Spectral Duality - ✎ Ramblings

A Distorted Merger: Internet Idealisms in The Real World

❝...People strive to be perfected versions of themselves, dreaming of characters that fit their image the best in whatever format they wish...

...Within the power of humankind, this can range anywhere from children daydreaming about what it would be like to be a superhero, to the very real augmentations people have made to become fantastical... these fantasies are very much taken beyond the screen and into the physical plane of this reality.

In thinking about such, the first notion that comes to my mind is that of cosplay (which is an activity I greatly enjoy). People can dress as characters to take on their personas, which in many cases relate to their own ideals or internalized desires (ex. power)...

On the same token of thought, there are some individuals who believe that their character is who they truly are, thinking that they are simply trapped within a vessel that doesn't synchronize with what they internalize. Therefore, they alter such. This can range in extremes from costuming (ex. furries), to physically augmenting their own bodies through plastic surgery, implants, body tattoos, etc. These are processes that often times cannot be reversed. So what if they regret the choices made? What then?

It makes me wonder: How far would people I know go to become an idealized version of themselves? How much of a "character" would they create if they had the chance? If I had that opportunity, what power would I wield in my physical image?

I leave whoever reads this with their own thoughts on the matter.❞

Memes of the Internet: A Commonplace of Non-Attributed Repetition

❝In a most generic sense, a meme can be roughly described as something that influences and determines behavior, easily passed down or spread from one person to the next without any drastic need for such... A meme can be as simple as a phrase or action, and it is a learned practice rather than an automated one.

An internet meme doesn’t have to be something that leads to overarching success, but can rather be itemized to something as simple as an image that is locked eternally in the database of the internet, regardless of its effects in either success or failure. There is a level of permanence and immortality with internet memes, as old memes can be brought back and revitalized in constantly changing variations. They are vastly spread without a need for space, as the internet runs beyond the boundaries of physical dimensionality. Internet memes also overcome the factor of time, for they are in an infinite standing within the world of digitized metadata...

A lack of mandatory attribution also plays a large role in the replication and variation of internet memes, for no meme has to originate from a specific author... Everyone has a right to meme...❞

Idea VS Execution: The Illogics of Conceptual Writing and How it Applies to Design

❝As long as there is an overarching idea, nothing else has to fit into place out of the gate. That can all come later...

In this sense, there would not have to necessarily be a grid, template, nor set pattern in a conceptual form of design. It is something that works in a flow rather than a rigidity, and the original concept is the only thing kept on board from beginning to end... A single idea can form many different paths of formulation and materialization, and a room of designers can come up with all different ideas from a single conceptual prompt.❞

Joy of References: A Duo of GIFs and How to Make Them

The art of GIF exploration was a rather interesting project to partake in, having resorted to drawing inspiration from references and styles I enjoyed in my own renditions versus making something of strictly out of a need to fulfill the requirements of multiple discussed aesthetic categories. My intent throughout this exercise, above just using it as a learning experience [as all lessons of studious intent are such by default] was to have a bit of fun along the way. Thusly, I drew upon some Youtubers that I happen to be a fan of.

GIF 1: Filthy Frank — Mockery, Over-exaggerated, Psychedelic, Trippy, Reference.

The first GIF I had created was based on one of my favorite lines of Filthy Frank's "100 ACCURATE LIFE HACKS" video:

 "You can take yourself out of this existential nightmare!"

I took footage from the video, quoting the dialogue at the bottom using Giphy. Then, I went in a second time, added the top header, and added the trippy color setting to the form. The last step was to make everything wavy to add to the psychedelic effect. This whole barrage of colors and motion was to ironically juxtapose the morbid message in the humor of the quote itself. After all, the content is that of a satirical fashion. If it is found to be off putting or mildly disturbing, then the effect is still valid. After all, that is in essence what The Filthy Frank Show is.

GIF 2: Markiplier [Google IRL] — Narrative, Art, Glitch, Reference, Seamless Loop.

The second GIF I had created was inspired by a concept in one of Markiplier's videos: "Google Gets An Upgrade", which is the sequel to his video "Google IRL". For this GIF, I took a more homemade [and WAY MORE TIME CONSUMING] approach to the design process.

I started with a simple screenshot of the character when he projected into four separate entities, going into ipiccy and drawing/editing upon it to become a vector of black and simple colors [ipiccy is a free creative program that I use in place of Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop for faster works, albeit more limited].

I then went to Illustrator, and added a layer for each effect I wished to animate in the GIF [the multiples of colored binary, the text, the and G at the end].

Once through there, I went into After Effects to animate everything into a smooth motion to mirror the narration presented in the video itself:

 "The best part about me... is that I'm always improving... always upgrading... never losing sight of the primary objective."

That part took several hours, but I was not done yet! Next was Photoshop, as I went in and turned the MOV file into a GIF, reducing the size to make it able to be posted smoothly.

The last step was once again, Giphy. I went in to simply add the fade overlay, overlay of flashing binary stickers and Error 404 text. Then, I went in a second time to add the final glitching effect overtop everything to reach the desired effect. This whole endeavor was to showcase what could be described as an imaginary potential when technological advancements such fully autonomous robotics do become a reality, instead of in an acted scene. As much as they have the potential to be great, they can also go very wrong.

I also just had fun making this animation by hand, using a subject I greatly enjoyed instead of some assigned topic.

I wish all of my design work for school could carry such notions...

Hackmaster Seto Kaiba: A Supercut of Hacking Fragments

As I was browsing original series, season one episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh!, I came into a scene that was both iconic to the series and completely forgotten about in retrospect to the plot: the hacking scene.

During episodes nine and ten of the original series, Seto Kaiba [who is arguably the anti hero of the first series] has a whole extended objective throughout to hack into Industrial Illusions [Pegasus’, aka the season one antagonist’s, huge corporation and mastermind behind where the main plot takes place].

When I was younger, I never fully grasped how cliche it was, nor the exaggeration despite no particular need for such a sequence [for a children’s show about people trying to save the world by playing card games.] Like I assume many others who were little when watching this, I just thought it looked cool.

Now as I became older, many hacking scenes in TV shows or movies contain the same amount of technological mayhem and hyperbolized emphasis on the power of hacking, how one behaves while hacking a system, and even some of the high tech aspects themselves. Thusly, I chose to make a supercut around the overall narrative of Kaiba’s scene, while at the same time implementing bits and pieces from other films and shows to mirror the similar prospects. The clips were found on Youtube, and were recorded [whether with or without sound] using the QuickTime Player’s screen recording feature. Everything was then thrown into After Effects, where I attempted to make everything as smooth as possible with Kaiba’s extended soundtrack as the underlying ambiance.

Conceptual Twitter: A Chain of 132 Prismacolor Swatches [Coloring in a Chain]

My Twitter concept was rather simple: Create a chain out of 132 color swatches, based on my Prismacolor Colored Pencil Set.

In originally coming up with ideas for the conceptual Twitter account I was to make, I started with the name I have been using since the beginning of the semester: Spectral Duality. The first I had derived from the term spectrum, and along the definition of a color spectrum. My layout was very centered around the name, being as every background/header is a photo from a place by my house known as Rainbow Bridge [as for the profile pic, it's just the one I have for my email and I chose to use it everywhere else].

Given this sequence of ideas around all of my accounts, I figured that my concept should center around colors in my own colored pencil spectrum. There are 132 in my set [though Prismacolor itself has 150... I just blocked out the colors I did not have on the swatches image]. The order in which I am posting these colors is around my actual chromatic list that I made right after I received the set.

One interesting thing I have come across is that some of the colors on the online swatches look nothing like the actual pencils. It completely alters the chromatic aspect of the actual chain I am coloring in, but also adds a new sense of dimension to the overall aesthetic.