Foreword
This is my thesis or whatever; this is how it should be read; this is what I intended, this is what I want to find out, and this is what I want you to think about. This is what I’d like you to not think about. This is an attempt to collect my own musings, answer some of my own questions, and pose a couple of new, more clever ones. This is not an attempt to do this and this. I know there are many gaps in my knowledge. I hope I have still got something of value to offer you. This project was undertaken around this time. If you want to have a go at the practical part of this project, click here. I’m me. You can get in touch with me here or here. Blablabla.
Level 1: Conceptual framework(?)
Magic as Metaphor
Coding is a bit like magic. I’m serious. (hover:Paula Scher TED talk: Serious vs solemn) Let me explain: I began diving into web development about four years ago. What initially fascinated me about coding was this idea of writing letters, number, and symbols, and then seeing them turn into visual shapes as you click save. I realised pretty quickly that learning how to code does not require you to be a math wizard. (link to why coding is intimidating) However, it does make you feel a little bit like a magician. (hover: Aleister Crowley: «Magick is the Art and Science of causing change to occur in conformity with will») After all, what you are doing when coding is talking to the computer in a language it can interpret, and telling it what to do, thereby manipulating the digital environment.
The idea of words (hover: Albus Dumbledore: «Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic») manifesting reality is nothing new, just think of the old magic spells. (????? SPELLCASTING IN GAMES HERE ??????) The first verse of the gospel of John reads: «In the beginning was the Word». For this project I looked at how the coding languages of today have their origin in the esoteric traditions of the past. (hover: link to Florian Cramer: Words Made Flesh; + quote?) The binary number system, used in just about every computer today, was formalised by the German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz in the late 1600s. Leibniz was a student of esotericism and his work was inspired by ancient Chinese philosophy and the I Ching. (hover: info? link til wikipedia? eller burde jeg skrive en kort forklaring i selve teksten?)
Being familiar with the world of coding, and having a childhood deeply impacted by Harry Potter, this knowledge makes me excited. But seeing digital technology as something magical has its downsides. (hover: «Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic») A lot of people feel intimidated by it, and this illusion of the digital as something immaterial (hover: Timo Arnall; the myth of immateriality; invisible interfaces) (hover: Eric Raymond: «Code is a representation of tiny switches being flipped») makes it seem even harder to learn, leading people to become passive. (link to program or be programmed)
This has lead me to (magic + coding, myth storytelling, magic themes in games)
The unicorn and the incarnation, the word become flesh
Glamour spells
Links:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/21/ancient-book-wisdom-i-ching-computer-binary-code
What is Fun?
The nature of curiousity, what inspires curiousity; are some people just inherently more curious about «how stuff works»? (wonder, fascination, allure, charm, glamour; seductive interaction design)
Even though it may not seem that way, our tendency for play has an evolutionary purpose, like all our genetic traits. (HALLO SOURCE????) We learn about our environment by playing around with it, and a greater understanding of our environment increases our chances of survival. (link: State of Play, Jonathan Blow) What inspires curiousity to make us want to play with something, and what sustains our interest? (George Loewenstein, information gap theory in The Psychology of Curiosity, 1994: «Curiosity happens when we feel a gap in our knowledge» becoming aware of and arising in us a desire to close that gap) (Richard Sennett: «We become particularily interested in things we can change») («The business of learning is inseparable from that of living your life») This kind of play is closely linked to curiousity, and when designing information, it’s important to find a way to inspire curiousity in people. (link to glamour?) It’s not just about communicating something to a reader in the simplest way possible, but to awaken in them a willingness to put in the effort required to understand a complex idea. I believe games and game thinking should increasingly be used for this purpose. (hover: Bernard Suits: «Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.») (link to games for learning, 21st century education + the importance of well designed information in the information age)
I will not take on the difficult task of defining what games are, (hover: Ludology vs Narratology debate? Ian Bogost?) but I think what can be said for all of them is that they are based on systems of rules which facilitate play. These kinds of systems can be used to package information and allow for learning about it in a playful way. (link to gamification) To awaken curiousity and motivation to explore the content. What games do well in this regard is their sequencing /THE WAY TASKS ARE SEQUENCED???. They’re built to always acommodate your level of ability, and players work through appropriate challenges toward a comprehensive goal at the end. SEQUENTIAL LEARNING??? This makes the content seem more approachable, and not overwhelming (hover: like coding is to a lot of people; link to paragraph(s) on coding?) (hover: Jane McGonigal: «Why should we waste the power of games on escapist entertainment?»)
Compuer games rewarding, teaching and inspiring in a way that reality is not: giving a sense of accomplishment/mastery, purpose/meaning, power/control, community, focus, engagement (McGonigal)
Genuine fun is not what is found in escapist games. Hard work and learning is fun. (link to autotelic experiences) (hover: Raph Koster, A Theory of Fun for Game Design: «Fun from games arises out of mastery. It arises out of comprehension. It is the act of solving puzzles that makes games fun. In other words, with games, learning is the drug.») Games that are either too easy or too difficult will eventually lead to boredom.
After all, what is it that is motivating us in our daily lives? We live in a mysterious world, and with our hardly rational (link to difficulty learning coding, the part about rationality/logic?) minds we have to create our own purpose. I don’t know about you, but what keeps me going is the sense of wonder. (Lawrence M. Krauss: «The mysteries are what makes life worth living and I would be sad if the day comes when we can no longer find answerable questions that have yet to be answered, and puzzles that can be solved.») (Stephen Hawking: «My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe.») (Einstein on the cosmic religious feeling) (links to magic and myth)
Yes, coding is strange and mysterious and inaccessible to beginners, but isn’t that part of what makes it interesting and exciting to try? I don’t think it has been deliberately made so, but this illusion of secrecy doesn’t hurt its image. (link to glamour?) It does require effort to learn to code. (link to difficulty) What I want to do is not to take away the mystery, but to create a way in. (Perhaps something like an initiation process?) (link to process-section somewhere? link to magic?) (hover: The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey: «The greatest appeal of magic is not in its application, but in its esoteric meanderings. The element of mystery which so heavily enshrouds the practice of the black arts has been fostered, deliberately or out of ignorance, by those who often claim the highest expertise in such matters. If the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, then established occultists would do well as maze‐makers.») (glamour/charm) (hover: the initiation processes of cults and secret societies? going through a series of tests/rites; game levels; ritual and play connection)
Coding as a Craft
Coding, once you know the basics, is a bit like a game; (links to process: why a game?) it allows for playing around, but there is a goal at the end; that something which you want to create. There are strict rules you need to follow in the syntax of whatever language you’re using, and within these constrains, you can achieve a state of flow. (hover: definition of flow, link to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s work) (links to autotelic experiences) As you’re playing, working, and developing, you are guaranteed to meet challenges, and have to make choices for how to solve these using the limited tools available. (hover: A lot of the time this is done by desperately seeking help on Stack Overflow) As you test your code you experience feedback loops; seeing the results each time you run it, then going back and making the necessary changes. You learn how to solve problems that appear and get rewarded with a feeling of accomplishment, which eventually leads to mastery as you reach the end goal; a complete, funcitonal program or website. All of this takes place in the artificial world we’ve created for ourselves inside the computer. (hover: See «Elements of Game Design model» by Stephen P. Anderson, Seductive Interaction Design)
What many graphic designers fail to realise is that coding is a craft, closer to working with letterpress than Photoshop. It offers a freedom to experiment, an independence and autonomy, that Adobe programs do not, even if the tools at your disposal are limited. In my opinion, working directly with the material feels more «physical» somehow. (hover: Eric Hu quote?) (links to the myth of immateriality)
Ethan Marcotte on designing with the fragility of the web, seamful design, «embrace the entropy», life is a mess
You have these «puzzle pieces» (link to process: creating puzzles) that you put together in certain ways to create your end result, but as in letterpress work, you are not shaping it directly, and you do not see the end result until you print or press save and refresh.
(Eye magazine, the magic box article; experiment and play in craft practice, how coding furthers craft traditions)
As designers we should not simply accept the capabilities given to us by others. The code languages used on the web are still evolving, and we can have a say in what gets included in the next version. The CSS Working Group, who develop the standards and specifications for the CSS language, keeps all communication open to the public and invites our participation. (hover: CSS Secrets, Lea Verou + CSS Working Group, W3C)
The ones who see coding as a craft today are mostly programmers, not designers.
Links:
https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow?language=en
What even is this paragraph I don't know
When I first started as a student at KHiO, my dream was to be an illustrator. I wanted to tell stories. (hallo harry, teit loooool finn på noe bedre) ?????? hæ hvorfor er dette sitatet her (hover: Alan Moore: «Writers and people who had command of words were respected and feared as people who manipulated magic. In latter times I think that artists and writers have allowed themselves to be sold down the river. They have accepted the prevailing belief that art and writing are merely forms of entertainment. They’re not seen as transformative forces that can change a human being, that can change a society. They are seen as simple entertainment – things with which we can fill twenty minutes, half an hour, while we’re waiting to die.» (link to magic + games as escapist entertainment)) Coding allows me to combine my interest in the analytical/logical systems with my creative problem solving skills.
I learned to code and saw the enormous potential for interactive storytelling that I think is far from being fully reached on the Web today. There is an «interactive bandwidth» (hover: Jonathan Blow, Phil Fisher, Indie Games: The Movie) offered by this medium unlike anything we’ve had before.
When playing games as a child, I never really thought of it as an artform. (hover: Phil Fish: «To me, games are like the ultimate artform. It’s the ultimate medium. It’s the sum total of every expressive medium of all times, made interactive. It’s awesome!»)
Game mechanics shouldn’t be thought of as something separate from the aesthetics of the game. The narrative and the interactive elements are not separate things, they should be in symbiosis. (hover: Jonathan Blow: «In fiction writing, there is this concept that you want every sentence to do more than one thing: you want to describe the setting and set the mood and introduce the character. You want to say what happened and show how a character feels about it and foreshadow a later consequence. For some reason game designers never got this memo.») Ludology vs narratology debate?
^ Just as visual design, aesthetic and usability are not separate, but need to be taken into consideration to create a good user experience; thoughts and feelings are not separate, but affect each other
Graphic Designers and Coding
Why aren’t more graphic designers learning to code? And why should they? I see a potential in the medium that I think would be realised if only designers learned to use coding as a craft. The «interactive bandwidth» and blablabla elise nå gjentar du deg selv slutt
From my experience, and speaking with my peers in graphic design, I think a lot of designers lack faith in their abilities to learn to code. Many talk about their nonexistent math skills, and say they are more creative and not prone to logical thinking
One guess is that this stems from the false division between left- and right brained thinking, the left being the rational, logical/analytical side, and the right being creative and spontaneous. The ??????? hva skulle du skrive her elise GUD VET
Designing and coding are both exercises in problem-solving
I suspect this is also the reason for the lack of coding in graphic design education
«graphic design sudoku»
Web development with HTML and CSS differ from programming
No title
I think more graphic designers should be getting into coding; learning to use coding as a design tool and treating it as a craft. It makes more sense to learn to work directly with the material of the medium we are designing for, than to create static mockups and storyboarding how interactions are going to happen; I think designing for the web we should at least have an understanding of what’s possible and be able to communicate effectively with the developers
(The architect and the carpenter - Schell)
(My experience working as front-end developer for other graphic designers)
(this paragraph should be split up and merge into the previous and next one)
actually all three of these paragraphs should be merged
vent hva?????????????
The separation between designer and developer in the field today and the graphic designers’ tendency for static thinking. The Web is a medium still evolving, borrowing a lot of design traditions from print that we should learn to let go; it has its own afforances and limitations that we should work with, not against. As graphic designers we need to see the computer as something more than just a fancy TV that we can put books into. (Some of these books we can edit, like Facebook :) but a lot of people seem to think that’s it)
(Laurenz Brunner: graphic design hasn’t quite caught up to the technical potential of our current technology, which is like a utopian fantasy; «the science fiction world of the past»; anachronisms)
(The Web’s Grain) + Francesco Cassetti on the medium as a site of experience
Eric Hu on highlighting the inherent qualities, graphic design that refers to its own material context?
(«In the past forty years, we have been introduced to digital surfaces and we’ve seen how easily these surfaces can dissolve seamlessly into the background and how design can become dematerialized into a constant, overwhelming, vaporous stream of information.»)
(Search for the «inherent qualities», the web «page» with no real edges)
(Pixel perfection to graceful degradation to progressive enhancement and full reponsivity/fluidity)
There is an untapped potential in web design; the «interactive bandwidth» of the web that static PDF designs are not taking advantage of; a different type of designer, a new categorisation?
(The unicorn designer and my own feeling that people expect me to pick one direction and specialise)
Coding allows for a new way of working, more iterations since the process can be very quick, it produces no waste and takes up no noticeable space in the world (I don’t want to create objects; link to my design philosophy?) Iterative process continually improving on a prototype
The Web as a medium is still evolving. Not just the content, but also the multiple technologies that makes up the whole. (link to CSS Working Group) I don’t know please help
The Inner Critic
The voice inside my head telling me I’m not capable, how this relates to learning how to code, designers not coding, and how I used this in the game (link to process, spider) and how I worked through this at KHiO by making really ugly things, (gradient, drop shadow, ms paint, comic sans, hot pink hell) after finding out this was the cause of my procrastination (link to meta, khio experience, mention BA project) (obligatory kanye west quote/tweet) (Cristoph Niemann on Creative Mornings: on how he spends two hours every day second guessing his design decisions) The inner critic is what stops you from getting out there to «just do it», trust your vision and follow your dreams. Doubting your abilities, fearing the unknown, judging.
For process (level 2): The spider as a personification of the inner critic; separating it from your self and observing it, realising it is not necessarily you talking. Being aware of its presence helps to silence it. The spider works as identifying the negative thoughts you might have about your own capability, perhaps even before they come into your mind.
Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_critic
http://alistapart.com/article/banishing-your-inner-critic
Interactive Information Design
I never really thought I wanted to be an information designer. I always thought most infographics were terribly boring.
Some are really pretty though and look nice on the wall (hover: Brody)
Some newer ones are AWESOME love this interactive stuff (hover: Paul Ford: What is Code? Bloomberg Businessweek article) <— but this isn’t really infographics help I don’t know what to say who am I
Our mAgIcAL cOmpUtiNg machines have a unique potential for visualising difficult concepts and phenomena, within for example mathematics and physics. (links to the things we cannot put into words!) This stuff maybe hasn’t quite reached the web yet? Say something here about WebGL maybe (not)
I think this potential is increasingly being used for communication information based on data, but what about more complex real world phenomena? SHOULD NOT BE LIMITED TO DATA AND STATISTICS BORINGGGGGG. Interactive information deisgn uojmcsdv participatory what? Interactive simulations of real world concepts that you CAN PLAY WITH????????? SO MUCH FUN
What about using game mechanics in this kind of information design?
COOL
legg deg
Rethinking Gamification
Gamification has been defined as «the process of using game thinking and mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems». (hover: Gabe Zichermann) I think this sounds like a brilliant idea. However, most occurences of gamification today consist of adding things like points and achievements to boring content in an attempt to make it more «fun». These are hollow and empty structures, and if the content is interesting and inherently valuable, it is not necessary to drag the player along with false motivation. I admit my knowledge of game theory is limited, but I would even argue that these types of feedback systems by themselves are not game «mechanics». Aren’t game mechanics more closely related to the actual gameplay? The rules that you play within, that create the game experience, and which relate to the content being transmitted through the activity of playing?
Games relying on the hunt for points and achievements to keep people playing are often created mainly with the intention of making money, and offer nothing of value to the player in return for their time, except mindless escapism. They are manipulating our natural instincts, taking advantage of our desire for instant gratification and creating a compulsion in us. Playing for these superficial, fleeting rewards seem to me like a waste of time, and in my opinion this kind of gamification has the wrong focus. (hover: Alfie Kohn: «Rewards motivate people to get rewards») (MIT professors Osterweil and Klopfer: «Capture what’s already fun about learning, and make that central to the game»)
The same ethics apply to game design as to graphic design. We can both manipulate people, but should we? And to what end? The power to harvest people’s attention and influencing their behaviour requires us to think about whether or not we are giving them something of value in return.
Links:
http://hechingerreport.org/is-making-a-game-out-of-learning-bad-for-learning/
21st Century Education
«By the time a boy is 21 years old, he has spent 10 000 hours playing video games alone» (Philip Zimbardo, RSAnimate: The Secret Powers of Time). «Gamers expect that media are subject to player control» (Katie Salen, Ecology of Games). The traditional analogue classroom is not equipped for generation Z. First of all, what’s with all the memorisation of facts? I can just google it! My knowledge of these little pieces of information does not deepen my understanding of the underlying idea. I remember being annoyed with teachers who did not seem to have a grasp of our digital reality when I was in school. (hover: I still am, M&M) There is a movement to make learning resources accessible online, but what they are mostly doing is making a video of the same lecture that would be done in an analogue classroom situation, and then maybe adding a multiple choice quiz at the end. (link to gamification) (Khan Academy, Codecademy, EDx, Coursera) I believe there is a huge potential for making interactive learning resources online, more effectively using visual communication and allowing the learner to explore the content on their own, moving away from the top-down approach of «lecturing» them. Instead of having the learner memorise facts, they need to learn the skills to navigate new content; «learning how to learn». Games have been said to prepare for future learning in this way (hover: Bransford and Schwartz, Eric Klopfer) because a good game requires you to build your own understanding as you play and discover the rules for yourself, developing your intuition. School teaches with facts, while games teach with stories. (link to curiousity; what is fun?) (hover: «Experience is the best teacher») So much time and effort is being put into game worlds today, that could instead be utilized to make the real world a better place. (hover: Jane McGonigal, Reality is Broken; on how to use the power of games to direct all of that cognitive effort, emotional energy and collective attention towards real world issues)
Autodidacticism (and the Web?)
The Web is like a utopia for autodidacts (hover for definition) with its myriad of available sources for self-education.
I love the internet Tim Berners-Lee should be made into a saint when he dies I will go to his temple to pray and it will have free wifi
It’s a little bit ironic how the Web, where information wants to be free, (link to web vision and sharing) everything is available to everyone, and with its myriad of sources for self-education and development, can also make people feel so passive. (link to information age, intimidating technology) We should feel in control! You can learn about anything on the Web, and in several different ways; through reading books or forum posts, or watching a video (and in some cases by playing a game)!
It lets us be charge of our own development, and our own world; we can all be designing our own game. (link to process: being in charge of the game environment with code) (hover: Jane McGonigal: «We have a power to improve our own experience») Make your own choices about how you want to develop your intellect, vision, and imagination; to make you feel like you’re in charge. Modern schooling is often teaching you with facts, and not leaving much room for you to experience it on your own terms. (hover: Carlo Rovelli: «Undistracted by schooling, one studies best during vacations.»)
The term life hacking. what?
Code learning resources today (this title is so bad)
I’ve been through multiple resources online on my quest to learn coding. (hover: Codecademy, Codeschool, Teamtreehouse, etc; links to all) They tend to have a lot in common. Most have tutorials that give you step-by-step instructions, either by text or video, and then either let you input the code they’ve given you, or ask you to do a multiple choice quiz. What bothers me is the lack of play and possibility for experimentation. There isn’t really any room to do your own thing. Isn’t that how you learn? (link to games for learning, experience is the best teacher) The playful and creative aspect is important to become a successful coder. It’s not enough to memorise the syntax. (link to 2st century education, memorisation) Also, in learning web development, it’s helpful to be able to see the effects on the changes you make in the code on the visual result. Many of us are mainly visual learners. I’m guessing this is especially true for graphic designers. Not everyone will know how to find a suitable code editor program, create their own files, and start trying things out at an early point in the learning process, so I think the learning tool should cater to this need.
Code learning resources seem to mostly have been created by people who know what they’re teaching very well, and therefore might not understand the starting point and needs of a beginner (what do I wish had existed when I started out); they’re overwhelming and inaccessible (like secret societies for magicians? ILLUMINATI!!!) People are super helpful and it’s a great environment to learn, it’s finding your way in when starting out that’s hard.
The (Awesome and Confusing) World Wide Web
Rushkoff and the Web’s social/sharing/openness bias («We are attempting to operate a twenty-first-century digital economy on a thirteenth-century, printing-press-based operating system»; «Communicating and sharing is bad for business») The free software movement and open source(ry) (copyleft? sharing culture among hackers; «no problem should ever have to be solved twice» (eric raymond) remix culture (lawrence lessig) participatory culture (mcgonigal on community in MMOs)) (Katie Salen: «online communication ecology where creative production and expression is inseparable from social communication.»)
The original vision of Tim Berners-Lee, the cool mastermind who had the idea for the World Wide Web, was to create a kind of virtual library of human knowledge and experience, a platform of free information, for the purpose of sharing.
(I’m not writing my thesis on the state of the Web and cyber politics so let’s not go there) Can I still say something about copyleft etc?
The Web has developed and become an integral part of all of our lives in a relatively short time. Born in the 90’s, I hardly remember a time when my life did not include some kind of Web presence. (DÅRLIG ENGELSK? skjønner såvidt hva jeg mener selv)
A consequence of the rapid development of the Web is that
Program or be programmed; taking charge of technology which is such a big part of our lives (link to process: aunt nancy trickster god fighting slavery)
Democratisation of the medium
People’s annoyance with technology, feeling insignificant in its rapid development
Timo Arnall: «As systems increasingly record our personal activity and data, invisibility is exactly the wrong model»
The potential magic
the internet creating «memetic hiveminds» and accelerating collective intelligence; «may well make literal the alchemists’ dream of erasing the gap between matter and spirit, by making the material world immediately and infinitely malleable by the whims of the human imagination» (jason louv)
(Rushkoff: Information exchange; society getting stronger through the natural selection of memes (as in ideas that spread, not internet memes))
Lawrence Lessig from BA2: Remix culture + Free culture ??? Eller ikke gå inn i det 2much og ikke relatert til prosjektet sånn egentlig
Autotelic experiences / Flow
(Sennett: «What motivates us to pursue a demanding path?»; «How do we judge whether a particular action is worth concentrating on?») (links to curiousity; and the fear of wasting time)
Ok, learning how to code is a bit difficult. It’s fun, but it’s the kind of fun that takes effort. (hover: Eric Raymond: How to become a hacker +++) (links to play/work) Some people like to think of themselves as perfectly rational beings, but none of us are. Our ability to understand complex logical systems is limited, and coding is very much about working within these systems. (hover: Programming Sucks article) When starting out, a lot of time is spent looking for that one missing semicolon, or whatever else you might have done wrong that keeps your code from running properly. (hover: Eric Raymond: «To be a hacker, you have to get a basic thrill from solving problems, sharpening your skills, and exercising your intelligence.») These searches can however, when they don’t take too long, be what keeps you learning, because once you find your mistake you get rewarded with the joy of having solved a problem, and the awareness of having learned something. It’s similar to what happens in a lot of games; appropriate challenges are spaced out (DOES THIS MEAN SOMETHING ELSE???? SOUNDS LIKE DRUGS), and you are always made conscious of your progress through feedback systems. (link to how coding is like playing a game) (link to gamification or games for learning?)
The gaming environment is made so that you have confidence in your ability to play, and the isolated system offers a space where making mistakes have no real consequences. This makes it easier to achieve a state of flow.
(Flow: the psychology of optimal experience: autotelic experiences: auto: self, telos: goal: «It refers to a self contained activity, one that is not done with the expectation of future benefit, but simply because the doing itself is the reward.» «When the experience is autotelic, the person is paying attention to the activity for its own sake. When it’s not, the attention is focused on its consequences.»)
(John Dewey: "Both work and play are equally free and intrinsically motivated, apart from false economic conditions which tend to make play into idle excitement for the well to do, and work into uncongenial labor for the poor. Work is psychologically simply an activity which consciously includes regard for consequences as part of itself; it becomes constrained labor when the consequences are outside of the activity, as an end to which activity is merely means. Work which remains permeated with the play attitude is art." (from book: Democracy and Education))
You have to be «comfortable with being uncomfortable», and be willing to make mistakes in order to learn from them. (ability to learn from them?????)
Sennett; Experiment and discovery lets the maker experience wonder; intuitive leaps
Resistance awakens imagination
Links:
http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html
Tacit knowledge
Magic and myth putting what we don’t understand into words; the words used to describe what the computer is doing are mostly metaphors: the desktop, trash can, files, folders, etc; (the long lasting trend of skeumorphism) words that increase the confusion/abstraction like «the cloud», «the installation wizard»; We use metaphors to describe what we see when the words for these things are unknown to us or not created yet, making them tangible
(Roger Antonsen: We make up languages for what we need to understand if there is no language already to describe it; representations of patterns; Leibniz: invented a language for patterns in nature)
(Alan Watts: «It is hard indeed to notice anything for which the languages available to us (whether verbal, mathematical, or musical) have no description»)
(Sennett, the Craftsman: Can you truly understand something intellectually if you cannot do it well practically? Some things are beyond words; language struggles with depicting physical action; metaphoric language)
Tacit knowledge (Michael Polanyi: "we know more than we can tell"; when we acquire a skill we acquire a corresponding understanding that defies articulation)
(H&FJ on how they talk about typefaces)
(Jonathan Blow: language as a crutch for communication)
I think
actually no I don’t apparently
(link to process; the centipede’s dilemma)
The Age of Distraction
(Vannevar Bush «as we may think» in 1945: «science has improved human life in many ways, but now we are becoming stuck because we cannot notice and apply the whole knowledge that has been reached and constantly grows» «we need to apply the science to reduce tools to cope with the current complexity of the records»; now this relates to the future of web design)
(Rushkoff on easily accessible and simplified information and answers: Actually searching in the real world promotes experiental learning, it recreates the process of discovery, putting the researcher through the motion of cognition rather than simply delivering the bounty (his wording or mine?))
(Rushkoff: «the same way Benjamin would have the printed art book inspire us to visit the original work in its real world context, our digital abstractions work best when they are used to give us insight into something quite real and particular.»)
In this «information age», well designed information is especially important. We could also call it the age of distraction, because the actual amount of information we’re taking in is small compared to the amount of sources fighting for our attention. (hover: networkeffect.io: «The Internet is a miraculous tool, but all too often, it affects us like a drug. Many of its popular apps, news websites, and social networks have been carefully designed to addict and distract, so they can harvest human attention like the natural resource it is. “Keep searching and you will discover,” these services seem to proclaim, but the deepest truths cannot be found by searching — and you will not find them in data, in videos, or in images of other people’s lives.») This competition is also leading to a culture of simplifying and dumbing down information, often to the point where important parts of the original message is lost. (hover: Rushkoff: «A society that looked at the internet as a path toward highly articulated connections and new methods of creating meaning is instead finding itself disconnected, denied deep thinking, and drained of enduring values.») (links to hiveminds) It’s become common practice to state at the beginning of an article the estimated time it will take to read. (hover: Kimberly «Sweet Brown» Wilkins: «Ain’t nobody got time for that» youtube/gif) I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time before online newspapers and journals start adding a TL;DR (hover: definition: TL;DR or TLDR (Too long, didn’t read) is used mostly in internet forums, either by itself in response to a long and/or boring message, or to indicate that what follows is a helpful summary of said message; can be used not only for text but for anything that will demand your attention for more than 20 seconds) Being able to win the attention of the reader and convince them that the content you’re presenting is worth spending time on (……………)
How do we decide what is worth pursuing and spending time on?
Our fucked up attention spans and Maryanne Wolf’s Socrates Nightmare, why we need fun games for learning because everything is boring and unable to hold our attention
(Seneca on the Shortness of Life? «Life, if you know how to use it, is long»)
It’s ironic how we’re always so busy and afraid of wasting time (hover: opportunity cost?) and still spend so much of it scrolling BLABLABLA
Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/opinion/06iht-edwolf.4.7405396.html
http://networkeffect.io/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cT_Ulmcrys
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/TLDR
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tl%3Bdr
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=TLDR
Level 2: Process / Method
The Centipede's Dilemma
A centipede was happy quite, until a toad in fun
Said, «Pray, which leg comes after which?»
This raised her doubts to such a pitch
She fell distracted in the ditch
Not knowing how to run.
The initial idea
I set out wanting to see what is possible using only the most fundamental languages of front end web development, namely HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. I used jQuery, but other than that stayed away from plugins and frameworks. I learned about SVG, (hover: Scalable Vector Graphics: short explanation; XML) (Lea Verou on SVGs untapped potential: «It’s hidden there, waiting to be discovered. We just need more creative minds to start playing with it.» (links to designers seeing code as craft)) because my goal was to create everything in code, with no image files for illustrations; this way all of the visual elements on the site are available for the player to manipulate, at least in theory.
With what I knew about web development and the skills I had acquired, I saw an untapped potential for interactive storytelling, and I decided on a game-like experience for myself to try out and have fun with.
It is an attempt at a synthesis between a code tutorial and a game, merging ideas from game design, interaction design, graphic design and information design (???? ro ned nå)
The goal
When I started coding, I found it hard to see what would be the right way in for me, coming from a design background. I tried several resources online for learning how to code, but I always felt there was something missing. I was afraid of trying things out on my own computer in case I would break something. After all, everything going on in the computer is based on code, and all code is just a representation of the same tiny switches being turned on or off. I didn’t know about the distinction between different coding languages; where my HTML-file stops and the operating systems begins, can I break something in here by writing the wrong things? (link to the isolated game environment and removal of the fear of taking risks)
I wanted to create a game-like experience in the sense that you feel like you brought yourself to the point of «I understand!» instead of being instructed to do something until you get to the point of «Ok, please stop, I get it». A safe space where you can play with code, something people might associate with a kind of anxiety and fear of making mistakes, «breaking something», learning in small steps.
I wanted to create an experience to show the playfulness of coding; recreating the feeling of having «magic powers» over the computer that I experienced and was fascinated by when I finally had the courage to try things out (links to intro) I aimed it mainly at other designers, focusing on the visual aspects. CSS is very straightforward and has very little to do with actual programming or maths. Writing CSS code is closer to using paragraph styles in InDesign, which is a concept graphic designers already understand very well, than it is to writing scripts. The game is just giving a taste of what writing CSS is like, and if it’s interesting to you there are a myriad of ways to go from here. (hover: add links to traditional code learning resources?) (link to code learning resources paragraph)
(link to me learning how to code in the meta, khio section?)
The Web
Obviously, it should be an in-browser game when you’re learning about web development. Doing it in the browser and on a website means that what you learn is instantly applicable, not just in a simulated environment but whatever you write in the game is proper CSS and gets added directly to the code making up the website as a whole, replacing the CSS rule I had originally written. Learning new skills in the context which they will be used
Having it as an online game also means it’s accessible from almost anywhere, any time
and I think a game about web development should be connected to the web as a whole, instead of some program that you can download as a file and install on your computer
The game
When formulating the idea for this project, I did not plan for this to turn into a game
I’ve spend a big chunk of my life playing video games, and I’ve often thought: How much of this stuff I’m learning is actually applicable in the real world? How are the skills I’m acquiring here useful, and giving me value in my life? Wouldn’t it be great if I could learn the periodic table in the same way that I learned the name of every single pokemon? It has nothing to do with the periodic table being inherently boring, but rather the way it is presented. (link to games for learning and stuff above)
I was always a fan of point-and-click puzzle games. (skrive hvorfor eller bryr ingen seg? irrelevant?) I used to play these Escape the Room in-browser flash games from the early 2000s. (examples?) This struck me as a perfect metaphor and context in which to learn coding. Many people feel trapped and lost in the digital world, the technology taking over our lives with very few of us knowing how to control it, constraints put there by others, knowing our data is saved in the servers of some big company making money off of us (?????? hæ si det på en annen måte kanskje, RYDD) The message will be: learn to change your environment (through code) and you will escape (no longer feel trapped)
As opposed to coding, room escape games have a tendency to have obligatory steps in them which are not logical at all. (hover: example from Crimson room: having to click on one specific pixel on the wallpaper) I removed this ambiguity, reducing the gameplay down to a few essential puzzles. (link to curriculum; what I’m trying to show the player)
Puzzles relation to coding (link to coding being like a game) you’re kind of working with puzzle pieces or legos, fitting them together to make what you want
The Witness and building streams of thought through puzzles, sequencing the information to make sure the player will get it (link to next paragraph on building the curriculum)
Spatial memory, memorisation techniques; linking new knowledge to something spatial and visual by placing it in a room-like space, to help the player remember the effects of a line of code????
Discovery: easter eggs in games
(Sennett: the maker’s mark; presence and anthromorphosis)
Surprise contributing to understanding
The Curriculum
How I built the curriculum; seeing what ideas I can use that are instantly recognisable and easily relatable for a graphic designer, directly influencing the visual elements
I decided to silence the pedagogical aspect of the game; I think the more explicit it is that the game is supposed to teach you something, the less interesting it becomes. We (or at least I) have this aversion to educational material that I think comes from starting our lives with ten years of boring schooling.
This also lead to my descision to not have a clear goal of what a playthrough is supposed to teach you. You will not, in the end, have the ability to make a website from scratch after playing, but you will be familiar with some of the aspects of CSS. (links to safe game environment and trying things out without risk)
The colour system
The coordinate system of the browser window
Pixel sizes and distances
Not show the entire code at once, as this is overwhelming to beginners; I’m showing what little code is relevant for what is being shown in screen at that moment, and then building on that as the game progresses and the player gets more comfortable with the idea of words representing shapes and colours.
(links to games for learning and 21st century education, obviously)
The Spider
I didn’t want the player to be given instructions explicitly by some non-identifiable voice. I also thought this would have too much in common with the step-by-step specific instructions that I dislike from Codecademy et cetera. It was important to me that the player would be allowed to discover from themselves. (Socrates asking Menon’s slave about geometry and leading him to discover for himself; get the player to start asking questions, become curious about something and then giving them little pieces of truth that build a bigger picture)
My gaming experience includes a lot of stories where some NPC appears in the beginning and ends up being your companion on your journey, never directly telling you what to do, but offering hints and suggestions as to what should be the next step. (Most notably Legend of Zelda, with Navi and the owl, or the mushrooms helping you repeatedly in Super Mario 64)
The spider originally came into the game as a kind of helper, or spirit guide. Web development -> spider, obviously -> spider as creator and trickster god
a Yoda type character; a trickster god, wise character who plays games in order to help us learn and gain knowledge/wisdom in folklore; in West Africa, the spider is a trickster god, associated with creation, wisdom, and storytelling. In West African folklore, the spider is a wise trickster god, and the god of all stories.
I added the spider as a character in an early version of the game, gave her some lines that worked like helpful hints, with a little sarcasm and passive aggressiveness thrown in, and I realised something: The companion NPCs that have been the most memorable are the ones that have given me absolutely no reason to like them; like Zelda’s Ruto, the rude Zora princess who treats you like a servant, but is instrumental to you escaping the great whale Lord Jabu Jabu’s belly.
Something about the sinister and sarcastic character who doesn’t believe in you makes you want to prove her wrong >:)
The spider ended up more like GLaDOS, (link to GLaDOS Wikipedia article + picture?) the malicious AI narrator and villain of the game Portal (hover: link to portal) and less like the helpful and concerned owl from Legend of Zelda. She adds personality to the game, which helps people get involved emotionally, and makes the interaction more human by creating a relationship.
Links:
http://www.crystalinks.com/trickster.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anansi
The Challenges
Biggest challenge is I have no idea what I’m doing
I wanted to use what CSS I know, create appropriate puzzles based on the code, and make it easy enough for a beginner to understand, without much instruction. It was surprisingly difficult to teach things that I know a little too well myself. (DÅRLIG ENGELSK)
As I’m very new to game design and theory, the process took a lot longer than expected because even though there are many similarities, a lot of it is very different from the graphic design projects that I’m used to. I had to come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to do several rounds of user testing like I originally wanted, but I can still test the game today and learn from the feedback. (Is it too easy? Too hard? Do players go along with the story I created or find their own loopholes? Do they think it’s interesting, do they see the connections, does it lead them to the discoveries I intended?)
The Outcome
WHO KNOWS IT MIGHT STILL GO TO HELL
It turned out successful as an experiment in what can be done with these limited tools, but I am still nowhere near of discovering the limits of this medium.
Level 3: Meta
On KHiO
On the KHiO experience, post completion reflections, on designing this site
The graphic design programme at KHiO is focused on craft traditions. I’ve learned about letterpress and bookbinding and screen printing and print print print print print print print print print BOOKS 4ever
I think this, along with the fact that in the BA there is an equal mix of graphic design and illustration courses, has lead me to bE sUpEr Wb DesGn
My background and entry into coding; craft traditions I learned at KHiO; using my BA project to teach myself javascript; how starting to code brought back my love for the process, appreciating the process of making in a way I do not when working in Adobe programs, similar to how I feel when working with letterpress. In designing through code I found a space for the logical/analytical; it allows for perfection, there is order; to me creativity and design is the magic, strange and unpredictable. It changed the way I work: iterations, swiftness, different limitations and challenges, new potential that I am far away from having fully explored and the W3C keeps adding new cool stuff and indie developers create plugins for everything
My experience teaching HTML/CSS
How I still feel that what I’m doing is something magical in a way; codecademy spoils that magic
Designer's Statement
In this project I’ve found my path; what I have to offer as a designer/developer and what I thoroughly enjoy. What drives me, not just in my work but in everything I do, is the desire to understand how everything works (links to what is fun?-section); honestly my life will end with my curiousity; wish to be an eternal student; ???? have the opportunity to explore the world through my work (hover: Kelli Anderson: «The less of a division I can have between work and pure learning, the happier I am») I think my strength lies in clarifying the complex; understanding systems and translating them into visual representations to provide insight; making information accessible and appealing. (hover: Participate! book; Ije Nwokorie (Wolff Olins): «(Graphic) Design is about making sense of complexity and disorder and making that usable and useful to people.») I don’t want to create objects or take part in the industry that is about manipulating people into buying them; decorating (clever peter saville quote?) Worries about the state of the profession and the world????????? My focus has gradually shifted from that of creating beautiful designs to the effect of those designs on people. What I want to do is use my skills to influence behaviour through fun, playful experiences.
I’d like to work with educational material/technology; games for learning
I want to curate information in a way that makes for delightful experiences. Find what’s fun about a subject, not try to make boring things fun. Our lives are about learning, and the real world is strange and wonderful. Happy people are better at problem solving! Dopamine and its role in curiousity???? Reward chemical released by positive surprise
Personal development parallell to the design process; a process of experimentation quickly turned into a process of discovery (jonathan blow, indie games the movie)
Links:
https://thegreatdiscontent.com/interview/kelli-anderson
The Unicorn
Jonathan Harris; utopia, engineering a reality, perfectionism in coding, pure logic unlike design; vs the lack of actual control you have over how your website is viewed by others, fluid design and user generated content + «the digital context can be its own world, beyond the need to mimic physical reality or structure» (eye)
I enjoy working in imaginary worlds that seem more based on logical systems than our own. Life is a mess; an enjoyable one, but nonetheless.
????? droppe dette avsnittet ???????
The End / Closing quote / paragraph
(Alan Watts: «Regard everything that you are doing as play, and don’t imagine for one minute that you have to be serious.» What are vegetables doing?)
The more I learn, the less I know :( :)
what else?
this website and the information gap theory; wanting to see if you got everything; clicking on all the links
