Words from Beyond Hope
Words from Beyond Hope is an attempt to visualize the last statement made by criminals shortly before they are executed.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice maintains a list of executed offenders’ last statements, along with their gender, racial, photo, crime and victims, even their unappetizing last meal request. I keep a collection of related links on my blog post here. A sample of the statement is here-
It strikes to me how the simplest words repeat in all the statements. This is partly due to, as Golan pointed out, their limitation on education. Partly, I think, because it’s the most honest statement flowed right out of their mind, with no rhetorical decoration.
My design try to strike a balance between reserving the repelling reading experience and showing the similarity shared among all those executed. I envisioned a canvas with words appearing at the rate of heart beat, and a bit kinetic effect to resemble heart beat and life, and time elapsing. Then the words gray out and scatter around the screen, disappearing a bit as the life did. With the font proportional to occurrence prequency, the piece immediately highlight the common words from all last statements at the first glance. If viewer stays with it, they could read the statement words by words, as if viewing the writing composing them. In this way new information are conveyed to viewer and the interaction can carry on for a longer period of time.
Although a number of compromises had to be made in the final piece, one detail comes out as a little surprise to me. The collection of the most common words seems to form a message that is almost the average of the statement themselves.
Image below: at a glance, you’ll read ” I love you all”,”god love you all”, “I love my family”, “thank you”… the very phrases that’ll stay in your head as you read the actual statement.
NEXT STEP
The discrete words popping don’t do a great job suggesting they’re actual readable sentences and lose the power of the raw statement. Giving them a smooth in and out and allow them to stay “in focus” for longer may be a quick fix to encourage actual reading.
Golan’s suggestion for life
“If you get a good idea, it’ll be ripped someday. Be ready. “
demonstrated in his blog post showcasing pairs of exotic new media art and current commercial version.
On getting connected in art world
Archives, lists and compilations of new media projects:
- Ars Electronica Archives + on Vimeo
- [DAM] Berlin Archives
- Fondation Langlois: Artists and Projects
- MediaArtTube on YouTube
- Netzwissenschaft List
- OpenFrameworks Gallery [+Vimeo]
- Processing Exhibition
- RunMe Archive
- SoundToys.net
- Stephen Wilson’s lists
- Ubu Web Archive
Significant new media blogs:
shader
http://www.openframeworks.cc/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=1871
sunflow rendering
http://sunflow.sourceforge.net/
game engine
hoberman
wire bending
with a machine!
zoom in at the bending head from anther machine
or manually with a bending jig!
I can fly
An experiment of generating organic kinetics using non-organic material, this piece uses Shape Memory Alloy to actuate wood and metal structures, which are laid out as insect collections.
Exhibited at Three River Arts Festival Gallery.
shadow
Larry Kagan
http://www.arts.rpi.edu/~kagan/gallery.html
KumiYamashita
shadow monster
kai linke
morph
http://www.kailinke.com/web/English/Morph/
out dated processing shadow rendering
http://www.cs.unm.edu/~cello/processing/shadows/shadows.pde
rendering shadow in solidworks?
http://help.solidworks.com/2010/English/SolidWorks/sldworks/Display/Lighting_Overview.htm
3D print
DIY laser cutter with a scanner
Henrik Menne makes machines that makes art
Additive 3D output
Subtractive 3D output
generating organic form
Visual Models of Morphogenesis (Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz et al.)
http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b-online/virtuallaboratory/TitlePage.html
Grow more plants with algorithm
shade
Until Dawn Curtain
made of Tyvek, covered in a floral-fauna pattern in lilac/white, red/white, or black/white, against a transparent background.
Tyvek is a durable, liquid-resistant material.
Garland Shade Light
Tord Boontje, 2003
This cascading floral shade reflects the Dutch designer’s admiration for the intricate, romantic aesthetic of 17th and 18th century objects. The delicately etched leaves and flowers are created using photographic process normally employed in the manufacture of electronic components. The shade, made of brass, secures to the base with a simple clip and may be expanded in size and form. Includes 15-foot cord with standard plug. 60-watt bulb not included.
Algue, Ronan Bouroullec
tree curtain
Tord Boontje & Artecnica’s Ivy Panels
laser cut from plated steel and coated in brass or silver.
Notice the detail in the four corners that connects to each other
Organic line
Brice Marden:Cold Mountain 6 （bridge) (SF MOMA, 1989-1991)
Ed Fella
Every thing was done by hand.. Hand tools and … coffee
Detroit: educate workers at nights (adult education)
automobile commercial
health brochure
illustration
bauhaus – art and commercial art are the same
abstract art
commercial – “We hack like mad!”
art – Art is an ethnocentric cultural construct that you don’t gott have
art deco
cd cover -play with irregularity
twist words
play with spacing for wording game
some graphical elements
[SOURCE]
art.yale.edu/132
http://channel.walkerart.org/play/ed-fella/
Type the Sky
2007
Lisa Rienermann
Brilliant discovery of letterforms in
the negative space between buildings.
It reveals information where
there is none.
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