Tag Archives: amusing

Swype Alphabet

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I just got a new cell phone, a Samsung SCH-I415. It has a physical keyboard, but it also comes loaded with Swype, a virtual keyboard that uses word patterns on the keyboard to interpret input. This annoyed me, because I’d wanted to do sculptures based on these shapes and don’t want to be considered as derivative. I’d done some maquettes in recent years and posted about it here, but hadn’t showed anything, except for a small piece I showed at the Samson Project‘s Chain Letter show in 2011. For the curious, documentation occurs on the far right panel of the 13th image from the show, it’s the little wooden piece to the left of the tangle of wires. My own documentation of the show is here.

Well, I started playing with Swype, and it works pretty well as an input system, much better than pecking at a virtual screen with fingertips and missing every sixth letter. It doesn’t much like usernames and oddities, but it does a decent job of adding things to its dictionary, although I’d rather not trust it with any passwords. It’s funny, but it’s easier to Swype with my left hand because it doesn’t seem to cover up as much of the keyboard while I’m drawing. It then occurred to me: since I’m drawing on the keyboard, I could take a page from my alphabets fixation and see how Swype would interpret my letter shapes.

I did the capital alphabet several times, to get something of a statistical collection of words, and here is a selected list:

A: Cyndi
B: Truth
C: Itch
D: Tactic
E: Rancho
F: Through
G: Using
H: Rerun
I: Truck
J: Until
K: Reign
L: Ten
M: Exton
N: Darby
O: Hecht
P: Trig
Q: Grub
R: Flubbed
S: Utrecht
T: Thai
U: Ruby
V: Rio
W: Echo
X: Eric
Y: Rub
Z: Rick Flynn

I tried to keep with a single word for each letter, with the exception of “Rick Flynn” for “Z”, because it was pretty awesome. Also, honorable mention to the runner up for “Z”, “Gagnon B-)”. I didn’t include it because an emoticon isn’t really a word, but it’s also pretty awesome.

PostArt Poets Logo ETG Poem

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Here’s a new posting of an Encoded Twitter Graphic, the protocol of which you may peruse here. This particular graphic is a tiled ETG, which is mentioned here. The tweets are as follows:

`CGA`09x12`ExrD11`{444444444444444444444444444444444444444C4444444CF
F7CC444CFFFFFF44CFCCC7F44CFC444744CF7C44C44CFFFF7F44CF7C7FF

`CGA`09x12`ExrD12`{4444444444CC4444444FF44444447F44444447F444C444CF7
C4FC4C7FFFFFC4F7FCFFC44F7F47F444F7FCFC444F7FFF444477FF44444

`CGA`09x12`ExrD21`{44CFC77C744CF7FFFF44CFCFCC7444CCFC444444CF7444444
4FFFF4444CF77F44444FC4C4444CFC444444CFC4444444FC44444444444

`CGA`09x12`ExrD22`{CCF744444F7CC44444FFF44444447F44444447F444444C7F4
44444FFF444444C77444444444444444444444444444444444444444444

And encode the logo of the PostArt Poets in the CGA color space. These four tweets may be considered a poem, in four stanzas, celebrating digital art in all its glory.

Actual size:

PPA-Tweet

Detail view (10x):
PPA-Tweet-Big

Process Instagram Account

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So some of what I do is process artwork that attempts to hack or at least deconstruct social media. My nom de plume Edward Semblance dates back at least a decade, to when I was playing bass or doing electronic music. Recently, it’s become a name I use for some sci-fi musings and some autobiographical essays. I used to post earworms through my @mindhue account, but then changed over to the @EdwardSemblance handle to start isolating things.

So I created an Edward Semblance Instagram account with my new and shiny phone, and will start doing some process Instagrams for funsies. The conceit is solo images of common implements, captioned with three random scribbles on the Swype keyboard and the three words those scribbles invoke. We shall see how that works.

PostArtPoetry: “IHDRkXTPLTEttXX//”, a PNG poem

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In honor of the Post-Art Poets (@postartpoets), whose motto is THE TIMELINE OF ART HISTORY MUST BE ABANDONED IN THE NAME OF PROGRESS, I have interpreted their logo as its own form of machine poetry, reproduced below in both full representation and as edited to retain all English text letters.

Full Poem:

PNG

IHDRkXTPLTEttXX//

]],,ggTTAA<<qqhh”EE66YYJJbb22rr33DD–44yySS[[iillzz::**FF__

>>ssOONN!!        0088&&aa$$ZZMMGGKKRR11II))PPnnUUpp;;LL77~~dd??..jj%%}}^^BBHH""{{WW@@kkffooy&IDATxCeE%BMe5]HSBtIS;2CRC]Jsgd;wf`08 m=`B\ $Qb G@Hc `H] $HgNiBhwC t9(@&m56.l;n=|gAiWo

N(@_Brr]rE?o48@3x@_P7Wd3Zb’Z NBFDl_7)PtPX`T
@FEh ZlO653-|c572!;\d@P’
@duB.].G2k<o04e3t”,r{Q`9!+_86@S5′+!1T7w\<tV@3Y,.<Kp_d.n[`Xic h%T4n5%\QXDUTD    PFOZ<;g)u5}:YPF^`k.L%z@QgF
reeCFu>(Ma{B>tC7@0l    q"`hh(:N2@k@QwQY)9fe'`W60_
/:@6
Uo/I_0@:_0"TNvS3}k+zJ$4E@tt@-<0x'E`-g+f<nqtX3kwkF532aNY-t1W!P. k<~UA(odoV7@_Uq{C
`,
oX`th:
v`aw>|wk    @4.Y0sP]04dW”@{z5_1/A3_1C pu]`};’5@i<i@tX|&”M5U7_T[(i?!N\}&]DZA`i}U=l~F~sw{U_3 ,WO2@Wj{Uehyidc2q]@fMy-G^    S”q|~I5&%ue
72&]    W{7MTP
*2z7k+S8dJdF>N8^n]ooGyIGeYA(P`bh4`k
@hgdaX6X5p`qM)[zli`C.0,:g@-I@:9_j\hO;=v-5`=Gr/    2t@A@@@@fxmLm
}}c+:0@pCmF]&gkA3LP?M&`7T:CK    @sw4y/ey@V.7-.,7TO0*KBh]@wc38Lr!\?]+5@0KK@3P,5tvG,l%$C{|&QZB@@@WQX<R`0f4J
L0`0*0jN8_IENDB`

English Text Version:

PNG

IHDRkXTPLTEttXX

ggTTAAqqhhEEYYJJbbrrDDyySSiillzzFF

ssOONN        aaZZMMGGKKRRIIPPnnUUppLLddjjBBHHWWkkffooyIDATxCeEBMeHSBtISCRCJsgdwf mB Qb GHc H HgNiBhwC tmngAiWo

NBrrrEo483xPWdZbZ NBFDlPtPXT
FEh ZlOcdP
duBGkoetrQSTwtVYKpdnXic hTnQXDUTD    PFOZguYPFkLzQgF
reeCFuMaBtCl    qhhNkQwQYfeW

UoITNvSkzJEttxEgfnqtXkwkFaNYtWP kUAodoVUqC

oXth
vawwk    YsPdWzAC puiitXMUTiNDZAiUlFswU3 WOWjUehyidcqfMyG    SqIue
WMTP
zkSdJdFNnooGyIGeYAPbhk
hgdaXXpqMzliCgIjhOvGr    tAfxmLm
cpCmFgkALPMTCK    swyeyVTOKBhwcLrKKPtvGlCQZBWQXRfJ
LjNIENDB

 Machine-Readable Translation:

54302f6a68d7ace23530650304f8d269-1

 

Two More Alphabets

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Alphabets again. I was lettering some notes this morning and got interested in the number of strokes it took me to write capital letters, and then I started thinking about strokes of the pen vs. visual line elements, and one thing led to another. Here are two newly-reordered alphabets based on those two concepts.

AlphabetStrokes

AlphabetElements

Note: For “visual line elements” I consider the separation as a hard angle between components of the letter; in other words, “U” has one line element because it has a smooth curve linking the arms, while “V” has two because the join is an angle. Also, this ordering only works for my handwritten capitals (or any typeface that follows this style), because I put crossbars on the I, J and Z. Finally, the ordering within number sets depends on the values from the other set. For example, in the line elements set, W and M both have four elements, but W is listed before M because W uses only one stroke and M uses two. Hopefully that’s not too confusing.

When I Say “City” Twitter Volley

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On Thursday, 5 April, Neil Freeman at fakeisthenewreal.com started posting tweets starting with the phrase When I say “city”… and then continuing with some aphorism, trope, concept, observation, stereotype or definition of the urban landscape. Several people, including myself, joined in the fun. Here are my contributions, taken directly from my Twitter account as a screenshot:

WhenISayCity

Fortunately for all involved, Neil collated his own entries here. There are also some fun compilations at Storify, here and here.

Here are my entries in text form:

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say “city”, I mean Chicago at 5am seen flying in over Lake Michigan.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say “city”, I mean a closed-system O’Neill settlement five miles long orbiting at the fourth lunar Lagrange point.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say “city”, I mean “Trantor”.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr when I say “city”, it’s because I had to go fire up my old Maxis game and hit the “Tornado” button.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say “city”, I mean the human equivalent of a climax forest.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say “city”, I mean photogenic young people in large apartments maintained with no visible means of support.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say “city”, I mean a place of hedonism, debauchery, and women refusing their proper roles in society.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say “city”, I really mean “anti-Arcadia”.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say “city”, I’m saying they’ll never stay on the farm after they’ve seen it.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say, “city”, I am referring to the abode of the Holy God King, long may be his days and great his victories.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say “city”, I mean men in expensively-tailored suits steepling their fingers over plans to increase their power.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say “city”, I indicate that savings in transportation costs dictate increased density.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say “city”, I’m referring to a place where the benefits of collaboration outweigh the desire for autonomy.

Ted Ollier ‏@mindhue 5 Apr
@fitnr When I say “city” I’m talking about a location with anomalously high temperature profile compared to its surroundings.

Exquiste Corpse Letterpress Piece at the Bow & Arrow

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We’re doing a Spring Show at the Bow and Arrow Press on Thursday, and in celebration we had people typeset anything they wanted, as long as it was 22 picas wide and about food. Here’s the resulting exquisite corpse, set up on a galley and ready for printing on the SP-20:

BHR57WICAAMJxAY

I printed it using PANTONE 194 dark red (something close to Harvard crimson), on some awesome paper stock. The head of the dining hall at Adams House comes into the Press to typeset, and she had a box of Fryolator filter paper that wasn’t the right size for the fry machines and had been kicking around for a few years. I cut it down to 12″ x 18″ and it worked wonderfully:

BHSL1lDCcAASHI5

Network Video Movies!

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So I continued to play around with the Axis network video camera I was graciously loaned, and got it set up so it automatically uploads HD-sized video stills to my FTP site, starting at 5:00 am and ending at 9:00 pm. In fact, it should just be finishing up right now. However, from about 7:15 on, the images were basically black, because we’re not even at the equinox yet and that kind of day duration won’t be prevalent until the solstice. But it works! Awesomesauce! To celebrate, I whipped up a quick time-lapse video of my neighbor’s roof and the sky:

Since I’m interested in the sky colors, I did a crop of the sky quadrant and averaged out the values to create this time-lapse:

And just because I was feeling silly, I cropped out the right-hand roofline and averaged out the values to create a final time-lapse:

I just have to figure out where to mount the camera and I can start a six-month collection regimen of a new skygrid! Woo-hoo!

Fun with Powdered Graphite

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I dug up my jar of powdered graphite recently, and figured, hey, we have transparent white at the Bow and Arrow for mixing purposes, maybe it would work as a pigment base? And it was so. Of course, once I mixed it up, I had to print something with the graphite ink, so I did a little piece celebrating carbon:

Four-Natural-Forms-of-Carbon
Four Natural Allotropes of the Element Carbon

I’ll do a numbered edition of 27 for this one, so if anyone’s interested in purchasing a piece, let me know. I also did some one-offs, just messing around with the type on the press, and this one was amusing:

Flipped-Allotropes

I call it Flipped Allotropes.