Final Project Proposal

The goal for this final project is to create a non-representational work that explores various aspects of Maya that I am particularly interested in: particle and fluid dynamics, fields and effects, lighting and texture, and MEL scripting. The visual work in Maya will be accompanied by sound design of my own creation, though it is still to be determined which will be the greater directional force. Phenomena such as cymatics, self-organization, emergence, and synesthesia will be the focus of attention in the construction of the work or system.
The theme of visual music has been of much interest to me and is essentially what I aim to explore with this project, with the works of artists like Jordan Belson, James and John Whitney, Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren, Richard Baily, and Joost Rekveld having been of much influence to me. I don't want to make a music video, nor do I want to make something easily pigeon-holed as psychedelic or new-age - but inevitably the correlation will be made.
This will certainly be a stretch for me considering at this point I know nothing about MEL scripting, if Maya's physics engine will even render cymatic forms, if I can devise algorithms in MEL or Python for systems of emergence/self-organization, or if I can even do any of this without it coming off as empty eye-candy... but these are aspects of Maya that I am truly interested in, so I'd like to spend the semester exploring them.

Artists of Influence

Richard Baily

Joost Rekveld

James Whitney

Norman McLaren

Autechre - Gantz Graf

Sketches/Current/Parallel Works