Friday, 11 December 2015

Interactive Media 2015 - Written statement

Tristan Griffin s5006448 :: Interactive Media 2015

The following document will explore the technologies, code and software explored during first semester of 2015. Please refer to Journal website for examples, you will find them categorize in the menu by week, then by class activity, group activity and homework. There are approximately 25 inclass examples and 38 homework examples provided in the digital Journal.

Over the course of the semester we covered the basics of creating a HTML code structure and how to use the HTML elements in conjunction with CSS and Javascript. The basics of website file structure was also addressed, for example CSS, JS and IMAGE folders and how to intergrate them into the HTML code. The use of Sublime text editor assisted in the creation and editing of the HTML, CSS and Javascript files. We were also introduced online services such as GitHUB, codepen, w3 school, codrops and CSS diner which assisted in our learning and development.

In week 4 we were introduced to responsive layout design, creating an experiment with the 'responsive man', this extended eventually into full responsive website layouts which can be assisted by online responsive generators such as www.responsivegridsystem.com or throught the use of templating such as Bootstrap. I have since made an effort to make all my web based creations responsive as people will often be viewing content on mobile devices in preference to a desktop environment.
Quite alot of time was spent on intergrating CSS into our website content. We explored basic CSS element control ( changing and applying attributes such as color, size, shape, z-index and position ), as well as CSS animations and transformations (week 7 – 8 ). I extended this exploration with the creation of a program that displays an image as text (http://artworkprocess.com/textify/index.html ). To achieve this effect I used a combination of AJAX, Javascript, CSS and responsive webdesign.

Group activities play an important role over the semester, i worked primarily with Ryan, Enya and Grace. I found that group activities and assisting fellow class members during the semeter on class activities helped in my learning, particularly in being able to find code errors. As a group we looked at javascript, intergration of video into websites, HTML5 boiler plate, attribute selectors (which followed the CSS diner 'http://flukeout.github.io/' test) , bootstrap and for the final group project we researched 'Content Management Systems'(CMS). As a part of the CMS project I experimented heavily with javascript to populate content fields using datablocks, jquery to populate content datablock based on user selection and iframe intergration. I then had to do extensive research into creating basic Image and Text CMS systems, using MySQL and php handling of text and images. I discovered that storing an image in MySQL has been banned by many webhosting companies due to the belief that it degrades their services. This led me to researching and learning the PDO (php data object) language and how to dynamically create sqLite databases (the advantage of PDO and sqLite being that you do not need to setup the mysql server privledges. You just upload to the server, nothing else required). This technology has been implimented into the final website project and a digital artwork for NEW MEDIA.

Conclusion
Ive entered interactive media as a first year Fine arts student with an IT background. Until this year I had not contemplated combining these two disciplines but with this course and new media I am begining to see the potential for this combination. As a result of interactive media and new media classes I feel that my programming knowledge and traditional fine art techniques are competent enough to be able to start to focus primarily on conceptual development.
The potential for the digital medium to create art that is performative, sculptural, ephemeral,
interactive, globally accessible, self running, adaptive, voyeuristic, experiential and emersive excites and inspires me.


Week 1
Inclass: Introduced to 'sublime' text editor for use in programming. Introduced to GitHUB and its useage. Covered basic structure of a HTML page including creation of a CSS file and its linkage in HTML
Group activity: working with Ryan and Grace we were asked to briefly research javascript which we then presented to the class
Homework: extention of HTML page and experimentation with CSS to create buttons, shaped boxes, responsive layout, slideshow and menu

Week 2
Inclass: Covered the creation of a basic website with a menu to be used as a journal.
Group activity: working with Ryan we research the use of video on a website, we created an example using various methods of adding video to a website ie iframe, html5 and embedding .
Homework: Creation of a responsive menu and responsive paragraphs. Exploration of Bootstrap, creation of a bootstrap page with experimentation with bootstrap image bordering.

Week 3
Inclass: Activity was based on Skyes 'website' very brightly colored, not responsive. Was designed to get a better grasp of html code layout
Group activity: working with Ryan and Grace we research the use of HTML5 boiler plate.
Homework: Experiemtation with javascript to populate content fields using datablocks, jqery to populate content datablock based on user selection, iframe intergration and basic PHP experimentation.

Week 4
Inclass: Bit of fun with CSS in the creation of a responsive man, but resizing the browser the positioning of his facial element and width of his head changes.
Group activity: none this week
Homework: Initial research into creating basic Image and Text CMS systems, using MySQL and php handling of text and images. Discovered that storing an image in MySQL has been banned by many webhosting companies due to the belief that it degrades their services. Additionally researched various ways to add sounds to a website and how to control those sounds dynamically.

Week 5
Inclass: This week we were asked to try and complete the CSS Diner test. A series of 16 CSS selector questions, some of which were difficult.
Group activity: the group activity with Enya was an extention of the CSS diner test in that we had to be able to select various elements and alter them. In the example I have colorcoded the selected items.
Homework: none this week

Week 6
Inclass: CSS animation and transformation was the focus this week, playing with the pulsing heart code which was from codepen.
Group activity: non this week
Homework: Focus was on embedding elements. A pdf was embeded into an Iframe, to resize I learnt the used of 100vh (vertical height) CSS attribute setting as using percentage on vertical height can be problematic . I also embeded icons into a responsive menu, the application of a Social Nav menu.


Week 7
Inclass: The focus was on extending last weeks CSS animation and transformation experimentation and extending it to moving objects with javascript. I had fun with this project by creating a pacman chase game with sound (the idea being if you click on pacman, your the ghost, that the sound will stop). We also played with more examples from codepen.
Group activity: non this week
Homework: Extended learning and knowledge of PHP language. Created first versions of 'textify'.

Week 8
Inclass:(this week Skye was away, sent online lecture to complete) More play with javascript, changing the content of html elements and output. WE were asked to create a face with CSS animations, the highlight being 'CSS face lost in the street'.
Group activity: non this week
Homework: Created an basic online version of 'textify' which required AJAX intergration. Worked further on PHP for reading a writing to a text file on the server. And a little play with CSS to create 3D elements.

Week 9
Inclass: As Skye was back we revised the previous weeks javascript, as a challenge when you click on the color change buttons the dragon will move around the screen, this is achieved by toggling the animation cycle of the dragon on and off.
Group activity: non this week
Homework: Focus was on responsive Image Galleries that were capable of holding HTML content not just images. Secondly I explored creating a website that would scroll tot he right and left , instead of up and down. This was difficult as web code/design has been focused on downward sliding content. This week also saw the completion of a responsive/dynamic/online 'textify' page completed

Week 10
Inclass: The official introduction to bootstrap responsive grid system and templates
Group activity: exploring bootstrap code and templates, Enya and I produced a demo website for our CMS group project.
Homework: Lost of homework this week, due to the group project presentation coming up, dynamic UL creation, image uploading to server via php, WYSIWYG text edit intergration, adminLogin for sqlite, password protected pages, sqlite server tests and the C3 website template/editor which is to be used for the CMS. Also the early stages for my personal website using the right and left scrolling website code from last week but extending it to have mouse scroll overrides ( scrolling the mouse wheel scrolls the screen left and right instead of up and down).

Week 11
Inclass: Playing with javascript to call .data() and use the callback to change the color of the screen, some work on the group presentation was made this week as we will be doing it next week.
Group activity: non this week
Homework: Group presentation next week so finalising how to use PDO server code to read write and append the data base was the focus as well as intergrating the dynamic menu system into webpages. Research into using javascript to callin to and from PHP/the server and using the returned data was made.

Week 12
Inclass: Presentation of Group project www.interactivemediacmsgroupproject.weebly.com



No comments:

Post a Comment