Original Proposal

This blog is here to document the process of creating my final project for I-310 Multimedia Arts & Technology, during which we were taught to use Processing 2.0.

My original proposal was as follows:

"The concept is similar to a database narrative. It will generate a constantly changing combination of interactions. Characters, built from random components, will move into the screen at varying speeds and approach each other with a neutral expression. At a set distance they will stop to interact, each adopting a random expression and speaking or thinking (shown through the type of bubble over their head) a randomly chosen phrase.

The user will have some ability to bring more characters onto the screen or advance the dialogue using coded keys on either side of the keyboard. Each change in phrase will also trigger a change in facial expression. Alternatively, if the user doesn’t intercede the characters will move past each other and leave the screen, and a new pair will enter."

The proposed database included:

• 10 different faces, each with a number of different possible facial expression

• 3 lists of 100 phrases:  questions, answers, shouts, replies, non-sequiturs… but all surrounding themes of philosophy and existence.

I provided the following images, citing some inspirations for the aesthetic as well as some very, very rough sketches of what the project might look like:

- Quotation from Shakespeare alluding to the underlying principle.

 

- Two stills from a video by musical group They Might Be Giants, which were to inspire the visual representations on the screen.

 - A rough diagram showing basic placement of elements and flow in the project.

 - A quick mock-up of what the final project might look like.