Octo!
Octo is an interactive art station where users can create
their own artworks and compare them to computer-found "matches" pulled from the databases of the world's top 100 museums.
Here's how it works:
As children approach Octo, sensors turn on computer tablets which welcome them to Octo. They type in their name and email address (or parent's email).
Users are then guided through a process of selecting from an offering of various backgrounds and brushes and colors and are prompted to create an original piece of art – drawing with their fingers right on the screen.
Once they've completed their creations, they press the "DONE" button . . .
. . . and Octo searches specified internet art databases to find an artwork reminiscent of the user's piece. The two pieces are shown side by side, then a short paragraph on the "similar" artist appears on the screen.
At this point, users are given an option to go back to their original creation and put it through one of 24 "filters" to see how their image would look as interpreted by other artists or in various art movements. For each art filter it goes through, there will be prompts to "learn more about (artist) or (movement)."
Additionally, we would like to install a large screen visible to all visitors of the museum running a slide show of kids' art made on Octo.
(A link to a wonderful interactive PDF illustrating Octo's functionality can be found at the bottom of this page.)
EDUCATIONAL NOTE
Octo is a hands-on educational tool that engages its users by personalizes the learning experience and rewarding for their time spent with it.
TECHNOLOGY NOTE
The technology to find visually similar images already exists. One fine example is Google's "search by image" feature. It is amazing. User drags an image into the search box and Google finds reminiscent images.
Also, please note that we are approaching a handful of tech partners for this project -- that eventual partnership will dictate certain elements of our user experience. Those designs will be forthcoming after our partnership is solidified.
DESIGN NOTE
An octopus is a symbolically perfect representation of the functionality offered by this experience -- an online octopus extending its reach deep into cyberspace to find delightful things.
We like the idea of a hard thermal plastic shell made from recycled material and incorporating a map of the world into the design. Some alternate designs are shown below:
MERCHANDISING NOTE
We envision Octo dolls, both plush and hard plastic, blank vinyl Octo dolls that can be bought and drawn on (a la Kid Robot dolls) and, of course, post cards and t-shirts with Octo images on them and the name of the exhibiting museum.
View the interactive Octo PDF for more information!!
THE BRAINS BEHIND OCTO
NORM MAGNUSSON
Mildly renowned all over the world, he is the co-founder of FISHtheMOUSEmedia, a developer of educational apps for iOS; where his “Animal alphabet” app was widely acclaimed and honored with a prestigious Gold award from the Parents’ Choice Foundation.
As a visual artist, he has shown in galleries and museums in New York and New Zealand, London and Paris and all over the United States. His work is in private and museum collections around the world, including NY’s MoMA and he’s been reviewed everywhere from the NY Times to the Woodstock Times and from the Washington Post to the Utne Reader and many other national and international magazines, websites and blogs.
His “historical markers” and “decorating nature” series have both gone viral on the internet; he’s received a NYFA Fellowship for sculpture, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant for paintings, a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council grant and, through the CSRC, a NYSCA grant, both for public art installations. For the last 4 years, on August 29, the date of its world premier in Woodstock, NY, Magnusson has produced an anniversary concert of John Cage’s 4’33”.
Recently, he’s returned to his first creative love, acting, starring in community theater productions of plays by David Mamet and David Ives and, most recently, as Pozzo in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” He wrote and performed his first ever words and images monologue “The signs in our lives” at the Hudson Literary Festival in 2014.
He was awarded a NYFA Fellowship for sculpture in 2015 and is a co-creator of Octo.
REBECCA DRIESSEN
“…was I the same this morning?”—Lewis Carroll
I won’t be tomorrow. That’s how creativity works. And what motivates my creativity is exploring original concepts with an inspired team comprised of visionary clients, imaginative colleagues and ingenious developers.
Whether it’s a three-story chessboard at 767 Third Avenue in New York City with 2.5' chess pieces moved with a cherry picker; "Carousel," a multi-projector visual "poem" that captures the thrill of riding the Carousel in Central Park with images using unique photographic and darkroom processes and music from "The Photographer" by Philip Glass; riding the "cusp" of technology in creating interactive, multi-media, touchscreen sales tools and presentations (beginning in 2008 with the advent of the iPad) that have been and are presented around the world; or, "Dance of the Prague Knights and Days" with music from Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet, Dance of the Knights," a personal project that encapsulates the romance and splendor of Prague -- I love the adrenaline rush of a challenge, the wanderings of creative exploration and, finally, the delightful surprise of who I have become at my journey's end. Rebecca is the chief UE expert and co-creator of Octo.
JOHN BLANCO
John "firmly believes that coding is life." He started coding at age 10 on his Tandy TRS-80 and has been writing apps professionally for 15 years, including 6 years in mobile. He's won numerous awards for his apps, which include the "Animal Alphabet" app that he and Magnusson did for FISHtheMOUSEmedia. He is the founder of Rapture in Venice, a Mobile Design and Development company specializing in iPhone, iPad and android.
John "firmly believes that coding is life." He started coding at age 10 on his Tandy TRS-80 and has been writing apps professionally for 15 years, including 6 years in mobile. He's won numerous awards for his apps, which include the "Animal Alphabet" app that he and Magnusson did for FISHtheMOUSEmedia. He is the founder of Rapture in Venice, a Mobile Design and Development company specializing in iPhone, iPad and android.
PAT HUBIK
Award-winning videographer and digital artist Pat Hubik has played on the edge of technology and art for decades. As a fine artist, he incorporates cutting-edge technology and to his work as a music video artist, he brings a solid analog design sensibility. He is a co-creator of Octo.
