Intro to Computational Media

Decodelia (2016) by Melanie Hoff

Optical Illusion

Objective

Design and code an animating optical illusion and consider its deployment.

Description

This week's lecture introduced multiple examples of how optical illusions were deployed to obfuscate personal information, communictaion, and locations. For this assignment, you will create an optical illusion that animates, then consider possible ways your work may be deployed in the world around you. In addition to the examples provided in lecture and weekly tutorials, Nazia Fakhruddin has written a handful of interesting ways to create visual illusions in p5.js on Medium, and the Illusion Index and Micahel Bach's site documents various types of optical illusions you may incorporate into your work.

Optical illusion, which stems from pattern-making, is an ancient and culturally diverse practice. We encourage you to consider your cultural experience (e.g. environment you've grown up in, media you were informed by, materials you had access to) as a starting point of the design process.

Design Constraint

Canvas Size: 600 x 600

Timeline

Part 1 : Due 10/5

  1. Research and sketch out three optical illusion ideas.
  2. Be prepared to share your sketches on 10/5, and discuss how each sketch might be used as an "illusion tactic" in the world around you.

Part 2: Due 10/12

  1. Choose the idea with the most meaningful/impactful illusion tactic.
  2. Begin working on your sketch. You will incorporate For Loops and Nested For Loops to create the patterns. Then you will use IF / ELSE statements to animate the shapes.
  3. Be sure to include the following information on your portfolio Assignment #5 page:
    • Your p5 sketch (embedded iframe)
    • Your name
    • A description of your project idea including context and visual strategy you have employed.
    • Your assignment reflections
  4. Reflect upon the following:
    • Describe the process of researching, designing, and fine-tuning your optical illusion.
    • How might your optical illusion get deployed in the world around you? May it be incorporated into a browser extension? Can it possibly be turned into a piece of wearable?

Submission Guidelines

Please submit your sketch to two places:

  1. Submit the sketch to Canvas Assignment 5
  2. Add the sketch to your Intro to Computational Media portfolio

Tutorials