Alpahbet Code

In our last math and art session we looked at how possible it would be to swap letters in words that have similar sounds so we could take out letters that were not necessarily needed. I was thinking that a lot of this can be seen within text language and how it is common for a lot of teenagers to communicate to each other this way nowadays. Taking out the vowels seems to be the most common way of doing this but may make the word not sound the same. Examples would be words like 'but' or 'and' and taking out the vowels making them 'bt' and 'nd'. Another substitute alphabet would be the leet code. I do not think it has any more or less amount of symbols in the letters compared to the letters in the normal English alphabet, but some of the letters do use the same symbols. It seems to be more of a good way to code a message or swear without others knowing like saying '8!7(|-|' which others might think is just a censored word.

I think I judge people by the way they text me sometimes.
http://samanthadehart.blogspot.com/2011/04/do-you-know-how-to-text-txt-talk-if-not.html

 It would seem that the more we develop into technology the more we are changing our language. I think a reason for this is because of our laziness to type more letters, making us send a quick message rather than a literate one. We have even converted into using numbers and other common symbols to make it faster such as '2day' or 'm@'. I think this means we are moving into a world where we are able to recognise words by the way it sounds rather then the way they are spelt. I don't think i even know the proper English spelling or pronunciation and wonder if future generations will either.


Semester Thoughts

Well I have found this paper and the classes to be quite different to some of the other ways of learning. It seemed to focus on a lot of 'why' certain things are the way they are. I would say that from my work on both assessments I have been able to look more into the meaning behind features, whether it be little bumps on a bottle or the type of positioning of a mirror in a restaurant. Although I have to say that it has been hard to focus in the class sessions. This is because it has been hard to relate what is being discussed to what relevance it might have with our current work. I felt that sometimes the work in the classes we were given was there just because we could do it rather then how it could be put into our practices. I think that a lot of it was to give us examples of what we could use for our assessments but as we had to choose what we did for these assessments early on it made it difficult to find motivation to continue with the current tasks.

Bottle Labels

One of our discussions and activities was about how we package things, not just objects like food or boxes but also things like people in rooms or words on paper. To me this linked back to my literature review and how I studied the appropriate amount of people to fit within a restaurant to bring across the right atmosphere and theme for the customers. I think this could be brought across to designing logos for products as well. Depending on what it is the designer and the company are wanting to portray in their product may change how well it sells. It may be to attract the customer to their product or to visually describe how the product tastes. Although for the latter I do not think it is true for some of the most famous labels. When looking at the Coca-Cola label it is dominated with mostly red, yet when I think of red it does not remind me of coke.

Very red. As a drink label I would recognise red as being coke, but red by itself reminds me of other more vivid items.
http://www.picgifs.com/wallpapers/wallpapers/coca-cola/Coca_Cola03.jpg

When looking at these wine bottle labels it would seem that they were made to look unique above the rest of the other bottles and stand out as to exaggerate the finesse of the bottles wine quality. By having a wine label with a creative approach it might change the way the customers look at the taste of the wine. Personally when I am to chose a product, I do not want something that I would be embarrassed to be around. If it could be deemed offensive or it looks vastly out of taste with my traits then I would most likely avoid it altogether. I think some of the more simpler designs can have a better effect because it creates a sense of the products price being cheaper and from a students point of view, attracts me to this product first.

This label would envision me drinking bulls blood, something I don't really want to do. 
http://www.winelabels.org/labels10.htm

When looking at what information would be displayed I would like for it to be kept to a bare minimum unless their is some sort of cleaver and creative feature involved. Something like how the beer 'Speights' has questions involving New Zealand and sports underneath the bottle caps. If the label has adjectives describing the product that is anything other then the flavour then for me it creates this unnerving pressure for the product to live up to its quote/slogan.

Fractals and Emotional Thinking

Here are a few of the things discussed in the Math and Art lectures that I have found interesting over the past couple of weeks:


Types of thinking

One of the discussions we have had was about how relative our thinking is to our emotions, as well as the type of thinking that takes place. This I have thought to be very interesting as it helps contrive self improvement. If it is emotions that can influence the way we think, would it be possible to change it so we could alternate our thinking habit towards a more productive way? This article would suggest that our emotions are what forms our thinking and that if we want to use this we need to acknowledge it and understand why. To alter these emotional responses, it is suggested to try creating habits that rebel against these emotions and allow to see an alternative way of responding. I would like to benefit from this by changing my emotional response when I try to study. I understand that my negative emotional response is from knowing that I don't feel I am being productive enough when trying to work. I think that if I were to keep a good momentum and direct my work towards something I have interest or experience in, I could produce work that feels voluntary rather than forced.


Fractals

Fractals would seem to have an impossible limit in complexity. They also could be used in most parts of technology and would be something I should consider using in the future endeavors. I see fractals as a visually appealing design, but consider it first as a way of being used for efficiency and strength. It is common to be seen in building and city patterns. I think this is because of its complexity in the pattern, it gets smaller but compacted the further it spreads out. Allowing for more support from multiple paths. Fractals have been seen within nature and I believe it to be a design feature that has advanced the technology world just like the hexagon. I found this website that included natural fractal structures.

A fractal Tree.
http://www.fractal.org/Beelden/fractal-Julius-Tree.png

Trains and Flags

Auckland Train Route

When constructing my map I wanted it to be spacious and visible of where each route was to be going. I decided on a rotating square focusing on the final destinations breaking away from the circuit in the middle at each corner to show the seperations. My choice in colour was not intentionally chosen until being informed of my first use of red, black and green and how I could bring a bit of New Zealand culture into the map. I was thinking if I wanted to take it further I could go for a more artistic look that could loop in with the Maori koru patterns by circling the end parts of routes.

I found this map of an imaginary world wide train route. I found it to be interesting in the fact that not only are the train destinations not geographically accurate but also the way the world is shaped to fit in with the the train routes as if telling us that it is only there as a representation and not to be taken into real life context.

My map of the current train stations plus the proposed city loop.

New Zealand Flag 

The flag seems to have gone through a lot of changes in history to endeavor the nation of a suitable symbolism. I see the original flag, the United Tribes flag as a better representation of the historical culture and has more individuality to it than the current flag. As stated in this website the original flag was decided by Maori chiefs who I think wanted to represent their belonging to the country and show themselves separately and independently from the British. With this being replaced with the Union Jack and later with the current flag I feel this constitutes a sense of British forces dominance over what was at the time the first New Zealanders. I also like to see myself as a New Zealander, not a Briton who came to New Zealand. The flag to me looks like a map for the British to use to sail to here with the southern cross as a direction. Also the current flag has a large resemblance to the Australian flag which does not help us to be referenced as a separate country.

A flag I came across that brings in a lot of depth and meaning yet is very simple in its state. http://johnansell.wordpress.com/category/general/flag/

For my interpretation of what the flag should be I went for something more like the NZ Coat of Arms to show the collaboration and association between the Moari and the British. I also went for something that was unique to New Zealanders to help identify who we are. The choice in colours was constructed from our national colours similar to what most other countries have for their flags. The symbol of the crown would not be my first choice if I had more choice of British symbols as I don't think it shows current times, the only symbol I could find to represent the British was the crown or the Union Jack but I think the Union Jack is too complicated for my map. I would also consider maybe making the entire background black instead of splitting it into threes because I think it looks too much like an equation as if saying British + Maori = NZ. This was more of an idea than a construct, I would not want our flag to be this but have a similar concept with different symbols of our belonging.

My version of the flag, I did not create these symbols which can be found here:

http://www.christchurchmusic.org.nz/files/u761/tikidub_logo.jpg

http://www.vinylvault.biz/images/Silver%20Fern%20-%201.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/0e/Columbia_College_of_Columbia_University_crown.svg/286px-Columbia_College_of_Columbia_University_crown.svg.png

Patterns

Kaleidoscope

A kaleidoscope is a device used to create symmetrical images using mirrors and light that reflects from mirror to mirror, these images can change depending on what objects are in the kaleidoscope and how many mirrors there are. I find it unique for a kaleidoscope to represent a part of art, it shows perfect symmetrical objects which could represent an unlimited or infinite feeling of creation. Where as I see art as a more limited and mortal creation just like us humans. Also from using real live imagery, it can create a sense of parallel universes within the device. I see from pages like here that it looks like the images themselves could also be considered objects such as artifacts. I also thought that the consideration of the kaleidoscopes being used in current technology such as televisions and laptops gave it more use than just entertainment. But this is because of the math and symmetry behind it rather than the art which I think can really make the kaleidoscope a hybrid of math and art.

Modern Artists And What I See Mathematically

Julio Le Parc

http://www.julioleparc.org/en/open_image.php?aw_cat_id=16&aw_id=328

In this art the most obvious is the repetition of the structure of the picture. If this is the full art picture too then it would seem not each of the five images are of the same size and the spacing between each is off as well. I also noticed the background light changes from one side to the other as the pictures progress, as if there is a sort of rotation happening.


Reginald H. Neal

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dc/Reginald_Neal-Double_Hexagon_1967.JPG

With this one there is the two obvious hexagon shapes. They appear to both be centered with one rotated 45 degrees. There is also an abysmal flower pattern created from the hexagons as they become smaller and smaller inside each other centering into the middle. Since the shapes intersect each other they are able to create a flower pattern out of the black spaces between the lines that make the spaces look like they are curving. I find this fascinating to see curved patterns within straight lines as the relationship between the two mines are very different.



Victor Vasarely

 

http://images.worldgallery.co.uk/i/prints/rw/lg/2/5/Victor-Vasarely-Vonal-KSZ-25890.jpg

This image gives the illusion of a 3 dimensional shape. I think it is not only from the quadrilaterals and where they are positioned and shaped but also the use of colour too. Its as if it is a topographic map that measures height instead by colour with the brown and white being either shortest or highest point on the map. This of course means the depth would go up and down like a wavelength. The quadrilaterals are also not centered, except maybe the smallest one, this makes it look as though we are looking around a corner to the right of a hallway.

Pāngarau & Mahi a toi

When talking about math and art I have always been able to give a basic meaning of what the two are from past experience and what we base around them. Since discussing in class what is and is not math and art, it has got me to question how these exist around each other and how they relate. I see art as a reflection of the artist and I develop a sense of story of how the art came to be. With math I always saw it as a truth of science that exists around us and without us. To say that it doesn't would also be to say numbers do not exist without us. But then it would look more profound to say that numbers are just symbols used to help simplify and accurately label certain objects. I guess I will be able to make a more informed decision on what exactly math is and how it is related to art in the coming weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb4OrqPBQyA

For art I always like to to see what sort of reaction humans get out of the art and the mental state it might bring forth on such people. Things like what the eye is attracted to and how we determine what looks right and what doesn't. With math I like the patterns that are formed through memory and how we are able to find quicker solutions to problems using similar equations and substitutions. Going into how these interests relate could be seen from finding meaning behind both the equations and the image.As if to say I like what both the artist and the mathematician are showing or trying to show their audience.