Art & Artistry

Tag: design

  • Youtube redux

    I had written how embeds are a window into other peoples pages in this post: “Embeds are Octopussy“. Some of the things which I had predicted are now online. This screenshot from a youtube embed says a hundred words, so I’ll shut up.


  • problem solving – designer and the developer

    This is the second post where I ponder about design. Here I am thinking aloud my experiences with developers. You can read the first post here.

    A good developer is a very good problem solver. You give him a problem and he will give you the most fast, or the most efficient, or the most cost effective solution. Now having said that who defines and words the problem? The right answer would be the designer. The designer would consider different aspects of the problem, among them marketing, usability, etc, and then give a very specific and unambiguous problem statement to the developer.

    The problem comes at this point. It seems as if everyone knows what the problem is. From the developer to anyone who knows about the project thinks he knows exactly what the problem is. And this in fact is the main problem. This is the problem which I guess is the root reason of why Open source software is difficult to use and not widely accepted.

    There are various facets of this. Lets take an example which I hope will demonstrate this clearly. Clearly when I say developer it could also mean engineer for other fields. So there’s a furniture company called Woodworks. (more…)

  • knitting animation

  • Variables and the invariables

    Out of PCM or physics, chemistry and maths, what I loved during engineering was physics. Even now the love continues. What makes it preferrable to the others would deserve an entire post. And I have worked as a physics lecturer at a JEE coaching institure too. Apart from lectures my work included making new physics questions for the student tests.

    Making a good question is an art in itself. When I was preparing for JEE there was this book of physics problems written by a russian called I.E.Irodov . The book was like the final thing one could do, after you had done everyother book around, and your concept was totally clear, you took on Irodov. The questions of Irodov were just different. Let me explain what I mean. The ordinary question in a normal physics book would use a formula, which has n variables. It would give n-1 variable and then ask you to calculate the one variable it had not provided. Or if it was a complicated question it would use 2 or 3 formulas, where each variable that you found would have to be used in the next formula to get another variable. How Irodov differed was that it did not make it obvious which formula a question reffered too. Needless to say Irodov has been a great inspiration for me.

    So I’ll put some questions which I have framed and anyone interested can solve them.

    Here goes the first:

    Q1. It was a silent night, and I was sitting in my balcony. Suddenly I saw a rocket (fireworks) explode in the distance.  After 4 seconds I heard the sound of the explosion. Can you get the distance between you and the explosion?

    Q2. I was lying on my bed trying to sleep. I could hear the “tup” “tup” sound of a leaking tap (or faucet) in my bath. After a little while I realized that the duration between each sound was around 12 seconds. Can you get the litres of water getting leaked in a day?

  • What is design?

    Design is both a noun and a verb. Understanding the meaning of ‘design’ is necessary to define a designer. This series of posts is to thus to verbalize my own thoughts and collate what designing means, and what are the different parts which sum it up.

    Dictionary.com gives a few meanings of design off which these two would come close to what I have in mind.

    • esp. to plan the form and structure of
    • to form or conceive in the mind; contrive; plan

    According to wikipedia,

    As a verb, “to design” refers to the process of originating and developing a plan for a product, structure, system, or component with intention

    Laying it on a spectrum, it would come between arts and engineering. And by arts and engineering I don’t mean the crafts associated but the philosophies. The philosophy of art would be, what someone does with his senses which has an affect on others’ senses. Also if pure art is defined strictly, it would also mean that it is made with no prior intention. If even an iota of intention comes into art it becomes a design/applied arts.This diagram shows what design encompasses. It has components of arts as well as components of engineering.

    For example, if an artist is hired to create a painting to be hung in the lounge of 5 star hotel. The interior decorator tells the artist, that the painting should evoke a sense of calm, and zen simplicity, which are the key components of that hotel’s brand. If the artist then paints something keeping in mind those two points, then he becomes a designer. The same situation could have been handled by the interior decorator by browsing through various art galleries and finding a (more…)

  • BoomBox on BMX

    Teenagers from trinidad have put up 15000 watt speakers on their BMX bikes. Well that is indeed awesome, but what caught my eyes were the teenagers. They all look indian. And trinidad has strong connections with UP-Bihar. And the head of the crew is Nick Ragbir. And there’s a documentary made about this.