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Maps!
I’m taking a really cool class called Mapping and Diagramming with Prof. Karen Moyer. For our first assignment, Karen asked us to redesign a terrible map she found in the design building (many years ago). The map was put up to announce the closing of one of the main exits from the building, and looked like this:
Note that, among other things, this map is of the third floor of the building! It also didn’t have any exits labeled, though you can tell where they would be from my scribbling. I think I was pretty successful in fixing things up. Take a look:
A few notes on process: I chose a gray background because the sign would be hung on a white wall, and I wanted it to stand out. I didn’t want it to look too good though (because it will be in the Design building, where things that look really good are, as a rule, announcements of speakers and presentations), so I left a white border, as if it came out of an office printer. I also chose Helvetica for the font because we are used to seeing the big ‘H’ on street signs and other such official notifications. Finally, I included the street and UC building in order to offer context and orientation to people who are less good at spatially positioning themselves.
January 26th, 2008
Posted by Paul in Communication Design, Typography, CMU | No Comments »
The Bully Peregrine
So, a Peregrine Falcon has apparently taken to hunting in my backyard and the yards of my immediate neighbors. I first saw this ridiculously large bird in my backyard on day last month. I stepped out back, not noticing her and making lots of noise, before looking up to find myself with a very large and threatening looking bird standing over a lump of feathers and staring very directly at me. Being the lover of wildlife that I am, I very slowly marched back inside to get away from the horrible thing. I told my wife, who made the odd suggestion that perhaps it was a wild turkey, and that I should venture back into the yard to get a photo. I insisted that turkeys don’t eat pigeons, and that there was no way I was risking my life to get a photo of it. After a little Googling we discovered that the bird in our backyard (which had by then gone back to enjoying it’s meal) was in fact a Peregrine Falcon. I eventually did poke my head just far enough outside the door to snap the following shot before zipping back inside where the bird could not ‘go all Hitchcock on my ass.’ Thus I present you with the following shot:
Later that day I returned home to find nothing more than a (rather largely spread out) bed of pigeon feathers in the snow of the backyard, and assumed that was the end of it. Until yesterday, that is.
Again, I rather obliviously marched into my backyard and plopped down in a chair only to look up and find myself staring into the face of the Peregrine Falcon again (I should point out that it was at least 5 feet closer to me than the first time, bringing the distance between me and it to no more than 25 yards - distinctly within my ‘personal-bird-of-prey-space-boundary’). I got up, moving carefully, and began to move back towards the door, when suddenly the BANG BANG BANG of nearby construction erupted, sending me into a haze of paranoid pheromones which the falcon immediately picked up on, and responded by launching itself into the air, small mammal gripped in its murderous talons (probably going for my throat or eyes). By the grace of God, however, I made it back into my kitchen unscathed and proceeded to peek out the blinds of my back window, only to see that the Falcon had now perched in a relatively low tree limb over my backyard. The bird was alternating between ripping the flesh of its dinner and looking up directly at my kitchen window - death (my death) clearly in its all-too-intelligent-and-malevolent eyes. As seen here:
I stayed inside and wore a hat when I stepped out (the front door), and figured that I should be free of the bird’s ill-will for at least another 3 weeks. Until this afternoon. Stepping into the backyard once again, I was surprised to hear the sound of terrified sparrows flying like bats-outta-hell only to see my nemesis the falcon again swooping around over the backyards of my neighbors and I. Needless to say I went back inside with no little haste. I’ve looked it up, and these things have a hunting radius of more than 10 miles - so I think I can say that I need no further proof that this falcon is out to kill me. As far as I can tell it must live on the Cathedral of Learning as detailed here, and yet it is now paying daily visits to my home. Perhaps if I wear Kevlar body-armor I may yet survive…
January 22nd, 2008
Posted by Paul in Pittsburgh, Photography, Humor | 1 Comment »
AV Systems
I just wanted to post a link to the course page for the Audio/Visual Systems course I’m taking with Golan Levin. Check out the “Looking Forward” exercise for a whole bunch of great video links. Other than that, just working working working….
January 21st, 2008
Posted by Paul in CMU | No Comments »
News from Apple
There was an interesting article posted to Apple’s front page today - basically an interview with Paul Van Dyk focused on his use of MacBooks and Logic in live performance. Worth checking out if you’re interested in any of those things (personally I’ve been a fan of Van Dyk since I first picked up electronic music in the late 90’s).
In other cool Apple news, you can now rent movies from iTunes! $4 gets you a new release, $3 for old titles. You pay up, the movie downloads in its entirety, and then you get a month to watch it (but after you start, you have to finish watching it within 24 hours). I’ll be interested to try this out - I’ve gotten a little tired of NetFlix’s online catalog only containing indy films and B-movies. That’s convenience! Now if only it were cheaper…
And a couple random trends I’ve noticed to the point where I shall now make a prediction:
- 80’s style synth-pop is coming back and will start to hit the mainstream in the next couple of years. This is sad because, as a general rule, I find this style of music extremely boring.
- Leggings as pants are back. This is horrible, but true. Tights under a skirt have been popular for a couple years now, but now the skirts are disappearing, leaving just unattractive leggings (often, but not always, capris). Let’s hope this doesn’t last.
January 19th, 2008
Posted by Paul in CoolHunting, Music and Movies | No Comments »
Gondry Videos
In Golan Levin’s Audio Visual Systems course yesterday I was introduced to the music videos of Michael Gondry, a well-known music video director. Specifically, we watched two classics: Chemical Brothers’ Star Guitar and Daft Punk’s Around The World. I was blown away! The detail with which each of these visualizes the music is stunning. If you haven’t seen these before check them out NOW!
Around The World Vid on MTV.com (they show an ad but the quality is better than YouTube).
January 17th, 2008
Posted by Paul in Music and Movies | No Comments »
Start Again
The first two days of classes are done and things are looking good! Our studio project this semester will be a joint project for Motorola and Microsoft, and though we haven’t yet received the actual project brief, it looks to be something to do with learning using contextually aware mobile devices - pretty cool. Seminar is being taught by Jodi Forlizzi, who has a joint appointment between HCI and design, so it looks like our readings will be much more centered on the nitty-gritty of interaction design and less on the broader conceptual issues surrounding Design. Tomorrow we’ll be getting a visit from the legendary Dan Saffer, an alum of the program, and probably its most vocal proponent (almost all of us read his blog from his time here before we chose the program). I’m really quite looking forward to finally meeting him in person. In Golan Levin’s Audio Visual Systems and Machines we began looking at examples of interesting and diverse visualizations of music - we basically spent the entire three hour class watching cool movies (including a little porn - pretty funny). Here’s a short sampling of what we looked at:
- Autechre’s Granz Graf Video - This entire thing was animated by hand! (i.e., it’s not algorithmically generated!)
- Marcus Coates’ Dawn Chorus - This is cool - the artist slowed down the sound of birds until they were in the human vocal range, had people sing them, then sped up the videos of the people to the speed of a bird. Crazy!
- Phil Worthington’s Shadow Monsters - This is cool too - sensors recognize the shapes of people’s hands and a projector adds everything else.
- Reactable - One of the coolest instruments I’ve ever seen - Bjork apparently now uses this on tour.
- Sesame Street Casino - Just damn funny! (warning - lots of cursing)
- Norman Mclaren’s “Dots” - All the sound in this was made by hand painting on the “optical sound strip” used in early film reels - this is basically pre-synthesizer sound synthesis, wild!
- Pablo Valbuena’s “Augmented Sculpture” - All of the lighting on the sculpture is coming from a projector located on the opposite side of the room, prety wild.
Though Golan will not be teaching Processing or Max/MSP as I’d hoped, it looks like it will be a really interesting exploration of the connection between sound and image. This is particularly good for me, as I am more and more thinking that my thesis project will be an exploration of how we can create better graphic user interfaces for software synthesizers and digital signal processing effects (most of which are still built to look like the hardware they emulate - hardly an effective use of the computer). Dick Buchanan’s course Design, Management and Organizational Change also looks exciting - we’ll be exploring the relationship between organizations (which pervade modern life) and design. All in all it’s going to be an absolutely crazy semester, but a lot of fun too, I think.
January 15th, 2008
Posted by Paul in CMU, Music and Movies | No Comments »
New Track
I spent what little time I could find in the past few days having a blast with my new music software - the Ableton Live Suite. And I do believe I just made my most dance floor friendly track ever. I mean, this track is killer! I am so damn happy with this cut - I couldn’t stop dancing to it while I was mastering it! This one’s going platinum (or at least it would if I ever sent my stuff to record labels - if any record label execs out there are reading this feel free to call me, I’m not taken!). Anyway download this now:
And since I got called out (Yikes! That’s never happened before - people actually read this thing?!) I should add to my last post that the guy who introduced me to Tycho was Bo - a great designer with kick-ass musical taste who was in my Design Computing course. :))
January 13th, 2008
Posted by Paul in Music and Movies | No Comments »
Great Music
While pulling an all-nighter in the studio last semester I was introduced to the music of Tycho by a Belgian undergrad who was hanging out in our vicinity to get Flash help from one of my groupmates. Tycho’s music is incredibly beautiful electronica of the decidedly ‘blissed-out’ variety, and it turns out he’s also an incredible graphic designer (under the name ISO50, check out the About section of his site to read some great thoughts on Design). Anyway, I discovered a wonderful live set of his available free online go download this now!
Also, BPM magazine partnered up with Scion this last week to offer a set of three hour-long or so packs of music downloads. Pick them up free by going here and answering the silly questions (depending on your answers you’ll be offered one of the three downloads - download it, then answer differently to get the other mixes).
Cheers everyone!
January 13th, 2008
Posted by Paul in Music and Movies | 2 Comments »
So Long Free Time
Only two days of break left! It’s sad, but given that the break I just had was longer than my entire year’s vacation last year, I suppose I shouldn’t complain - it’s amazing how easily I’ve slipped back into the life of a student. It really is an easy life.
I got the Ableton Live 7 Suite, and have been banging around trying to start some new tunes (mostly just having fun with the built in synths and sampler though). I’ve also been working on a portfolio, as I’ll be applying to internships next month at Confluence, the design school’s annual recruiting event - which is attended by all the cool companies (Google here I come…).
Have I talked before about how much I love Google? I mean, it’s like these guys just sit around all day trying to invent new ways to make everyone’s lives easier for FREE. They’re positively the only company I know that provides all of their products free to consumers - they make all their dimes off other companies. AND they refused to comply with the administrations attempts to violate our civil liberties. That’s cool.
I’m really excited about starting classes again though - I just can’t wait to see what kind of awesome projects I’ll be a part of. That, I think, is proof positive that I’m in the right place. I loved going to econ class as an undergrad and hearing lectures, but I’ve never before looked forward to doing homework. I think it’s going to be a good spring.
January 11th, 2008
Posted by Paul in CMU, Music and Movies | No Comments »
Long Time No Blog
Well, it’s certainly been a long time since I’ve written anything here. The semester ended, winter break is now more than half-way over, and I’m finally going to put up some more stuff. Wish I could say I was taking a NOSO, but the truth is I just haven’t been blogging.
Break has been great - got to see family in Chicago and St. Paul, have been using my free time to work extra hours at my job with the CMU Office of Campus Design (I’m trying to save up enough to purchase the Ableton Live 7 Suite), and have finally gotten to work on a little music.
The fall semester ended on a less than perfect note, with one of my group projects more or less falling apart, but such is life (and life with people). I’ve experienced similar things in the working world as well as the complete opposite (both working and in school). On a brighter note, my final paper for Richard Buchanan went over very well - “One of the best papers in Design theory that I have seen” Dick said, and nothing could have made me happier. Now I just need to work at translating my thinking into more effective and powerful designs (for anyone who is interested, you’re welcome to check out my paper Systems of Thought and Relevance in Design). My group in Shelly Evanson’s Basic Interaction course managed to pull everything off beautifully - we were in fact the only group to show up to the final crit with a fully functioning prototype. If you’re interested, you can see the video sketch we put together and the online prototype at one of my group-mate’s website (this group mate - Lee Byron - is an absolute wunderkid, poke around the rest of his blog to see other great stuff he’s worked on/done).
And for music - please take a listen to these two new tracks and let me know what you think. Both are things I tinkered with over the course of the semester in my (relatively scarce) free time.
January 4th, 2008
Posted by Paul in Seminar I, Design Thinking, CMU, Music and Movies | No Comments »