Blog Entry 9

I've been really busy with work and classes/exams and such, so I figured I'd discuss a few things that have been floating around in my mind. 

Recently I attended a guest lecture for my Early Greek Art class by a former professor of the Rutgers University Art History program. Jocelyn Penny Small talked about the birth of illusionism, essentially how back in antiquity potters and artists working on ancient Greek pottery had to take into account the shape of the vase while they were drawing, and distort lines and shapes to maintain the illusion of proportion from a certain viewing angle. Unfortunately this idea at the time was so new that the illusion of perfect proportion only maintained from one viewing angle, but often this was overlooked because the inconsistencies within the drawing were hard to see. She explained a problem, however, that when we take pictures or project videos of 3D forms and reproduce them on flat surfaces, the objects they are depicting are flattened, In our minds we recreate the 3D image (what it would look like in real life) and can see both.

This lecture made me think about how this would effect text. Is text effected by its viewing area? How can this be distorted?  

Just a passing thought I guess.

But before I go I wanted to share a video of a kinetic sculpture that I stumbled on on the internet. This kind of goes with my distortion theory but more static. Sorry I Cant embed the video in the blog, you have to click the link. Its amazing how magnets can still hold onto objects when you pass your hand through. 


We've been talking a lot about interactive media in Design, I'm not really good at this kind of stuff. We're getting into circuit Boards and more (queue scary horror music) Programming!! Ahh!
Maybe I should be considering things like this if we're supposed to know it. Touch screens are all the rave now, Microsoft even invented a touch pad... ON YOUR SKIN!