Kismat Shrees – Kismat's blog

Unit 2: Positions Through Contextualising Conclusion

Unit 2: Positions Through Contextualising

Unit 2: Positions through Iterating Written Response

Unit 2: Positions through Iterating Conclusion

16/04/23 – 23/04/23

Unit 2: Positions Through Iterating

09/04/24 – 16/04/24

The first Unit 2 brief tasked us with iterating on a ‘snippet’ of one of our previous projects from Unit 1 with the intention of discovering our position as a designer through this process. I faced some difficulty in selecting a starting point as I viewed all my projects from Unit 1 as standalone pieces of work that while had scope for further development did not possess the potential for reinvention into a new project. However, I knew that my position as a designer has always been influenced by science background therefore, I needed to choose a snipped from a project that best reflected this.

The snippet chosen for this project is taken from my Unit 1 Translating project, Genetic Hex Code. The 64 different shades of colour generated in that project acts as the visual material to be used for further iteration. These colours were generated from converting the genetic code consisting of triplet combinations of nucleotides (U, C, A, G) , of which there are 64 combinations into hex code values which also consists of a triplet combination. With the snippet being so broad it presented a greater potential for multiple iterations.

Spreadsheeting showing the process of quantification and conversion. Each nucleotide was given a numerical value (**U = 0.25, C = 0.5, A = 0.75, G = 1**)

p5 was used to create a generator which produces colours based on a random assortment of codons. RGB values and hex codes are interchangeable so for the purpose of this project RGB values are used. The nucleotide variables (u, a, c, g) are described alongside their values. Squares are then randomly filled with a triplet combination of u, a, c, g, each representing a codon.

Different methods were used to present the colours generated. Here, ‘strands’ of RNA are produced.

I settled on the idea of a gradient generator. Here, I decided to manpiulate the size of the ellipses created, increasing over ever iteration resulting on the emergence of the codon colours on a macro scale. The variables of u, a, c, g, which determines the RGB colours remained random.

Var r starting at 150, increasing in increments of 5 until 650.

Unit 1: Methods of Iterating Written Response

Draft 1

Blender favours an output made in three dimensions. It provides the tools to reproduce one’s extensive imaginations and capture it in spatial reality. Objects exist in a three-dimensional continuum dictated by positions and directions. Anything can be modelled in physical space and into reality.

To use the tools of Blender appropriately requires a knowledge of mathematical space in which three values (x, y, z) is required to establish the positions of points which make up an object. This realises the object in three dimensions giving it shape and its width, height, and breadth.

Draft 2

I found Raymond Queneau’s seminal work, Exercises in Style, quite fitting as a lens to view this project (1947). Queneau’s experimental collection of 99 retellings of the same story but in different methods whether it be a sonnet or a haiku exemplifies the project brief’s objective of iteration. Therefore, I wanted to present my written response visually in different dimensional planes, x, y, and z. Each plane introduces a new further enquiry into Blender as a tool.

X = The rules and tools of thinking

Y = How to follow the rules

Z = How to break the rules

Draft 3

Text: Blender favours an output made in three dimensions. Objects exist in a three-dimensional continuum dictated by positions and directions. It provides the tools to reproduce one’s extensive imaginations and capture it in spatial reality. Within the context of graphic communication design, Blender has allowed practitioners to incorporate 3D modelling within their designs. This is reflected in recent trends of 3D elements including both illustrative and textual being utilised within graphic design. From low-poly avatars to molten chrome custom typography, there has been a definitive uptick in the use of 3D modelling software within graphic communication design in recent years.

With print and digital media design traditionally taking a two-dimensional flat form, grappling the rules of three-dimensional design provides a novel challenge to graphic designers. No longer are designers creatively bound to a 2D printed poster for example. This poster now takes the form of a digital flyer complete with motion and 3D graphics. To use the tools of Blender appropriately however requires a knowledge of mathematical space in which three values (x, y, z) is required to establish the positions of points which make up an object. This realises the object in three dimensions giving it shape and its width, height, and breadth. Therefore, much consideration is required to understand how a design is being communicated and received by the audience in all angles. If it is the case of communicating realism, a designer must reconcile the capabilities and limitations of Blender and their own ability with the capturing of true proportion, texture, and physics of the object being replicated.

However, as much as Blender allows the world to be truthfully simulated it also allows any other fantastical imagined world to be realised. A balloon with the texture of animal fur or a feather with the weight and physics of a car. To hijack the rules of Blender requires breaking the rules of reality. Whether it be altering its appearance, the physics of an object, or changing the dimensions, subverting the intended use of Blender means simulating an alternative reality. Accordingly, many graphic designers are subverting the use of Blender to not produce the high-fidelity realism the tool is capable of but simulating the glitched-out low-poly alternative realities in which their childhood may have lived in. With a recent cultural shift in reminiscing a nineties/noughties nostalgia across all media, trends in graphic design have identified Blender as an effective tool for visually communicating a gamified hijacked reality. A reality which renders all the imperfections across all dimensional planes.