isaacpowell0

[isaacpowell0]

Week 12 Final - ‘STEPS’

My final output for my code is a series of prints created through the printmaking technique etching, each print resembles the distance I walked in a day, the number of steps I walked, and how many floors I climbed up that day. Each print is titled a date from the 29th of September till the 5th of October when I recorded my data from my phone health application. I'm really pleased how these prints came out, it was quite a long process to get from my code to the final print hanging on the wall.

Code: My final code took my data and created a fan of lines expanding from a center point. My code starts off with one line that has both of its coordinate values, from that starting point it knows that there is going to be a certain number of lines in this pattern, and it knows the radius of how big the circle has to be. From this information, the program uses cosine and sine rules to calculate these unknown values of x and y that will sit somewhere along the radius of the circle. Once it has those values it creates a line from the center point to the outside value and repeats this for the number of lines it has been told to calculate.

Process: I exported my codes from processing and saved these documents as PDF files, I printed out these files and cut them out but came to a realization that they were going to be too large for my printmaking paper, I then resized these PDF files in photoshop to a size where I would have enough material to create my final prints. I then laid the print pieces of paper of my code out and placed a 0.5mm piece of plastiX over the top of them and used an etching needle and craft knife to engrave each line from my code by hand. I had plans to create these plates using a laser cutter but some technical difficulties occurred when I tried to engrave my material, my PDF files grouped in a way when transferred into illustrator that the laser cutter did not like it, I think it may be something to do with how my code created the lines, because I didn't have this problem in earlier tests.

After engraving my plates, I tested them with some water-based inks which are examples of in an earlier blog post, the print was quite busy and the water base inks dried too quickly before I got the chance to use the press. I switched to oil-based inks which have a much richer color and take a longer time to dry. I covered the plate completely with ink and took a small rag and started to lightly wipe away the ink until I had wiped away enough for the etching of my code to be visible because I was a little worried about not getting this part right and my code being hidden because I didn't wipe away enough ink. I then set the press to 10/2 and ran my plate with 100% cotton printmaking paper which I had soaking to soften up the paper to transfer the ink from my plate to the paper.

[isaacpowell0]

Mockup of another output for my code. A book that has my series of outputs from my code for the number of steps and distance I walked each day. My code outputs were turned into printmaking plates and then created a series of prints which I then took my leftover plates and scanned them through a printer to have a digital version of my print outputs which I then decided to create into a book.

[isaacpowell0]

Week 12 Exhibition - STEPS

I decided to title my exhibition STEPS because it links to my data and adds a hint to what my prints are about. I'm really pleased with how my exhibition turned out my final prints looked really good hanging up. I had a little extra time when setting up my exhibition that I set up a projector and projected my print plates onto a wall which created quite an interesting outcome and something I hadn't thought about doing but I am pleased I did it added an interactive element to my exhibition. I enjoyed seeing everyone's outputs from their codes, everybody had really cool ideas. 

[isaacpowell0]

Another mockup example of how I could use my output from my code as a wrapping paper design.

https://graphicburger.com/down/?q=gift-wrapping-paper-mockup

[isaacpowell0]

A Mockup example of potential ways I could use my final code output to create a series of plates.

https://graphicburger.com/down/?q=gift-wrapping-paper-mockup

[isaacpowell0]

My final prints, they came out really well with the oil-based inks and printmaking paper I used for these prints. I tore my paper to create a rough edge around my paper which works really well my range of colour which captures quite a mysterious feeling to these prints. I also titled these prints the dates of when I took my data values from. This kind of adds a lot to the prints because each day has a different size circle which makes it part of the mystery for people to guess what is going on these days. I decided to name my series of prints ‘Steps’ which I think people will be able to put two and two together from the title of the series of prints and the dates on the prints and the fact there are 7 prints in total people will be able to figure out what they stand for.

[isaacpowell0]

First attempts at printing my plates using water-based inks which are drying a little too fast before I can get them to the press before my paper has been soaked enough so the prints come out a little faded. Some prints I haven’ t wiped away enough ink from the plate and my code is completely hidden I think I'm going to use oil-based inks which take a longer time to dry and let me really have a lot more control over the tones I can create. I also tried recreating the colours I used for my digital code using the inks, I'm quite happy with these because they are of similar tones and work well in a series.

[isaacpowell0]

Week 12

I attempted to create my print plates, using the laser cutters in the 3D workshop but I ran into a problem with my file and couldn’t quite figure out how to get it to work in the time I had there. It was something to do with the grouping of my layers when I converted them over from the pdf file into an actual object in illustrator.

I then decided to print out my PDF files and etch out on the lines manually which took some time! But I am quite happy with how all 7 of my plates turned out. I’m a little nervous to see how these are going to turn out when I use them to create prints.

My plates I created I layed them out in photoshop and printed them off and cut them out to place under my clear plastiX sheet to etch my plates into them. I made my plates 1800x1800mm and made cut my printmaking paper 50mm bigger than the plate to tear away 10mm, creating a nice rough edge. 

[isaacpowell0]

I refined my code a little further, restricting the size of my document to 2500, by 2500 pixels creating a square shape that all my code variables sit within. I will then take these square shapes with my code spread out inside of into illustrator to laser cut 20cm, by 20cm 0.5mm acrylic plates that I will then use on printmaking paper made of 100% cotton to create a series of print.

I also changed the line function coordinates in my loop: Before: line(x + distance29, y + steps29, 0 + steps29 , 0 + distance29);  After: line(x + distance29, y + distance29 , 0 + steps29 , 0 + steps29);  I changed around the coordinates y1 and y2 so that the number of steps I walked in a day would set the coordinate for where each line in the loop would start. The distance I walked in a day would create the second coordinate for these lines. The end result of my changes shows quite a clear relationship between each day, comparing my output to my data the further I walked in a day resulted in a larger circle being created from my code.

[isaacpowell0]

Top Image - Craige Daniel, laser-cut wooden plate bottom Image - Patrick Collier, raster laser engraving

Week 11

I started looking into intaglio prints created from laser cut plates. The intaglio process usually takes a long time to create the plates but with being able to create the plates by engraving them with a laser cutter, the ability to create a photograph like prints becomes very easy and quick to produce the plates.

Unfortunately, my code is not quite at a level where I am able to create as complex pictures but prints usually work quite well being simple and not overly complicated.

[isaacpowell0]

My code for individual days split up from one another looking at creating a kind of series.

I made my code be framed within the size of my screen, some of my code was larger than the size of my screen so my exported PDFs are cropped differently, I thought this could be interesting to try out but it kind of ruins the effect and relationships between each day, it’s hard to tell or make out what days I have walked a further distance.

[isaacpowell0]

stroke(105,116,124); float steps1 = 1367.5 ; int distance1 = 890 ; int floors1 = 69; float pointAngle1 = 360.0/floors1; int radius1 = 890; strokeWeight(1.5); for(float angle = 0; angle < 360.0; angle = angle+pointAngle1) {   float x = cos(radians(angle)) * radius1;   float y = sin(radians(angle)) * radius1;   line( x + distance1 + frameCount%100, y + steps1 + frameCount%100, steps1 , distance1);

I explored around with making my code a little more animated and fluid maybe to be used in a more digital-based output. I added the variable frameCount() to my coordinates to see how it would react and it create quite an interesting outcome. The framecCount variable contains the number of frames since the program started. I made the frameCount%100 to see how many times 100 would fit into the frameCount which is counting every frame, which leads to the code being redrawn over these frames. I put this line of code into my first set of coordinates which made it move along the x-axis, redrawing itself each frame leaving a trail as it moves.

 line( x + distance1 + frameCount%100, y + steps1 + frameCount%100, steps1 , distance1);

[isaacpowell0]

I took the data if my steps, distance I had traveled and how many floors I had climbed in a day from my phone from the 29th of September till Saturday the 5th of October and start integrating these data values into my code. My step data values for each day were divided by 10 to reduce the size of code, my highest data value was 17,330 steps, I wanted to keep my code tidy and able to be seen on a screen as well as being printed out.

My code for 29/09/2019

void draw(){  stroke(8,65,92);  float steps29 = 1026.4 ;  int distance29 = 670 ;  int floors = 48;  float pointAngle = 360.0/floors;  int radius = 670; strokeWeight(1.5); for (float angle = 0; angle < 360.0; angle = angle+pointAngle) {     float x = cos(radians(angle)) * radius;     float y = sin(radians(angle)) * radius;    line(x + distance29, y + steps29, 0 + steps29 , 0 + distance29);   }

I chose a colour from my colour palette. I made Sunday be the darkest tone of Navy blue/grey and made a gradient effect making each day get lighter, I made Saturday quite a light blue. I used my adjusted step data value and turned it into a float variable in my code and used it as a coordinate for the positioning where my line is placed. I also used the distance I had traveled that day as the other coordinate value for my lines.

The value of the ‘angle’ placeholder is created through a loop. There are 360 degrees that make up a circle, so the ‘angle’ cannot be higher than that. The loop starts off the ‘angle’ at 0 and tells angle that it must be less than 360.0 which if ‘angle < 360.0′ is true than it will move onto the next part of the loop which is ‘angle = angle + pointAngle’. This means that the ‘angle’ = the angle is added to the angle between the lines (calculated by dividing the 360 by the number of lines).

int floors = 48; float pointAngle = 360.0/floors; for (float angle = 0; angle < 360.0; angle = angle+pointAngle)

I then used cosine and sine to figure out the values around a circle.

Once ‘angle’ had a value I needed to figure out the points around a circle to calculate where my lines are going to be positioned. Cosine and sine let you calculate the values around a circle but the angle

Once I had a value for ‘angle’ I needed to figure out what the points of the outside of the circle would be. I used cosine and sine to figure out these values by changing the angle to radians. Once I had the radian value of the angle I multiplied it by the radius to give me the value for the point of the outside of the circle.

float x = cos(radians(angle)) * radius29;  float y = sin(radians(angle)) * radius29;

Once I had the x and y coordinates for the outside values of the circle I added these values to the first set of coordinates for my line, which would draw a line from each point from the outside of the circle back into the center point. I added distance29 and steps29 as my line coordinates because these were the most significant values that made each day different from each other some days I would walk further than others so It made sense for me to use these variables for my coordinates to show a difference in each day.     - I’m going to look into the layout of coordinates I think I could sort them a little better.

line(x + distance29, y + steps29, 0 + steps29 , 0 + distance29);

I then repeated this code, changing the variables for the distance I walked, and how many steps and floors I climbed during each day. Which in return created an interesting pattern.

What's Next? I'm going to change around my code data variables and place them in positions that make more sense, I'm going to change around my steps and distance variables in the line(); function and make it so the number of steps I walked per day will set the positioning of the start of my lines, and the distance walked that day will determine the distance of those lines. radius + distance = same data value. The radius is the distance around the circle, and the distance is the distance of the line (coordinates) and the data value I used from my source was the distance I walked that day and turned into meters then divided by 10.

[isaacpowell0]

I started looking into what colours I wanted to use for my final code, I wanted to find 7 shades of Navy blue/grey because I think these colours work quite well together and are similar tones to the ones I am able to replicate when it comes to creating my prints.

[isaacpowell0]

I started experimenting around more with float variables and tried creating a more fluid code rather than my more static codes I have been creating. I started off taking my loop that creates a circle with lines and started exploring what happens when I placed random() functions in the x,y coordinates of one end of the line and made the other coordinate stay in the center of my page. I had quite a lot of points when I first tried that filled up the screen too quickly and the effect I was looking for was kind of lost in the chaos. I then changed the frame rate for my code to 20fps which worked a little but it still was filling the screen to quickly so I changed the number of lines my code was generating to 5, which kept quite a nice balance of how quick the lines appeared.

[isaacpowell0]

My phone has an app that stores health information. One of the types of data it stores is how many steps it record me taking per day, and since I carry my phone on me at all times I’m able to get pretty accurate information. It also holds information from months ago. I decided to take some recent data from the 29th of September to the 5th of October, to see what kind of pattern I can create for a week's worth of steps in my code.

My data variables are quite large numbers and using these kinds of numbers in my code would create quite a large file size, and use a lot of material to laser cut so I decided to reduce the size of these variables to create something a little more practical. 

29/09/2019 = 10,264 / 10 = 1,026.4 30/09/2019 = 9,377 / 10 = 933.7 01/10/2019 = 13,675 / 10 = 1,367.5 02/10/2019 = 12,648 /10 = 1264.8 03/10/2019 = 13,349 / 10 = 1334.9 04/10/2019 = 17,330 / 10 = 1733 05/10/2019 = 9,764 / 10 = 976.4

I also decided that I would use the total distance my phone had recorded I had traveled that day but instead of using them as km I decided to turn them to meters and divide by 10 to create a more reasonable sized data value for me to work with.

29/09/2019 = 6.7km = 6700m / 10 = 670 30/09/2019 = 6.5km = 6500m / 10 = 650 01/10/2019 = 8.9km = 8900m / 10 = 890 02/10/2019 = 8.2km = 8200m / 10 = 820 03/10/2019 = 8.9km = 8900m / 10 = 890 04/10/2019 = 11.9km = 11900m / 10 = 1190 05/10/2019 = 6.3km = 6300m /10 = 630

[isaacpowell0]

Interim feedback:

Where my data was coming from.

Creating a series of prints having more than one output.

What's next?

I’m looking into having more control over my output of code, by finding a data source that will have enough variation that from the data a series of prints will be able to be created.