http://infosthetics.com/ is a weblog that: “explores the symbiotic relationship between creative design and the field of information visualization. More specifically, it collects projects that represent data or information in original or intriguing ways.”
It is a great source of inspiration when thinking about ways of visualizing information and stories. Or on thinking about the question: How can we use new media to represent human experience
in INFORMATION society in new ways?
For instance for the subjective mapping assignment this is an interesting example:
An interesting project, pointed out to me by Mónica Carriço of movingcities, is Guangzhou Supports You! It relates, in certain ways, to the subjective mapping assigment that we began this term with:
“Guangzhou Supports You!” works like this: the organizers supply a “Guangzhou Supports You!” graphic (see below) that serves as the essential element of the entire activity. Participants simply need to choose a corner, alley, place, space, etc. in Guangzhou, take a photo with the graphic appearing somewhere in the photo, and then upload the photo to the official “Guangzhou Supports You!” website to share their affection for Guangzhou with everyone – that’s it.
http://www.guangzhouchengni.com/
An interview with the initiatiors of this project can be found here:
Graffiti Research Lab, is an art group dedicated to outfitting graffiti writers and artists with open source technologies for urban communication. The members of the group experiment in a lab and in the field to develop and test a range of experimental technologies. They document those efforts with video documentation and Do-It- Yourself instructions for each project and make it available for everybody.
Jenny Holzer (born 1950) is an American conceptual artist.(…) The main focus of her work is the use of words and ideas in public space. Originally utilizing street posters, LED signs became her most visible medium, though her diverse practice incorporates a wide array of media including bronze plaques, painted signs, stone benches and footstools, stickers, T-shirts, condoms, paintings, photographs, sound, video, light projection and the Internet.
The content of Assignment 03 is the same. It’s the form that is different.
The work will be presented in the form of an interactive* projection.
This does not have to affect the thinking about the content.
Download the information here.
*you interpret the term interactive according to your own ideas about interaction, as you have described in your answers to the question what is interactive media art?
HOTEL is a 10-part animation that takes place in the anonymous space of an extraordinary and strange hotel. This hotel is the home base of Preconstruction, the company run by Dr. Doglin. Doglin is an unusual doctor conducting research into ‘freak accidents‘. In exchange for payment, volunteers agree to undergo tests that Dr. Doglinperforms on them. Hotel is a game in which seemingly nothing can be lost, but also nothing can be won.
HOTEL was made in 2004 by Dutch artist Han Hoogerbrugge. I believe it is a very good example of how an online story can become a totally immersive experience.
The new assignment will be a class project.
Aim is to create a website that functions like a window and mirror (metaphorically speaking) for East and West.
You can download the PDF containing, assignment, planning and inspiration here
Earlier this year I was a guest lecturer at the Willem De Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. The assignment I gave the (graphic design) students was called: From I was here to where am I?. It was about my travels to China, and about the way I looked at China, and how the photos I made were showing my own, very subjective interpretations. I gave the students 1000! of my photographs as source material. Their assignment was the following:
Construct a subjective, fictional story about Beijing using 1000 photos made by me in Beijing between 2006 and 2008. Your interpretation of Beijing, based on my views of Beijing, is what is important. The photos may be cut-up, manipulated, rearranged.
The end results were many small publications (booklets) and one film, all using my photos as a starting point.
> Example 01 Here a Dutch student worked together with a Japanese exchange student. They had conversations about each others perceptions of the East, and turned that dialogue into a booklet:
There was a green and a red transparent sheet. Use the one, and you could read the views of the Asian student, use the other, and you could read the views of the European student.
You can download a PDF of the whole booklet here: beijing.pdf (beware! it’s a very large file – 16 mb)
> Example 02 These students went to Amsterdam to take photographs in Chinatown there. They first made a selection of my Beijing photographs, and then went to find comparible situations in Amsterdam. This resulted in a booklet,which was cut in half, making it possible to mix the different worlds.
You can download a PDF of the whole booklet here: anouk_lisette.pdf
(5 mb)
> Example 03 This is not the final result, but part of the process of these students’ project. They found an article about the use and meaning of colour in China, and decided to organize the 100o photos by colour. They wanted to see if the use of colour in Beijing was changing. They found software online that helped create this document:
> click image to enlarge
> Example 04 Here the students chose to make a model, a kind of filmdecor, using the photos. Then using stop-motion, they made a short animation. They tried to give a sense of how it is to look at, to frame the environment that you’re in. (This is also about how it is to be an observer).
