CRITIQUE SUMMARY — Wk 6 Studio Session

2/09/2020 — Group Studio

Setup pseudo code
First motion tracking exp
Visual style refining
Cyborg-witch sound experimentation

Critique

• Motion tracking — acupuncture reference interesting, could play with energy-cyborg electricity/circuitry parallels. E.g. change the form/image based on which side of the screen you're on etc. Playing with the intersection through the visuals and visual/conceptual references.
  
  Loading textures onto the models, like wrapping paper. Good place to start, works with established aesthetic e.g. loading transparent images etc. 
  
  Play with props — can save out google poly models as obj files. 

• Voices — working well, the cyborg-digital, Macbeth witches, female voice elements are all coming through and are balanced. 

• Code stuff — inviting interaction — from setup — flashing cursor, or something else. Webcam — try making a first screen where the webcam is called and ready to go, so you don't get the delay. 
  
  Images cutoff — look into the clipping plane on camera, might also be the transparency on top of each other? 
  
  Type glitch — not certain what's causing it. Send through code file. 
  
  Sound — try switches and booleans instead of current time? Also try different browsers for current time. 

• Username — If you build it in (spoken/text), use it throughout the experience. Refer to the user as such. Good way to bring people further into the experience/world. 
  
  Adrian — likes the idea of usernames. Create your own? Random generate a combination from a list of words. Agency of the user — creating their own, or being "assigned" one. Giving a name, and true names, hold power and a lot of significance, especially in different cultures and spiritual circles. What are you playing with here and how might it inform the experience/discourse around intersections. Definitely makes the experience more personalised, and allows you to more fully occupy the space. 
  
  True Names — cyberpunk novella by Vernor Vinge. Keeping your true name hidden in cyberspace. Have a look at it. 

• Fonts — trickster maybe too much. Droulers is working well!

• Visuals — type legibility is not great, experiment with the colours and contrast. 

• Speech (bubble) — Working better than the banner, more visible. Harks back to 90s chat sites and interfaces e.g. The Palace. Could be a combination — different types of information could be brought in through the speech bubble, or the running banners. 

• Audience — 2 audiences — primary target audience of project and audience of the documentation. The 2nd will consider the first audience, and assume that perspective when looking at the work. 
  
  Andrew — understood my project audience to be people with an understanding of and personal identification with intersectionality — women and gender diverse folx, people of colour, LGBTQ+ people, and combinations of these identities, who I am inviting into this space. The audience from the documentation perspective would be those looking at my portfolio, in the design research space, etc. Perceived that I was never sure if I was going to open it up to a wider audience? It is hard to navigate and make sense of these multiple audiences, that's normal.
  
  Can maintain that the output isn't for a general audience, but one that you're defining. Then think through how you're defining your target audience to the general audience of the project as a piece / process of design. 
  
  Adrian — framing the experience with an invitation to start off with is a good way to approach it. The username idea is a good way to open it up even further, as a playful, accessible touchpoint to the world that you're about to enter. Imagines that some people might be uncomfortable and uncertain about the subject matter / in the space, and that is a fun way in. Also opportunities to define these intersections further(?) — incorporate Chinese characters/astrology references, etc. as added elements of representation. 

Critique of Critique

• SO much to unpack here, think on, work through. Audience first. This is really helpful. Andrew's comments are making it more clear while also making me feel better about struggling to define who this is for, who I want it to be for. I think creating it for an intersectional audience, or those who have an understanding of it / identify with those identity groups, makes sense. When I think about it and try to remove the confusion, I am materialising an intersectional space (my own) and building performativity into it so that the process of reimagining and becoming is visible. So that possibilities and narratives outside of what has been established by white, male, heteronormative bodies are visible. I can see someone within that interacting with this space, but that's kind of not the point? 
  
  I think there's more power in people of intersectionality, those who embody intersectional perspectives, to have some (some more than others) representation and potentially, build upon this framework to explore this within themselves. The framework/process of cyborg-witch becoming can be transposed for anyone (and significantly, perhaps less potent), but the point is to capitalise on the inherent "deviance" of the cyborg and the witch, and "deviant" gender/race/sexuality — as a metaphor, as a generative strategy for a viral deviance, survival, reimagining. So why bother to speak to everyone? What's the point? 
  
  My main concern was more about what it meant for people outside those identities and communities to occupy space in a project that is exploring representation, through performativity, through inserting the audience into the project. And it's not like they're expressly choosing to do so. The project puts you in that position. While it helps to understand the distinction between the output's target audience and the audience of the documentation, and how the latter might try to experience it from the perspective of the former, the performative element blurs that. 
  
  I think this is where the usernames can be really helpful in stripping some of these layers back. Blurring those distinctions in a way that is playful and helpful? I'm not sure which route I would go with — self/random generated names, maybe I can find a way to test this.

• On the motion tracking, I'm eager to get this underway. I like how Adrian was conceptualising the link between qi and electricity, acupuncture charts and circuitry. I think the acupuncture also taps into the idea of the witch as a healer, with knowledge of the body — ideas that are present across different cultures. Would be cool to explore this through 3D objects and texture mapping, or the linework like Navira suggested. I don't know if I'm super excited by this, but I think it's definitely worth testing. On texture mapping though, I'd be keen to get back to image-making for a bit to generate more material to work with/import in as the backdrops/play with on top of 3D objects. 
  
  Also not forgetting that the suggestion last week was to build the interaction around gesture. Which I think is really compelling, especially in a performative context, and with hands! Should look further into hand tracking projects and see if there's anything I can use. And also writing and thinking about gesture in a queer context. 
  
  I think the idea of props is really interesting. I hadn't thought about it, but there seem to be more possibilities — incense, teapots, vases, bamboo, etc. just having a look at what's there on google poly. 

• I agree with Andrew on the speech bubble. I think it suits the experience and visuals, and is a fun kitsch element. I think doing some thumbnails and mapping would be helpful now? To start bringing in details like the speech bubble, and work out other bits of communication, how they're presented and how they are consistent throughout. Also good on another level to work through the code on paper. Start researching how you might link pages/files together 

• Setup page — keep going with recording and editing the voice. Test the username input/generation in code. Test it as an experiment maybe? Build in the interaction please !!!!!!! !!

ACTION LIST

• Get stuck into the motion tracking — understanding the code. Researching gesture, hand tracking, concept/references. (image making for 3D objects?)
• Usernames — map out process. Develop method to test.
• Make overview map of project — conceptual, thumbnail, audience/user. 
  
• SO MUCH 2 DO !! :-)