Author: Mukhlisa

Week 2 – Reading Response

After I watched Casey Reas’s Chance Operations talk I was filled with different emotions, curious and even inspired. The way he treated randomness was probably the most interesting part of it, although it may sound cliche. The progress of his works that were shown was fascinating. He treated randomness not as something chaotic but rather international, and the precision and effort it took to create that art is truly fascinating. Even a single dash or slash, once given a set of rules and a little unpredictability, could turn into visuals that felt alive. It made me think about my own tendency to over-control creative work, sometimes the most interesting results come when I just let the imagination be (just like in homework for this class). 

I also liked the way he uses geometry as a way to move from points to lines, and even dimensions that are very difficult to picture in mind. At the same time, his examples reminded me that digital randomness isn’t truly random at all, it’s always controlled by algorithms and history. 

What stayed with me most was his idea that just a “slight bit of noise” keeps systems alive, which I think is such a relatable thing in our daily life as well, because would it be so interesting to live and to be if it wasn’t for imperfections?



Week 1 – self portrait

Concept

For the self portrait I decided to show not exactly my picture, but the picture of my inner animal.

Initially, I drew a sketch of myself, holding a camera, because photography is on of my favorite hobbies. However, I then thought of giving more meaning to my portrait, because I had a call with my mom and remembered how she always called me an owl when I was a child (reason being my sleep schedule that is still very bad). So I thought, if my sleep schedule harms my health, let me at least use it to benefit my academics.


my initial sketch

what I decided to create

Creation

It was a little challenging for me to get started on p5.js, because of my limited coding skills, but after some experiments I was able to actually create something using simple circles, triangles and lines. One of the most challenging parts was creating the feathers on my Owl’s body, so I used some help from AI. I tried not to simply copy the code, but learn how to do it on my own as well. And because this was one of the most confusing part for me, I am proud because I eventually created it.

Interactivity

I made my drawing clickable: the owl sleeps during the day but if you click it, night comes and it wakes up (just like me).

Improvements

There are a lot of things I would like to improve in my project, one of them being enhanced interactivity. I would love to add moving clouds, more complex shapes for the owl, stars at night, and many others things that could make my owl more “likable”.