Dan Zen Gives Pecha Kucha Talk on Focuso at FITO, Toronto Flash User Group

Inventor, Dan Zen gave a Pecha Kucha talk Nov 28th, 2007 at FITO the Toronto Flash user group, largest of its kind in the world: http://www.flashinto.com. The event was packed and was held at the Pixel Gallery in Kensington Market, Toronto - (Element156 - Digital Media Center, 156 Augusta Avenue Just North of Dundas, Just West of Spadina - a great gallery to check out!)

Pecha Kucha, apparently Japanese for chit-chat involves showing 20 slides for 20 seconds each, traditionally with a format of no speaking or sound - however, we have westernized it to include speaking and sound. The gist of Dan Zen's Pecha Kucha is as follows:

Focuso Pecha Kucha Talk

http://www.danzen.com/focusotalk/

As interactive designers and developers, we often build features with a foreground and a background where the content for the foreground is created by the user. We design the background or the environment.

If the foreground is considered in focus, the background might be considered out of focus. It is the context for the content.

Focuso is the art and philosophical aspect of out of focus or Focus out - Focuso. In particular, it can be demonstrated by photographs that are purposely out of focus for artistic reason.

This Pecha Kucha talk shows how Focuso has been used in a number of Dan Zen features, often as background, yet it stands alone as an art form as the pictures to the right attest.

It is hoped that the samples will encourage designers and developers to think about focus as a way to handle background much like we drop opacity. These days, with the blur filter in Flash, it is very easy to do - but of course, there is always the camera!

Dan Zen

http://www.danzen.com
mad inventor
meets Internet
finds peace

Professor & Industry Liaison,
Sheridan Interactive Multimedia
http://imm.sheridanc.on.ca
Canadian New Media Awards Programmer of the Year 2002

Focuso.org
Dan Zen Flickr

Focuso Artistic Desktop Backgrounds

I have been shooting photographs that are out of focus on purpose as artistic expression. This allows us to concentrate on form, composition, color, mood and avoid some of the everyday details that can make a picture too complex. Often these pictures take on the look of a painting because the blur is similar to a paint stroke. The genre is called Focuso. Focus Out.

I have put together a site which makes it easy for you to save Focuso pictures for your desktop background. Thanks Amy for the suggestion.

http://www.focuso.org/desktops/

Focuso Paintings - Out of Focus Pictures as Art

This series of photos in the woods have a painterly feel. Some find them a bit more accessible than the abstract at night shots.

It can take a little adjustment to appreciate focuso. After you get used to the focus issue, you start to appreciate the composition and color. A good way to do this is to set a piece to your desktop picture. Go to the big picture (click on this picture then select the all sizes link above the flickr picture and choose a bigger size) and right click to save as desktop - you can probably chose stretch for most cases. I will set up a site specifically for focuso that would be good for the desktop.