First part of this week was to build a personal website in the archive and to post a final project idea and description.
Web design is a total new area for me so I decided to take it by the very beginning. Fab instructors pointed me the very helpfull w3schools website
with loads of step-by-step tutorials to learn basic HTML and downloaded the
Brackets
open source code editor to start my web development adventure.
Then as initial proposal for my project I would like to design and build a hybrid functional object between a large kaleidoscope and a outdoor binocular viewer recording the unique reflections and local information references such as the time, temperature, pollution or uv radiation exposure status where its used as well to picture frame a moment like an unique fractal postcard.
First I was inspired by the common child memory reference of building a kaleidoscope yourself as one of the first DIY projects many of us made while still at kindergarten. Its mesmerizing and ever changing geometric patterns are still today very inspiring and explored as we can identify for example on the artworks of Andy Gilmore or Olafur Eliasson instalations.
Also taking reference by travelling and touristic sightseeing habit routine that most of the famous places have those binocular coin viewers setted around for admiring the unique views, they are nowadays not very requisited and kind of obsolete. They are as well a common memory shared by many but not anymore in a technological world where every one carries a more or less powerfull camera or smartphone at hand. During research I´ve found also an interesting development around this binocular/telescope function re-interpretation questioning of "what it would be like if the object the viewer saw was not the thing the telescope was pointed at". Peek more information at "Turn to Clear Vision" project.
Here,at Lisbon, the city I live today is also known by its particular natural sunlight with all its hills, neighborhoods, mixed cultures and traditional decorative tiles (azulejos), all that I find very kaleidoscopic and memorable as souvenir. Could it be all momentum captured and expressed by one awesome tecno-artistic postcard machine?
I will try to merge those mecanisms with a more functional and interactive purpose into a hybrid output display that can register, and inform as well, some unique features like the date, time, temperature, polution or uv radiation exposure status for the traveller or general public. By scaling up this viewer scope is also a way to convert a single individual peek through to a more large, collective and shared visual frame experience.
