Lines, Circles, and Spectacles

“Design depends largely on constraints”. This brings up an important idea in the balance between what is aesthetic and what is functional. Pullin describes the tension in medical professionals in engaging with a medical market that places objects “in fashion” or subsequently “out of fashion”.

What this tension tells us is of the significance in art and, in this case, design in creating and shifting the zeitgeist. A topic we touched upon in class, we now see that the zeitgeist is closely referenced in the medical field which attempts to make disability invisible. But as our notions of what should and shouldn’t be invisible, we see eyewear, a marker of disability, move from the realm of the invisible to visible, and s marker of something more than disability.

Here we see an intersection in the politically rooted nature of art, and the functionality of design. Spectacle designs take a stance on the nature of disabiilty and then create a specific experience with its use that exist outside of its original and inherent function. Wearing well design glasses express wealth, at some point in time is represented intelligence. These are factors influenced by design.  Ultimately, someone can engineer a fantastic set of spectacles, but what purpose does it serve if the experience of an individual is out of their control.

 

Additionally, here is my sketch for the week using objects.

//Circles and Lines_Nisala Saheed

DrawLine myLine[];
PVector center;
float angle;
float angle2;
float radius;
int numLines = 15;

void setup() {
  size(600, 600);
  
  center = new PVector (width/2, height/2); // we need to know the center of the cirlce that we are drawing.
  angle = 0;
  angle2 = 0;
  radius = 100;
  float increment = TWO_PI/numLines;
  myLine = new DrawLine[numLines];

  //increase i as an increment for the number of lines, until it reaches the desired number of lines
  for (int i=0; i<numLines; i++) {
    float ang = i*increment;//this is how much the angle increments by.
    myLine [i] = new DrawLine (ang, ang*sin(3)*4, radius);
  }
}
void draw() {
//background(50);
noStroke();
fill(20,30); 
rect(0,0, width,height);

  //if you want to see the center
  //ellipse(center.x, center.y, 10, 10);
//draw the lines
  for (int i=0; i<numLines; i++) {
    myLine[i].display();
    myLine[i].update();
  }
}

class DrawLine {

  PVector point1;
  PVector point2;

  float angle;
  float angle2;
  float radius;

  float x;
  float y;

  float x2;
  float y2;



  DrawLine(float _angle, float _angle2, float _radius) {

    point1 = new PVector(x, y);
    point2 = new PVector(x2, y2);

    angle=_angle;
    angle2=_angle2;
    radius = _radius;
  }

  void update() {

    x = center.x + cos(angle)*radius;
    y = center.y + sin(angle)*radius;


    x2 = center.x- cos(angle2)*radius;
    y2 = center.y- sin(angle2)*radius;

    angle += PI/120;
    angle2+=PI/90;
  }

  void display() {
    
    stroke(21, 220,160);
    line(x, y, x2, y2);
  }
}