Performative Media- As2

 Name: TANG YUYING

Student ID: 0370676

Programmed: Interactive special design

Module name: Performative Media (202504-LLecture)

Introduction    

    In this blog, I will document what I’ve learned in each class, my reflections, the progress and collaboration of group assignments, as well as the feedback given by our lecturer. I hope that through this record, we can continuously improve the quality of our group project and witness how our work grows step by step.

Table of Content

1. Week 5- Learn the details of the "Chop"
2. Week 6-Learn the Wacom
3. Week 7—Learn the Wacom and Meeting
4. Week8—Learn to use a Wacom track the movements of your hands
5. Week9 —Presentation & Feedback

Week 5- Learn the details of the "Chop"

    In Week 5, we began learning about and exploring the functions of CHOP in Touch Designer. During the instructor’s explanation, we learned that CHOP mainly deals with control signals and animations. For example, operators like Face Track, Keyboard In, and Laser are used for control signals and can also be applied to external devices. Others like Delay and DMX are more related to video operations.

    Compared to the TOP section, CHOP felt a bit more complex to me, as it often involves coordination with external hardware. However, in our upcoming installation project, we will be using some devices connected to projectors, lasers, and more, so it's important for us to understand and learn this part as well.

    Later in the course, we were introduced to the requirements for Assignment 2 (AS2). In AS2, we first need to develop a clear storyline to explain our concept and what we want to express through our installation. We also need to prepare a sketch and estimate our budget—these are the tasks we need to complete at this stage. After that, we will move on to refining our design concept, gathering references, and so on.

    So, this week we focused on group discussions about how to create an installation that represents the theme of “Mirror.” We talked about its overall structure, the materials and equipment we need to include in our work, and a rough budget. These are the key points we need to clearly present to our instructor in the coming week.

Week 6-Learn the Wacom

    This week, we had an online class where we learned some information about "Wacom." During the creation process, we mainly used TOP, CHOP, MAT, and COMP. The instructor focused on teaching us how to use our computer’s built-in camera to create special portrait effects using Touch Designer.

    At the beginning of the lesson, the instructor introduced us to some of the materials in the MAT section. These materials would later be used in the visual effects we were going to create.

（Material）

    Then, we used "Video In" as the starting point to activate the video input, and added the "Edge" operator to enhance the outlines in the video. This allowed us to adjust the lines—making them either thicker or thinner—to enrich the visual details.

    Due to the mirror reflection, the video appeared reversed, so we added a "Flip" operator to align the image with the actual orientation of the person. We also included some effects like "Feedback Edge" to make the visuals look more dynamic and visually rich.

    Later in the process, I used the "Constant" material from the MAT section. However, there seemed to be some issues during the linking process, which caused my visuals to look a bit different from the instructor's. Nonetheless, I’m still grateful that the final video effect turned out quite well.

(This is the final product (5/21/2025)

    The whole process was very interesting for me and gave me some confidence for the final project. The creation process wasn’t too difficult—once the basic sequence and key effects were set, the rest felt more like a personal creative exploration.

Week 7—Learn the Wacom and Meeting

    In today's class, we mainly reviewed the content from last week's online lesson. During the online session, it was quite difficult to follow along with the instructor, and some steps were challenging. There were also issues with certain details, and it was hard to explain the problems I encountered during the creation process—sometimes I didn’t even know where exactly the problem was myself, haha 😂.

    In this class, I managed to solve the issue I had with the MAT–Constant material from the previous lesson. Last time, I didn’t catch how the instructor turned the material into a wireframe-like effect with many lines, so my final result wasn’t very ideal. During this class, I learned that to create that effect, you need to enable "GPU Wireframe" in the Common tab.

   

 

    After that, I added some Noise and Edge effects to make the visuals look more dynamic and detailed. Here’s what the final result looks like:

    During the second half of the class, we shared our ideas for Project 2 with the instructor. In our group, each member came up with their own concept and sketched out their ideas. I encouraged everyone to write down their thoughts so that when we discussed with the instructor, we could share all the concepts and get feedback on which one he liked best and what suggestions he had.

    In the end, we decided on the theme “Human–Machine Relationship”, as it’s a current and widely discussed topic. It also offers more depth and creative space to explore. For the concept, we mainly adopted one of my groupmate’s ideas, with some adjustments to highlight the machine’s struggle and continuous effort to become human.

    So, my goal for this week is to complete the PowerPoint presentation and work with my group to finalize the storyline, mind map, and other planning elements.

（The concept of the group members）

Week8—Learn to use a Wacom  track the movements of your hands

    Today in class, we mainly learned to use cameras to track the movement of hands to change the pictures in the video. First, we drag the file given to us by the teacher into touch desiger, and then we will find that the video starts to track our hands.

    After that, we started adding elements like Blur, Material, Geometry, Selector, and more. Honestly, the most challenging part of this class was adjusting the parameters—many of them needed to be dragged into other operators, but since we’re still not very familiar with the process, it was easy to drop them in the wrong place, which caused some issues with the data.

    Personally, I feel that more practice is needed to avoid these kinds of mistakes. Still, the overall process was very enjoyable and engaging.

(This part involved adding CHOP references to create coordination between the operators.)

Product display：

    Personally, I feel that this class was quite meaningful for me. First, it helped me learn some new knowledge, and second, it gave me a sense of the kind of interactivity that technology can bring. The concepts we learned in this class can also be effectively applied to the interactive aspects of our final installation artwork, which is a big help for our assignment.

Week9 —Presentation & Feedback

    This week was for our Assignment 2 presentation, where we shared our installation sketches, concept, interactive ideas, and more in class. Then, based on the feedback from the lecturers, we made adjustments.

Feedback:

• The idea is very good, but there seems to be a weak connection between the concept and the installation sketch.

• Why did you choose the theme "human and machine relationship"?

• There should be 1–2 slides in your presentation dedicated to Assignment 1 references (what you learned and how it has been applied).

• Include a timeline showing your plan and progress for the next two weeks (how you will move the project forward).

• You need to add detailed screenshots of your process in TouchDesigner, as well as a list of the operators (OPs) you are using.

• The project lacks interactivity — consider adding MediaPipe for interaction.

• Keep the third sketch, but all other sketches need to be revised or replaced.

• The storyline is too long — the story should be triggered by the interaction.

• There is a lack of coherence in the PowerPoint presentation.

• Include a video (around 1 minute) in the presentation.

As2

PPT Link: Canvas

    In Assignment 2, our main focus was to present our concept and explore how to integrate the theme of the mirror into our installation.

    Our group’s central idea revolves around the relationship between humans and AI. We wanted to use the mirror as a metaphorical boundary — to express the idea that there is always an invisible line that separates humans and AI, a line that cannot be truly crossed.

    At first, our installation design was a square structure wrapped with fabric, but to be honest, the overall appearance didn’t look very appealing. The lecturers also felt that it didn’t align well with our concept — there was a clear mismatch between the physical structure and the theme we wanted to express. So, we went back to the drawing board and redesigned our sketches to better reflect and support our concept. (The above PPT slides show the revised version of our installation.)

    Personally, I feel that I’ve learned even more in AS2 than in AS1. In AS1, we drew inspiration from various artists, but in AS2 we had to take those ideas and turn them into something tangible — something we could actually build. That was a big leap for me, because having a good concept is one thing, but turning it into a workable installation is much more challenging.

    During our second round of planning, we spent a lot more time thinking about practical concerns:

• The materials had to be easy to purchase

• The total cost couldn’t be too high (as we have a limited budget)

• The installation needed to be easy to transport and set up

• And we had to consider renting screens, cameras, etc.

    So we realized our structure couldn’t be overly complex. After some in-person group discussions, we finally settled on the sketch and concept we have now.