Staircase to Nowhere

Description

This project allows you to play with a basic staircase image, widening and shrinking it. The overlapping stairs make it feel even more like a staircase to nowhere, until you press a key and the stairs disappear, only to allow you to create a new set.

Reflection

I can't recall where I got the idea to build a staircase, but it might be when I was heading pu the steps of my house. The staircase in my house is one of my favorite features and it looks like it goes to nowhere at some point and if you look up, it gives the feeling that the stairs are changing size.

I also love MC Escher's work and optical illusions in general. I remember squinting at pictures as a kid to blur the way they looked so they looked different when you started at it a different way. I also loved that these illusions are mathematical and precise, with depth of filed and mathematical proportions.

Design Process

I knew I wanted to build a staircase that changes size, so I drew out the object on paper. I didn't use the grid paper at first, but then I realized that I needed to calculate the length, width and height of the stairs to draw them properly on the screen.

It required drawing the coordinates of each point, and also looking for a quadrilateral shape. I found quad after some digging. Without the coordinates, I felt lost. It took a long time to realize I needed to map it out and couldn't jsut do it in my head. I used to do math in my head all the time. But this is obviously a different process, with many more aspects to juggle.

On the colors, I decided I wanted the stairs to have a shadow look, so I split the gray scale into three four parts - white for the topstair, light gray for the background so there would always be some contrast, and medium gray for the side of the stairs and darkest for the front rectangle of the stairs. I added the light colored background based on a recommendation from a colleague.

On the size, I wanted the stairs to scale, with some regualarity and irregularity, depending on the mouse position and some interaction. I like that the stairs could be dragged from one side to the other using the mouse position. The viewer can play with the size of the stairs, but also with the colors and the amount of overlap. When there were too many overlapping shapes, you could simply erase what you drew and draw again. I like that playful aspect of the sketch.

I also experimented with resetting the canvas after each staircase and leaving the stairs to draw on top of each other. I ultimately decided I like when they draw on top of each other. It makes it feel even more like the staircase to nowhere, becuase it doesn't even look like it goes upwards after a certain number of overlapping ones!