Thesis Meetings: 2/11/14

This week I got feedback on my second RP, for now called Pixeled. This prototype, like the previous one, changes vision from a comprehensive process to an additive process, and asks the question, what will we notice when we deliberately slow down our vision?

In Pixeled, the user starts out by choosing a piece of art to look at. An image of the selected work is projected, but it is a distorted version of the user's selected piece. As long as the user is willing to spend the time, the image will slowly reveal itself.

I used Processing for this prototype. After the sketch is opened and a set amount of time passes, a prompt pops up, and the user can "click to reveal," which will decrease the size of the pixels. The sketch is currently set so the user has to go through 12 levels of de-pixelation before they see the clear image, but this is fully adjustable so I can made adjustments as needed!

Cézanne's Still Life with Apples distorted through 50x50 pixels

A few levels less distorted. The prompt "click to reveal" shows up after a set period of time.

Some clear shapes beginning to form

I originally planned to simply project onto the wall and let people sit with the image until they were satisfied, but Scott suggested I ask some questions, either directly or through the Processing program. I like this suggestion because people aren't used to viewing art in this way and I'm afraid without any prompting they will just rush through to the final image without really considering the stages in-between. Exactly what type of questions I am going to ask still needs to be worked out, but I want the questions (or statements) to be ones that prompt the viewer to consider color palette, mood, perspective, atmosphere.

The subject of the painting now clearly discernible

Cézanne's Still Life with Apples at full resolution

We also spent part of our meeting discussion what I needed to do in order to be prepared for the critique on Feb 22nd. So, this week my priorities are to...

• Flesh out my matrix. Be sure I've considered enough pathways of engagement.
• Create a few more prototypes. I should have at least one from each category, or "driving force."
• Think about the end product. It is fine to be creating stand alone experiments right now, but what kind of experience will I have in May?
• Think about the art reveal. Are my experiments optional or mandatory if someone wants to see the original? Or somewhere in-between?

Here's the Processing code:

 import processing.pdf.*;  
 int t=0;  
 PImage a;  
 String s = "Click to reveal";  
 boolean r = false;  
 int pixSize = 50;  
 void setup() {  
  frameRate(10);  
  //Load image from data folder  
  a = loadImage("1.jpg");  
  //set window size to picture size  
  size(a.width, a.height);  
  noStroke();  
  background(255);  
  smooth();  
 }  
 void draw() {  
  // start recording for a PDF  
  beginRecord(PDF, "cezanne.pdf");  
  // increase m by one  
  t++;  
  println(t);  
  // draw the pixels  
  for (int i = 0; i < a.width; i+=pixSize) {  
   for (int j = 0; j < a.height; j+=pixSize) {  
    color pix = a.get(i, j);  
    float bright = brightness(pix);  
    fill(pix);  
    noStroke();  
    rect(i, j, pixSize, pixSize);  
   }  
  }  
  // t is changing at the rate of fps  
  if ((t > 60) && (pixSize > 1)) r = true;  
  reveal();  
 }  
 void mousePressed() {  
  if ((pixSize >= 10) && (r == true)) {  
   pixSize = pixSize - 5;  
   t = 0;  
  }   
  else if ((pixSize <= 10) && (r == true)) {  
   pixSize = pixSize - 2;  
   t = 0;  
   if (pixSize < 1) {  
    pixSize = 1;  
   }  
  }  
  r = false;  
 }  
 void reveal() {  
  if (r) {  
   fill(255);  
   text(s, width-100, 10, 100, 80);  
  }  
 }  
 void keyPressed() {  
  if (key == 'q') {  
   // saves the image as a PDF  
   endRecord();  
   exit();  
  }  
 }