Of all the pieces shown in this week's reading, 'For all seasons' (Muller) was my favorite. I thought it to be the most visually interesting and fun to interact with. Along with the visuals, the personalized anecdotes made the piece more intimate, and gave it more of an allure.

Of the four seasons, the 'winter' behavior appealed to me the most because of the serenity it instilled. The gentle falling of the letters made me think of the snowfall from when I was a boy. I felt that the complexity of the letterforms also reminded me of snowflakes, in that the sructure of each individual snowflake is a complexity in itself.

A special mention goes to 'fall' because it was the behavior most fun to interact with and visually interesting to watch. The fact that it sprang up from the text you had just finished reading added to the composition, unlike the 'spring' (dandelions) piece where the text faded out and went into the composition. (Also, I am wondering if it was the most difficult to code...)

'Summer' wasn't as fun to interact with, but was visually interesting because of the 'fishy' behavior of the words. And finally, my least favorite, was 'spring', where it didn't really engage me as much as 'fall' or 'winter'. I can't really explain why but I was a little bored of it after the initial 30 seconds.

As for the 'Letterscapes' piece, I enjoyed that one much more than his (Cho) other work 'Alphabet Zoo' simply because there was more interaction involved and was more visually appealing. Among my prefered characters in 'Letterscapes', Q and Z were the most fun to me. Z because it reminded me of an Atari trype of game, or much like Arkanoid from early gaming consoles (I'm still thinking of the Vintage Video Game Tournament!) and Q because it was fun to play with and is one of my favorite charcters within the alphabet.

Anyway, that is it for now... back to DB 4.

Ghina's DB 3

I believe that the idea Ghina has for re-making the title sequence for Memento is both interesting and captivating. As it stands, the intro sequence is terribly boring, but adding a thematic element, such as the photograph, which happens to be one of the character's crutches in his world, would add considerably to the effect on the viewer. The only hindrance I can think of would be the simulation of the kodak photograph developing before the viewers' eyes; moreover, I believe it may cause the viewer to lose interest if the 'development' is done in real time, where as it may lose the desired effect if done too quickly. I'm not sure what solution could be proposed to solve this problem, or if there is a middleground at which a compromise can be reached to keep interest and give the desired effect.

word: design

definition: A preliminary sketch for a picture or other work of art; the plan of a building or any part of it, or the outline of a piece of decorative work, after which the actual structure or texture is to be completed; a delineation, pattern.

This is the classwork I missed that week I was sick. The word and definition are from oed.com

Concerning last week's readings (Blackwell, Bellantoni, Wozencroft), I must admit I payed less attention to the writing, and more to the visual work. I cannot describe what I felt when viewing some fo those works except that it was (I want to say brilliant, but I'm not sure I am qualified to make such an assertion, so...) really good, and somewhat depressing. I am not sure I will ever attain a level where I am able to produce such interesting work. My understanding of design is not at the point at which I would like it to be, and I ponder whether or not that understanding may be somewhat instinctual.

I think the main idea within this week's texts (Bolter, Vanderlans & Licko) is, although we have access to this wonderful technology that can seemingly do anything we wish to enhance the visual appearance of a project, we still need a firm grounding in the essentials of design. Anyone can have access to the tools to produce brilliant work, but we need to know how to use them in an effective way. I am not sure I have learned that yet. I keep going to classes with professors trying to convey 'good design' but I sometimes think I have missed the point. I am still not sure what makes one piece I make work or not work. I am lost. And I am not sure I will have enough time to find myself.