generative design and embodied interaction
TRANSCRIPT
7/23/2019 Generative Design and Embodied Interaction
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Generative Design &
Embodied Interaction
// Lachlan Philipson
7/23/2019 Generative Design and Embodied Interaction
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Central Proposition
To explore how generative design methods allow
designers to create forms of digital communication
that adapt dynamically to their audience. My final
design solution takes the form of an interactive
installation made in collaboration with Harmony
Repia.
Motivation
This project was born out of personal fascination
with technology and more specifically computers
and digital media. Following my first semester of
investigation, I decided I wanted to relocate my
experiments from the purely virtual medium of the
screen and engage with users in a more embodied
form of interaction.
Embodied Interaction
Throughout the history of computer interfaces, we
have traditionally been forced to communicate to
machines with a machine language. The onerous
task of the translation required to communicate to
machines has always been laid on us, usually in the
form of pressing buttons or moving a mouse. With
the recent release of devices such as the Kinect
motion sensing camera, the Oculus Rift virtual
reality headset or the Leap Motion controller,
new forms of interaction are possible. This
trend (explored by a number of Massey student
projects) moves towards more human modes of
communication, such as hand gestures. All of
these technologies are beginning to move the
responsibility of translation between modes on the
machine. Paul Dourish broadly labelled this new
generation of systems as ‘embodied interaction’.
He defines this concept as a mode of interaction
with computer systems that “occupy our physical
and social reality, and exploit this fact in how they
interact with us” (2004).
Design Strategy
// Introduction &
Final output, a spatial interface ↓
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Generative Design
Throughout the year of inquiry I have studied
and implemented the generative design model
in my practice. This process can be described in
flow diagram above. The first stage requires the
designer to abstract an idea into a series of rules.
Once a set of human readable rules have been
written, these must translated into machine code.
A programming language offers three distinct
building blocks to implement this:
• Repetition - computers may work on a problem
repeatedly or manipulate a system over time
• Logic - used to create control structures (e.g.
“if ”, “else”, etc.) based on static or dynamic
variables. (E.g. integers, true or false values,
etc.).
• Randomness - can be used to create variation.
Either through true randomness or measured
doses such as the Perlin Noise algorithm.
Once an idea is translated into code it can be
interpreted by the computer and image or design
generated. Then the designer will evaluate
the output. Very rarely will the initial result be
satisfactory. Rather than manipulating the output
directly the designer returns to the rules or the
parameters of the underlying abstraction. With
each iteration of these stages the generative
system will be refined until it creates a final
product.
Abstraction Translate into
machine code
Modify rules
Modify code
Evaluate
Interpretation by
machine
Idea Rule Code Output
Designer
The generative design model ↑
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Experimentation
Openlab Logo Generator
One of my first research experiments manifested
itself as a collaboration with Thomas Le Bas,
a masters student working in Open Lab. The
Open Lab symbol, dubbed ‘the gear’, is meant
to be representative of the Lab’s dynamism and
adaptable approach to design thinking. With this
idea, we formulated a set of rules to determine
the generation of the permutations following
Bohnacker’s model:
• A series of four anchor points are placed at
random on 6 x 5 grid.
• No points may be on top of each other.
• Lines are generated connecting these points in
this order: yellow, pink, blue.
• The multiply blend mode is applied to these
lines creating the secondary colours: green, red,
navy and coal.
This project was extremely helpful for my research.
Firstly, when learning a new program it is so much
easier when you have a set goal. The blank canvas
of a text editor is extremely intimidating for new
programmer. To complete my own small program
from scratch felt incredibly empowering.
// Design Process
A small selection of the permutations→
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Generative Typeface
The alphabet presents a unique contradiction to
the quest for originality.
“Every designer who works with the conventional
forms of the alphabet is condemned to endless
repetition of those accepted forms.”
- Eye, no. 15 vol. 4, 1994
The generative script I wrote creates a web-like
typographic form that detaches itself from this
notion. Each letter form, although created by an
identical set of rules, is unique. Spidery, strings
connect letters across the chasm of white space
to form an ephemeral typeface that is only savedfrom being wiped from existence by a line of code
that exits a repeating loop.
Final typography ↓
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Drawing Machines
I have always valued the drawing process in
exploring a design idea. Sketching is a more
appropriate choice of words, as it describes a less
precise, more exploratory act (Glaser, 2001). Just
as a painter may construct elaborate drawings
before painting, a composer will work with a piano
before scoring and an architect will build models;
it is important to work with related materials to
approximate a finished product (Reas, Fry, 2014).
With this reasoning, to sketch digital media it isimportant to work with digital materials, in this
case a programming language.
A three dimensional
landscape generated
in real time through
the movements of the
mouse and randomised
with the Perlin noise
function in Processing.
←
Circles that follow
the path of the user’s
mouse and slowly
warp over time due to
the velocity of their
movements.
←
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A generative drawing
machine written
in JavaScript that
captures the path
of kinematic, multi-
segmented arm. I
would like to build
this machine with an
Arduino.→
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Collaboration
This project was only possible with the coming
together of two very specific skill sets that work
hand in hand technically and conceptually. This
was the convergence of Harmony’s conceptual
thinking in her research concerning the
storytelling of Māori wāhine in World War One
and my exploration into generative design and
embodied interaction. We identified that our
practises and research over the course of the year
both paralleled and extended each others body of
work.
Space
The Kinect sensor gives access to the unseen
spectrum of infrared light. This technology allows
a blurring of the boundaries between the physical
and non physical. Integral to a Māori framework
is the reality of these two realms Te Ao Kikkiko
(realm of the physical) and Te Ao Wairua (realm
of the spiritual) as inherently interconnected. This
is key to indigenous thinking and is constantly
reiterated on different levels through the
narratives - particularly the cosmological narrative
of Ranginui and Papatuanuku.
The spatial interface constructs an experience
that exists beyond the surface of the screen. It
recognises the tangible and intangible spaces
of Te Ao Kikokiko and Te Ao Wairua. By using
embodied interaction the interface facilitates
the audience to navigate beyond the realm of
the physical and be touched by the non physicalwairua of our ancestors.
Roles and Performance
By situating our final interactive piece in a gallery
space we are questioning the established roles of
authorship and audience. The installation moves
dynamically between a series of strategically
considered ‘states’ depending on the proximity
and attitudes of the audience. Berys Grant (2010)
states the audience assume a role of “performance”
in relation to the context of interactive art; as a
result, they “partially determine is instances and
features”. Within this definition, the audience’s
performance is an integral component of the
aesthetic effect.
Spatial Interface
// Final Output
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User testing
We identified ‘interactive discovery’ as key feature
of the installation. Under no circumstance do we
want to have to explain how the system works to
the user. The system should reveal itself to the
user through the interaction model itself. This
process was accelerated once we implemented
Stuart Forster’s concept of the ‘digital shadow’; a
digital representation of the viewer in screen space.
Following extensive user testing, we determined
there is a position in the spectrum of abstraction of
this representation. Given too literal imagery, e.g. a
video feed of themselves, the user would feel too
self-conscious and not engage with the installation.
However, if their image was too abstracted they
wouldn’t identify their role in the work.
Other important findings in the user testing
included the range of behaviours demonstrated
across the age of the testers. Younger people,
especially children quickly discovered the limits
of the system, and then attempted to ‘break’ it by
contorting their body or confuse the sensor by
standing behind other people. Others, typically
older testers, where much more cautious, and did
not want to move more than their arms.
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Learning Outcomes
Skills
This project has provided a unique opportunity
to both expand my design skill set and explore
new design concepts. From a practical stand
point, I have achieved my goal of learning how
to code. Although I will continue to learn and
improve, I now feel confident that I can quickly
prototype new ideas and solve programming
problems. Learning how to programme has been
a tremendously liberating experience and is truly
a completely new way for me to conceptualise a
design problem. This skill will be invaluable to me
moving into an industry increasingly perpetuated
through software innovation.
“What code offers us is the potentials of a newmedium: it can automate processes, model
abstractions, and design interactions. And I
would say its defining characteristic is the
immediacy, which lets us quickly iterate
variations of a single concept and evaluate them
in visible ways. Code is a luxury that artists
didn’t have throughout history.”
- William Ngan, 2015
Challenges
But one drawback of code is its immediacy; its a
potential confusion of cause and effect: that by
tweaking some parameters of a function, one can
generate a whole new set of dazzling effects, and
much of the original thought can be lost.
Like language, code channels our thoughts as wellas conditions our thinking. Weak thoughts get
carried away by stronger currents, but stronger
ideas can persist and are perfected through
iterations. We may discover these stronger ideas
not by playing with parameters, but by looking
outside code. By collaborating with Harmony I had
to the opportunity to contextualise my process
and not be distracted by its method of creation.
Conclusion
This unique collaboration has created the potential
to explore emerging technologies which has
resulted in the final design output of a spatial
interface that facilitates an embodied experience
through an interactive mode of indigenous
storytelling.
// Critical Response
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// Lachie Philipson, 12072422, 2015, lachie2015.tumblr.com