User:Quinten swagerman/steve/whathowwhy

Note: In process

One Page Flip

What

One Page Flip is a flip book – a little book which, when held in the left hand and flipped through with the right, shows an animation. The cover is white and on it it says in bold, black, capital letters:

ONE
PAGE
FLIP

The book has 75 pages. On them: a thin black line-drawn animation of two hands flipping an empty flip book. One page is being flipped. In other words: within the span of flipping 75 pages, one page flips in the flip book within the flip book.

How

I took a photograph of my hands holding a flip book, then traced the photograph, creating a line-drawing. Next I animated the movement of one page flipping and added some slight movements to the hands holding the flip book. I exported the frames of the animation, printed them, cut them out and bound them together.

Why

While working on another flip book the idea popped up. From this point on I could not help myself.

Collective Waiting Portrait

Collective Waiting Portrait is a website that collects pictures of people waiting at pedestrian traffic lights. The pictures are taken from the other side of the street, so that the people photographed look in the direction of the camera.

Two red buttons in the form of a circle hover over the images in the top left corner. The 'Collective Waiting Portrait' button opens a window which gives a brief description of the aim of the site: ‘Collective Waiting Portrait collects people waiting for the light to turn green’, under this description: a Facebook ‘Like’ button. The 'Submit' button opens another window, with the e-mail address that people can use to submit images to.

People know of the site by a yellow sticker to be found on traffic lights. This sticker is based on the existing sticker to be found near the button on most pedestrian traffic lights in The Netherlands. On it: an illustration of a man taking a picture of two people on the other end of the zebra crossing, and, under this, the instructions: 1) take a picture of the people on the other side, 2) send to submit@collectivewaitingportrait.net.

How

The photographs are scaled so that the peoples’ sizes match, rotated so that the horizon is horizontal, and placed horizontally next to each other, the pavements connecting. The image taken last is placed left, scrolling to the right shows the earlier taken images. Under the pictures: the name of the city in which the image was taken, the date on which it was taken, the first name of the person that took it, preceded by the two words ‘thank’ and ‘you’.

The sticker was made by tracing sticker as found on most traffic lights in The Netherlands, giving the man waiting on it a camera and adding two men waiting on the opposite side of the street. Some investigations where done to see if the graphic was clear: I asked people what the waiting man was photographing. Some thought the street, and thus some changes where made, primarily raising the camera.

Why

Blip Listening

What

Blip Listening is a series of animations based on field recordings, to be seen on smartphones, being launched by a sticker with a QR-code, to be found on different places in Rotterdam.

The animations are short, from 30 seconds to one minute and 30 seconds. They visualize one sound element from the field recording in a minimal and abstract manner. For example: a white bar on a black background visualizes the bleep of a cash register in a supermarket. The visualized sound recordings where made on squares, in supermarkets, at intersections, in metro stations, etcetera.

The animation is launched by a QR-code, printed in the bottom right corner of a sticker. This sticker measures 15 by 10 centimeters and is placed where the sound was recorded. Above the QR-code, the sticker shows a visual element from the animation it launches. In case of the bleeping cash registers: a bar.

How

I recorded the sound of different places, then made selections within those recordings, the maximum duration of one clip being one minute and thirty seconds. Playing the selections on headphones, I picked out one sound element of the sound and scribbled down associating shapes. I picked out the shapes that made most sense and animated them in the computer, matching the sound.

The shape and a QR-code where printed on translucent sticker material. I cut out the stickers and placed them at the spots where the sound was recorded.

Why

I was interested in the experience of places through sound. In idle moments – lying on my back in a park, sitting on the balcony, etcetera - I sometimes found myself listening intensely, trying to hear as much as possible. The world unfolds in a different way when listening. Dziga Vertov says it beautifully:

I wanted to create tiny reminders of the sounds surrounding us, and of this mode of listening, that isn’t about functional orientation, notification, conversation. But as a way of experiencing an environment.