MIXTAPE MADNESS - 'ARRIVAL' CONCEPT REDEVELOPMENT

"Simple is good!"

Following up from my 'Biting off more than I can chew' blog, I have finished the visuals for my new take on my concept 'Arrival'. I knew I had to make it far more simple and manageable, making sure the end product is very doable with the knowledge, resources and time available - Which should have been done in the first place however I like going for the hardest, biggest ideas because, well, that's just me.

Coming from this realisation of needing to make 'Arrival' more simple, I researched into interactive online particle designs. The search was successful, I found an excellent website

https://speckyboy.com/particle-animation-code-snippets/ which has the perfect examples of what I was trying to achieve in the first place, but with less code and less equipment needed.

https://codepen.io/Zaku/pen/EDaun

Although there were plenty of good programmes, my favourite by far was the programme called 'Codepen'. Please click on the link above to use the programme.

As you can see, when you hover the mouse above the screen, the particles warp and move around where the cursor is. The particles move in a really nice, fluid action and revert back to their original position which I think is really interesting as when I play around with the original image, the idea of the particles coming back to the original position will play a part in the meaning of 'Arrival'.

Having an idea of the programme that I would like to use, I then went to look for inspiration for what the programme will actually look like as I cannot use the image 'Codepen' for this, it would make no sense and would definitely get me a bad grade.

As I am sediment on using the song 'The nature of daylight' I wanted to progress with a concept that would fit nicely with this song. This turned me to the murmurations of starlings, which is the movement of thousands starlings moving in a group across countries to stay protected from predators.

Personally, I think it is absolutely stunning and fits perfectly for my 'Arrival' project as it goes with the song as well as the title... Arrival - The starlings are arriving? You get it?

As well as being inspired by the beauty of nature, I also learnt about two artists which had worked with birds in their art exhibitions and installations.

"TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE AND CREATIVITY COMBINE TO CREATE

EVOCATIVE IMAGES WHICH SHOW THE SENSUALITY AND

BEAUTY OF THE BIRD’S MOVEMENTS AND WHICH ARE, AT THE

SAME TIME, CLUES FOR THOSE WISHING TO IDENTIFY OR

RECOGNISE THEM."

The images above are by Xavi Bou, a Spanish photographer and artist who focus on birds for his projects. As you can see from the images, they are not normal photos of birds, he uses the movement of the birds in the sky to create incredible patterns in the sky. With the murmurations of starlings in mind, Xavi's work is a perfect reference for how I could push my project further and create a unique artistic aesthetic to further develop the beauty of the original inspiration, nature.

"Grouping together offers safety in numbers – predators find it hard

to target one bird in the middle of a hypnotising flock of

thousands."

I wanted to visualise the what the murmuration of starlings would look like in a grey and black colour scheme as I believe this would be the most effective display. Personally I think black and white looked too similar to the already formatted Colourpen example online.

Referring back to the grey and black visuals, I then needed to show what it would look like if someone touched the screen, the touch creating a whole in the murmuration.

I think the touch, separating the murmuration, is a really strong concept as, it can represent a predator trying to hunt for the starlings, the predator will try to separate the starlings by diving into the murmuration and picking off the separated birds.

I personally love that quote especially the 'hypnotising flock of thousands' part, I think I will have a plaque next to this instalment with the quote, which doesn't explain what I am trying to achieve with the installation, but gets the viewer to think of why the murmuration is important and what the interactive touch will do and what it refers to.

My next steps will be to meet the hackspace people and get my images onto the programme.

While I was writing this, I also thought of another feature, if the 'separated' particles can disappear ie the ones on the edge of the touch interaction, which will represent the predator killing and taking away that bird from the murmuration. This would be a really good way of suggesting the starlings need power in numbers to protect themselves and re affirms the idea of the touch is the predator.