Our Web, Our Growth.

Everything in existence has a beginning and an end. Whether they are living beings or inanimate objects, there are remnants left behind when we disappear from our sight. Although I have never been a fan of abstract art and usually take a literal approach to design, I feel more obligated to design something that has a cultural meaning and makes an impact on not only me, but life in general. This piece is not meant to be personal to me, but more of a personal message of how I view the world.

Our emotions, physical beings, and surroundings all start off as a clean slate. It's hard to imagine the theory of evolution bringing mankind so far from where it once was. Single-celled organisms...an Earth before technology existed...life before music...This is what I had in mind when starting the composition with a clean, white canvas. However, as time passes, the composition begins added random elements onto the canvas. They are random, and uncontrollable after their appearance.

The first piece, titled "Our Web", is a piece that starts on the pure canvas. Soon the first dot appears, and begins floating around aimlessly within the alotted area leaving behind a trail behind it. The trail is representative of many things: the materialistic and physical things that human beings leave behind, the emotional growth and connections we've established, and the seemingly growing number of people who contribute to it.

The second piece, titled "Our Growth", is the second piece that starts on a blank canvas. The random paint splashes in multiple colors build on top of each other, never allowing itself to go back to the initial pure clean state. It is about both the physical and emotional growth of us being individuals. Ultimately, we become the whole or sum of all these experiences which is what each individual paint splash represents.

The inspiration for this mini collection is from the need to leave my own mark in the world; I've often contemplated what happens to us after death and the impact we create in society. I wanted to create something that was abstract and expressed a theme with something beyond me as an individual.

I intend to showcase this piece on interfacing white long hallways (in an art gallery). The multiple display throughout the long hallway will show the random effect and be aesthetically pleasing. Unfortunately, due to technical limitations, I had to add in a reset timer to clean the entire canvas for both pieces so that the additional shapes would not crash the computer

Yi Huang's final project

My final project is based on my wife and my marriage. I picked some photos as recalling my memories. As a statement, I built this flash in two modes as discovering my photos. I used Flash CS4 and ActionScript to build the interface and interactions.

In the "Treasure Hunting Mode", you can click, drag to discover the hidden photos. You can imagine this is a messed desk with dozens of photos on it, you just use you hand to pick up every photo and view it one by one. Find it, pick it up, view it, put it down, and discover the other one.

In the second "Timeline Mode", you can just click on the three stages in the time line, and the related photos will be popped on the screen.

I consider this project as my appreciation or salute to my dear wife, she's one of the most most important person in my life. We have been married for three years, and now she is carrying our daughter. I just want to thank her from the bottom of my heart.



http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5056406/yi_huang_imomeries.swf

FAMILY

My life revolves around my family. Peter, my brother, has been a cornerstone of my life, always been there for me, through thick and thin. Of course we moved on with our lives, moved out of our mother's home, and started a new life creating families of our own. Peter married Rosa and they now have two beautiful children together, Aaron and Mackenzie. My niece and nephew have become my world, and so has my boyfriend Josiah. But one motto that I have always lived by is blood is thicker than water. I would do anything for my niece and nephew.

There are three parts to this design. The first is the large image of me; this is how I see myself. I dressed up in the clothes that I wear everyday to keep it real. I wore my sweatshirt hoodie and my jeans. I also decided to wear my Emmanuel College shirt because I am proud of my accomplishments. But this pales in comparison to the other part of the piece. There are images cascading from my hands. Images from when I was younger until close to now. Here I am trying to describe the fact that we are in control of our destinies. How we act through out our lives affects the future. But holding the images and letting them fall from my hands makes it seem that even though we are in control of what we do with our lives, these pieces will still fall where they may, leading us to our destiny. Right now, in this present time, my destiny is with my niece and nephew.

The third and final part of this piece is the video displayed in the net book below my still image. My still image is technically the past, you cannot go back and change it, it remains stagnate. But the present is what is moving us forward towards the future, and here is where the moving pictures come into play. I made a montage of a day in the life of my niece and nephew, and used the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." This song is significant to me because it ties in the past with the future. The past represented by the song is a time when I was a little girl and would watch the movie The Wizard of Oz over and over again. The future is my next generation, my niece and nephew. They are the ones that are propelling me forward, giving me reason for life. They are the future generation. I am the past generation, my brother is the past, and with our families we create a new generation for the future of us all.

Technically, to make this project come to life, I created two parts that came together. I placed the image of myself crouching in a blank document in Photoshop. I scanned in old photos of my family and placed those using layers in Photoshop, in my hands. The image of the scanned photographs and me were enlarged and printed on a 24x36 foam board with matte finishing. I made sure my image started 7 inches from the bottom. I then displayed the poster board using an easel, and placed the net book opened underneath my feet and played the movie of my niece and nephew that I filmed and edited earlier. My main still image would literally be crouching on the net book. The movie loops, making it an installation piece you would see at an art gallery. Sit, watch, and enjoy as life moves on to the next generation

Penguin Cupcakes // statement

Over the course of the last few months I have become very interested in cooking—particularly baking. I have a sweet tooth and was given a cookbook with myriad delicious recipes to try. Since then, I have been given several more cookbooks and have thoroughly enjoyed trying new cakes, cupcakes, and other desserts.

For my final project, I wanted to use time-based media to construct a cooking demonstration. I also used this project as an opportunity to test an idea for a component of my thesis project—an interactive cooking website.

In thinking about this project, I wanted to do a demonstration that was a bit more unique and a little more fun than a plain meal or dessert, which is why I chose to make animal-shaped cupcakes.

My goal for this project was not just to film myself making cupcakes, but to provide the viewer with something a little extra. I wanted to bring the recipe to life.

Though the video did not turn out exactly as I had hoped, I learned a lot from creating it and for me, learning from what I did not like and what did not work was more valuable than if everything had worked perfectly or gone according to plan. Because I hope to continue this project on a larger scale, I am able to better strategize.

Many types of media can be considered time-based media, and incorporating different media into a project allows one to create a more dynamic experience for the user.

Cooking television shows and channels exist, but I like the idea of bringing cooking to the web because it allows a user to choose the content on demand. Time-based media on the web also provides more options: viewing the video demonstration while looking at a list of ingredients or instructions, looking at photos, accessing a printable supply list, etc.

This project gave me a chance to further explore a niche area that has a lot of interesting potential!

Tonight's the night!

Tonight's class will be the most exciting class for me -- the culmination of everything we've done and experienced this term. We will go back to that elemental question from the first class, "What is Time-Based Media?"

Some guidelines for tonight:
-- In addition to your project presentation, you should have a project statement. Please post those on the blog with using the exact tag 'finalproject'. Feel free to include in that post any links, embedded video or images.
-- I'm inclined to just run through the presentations with just a short leg-stretching/bathroom break in the middle. You'll each get 10 minutes to make your presentations and I'll be looking for each of you to facilitate a conversation. You will be graded on how you speak and present your work in addition to your work!
-- Regarding grades, I'm working through my grades for the entire term. If you are missing an assignment please let me know if you are planning to complete, else you will not get credit for that assignment. Grades are due on Tuesday and I aspire to be on time! ;-)
-- I also will aspire to bring snacks!

Assignment for March 17, 2011

1. Email me a proposal for your Final Project at my ravijain.org address -- a few paragraphs at most.

Here is what we are thinking for the Final Project:

• A time-based media project that is driven by personal content/experience (doesn’t have to be soul baring)
• A component will be a project statement in which you define time-based media – what it means for you. We’ll look at statements and their importance in the next class.
• Build upon assignments so far, but please push yourself.  Don’t be afraid to “fail” – by that I mean, I’m paying attention to concept and to the fact that you only have three weeks to realize this project, so any short comings that are documented are acceptable.
• No restrictions on length or topic.