now » My Projects

“New camera promises to capture your whole life”

defne — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:25:39 +0000

I just received an email from Beverly pointing out this new camera that is “promising to capture your whole life”. It remind me very much of my senior year first semester project PinTail, which is a camera, and much more in a jewelry like device. The whole idea revolved around passive recording. I am happy to see that the idea is already becoming real!

The Ice-cream Game!

defne — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:00:15 +0000

I only took one programming course while I was at Carnegie Mellon, and that was the intro to programming class. I was lucky enough to end up in the section which introduced processing. I was craving for ice-cream this morning and suddenly I remembered this simple ice-cream eating game I created for my programming class. It is very rough but I like playing every once in a while. Just catch the ice-creams, the faster they move the more points you’ll get by eating them! (If you finish one game you need to refresh the page to be able to play again)

This reminds me, I should play with processing more… YOU should too!

Turkey

defne — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:06:50 +0000

Yesterday Nadeem cousin Nasreen told me that she is planing to go on a vacation in Turkey. I really like planning vacations and helping others plan their vacations. As I was making a list of places to recommend I remembered using Google Maps for another trip and how convenient it was. So I started adding stuff to the a Google map. I ended up spending so much time on the map because it’s also a good way for me to keep this information for future reference. This way I can use it later. Maybe I’ll try to use Google Maps (my maps) for the trips I take from now on so that I can keep all that travel info somewhere and easily share it. I know it’s not that big of a deal but it got me excited! Here is my Turkey map:

View Turkey – for Nasreen and Banny in a larger map

Alternative Photo Processes

defne — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:09:12 +0000

I am taking a wonderful class called Alternative Photo Processes taught by Elizabeth Raymer Griffin. Throughout the semester we have been learning about different processes such as Cyanotype, Van Dyke, Gum Bichromate, Salt, Albumin and Bromoil. For my final project I will try to print a color image using Gum Bichromate. Here is my understanding of it:

1. Take a color photograph. (in this case a picture of Beyza and Selin from our Bozcaada vacation)

2. Open the image in Photoshop.

3. Select color mode. Image > Mode > CMYK color

4. Split channels. (seperate the image into it’s C M Y and K components) Channels > Split channels

5. Invert each image. You’ll get four images like the following ones.

CYAN

MAGENTA

YELLOW

BLACK

By mixing Gum Bichromate with watercolors it is possible to get different colored prints. In this case I will be printing in four layers using the negatives above. Use yellow watercolor when I print with the yellow negative etc. When all the layers are printed in their own color I should be able to end up with a full color image. Once I do it I can get into more details and maybe show a finished piece. I am pretty excited.

(it’s kinda cool seeing where each color is most concentrated (white parts) by looking at the negatives. )

exljbris type foundry

defne — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:31:44 +0000

I was looking for nice fonts for a presentation I am preparing and I came across Exljbris Type Foundry. They have a nice selection of free fonts. I am not an expert but I thought they were pretty nice and nicely presented as well.

Working on my furniture project

defne — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 18:13:03 +0000

I have been working on a semester long project for my furniture class. We all came up with our own projects and came up with our own schedules. I have been thinking about how with most of my projects I leave myself enough time to make something once but I don’t usually get a chance to practice making things. For example after I finish making a chair I learn a lot from just making mistakes in the process.
For this project I decided to make the project revolve around the process of making mistakes and learning from the mistakes. I am planning to make a set or a family of “seating devices” (as Tom, our furniture professor calls them). I am starting with a stool and after I am done with the stool, I am planning to move on to a more complex seating device. Each piece will be slightly different but the idea is that they will be similar in process so that I will be able to apply what I have learned from the previous one to the next one.
The set will be made out of bent plywood. I have spent most of my time coming up with a curve to make a mold out of. The trick is to make a mold that I can use for different seat pans and back rests. I refined the curve to a point that I am comfortable with and started making bent ply parts.

Here are some pictures from the vacuum bagging process:

Sound Advice Project

defne — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:18:38 +0000

My dear friend Wojtyna(Ben) showed me this project. The Sound Advice project turns recorded advices into bracelets by taking the sound waves from the recording. It’s a neat idea and it reminds me of my music boxes.

Clay Animals

defne — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:53:41 +0000

We attempted to make animals out of clay yesterday. I have to say Nadeem was more successful with his black polar bear than I was with my legless giraffe.

legless giraffe and black polar bear

Giraffe's Head

Polar Bear

Sketching animals

defne — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:57:10 +0000

We were at Pittsburgh Zoo, looking at animals last weekend. We did not get to see most of the animals we were hoping to see but it was still pretty cool. We are sketching animals for Tails. FUN!

Working on Tails!

defne — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:38:49 +0000

Nadeem and I received a SURG (Small Undergraduate Research Grant) to work on a project called tails. Our objective is to represent the world’s cultures through a set animals that are significant to the geographical regions of those cultures. Each animal would be crafted to visually portray the materials and the personality of their assigned culture while still maintaining a cohesive appearance. This approach would give people, especially children a glimpse of the similarities and differences in the world around them. Animals are without preconceived political associations and they provide a medium children would want to interact and play with. These interactions will be the building blocks to a cultural knowledge which can be enriched through zoos, museums, books and travel.

After deciding on 12 culture to focus on, we started doing research on each culture and creating image boards for all of them.