I found this guy on YouTube to learn some music theory at the same time as getting comfortable coding in ChucK. This video gave a basic intro to Major and Minor Chords, an Arpeggio or the repetition of 4 chords, and the Midi Function which turns numbers into the specific frequencies of musical notes.
This was ChucK code I wrote altered from the video, and a sound clip is included at the end.
Reading Response:
I loved the intro to design with the classic zipper pencil pouch - elevated to the realm of the sublime! My friends and I all had these pencil pouches in middle school but I’ve never since reflected on why we found them so interesting. It’s fun to play with unzipping them all the way, and the face is anthropomorphic which makes it more interesting to people. From a young age babies identify facelike shapes -_- over other shapes _-_ and face-like things stimulate our fusiform face gyrus and giving us a way to emotionally connect to it. Most people in my school instinctively gave these pouches a name, likely because it had a face for us to emotionally connect with like we do people. But here the function of a zipper, giving an easy opening into the bag and a way of securing the contents inside of the bag, also becomes the form, what the entire bag is made of, so function and form are combined! This concept was so clever, witty, and mindblowing (the word I’d use for sublime). I also think this concept is simple, removing all of the traditional elements of a pencil pouch besides the zipper to create a bag with just a zipper. Principle 1.11 Design is constraints reminds me of a d-school method for coming up with new ideas. By placing or removing constraints you can brainstorm new ideas, which may have led to the pencil pouch in the first place- what if you only had a zipper to create a pencil pouch? Novel and witty ideas often come from having less at hand, and being creative with what you have, especially a constraint on time.
Three well-designed things:
I bought an AirPod Pro case with the function to protect my expensive earbuds. I bought this one in particular because I felt like the form greatly aesthetically transcended the function. The AirPods case, normally rounded and a distinctive shape was totally transformed into a small figurine of a cat on a cardboard box, largely unrecognizable from the popular ear pods. Only the cat’s shape is reminiscent of the underlying top of the case it covers. A large brown box turns the rounded bottom into something that easily stands on your desk. The sleeping kitten perched atop this common brown box evokes calm emotions. The box surrounding the Botton of the AirPods case is about a quarter of an inch, which is much thicker than most silica cases I’ve seen, adding a solid weight and maximalism. The object’s simple, cartoonish form and concept is rather minimalist on the other hand. Most people wouldn’t think to intentionally decorate their items with a plastic “cardboard-esque” brown box, and this too adds to the mystic of this AirPods case. “Form expresses function” typically, but I’d say this design takes the user away from looking at an airpod case, making the object’s function completely nonobvious, and gives them an intriguing cat object, one which I am asked about by strangers all the time.
The room I am doing my assignment in, the computer cluster in Toyon, I noticed was designed to be very conducive for working either individually or with others. The tables on the outskirts of the room are maximally seperated and all contain computers/monitors likely intended for individual work with a person facing outwards. The center of the room features a table for group work, without the screens impeding interaction. Beyond these features, the space is left simple, with lots of open space to stretch or other creative uses.
This was the first google image when I searched “Stanford University”. Most of us here are are probably lying to ourselves if they haven’t admitted to feeling some notion of wonder, terror, or even the sublime while walking around Stanford’s campus and contemplating this attempt at a utopian community. Without looking into the many problems (shortages with housing, underpaying workers, sitting on native land… etc.) all of our needs are met in an extremely aesthetic way. Where form transcends function, I also think about how some of stanford Stanford seems to have been created to look beautiful from the perspective of a rich potential donor on a golfcart, as I notice how far my walk to this class is without my bike. I expected other people to chose this topic as one of their designed systems, so it’ll be fun to discuss further!
Part 3: Guerrilla Design- A nametag with aesthetics