Tutorial Monday7th November: mysterious machines

 

This is the frame for "Me Story" - not the actual name, but a working title. I haven't made enough bits or done them correctly, but it will do for now.

This is one of the things that I showed N. Kidd in our tutorial today. I think it's safe to say that she wasn't as impressed as I was with the product or the project. This is always a bit worrying, especially when a previous tutorial with a different tutor has been very positive. 

But it gives you food for thought and after all that's the point of these sessions. Also I was very tired for this session so I'm not sure if I articulated what I was hoping to do as clearly as I could have done. Still Natasha gave me some interesting stuff to reflect on: "What was/is the story?", "How will people encounter this - where will it be situated - who is my audience?", "How will people encounter the story (and why should they care?)?", "Is it fact or fiction?". All of these are valid and indeed pertinent questions to ask. The biggest one, and one that I can't think my way out of at the moment is "Why should they care?". I don't know. Quite possibly it's self indulgent, but then a lot of art is.

The second major area in the critical was looking at my A.I. generated images of arcade machines. Almost every tutor has got excited about the picture of the machine below:

Generated a few weeks ago by Dawn AI, this image is mysterious as there's no obvious function. I'm trying to recall the text I used to generate it, but I fear it's lost forever. Natasha challenged me to come up with an operation and make it. Her parting words:

"You're a tinkerer really"

My Mum used to call be a a tinker. I like that.

Tutorial 8th November

Surprised myself when this photo was first opened. I had forgot that it's on my diary with its multicolour* 'Do sheet' (something I remember from Dixons days). 

This is a Lasercut panel for a coin acceptor. I have used the official product sheet to design the hole and the screw positions. Sadly it doesn't work as there is a very small screw that stops the coin acceptor mechanism being put in. Hence the little pencilled bit.

In the tutorial we discussed this coinbox at length. My impression was that, like an earlier tutorial, the person I'm talking to gets a bit excited about some of the machines - or their potential. I tried to insist that this is a prototype, it's just to get a feel for the mechanisms and to learn to program it. When I've done that, then I'll think about how to deploy it. Nevertheless, there were some intriguing suggestions and some real links with Natasha's tutorial yesterday. (See next post.)

As this was a new tutor, we also discussed things like 'Why are you here?" and my history. I guess that comes with being a bit older. It's a long story, but I try to keep it as short as possible. I don't always succeed...

He's interested in the Machine though. Thinks they offer some possibilities, makes some suggestions that I have heard before: "Simplify" "Show movement" "Less is more". These I should pay attention to, although the temptation is always to make things more complex and detailed. Perhaps I should take some older stuff in?

He also hesitantly asked if "arcade" was a good descriptor, I think imagining I would be upset/disturbed at that. Quite the opposite!

One final note: I did a quick survey today. Out of all the people I asked, none had any coins. That's going to make coin-op tricky!

*Each day is allocated a colour in turn. When I've completed something I colour it in. After a time I can see days that have been productive and days that are not. I can also see things that are being left out. Usually they need breaking down to smaller tasks - or just crossing out. Sounds efficient. Don't be fooled. If I had 'procrastination' and 'indecision' on the list, then I could colour in loads.