Project #5 Optical Illusion:

A Round of Dalgona?

* 1. Crack the Dalgona *
* 2. Find the keyhole *
* 3. Join the game (highly optional) *

Description

For the pattern making assignment, I wanted to use patterns of Dan-Chung (단청).

Dan-Chung describes different traditional patterns that decorate the exterior of palaces and temples in Korea. They comprise of various geometric patterns, and serve not only to decorate the structures, but also to protect the building from corrosion and insects.

As beautiful as these patterns are, I realized that most who were alive during the Joseon dynastry probably didn't see any of the more complex and intricate patterns, which adorn the interior of palace buildings that exist inside the gates. That is, if you even belonged to the class that resided near the palace to even see what patterns decorated the gates.

This realization drew my attention to "Squid Game," the mega-hyped Korean Netflix original that elucidates the almost-invisible modern class strife in a deadly game of betted lives. I chose to incorporate the round of Dalgona challenge, one of the most viral parts of the show, to illustrate how beauty and aesthetics were concepts inextricably linked to privilege.

Design Process

Wanting to explore patterns of Dan-Chung I was less familar with, I avoided lotus/circular flower type patterns and picked from the more geometric patterns used to fill surface areas often surrounded by more accented edges.

I picked the So-Seul (소슬) pattern that resembles Goyard's Chevron pattern.

I first created a singular occurrence of this pattern on Illustrator, and used the svg2p5 tool to convert the shape to a p5 element.

Then, I used 6 nested for loops to repeat the pattern in 6 different variatons:

Blue; Blue Offset; Green; Green Offset; Red; Red Offset

To incorporate the Dalgona challenge, I created an image of the sweet in the So-Seul shape.

I "cracked" the png file in pieces, and layered them together. Using if statements tracking the count of clicks, I deleted the fragments of the Dalgona piece by piece, leading to a perfect cutout in the So-Seul shape.

I wanted to provide a more complete story to the assigment, and added another little "game" component after the show. When the viewer drags the last Dalgona piece, they will encounter a key hole, clicking which would lead to the very business card that the characters on the show get before enrolling in the game.

Reflection

Pulling from the viral show with a piercing commentary was fun, but I wish I had more time to study the traditional patterns and played around with the meaning of them to create an interaction that explored those concepts.

Credits