Project Title: Mosaic
URL: http://pathsaic.herokuapp.com/
Team: Conor Abraham, Emily J. Desverreaux, Fadi Durah, David Gaudet
“Mosaic” is a collaborative novelty art software designed for individuals and groups. It is intended to be a simple and easy-to-use artistic tool that visualizes chaotic behavior and show how one user’s perspective might differ from another’s. Our tool is not designed for perfection or to build something that is totally refined and orderly, rather it is built to challenge a planned visualization and leave it up to the collaborators to make interpretive changes as they go.
The interface is simple. Users have a color palette, transparency slider, and a pattern toggle to alter their drawings from the 10 basic colors provided to them. Users have the ability to continue the line without an intersection or create intersections that form shapes. If a user’s click finishes enclosing a shape, that shape is filled with the color selected on their palette. Shapes can overlap and can be covered by more recent shape creations. When spots on the canvas are clicked, ripple effect animations will briefly appear at those locations to indicate what color a user has selected. The “recharge” bar in the upper right serves the purpose of giving users a chance to reassess the drawing. Once a creation is completed, it will be added to Mosaic’s gallery to provide inspiration for future users.
“Mosaic” encourages constant spontaneous behavior and ignores the need for meticulous attention to detail. It allows multiple people in the same art room to change a piece of the whole instead of giving one user creative control over everything. “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure” is an artistic virtue we want to convey with our tool. We want to leave interpretation up to our users and watch the drawing evolve on the fly. When one artist sees nothing, another may see something incredible.