Research Progress - LaurenP

By: Lauren Padula

Research / Insights ( Before Quarantine ):

The phone has become an increasingly important part of our daily lives.
People are constantly on the move and trying to keep up with everyone
and everything in their lives. We sometimes forget to take time to focus
on ourselves and our own emotions by always living in a digital world.
We want to make being mindful an important part of everyone’s life. 

Mindfulness is a state of active, open attention on the present. When
you’re mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance,
without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you
by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience.

Ideas / Concepts:

Social Detour- When you click into a social app more than 5 times a day you
phone will redirect you to the Health Mindfulness App.

Siri Mindful Minute- When saying “Hey Siri, Activate Mindful Minute.”
it will bring you to the Mindful Health App on your iPhone and help you
meditate for a minute when you need it the most.

Apple Emotions- Tracking the way users interact on their phones to
then determine when people need help the most and notify them to take a minute and breathe.

Mindfulness Alarm- Creating a new mindfulness panel in the Alarm
App so people set time to be mindful and then can track their mood and how they feel after.

Techniques:

Box Breathing Method: Box breathing is a powerful, yet simple, relaxation technique
that aims to return breathing to its normal rhythm. This breathing exercise may
help to clear the mind, relax the body, and improve focus.

Meditation Mini Games

Mindful Moments of Silence

Meditation Apps

The New Abnormal ( During Quarantine ):

Now with our current situation of change in our daily routines, I realized my earlier solutions may or may not be the proper solution anyone. Since we live every day now stuck in our homes and constantly switching between devices during the day as our only source of socialization/ entertainment/ and workspaces. People need to focus on their mental health and wellness now more than ever.

The isolation imposed by quarantine frequently leaves people feeling that they have no control over the situation. They also feel cut off from the rest of the world and unable to perform their usual duties. While quarantine may be only temporary, even brief periods of isolation and loneliness can have negative consequences on both physical and mental well-being.

#LaurenPadula

Final Project
Anika Grube


Idea: 

To re-create the words of Ta-Nehisi Coates from his book 'Between the World and Me'.


'Between the World and Me' About

Between the World and Me is a letter to Ta-Nehisi Coates’s fifteen-year-old son, Samori. He weaves his personal, historical, and intellectual development into his ruminations on how to live in a black body in America.

Execution: 

A motion graphic piece that explores the powerful statements and issues Coats talks about in the book.

Example: 

Quotes and Phrases from the book:

“The destroyers are merely men enforcing the whims of our country, correctly interpreting its heritage and legacy. It is hard to face this. But all our phrasing - race relations, racial chasm, racial justice, racial profiling, white privilege, even white supremacy - serves to obscure that racism is a visceral experience, that it dislodges brains, blocks airways, rips muscle, extracts organs, crack bones and breaks teeth.”  - pg 10

I tell you now that the question of how one should live within a black body, within a country lost in the Dream, is the question of my life, and the pursuit of this question, I have found, ultimately answers itself. 

In accepting both the chaos of history and the fact of my total end, I was freed to truly consider how I wish to live - specifically, how do I live free in this black body? 

It is a profound question because America understands itself as God’s handiwork but the black body is the clearest evidence that America is the work of men. - pg 12

Growing up in Baltimore

Later, I would hear it in Dad’s voice - “Either I can beat him, or the police.” Maybe that saved me. Maybe it didn't.

All I know is, the violence rose from the fear like smoke from a fire, and I cannot say whether that violence, even administered in fear and love, sounded the alarm or choked us at the exit. What I know is that fathers who slammed their teenage boys for sass would then release them to streets where their boys employed, and were subject to, the same justice. - pg 17

To be black in Baltimore of my youth was to be naked before the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape and disease. 

The nakedness is not an error, nor pathology. The nakedness is the correct and intended result of policy, the predictable upshot of people forced for centuries to live under fear. - pg 17

I practiced the culture of the streets, a culture concerned chiefly with securing the body. - pg 24

Progress 4/27

I spent my time learning Bolt and finding alternate ways to execute my original ideas. Bolt turned out to be kinda fun for me, but I definitely still need some time to get used to it. However, when I tried exporting the game that I followed the tutorial for, I kept getting errors. It may be more successful to export as a standalone.

As for my idea, due to upcoming deadlines, I decided to take the binary code thing into a different direction.

I experiment with lines and circles again, and they kind of reminded me of magnet toys I used to play with. Therefore, I came up with a visual where I arranged those circles and lines in a funky looking cube. I'm thinking about making more of these, but in different shapes, and then animating them somehow. For this cube specifically, I'm currently trying to make it levitate.

Just an Update with AR/ Photography Covers

I find myself feeling unmotivated, uninspired, and defeated for a lack of a better word. I can't explain why I feel this way. I just do, but I'm trying my best to work through this. 

I'm changing the idea a bit and instead of using all self-portraits, I will be using a mix of self-portraits, old images, and some new designs that I will make and animate. Showcasing this in different ways from magazine covers, book covers, posters, and album covers. 

For the AR part,  I will be using a program called Spark AR. 
For animating the images and. designs I will use After Effects and Photoshop. 

Graphic Design:

Will need to make.

Images Animated Already:

Possible Images I will be using:

The Sound of Color - 4.27 Progress

I played around with Unity all week but i'm still having trouble trying to execute the interface I designed so that it can just solely be an interactive piece. If I cannot execute on time, then I'm thinking of just making it a UI concept and prototype it in AE. 

Here is the UI design:
It's still a little rough but visually this is how it will be displayed.

 (Main Screen)

Unity Progress 4/27

Currently working on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAlf6Jb5XFI&feature=emb_title

also found an app called display.land 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZcLKcyHWDs

Update 4/27

No clips for this post but I do have some screenshots. Continuing to work on the gallery/learn the program...  At this point im thinking of making the gallery itself an extremely long tunnel thats filled with my work, as well as digital sculptures outside of the tunnel, or maybe even inside! I made a build of what I had so far a few days ago and it ran well, I'm gonna be looking into making it a "game" that can be used on mobile devices, just a matter of organizing my computer storage. Some screenshots from playing around below:

Unity

This past week I started to explore Unity. I had some trouble downloading it since my computer has a lot of issues but I got it working well. I started to doing some research on my own to understand the general layout and how to use it.

The tutorial I focused on was using the flipbook. It took a minute but I was able to successfully import it into Unity and create a flipbook, although I am having trouble editing it. But also I'm not thinking that since exploring Unity, that a flipbook might not be the best way to show my work?

I also started taking videos of me rollerskating.

tonight

See you guys tonight! looking forward to seeing/discussing some significant looking work.

https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/6e8b3f15f95042f69a6ed3f9de9e104c

Unity Problems & Progress

I tried embedding my Unity project as a html5/webgl project on gitHub and squarespace and was unsuccessful.

Professor, would it be possible to upload a zip of the project containing either a mac or windows executable? Or I could screenshare my project during presentation day?

Besides trying to do that, I finalized the video. Here is a screenshot of the pieces.

Unity Progress & Error Solutions - LaurenP

By: Lauren Padula

I am still watching tutorials on Unity. I started to play around and follow this video because I thought it would be beneficial to my project outcome.



While creating the Virtual Gallery Space I had an error appear when I added the "FirstPlayerControl". Which basically would allow people to virtually walk around the space and view the space from a personal perspective which I knew was necessary.

I thought I would share the solution I found just in case anyone else faces the same problem.  😁

The Error Code - Assets/Standard Assets/Utility/SimpleActivatorMenu.cs(11,16): error CS0619: 'GUIText' is obsolete: 'GUIText has been removed. Use UI.Text instead.'

The Solution  -

1. Search for SimpleActivatorMenu.cs And change the code to this below.

2. Add:

using UnityEngine.UI;

3. Change it from:

public GUIText camSwitchButton;

to:

public Text camSwitchButton;

https://answers.unity.com/questions/1638555/guitexture-adn-guitext-are-obsolete-standard-asset.html

After solving this problem I am going to continue making progress on Unity and continue to customize and explore the program.

OK class, here is your official homework for next week!

1. please create at least a shell in Unity and try to post it online.
2. choose what will be the final format of your project and a way to make it.
3. post images/videos etc of your process.

Good Luck!

Unity Progress

Although I have yet to figure out how to advance further with my conversion code, I have been experimenting with Unity more.

I was experimenting with new materials, textures, and models, and even found some that could be animated.

However, starting today, I'll be trying out Bolt. I may have to change my idea a bit, but let's see how things go.

TV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwA5KEvurko#action=share

Ayana's video

Victoria Emond Progress

I have been focusing on figuring out what type of deliverables make the most sense for this project. It is supposed to be documenting a journey, I think doing a version of a "scrapbook" or journal is the route I want to go. I say scrapbook because they often bring together lots of different types of mediums which I imagine doing. This would include video, gifs, and photos along with illustration and text. this will be made into a flipbook format in unity.

An example below is how the images could be cut out, with handwritten type underneath to give it a "journal" feel. I haven't started actually skating in the past 3 weeks because we have had crazy weather and even snow?!! So it's making it hard to start. But I plan on taking little videos of myself, and each page is dedicated to a different step, being a guide to people learning to skate when you don't have space.

it will of course have a lot more than just this but this is an idea of what it would feel like. bright colors and fun shapes is a major part of current rollerskating brands/culture!

see you all tonight!

https://us.bbcollab.com/guest/6e8b3f15f95042f69a6ed3f9de9e104c

Progress (Lauren S.)

Exhibit Plaque (just with lorem ipsum text so far)

I didn't like the outside environment that Unity has, so I made a little hallway with some drawings.

Ok class: great work!
Very impressed by your adventures in Unity... keep pushing the envelope.

The important announcement:
The final version is due on May 18th, class time.
We still have to decide if the project will be an executable file or a web file... I'm inclined to say these should exist online and we all share links..

Remember, give yourself some time to export/publish.

Start sharing knowledge: if there is something you discovered publish it on the blog!

Best of luck!

Project Process 4/13

So the past week I was messing around with unity a little. It was a bit of a struggle at first finding the right code for a first person character (probably because I havent checked all the tutorials posted yet), but I ended up making a small video. At this point I think I'm going to be doing a gallery as well, including art and such I've made over the last few years, as well as import obj files I've modeled, potentially video too if that's possible. Low Q video posted on top

More useful Unity resources!

C# code basic

https://unity3d.com/learning-c-sharp-in-unity-for-beginners

No programming game editors

https://unity.com/how-to/make-games-without-programming

Unity Asset Store

https://assetstore.unity.com/

Project Progess

Since our last class I have been adding to my Pinterest board and continuing to work on my magazine in InDesign.







I have also come up with some more article ideas and have been trying to follow my original outline.

Progress 4/13

I started coding the converter: https://yourwordstobinary.netlify.com/

I'm using Netlify to host my site since it's free and easy to use. It's definitely not fully designed yet, but I wanted to get the Javascript side of it down before I could fully focus on the CSS. Having the words translate to binary code is easy. Now I need to figure out how to change each number into a symbol, and also how to change the position of each binary code. But first, what I would like to try to figure out is how to change the color of certain parts of the binary code to white because the spaces between each word have their own code, which is 100000. I want to change that number to white so I can see if this is one way I can go about turning this into visual of some sort.

Here are how the HTML(left image) and CSS (right image) files looks:

I also tried using Unity":

It'll definitely take a while for me to get used to, but I'm starting to understand some of the basics. After following some of the tutorials, I'm thinking about using the pattern the converter outputs and applying it as a material/texture onto objects I can make in Unity. If I can make buildings and interior layouts, maybe I can also make objects like chairs, trees, and/or even a piano (these are just random examples I'm coming up with).

Progress on Unity

I have started working on Unity the past week, it was difficult at first.

My biggest problem was moving the camera around in the workspace. Once I figured that out, the rest went ok.

Outside Portion

Inside Portion

Sample footage is set, and I have started to add interior lighting.

I have a lot more to add design wise, but these are the basic components. I want to make it look less "manufactured" and more friendly looking.

The Sound of Color

Every song has a color and an emotion attached to it, therefore, every color has a sound. There is a small minority of people, called chromesthetes, who can see color as they listen to music, and for my project, I'll be creating an interactive piece where anyone can experience this relationship, translating sound into a tangible, visible piece.

This features for this piece that I am considering include:
- Play the sound that's associated with the color you click on
- Freely draw with color with sounds emitting 
- Ask Alexa to "play music based on these colors"
- Insert a song to emit a color show

There are already a lot of resources that identify this relationship:

As for execution, the colors will be displayed as so:

I started doing very rough wireframes of a potential app but I'm still deciding on which platform I want to display it.