Difference between revisions of "Students/Yuan Pan"

Latest revision as of 11:44, 12 March 2010

FINAL PROPOSAL

For my final I want to do a project that relates to me on a personal level, and perhaps, is an experienced shared by many others. I want to address "pressure", specifically a general societal pressure to do what is expected of you and only what is expected of you. At times, I feel like it is tough to be an individual, as if there is no room or capacity for people to perform something unexpected, unnecessary, or unorthodox. To address this I want to build an art piece that utilizes air as the moving mechanical device. Through a fan, air will be blown into a clear container that holds light, wind-responsive objects i.e. feathers or torn paper scraps. The clear container will have three openings, one large one that is host to the fan that blows air into the container itself and two "outlet" holes that let the air back out another end of the container. Which one, of the two remaining holes, air will escape out of the container will be the variable factor in this project. The two "outlets" will be smaller-sized holes that are each individually governed by servo arms that either entirely blocks, partially blocks, or entirely opens the hole. This servo arm will be dictated by the Arduino and most likely controlled at the random will of Processing. At different times, each of the two holes will be obstructed or unobstructed by the robotic arms that control its air flow. When a hole is covered less, more air will be directed to escape through its passage way, and thus the wind-responsive objects, say feathers, will all animate in the direction of the air flow and thus gather towards the more-open of the two outlet holes (these objects will be big enough so that they don't actually fit through the outlet holes and escape out of the container). The overall visual effect of this project is that the viewer will see the feathers get blown around inside the clear container, crowding around whichever hole is providing the most airflow. Basically the floating objects in this project will always be going with a certain "flow" that is declared at random by Processing. Aside from the visual elements of the project I also hope to provide audio by making use of the air escaping from either of the two outlet holes. I am thinking of doing this by attaching a wind-instrument (such as a whistle) to the outlet holes (or shape the outlet holes in a way so that they whistle when wind passes through them) so that with each varying degree of air coming out of the outlet hole, a different note of a different intensity will be played. Thus the project will also project an equally random sound that is synchronized with the random movement of the feathers/objects being animated inside the container. Hopefully the overall effect of this will give off the illusion that the feathers/objects are responding to the call of the whistles; whichever of the two whistling outlets is being blown the hardest, the feathers will follow!

I am a bit worried that I will have trouble making the whistling happen, so I might look into some other sound alternative. Visuals coming soon!

MIDTERM PROPOSAL

TRICK PEEPHOLE

I want to create an object with a peephole installed on it. What makes this peep-hole object alluring is that there will be a light emanating from the hole, temping people to look inside in hopes of finding out what is going on in there. However, the trick of it is that the light is controlled by a photoresistor. The light inside the object will only stay lit if the photoresistor detects light entering through the peephole and into the object. Once someone lowers an eye in attempt to peer through the peephole, they block out that incoming light. The curious viewer becomes the switch that turns off the light, making it impossible to ever see what is actually inside the object!

HELLO.

Yuan [pronounced yu-ohn] Pan is a second year from John Muir College majoring in media film. He was born on July 20th, 1990 and grew up in Irvine, California. He now plans to switch from third to first person narration because I think its easier this way.

I've been interested in all things visual for as long as I have existed. As a young child, I started by expressing my interests through the simple act of two-dimensional art-making: drawing. However, as I grew up I discovered more & more creative outlets to explore my visual interests. From elementary school to high school, my interests expanded into painting, sculpting, designing, crafting, and assembling 2-D, 3-D, and digital objects and subjects from all over the place.

By the time I was 15, I was severely confused as to what exactly my professional interest was to be, and I was beginning to worry... but then along came my first camera. I was instantly obsessed with photography... this ability to compose, capture, and manipulate vision. But not long after I started playing with photography, I began to yearn for something more and thus looked into the possibility of animating my still images. Very quickly I developed a passion for combining image and sound and articulating them over a timeline--and thus creating video. Since then I have stuck with film as my expressive medium of choice; however my past explorations of drawing/painting, designing, crafting/assembling--the conceiving of an idea and very hands-on act of carrying it out/bringing it to reality--still very much remains in me. Thus, although my primary interests are in film, I do intend to/have been incorporating the designer/craftsman side of me into my video work.

However, throughout my childhood explorations I never really ventured into the realm of electronics--a realm of boundless potential that I feel I can not go on any longer without becoming acquainted with. I hold a lot of excitement for this class and familiarizing myself with electronics because I know it will broaden my creative abilities/possibilities in converting ideas into an actuality; and this in turn will broaden my capabilities/capacity as a filmmaker.

THE HEADPHONE

THE COMPUTER KEYBOARD

THE SURGE PROTECTOR

THE AMPLIFIER

THE SMOKE DETECTOR

THE CAMERA