Final Images for 'Mind Storm'

Images from my final application 'Mind Storm'. The full application can be found on my open processing page here.

Artists Statement

I really liked the idea that when you aren't thinking there is nothing happening, it is blank, which I represented using a straight line. I wanted to use a user interaction to show what happens when someone thinks because in your head nerves go crazy and in an image form this looks really awesome.

The interaction I originally had was when the user pressed the mouse button, I chose this as it was representative of when the user started to think about the application and then the line turned would turn into these pathways. They were controlled but random as seen in the images of the lightning, plasma balls and especially brain images. They are controlled in the way that they are only allowed in a particular direction but random in the way that they get to their destination.

I decided to go with using the distance function to create this chaotic active state as I decided to have the passive state mildly active also. In this I mean that it floats around the application of its own accord rotating in a particular way. I did this as the more I thought about how people think I realized that no one is ever not thinking. I also found that using the rotating circle looked better from a visual perspective and it also tied in nicely to having the user thinking as they went. When the mouse comes in contact with the rotating passive line it turns into the active electric state. I found this to be representative also of what the user is thinking. When the user is shown the active state it means they have actively sought out this reaction from the application.

The sound I chose for the application makes the interaction a more exciting experience for the user. I chose a quiet woosh noise with a hint of electric capabilities for the mildly active mode

Therefore I created an application that is passive as the user is passive but keeps them entertained through mild active movements which then turn into complete active movements when the user is being active through the application. This is allowing the user and application to interact and react with each other.

Development + Final Song Selection

I decided to use Electric Wooshes by Glaneur de Sons (http://www.freesound.org/people/Glaneur%20de%20sons/sounds/34172/) and Electrocute by Aust_Paul (http://www.freesound.org/people/aust_paul/sounds/30933/ ) in my final one, this was because the woosh sound had a slow and lazy feel to it which was good for the passive mode however it has a small electrical crackle at the end which hints at the potential for the large active mode. In the active mode the electric garring of the second sound was particularly appealing as it was fast and crazy just like the application in this state. I also played with different speeds of rotation, direction, stroke width for both active and passive.

Colours

To select my colours I used a compination of Kuler and the Colour selector in Processing. I liked blues so I looked at those colours

Sounds

Since the application was very close to electricity and lightning I wanted the sounds to reflect this. Similarly with the active and passive modes of the application. I decided I would use two sounds, one for each stage a passive quieter noise hinting at a bigger thing and a louder crazy electric noise for the active stage. I looked at freesound.org a website which users use creative commons licensing on their work.

These were the sounds that I liked and investigated on my project:

http://www.freesound.org/people/aust_paul/sounds/30933/

http://www.freesound.org/people/Deusi/sounds/128740/

http://www.freesound.org/people/LG/sounds/20223/

http://www.freesound.org/people/Glaneur%20de%20sons/sounds/34172/

http://www.freesound.org/people/pushtobreak/sounds/16796/

I looked up tags like Electricity, Electric, Ambient, Water and Wind. I heard lots of sounds but the above sounds were the ones I considered for my application.

New Mouse

Since the lightning interaction was now moving of its own accord I now needed to reintroduce the mouse. The new plan was to take away the click function and use the distance function. The user would have control of the mouse and their would be something to represent the current point of mouse of the screen (not the cursor). If this came into contact with the rotating line then the interaction would take place. I thought this was good progression from just a standard click. The idea of the brain being active and passive is still there however these is a new way of showing it. The user has to become active in order to pursue the rotating line or they can be passive until the line reaches them. This is similar to thoughts, you can be extremely active in them or you can be passive until you have a brainwave. I liked how this turned out.

Directions

After another session talking with my peers and my tutor it became apparent that having the main part of the application move around the page of its own accord would be a cooler action to take place. I learnt how to make this happen which was good for developing my skill set. I also liked the way this looked on the page. However I removed the style from the previous one in order to enable the user and myself to both see the images more clearly.

Spinning and Style

To make the interaction more intersting and after conculting with my tutor I decided to have the line rotating. I had never used rotate and transform functions before so they were good to learn. I also played with the style of the application making it look cobwebby by not calling a new background and making the lines thin and transparent. The effect looks really amazing, very artistic and the reaction/lightning when the mouse is clicked is very effective in this style.

The lines

I added a line to the image and introduced a mouse pressed function. When the mouse is pressed the image just shows a line. However when it is pressed we start to see the beezier curves. For some reason they all went straight up and looked interesting but was not what I wanted. So my next step will be to make the curves more around the line and more random.

The storm

The first thing I decided to do was code the lightning reaction. I decided to use random points using variables and beezier curves as they look really interesting and can be unpredictable but controlled just like lightning. I really liked the effect this created and decided that my next step would be to add a line and an interaction.

What I'm going to do

After viewing some images and thinking about my concept designs I decided on a completely new idea.

I really liked the idea that when you arent thinking there is nothing happening, it is blank, which I decided I wanted to represent using a straight line. I wanted to use a user interaction to show what happens when someone thinks because in your head nerves go crazy and in an image form this looks really awesome. The interaction im going to use is having the line turn into a bunch of lines that look a lot like lightening.

Plan

THE PLAN IMAGE GOES HERE

Nerves

After looking at lightning for so long I started wondering what else in the natural world created patterns and effects like the ones seen with the lightning and plasma. I have many friends doing biology who told me about stem cells particularly in the brain and how their connections can form interesting patterns also.

Precedent Images

After looking at a couple of interactive applications on open processing I decided that I should look up images that I wanted to see in my application. I really liked the idea of lightening or doing some sort of plasma ball. I looked these up and found some really interesting images. I wanted to keep these images as close aesthetically to the design of the application so that it had a natural and exciting look to it.