Category: 2024

Group Design Exercise

Group: Hubert, Darko, Mariam

“Why” Questions:

Why are we digging?

To create tunnels for trains.

Why are we creating tunnels for trains?

It shortens route length, allows trains to pass through natural obstacles like mountains, and provides a means of crossing busy street areas without damaging or interfering with neighborhoods.

Why are street areas so busy?

Street areas are busy because they are hubs for transportation, shopping, dining, and socializing, attracting high foot and vehicle traffic.

Why do people flock to hubs for transportation, shopping, dining, and socializing?

People flock to these hubs for convenience, access to a variety of services and goods, and opportunities for social interaction.

Why do people seek convenience and variety in services and goods?

People seek convenience and variety to save time, meet diverse needs, and enhance their quality of life.

Why is saving time important to people?

Saving time is important because it allows people to focus on other activities they value, such as hobbies, family time, or relaxation.

My Creation: Poem

The Essence of Time

Seconds tick, minutes fly, Time’s a fleeting treasure we can’t deny. In this fast-paced world, we race against the clock, Seeking moments to savor, not just tick-tock.

Saving time, a precious art, Allows us to live with a fuller heart. Embracing hobbies that bring us joy, Cherishing loved ones, without alloy.

Moments of respite, a well-earned pause, Rejuvenate our souls, remind us of life’s cause. For in the midst of chaos, we often forget, The essence of time, a gift we must abet.

So let us value each moment sublime, Crafting our days with purpose and rhyme. Saving time, a wisdom to heed, Unlocking life’s riches, our souls’ true need.

Thoughts on   Merche Blasco

I find Merche Blasco’s sound super interesting. I really love the stories behind her music and how she involves people in her work.. Her music has a unique vibe that stands out, and the storytelling adds so much depth. The way she makes her work interactive is really cool, and she’s always pushing boundaries with creative ideas. Her live performances are really engaging and create a strong sense of community. You can feel her passion in every piece she creates, and she’s making a big impact on the music scene.

I found the combination of music and technology in her work very interesting to me. A lot of the sounds she was making using the instruments she built sounded like sound tracks from a fantasy/ sci-fi movie. All the artists so far have explained that during their performances, they are in a flow state and don’t consciously think of their improvisation, so it seems that being in a flow state is an important part of the creative process. I also find it inspiring how she switched to a career that she hadn’t had much experience with, and used her engineering background to do something creative in the field that is unique to her skills.

Idea:

As a group we chose overpopulation as the focus of our projects. So I created a sound collage representing an overpopulation of music, sounds and nature sounds. Each sound is competing for space to be heard over the other sounds. 

Implementation: 

Audios from “freesound.org” were placed together on audacity. The sounds were shifted to start at different times, and the amplitude was adjusted so that the same sounds would be louder at some times more than others, because these sounds aren’t playing constantly all at once. The music fades out towards the end, so the end is less abrupt.

Sources:

All sounds were from https://freesound.org/ :

1. rmr morphagene reels – harps_02 by jjbbllkk — https://freesound.org/s/530726/ — License: Creative Commons 0

2. Piano loops 155 octave up long loop 120 bpm by josefpres — https://freesound.org/s/736740/ — License: Creative Commons 0
3. Piano loops 156 octave long loop 120 bpm by josefpres — https://freesound.org/s/735942/ — License: Creative Commons 0
4. Brush by dmsoler — https://freesound.org/s/737582/ — License: Creative Commons 0
5. Rocks Thrown in Water by Kraftaggregat — https://freesound.org/s/737644/ — License: Creative Commons 0
6. mechanical keyboard by multijoy — https://freesound.org/s/737641/ — License: Attribution 4.0
7. Istanbulskoe Metro by himura.kazuto — https://freesound.org/s/737673/ — License: Creative Commons 0
8. Busy cafeteria environment in university at noon – Ambient by lastraindrop — https://freesound.org/s/736730/ — License: Creative Commons 0
9. lanterna.aif by thanos — https://freesound.org/s/27402/ — License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
10. ESE – WHOOSH – EPIC – Level Up.wav by EpicSoundEffects — https://freesound.org/s/475889/ — License: Creative Commons 0
11. Bass Guitar – Single G#/A♭ Note by SirBagel — https://freesound.org/s/736935/ — License: Creative Commons 0
12. 102 BPM Industrial Drum Loop #446 (WAV) by looplicator — https://freesound.org/s/737435/ — License: Attribution 4.0
13. Guitar Loop FMaj 115 Bpm by DaveJf — https://freesound.org/s/736983/ — License: Creative Commons 0
14. hiphop beat_100bpm by timouse — https://freesound.org/s/736713/ — License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
15. large meadow with nature sounds and nearby city background noises by Garuda1982 — https://freesound.org/s/737002/ — License: Attribution 4.0
16. Rural soundscape snippet – 2024 05 24 Bouriège by Sadiquecat — https://freesound.org/s/737197/ — License: Creative Commons 0
17. wind2.wav by eliasheuninck — https://freesound.org/s/29531/ — License: Creative Commons 0
18. AMBLake_Waves Lapping The Shore.River City Reservoir Pond.Very Close 2_EM by newlocknew — https://freesound.org/s/736967/ — License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0
19. raining by ksjin72 — https://freesound.org/s/737584/ — License: Creative Commons 0

Final Results:

Our why questions took us to the idea of incompleteness. I was particularly interested in the concept ‘A complete idea but you remove something from it’ and I was motivated to create a visual representation of this concept. I came up with the idea of a pizza with one slice removed. 

From this image, we can see that even though the pizza is almost whole, the absence of just one piece draws the eye and changes our perception of the entire pizza. This visual can show how the lack of a single element can have a significant impact on the overall completeness and can lead the observer to ponder what was once there.

After our series of why questions, our final question and answer pair was “Why is saving time important to people?” and “Saving time is important because it allows people to focus on other activities they value, such as hobbies, family time, or relaxation.”

The takeaway for me here was saving time and “family time”, so I decided to make a maze! What gave me the idea was when I got on the U6 metro to go get some dinner last night. I don’t usually take the U6 to Stadtmitte because it’s a short walk but I was feeling pretty unenergetic at the moment so I decided to give it a go. The next metro was gonna take 5 minutes, the same time I probably could use to just walk there. This gave me the idea to make a game based on saving time that has to do with the metro.

The narrative is you’re coming back from work to get back to your family. The less time you spend commuting on the metro, the more time you get to spend with your family! 

When I designed the maze, I felt like it would be too simple if it was a simple point A to Point B, so I decided to add a house key you have to collect before you reach the door. I realize this doesn’t quite make sense because your family could just open the door for you but let’s say you’re a responsible family member who wants to make sure to retrieve the house key from presumably another place you frequent.

You’re only allowed to switch lines where there are highlighted sections underneath. If you play by the rules, it should be a little more challenging than what you typically find on a kid’s menu at a restaurant.

This is the picture of our tunnel machine

These are our why questions

Why do we need to dig a tunnel

Because I want to

Why do you want to dig a tunnel

Because I’m bored

Why are you bored

Because I’ve got nothing to do

Why do you have nothing to do

Because i have no friends

Why do you have no friends

Because I spent all of my time building this machine

Why do you build this machine

Because I want to dig a tunnel

Why do you want to dig a tunnel

Because I’m bored

Now there’s a loop

The ideas that our group came up with that we could create include

1. Outline of game
2. A space station
3. A song
4. A light show

I decide to create an outline of a game.

The game I design is 2d. The player would be driving the tunnel digger. He/she will be firstly placed inside the tunnel digger, with wasd controlling the character’s movement. The tunnel digger is made up of two parts. The control room and the energy room. The character shall drive the digger in the control room and eat and fuel the machine at the energy room. It’s a never ending game because the character will be stuck in the loop forever, and the character will die when there’s no food left in the energy room. Therefore, it’s a matter of how long the character can survive.

Upon entering the control room (pressing tab when close enough), the wasd will be used to control the digger. Press j to use laser to cut and k to absorb the debris and convert them to energy. This energy can be served both for the machine and the player. There will be some underground monsters that obstruct the player. But they contain more energy since they are moving creatures. Getting hit by the monster decreases HP of the machine, and this is irreversible (player can never fix the machine). Game also ends when the machine has 0 HP. When the character is hungry or when the machine is low in MP, the character needs to go to the energy room and eat/fuel. The machine is extremely vulnerable at this point. The nature of the game dictates that it’s very likely that the digger will be back at the place where it started from, thus the player will be stucked in this loop forever.

Group Design Exercise

Group: Hubert, Darko, Mariam

Step 1: Design a Tunnel Digger

Step 2: Start Asking “Why?”

Step 3: Turn the Ideas Generated in Step 2 into Something

“Why” Questions

Why are we digging?

To create tunnels for trains.

Why are we creating tunnels for trains?

It shortens route length, allows trains to pass through natural obstacles like mountains, and provides a means of crossing busy street areas without damaging or interfering with neighborhoods.

Why are street areas so busy?

Street areas are busy because they are hubs for transportation, shopping, dining, and socializing, attracting high foot and vehicle traffic.

Why do people flock to hubs for transportation, shopping, dining, and socializing?

People flock to these hubs for convenience, access to a variety of services and goods, and opportunities for social interaction.

Why do people seek convenience and variety in services and goods?

People seek convenience and variety to save time, meet diverse needs, and enhance their quality of life.

Why is saving time important to people?

Saving time is important because it allows people to focus on other activities they value, such as hobbies, family time, or relaxation.

Having selected the last answer of the Why questions, I came up with a soundscape which represents the time of life. Everything starts slow and then bang all of a sudden the clock starts ticking quicker and quicker, the sounds of traffic and cars passing by quickly and in the end the siren of the ambulance representing death.

After making my work I decided to check up on my other team members to see what they came up with. Meriam came up with a poem and Hubert came up with a maze game. Bingo! We all had the same thing in mind, a maze game with a soundtrack of Mariam’s poem and Darko’s soundtrack for the sound effects. We quickly got down to work and sketched out this piece:

Draft 1 (Hubert’s Game)

Draft 2:

Final Piece:

The gift/key represents Mariam’s poem referring to the fifth of time. The lines represent the maze and the audio changing, as well as the alarm and ambulance representing Darko’s audio. All together is tied back to the poem representing how time on this earth is limited.

After some ‘why’ journeying, our group landed on the concept of incompleteness. To tackle this, we came up with a list of possible incomplete things to make:

1. We cannot fully build a model

2. There’s a game that doesn’t end
3. Cooking without the necessary ingredients
4. A comic that is not fully drawn
5. A story that doesn’t have an ending
6. Half a picture
7. A family where the dad is missing
8. An apartment with no furniture 9. Having one good quality but not the other, e.g. a genius who is shy
9. Berlin without the graffiti
10. A complete idea but you remove something from it

I decided to go with 6. My own interpretation of this is that an incomplete picture (half picture) has to have a clear idea of completeness (i.e., it is missing something concrete). So I experimented with various ways of obscuring scenery.

Drawing over the main object

randomly drawing over half the picture

using window blinds to block

using wall to block

using thumb to block

tree blocking my selfie

I like how she focused quite a bit on the technical aspects of her instruments since her background is in engineering (the materials, the shapes, how it is made). It’s also fantastic to see the community aspect of her work, especially with regards to her hometown. It gives her art some very powerful purpose.