Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Madonna + Miuccia Prada + Barack Obama = Mash Up
She's a phenomenon rather than a deep creator. He is revelling in presidential power and influence unseen in Washington for decades. She never follows anyone else's lead, just her own original energy.
I think it's about power.
As always, Madonna must be in control. Not only is it his moment, it is a level of influence and power for a president to stay leader of the pack. It could give the Democrats unfettered authority, unafraid of a good fight. And more often than not, she wins. "I'm sorry, this is not a democracy."
In the elusive search to be a celebrity, she never follows anyone else's lead. While Obama is personally popular, her power, first manifested in the minimal black nylon backpack draped over every influential arm in the '90s, also became incarnate in Sex.
If he handles it right, she exhibits, explores, and displays it. With power comes the occasional stroke of luck giving him a highly charged sexuality, political capital to undertake big challenges. She exhibits, explores, and displays it, and feels no compunction about doing so publically. She also realises it can be very profitable; completely an expression of herself.
Unfettered authority. Certainly there is no shame, and there has never been, fear and power do not peacefully coexist.
Make something beautiful with it.
- Madonna: Maureen Orth, "Madonna in Wonderland," http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/archive/1992/10/madonna199210?currentPage=1 (accessed May 11, 2009)
- Prada: Belinda Luscombe, "The Power List: Women in Fashion," http://www.time.com/time/2004/style/020904/power/2.html (accessed May 11, 2009)
- Obama: Steve Holland, "Obama reveling in U.S. power unseen in decades," http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/20090502/obama-reveling-ins-power-unseen-decades_all.htm (accessed May 11, 2009)
Monday, May 4, 2009
Experiment 2 Final Version
Cousteau_Weightlessness_Flight
_Surface_Freedom_
I have attempted to show elements of weightlessness, flight, surface, and freedom in the structure designed for Cousteau.
Above: View from playerstart at entrance to Nobels structure. The placement of Cousteaus structure as above the playerstart is to instill in the player a sense or need to rise upwards, just as one would when underwater (in reference to Cousteau). Note that some sort of glitch meant that parts of the glass curve are missing in the above and below image.
Above: View when standing on the lower curve of the glass walls. Each glass wall is made up of rectangles to give a smooth curve. The shape and colour of the glass was chosen to give the impression of a wave, and a feeling of inundation, but without danger. A physics volume with low gravity surrounds the structure, meaning that the player is able to experience weightlessness, as though swimming in air, and is able to rise almost to the height of the glass, and be free to "fly in any direction". The glass walls means that the player is able to take in the vast open sky; freedom.
The shape of the platform, and the rings of water the player can splash through, are circular to resemble ripples. The person arises from the ramp in the middle of the ripples, in the middle of the white platform and glass waves, and in the blinding sunlight; enforcing the concepts of freedom, of surfacing, and ascension.
Meeting place + Ramp
Meeting place: As one client moves down the ramp, and the other moves up from the depths of the cavern, they are forced to make a jump to reach either structure. I have decided that this act of jumping across the air is to be time of meeting, and the meeting place therefore to be mid air.
The image I chose from Lecture 7 describes a leap needing to be made from the darkness to knowledge, represented by light. This leap to understanding, knowledge, and therefore freedom, is not without danger. The meeting place represents this by being placed at the point that the client would venture to the outside, the gap in the floor being the boundary between the lightness of the exterior, and the darkness of the interior. It also represents the last boundary that a player would have to navigate after passing through the maze of the interior structure.
Ramp: The ramp is made to mimic the feeling of ascension, from a depth to the surface and from darkness to light. The concept of ascension is mimicked in the use of the mover, which glides slowly up the ramp after a person jumps onto it.
Texture: A light texture has been applied to the platform, to the sides of the ramp, and to the underside of the circular platform, to enforce the concept of weightlessness and 'lightness.
Nobel_Similarities_Differences_Searching
To represent structurally the concepts searching, I decided to construct a cave-system like structure in the form of a series of mini-mazes. A few of the rooms or corridors provide a series choices in the form of entrances or turns, which the player has to choose to go through, of which one will continue on to lead you out. Other rooms are simply to confuse.
Room 1.
I have attempted to show the concept of simiarities and differences at intervals through the structure. The first is the above corridor is composed of a series of repeating units, representing simiarity. The light texture applied to the walls enhances the geometrical shape of the corridor, and the contrast between the bright walls and the shadows.
Room 2.
A series of narrow openings, the middle of which leads to the next room. The opening is not immediately apparent unless you search for it.
Room 3.
The two openings present a choice to the player. The choice is part of the concept of searching. The stairs are similar in their shape, but different in their height.
Room 4 a.
The room you are lead into if you take the bottom corridor. The pools are present to confuse, and the player is forced to question themselves on whether the room is a dead end, or whether the pools might lead onwards. This reflects the concept in the electroliquid aggregation and the image from Lecture 7, of the search for knowledge. A dark texture can be seen on the right to enhance the feeling of darkness and enclosed space.
Room 5 a
Underwater! If the player chooses to go through the pool in Room 4, they are forced to swim along the corridor, and should be careful not to drown before they find the way out. The theme of water, submersion, and surfacing, is a theme that links the two clients structures together.
Room 4 b
Similarities and differences are again represented in the stone pillars. These are placed at irregular intervals, meaning the player has to navigate their way around them to find the exit. The darkest texture from the set I drew is shown here on the pillars, to again enhance the contrast between the light and dark.
The colour of light between each room is used as a tool to differenciate the different concepts and how they are explored.
Room 5 b
The walls of the corridor, composed of a static mesh, are in juxtaposition with the irrigularly placed cubes that create the stairs. Similarities and differences.
Room 6.
The cavern that both Rooms 5 a and b exit into. Room 5a exits into the cave underwater, while Room b exits via the stairs to the right hand side.
The player in this cave must navigate the platforms half hidden under the water to the exterior on the left. The large space of the cave provides a release from the enclosed, claustrophobic structure of the previous rooms.
http://files.filefront.com/13707499
_Surface_Freedom_
I have attempted to show elements of weightlessness, flight, surface, and freedom in the structure designed for Cousteau.
Above: View from playerstart at entrance to Nobels structure. The placement of Cousteaus structure as above the playerstart is to instill in the player a sense or need to rise upwards, just as one would when underwater (in reference to Cousteau). Note that some sort of glitch meant that parts of the glass curve are missing in the above and below image.
Above: View when standing on the lower curve of the glass walls. Each glass wall is made up of rectangles to give a smooth curve. The shape and colour of the glass was chosen to give the impression of a wave, and a feeling of inundation, but without danger. A physics volume with low gravity surrounds the structure, meaning that the player is able to experience weightlessness, as though swimming in air, and is able to rise almost to the height of the glass, and be free to "fly in any direction". The glass walls means that the player is able to take in the vast open sky; freedom. The shape of the platform, and the rings of water the player can splash through, are circular to resemble ripples. The person arises from the ramp in the middle of the ripples, in the middle of the white platform and glass waves, and in the blinding sunlight; enforcing the concepts of freedom, of surfacing, and ascension.
Meeting place + Ramp
Meeting place: As one client moves down the ramp, and the other moves up from the depths of the cavern, they are forced to make a jump to reach either structure. I have decided that this act of jumping across the air is to be time of meeting, and the meeting place therefore to be mid air.
The image I chose from Lecture 7 describes a leap needing to be made from the darkness to knowledge, represented by light. This leap to understanding, knowledge, and therefore freedom, is not without danger. The meeting place represents this by being placed at the point that the client would venture to the outside, the gap in the floor being the boundary between the lightness of the exterior, and the darkness of the interior. It also represents the last boundary that a player would have to navigate after passing through the maze of the interior structure.
Ramp: The ramp is made to mimic the feeling of ascension, from a depth to the surface and from darkness to light. The concept of ascension is mimicked in the use of the mover, which glides slowly up the ramp after a person jumps onto it.
Texture: A light texture has been applied to the platform, to the sides of the ramp, and to the underside of the circular platform, to enforce the concept of weightlessness and 'lightness.
Nobel_Similarities_Differences_Searching
To represent structurally the concepts searching, I decided to construct a cave-system like structure in the form of a series of mini-mazes. A few of the rooms or corridors provide a series choices in the form of entrances or turns, which the player has to choose to go through, of which one will continue on to lead you out. Other rooms are simply to confuse.
Room 1.
I have attempted to show the concept of simiarities and differences at intervals through the structure. The first is the above corridor is composed of a series of repeating units, representing simiarity. The light texture applied to the walls enhances the geometrical shape of the corridor, and the contrast between the bright walls and the shadows.
Room 2.
A series of narrow openings, the middle of which leads to the next room. The opening is not immediately apparent unless you search for it. Room 3.
The two openings present a choice to the player. The choice is part of the concept of searching. The stairs are similar in their shape, but different in their height. Room 4 a.
The room you are lead into if you take the bottom corridor. The pools are present to confuse, and the player is forced to question themselves on whether the room is a dead end, or whether the pools might lead onwards. This reflects the concept in the electroliquid aggregation and the image from Lecture 7, of the search for knowledge. A dark texture can be seen on the right to enhance the feeling of darkness and enclosed space.
Room 5 a
Underwater! If the player chooses to go through the pool in Room 4, they are forced to swim along the corridor, and should be careful not to drown before they find the way out. The theme of water, submersion, and surfacing, is a theme that links the two clients structures together.Room 4 b
Similarities and differences are again represented in the stone pillars. These are placed at irregular intervals, meaning the player has to navigate their way around them to find the exit. The darkest texture from the set I drew is shown here on the pillars, to again enhance the contrast between the light and dark.
The colour of light between each room is used as a tool to differenciate the different concepts and how they are explored. Room 5 b
The walls of the corridor, composed of a static mesh, are in juxtaposition with the irrigularly placed cubes that create the stairs. Similarities and differences.Room 6.
The cavern that both Rooms 5 a and b exit into. Room 5a exits into the cave underwater, while Room b exits via the stairs to the right hand side.
The player in this cave must navigate the platforms half hidden under the water to the exterior on the left. The large space of the cave provides a release from the enclosed, claustrophobic structure of the previous rooms.
http://files.filefront.com/13707499
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Experiment 2_V2
Cousteau
I decided to change the structure of the building to more resemble a wave in the literal sense. Each curve is made up of rectangles. I am not sure whether to make a full circle of these or leave it as a section. Maybe a viewing platform in the middle?
The idea of the haphazardly constructed stairs is so that one has to 'search' for the best way across the cave, which will eventually contain water at the bottom. I am not sure whether to create
a. a maze type structure of static mesh walkways across the cavern,
b. a maze type structure of walkways made of random lengths of metal and wood as in the above image,
c. create a maze within the cliff of corridors, caves, and rock projections,
d. parts of all the above.
I decided to change the structure of the building to more resemble a wave in the literal sense. Each curve is made up of rectangles. I am not sure whether to make a full circle of these or leave it as a section. Maybe a viewing platform in the middle?
The idea of the haphazardly constructed stairs is so that one has to 'search' for the best way across the cave, which will eventually contain water at the bottom. I am not sure whether to createa. a maze type structure of static mesh walkways across the cavern,
b. a maze type structure of walkways made of random lengths of metal and wood as in the above image,
c. create a maze within the cliff of corridors, caves, and rock projections,
d. parts of all the above.
Friday, May 1, 2009
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