Overcubes 3
Overcubes 3 begin as a study of the essence of geometrical cubes inspired by the pedagogical notebooks of Paul Klee’s pedagogical notebook, the aim is to bring to light the underlying geometry of the assembled shape and looking at the arrangement of the cubes as a whole.
produced by: Eddie Wong
Introduction
Overcubes 3 begin as a study of the essence of geometrical cubes inspired by the pedagogical notebooks of Paul Klee’s pedagogical notebook with the aim of bringing to light the underlying geometry of the assembled shape and looking at the arrangement of the cubes as a whole. To achieve this, I’ve focus on basic visual properties such as lines, dots and hexagon shape to create dynamic visual patterns over time while generating varied movement, colour shifts to bring the inherent shapes within the cubes to life.
1. Dotted Cube
In Dotted Cubes, a grid of ellipses gives the illusion of a wave. Each ellipse moves in a smooth, tiny circular motion using sine wave.
2. Noisy Boxes
Noisy Boxes is a contrast to the gentle swaying of Dotted Cubes, as the rectangles are bouncing off each of their own boundaries. This creates an illusion of the outer bigger rectangles shaking a smaller solid rect in the middle of the square.
3. Hexagonal Pulses
Hexagonal Pulse is made up of a series of concentric half rectangle that pulses with variation of colour changes. The half rectangles are laid out over each cube surface to bring out the hexagonal characteristic of a 3 dimension cube.
Concept and background research
1. Dotted Cube
The idea for the dotted cubes begin with an ellipse shapes in a grid. I wanted to experiment with animating each ellipses with a sine wave that oscillates in small circular motion. I also experimented with having no drawn background so the motion of the ellipses leave trails on the surface. Further extending on the basic idea, I decided to play with decreasing circle resolution over time so the ellipses transforms from circles to rows of overlapping hexagonal shapes and finally into triangles and rects that gives a dynamic projected surface. I then map the colour over frame count and sizes of shapes radius varies over time.
I took inspiration from Bridget Riley’s print where shapes overlapped one another and decided to emulate the patterns by changing size and circle resolution over time as the scene oscillates.
Technical References:
- Harlem Shake - Creative Coding Workshop assignment
- Magnetic Grid - Creative Coding Workshop assignment
- Sourcecode borrowed: ‘Wavemaker’ https://p5js.org/examples/interaction-wavemaker.html
Influence/Inspiration:
- Yayoi Kusama - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yayoi_Kusama
- Wave Orbiters - https://beesandbombs.tumblr.com/post/45513650541/orbiters
- Bridget Riley - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget_Riley
2. Noisy Boxes
The inspiration for noisy boxes started with playing with concentric squares on the surface. I wanted to create a box within a box illusion with a little cube sitting in the middle of the bigger cube. After experimenting with feeding smooth sine noise over the squares, the motion creates a sense of gentle shaking the cubes, hence creating an illusion of a smaller cube sitting within the larger cubes, swaying and shaking. I looked at artist’s work like Frank Stella and early computational art that experimented with geometric shapes. The composition maybe static but somehow conveys noisy movements. The box within a box effect is the seed of this piece’s idea.
Technical References:
- Random Walk tutorial learn gold: https://learn.gold.ac.uk/mod/page/view.php?id=600185
- Overlapping lines : https://junkiyoshi.com/openframeworks20180716/
- Noisy Rectangles : https://junkiyoshi.com/openframeworks20180712/
- Source Code borrowed : https://junkiyoshi.com/insta20180526
Inspiration:
- Frank Stella - https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/frank-stella-b-1936-concentric-squares-1370905-details.aspx
- Frieder Nake - https://www.artsy.net/artwork/frieder-nake-walk-through-raster-vancouver-version
- Bridget Riley, From Here, 1994 © Bridget Riley 2018, all rights reserved. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York / London.
3. Hexagonal Pulse
The patterns are made out of half rectangles. The coordinates of these rectangles begin at the top corner of the surface ( x = 0, y = 0). Half rectangle shapes are then rotated on the projected surface at angles that transform each individual cubes into a hexagonal geometry, while lines that forms the hexagon pulsates to the changes of colour. The aim is to highlight the three dimensional properties of the projected cube as a whole rather than projected patterns on each individual surface.
Technical References:
- Pulsating Ring: https://learn.gold.ac.uk/mod/page/view.php?id=600234
- Heaxgonal Mandalas: https://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/583709 (modify from Mandala assignment)
- Hexgonal Cascade Bounce - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DsBlAJoby8
- Rotating Hexagon: https://codepen.io/beesandbombs/pen/pEordd
Inspiration:
- Sarah Gee Miller - https://www.sarahgeemiller.com/eye-of-the-storm
Self evaluation
1. Dotted Cube
Using sine to create wavy motion worked well in this piece but if you look closely, it the scene consists of a group of grids consists of ellipses moving at the same time rather than individual ellipses. Although this gives the piece of different effect, it was a happy accident which I decided to keep. The reason is that the grids of ellipses are in a for loop. While I’m satisfied with the transformation of the circles by dividing the circle resolution over phase time to get various shapes, the method isn’t the most elegant. The shape disappears towards the end when the circle resolution gets divided into nothing, which cuts the scene short. This method works to the extent of the projected scene which only last a certain amount of time.
2. Noisy Boxes
Mapping the noise to size of the box was successful. Adding color variations over each rectangle as it moves randomly gives the piece some order. The trajectory of the noise could be smoother and smaller in scale. This created problems when the visuals are projected over the surfaces as the rectangles ‘bounces’ off the projection mapping software boundaries creating undesirable strobe flashes.
3. Hexagonal Pulses
The simplicity of this piece is what made it work. The objective was to extract the inherent hexagonal properties of the cubes. I initially explored coding the hexagon shape itself but quickly realised that’s not going to work. To achieve the effect of hexagons, I created half rectangles and angled it to the corner of the cube surface. Another thing I could developed further was to animate the rectangle to appear sequentially before they pulse or played with the increase and decrease of size.
References
General references
- Casey Reas, Ben Fry - http://cmuems.com/resources/processing_a_handbook.pdf
- Ira Greenberg - Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art (Foundation ...
- Matt Pearson - Generative Art
- Paul Klee’s Pedagogical Sketchbook (1960)
- Paul Klee’s Notebooks Vol.1 The Thinking Eye