Still As Life

I had an assignment due on Monday for KKB210: Computational Arts 1, where I had to create 3 computational art works. This has kept me pretty busy over the past week or so, especially since I had another assignment due on Tuesday, just a 1500-1800 word essay fortunately, so it didn’t take up too much time.

For full details on everything I’ve done for this assignment, have a look at my computational arts blog. I’ve learned a lot about various programming environments and languages in relation to computational arts and live-coding. In particular, I’ve found the Processing Development Environment and Quartz Composer quite interesting and fun to work with. Of course, Quartz Composer isn’t a programming environment, but a patching tool.

I have always been particularly interested in fractals and other forms of digital art, so the computational arts subjects at uni were particularly appealing to me, and thus far have been exactly what I was looking for.

I have made a few fractal animations previously, including one for my NSW Higher School Certificate that I synced up with music. On my second fractal animation, I created the music for it myself instead of using an existing piece. Using Quartz Composer and Processing, I am able to make very similar effects, though not fractals, and have them render and animate in real-time. Two of my artworks for KKB210 are actually live rendered animations based on audio input. You can have a look at them here and here. They are both available under feel free to edit them, redistribute them etc, just take note that it is an attribution, non-commercial, share-a-like license (full details are available on http://matthewbrown.net.au), so you do have say where you got it from if you are re-distributing it.

Now, while I am a novice at the whole live-rendered animations to music and the like, I am happy to do some for events where it is appropriate. Let me know at matt at stillaslife dot com.

Popularity: 48% [?]

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything for this blog, the past couple of weeks have been absolutely hectic.

So what have I been up to?

• Fixed a problematic client website that had a lot more problems than expected.
• 20 hours worth of maintenance on another client website.
• Created the art for my business cards and setup the files for printing.
• Got the business cards printed (they are pretty hot, even if I do say so myself).
• Designed a series of website prototypes for a prospective client.
• Organised a client meeting in Lismore.
• Wrote a draft essay for KKB101: Creative Industries - People and Practices.
• Did my major Python assignment for ITB001: Problem Solving and Programming.
• Learned, the basics of UML, class diagrams, interaction diagrams and class descriptions.
• Worked on my ITB008: Modelling Analysis and Design team assignment.
• Seen post 3am more times in a week than I have all semester.
• Found a Pizza Hut Restaurant (ie non-take-away) near my place.

What do I have to do over the next few days?

• Finish my part of the ITB008 team assignment by Sunday night.
• Organise the deferral of my ITB001 exam.
• Update the TerraMedia Web Design General Terms and Conditions by Monday.
• Organise the appropriate documentation and presentation material for the client meeting on Tuesday.
• Hopefully get a new client.
• Do 10 hours worth of maintenance on a client website.
• Get my hair cut.

What do I have to do over the next week or two?

• Finish the final version of my KKB101 essay.
• Design three different computational artworks for KKB210: Computational Arts 1 using anyof the design tools outlined on my other blog.
• Display the three artworks on my computational arts blog.
• Study for ITB001 and ITB008 exams.
• Sort out a new computer back up system.
• Do some more client website maintenance.
• Finish the new TerraMedia website.
• Other work?
• Get the car fixed.
• Finish the fractal gallery section of Still As Life.
• Blog some more.
• Anything else that comes up.

If you follow me on Twitter, you would probably be aware of many of these things, but hey.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. I have 500 or so unread items in Google Reader, so hopefully I’ll catch up on everything by the end of next week, and hopefully you’ll be hearing more from me soon.

Popularity: 38% [?]

All the way back in the start of March, I wrote about a new blog I was working on for my Computational Arts subject this semester, KKB210.

It is located at matthewbrown.net.au and as you may have noticed, the website has been live for a few weeks now. I hadn’t actually posted anything until last week, but as the blog is part of an assessment that is due in a couple of weeks, as well as being part of our final assessment due at the end of the semester, it will have a lot more going up on it soon.

Unfortunately I am currently unable to use Wordpress 2.5 for it as we are required to use a couple of plug-ins which aren’t completely compatible with 2.5 yet.

Hopefully I’ll be able to upgrade it soon as 2.5’s media library would be very useful for this particular blog.

What do you think of the design? It is intentionally simple, just because there is no reason to do a complex design. Once I get some computational works done from this subject, I may use some in the design, but at this stage theres nothing to include.

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For one of my subjects for my Bachelor of Creative Industries, KKB210: Computational Arts 1, we are required to setup a blog to use to store our work in a website portfolio. We are allowed to use any system that sends an RSS feed and is able to receive them, similar to the way the RSS widget in WordPress works. WordPress is the recommended system and there is of course space provided on the servers at uni for it. These WordPress based blogs are accessible from off campus, but I figure, since it’s meant to be a portfolio, I may as well set it up somewhere else so that I can continue to use it elsewhere. The other benefit of this is that it doesn’t take up space on my drive at uni which I’m always getting notices about telling me that my drive is full etc.

We are allowed to set it up elsewhere, or even use an old blog if we have one, as long as our KKB210 work can be easily distinguished from everything else. I decided to buy a new domain and host it myself, why not. I’m setting it up on www.matthewbrown.net.au, no reason not to. There isn’t anything of note there yet, just an under development page. WordPress has been installed, but I haven’t finished the template yet, so it is staying invisible for now.

So there you go. This subject so far is proving to be very interesting. I’m liking it a lot.

Popularity: 27% [?]