WEEK 2
Draft 7
"Integrating Computation Design to Encourage Awareness of Material Presence..." - Looking back, this was way too long and clunky.
Design Research Triangle
I tried to fit into "Design Exploration" or "Practice" but felt confused about where I actually stood.
Academic Overload
Pickering, Ishii, Beesley. I thought having all these readings would balance the coding, but it just made it harder to explain.
I just want to make physical computing things but its very hard to exactly articulate it in words. I guess I dont really have a specified want to make anything besides pretty looking artwork but I do want to explore on making something that has some kind of meaning to someone.
Like every time someone asked me "so what exactly are you making?" I'd start rambling about hylozoism and sensors and Philip Beesley and responsive environments and by the end of it I could see their eyes glazing over because I wasn't actually answering the question. I was just listing cool things I liked.
I recall from the presentation that I think I needed to focus on presenting it more it was very hard for me to present when em blue eyes staring at me but besides that. Like I had prepared my slides with the title "Integrating Computation Design to Encourage Awareness of Material Presence..." which looking back now is way too long.
During the presentation people were confused about what hylozoism even meant, and what exactly is "material presence" anyway, and what kind of object appreciation was I talking about? Like are we appreciating objects aesthetically? Emotionally? Philosophically? I couldn't answer clearly because I hadn't figured it out myself.
I realised I suppose I shouldve taken a bit more time on presenting my works and some of the examples especially because a picture cant really explain the artwork well for a work that has many moving parts. Like showing a still image of Philip Beesley's Hylozoic Ground doesn't capture how the installation breathes.
But I didn't have videos prepared and I was already nervous so I just clicked through quickly.
Within this presentation I thought that it was going to be quite a simple presentation but uh… everyone went all out huh- Like people had full blown slides already like really polished slide decks with animations and clear research questions and I showed up with my messy readings and vague ideas about "reconnecting with computation" whatever that meant at the time.
Usually I feel like I have decent presentations but within this class I feel like people who are very competent, so I suppose I was very intimidated. Like everyone seemed to have their research area locked down already and I was still swimming in keywords.
Anyways I understand now that I guess my title was too confusing. I should have asked a few more people instead to have a good understanding... or a more simpler topic. Like maybe if I had just said "exploring how physical computing can feel more alive" instead of all that stuff about material presence... people would've actually gotten what I meant.