For my final project I have created a sketch with p5js that allows the user to view a tarot spread as a spread of approximated textual meanings. Firstly then user sets the tarot cards into their desired configuration. They can toggle the rotation of the cards the cards using the r key. Then they can toggle into flip mode, which allows them to click on the cards they placed to reveal them. The revealed cards can either be viewed with the faces of the tarot cards or as one word interpretations of each card. These interpretations are derived from Dariusk’s corpora json on tarot interpretations. Each interpretation of these cards is randomly  selected from a pool of 4 to 5. These different views can be toggled between with the m key.

The purpose of this piece is to capture a certain ambiguity and situationality in a reading of the tarot. Each tarot card, as Dariusk listed out, can be associated with certain words of concepts. However, can these words be used in lieu of the tarot cards themselves? Can they be read as if they were tarot cards if we put them in the same spread? The interpretations of the tarot card are situational. Does the fact that they are randomized but ultimately set diminish this point or convey it?

Openprocessing link:

Process Sketch:

Work Screen shots

work cited:

1. I’d like to rework the rain game into a bullet hell type game, wherein the objective is to collect the falling sprites is reversed to create damaging projectiles as well as enemies to confront with your own damaging projectiles. This piece will implement most items as classes. It will require image assets to be imported.

2. I’d like to combine the generative landscape project and the visualizing time project to create an animated version of the cover of the Great Gatsby with the eyes changing with time as in the visualizing time project with a reworked style, and the city scape scrolling below. This may require image assets for the details of the buildings.

3. I’d like to track the passage of a train through a subway station with the figures standing along the platform. The sketch will take data from the subway schedule. Overtime the figures will shift position. This will require an API with the live data on subway arrivals.

Super Mario Clouds by Cory Arcangel is a piece that, as it’s title suggests, depicts the clouds from the NES game Super Mario Brothers. Arcangel created this piece by hacking into a cartridge for Super Mario Brothers and removing elements from the game until all that was left was the clouds. Released in 1985 Super Mario Brothers was and continues to be one of, if no the, most iconic video game, and instantly recognizable to many. Therefore Arcangel thought to experiment with its recognizability by removing pieces of it to see if people would still be able to identify that it was indeed Super Mario Brothers.

I felt like I should have been able to recognize that it was Super Mario Brothers, but when I first saw it on the museum it’s identity eluded me. I was able to tell that it had an aesthetic rooted in Super Mario Brothers or retro video games in general, but I didn’t realize that it was exactly the clouds from Super Mario Brothers. Rather I thought it was a piece simply trying to capture the aesthetic of classic video games, an aesthetic largely defined by Super Mario Brothers, but with certain degrees of separation.

Magnet TV by Nam June Paik is a piece that depicts the distortion of television signals. The piece consists of a tv, receiving a satellite signal to depict an image, with a magnet on top. The magnet will distort the signal to the tv, thereby contorting the image on the television. The shape of the contortion can be changed by moving the magnet. This piece was created as a subversion of two concepts when it was created in 1965. The first was that the television signal was all powerful and infallible. The second was that art was static. Allegedly, one could interact with the piece and move the magnet to change the image.

I first interpreted the piece as primarily featuring the body of the television itself as a sculpture akin to Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain. It was only until after I read the sign that I realized the focus of the artwork was on the image in the television. I wish I could have interacted with it like the sign suggested people once could.  

“Current Location of the International Space Station” is an API that, as the name suggests,  provides the user with access to information on the location of the international station. The object contains a timestamp for when the information was collected and a location object with the longitude and latitudes of the space station. The data for the API is relayed from the NORAD and NASA databases and verified using “Two Line Element.” This API can be used to potentially map out the path of the International Space Station and determine relative position from the user, to get a sense of scope for this celestial machine. The API, unfortunately does not have information on the altitude of international space station, which is a piece of relevant information I imagine exists

Link to API: http://api.open-notify.org/iss-now.json

Link to page: http://open-notify.org/Open-Notify-API/ISS-Location-Now/

1. A scrolling horizon of tombstones that randomly vary in distance as they scroll across littered with trees that are drawn as they scroll and part at random
2. A scrolling horizon of smokestacks that randomly vary in distance as they scroll across the smoke from the smoke stacks and the clouds below are drawn at random.
3. A scrolling horizon of clouds that are drawn randomly with Zeppelins diving in and out of them with random color and distance and bobbing in a random order.

Joanie Lemercier is a French Artist who works primarily with projections. His body of work involves many projects that project light onto objects of images with animation that gives the otherwise unremarkable subject vibrant effects or elements. What he projects the light onto can vary from architecture to two dimensional drawings. To create the distinct figures over the edges and surfaces of the objects, the projection is refined to laser point accuracy. Much of his work takes inspiration from nature. To gather input, he travels frequently to search out natural vistas. He has also embarked on projects to capture and generate the natural landscapes he observes through digital art, and has experimented extensively with computer generated topography.

In 2013 Lemercier created the piece Fuji as part of a concentration on volcanoes. The piece features rippling light effects that guide the audience as if they were walking through a bamboo forest to the majestic mountain. To create this piece, Lemercier first generated the projection. Afterwards, he traced the static outline into a corner as an ink drawing. The context of this piece alludes to the myth of Kaguya-hime and calls upon the beauty of Mount Fuji.