Final Project
If you haven’t done so already, it is time to create your final project.
do: Fork the final project template repository and clone onto your computer.
Once you have the final project setup, test it locally using the live server. Once tested, stage the changed files, commit your changes, and push to gitlab.
After you have done this you should be able to view your project in a web browser using the URL format: https://extn1019.cecs.anu.edu.au/u9999999/extn1019-2024-year-11-final-project/
Change u9999999 to your UniID!
You have now put more than a circle on the internet 🎉
Portfolios
Your final project should include a PDF (definitely not a video) which contains your portfolio.
Although there are some words (hello Artist Statement and Connection to Theme), the portfolio should include a number of visual elements.
What goes into a portfolio?
Artist Statement
Your submission must include a short (max 300 words) artist statement. This is a short document, written in the first person, which outlines:
- What your artwork represents.
- What the viewer can take from the work.
The artist statement is your chance to tell us what is interesting and artistic about your submission — don’t assume that we can guess. It’s you chance to explain how and why your work is engaging, coherent, and rewarding.
Connection to Theme
Your portfolio should re-introduce us to your interpretation of the theme “Other Minds” and your user experience goals. You may use this opportunity to further elaborate your interpretation of the theme and how your interpretation has evolved over the semester. Max 300 words.
Your journey through the project / Creative Computing Year 11
You should discuss the key decisions you made while refining your artefact for this project – including screenshots screen-recordings and sketches of your project at various stages.
You may also include a number of significant learning moments from the year from all of your weekly lessons, from your blog posts [please — do not include entire blog posts: the portfolio is a curated selection — so quotes or images]. Learning comes from both failures and successes!
We want to see the things! Include screenshots, links to screen-recordings, sketches, and some sources of inspiration. Describe each image for context.
Project Advice
There are areas that can be improved for everyone, so this advice is of a general nature.
Development / Representation of the Theme
Ensure that you are clear about your interpretation of the theme and how your artwork relates to the theme “Other Minds”.
How does the interaction relate to the theme? How could you develop this?
Sophistication
Use your sources of inspiration to elevate your imagery / soundscapes to a higher level. Think about how you use colour, scale and texture. We are looking for more creative outputs than stick figures or simple symbolic representations.
Interaction
Dive deeply into the interactivity. Your interaction should enable a thoroughly engaging user experience. Get friends to try your artefact and ask about their user experience.
Building on Strengths
Build on your strengths for this project, and build on the strengths of others to extend your project — figure out how to build your dreams. You can ask your instructors for help, and use existing/found code with significant modifications. Ask for help if you are uncertain. You must reference everything.
Art vs Science
Your goal is to build an interactive digital work of art using code! This is more Art than Science. This is why we are pushing an understanding and appreciation of aesthetics, design, and building on previous works of art.
Art us a mystery: it can be a flash of inspiration, or a process of continual improvement in skill, design, the use of a medium. Creativity has many sources, flavours and facets.
- Reframing: Shift your perspective / perception
- Bowerbirding: gather inspirations, ideas, ways of doing and making
- Butterfly Catching: write down ideas as they come. Developing a practice of collecting your ideas and flashes of brilliance/tangential thinking will help you appreciate how creative you are, and develop broader creativity
- Ubuntu: Work with others. Brainstorm. Bounce ideas around.
- Playing: Make a game of it. Have fun. Laugh!
- Patterning: Turn ideas into patterns. Extract patterns from inspirations. Look for patterns everywhere.
- “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”: Metaphorise the world: tell us how it is different — not what it is like.
- Flowing: Flow states occur when you are so deeply engaged with an activity that time disappears and distractions do not distract. Flow states are associated with higher levels of creativity.
Referencing
You must reference everything in your project: all images, video, audio, code, and any use of LLM text generation and how you transformed that bland text into something magnificent.
references.md
You will include a file called references.md which will contain your bibliography. The specifications below are taken and adapted from the COMP1720 FAQ on references.
What needs to go in my references.md?
The short answer is: everything, including code, images and audio that you created yourself.
Here are a few examples of places you might have taken code/images/music/words/videos/ideas from: other students, lectures, lab content, videos online, tutorial websites, books, artworks.
If you’re unsure, check with your tutor or ask on the forum. In general if anybody asks “should I cite this?” on the forum, the answer is “YES!”
What reference style should I use?
We use ACM reference style in this course: https://www.acm.org/publications/authors/reference-formatting
Like this:
# References
- [1] Alice McGuffing. 2023. Ideas for creating the animated ripple effect
- [2] Jerry Wang. 2023. Background Artwork (artwork.jpg)
- [3] Howzit (StackOverflow user). 2018. p5js-image-array (CC BY-SA 2.5). Retrieved from: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51233447/p5js-image-array
- [4] p5 Reference. No Date. MouseWheel Example (CC BY-NC 4.0). Retrieved from: https://p5js.org/reference/#/p5.Element/mouseWheel
- [5] Scott Bauer. 2004. Photo of Potatoes (Public Domain). Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato#/media/File:Patates.jpg
- [6] Aaron Wu. 2018. Boat Photo on Unsplash. Retrieved from: `https://unsplash.com/photos/_8rjlHwN4uk`
- [7] Wikipedia. 2022. J M W Turner Article. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.
- [8] Matthew Phillipps. 2023. Live Coding Demo Demonstrating Interaction, Patterns, Animation, Layering, Fonts. Retrieved from https://gitlab.cecs.anu.edu.au/u8808913/extn1019-2023-year-11-lab-3/-/blob/master/sketch.js
Will I lose marks if I incorporate stuff from others in my own work?
You are marked on your original contribution to your artwork, so if you ONLY use code/assets you have found on the internet, without adding any of your own ideas, you won’t get many/any marks for your work.
A better approach would be to take inspiration from something on the web, and use it in an original and creative way. You could get a great mark this way.
Do I have to be specific about which files I’ve copied/taken inspiration from?
Yes. You need to specifically specify every source in your references.
What if base my submission on someone else’s code, but I’ve made changes?
You are not likely to get a good mark with this approach. In any case, you must credit the original author, even if you’ve made non-trivial changes. Otherwise, it’s plagiarism—even though you’ve done some of your own work as well.
Do I have to reference images/music/words/videos from the internet as well as code?
Yes.
What happens if I don’t change the references file from the version in the template?
- The assignments require you to include some references, so you will lose marks.
- If you have included code/assets/text that you did not create in your assignment, you may end up involved in an academic integrity case.