MAS 963 People III

Assignment: Portrait Project

Create a "digital portrait" of a real person. It could be a representation that would be used in a larger context (such as a crowd visualization or an online conversation) or it could be a stand-alone portrayal (along the lines of a home page or a traditional portrait). If it is meant to be used in an environment with other, similar portraits (such as a crowd or conversation) you should do 2 portraits, of different people.

You can use any media you would like: it can have text, images, programs, etc.

Include a discussion of the portrait's context - how is it meant to be viewed? What function does it serve?

Here are some ideas that you may want to think about:

• Make an interactive portrait that responds to the viewer. How are the responses indicative of your subject's character and personality?
• Make a portrait that encapsulates your subject's history. This can be a literal encapsulation (such as Lifelines) or an implicit one (such as the way one's life is reflected, or appears to be reflected, in one's face, and thus a photograph can be seen as encapsulating history).
• Make a portrait that appears differently to different people. Can it encapsulate some notion of privacy, of things to be revealed only in certain circumstances?
• Who controls the making and interpretation of the portrait? What is the role of the subject? Of the portrayer (that is, you)?

Some of you will define your medium such that your portrait is a completed project while others will be able to only sketch out the ways in which a complex and subtle representation would work. In either case, I would like for you to use a real person as your subject.

This assignment is due Wednesday Nov 3 by 5:00 p.m. Please submit the URL of your designs online.