Oranse

Ghost of light

2010-08-06T06:55:17Z

Alternate symbols

2010-08-05T21:29:45Z

Inspired by the article Realism in interface design [via], I started to contemplate on our symbols we are very familiar with, but rarely are aware of their origins. Of course, they are obvious origins, otherwise they wouldn’t have established such a firm root in our culture(s).
And in my normal manner, I started to question them.

Take for example, the arrow, →. A line and a triangle, signifying movement by pointing a direction, quite often two-dimensionally, by assuming a start point and a destination. The origin is quite simple; you take a long straight twig, sharpen its one end, apply acceleration, it goes in the direction you point it at, it kills an animal, you get food. The tool has been such a milestone in man’s development that it then formed the current symbol for movement.
Now imagine a culture, or a species, which hasn’t developed in such a manner. How would they signify movement?

What I came up with, is quite simple and, I hope, unambiguous.
I assumed the species in question has stereoscopic sight, so that it at least has a concept for perspective. With perspective, moving objects may appear larger or smaller, depending on its distance to the viewer. I also assume that the culture’s (or a creature of it) default grasp of movement is from left -> right. It could be just as well left < – right, I just picked this for the sake of familiarity. I also assume the creatures are moving largely horizontally (on the ground), so it can’t be up-down.

Further points;

the focal point is “me“, the observer
the system is only two-colored; a simple tool can create a filled or an empty figure
“me” is black/filled, because it’s heavier, has more contrast, etc. so it’s higher in hierarchy.

The basic structure is a signifier of movement, if one would imagine the smaller circle to be approaching the viewer, by two frames of the motion. The circle doubles itself in size, and their distance is parallel with tangets of a 30° inclination.
These numbers have no larger meaning, I only found this to be symmetrical and harmonic. Although, isometric projection is often displayed as a 30° inclination to the horizon, as in many games, so it has an easy connection with perspective.

I also thought about our + and – -symbols. Obviously + has two lines, so it’s more, and – is less. But less than what?
Therefore, the spherical symbols could also substitute these. The black circle is again the basic component, and adding a smaller circle on top you naturally add. Here I assume the culture has gravity, so by adding simple objects to a whole, you stack them on top of each other. The less-symbol is inverted because of aesthetic and semantic reasons; they are easier to discern them from each other, and less is the opposite of more.

Lastly, I came up with entry- and exit-symbols, which have the same visual and semantic structure as the above.

These symbols were also heavily influenced by an awesome webcomic named Rice Boy.

Emergent movies

2010-07-07T19:39:32Z

In a very odd and strange dream I saw last night, I came upon a thought inside the dream of a movie, that would have a “dynamic” plot. In other words, the plot of the movie would change every time you watch it. We could potentially possess the technology for accomplishing this.
Then I started searching for similar content, because this would hardly be such a unique thougth.

Turns out, there isn’t such a great deal of information of this.
Of course, what this needs is
1) a powerful AI to decide when to change plot, to what, in every plot turn.
2) Either a) a great deal of pre-produced content to replay at will, or b) a very powerful AI (or several) to produce the content as the movie runs.

I’m not thinking about interactive movies, what I’m looking for is more like procedural or emergent.
Everything starts with computer games, and what is called non-linear gameplay, where the player has eg. geographical or narrational freedom (like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, The Fallout series or Assassin’s Creed)

A new milestone in emergent narrative is the game Left 4 Dead and its AI Director, which changes the gameplay in a way that suites the current state in the game (changing the difficulty, amount of ammo, supplies etc).

Something other I stumbled upon in this search was a Markov chain. From Wikipedia: [A Markov chain is a sequence of random variables X1, X2, X3, ... with the Markov property, namely that, given the present state, the future and past states are independent.] [A Markov process, named after the Russian mathematician Andrey Markov, is a mathematical model for the random evolution of a memoryless system, that is, one for which the likelihood of a given future state, at any given moment, depends only on its present state, and not on any past states.]

In essence, the movie at point T1 (time) will have a plot turn to A1, excluding the other alternatives, which can affect the ending. At a further key point, the plot will change at T2 to A2, and thus excluding further developments that are dependent on A1.
I’m a visual person, so I drew a small figure to understand this.

Here is naturally only one possible beginning and seven different endings, depending on how the plot advances.

The technical limitations are beginning to diminish, because an emergent movie needs a lot of filmed material, a point which is kinda moot, given the thought how many hours of footage the clients do not see. I guess it wouldn’t be that hard to film multiple variations of the same scene.
And if it wouldn’t be accomplished with live-action actors, computer animation nowadays is very powerful (if Disney/Pixar wouldn’t use it as a money-printing device with the same dull one-liners and the same goddam fish).
I a sense, animation would make a more powerful impact, with much more possibilites than pre-recorded footage. Key points would be truly random.
The only limitation is naturally the narrational AI running everything, and there’s not coming anything out, maybe in a decade.

Still, a fascinating idea. Imagine a horror movie which surprises you at every time. Or what will happen when the bad guys do actually win.

[This is not a wallpaper meme]

2010-07-08T06:17:31Z

Participating to a Livejournal wallpaper meme with my previous wallpapers, as far back as I can remember, chronologically backwards.
(free for taking, I’m feeling generous)

[personal photo]

[Can't remember, google 'earth orbit' etc.]

[Carina Nebula and the dying star Eta Carinae]

[In the shadow of Saturn]
Notice the dot near the main rings on the upper left side. That’s Earth.

[Saturn in blue and gold]

[Middelgrunden, source gone]

[Range Murata: RE:Futurhythm]

[Trigun Maximum 1 p.100]

Necrochemistry

2010-06-28T10:24:32Z

My new lamp <3

Shaken and disturbed

2010-06-28T10:26:17Z

This time I’ll repost some old photos I’ve been meaning to show for years.

These were shot in my hometown, Sotunki, in the woods of eastern Vantaa. I was walking home from the bus at 1 am, four days after new years eve. I noticed the horses beside the nearby farm, and they looked a bit creepy when they just stared at me. There was very little light, the moon was just a crescent. I then tried to take deliberately shaky, grainy and creepy pictures as I walked through the village.

The China Effect: Part 2

2010-06-28T10:27:02Z

Continuing on the second part of my creative journal from my trip beyond The Great Firewall of China,
I came to notice on several occasions on our cartrips that the locals have built beautiful stonewalls.
I guess they use water-grinded stones of similar size, support them with temporary walls and pour the mortar in, like this:

The result looks organic, resembling bubbles or a beehive.

That inspired me to look more into different types of bubbles, here are a few works:

The China Effect: Part 1

2010-07-18T08:16:26Z

Sorry about being lazy about the updates.
I’m trying to tighten the leash a bit, and going to update every sunday with something.
Could be new designs or old photos or just some rants.
These days I don’t finish almost anything, so I’ll be posting more sketches and unfinished works.

This time I’ll post some pictures I came up with on my trip to China last month. In the abstinence of a decent computer, Illustrator and a Wacom I had to trust the old-fashioned analogue techniques. The detachment from my social life, home, country, and even culture, made my mind race. I had to filter every alien stimulus that attacked all my senses at any given time in that country – no, continent – and to detach my mind from that mess, and I learned it simply by drawing.
Creativity also made my mind find new neural pathways to handle old problems which had been haunting me.

Actually, it wasn’t until Beijing, our last destination, that I started drawing. Until that, I just had to swallow all the alien things and experiences in that strange country. I started drawing a streetplan, which I will tell about later.

In our first hostel in Beijing, there were no colors in the double faucets, just white caps with chinese pictograms, so I had to test which was hot or cold. That made me wonder which could be the most simple and universal ideogram for hot and cold.
Well, everyone has seen the Sun, and everyone know that’s hot.
So then cold. An icecube isn’t really an ideogram, so you have to get more simple. Like a snowflake.
I thought about making the symbols as simple as I could, and in the end I came up with these.

So I guess all it takes to make a reference to temperatures is a ball or a hexagon with radiating lines. One can always argue, will certain cultures understand what a snowflake is, but I guess they won’t have a concept for coldness anyway.

Caffeine

2010-06-28T10:31:34Z

Worshiping my favourite drug.

Adsads 2

2010-06-28T16:51:04Z

I think I’ll continue with this series. There are so many logos to analyze, so many ads to insult.
This time I want to admire OP‘s (Osuuspankki) new ads’ simplicity and play on words.

[rauhoitu, rauhoittaa]
To calm down

[rahoitu, rahoittaa]
To finance

The other sentences are Need for money? and It’ll get fixed/be allright.
Source: [1]