Author: nathier fernandez

Final project proposal / Birding

| nathier fernandez

*Create a proposal for your final project.*

 

I’ve been interested in ornithology since childhood. Most of my illustrations are scientific illustrations of birds. I’ve followed Audubon’s work; he was an explorer, a scientific and talented artist. I wanted to follow his steps until I understood that in order to illustrate his birds he had to collect the specimens. So, [insert over exaggerated childhood trauma here] the fantasy vanished almost immediately (It gives me a stomach ache to think about it, pretty much the same thing happens whenever I go to the American Museum of Natural History).

Here is were birding came to the rescue, I’m a total amateur and not a good birder at all, it gave me the opportunity of nourish this interest of mine. Unfortunately… I haven’t illustrated in months and all the birding I make these days is a random – magical – tiny -unexpected moment than anything else.

 

 

According to Wikipedia, birding is “a form of wildlife observation in which the observation of birds is a recreational activity. It can be done with the naked eye, through a visual enhancement device like binoculars and telescopes, by listening for bird sounds, or by watching public webcams.” And the main idea behind this final project is to watch and listen to the birds, but also to interact with them. Birders say that the best way to detect a bird’s presence is by sound, through their songs and callings. Audubon has an extensive library of birdsong for learning purposes.

I want to create an installation where people would be able to call birds. The idea is that blowing (mimicking whistle gesture) makes a real birdsong to play, depending on how strong the person blows the song gets played and the bird that belongs to that song comes out and say “Hello” to you. It will be an ICM and PCOMP project.

 

There are some projects that were a great inspiration for this project:

Juan Fontanive creates moving images through physical machines, using natural history illustrations from the 18th and 19th century of birds.

And Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates sound installation with living birds in controlled environments.

 

 

 

 

 

Final project concept / Drawing machine

| nathier fernandez

*Brainstorm some concepts for your final project. You don’t have to commit to these, just come up with a few ideas in which you are interested. Include a brief description and an illustration.*

 

««««««« Post under construction »»»»»»»

– DRAWING MACHINE-

final project concept

I really wanted to create a drawing machine at some point of PCOMP. Based on Pete Prodoehl’s drawing machine, I made my first approach, with most of the materials on hand (wood dowels, electric tape, hot glue, potentiometers, wires, breadboard and an Arduino UNO, only the servo motors were bought), it was a possible task [in theory].

With the materials, a reference and a little understanding of how to write in code on the Arduino IDE, a clumsy drawing machine came to live. The machine had several problems, the fragile fabrication (product of rapid prototyping) made the pen to fall off or to slowly turn diagonally; the weight of the components made the machine to fall on its side or completely apart; the communication between the motors was none existing, making the movements independent from each motor, translating in random, chaotic, Pollock-like kind of lines.

From the beginning, the idea was for the drawing machine to work in a Cartesian space. Figuring out the coming together between the code and the mechanism was a big challenge.

My final project is to continue this endeavour: to build a drawing machine that actually draws under a fluid control from the user.

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[ types of drawing machines ](My drawing machine)

 

[ Inspiration ]

(Jürg Lehni‘ drawing machines)

(Durrell Bishop and Robert Poll’s drawing bot “Line-us“)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t make a video mirror

| nathier fernandez

*Create a sketch that uses external media. Once you’ve mastered the basics by making prototype sketches that play sounds, draw images to the screen, scrub video, etc., think a bit more deeply about how the data in the media can be used, beyond its most evident affordances. Interpret the media accordingly. BONUS: Don’t make a video mirror or a soundboard.*

 

 

Based on Shiffman’s brightness mirror tutorial and Allison’s HUE Mode colour in class example.  The code could be found here.

 

| nathier fernandez

Nathier is a New York-based multidisciplinary designer, researcher and artist with a practice that stretches beyond different design areas such as visual, spatial, interactive and speculative. They hold a Masters of Professional Studies in Interactive Telecommunications Program from New York University, and a Bachelors of Arts in Design from Universidad de Los Andes, with a minor in Communication Design.

As a designer, their work translates in rich visual landscapes that materialize in spaces, experiences and installations with commissions throughout the spectrum of performing arts and entertainment industries in the USA and Latin America.

As an artist, they explore possible futures, realities and practices around human and non human interactions throughout a research-based practice that often implements biological and digital systems alike.

 n[@]nathier.com

ARTIST STATEMENT

Poetry, science, art, culture and technology are constant mediators, translators, and incubators that engage with the unexpected, push boundaries, and cross disciplines. Today, intersections between biological, digital, and physical systems have the possibility of being explored through different realms of creation and as new media emerges, alternative relationships are possible through the enhancement technology provides.

Speculating on possible futures, realities, and practices in ways that are in constant conversation with what is considered human and non-human. Then, to fall into the vertigo of trillion cells that blur the line of the self, reinterpreting life set of instruction to to create new fictions, to see DNA not only as data, but a vessel where information can be stored, multiplied and harvested, or use machines as extensions of human sensory systems should be expected.

Errors and mutations become a leitmotif of the artwork, as someone now embracing their own language disorder, dyslexia, errors are encouraged, expected, welcomed both aesthetically and metaphorically. The artwork materializes as installations, art objects or algorithmic storytelling and my ongoing experimentations keeps an open door to the way my practice manifest as well keeping an eye out for those poetic voids that can only be translated by machines and transcribed by humans. 

D1f mt-MRCA POEM [Genetically generated text] | Structure: [self] mt-MRCA [matrilineal most recent common ancestor] DNA sample | Generator: Machine | Transcription : Human | This poem was created following my own Mitrocondrial DNA sample. A tracing of kingship through the female line, the D1f  Haplogroup, is one of five main haplogroups found in the indigenous peoples of the Americas – Korébajü, Children of the Earth. – A custom algorithm that follows biological protocols and creates a linguistic interpretation of the genetic information – Artist statement served as the text corpus of the algorithm.

/＼ ^._.^ ／\ API

| nathier fernandez

*Create a sketch that loads external data (whether from an existing file or through a web API). Interpret this data visually or interactively.*

 

 

I decided to use the Giphy API and follow Shiffman’s tutorial about it. It started with the idea of always using cat gifs whenever you clicked the button, then that changed to puppies, pandas and bats, BATS!! BATS!!!… Obviously, I went for a Halloween/bat approach.

You could play with my bat giphy maker and see the code in this link (I added some changes in HTML and the CSS as well). HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

 

Mounting motors

| nathier fernandez

*For the last assignment you will be mounting a motor/servo/stepper (one or more) to something as well as mounting something to that motor/servo/stepper.  It can be completely DIY, or off-the-shelf components, or a combination of the two.*

 

Inspirations or how I’m a Zimoun wannabe for this assigment.

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if you are like me and making paper planes is a complete mystery, here is a helpful link.

 

Materials and construction.

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