MMU Alternative image making

"Personal Diagnostic Project 1"

"Choose a household object... withouth using traditional drawing materials create your alternative images."

Ok. I didn't want to do a fork which was suggested during the lecture that day - seemed too boring to me. Instead I looked for what was close to me, I looked at a video games console controller, the Sony Playstation 2 controller to be exact; well designed and has the ergonomics to fit in your hands and be very functional (arguably - but the design has practically gone unchanged since the Playstation and is still pretty much unchanged except a few tweaks for the Playstation 3).

There's that sweet design (again, arguably)

 I took my controller and then tried to figure out a way of representing it. I wrestled with trying to represent it in a pixel style which is what I wanted to do in order to tie the link with gaming (even though the Playstation 2 is a 6th generation console uses polygons instead of pixels). It wasn't working.

So, switch to a desk lamp, a useful essential on anyone's study desk. I started out thinking of ways to represent the lamp through digital means - even though it's hard to see a direct correlation between the subject and the means of representation.

First I tried out using a word editor and the number 1 to create my image:

Then I decided to try it out on a special function my phone has (an LG GD580 a.k.a. The LG Lollipop, a Korean phone popularised by the bands Big Bang and 2NE1 - not that I am a particular fan of their music, the phone is simply beautiful; why the UK lacks a range of flip phones is beyond my understanding *shakes head*):

This function allows me to construct a "pattern" onto the grid of hidden LED lights on the front of the phone. Click here to learn more about the phone's capabilities (if you're hoping how to get your hands on one, I'd suggest making friends with people who live in the relevent countries or scouring the internet for a trustworthy source to obtain it expensively).

Another piece of gadgetry I had with something that would allow me to "draw" is on my NDS Lite, a handheld gaming console that is very popular and successful. Probably needs no introduction for anyone alive today, but none the less, here's an obligatory link to explain what it is.

I used the PictoChat function that is integrated into the system:

The NDS got me thinking about games with level editors. These editors are usually included so that a community fan base that surrounds the game get involved by making their own content (prolonging the replayability of the video game in question, usually for the better). The free flash game "N" by the people at Metanet has one of these editor:

The idea of video games and level editors got me thinking about sandbox games. This is a genre of gaming that has been made famous by the likes of The Sims and Grand Theft Auto, where the objective is not always absolutely clear, and the player is left do what ever they wish within the world the developers have created for them to interact with.

Minecraft is a recent rising star in the games development community, one of the most actively developed games on the indie games scene with an alpha release (which means it's not even a complete product yet) which has sold millions of units to a single person (though it's now a company with hired help, due to the changing scale of the project).

Indeed, I used this game to create a 3D pixel representation of my lamp:

All these images were then arranged nicely onto an A1 format and then printed off for a whopping £2.50!