiful ink landscapes.

BFA Strength's Presentation

Just leaving this here for quick/easy access in class:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13GSjKUROj949pgQCycJScVafwwGeSRKlWn9ZioWT0Yg/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000