Saturday, March 29, 2014

week 09. hold the phone. found inspiration.

I know this is a bit out of the normal schedule, but I saw this project off Behance + connected right away with it. The video is partially what I have been mentally envisioning for the third main experience of my site, the "free form expression." It has that DIY feel, but also that personal flow to it, as if we, the viewer are peeping in on someones mind. I bet you may be thinking that the sound/voice/music may be creepy or a bit off-settling, BUT that it totally how I see minds/memories/thoughts all working together. It's like that moment in movie where things are unnervingly silent or the movie slows down right before the huge action moment or the unsuspecting victim in a horror film that is about to be attacked; it is the slow creep of a moment where you know it is coming and you are a bit uncomfortable with what is about to happen. I truly think that is how the mind really is, if you could walk around in it.

Can you imagine if we could actually experience that? Imagine walking around your brain and being able to see where and how things connect. There would be big video screens of intense colors, moments of black, as well as your videos of your memories from your view/however your mind is still remembering it. There'd be smoke and distortion all around you. There'd be screaming, shouting, bad singing and crying. There'd be people walking around ignoring you and others following you as you walk around, some quiet, some loud, some shouting/screaming/pleading with you. It would be intense, potentially scarring, but interesting on all fronts.


L'Inquiétude from Diogo Azevedo on Vimeo.

more information about this actual project can be found here. It was a collaborative project by Diogo Azevedo, Beatriz Severes, Joana Coelho + Marta Barros.

Friday, March 28, 2014

week 09. the replay, retake, rebuff.

If you've been playing along, I was in the need to rethink + refocus my project. Although it is a good idea of a site—it was too huge of an idea in the way of creating this multi-faceted system. I was left with the need to find a way to cut down on what I was going to provide to the audience as a general overview of how the website works.

The website focus is three parts:
post a moment.
create a souvenir.
free form expression.

video/visual inspiration.
My initial thoughts for the free form expression/video is that it is a bit like music videos where it follows a narrative and you know what you are following. My second thought is that it is more experimental to the point of a bit eerie and similar to dreams and memories you don't quiet know what you are watching and what any of it means ("see Overlapping Memories"). I think John Legend's "All of Me" is a split between what is happening in his mind/his memories that he is reliving while on the piano and then what is actually happening. And it ends with real footage of his wedding, which really drives home that memory aspect + reality and dreaming meshing in our minds.

"State of Grace" by Talib Kweli ft. Abby Dobson
"Losing Sleep" by John Newman
"Zombie" by the Cranberries
"Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls
"Porcelain Doll" by Snowbird
"All of Me" by John Legend
"3 Libras" by A Perfect Circle
Overlapping Memories

name options/meanings/words.
the archive
archive eater/gorger
archi-creative
archi-ingenious
archi-innovate / the archi-innovator
the inaugurate creative
the intuitive teller/ intuitive tellers
the voracious storyteller
the starving storyteller
cerebral seducer
cerebral initiator
discourse retrospection
retrospection initiator
memory framer* (tyler says this one is the closest but not there)

the plan.
This weekend's plan is to shoot a video + create a free form expression. Then I will be able to figure out the kind of features that I should have that would creatively limit the user, as to not overwhelm them yet still allow them to make some brilliant videos. I also plan figure out branding this weekend. I have some website names that I've been pushing around and the initial logos from my midterm presentation, even though I know that I had to do a lot of work to it.

I still have some content from John when I had sent him a personal story that I had written and may try to use that in my website. I also need to put together some print materials that someone would want to keep + have printed; a souvenir and worthy information for that printed piece(s) which I am hoping to find in the emails that John has sent me over the past three years. It might be cool to have some kind of printed book depicting the story in printed format too—but would that be difficult to mock up?

think about.
interface could work similar to the way that your memories work. the closest memories are normally the clearest, where as ones further back are less descriptive and not always accessible or simply became distorted. what if it was also navigation through the left + right brain with the idea of logical side + creative side? How will navigation tuck itself away so you can experience the stories + memories without being distracted by content. what if you haven't checked in for a while and so the website is slow moving and not connecting thoughts? or maybe the whole program is black + white or color in the logical side, but on the creative side everything is intensified or bursting with color so bright that the colors glow?

week 08. spring break, my memory.

I took Spring Break to step away from the project + focus on my own creation of memories. I explored Colorado out by myself, often taking to the road, blasting music + driving without a purpose, without knowledge of where I was going—I let go + drove.


I left the MO later than I wanted on Saturday, but drove with the windows down through the eerily flat state of Kansas. It was the first time in my short history of driving that I wanted to stop + questioned if I would make it there.


The second night I was there I checked into my hotel + settled in, hopped into my car and drove as the sun set and I was left with these vividly blue visuals.


After that night, if I went traveling by daylight I saw beautiful mountains and nature.

The last AnnaSights of the trip. The last bits of nature in its raw form and 9+ hours of solo thinking driving.

I thought a lot more about the way that I was sharing my trip experience with different ages and background of people in different formats. 

I was: 
texting my mom every time I stopped to gas up the car or I got hungry.
posting images to Instagram.
sending images via text.
verbally telling my classmates.
digitally writing/sending messages via email or online chat.
snap chatting images or small video clips that would disappear after 24 hrs either to people or to "my story."
tweeting snippets of thoughts or overheard statements.
uploaded an album of images to Facebook.
and of course the whole mental keeping of it all.

And I started to question what the truest way to represent that trip, that memory, that event was. Or did I really want to create something that felt like what I experienced + not focus on the set facts, order of images, videos, etc. What is more important in an event? The specific set up of the day and how it works out? How you felt or what it seemed like, via comparisons? Or both? Or something completely different?

THEN.
I thought what if we could bring in all of that content from other accounts, as well as upload new information. Also, I found this article Your memory is no video camera: It edits the past with present experiences and I further pondered on memory, experience + connection.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

making connections.

I apparently never looked at the blog this afternoon, so my apologies for this being late.

Communication as the overall topic is what most schools have as a major; graphic design is a specific way of formatting communication. Visual communication is the method of using art/images/photographs/props/things + typography to express an overall topic, subject, idea + message. And, we actually were in two parts of that class that focused on the way in which we create messages as designers. The main use of graphic design, to appeal, inform or provoke a specific audience to do or think a certain way which is where visual communication comes into play to help us organize and illustrate information into easy to digest pieces of information. Due to the connotations connected to everything from colors to countries to words to hierarchy, designers are given the task of researching a particular audience for their project to understand how the particular audience thinks, interacts and plays.

For my degree project, visual communication is the method in which I will entice people to create + share memories, then turn around and connect with others. This includes website name, phrases + wording, as well as colors, attributes, site navigation, site design and really everything else that is any form of graphic or web design. We create + organize content and provide directions that can be easily understood and followed by a specific audience. Specifically for the sharing of memories I will be creating an easy to navigate website that will allow users to select different layouts to save their memories as well as share with others online. I will be using easy to understand/relate icons to actions that will be expressed on the website. For the potential printed or digital pieces, I will utilize a clear hierarchy that keeps the focus for each of those products where they should be. I will also be looking at how + what users of this website would really want to use it for and how it would be used.

Friday, March 14, 2014

week 07. chugging right along.



feedback from presentation.
feature some of the best uses of the website.
figure out a method to facilitate sharing + make it VERY easy.
simplify what you are doing, focusing on one scenario such as how can people collaborate + make a zine?
have the ability to search topics right away like depression or near death or something that people would want to find memories on.

Friday, March 7, 2014

week 06. digital wireframe sketching + content gathering.

At the end of this week, I move forward with having made my initial sketch wireframes into digital wireframes. I tried to iron out some of the issues that I was having before with differentiating between different website uses, as well as flushing out the user scenario. I then was working on some more refining of what I had in class + that is below. I still have more work to do in that aspect, but I am slowly getting to a better place. This week I also sent my friend, John a written memory, an mp3 of a song that I relate to the event, lyrics to that song, 3 images of me before the incident and 3 images of me after the incident. I told him to let me know about his interaction with the materials, as well as responding as if he would have seen these materials on a website. We'll see how this ends up, as I did not send a flat layout of all of the materials to him, just the files sorted into folders.

interaction option A. Share a Memory.




interaction option B: Create a Souvenir.

My plan for next week is to have the three main interaction options on my website fully flushed out in digital wireframes for the presentation. I also plan on starting on the branding.