I’m really pleased with the outcome of it. The textures came from Jocosity, Lailomeiel and Cloaks. The sexy swirly awesome vectors are from jlwDesign. So with these newfound techniques, I’ve got some great ideas for this site!

Meet Cyber Figure Alice, for all your otaku needs.

Actually I think this is a pretty impressive example of virtual interaction and augmented reality. It reminds me of a flash project that ran along the same lines I saw a third year student present for their final presentation; in which they used black and white shapes to trigger an animation on the screen. Different combinations of shapes made different animations. This seems to work on a similar idea, but it works through a webcam rather than a projector, meaning you can run the programme from your desk at home.

The title of the dissertation is Technological Predictions in Practice: Do predictions in technology come true and what impact do they have on our future? The goal is to discover what predictions people have made about technology and weather they have come true in present society. The idea came about from reading The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil. The book makes predictions as to the future of technology moving through various decades. Starting with 2009. As it is currently 2008, and 2009 isn’t all that far away, I assumed that it would be reasonably straightforward to say whether he was right or not about his 2009 predictions; and it is.

However the nature of the dissertation does not make things straightforward. In fact it makes things incredibly difficult. It’s not satisfied if I say so and so was right or not. I have to say why they were right (or not), and they were (or weren’t), then why they were (or weren’t). In addition to this, I have to expand the text with examples, references, contexts and all the other little details that will build the word count up to the 7,000-9,000 words it has to be. I’m getting there, little by little. I’ve done an interview, with another lining itself up. I have questionaires, and many book and web references about Dennis Gabor, NASA and hoverboards. People and things that experiment with the future. On the whole I’m enjoying it, though the prospect of writing 9,000 words is somewhat daunting. But I think I’ll get there.

So there you have it, my dissertation. Or at least its concept.

It’s pretty simple, and is more of a novelty thing. But I think there could be some interesting uses for it.

However after a couple of hours of doing this, I decided to explore a bit more into the programme. I realised I’ve never played too much with type, and making graphics out of type. So I figured I’d have a quick go at it. Here’s the final result.

And I just had to fit the Conglomerfont in there somehow

The project itself is actually a negotiated brief, where we can choose from several different briefs provided by the RSA, and so I chose ‘Postage Stamps’. The idea of the brief is to create six new stamps that create awareness about the environment, and things that are and/or can be done to help the planet and conserve our energy resources. The initial presentation for it was yesterday, and so I’d say we’re a little under half way to the finishing point.

I like the idea I’m going with, but I’m not happy with the stamps design. I think I rushed them. But since the presentation I’ve come up with a new concept to work with, and I’m now currently working on these new designs. I’ve spent the majority of today playing in illustrator working on creating my own vectors for the designs. I’m getting there, but as always, it’s never as easy as it looks.