dancoleman-ma

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Major Study final update

With this being my final update on my major study I wanted to reflect on this project. I think overall I am really happy with my final product. I think the project is something I am proud of and is something I feel is really quite a unique project. My concept is something strong and comes across well in my work and the illustrations are all interesting and they all translate well to AR and work well in the app. The project has been a long one and I think it has been difficult to keep up the workrate over the whole time and I have been able to do this well. I am happy with all of the work I have done and feel like my presentation went well, and my promotional video was decent. I think this project has been a good reflection of my work over this project and the masters as a whole, and is something i feel really proud of what i have achieved 

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New Learning

When looking back on this project i think it is good to reflect on the new learning i have done over the past 11 weeks 

I think the biggest thing that I learnt was how to create AR artworks in the way I wanted and create them to a high standard. Before this project i had an idea how to create objects or lesser AR artworks but i wouldn't have been confident to create outcomes like these. I feel like i have really learnt a lot more about how to create more with AR in unity and especially artworks of this kind

One thing that I had not done before this project was to create a proper app that could be put on phones. On various projects I have prototyped what an app may look like but to build a unity phone app was a different challenge for me. While it wasn't too difficult and there was a lot of help found online it definitely was a different challenge than what I had done before. I definitely feel more confident in making an AR app with unity now and feel like i am able to do this to a decent level

I think one of the biggest things I have had to learn is to manage my time well and to keep on top of the work over a large project like this. At the start we were asked to make gantt charts and this definitely helped me plan out my time well and made me think about how I need to work to get the project done. Even though I didn't follow my gantt chart completely due to changes in how I decided to work on my project, I had to learn how to keep up my work over a long period. There were lots of different elements of the project like the blog that I had to think about as well as the main project. I think having all these different element to think and plan was important for me to manage and the way i have done all this has been a good learning point

Along with learning to plan my time better and work to a schedule I also had to Learn to adapt with things outside my control. One major thing in my project is what device I am building my app for. While there isn't too much change in terms of much of my build it is sometimes difficult to change my build from android to ios multiple times. I think having to change has taught me to be more adaptable with my work and has taught me to be able to change to different circumstances.

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Forefront 10

My final forefront post is about an exhibition by artist ryoji ikeda. The installation is an overwhelming combination of lights and sounds, all generated by binary patterns. The binary light and sounds are all generated by random elements like email or other digital content and are meant to remind us that digital content can be as little as zeros and ones. It is also interesting seeing digital art being reduced to its most basic form jst being black and white. I think when making my own digital art it's so interesting to think about the digital elements that make  up the art and how a reduction or limitation of what digital tools are being used can lead to creativity.

Magazine, W. (2021). Review: Ryoji Ikeda’s London show is a sensory assault course. [online] Wallpaper*. Available at: https://www.wallpaper.com/art/ryoji-ikeda-180-the-strand-exhibition-review.

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Forefront 9

One forefront artwork I found was by marshmallow laser feast. The project is an immersive installation in a cemetery. The large audio visual artworks placed around the cemetery try to get the visitors to look at the beauty in ourselves and the natural world. The idea is to bring the visitors closer to nature and for them to see some of the beauty in the minute details of nature. The large audio visual combined with the journey around the space full of nature is an interesting combination. I think it is important to think about how digital art can be presented and can be intertwined with not digital aspects as is something that i should think about when making my own digital art

Hero. (n.d.). Marshmallow Laser Feast are the immersive art collective bringing you closer to nature. [online] Available at: https://hero-magazine.com/article/194389/marshmallow-laser-feast-coventry-city-of-culture [Accessed 16 Aug. 2021].

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Forefront 8

This piece is an interesting blend of the digital and non digital. What this installation piece is is a mirror that reacts and responds to the human interaction in the installation space around it. The mirror is suspended by wires and is manipulated by the feedback in the room. A heartbeat and water sounds are synchronised to the people in the room as well, with the idea of creating calmness and awakening. In the words of the people that made the piece ‘

In this covid-19 time, we are losing trust in air. "Ether" will remind visitors of the existence of something invisible between everything by huge compression waves and distorting images synchronized to themselves’.

I find these ideas really interesting and especially with my artworks being somewhat related to covid as well. I really enjoy finding new ways that digital media is being used to create artworks that I could not imagine. This piece is something interesting and a great installation.

kaitosakuma-batic.com. (n.d.). kaito sakuma a.k.a BATIC official portfolio | Kaito Sakuma のオフィシャルウェブサイト - Ether @Distanced festival. [online] Available at: https://kaitosakuma-batic.com/ether-at-distanced-festival [Accessed 16 Aug. 2021].

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Forefront 7

This installation is something that I found quite interesting. The concept for this piece is to have two autonomous robots with projectors mounted on them, creating a special animation installation piece. What is interesting about this animation is that it creates an incomplete animation. The two robots don't work together and project separately creating a disconnection between the two. The piece is also meant to show how the animation being incomplete or disjointed is a counter to modern times where perfection is expected. I think this is true for digital art, where due to the ease of some of the tools perfection can be made, but shouldn't be required. I think these concepts coming together in an art piece is really interesting and 

AWRD (ja). (n.d.). 灯すための装置 / The reluming apparatus | | AWRD アワード. [online] Available at: https://awrd.com/creatives/detail/10235236 [Accessed 16 Aug. 2021].

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Forefront 6

Quite different to a lot of the other digital arts I have found in my forefront, stefan tiefengraber is a digital performance artist. One of the performance pieces that stood out to me was an audio-video noise performance that used a combination of pulsing lights with sound and noise to create a strong immersive experience for the audience. I find this kind of performance interesting as the live aslept of the digital art is something that I have not done much myself but would be interested in doing in the future. The performance itself I quite enjoy as I like noise music but the erratic nature of the lights and audio creates a really interesting outcome.

www.stefantiefengraber.com. (n.d.). Stefan Tiefengraber. [online] Available at: http://www.stefantiefengraber.com/01v96.php [Accessed 16 Aug. 2021].

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Forefront 5

A work at the forefront of my field I found was a VR theatre piece called Prometheus bound. The piece looks into the relationship between humans and technologies, both the good and the bad. What I find interesting about the piece is the use of technologies in other artistic performance pieces but also the subject matter that it discusses. What this piece asks the audience to think about their own relationship with technologies while themselves being part of a technological performance is a really interesting concept and it is a great way to get technologies in other artistic forms.

Meiro Koizumi. (n.d.). Prometheus Bound(2019). [online] Available at: https://www.meirokoizumi.com/prometheusbound [Accessed 16 Aug. 2021].

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Forefront 4

The van gogh exhibition is something I had noticed people I know sharing on social media and it caught my eye. The exhibition is a massive digital exhibition of van gogh's artworks and uses 360degrees projections, large digital screens and VR. What I found interesting about this was the way that the exhibition brought these artworks to life and into the 21st century. What I think is great about exhibitions is that people can experience artworks in a new and engaging way,a dn can introduce van Gogh to a new audience. The mix of new media and old art is something with lots of potential and is something I could see happening with many other artworks in the future. With how digital media technologies advance in the future we may see even more immersive and exciting ways to explore art.

vangoghexpo.com. (n.d.). Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience - London. [online] Available at: https://vangoghexpo.com/london/.

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Forefront 3

When researching different kinds of AR art I found a project called … which was an AR pop up book. The book is an art project and is a really interesting blend between the digits; and physical. What I like about the book is it uses the pop up aspect of the book or the digital elements of the project to interact with. The execution of this ar pop up book is done to a really high standard and is a great concept. The blend between physical aspects and digital art is something I looked into in another project earlier in the course and I think it is something that I could revisit in the future. 

Adrien M & Claire B. (n.d.). Acqua Alta - Crossing the mirror. [online] Available at: https://www.am-cb.net/projets/acqua-alta-popup-book [Accessed 16 Aug. 2021].

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Creative Decision Making

One of things I need to talk about in these blog posts is my creative decision making. I think when it comes to a lot of my choices about my practice I am quite adaptable and flexible with my decisions. I don't try to think ahead with my work and tackle problems when I come to them. When I start a project I have found it helpful to have a plan but in this project I have had to change a few elements of the project due to different aspects such as parts of the illustrations to work better with the image tracking. This sort of problem is not something I could have known about until later in the project when my AR app was working properly so I overcame this issue when I had to. 

I think my ability to be flexible is something that is a strength but I find it difficult to keep up with parts of the project like the documentation. An issue I have had on other projects is my documentation blog posts so with this being my major project I wanted to make sure this didn't happen. I find it easier to do this in blocks and dedicate some large amount of time at the end of every stage to the documentation rather than do it in small daily pieces. Because I wanted to make sure I did well with the documentation I decided to split up and plan out what my documentation would be so I knew what I had to do at each stage. Knowing what I had to do and at what stage I would do it was helpful in making sure that I documented my work properly. I think this was an important part of my decision making to make sure my project was done properly.

I think one of the other things that is important in my design making for my project is to know when I work best and how to work properly. With a project of this length I think it is important to have time when I'm not working and knowing how to split my time between working and not is something important to know. I think letting myself from the start of the project have a good amount of time not working was also important to give myself enough time to come up with the different concepts for my artworks. To come up with 6 distinct ideas for the artworks was somewhat difficult and even though I may not have actually been working in terms of producing content, the time to come up with these concepts is an important part of the project. 

I think these decisions were all import in therms of my creative decision making as has lead to me completing my project to a high standard 

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Forefront 2

Looking into different current digital media arts and in particular looking at AR I found a marketplace for digital collectibles called Terra Virtua. I think the idea of digital collectibles like NFTs is interesting and can show the changing attitudes towards digital arts, as well as the value of them. What stood out mainly on the market palace though was the number of 3d AR collectibles. It seems much of what is sold on the site is these collectibles that are intended to be viewed in AR. What makes this interesting to me is the fact that digital media arts and in particular AR is being used and sold in many different ways, showing the growing futures for digital arts. While this is not an artwork in itself it is interesting the idea of AR collectible being sold for big money 

terravirtua.io. (n.d.). Terra Virtua. [online] Available at: https://terravirtua.io/.

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One week before deadline - progress report

Now with only one week left on my deadline I thought I would give another progress report. This week was about making sure the app and all the artworks worked properly in the air and were able to deploy to my phone properly. This week was harder than I thought as I had to change from android to iOS due to the devices in the loan store. I am happy  with how all my artworks look in AR now after some tweaks to some of the images and the layout and scale of them. I feel confident in the artwork and am proud of what I have produced at this point. I also found time this week to start work on my wordpress site where my images will be hosted in a gallery and the required links to the project. 

My plan for the next week until the deadline is to create the promotional video and the presentation that i need to do for this project. I will also need to catch up on some of the blog posts that I still need to do, mainly the forefront post as I have a lot of them left to do. I also have longer blog posts about my creative decision making and new learning that I have done on this project. I think this is all achievable in a week but i know i will still have to work hard to make sure that the work is done to a high standard that i know it can be

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Artworks host Website

To show my artworks I have made a wordpress site where I will host a gallery with my artwork image targets. This was easy to build and was simple enough to put my artworks on. To go with my artwork I have put a link to my blog and a short description about my work on the page. I also put an about page with a short description about me and the work I have been doing on my masters and I will put my promotional video on the site when I have finished it before the deadline. On the site I will also put a link to the xcode file so anyone can download the app if they want.

dancoleman448804851.wordpress.com 

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Change back to iOS

In one of my earlier posts I spoke about how I was changing my schedule due to the fact that I wanted to change my app build to be deployable on android instead of iOS. I had been building my app to deploy on android and the app build was going well but when it came time for me to test my app I needed to get an android device from the equipment store. I thought that the equipment store would have an android device that would have AR capability so i could test my app but when i checked out the android device i found out it didn't work with ARCore and the other android devices that the equipment store had did not work with AR either. Because of this i had to go back to making my app for IOS as this was the only way i could test my app and my AR so my final app will be on IOS

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Artwork 6 - AR

The sixth artwork works well in AR. I think this is one of my strongest artworks concept wise and this translates well to AR and I think the movement of the animated pieces works well. I don't have any issues with the piece when putting the piece into AR and think this is one of my best AR artworks. I like how the colour contrasts well in the piece and really makes the illustration pop. i'm really proud of how this piece had turned out and considering it was my last artwork to concept i think it has turned out to be one of the best

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Artwork 5 - AR

My fourth artwork is one of the better in my opinion. I feel like the scale and shape of the scene really work well for AR and feel less flat than the other pieces which is what I was going for. I think the animation works well in the piece and really adds to the feel that I want for the artwork. I had to make a few changes in relation to the AR, mainly how faded I had made the rain. The rain looked alright on unity but it isn't showing up as well in the ar app so i decreased the fade.