Maria Clara Morales

STAMP

I chose to make an unconventional stamp that could serve as a small description of my way of thinking. On the one hand, it represents a very rational and perhaps technical nature, which also happens to be intertwined with my profession, architecture. On the other hand, it tries to show a more abstract way of thinking that is related to a multisensory understanding of the world and, specifically, nature.

CREATIVE MAP

My creative map portrays an internal (emotional) landscape and tries to highlight the importance of time for perception. One place or situation can be perceived in multiple different ways depending on the time, whether it be understood in a literal way (time as days, hours, minutes, etc.) or in a more figurative way (time as mindset, mood, temper, etc.). On the one hand, my creative map shows two images of the same place taken at different times of the day, with different lightings and different angles. On the other hand, an expressive drawing overlaid on top of the images attempts to convey two very different and even contradictory emotions regarding one single situation. When viewed as a whole, the composition represents plurality within perception as a result of time. 

  

SOUNDSCAPE

For the soundscape assignment I decided to record some of the sounds present around my family home, located in La Estrella, Antioquia, Colombia. I live a little bit far away from the city, hence the majority of the sounds come from nature. I feel blessed to live in such a natural and calm place.  

WILL YOU TAKE ME IN YOU

One of the most important things I left behind in Colombia and will miss the most during my stay at Purdue is my pets. Frida, portrayed above, is one of my three cats and can always be found sleeping in crazy positions. Sometimes I wonder how cats can be so flexible and sleep so peacefully in uncomfortable and strange poses. Anatomically, I consider cats to be very interesting animals with long tails that bring them balance and paws that can either reach out to catch a prey or fold to cuddle. I wish to explore the anatomy of a cat for my first 3D project and challenge myself to model an organic figure, something completely different from what I usually model tridimensionally: architecture. 

IMAGINARY PLACES

For the imaginary places exercise a collaborative drawing was done by students from Colombia and the USA. We took this opportunity to share different aspects from our countries, cities and cultures and compare them between one another. It was a great communication exercise that allowed us to learn things about each other. Although the drawing didn't turn out perfect, the conversation that emerged while we were doing it was very engaging and active. All in all, I believe this activity was a great ice breaker for future collaborative work. 

OBJECT ARCHIVE

This is the final result of my 3D modeling project and, although it is not a realistic representation of my cat Frida, I think it represents the anatomy of a cat correctly and captures a little bit of her essence through the color of her fur, the color of her eyes, the color of her nose, the whiskers and the little detail of white fur in her chin. Besides modeling the anatomy of a cat manually through the sculpt mode in Blender, I used a particle system for the fur and a Musgrave texture for the color of the fur. Additionally, I decided to make a little scene for Frida by adding a red yarn ball and a baby blue background.

CREATIVE CODING SHARING

For the flow chart diagram explaining the steps of my morning routine I decided to ask the initial question of what day of the week it is to better understand the differences between the actions I execute and their order depending on whether it is a busy, more academic day or a day for personal activities and relaxation. Some of the actions I perform on different days of the week are exactly the same but are done in a different order. Other times, I perform completely different actions. Regardless, the flow chart includes some decision making points as well as some loop points. 

    

INTERACTIVE TRANSPORTATION

For this coding project I had the pleasure of working with Jose, an Animation major Purdue student. Together we came up with the idea of travelling back and forth between West Lafayette and Medellin with the most iconic transport system from each place: the Boilermaker Special and the Metrocable. Our interactive code can be manipulated with the arrow keys and was done in the software Processing. It simulates motion by moving both the transport objects and the background at different moments during the sequence. I developed the code and Jose developed the images. However, I reworked the images to showcase my vision for the project, which can be seen above. 

  

PHYSICAL COMPUTING

For this Processing/Arduino project I had the pleasure of working with Trey, a Web Programming and Design major Purdue student. We came up with the idea of comparing the physical appearance of West Lafayette and Medellin through the superimposition of aerial views of both cities at different scales. The joystick allowed for movement around the aerial views, the potentiometer manipulated the transparency of the images in order to switch between cities and a button made it possible to cycle through the images at different scales. We were very pleased with the result because of the variety of similarities but also differences that the project allowed us to find between the cities in terms of size, color, density, texture, shape, etc. 

FINAL PROJECT PROPOSAL

My final project proposal aims to bring together two seemingly contrary worlds in an interactive audiovisual piece that allows for several variations of the same idea. This can result in different ways of comprehending and comparing the the two subjects of study: West Lafayette and Medellin, and can produce different types of emotions in the spectator/creator.

GROUP PROJECT PRESENTATION

FINAL PROJECT

For the final project I had the pleasure of working with two Purdue students, Alana and Toyin, and one Udea student, Arney. We worked very well together as a team and were able to execute our project almost exactly as we had planned, which in my opinion demonstrates how organized we were and how hard we worked since the project was quite ambitious for the amount of time we had. I was very pleased with the results and believe the artwork is not only visual but also emotional in the way it flashes through images before your eyes.