Friday, April 30, 2010

Week Two

"Electro-liquid Aggregation" of Quotes
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The two chosen quotes:

Stephen Hawking:
"There ought to be something very special about the boundary conditions of the universe and what can be more special than that there is no boundary?"
Source: Stephen Hawking, as quoted William B. Drees, "Beyond the Big Bang: Quantum Cosmologies and God" (New York: Open Court Publishing, 1993), 235

Charles Darwin
“The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.”
Source: "Charles Darwin Quotes", QuoteWorld, http://www.quoteworld.org/quotes/3417 (accessed May 1st, 2010)
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The universe, a vast and, according to the theories of Stephen Hawking, ever expanding place, has captured the minds of many scientists. But what is it? It is essentially the area around us, however the vast scale of it, the complexity and yet, at the same time, its simplicity have distorted this very simple definition - its inherit paradoxes beg for a more complex answer. It is elusive and goes beyond the scope which our minds can comprehend - it has no ending, it is limitless and, as such, it has a sense of indifference to us, who live out our whole lives on one planet, which circles an average sized star in a galaxy of many identical to it.

However, there is a freedom in all this. We are surrounded by no boundaries, we have, according to Darwin, no purpose in a place of 'pitiless indifference' - with such characteristics, what is impossible?

Reflection on a Slide of the Lecture


I find this image hauntingly beautiful - there is an interesting mixture of the solid and the immaterial, the light and shadow. This mixture allows the objects to almost transcend the characteristics of the three dimensional world and take on a more elusive character. There is, in essence, an air of the ethereal around them as they seem to float on the page.

I have attempted to achieve this aspect of the design through my own manipulation of light and darkness, and I also wish to express the same notion of the ethereal.
I want my designs to appear to float in space, much like the images above. This ability to question the borders of the three dimensional world is also expressed through the quotes of my two chosen scientists - primarily Stephen Hawking and, to a lesser degree, Charles Darwin, both of whom have sought to understand the often elusive character of the world around us.

Crisis Wars DevelopmentThis is what i have so far for Crysis. I have attempted to make the earth around the labs very rough and jagged to represent the chaotic randomness of the universe - the "pittiless indifference" which it poses. With the lighting effects, I have attempted to make the laboratories seem ethereal, particularly through the addition of a wall which emits light (see the first image above). However, as of yet, I have not applied any textures to the piece. The ramp (shown in the second image above) and landscaping still needs further work.

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