ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION PROCESS

WORK IN PROGRESS

I thought I’d like to show a little bit of work in progress and also talk a little about my processes for this latest project.

For this piece, I’ve used a Unity plugin to create some Perlin noise generated landscapes. These landscapes were randomly generated again and again, until something that might work as a naturally occurring border appeared. To this, I first add a body of water, a skybox, lighting, weather, and flora. I then use a first-person controller to explore my environment, adding in downloaded 3D objects from found sources via the Unity store.

Within the play-throughs, I try and find little scenarios that might work with implicit narratives, perhaps items that might be identified as relating to an imagined border situation while simultaneously referencing gaming semiotics.

Above is one finished image. Throughout the development of this project, I have taken 100+ of such screenshots. Below, are a few examples of my different attempts, showing my exploration with adding and subtracting objects this screenshot. Unity allows me to work in a painterly kind of way, building up composition via this process until I have something with which I am happy.

Incidentally, this particular shot was inspired by a painting I had completed many years ago, taken from a Google Street View trip around Northern Ireland.

Nokia Cocks Twitter Bot

NokiaCocks is an automated Twitter bot that periodically tweets lewd text-based penises, reminiscent of the glory days of the Nokia 3210.

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— Nokia Cocks (@nokiacocks) January 1, 2018

Two things influenced this project: to rejuvenate a previous attempt to recreate this era, and my ambition to create an absurdist Twitter bot.

My first attempt at this was back in May 2017, where I had a little fun making the tweets up by myself. I lost interest after a few weeks, assuming that it had run its course. More recently,  after experiencing some hostile bots on Twitter, I planned to create something of a counter-bot which sole purpose was simple, puerile humour. I felt like this would be a perfect opportunity to develop my NokiaCocks into something autonomous.

By randomly choosing different parts of the penis, the bot is able to make up to 5million different variations. At a rate of two cocks per day, the twitter bot will, theoretically, be able to produce enough cocks for 6,978 years worth of tweets before repeating itself. Starting to sound a lot like Silicon Valley here.

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— Nokia Cocks (@nokiacocks) December 27, 2017

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— Nokia Cocks (@nokiacocks) December 25, 2017

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— Nokia Cocks (@nokiacocks) December 24, 2017

I see this Twitter bot and my School Days Over self-playing mining game to be very similar. Both have been born out of a response to the very recent globally detrimental use of computer automation and also as an attempt to capture something fun and perhaps culturally significant.

I look forward to what this bot will produce over the next few years.