Collect as many parts of trees as you can. (use things that have fallen naturally, you don't want to harm the trees.) Arrange your collection. play withit. hang it. study the shapes. do drawings.
(i tried to catch a leaf in mid air) i couldn't
this is what i collected.
i'm sure that if i waited long enough and was in the right spot that i would be able to catch one.
I am choosing to explore the animated GIF. There are a few different types of animation that I find interesting, stop motion, still motion, and wiggle stereoscopy.
Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved by small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames are played as a continuous sequence.
My record animation (10mb) http://webspace.ringling.edu/~bmcnally/records.gif Still motion is a method of displaying many images one after another as frames, using the technique of "Frame-by-Frame", similar to the concept of Stop Motion. The difference between this and Stop motion, however, is that still motion is not a method of animation, but a style of editing. Each frame can be non sequitur. It is often used in horror films to create an intense effect, or used to recall memories. The most common form of still motion now exists as Adobe Flash or Gif animation. Stereoscopy is any technique capable of recording three-dimensional visual information or creating the illusion of depth in an image.
Wiggle stereoscopy This method, possibly the simplest stereogram viewing technique, is to simply alternate between the left and right images of a stereogram. Most people can get a crude sense of dimensionality from such images, due to persistence of vision and parallax. Various animations that are awesome.
Exploration #52 Miniature Ecosystem Collect water from three different sites. These can include a lake, pond, stream, puddle, or similar. Combine the samples in a jar with a tight fitting lid. Place the jar in a sunny location and watch to see the ecosystem unfold. Soon this miniature world will start to organize itself and create some interesting results.
I took water from the Bayou at Ringling, a lake by my apartment, and a puddle by the tennis courts. The water sat in a jar in for one week a semi-sunny spot.(My porch is sunny from like noon to 5) I randomly took pictures to document it, and at the end, I wrote a phrase that summed up the experience. Absolutely nothing happened. (I think the freezing cold may have effected it).
I also read an article on design observer titled, "Designing through recession."
I made connections by writing some words on index cards and randomly pairing them with the words I had written before.
Exploration #11 Differences Collect Multiples of one thing (such as leaves, stones, shells, seeds, tc.). Lay them out in front of you. Observe them in detail. Using the "object log," list the differences you see.
Shape
Color
Hardness
Fragment
Fossilized
Size
Cracks
Natural/Man-made
Combination
Spots
Weathered, dirt/mold
Texture
Attractiveness
Broken
I went around Ringling and Sarasota Bayfront Park and gathered rocks. I photographed these rocks and wrote down their differences/categories. I was reading How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul, and found a couple connections between the differences in the rocks and cultural awareness. Some of the statements that stuck out to me are:
"Politics Entertainment Business Technology Art Ten-Pin Bowling Mud Wrestling"
"cues and puns and symbols and allusions"
"Cultural awareness is vital for the modern designer"
Exploration #26 "Becoming Leonard Cohen" Sketch or document things that you use in your daily routine. *Musician Leonard Cohen does this regularly as a form of meditative practice.
I photographed and sketched items from my daily routine. The photograph is an almost perfect imitation of each item, while the sketch is a perceived representation. I made them into cards, with the sketch on one side and the photo on the other.
I read essays 2 and 79 by Michael Beirut. Throughout these essays I wrote down statements that stood out to me. Essay 2 made some interesting points about how designers should be informed about things other than design. Essay 79 made a connection with me, Michael talked about joining a health club and using the treadmill, a machine designed to simulate jogging. He eventually fell and switched back to the gravel path. He stated "It was undesigned, at least not by human beings. Maybe some things should be left that way."
Later on, in my History of Documentaries class, another connection was made. We were studying Plato's cave allegory. In it, there are shadows being projected onto a wall. There are prisoners who are watching the wall, and they perceive it to be reality, just like the sketches I had done earlier. Representations of each item. I did not really expect to make a connection to my sketches in a liberal arts class, it sort of proved Beirut's point in essay 2, that having knowledge in all types of areas informs your own design.
