https://elputnam.github.io/GlibDrive/

I have not been posting much lately in terms of the daily sketches because I have been working to prepare four sketches (Viral Time, Peat Bramble, Tether, and Glib Drive) for public presentation. This process has involved adding text and buttons to move between pages, as well as integrating biometric data in Glib Drive. I downloaded data from my FitBit, which I acquired in 2020 during the first period of lockdown in Ireland, and have set it up so one day is selected as random. The heart rate data for this day is used to determine the hue of the rotating rectangles. I compliment this with the hue changes of the circles controlled by the mouse/touchscreen. That way, it becomes an asynschronous performance between myself and the audience.

The production of this piece involved a number of challenges, including a timing issue that impacted the functonality of the site and enabled me to become more familiar with Javascript. Since I needed to preload the list of file names and could not select a file name until after p5.js was running, the loading of the JSON file was moved to setup. However, the data did not upload prior to the draw loop (Javascript is an asynchronous language), and the sketch couldn’t run unless it was. After spending some time debugging and identifying the issues with Gerald Glynn, I tried to brainstorm ways around it. I realise there would probably be a way to introduce a loop that delays the start of the sketch until the data is uploaded, but instead I built this delay into the design of it. I set up a delay of about 200 frames after the start of the sketch (time is treated in terms of frame count in Processing) , before the rotating rectangles appeared, which need the data to function. I synchronized their appearance with the text, again drawing attention back to time and how we experience it using digital technologies.