Name

Darren Stevens

UK Contact Tel

07811 694 907

Proposed project title

The interaction of the user in the production of random images.

Aims of the project

To create the means to allow for the user to participate in the production of images thought the use of randomly aligned objects and their relationships to one another.

This will primarily allow for the removal of the designer from the role of decision maker.

Brief overview of the proposed project

The work that I have produced in the past has been centred on the study of units of objects and their relationships to each other. This has been produced through a basis of allowing the relationships to be randomly chosen by the flick of a dice or a coin etc.

This has allowed me to remove myself from the decision making process of why objects are arbitrarily placed in one position as opposed to another.

The proposal for this self initiated project is to further the remove of myself from the decision making process and allow for the user to decide and produce images (or whatever) that place one object in relationship to another.

I also would like the project to be able to create scenarios whereby there are no limitations to the images that are produced by the user, within set criteria’s though. Once the user or myself have created a set of limitations (for how are we to create the concept of random without the use of a set of criteria), the system in use, be it electronic or human is able to present all possible outcomes attainable.

This goes in contrast to my previous working methods whereby I would create a set of limitations and then create one single image and disregard the other possible outcomes.

The basis of this project is to allow the user to have a degree of control.

Proposed methods

At the present time, the methods that I see myself using are image based systems that can allow for user interaction.

The systems that I envisage should be timeless, not beginning, middle and end time spans. This will therefore produce continuously running systems.

At the present time I do not wish to limit myself to certain systems, for research into the possibilities and criteria’s has to be made. I have to see what I can and cannot allow the user to be able to do with the interaction.

In a sense it is the creation of values that the user can exist/interact within, not only within the system but also with the ability of building an image.

Possible outcomes of the project

User interaction within set limitations of what is and is not attainable within the system and the ability to create images.

Possibilities can become limitless and I do not wish for this to happen at this stage. I will have to research into particular areas of limitations for the design of images, what can and cannot be achieved with the confinements of a particular system.

Even though I wish for the user to have the greatest possible interaction and ‘free will’ in the creations, I will though have to apply serious limits into the style and movements of an image producing system.

Resources available / required for your project

Computer Animation, to allow for the user to interact with the system in the creation of images.

The production of ‘true’ random numbers, from the internet, and their inclusion into the project. Or through the use of randomising features in the systems chosen.

Digital arts web sites and their use of interactions between the user and the system with their own criteria’s.

Proposed bibliography and research materials

Firstly the internet.

Some books from the reading list I feel would be of benefit to the project, namely:

- The human experience of space and place

- Digital Convergence: How the merging of computers, communications and multimedia is transforming our lives.

The use of systems in interactions between the computer and the user.

What way the user can go and cannot go.

Computer books.

Digital arts magazines.