There is a fundamental difference between the experience of a print media and screen based media. As screen based technologies become more and more pervasive, it is refreshing to see some design companies ie Bonnier considering the particular affordances of the media devices that they attempting to prototype. The affordances of the screen are those at which print material can not possess but there is always a trade off. Bonnier is making a valid argument that if magazine content is going to delivered on a screen, then that screen should deliver a unique experience relatively independent of its magazine predecessor. That is not to say that the screen is devoid of design elements and layout principals that have garnished the vast history of magazine publishing, but rather that those design elements and layout principles be modified to fit the device. Form follows function and the function of a screen is not that of a book or magazine. To exchange the values of a book experience complete with printed ink, paper and sequential pages with that of a screen and expect the user to just accept the convenience and portability of that screen ignores that unique opportunity to make something new. Screen experience design is in its beginning stages and has struggled to separate it self from is print based counterpart. The technology of printing and books has not adapted to the technologies of desktop computing. There has been an extreme leap from the printed page to the screen and in this leap many interactions and experiments with combined media have been left out. Personal Computing expectations and device production has left print design in its coat tails, but the expectation of experience is still lagging behind with the print world. Bonnier is a least attempting to realize and research the unique affordance of a screen based magazine and not just transport a magazine onto the screen.
Engaging users with an interaction is a difficult process. I am attempting to engage users in natural mapped interactions through iconography the associats a particular action of touch. Natural mapping is a term for the proper and natural arrangements for the relations between controls and their movements to the outcome from such action into the world. Like that of a door knob or a book.The real function of natural mappings is to reduce the need for any information from a user’s memory to perform a task. This term is widely used in the areas of human-computer interaction (HCI) and interactive design discussed in Donald Norman’s book : The design of Everyday Things.
Now the conductive inks that I have made work, I have started to dive into breaking the perception of what a circuit should be and should look like. With the addition of user interaction, turning a light on becomes more interesting and engaging. The earlier experiments are mostly a process of seeing and thinking about paper differently, this is a experiment into giving paper an added interaction through the conductive ink and the simple switches. The form of the conductive lines are skewing the efficiency ideas associated with circuit board design, and the interaction allows the user to piece together the shapes of both the form and of the shape the lights make.
Now that I have gotten an ink that can conduct an current over a relatively decient distance, I have started to play with the notion of what can a circuit look like. Can it be anything you want it to be as long as there is a positive and negative in and out. Can the form start to speak about it functionality, can the forms be unique and artistic rather than function based. Most circuitry disappears and becomes invisible. To most who use electronics and understanding of the work, skill, craft, and planning that has gone into a majority of the things they operate on a daily basis is pretty minimal. Electronics work and we rarely pay attention until they stop working. An interest in involving conductive ink is to challenge the expectation and visibility of otherwise invisible things. The mixed media piece of conductive ink, copper tape on paper is an experiment into changing and evaluating the expectations of electronic conductivity and use.
The experimentation process with making my own conductive ink has been a process of thinking about what paper + ink could be when given conductive attributes? The power of giving ink conductivity to me is starting to be interesting when I start to use in as a mode of communicating its function. The ephemeral nature of paper and printed object start to change and become more interesting when digital affordances of awareness, networking, communication and delivery system come into play.
Screen printing has a unique affordance involved in the making process, since ink is pulled through a screen rather that placed or sprayed by a machine printer, the maker can decided to layer aspects of the composition. Depending on the opacity of the ink used during the printing process, the blending of layers allows for designers/printmakers to utilize the ability to make a 2 color composition a 3 color through blending and overlapping.
In my experiments with conductive ink for screen printing, it made me think of the possibility of having the conductive aspect of my experiments only work when they are layered or overlapping? could my inks when layered have a chemical connection that would render it conductive.
An exploration of materials that are potentially conductive. A sketch book of process and notes that indicate the use, screen print possibility, cost, and aesthetic quality of the material plus whether or not it can conduct electricity. An on-going exploration into mixing conductive powders and materials with inks, paints and glues that could be used for paint or be pulled through a screen. Initial material choices was dictated by whether or not I thought it might have some conductive aspects. I essentially started with shiny and metallic inks, paints, and glues in the hope that some of them would possess conductive qualities. The process has helped me have a greater understanding of the electric qualities of materials and also the aspects of experimenting to make new hybrid inks.
I have found that powdered graphite will conduct electricity but is a variable resistor so a concentration of powder in ink at the right amounts is essential to making it work. Also I have been debunked by copper and silver powders mixed with gesso or clear base screenprinting ink.
These experiments drive at the idea that designers understand the world through making so my experiments in making conductive ink have given me an understanding of conductive material and its potential use in media especially print media.
Multimedia: media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun (a medium with multiple content forms) or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which only use traditional forms of printed or hand-produced material. Multimedia includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, and interactive content forms.
Multimedia has become a popularized notion for aspect of what designers make. The nomenclature for our craft exists in the many rather then the specific. A designer who applies their craft to a variety of mediums may it be print and animation, photography and interaction, etc etc. could be considered a multimedia designer. The ability for a designer to call themselves multimedia was a distinguishing aspect at one time, this distinction has now become less relevant in a world of ubiquitous computing and homogenized tools for design and media making. A designers ability to use the tools, not the it is not important, becomes background chatter in the face of design thinking, methodology, and creative problem solving. Multimedia has then been wrapped up in design and the distinction of the new role of designer is left open. The question is: what is a designer when everyone knows how to use Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Quark, AfterEffects, Final Cut, etc?
Ubiquitous computing and the rise of the personal computer has dropped the level of entry for design so low that anyone who can buy a computer and software can say they are designers. The creation of the distention of a multimedia designer was to emphasize the ability to perform on multiple platforms of making. The new designer has to be able to move beyond the aspects of designs current roles and place their thinking and process in new and innovative aspects. Designer as curator?, Designer as futurist?, Designer as hybrid-maker? Designer as Creative? Designer as Systems thinker? maybe there isn’t a distinction yet but if multimedia designers continue to see their value as the tools they can access and use they will relegate their role to the spit and polish of industry rather then the innovator of new forms of media and design.
Screen printing has been an Art Form and Industry process for many years. Screen printing is extremely useful for artifacts of print nature from posters to t-shirts to business cards. Screen printing as an art form has been used from as far back as Chinese textiles, the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD).
The process of using a screen to pull ink puts the maker in control of the printed output rather then a machine in form of a digital printer. The physical nature of applying ink has given arts and designers inspiration and a style that can exist outside newly conventional means of digital printing or offset lithography.
The physical affordance of screen printing allows the maker to thinking differently about the process of production. Screen printing has more steps in the production run then just asking a machine to print but also includes a aura of craft, value and specialty that is missing in the digital output. The production process for screen printing invites the idea of multiplicity. Where a digital printer can make just one, screen printing just one would be entirely to much set up and work.
Hybrid Media Systems is an idea that takes the craft and unique nature of printmaking and blends it with technology to give the artifact an experience aspect, mediated by the dynamic affordance of screen based media and enhanced by the uniqueness of artifacts.
The Hardcore critique was an opportunity to get some great feedback on my experiments and process, along with an opportunity to gauge what needs to be completed and flushed out before graduation. There were many informative aspects to take away from the review and here are the productive 5.
1.) Prototype! Prototype! Prototype!
The ideas of combining print and screen need to manifest themselves in a way that it is possible to see how a user will engage in such process. Speaking about the ideas is all good an well but unless you can show anyone and engage the opportunity space in a meaningful way it’s just a lot of words.
2.) Focused Scenario
Classroom and product scenario video needs refinement, focusing, and shortening that drives at the ideas that will be shown in the prototype. The prototype comes first and need to complement the opportunity space set up through the video
3.) A New title
Hybrid Media Systems is generic and the title should get at the premise of the experimentation right away. Marginalia seems to hit at the production space so now it is just what the by line and how the supporting language starts to complete itself.
4.) Premise contextualization
I need to get to the idea of print and screen being linked quicker. The premise shouldn’t linger too long on the refuting of physical books but rather dilineate the advantages of combining the affordances of each. Prototype should have examples where actual marginalia was collected but also show how the new form of reading and writing is used, and possible misused. The interface of the prototype should capitalize on the engagement with a classroom and be part of the conversation.
5.) Narrow and Deep
The context and scenario of it existing for a classroom and an educational experience is a rich space but it needs to explored deeper through posing the possibility to teachers and be less about something that can be generalized for all print material.
The experimentation process with making my own conductive ink has been a process of thinking about what paper + ink could be when given conductive attributes? The power of giving ink conductivity to me is starting to be interesting when I start to use in as a mode of communicating its function. The ephemeral nature of paper and printed object start to change and become more interesting when digital affordances of awareness, networking, communication and delivery system come into play.
