Ben Yee @ ITP – Page 2 – Unifying art and technology

Hapless Fame

Post author By Ben
Post date March 14, 2009

Here’s my first go with After Effects. Fiona D. and I decided to craft a simple story with a twist. It’s partially based on Fiona’s obsession with Gossip Girls (a tv sitcom?) but also a creation from our tired minds…heh. At first, we planned to hand-draw the sets and figures themselves, but ended up using Photoshop to modify magazine cutouts and web images instead. Fiona has posted some here. Also, we gathered sounds from free online sites and recorded several of our peers’ voices here on the ITP floor. Our process was pretty fluid overall, and given the time constraint, we felt more or less satisfied with our result too. Have a look below.

Thesis

Left, right, backward… forward??

Post author By Ben
Post date March 6, 2009

YES, forward! Eleven days ago, I had an “a-ha” moment. I decided to shift gears, create some new boundaries, and start a fresh thesis project…around sneakers. Smile.

STATEMENT
I’m interested in exploring the intersection between people, technology, and sneakers. I believe sneakers are culturally valuable objects with diverse stories and perspectives to share. Perhaps technology could enhance their expressive capabilities.

PLAN
February 2 – 9, Conceptualize
February 9 – 16, “Quality of life game” Research
February 16 – 22, Design
February 23 – 28, Restart, Conceptualize
March 1 – 8, “Sneakers” Research
March 9 – 22, Design, Prototype
March 23 – 31, User Test, Write
April 1 – 12, Refine, Write, Draft Presentation
April 13 – 27, Paper, Class Presentation
May, Final Presentation

INITIAL REFERENCE

projects.

Nike+
Neki ++
Kromicks
The Aphrodite Project
ClickSneaks
Perform-o-shoes
F.A.T.S.
Heely’s Hack

readings.

Sneakers. Over 300 Classics From Rare Vintage to the Latest Designs. Neal Heard.
The Sneaker Book: Anatomy of an Industry & an Icon. Tom Vanderbilt.
Custom Kicks: Personalized Footwear. Maki.
Where’d You Get Those? New York City’s Sneaker Culture: 1960-1987. Bobbito Garcia.
Design Noir: The Secret Life of Electronic Objects. Anthony Dunne, Fiona Raby.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
“The Sound of Summer Running.” Ray Bradbury.

humans alphabetically.
Alex Abreu, Ameya Mhatre, April Yee, Che-Wei Wang, Dan O’Sullivan, Hatti Lim, Jonathan Swerdloff, Kacie Kinzer, Kate Hartman, Kevin Slavin, Kristin O’Friel, Marlen Bernardez, Meng Li, Mike Dory, Nate Turner, Rodrigo de Benito, Syed Salahuddin, Taylor Levy, Theresa Ling, Vikram Tank

blogs.

sneakerfreaker.com
freshnessmag.com
hypebeast.com
highsnobiety.com

CraftingWithData Miscellaneous

Word

Post author By Ben
Post date March 1, 2009

The past couple weeks have been busy in a great way. My thesis topic has changed direction significantly, I may be starting a new internship in the next days, and my projects page finally got some needed attention, though it could use plenty more.

The main reason for writing now (other than time-stamping life again) is to direct attention to this manifesto by Eric Paulos, I came across today. Nice!

MethodsOfMotion

After Effects Animation Prep

Post author By Ben
Post date February 25, 2009

Miscellaneous Thesis

Post author By Ben
Post date February 20, 2009

I’ve been struggling to find a problem that feels right to address with my thesis project. My initial thesis ideas were unique in some ways, but here are a three reasons I’m back at the drawing board:

1. thatgamecompany.com
2. delicious-monster.com
3. geni.com

Smile capturing is a new idea that might have some traction, but then again, maybe not. In the meantime, below is a partial list of people / topics I’ve been investigating:

Linda Stone – continuous partial attention
Merlin Mann – getting things done
Martin Seligman – positive psychology
Zoran Josipovic – nonduality
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – flow theory for optimal experience
Jenova Chen – flow in games
Johan Huizinga – homo ludens
Nathan Eagle – reality mining
Joseph Beuys – fluxus movement
Guy Ernest Debord – situationists + spectacle
Zak Miller – feel good day
Jane McGonigal – arg’s for social good

—

On another note, I installed and played Crayon Physics for the first time today. I also attended a talk by Joshua Spodek about Submedia World. Both were pretty satisfying. Thanks, Syed. Thanks, ITP.

MethodsOfMotion

Wikki Wibble Wobble

Post author By Ben
Post date February 20, 2009

Here’s a claymation video that Karla C. and I produced over the last two weeks. The patience needed for working with armature wire and clay was serious, and the post-production editing was not a game. However, I think we learned and enjoyed ourselves plenty. We aimed to include a lot of playful energy, color, and motion, so what we came out with was a pretty fun and abstract result, which is cool. But I think future versions would offer more of a story and develop character personalities / individual movements a bit more. Enjoy!

MethodsOfMotion

Morning Kickz Off v2

Post author By Ben
Post date February 9, 2009

I added a layer of polish to this animation, so it isn’t too bad now, but it needs speakers that produce good bass for the right effect.

Thesis

Birth of concept…phew

I’ve realized that my wide-ranging, preliminary ideas including a flow driven game, a home inventory system, and a social networking site, were fundamentally ways to improve people’s quality of life. In the sense that these ideas would theoretically help people out, one could see them as remedies. If these would be remedies, what would be the singular disease? Life itself? Is life that terrible that I/we need remedies? Sometimes. But who am I to isolate specific challenges and “prescribe medicine” for others? I could identify areas in my own life to address, but I don’t want this project to be about me and my problems. So what? Well, as a human being, I know that a balanced, healthy existence is seriously complicated, but one simple truth is that it must include some good stuff.

By going through more internal and external discussions, my difficulty of having too many broad ideas has become partially solved by focusing on a more specific, ultimate goal: creating happiness (perhaps defined as “feeling good”) through flow (the psychology of optimal experience). In other words, I want to enhance one’s immediate feelings through satisfying personal-awareness and adrenalin-inducing social interactions using various methods (i.e. technologies, behaviors, events, competitions, products). Thanks, thesis support network!

My next steps:
– contact the Feel Good Day folks (Thanks, Taylor!)
– identify several additional experiments around Mihaly Csikszentmihaly’s Theory (flow), and study them.
– flesh out a detailed list of methods for cultivating “flowareness” and spreading its effects

MethodsOfMotion

Morning Kickz Off v1

Post author By Ben
Post date February 4, 2009

This is an initial-low-res version of a pixillation project that I’m working to complete in the next week. From the beginning, I knew I wanted to use at least part of my sneaker collection but wasn’t exactly sure how, so I spent a couple hours looking at examples, reading, and scribbling down possibilities; this did not allow me to generate even one satisfying idea, so I decided to start shooting without story-boarding anything. Once I did, the basic concept slid magically into my mind, and progress was mine. Looking forward, I want to spend some more time editing the pace, adding sound / music, a title screen, and re-doing the credits.

Also, my lady helped me grab a big chunk of the footage and provided this clever title too — muchas gracias!

DesignForEmergingPlatforms

Boxee

Post author By Ben
Post date February 4, 2009

So my affection for emerging technologies has continued, especially considering the Boxee post I recently read via Richard Ting’s blog (Flytip) and the NY Times. Avner Ronen (Founder + CEO of Boxee) seems to have the vision right.