Click and hold to change image.
Click and hold to change image.
The above pictures were taken from the first 30 hits for "Digital Art" in google images. None of them bear any relationship to anything we are going to do in this class. The animation itself, however, was created with Processing, which has everything to do with this class. Ah ... the irony.
syllabus
My email is joester5@mac.com I won't be checking the Stanford email, so use this one.
The first part of this class looks at games and art. Here's some examples.
I made this. you play this. we are enemies. a subversive, but actually pretty simple game. Loads of fun to look at.
Here's a artwork that greatly transforms an original game, yet is a surprisingly simple intervention. tekken torture tournament by Eddo Stern.
Another simple but effective game intervention called "Prepared Playstation" (which is a reference to ....?). by Radical Software Group (image on the right)
which lead us naturally to 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds of Uniqueness (for more fun you can lurk here and watch the game live)
Write a game play self portrait. Here's an example of mine.
Here's a link to an abstract to the study about how dying in games is pleasurable.
This week's reading is the first 13 pages of Homo Ludens. Here's a big fat download of the whole first chapter.
Our first lesson in Processing, Drawing primitive shapes!
Our Second lesson in Processing, The array and the "for" loop.
Assignment for this week. Using the code in the first two lessons, make the trippiest tackiest screensaver art possible. (Better to indulge the beast than ignore it.)
Using images and text
collision detection
keyboard input
making stuff rotate
Pong code (simple).
Breakout code (a little trickier).
Some serious WTF interface design with the Ardiuno - (notice the horrible audio).
Arduino How to 1
Arduino How to 2
Here's the page for retrieving data from a web site. Interestingly it doesn't seem to work online - some sort of security thingy. I'll have more on this later.
Our in-class pong code to date.
Game Design Cliches
1. A small action (like pressing a button) should get a big reaction (like stuff exploding). example - mac doc "poof"
2. It's never too early to begin working on the "story". Every Game has a story, even if there is no narrative.
3. Character design and animation is worth more than the sum of its parts. example ico
4. Dying is the funnest part of the game. NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART
5. Diagram your game on paper, even if it seems obvious how it will work. You will get new ideas once it's put to paper and everyone on your team will be on the same page.
6. You should be playtesting as often as possible. Don't settle on the first idea without trying the alternatives.
6a. Keep your eyes open - sometimes playtesting will show mistakes that are actually features. Example - Rocket Jump in the Original Quake.
7. It's okay to challenge your audience and break all the rules above.
Think about these rules periodically during your production process.
Here's today's game of the day, the aptly named bit.Trip
An artist's response to machinima my trip to liberty city - jim munroe
DC motor with Arduino and Processing
Servo motor with Arduino and Processing
The Arduino "MEGA" has 54 digital input/output pins (of which 14 can be used as PWM outputs) and 16 analog inputs. This is fricking awesome, btw.
more art
Dowethics
Which leads to this other thing
Michael Bell-Smith
Mike's digital Pog page.
Spirit Surfers
Omer Fast, The Casting
question: what do we think about Pattie Maes at TED?
The spectacle cannot be understood as a mere visual excess produced by mass-media technologies. It is a worldview that has actually been materialized, a view of a world that has become objective.
For wednesday, read the first chapter of the The Society of the Spectacle.
More art
Trevor Paglin
Listening Post Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin