This last weekend I made a trip to the Tokyo Game Show to check out the newest Xbox and Playstation systems. While I will not be buying any of these systems (for various reasons), I've always had an interest in videogames. Films and animations are great for conveying stories but only in a linear fashion. In a videogame, you set up the virtual world's structure and then let the user roam around freely, relinquishing control over the system gives the user a sense of freedom. Add on to the fact that now thousands of players can be in the same virtual world at the same time doing the same things that are possible (eating, sleeping, buy, etc..) and not very possible (flying, killing, being all sorts of characters or races) and you have the makings of some engaging escapism.

There are similarities with installation art, architecture, and 3D videogames. They all must be designed with the idea that there will be users interacting within a space.

System interaction design.

The above picture shows some of the newest arcade systems in Tokyo. These new systems are networked with other booths so many people can play at the same time. They have touch screens to allow the user to click on a more extensive menu list for greater control, and they have a unique card system. Basically looking like trading cards, each card has a unique identifier (possibly an RFID tag) imbedded into each card. So what players do is buy these packs of cards to be able to use special items within them. They go to the arcade and then place the cards down on the reader and are rewarded with the special items on the card! In the soccer game on the left, users buy trading cards with individual players on them. The cards hold the stats of the players which can then be placed down on the soccer field in the position the user wants the card to play, then a networked game starts between one user's cast of players vs other users.

The videogame on the rightside image is a fantasy game similar to World of Warcraft. The users buy cards that might have certain spells or items on them. These can then be placed on the reader in front of them, giving their character unique items and characteristics. And when you kill an enemey coins spew out of him on screen, whereupon the user must touch the screen in order to collect them.

While the system is clever for encouraging users to spend more money (they have to buy cards just to spend money on the videogame), it's also a great interactive system that integrates new technology (touch screends, RFID) to make a more engrossing and unique experience.

During the past few years I've gotten really into thinking about sound and light oscillations and frequencies. Their detections by the eyes and ears are so powerful that their patterns are the main components of which we base our reality. Understanding the properties of audio and visual communications (through transmission and detection by humans) allows one to exert control over a design.

Broken down in terms of physics our eyes pick up light oscillations at the different frequencies which make up colors. The visible spectrum is a small section of the Electro-Magnetic Spectrum. This includes everything from Gamma Rays to Radio, as we can see in this chart.

Similarly, sound is the vibration of molecules at certain hertz that include everything from the sub-sonic to ultra-sonic range.

It's interesting to note the large section of the audio/visual world that we are blind to. We only experience a fraction of the world around us.

It's also interesting to think about the correlation between sound and visuals and all terms they share with each other. Musical chords are notes that harmonize with each other, meaning their hertz values sync with each other, causing pleasing sounds to the ear. Similarly, color harmonies are those which hertz values sync with each other in pleasing ways to our eyes. Why is it that black and white go with just about anything? Because white is every color together and black is the absense of color.

The works of video artist John Whitney(1917-1995) were a visual exploration of sound. He felt that music was an integral part of the visual experience and created series of videos that linked color hertz values with sound hertz values. The videos looked like a kaleidoscopic oscilloscopes. Mr. Whitney was also a pioneer of computer graphics in his later career, using computer programs and setting up equations to generate graphics.

The above image was taken of 4th of July fireworks in Wisconsin. It's filtered using a pair of diffraction lenses they were handing out for the night.

Interestingly, the fireworks in Japan are different than in the States. There are various reasons for this, one is the fact that since 4th of July is America's Independence Day, they use local companies to create the fireworks. Similarly, Japanese fireworks have a long historical tradition that I'm sure leads them to use Japanese only companies. The difference in the actual design of the show is very interesting also. Japanese will actually schedule out the fireworks show, so you know what sequence is happening. They run in bursts, so you will get a shower of Gold only fireworks and then an explosion of red. It's very structured. American fireworks are constant and mostly random.

Watching the fireworks got me to think about their design potential. I think fireworks are amazing, but I don't think they've reached their full visual (or audio) potential. For the centuries they've been around, they haven't changed too much, and this is odd considering the control that can be currently exerted on them. You can control the X, Y, Z position, and Color within 2 or 3 different stages. Basically, it is my belief that you can do any sort of largescale three-dimensional structure suspended in the sky for a moment.

Prolific artist, Cai Guo-Qiang does some amazing things with fire and fireworks, such as the giant 'O' that he outlined with fireworks in Central Park during 2003.

In the future I would love to get into the actual engineering of the fireworks itself and try to exert control over its output design.