Video Update

Well we’re still on holidays but I thought this would be a good time to throw up some of the old videos I took at home when I was experimenting with the Arduino board. Here they are:

Led on/off

Knight Rider

Led Fade

KnockSensor

Piezo Speaker

Button

Servos

Automatic Servos

Potentiometer Controlled Led

These are pretty much all of the tutorialsI have gone through, disecting their codes to help me understand better and to make more sense of it.

Back to the holiday.

Project Update

Ok so I’ve been learning Morse code in my spare time in order to be able tell if the Arduino's led is emmiting the correct codes or not. I’ve learnt about ¾ of it but I still think the board chucks them out too fast for me to understand.

Morse code decoded

Now to the code itself, I know how to turn the led on/off its pretty simple. But giving the board a phrase and having it output that in light dot’s and dashes is another story. I signed up to the Arduino and a few other forums to see if anyone could render me their assistance in how to start of with this coding piece. And they all pretty much said the same thing, “Start by defining the variables and the led HIGH and LOW”.

Mentally I kind of have the coding fleshed out. From past experiences of programming in many languages I knew this much:

- Define the variables (dots, dashes, led pins and most importantly the text string which is to encoded)
- Call up the text string and have the text encoded
- Define the letters in the alphabet and numbers with the DoDit (dot) and DoDash (dash) expressions
- Define the pins HIGH and LOW for DoDit and DoDash
- Figure out how to add a delay between each character

After many frustrating hours of coding I had something, it wasn’t working yet but I knew it was something I could work on. At the moment it was a huge text wall but I had included comments all over the place so I wouldn’t get lost.

Credits go to Daniel Andrade at www.danielandrade.com for notifying me of the DoDot and DoDash expressions and how to use them correctly. I would’ve been stuck a long time without that piece of information.

I’ve got parts of the code on a few forums to see if any one can help me out any so I’ll have to wait to see what feedback I receive.


Bibliography

Morse code map:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~djg11/howcomputerswork/

Leo Villareal

Leo Villareal used light as the primary medium to create enticing carvings rather than just projections. I think it was Dan Flavin who led the way for light carvings by using florescent tubes to achieve his minimalism style or even James Turell with his mood altering neon environment. But this artist Leo took it a whole step further then them all, I’m pretty sure that he was inspired by Dan Flavin because of the echoes of their similar styles, but Leo’s work still left me with a wow factor for much longer than Flavin’s work did.

Leo Villareal - Diamond Sea

I think my favourite series created by Leo would have to be the Diamond Sea series. The way he combines the led’s with foreign objects like steel back plates behind them to achieve a never ending reflection, and what’s best of all is he only use the basic led colours and manipulates them with code and ‘voila’. I know I’ve seen this form of lighting in a lot of modern music video and I’m sure that some inspiration for it came from the work of this artist.


Bibliography

Diamond Sea:
www.occasionalphotographer.blogspot.com

Video

Diamond Sea (2009):
http://www.geringlopez.com/artists/leo-villareal/video/diamond-sea-7x7/

Scott Smibbe

The first thing I noticed about this artist is that he uses projections to project his art and not only that but they are also interactive. He usually projects his art on to the floor or the ceiling and the projection then changes in response to people moving across its surface. The first full size piece of interactive art created by Snibbe was called Boundary Functions (1998); this projection was on the floor. This piece was 4*4 meter and what happened was when people walked over it Boundary Functions used a computer, a camera and a projector to draw connecting lines between all of the people on the floor.

People interacting with Snibbe’s Boundary Functions installation. You can see the voronoi shapes on the ground representing their personal space

When all of the lines are connected they form a Voronoi Diagram, at first the lines may not make any sense (I had no idea what the lines represented when I looked at it first), but if you take a minute to try and understand the work you may notice that the lines surrounding the peoples bodies each represent the individuals personal space – the area of space closer to that individual than anyone else in that room. Quote by Snibbe himself states that this work “shows that personal space, though we call it our own, is defined by others and changes without our control”. As simple as it may sound, this is very true.Snibbe has an undergraduate and masters degree in fine art and computer science from Brown University.

Snibbe also went on to study abstract film at the School of Design in Rhode Island with Amy Kravitz. He made many short animated films using hand drawn images, and I guess it was this which finally made him settle in to interactive art as his final artistic medium.

This is what voronoi shapes are, they are like fractal images of crystals. These are the type of shapes that surround the people when they interact with Snibbe’s Boundary Functions

Snibbe’s work has been exhibited in galleries world wide; it has been shown at the NTT Intercommunication Centre (Tokyo, Japan), the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, United Kingdom) and the Kitchen (New York, USA) – and this is just to name a few.

Amazingly his work is not only restricted to art galleries, his work has also been collected and shown in science museums such as Paheno Science Centre (Germany), Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie (Paris, France) and Exploratorium (San Francisco, CA) – this is just name a few.There was also this piece by Snibbe called Three Drops (2006) which caught my eye. As you can see from the image below, the projection of water with air bubbles rising to the top. Now here’s the fun bit, the viewer can actually interact (using their shadw) with the simulated water and the bubbles. Snibbe started and finished this while he was working with Sonar Research.

Someones shadows interacting with the water

To create this he wrote up his own custom C++ code, he used OpenGL for the 3d graphics, OpenCV for computer vision and some of their in-house and commercial physics simulation engines.

This installation was on view at the Expolatorium in San Francisco in 2006 and was really popular with the people. It was also featured in one of the newsletters of Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network.

His work has touched people so deeply that it has gone far enough to allow him to receive grants from the likes of the Rockafeller Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts; he has also received awards at the Prix Ars Electronica Festival, the Black Mariah Film Festival and even the Stuttgart Trickfilm-Festival.

Snibbe has also taught media art students at the UC Berkley and the San Francisco Art Institute. And he didn’t just stop there, he worked as a computer scientist at the Adobe Systems from 1994-1996, where he also contributed to the making of Adobe After Effects (whatever contributions he may have made he did a good job of it, that software is fantastic). He also worked at Interval Research from 1996-2000 where he worked on Computer Vision, Computer Graphics and Haptics research projects. Snibbe currently resides in San Francisco, California where he has settled down with a job and his own personal studio to work in.

The Artist himself

He has made a lot of contributions to a lot of places and things I have previously used and looked at, but I’m surprised I didn’t come across his name. I think he deserves a little bit more credit for all that he does. Some of the things that he has done is what inspires younger people to mould their career around. I think he should take a personal student under his wing and become his mentor; it would be a shame to lose an artist as diverse as this.


Bibliography

Boundary Functions:
http://www.superpink.com/interface/imagens/snibbe_boundary.jpg

Varoni shapes:
http://www.amath.washington.edu/~dnlennon/voronoi/

Water:
http://www.mangtronix.com/wiki/projects:three_drops

Scott Snibbe’s portrait:
http://dm.risd.edu/assets/imgs/lectures/2006-scott-snibbe.jpg


Links:

Personal Website:
http://snibbe.com/

Some of Snibbe’s installations:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/nise-resources/

Info on his work:
http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/codedoc/snibbe.shtml


Books:

Collection of his best works, all documented
Visceral Cinema: Chien
ASIN: B000BFHTOE


DVD:
Scott Snibbe: Selected Interactive Works 1995-2005
ASIN: B000B5SLUU

Ian Davenport

I wanted to move away from looking at digital experimental art for awhile and look at some traditional digital art. This would be a nice change and I thought this way I would have something to compare and contrast the digital work with as well. I came across numerous works by artists but none interested me more than Ian Davenports drip paint style.

Daven is a British artist born in Kent (Sidcup) 1966. He first began to study art at the Northwich College of Art and Design in Cheshire before going to Goldsmiths College from which he graduated in 1988. In the same year of his graduation he featured an exhibition at the Damien Hurst Freeze Exhibition, his appearence in this exhibition brought together many of the members of the Young British Artists group. Davenport never really did a solo exhibition until the year of 1990, in the same year his work was also included in the British Art Show. Then in 1991 he was nominated for the Turner Prize.

Every colour here compliments one another – regardless of the contrast between them

I really like the technique Davenport uses to create his pieces, I think it is what attracted me to his work - the way a moth is to a light. Davenport creates his work by pouring paint on to a tilted surface and then letting gravity spread the paint in its own will over the surface. Davenport after a while began working on medium density fibre board rather than canvas - I guess the fibre board will allow the paint to travel further and faster than the canvas without being absorbed. Davenport also began using household gloss paint more often than any other type of paint, this meant that the viewer would be able to see their reflection in his work - almost as if they were a key element of his work where they bring life to the lifeless paint strips.

The choice of two complimentary colours with varying line values makes this look like a subtle fable

Other than many of the singular surface works by Davenport's, there are many diptychs (an object with two flat surfaces joined together at a hinge) and even triptychs (same as dictychs except this time three seperate flat surfaces joined and two seperate hinges).

In 2003 Davenport made a thirteen metre high wall painted piece for The Days Like These Tate Exhitbition which he made by dripping different coloured paints down the wall from a syringe (hint of Pollock). But then in the September of 2006 he revealed his largest piece to date. It was 48m long and 3m high, it just isn't possible to take the whole thing in one look - no matter how far back you stand. To fully appreciate this piece you had to stand up close to the painting at one end and then walk along it, slowly absorbing the glossiness, the thextures and the contrasting and harmonic colours that have been dripped down from three metres above. This piece was called 'Poured Lines: Southwark' and is currently available to view beneath the railway bridge close to the Tate Gallery.

'Poured Lines: Southwark' (his biggest piece yet)

After looking through many of Davenport's paintings, I have come to believe that he does not just pick up any random colour and drip it down before moving on to another random colour and doing the same - like many have said. I believe that he stops after every line of colour and takes a step back to view his work and decide which colour would compliment the current line of colour - whether it be a similar or contrasting tone depends all on which way on the colour wheel he wants to travel. As you begin to follow he colours down from the top you almost get a sense that the colours are shimmering, and since the paint is still wet you also get the birth of a third colour from the two coloured stripes when they mix in to each other on their way down.

I like this style and I think it’s a something fresh and a feasible which we can work in ourselves. It’s also good to know that his work is available to view locally in order to find some inspiration – and also the fact that he is British and is still creating something like this means all hope for the Brit’s is not lost.


Bibliography

Red/Blue/Yellow:
http://saltbridges.bioch.ox.ac.uk/iandavenportcv.html

Yellow/Blue:
http://saltbridges.bioch.ox.ac.uk/westendwall.html

Poured Lines - Southwark:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5315186.stm



Links:

Damien Hurst (first exhibition appearance):
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hirst.html

Young British Artists (he helped give birth to):
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition.jsp?entryId=320

Poured Lines: Southwark (second largest piece created):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/5315186.stm


Video:

Davenport's Everything piece in University of Warwick (his largest piece ever created):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=uHVnslH331o

Week 6

This week we spoke about passive and active viewers and what I would like to elaborate on here is the latter. I went to the Metropolitan University to view a piece of work named ‘Wall Ball’; it was a very large installation and was created by Alexander Wendt, Elaine Thomaszi-Freitas and Luke Hastilow. It was a playful piece which attempted to incorporate cultural identity and position in to one piece.

The way the viewers would interact with the piece would be to throw a ball(s) on to the canvas projected piece. On the canvas would be a 4*4 grid with different parts of the face from people of different backgrounds, and when the ball would hit a square the skin would change to another. Most of the photographed subjects were neither born nor bred in London – it is the journey of migration that unites them here creating a collective of friends originally from European, Asian and African backgrounds.

Metropolitan University - Wall Ball

The whole piece was created using Max MSP and Jitter along with various pieces of hardware. I thought it was a very powerful message being sent out while at the same time being playful, maybe by making it playful the participants didn’t realise how powerful it is until later when they thought about it.


Bibliography

Metropolitan Wall Ball:
http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/news/latest-news/april-2009/wall-ball-bounces-from-london-to-new-york.cfm


Also look up:
Ghosting by Roshini Kempadoo

Project Update

I have been thinking this week and here’s what I have settled on.

I shall be using the Arduino software to program the Arduino micro processor. I have also programmed in Processor but I believe it will be more steadfast for me to work in the Arduino language simply because I have been using it for the last few weeks and am feeling more comfortable with it.

Yes or no to a gui? Well I know for a fact that I shall be continuing to develop this project after I hand this in so for the time being I have decided not toad a gui in Flash MX. Primarily I was going to use Flash MX to give a graphical representation of the dots and dashes on screen to move the whole thing to being digital but I have yet to learn how to integrate Arduino with Flash and believe it will be too taxing on time and I will end up not completing it. So just the led for now, a gui later.

Finally a led or a piezo speaker, or both? Well since they have begun using the Morse code system kit has always either been printed on paper or been done by sound but rarely with light. Therefore I decided to make it using light. But I will definitely be thinking about integrating a piezo speaker in to it that works in combination with the sound.

I’ve also been looking at midi shields this week to see how they are to work. I was thinking of replacing the beeps with something a bit more modern, probably a sound effect that’s not very common.


To do:

Begin research for the Morse code language and start on the programming.

Project Update

We introduced our ideas today for our individual projects. After assessing the feedback which funnily enough corroborated with the feedback I received online from numerous people I decided to go with the morse code concept. This is because it seemed simple enough and wasn’t over ambitious.

I am please that I have chosen to follow this route since secretly over the last few days I have been slowly biased towards this concept rather than the binary clock one. I think it will also be fun since it requires one person to enter a phrase to be encoded while other will be required to decipher it.


Next step:

- Shall I use Arduino or Processing
- Shall I consider using Flash MX and give it a GUI
- Shall I use a piezo speaker to sound out the dot’s and dashes


These are the things I will be pondering over the next few days to see which of these will be time feasible.

Orbiter

Sound Installations

During this weeks workshop we were introduced to a few sound environment installations. In the public art sector, this sound installation can be seen as being the equivalent of a sculpture or something similar.


The Orbiter Installation

With this installation, the spectator lies down and relaxes, fixing their eyes on to the extended plane before them. Then using their fingers and pointing upwards they are able to give birth to new stars in to the orbit with musical and distinguishing visual interaction. The pitch of the sound depends on the placement of your star within the orbit and the bigger the star grows the louder the music plays.

The Orbiter - Vera-Maria Glahn & Marcus Wendt

“THE “ORBITER” DRAWS THE VISITOR IN AND TAKES OVER ALL OF HIS SENSES. IT IS A PLACE FOR VISITORS TO LAY DOWN AND RELAX, WATCHING THE FIRMAMENT ABOVE THEM. THE VISITOR CAN CONGER UP NEW RINGING BODIES WITH A GESTURE AND PUT THEM INTO ORBIT. AS IF HE WERE SITTING IN THE BELLY OF THE INSTRUMENT, THE PLAYER IS ENVELOPED BY THE MUSIC, AS ARE THE EARS, BODY AND SPACE”

This installation of theirs is based on custom built software by the artists themselves. It performs a real time analysis of a camera image and even generates a 6channel audio/video signals. The synthesized sounds use in this project has a very late and contrasting 1960-ish feel to it.


Bibliography

The Orbiter:
http://www.microarchitecture.eu/ORBITER.html

Vera-Maria Glahn:
http://www.veraglahn.de/orbiter.html

Video of the installation :
http://www.vimeo.com/303105

Week Five

Some time back we had a trip to see an exhibition with the sonic bed – except it was not there by the time we got there.

Music for bodies was a research project which involved the sonic mapping of the human body in an architectural form; this had been achieved through studies of bio resonance and special interface building. The aim of this project was to find new way to create experimental music and also to make this new type of music accessible to a wider community. The focus of this was to feel the music rather than listen to it.

Sonic Bed – London

Of course none of us ever had the chance to experience it, but from the images all over the net it sure seems pleasurable.


Bibliography

Sonic Bed- London:
http://www.musicforbodies.net/wiki/SonicBedLondon

Jackson Pollock

I remember someone mentioning this name in class last week, and although they did not show his work they described it as best as they could. Now I don’t know whether it was the way his paintings were described or just the way I imagined the painting itself – but one way or the other I became intrigued by his style and thought I’d delve in to it a little further. And I do not regret this one little bit.

“Abstract painting is abstract. It confronts you. There was a reviewer a while back who wrote that my pictures didn't have any beginning or any end. He didn't mean it as a compliment, but it was.” His pictures didn’t have a beginning or an end – I think that is what made me become fond of his work. This is where the theory comes in play where the artist knew what he wanted to exactly convey to the audience – but the audience don’t know this. So when the audience has a look at it they each manage to decipher a different meaning to what he did and didn’t intend.

Pollock’s unique art style did not just come to over night, he would practice and practice in his barn of a studio vigorously hour after hour until he got it perfected. And it was in this very barn that he perfected his method of spontaneously painting with liquid paint that his first piece of art was given birth to.

Pollock lost at work

The technique of Pollock’s painting was all about the movement of the body (which he has control of), mixed with the ferocious flow of the paint and then you get the power of gravity helping to absorb the paint in to the canvas – I guess this is a mix of the uncontrollable and the controllable. He would drip, pour, fling and spatter the paint while moving around on his canvas, almost as if dancing to the tempo of his artwork, and he doesn’t stop until he created what he imagined in his minds eye.

I really enjoyed writing up about Jackson Pollock, but I shall never forget how it was the media’s fault that Pollock committed suicide after they kept making accusations that his work was not the work of art, and whenever he tried advancing in another direction which hadn’t been explored yet in art they would say the same thing and bring his dance routine to an end. And then after so many times of being halted in so many directions he finally got himself drunk, got in to his car and committed suicide. The media weren’t invited to comment on whether his art was good or bad, if they had just kept quiet then this conqueror may have gone on to explore and take over new depths of impressionism/action art. They may have killed the artist but his art still survives. The art of Jack the Dripper (dubbed by Times magazine, 1956).


Links:

Flash website that lets you work like him:
http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

In depth feature of the artist:
http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/

Artcyclopedia (lots of info):
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/pollock_jackson.html


Books:
Jackson Pollock / Author - Ellen G. Landau
ISBN – 13: 978-0500285848

No Limits, Just Edges: Jackson Pollock Paintings on Paper
Author - David Anfam & Susan Daidson
ISBN - 13: 978-0892073269

Love Affair Memoirs – Jackson Pollock / Author – Ruth Kligman
ISBN – 13: 978-0815410096

Project Concept

After being awed numerous times by (mainly) Jim Campbell and Dan Flavin’s light works I decided to base my work around the same theme. Of course I knew from the start I would never be able to complete anything on the same scale as they do, therefore I would simply create something of a smaller scale. I also didn’t really want to mimic or copy the style of any of their projects because, well then it wouldn’t have any of me in it.

At the moment I have 3 separate concepts in my mind which I wish to advance on, they are the following:

- Binary clock
- Binary counter
- Digital morse code

I’m thinking of creating these pieces with the aid of the compact Arduino processor. I have begun to get the hang of the Arduino lingo and have a growing interest in its capabilities because of some of the stuff that I witnessed being done with it online. Also, I’m sure that I’ll be able to get some help from the online Arduino based forums when I get stuck – which I’m sure I will.

Binary clock diagram

I’ve always been interested in the binary number collection since I was introduced to it in my college days, and I think it’s brilliant how the whole number system can be reduced to just a few figures. I ended up creating a binary counter once as well using the programme Turbo Pascal, but looking back at it now it seems very prehistoric.

Binary counter diagram

Morse code has also been one to busy my mind too, and this has been the case since I started reading the Fantastic Five and Secret Seven books (Author Enid Blyton) from over 13 years ago and came across it in a few of their adventures.

Arduino board with an led attached, eventually the cablewillbe replaced with a battery pack

In order to complete either of these concepts I would need an Arduino board, 1 – 13 led’s and numerous resistors. So it should be quite feasible to start working on the whole thing running and replace any parts necessary promptly.

I presume that I may go for the binary clock since I may actually get some use out of it at home after wards. It seems like I have some pondering to do.


Bibliography

Arduino Board:
http://www.instantreality.org/tutorial/serial-communication/

Binary number system:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_numeral_system

Enid Blyton:
http://www.enidblyton.net/

New Contemporaries

I visited the New Contemporaries showcase a while ago and saw some things which I believe are worth mentioning, especially since I believe that I saw something which may have influenced me to base my final piece on it. Here’s who I came across.

Jim Campbell
San Francisco-based artist Jim Campbell is widely known to be one of the most extraordinary and important artists working with new media. His installations have pioneered new ways of showing images, from LED screens to touch-sensitive computers. He uses digital media in the service of profound humanism.

Motion & Rest - Jim Campbell

Here is an image of Jim Campbell’s motion and rest. If you watch the installation in action really close up, it will leave you clueless. The way you’re supposed to understand this is to take a few steps back and look at it a bit more vaguely; this way you will get a better view.

Behind the scenes

This piece ‘Motion and Rest’ by Jim Campbell had me looking at it for close to five minutes trying to figure out what the trick was. The way he controls the brightness of every individual led gave me the illusion that there was an elderly figure walking slowly across the plane. It just seemed so three dimensional, and it was all done with just led’s. The Motion & Rest piece was based around people being physically handicapped, the led’s gave it a pixilated look – and the fun bit was deciding at which point it did and didn’t reconstruct a human figure.

Another piece I saw by him was Church on 5th Avenue (2001) and I thought it was marvellous. The background on this piece was basically a set image (nothing on the background moved). What took place (with very subtle audio) were black ‘vague’ shapes which would move around the plane. The best part was the fact that you had to keep looking at the piece trying to catch the actual figures ‘within the shadows’. There were even birds flying around which made it more interesting. This had to actually be seen properly to fully appreciate it for what it is.


Links:

Info on Jim Campbell:
http://www.jimcampbell.to/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Campbell

Church on 5th Avenue :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ur2Jaf8v_c


Bibliography

Motion and Rest:
http://www.seeartmakeart.com/wp-upload/campbell.jpg

Behind the scenes:
http://www.metmuseum.org/special/closed_circuit/images/circuit_03.R.jpg


Dan Flavin

This is another artist whose work I went to see in a gallery. I can’t remember what the name of the gallery was but it was based somewhere near the London Eye.

The meanings within Dan Flavin’s artworks are really subtle. He likes to wok with light sculptures a lot it is kind of hard to make something of it. I remember looking at his art and thinking “which angle does he want the viewer to look from” because I just couldn’t understand it. I did like one thing though, the way he used to make the colours blend in to each other flawlessly, the colours would bleed in to each other in harmony as if they were one.

A Retrospective

His sculptures are pretty minimal and simple, but they are not something that would inspire me to create something in the same manner. It just doesn’t seem to give me much of a narrative to work with or even gives me a pregnant idea in my mind where I can peel its skin off layer by layer to uncover something secretive behind it. Nonetheless they are pleasant to look at.


Bibliography

A Retrospective:
http://www.diacenter.org/exhibs_b/flavin-exhib/flavin-exhib-top.jpg


Links:

A lot of background info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Flavin

Art Institute:
http://www.diacenter.org/ltproj/flavbrid/

Youtube video of Flavin’s work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9liyGFyM4IY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aYxcpgbhDg

Some led art work:
www.sunbzero.mit.edu/fbyte/ledart
http://www.clarkson.edu/~johndan/datacloud/archives/000982.
htmlhttp://www.led-art.nl/Eng/index.html

LED Art via Beijing:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=oJJ9m0K4EY8

Japan Bloomberg Ice – Interactive game:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4IbAQ1K8X94

Bloomberg Ice - Digital Interactive Cello:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lBNVKFjB2uo

A fan with embedded led’s and YouTube link to see it inaction:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=d5ZuIvDry8w

Fluxus

Fluxus, I think is best described as the act of blending of different artistic media and disciplines which all took place in the 60’s. I have encountered the term ‘intermedia’ in some places which is what has been used to describe this movement. After some hunting around I found that it was first used by the artist Dick Higgins in one of his famous essays in 1966, ’Something Else’.

A Spanish Dada/Fluxus pamphlet from 1960

The movement was famous for displaying their critical attitude towards new technology and moved on to find alternative solutions to existing communal and artistic situations. Their inspiration came from partly the Dadaist movement and partly the Bauhaus movement.

After more digging around on this subject I came across forms of media which made me question the Fluxus movement, and I’ll tell you why. I discovered many art pieces in the form of videos all over the internet. Now, as I said in the above paragraph, artists within this movement were very ‘anti-technology’, therefore why would they create numerous contradicting pieces of art only viewable via the tv medium when they were clearly working towards making that technology obsolete?


Bibliography

Pamphlet:
www.designresearchgroup.wordpress.com

A better explanation:
http://www.fluxus.org/

Erwin Redl & James Clar

Erwin Redl

With the release of his Matrix series, we have to mention Erwin Redl. Each version consists of a diversely different demonstration of the large scale grid structure. The led components which he uses in his pieces develops into the perfect medium to convert the language of virtual reality and 3d computer modelling in to a physical architectural design. The way his work has been presented is amazing; by simply being present you have already integrated yourself in to the installation and are already participating.

Erwin Rendl – Matrix series

With all the architecture around you it looks like you are within a virtual world, I am intrigued as to what the participants feel and what is running through their mind at that precise moment. Unfortunately I am not able to visit the installation neither am I able to find any reviews from any participants.


James Clar

While on the case of Erwin I came across James Clar, another great artist. James combines technology and art to create new visual systems.

James Clar – Portal

The above photo was taken from his installation “Portal”. The wall in the middle acts as a diffuser screen which has abstract lines that travel back and forth through it, basically bouncing around the room.

In architecture, a doorway represents the transition from one space to another. James Clar’s ‘Portal’ visually depicts this moment of change as a 2d plane using the diffuser screen. So as the viewers follow the crisp light to the diffuser wall, they are joined again on the other side of the diffuser with a rather diffused and fuzzy streak of light.

Now here is how the viewers interact with it. A sensor had been set up by the doorway of the gallery. This way every time a visitor enters the gallery the light from ‘Portal’ changes to a different colour. This signifies the viewers transition from the outside to the inside gallery.


Bibliography

Erwin Redl:
http://www.vvork.com/?m=200709

James Clar:
http://www.jamesclar.com/piece/2008/portal/index.html

Christian Ristow

Christian Ristow is an artist who builds kinetic powered robots; the performances by these robots often feature a provocative mix of post apocalyptic mayhem and playful iconism. The reason he ‘brings these machines to life’ is simply for one single reason; to fight each other and destroy targets in a mechanical staged performance.

Ristow sometimes stages contrasting shows like Sex & Death, Money & Hate, etc, by choosing these themes he gets to express his own views on various subjects. He also notes that this is a very good way for him to release his stress, aggression and violent urges – by smashing things up with a robot.

Parents…? Well he’s the son of a plastic surgeon and a fine artist (both artists in their own rights) & therefore has naturally had a liking to art since a young age.

Christian Ristow - Air Claw

Here is one of his pieces of work called Air Claw. The air claw is a wall-mounted, compressed air-driven three-fingered claw constructed from aluminum and steel. It was originally displayed in the San Francisco gallery, Blasthaus. It was later selected to be in the 1997 California State Fair, where it won first place in the Sculpture division. When mounted in a public space, its simple, hard-wired pendant control allows it to be operated by virtually any idiot. Due to its compressed-air design, it is very fast, very loud, and has the capacity to slash and puncture a variety of sacrificial substances.

I think the peak of his artistic life so far was when he was introduced to Animatronic Special Effects (while he was living in San Francisco). And since joining that field, he has been involved with some high profile people/companies, e.g. from adverts like Nike to movies like Flubber (1997) & Bicentennial Man (1999). If these films have been seen by anyone, they would immediately recognize his influence in the films.

Earlier on, Ristow was influenced by the works of sculptors and architects – such as Jean Tingueley and Santiago Calatrava. Needless to say, his work has been published (as expected) in books like Robo Sapiens and Body Probe, as well as numerous magazines, e.g. Wired, Raygun & Gadfly. And even on the Discovery Channels Robots Rising. This artist definitely doesn’t fall short for publicity – or concepts for destruction.

He is currently residing in Los Angeles and is devising new ways to destroy and burn the icons society holds so dear.

NOTE:Christian Ristow’s work reminds me of Hagime Sorayama – a robot fetish digital artist. His work is really impressive, though it is pretty mature oriented (so no chance of sharing with the younger audience).

I personally like this type of art – as long as I’m the one controlling the mechanical parts. I think watching this type of art is enough to give me some kind of rush from thinking up the many possible uses of it.

I may actually be persuaded to base my project on similar grounds as this.


Links:

Personal site:
http://christianristow.com/

A bit more deeper:
http://current.com/items/76307962_robochrist


Video Clips:

Just two minor examples of his distruction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XePpUek4Mc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pLTz_SsdZ8


Books:

Robo Sapiens / Authors’ - Peter Menzel & Faith D'Aluisio
ISBN – 13: 978-0262632454

Body Probe / Author – David Wood
ISBN – 13: 978-1840680041

Week Three

We were shown footage of a piece of work from Documenta 12. Many were installations and were heavy on physical computing applications.

I did some research of my own and found some information and videos on Imogen Stidworthy. Imogen (born 1963) had created a short video which investigates the language phenomena. The most common words spoken were obviously “I hate”, the camera angles were all also closed. The video consisted of no establishing shots nor did the camera dolly at all. The video only consisted of very close up shots, especially focusing on the eyes and mouth. You would view the different expressions of the eyes and the lips as the words were spoken by and to the main character – in a sense it felt like he was being brain washed. There were also numerous phonetic projections of the words being spoken. I think this was a fresh angle and very imaginative, but the issues like so many of the dead artists in Documenta feel like they are from artists of a former age.


Links:

Imogen Stidworthy - I Hate (Documenta 12):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrPM_rWggd4

Youtube playlist of self playinginstruments:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=56A28204B22EDAC8&search_query=self+playing+instruments

Hacked Mario:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZd3FEnUlH8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8l02nWcRio

Concepts

During our lessons we have been asked to look at concepts. I have studied Marcel Duchamp in one of my previous modules and I think he fits perfectly within this criteria. Duchamp opened the door to conceptual art by using already made items in his art and then selling of these creations as art. I think these ideas are particular to the Dada movement.

Marcel Duchamp – Fountain (1917)

Personally, I think his most influential piece is “Fountain”, this piece was bought by the Tate Gallery for an estimated £621,000.000.

I think in the present, art has been influenced heavily by the Dada and the Fluxus movement, I think this is best done when artists make personal usage of new media to give birth to new ideas. This in turn makes me believe that there are no more boundaries, therefore “all art is experimental”.

The artist is free to express their thoughts, concepts and emotions through whatever means possible (within reason). A concept can relate to a personal or emotional state (following the path of Freud or alike).it can be associated to the history of at itself, politics or even anti art statements.

For my part, I always try to think visually and try not to force myself to think up of concepts because these are the ones that I always find hardest to develop. I prefer to experience it first in a dream, have the concept float in to my head when I’m talking about something completely different or simply from listening to a piece of music.


Bibliography

Fountain:
http://artintelligence.net/review/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/duchampfountaincol.jpg


Artists to look up:
Jackson Pollock

Paul Friedlander

A coming together of Cosmology, Mythology and Art

Paul Friedlander was inspired for this piece by many subjects ranging from ancient myths and legends to modern day works with mathematics and physics. He approached this piece by working through written records, this varied from ancient scripts to signs, codes and mathematical formula. Then he takes these images that are so full of mystery and secrets and then transforms and fragments them using codes which he had written himself.

Timeless Universe

The result is an endless kinetic stream of images which never quite repeat themselves and refreshes itself on a daily basis so that on a new day a new variant of a theme starts.


Bibliography

Paul Friedlander's website:
http://www.paulfriedlander.com/text/sala2006.htm


Videos of the artist's work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhTUidb_8b4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKsNraFxPwk

Chain Reaction Exercise

Week 1 of meeting

We were given a task of creating a chain reaction as individuals and then told to link all of ours together in to one large chain. At first I thought ‘yeah, this will be okay’, but after some thought I realized what if some peoples chains are incompatible with other peoples – how will we decide who’s chain to manipulate so that it connects with the next one? Of course by then people had come to realize this and started raising the question and so after some debate it was decided that the whole class would just become one big group and just create one single chain reaction. Now I have to admit that I wasn’t looking forward to this, working with 1 / 2 members in fine – but when it becomes a whole class its something else. I think for this kind of assignment it was kinda unsuitable since everyone wanted to see their own concepts come alive rather than give in to some one else.

Within the group you would always find some who is over confident and tries to twist and turn their idea just as long as it stays on the table, some one who is a little irritable (who never offers anything up on the table but keeps being negative about everyone else’s idea); I personally didn’t care what the idea was just as long as we were able to give it some physical form and make it work.

Just as I had predicted above every ones ideas began flooding in and debates started. I personally didn’t bother participating in inputting the major ideas because I didn’t have the strength to battle the whole class to see my concept come to life, I simply tried to develop the concepts that were thrown on to the table so that it didn’t stay too simple or simply make room for another reaction to take place somewhere.

After much stumbling around it became apparent that we all agreed on using audio and a live visual feed – reason being that we had all seen examples of this (or something) in the workshops and were more or less familiar with its structure.


Links:

Brighton Science Festivle (turn TV off) (maybe a little far but a starting point still):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1xeX3YNby0

4 Million Domino Chain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RC4Xp9VBZvQ

World Record - Over 1 Million Dominos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NXYDRFf1uU


Week 2 of meeting (part 1)

More debates took place here, but we managed to sit ourselves down at least on the bulk of the concept. The basic flow was something like: human interaction in front of sensor (&) webcam which would then take a frame and communicate the image from itself to a second computer (both the computer would be running Eyesweb simultaneously). Once on the second computer we would have some kind of analogue/digital music playing from a cd player which would be input through a mic directly through to Eyesweb. Eyesweb would then apply the audio to the image and alter it in to the form of a visual spectrum. I’m happy nonetheless that we (the group) had accomplished something rather than just bickering over each other. We all realized that we still had to work on making the chain longer – for instance adding something to the beginning and also the end or simply adding something extra in to the beginning so that the finale would be of an image that catches the eye rather than a simple ‘pop’ (because of each of our restricted knowledge in this area some of the suggested concepts just were unworkable regardless of how badly we wanted to carry it through).

Week 2 of meeting (part 2)

I missed this part of the meeting and I truly regret it because everyone had settled on the final concept and knew what they were doing. People had segregated away to complete their own individual tasks. They even had the technician come in to help create the link between computer A and computer B. It seemed also that they had decided to add everything to the beginning of the chain so that the ending is the image taken from the webcam. A blog was also suggested by someone so that everybody could input their creative ideas and any Einstein moments they had so that it would be possible to communicate this across to every member easily.


Links:

Blog address:
http://experimentalmedia.wordpress.com/

Kinetic Reactions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5cCtnDQhhc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPeL1Tyxcc0


Week 3 of meeting

Build build build. After finally catching up on the chains reactions we all began assembling the thing. We had people still perfecting the Eyesweb software so the flow from computer A to computer B would be error free. We also had people working on the Arduino coding so that the webcam would take a frame shot when it detects immediate interference / interaction. The slightly complicated bit was having it sent to computer B simultaneously after taking the frame ‘on its own’. We had people doing some soldiering in order to make our very own on/off switch to connect to the Arduino board. This was done so that we would be able to remove one of the human interactions and replace it with an led to make it a little more interesting – so then rather than having the camera take a frame of a human walking past we could have it take a frame when the led’s turn on. And the part where I was working on was right at the beginning, helping to trigger off everything and put the whole thing in motion.

All I can say is, to start this chain reaction off we used nothing hi-tech or fancy (though it was considered). As you can see – everything is coming together. I have to admit though, I guess none of this would’ve been possible had the teacher not given us all a wake up call to make us realize how much time we do not have. Next week: Chain Reaction Complete! (Hopefully).


Links:

Chains Through Trial and Error:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVRCbvr4v-c

Science World - Vancouver:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XA6q9yFjiA


Week 4 - Chain Reaction Complete!

Finally we have completed the piece and everything seems to be working perfectly. Now before I lay out the whole concept, I will describe it simply (in a nutshell without the use of images) which can then be applied to our concept.

Chain reaction installation

(1) The chain reaction would be triggered by a physical (human) reaction which launches off a series of events which in turn is captured in to an image (the programming and image from here is sitting on computer A).

(2) The image is then transmitted over to computer B with the help of the Ethernet through the computers IP address.

(3) Once there, the image (triggered by sound) becomes distorted and in to an output.

Chain Reaction:The Reaction started with a ball rolling down a tube and landing in to a set of scales. (2) This in turn released a ball to roll down another tube and set a switch on. The switch which was quickly put together in during lesson. We simply two cut out pieces of metal from a can which were soldered and connected together in to an Arduino controller. So what basically happens is, when the balls rolls down on to it both the metal pieces touch together and complete the circuit connection.

The ball rolling down to start the chain and the connector board

The Arduino board already had the Knight Rider code programmed in to it; we made a modification to the code and embedded the on/off code so that the reaction would continue. It was somebody’s idea to do something funky with lights since Halloween was close, so we settled on that.

The Arduino board with the led installation and the Arduino code

The webcam then transmitted the live recording of the blinking led over to computer (A) – which is already running Eyesweb. Computer (A) had already been set to communicate with Computer (B) with the use of the Ethernet connection. We used the computers unique IP addresses to help them identify each other.

Live feed in to the webcam and the Eyesweb connections

Computer (B) was also running Eyesweb and the patch ‘film string effect’ was being used, the visual effect on Eyesweb is activated by sound. To input the sound we connected a mic to the computer and the incoming sound from the mic disrupts the incoming feed of the blinking led (depending on the continuous input of sound / silent breaks in between the sound). The blinking led’s being manipulated on screen was the final outcome.

The final outcome screen

Bibliography:

Arduino Site:
http://www.arduino.cc/

Purchase Arduino board:
http://tinker.it/

Eyesweb application:
http://www.infomus.org/EyesWeb/EywPlatformDownload.html


Links:

Honda Advert:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcr6ZIVi-Vg

Honda Commercial Parody (just for fun):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMNJOm55pXs

Week Two

Physical Computing

Physical Computing means to build ‘interactive physical systems’ with the aide of hardware and software (obviously). The task of this system/apparatus is to use its sensors to interact and respond with us in the analogue world. We can use these physical computing systems to help us better understand our relationship with the digital/virtual world (how we were so primitive without them before, and then how they were noticeably introduced in to our everyday lives and how today we use them hundreds of times a day (where ever we go) without even giving a second thought to it – as if it has become second nature). In a more convenient sense, the term is often used to portray something less mass produced and more personal, e.g. handmade art or even DIY projects. The most common and basic mechanisms used to achieve these objectives are microcontrollers and sensors (to input our analogue data in to the information system) and then you have the motors, lighting, electric amplifiers, etc.

NOTE:
Sometimes physical computing is exercised in the invention/concept market where they hand build small prototype systems of their concepts to take it through a trial. This is both cost efficient and very fast.

Also used in the gaming market to make the interaction between the player and the game more personal. I think the best example of this would be the Dance Dance Revolution (1998) game produced by Konami.

Dance Dance Revolution in Trochedero

As you can see from the layout of the platform, it’s all about the foot work. The arrows shown on the screen are all in sync with the beat of the song that is playing. Now the players challenge is to move their feet to the arrow shown on the screen in time, the better you are the faster the beat is. The difference in interaction between using a gamepad and the mat to play this game is what gave Konami the edge in the market (the edge was so sharp the game is still a massive hit even today).

There are also systems which have been implemented to act on voice recognition, they have sensors (e.g. microphone) which sense and interpret sound waves. Motion capture and gesture recognition are fast approaching the scene, prototypes for these have already been created but upgrades and additions are being invented and added everyday to keep the creation from becoming primitive to early.


Wired Glove

A wired glove which is used for virtual reality interaction looks exactly like a normal glove...with loads of wires running through it. Various sensor technologies are implanted within it to capture physical data such as the motion or the bending of the fingers. To track the motion of the glove, something like a magnetic tracking device or inertial device is attached to capture the global position/rotation data of the glove. This input data is then translated into what ever language the accompanying software understands, so then any no. of movements can mean anything. This can be used for many things, e.g. the different gestures used for sign language.

Wired Virtual Reality glove

Something I am still amazed by is the haptic feedback enabled wire glove. This glove doesn't only allow it to be used as an input source but also an out put source, it simulates to the user the sense of touch. You can tell this is obviously going to be a really over priced high end item. I had one such game accessory (pretty sure it qualifies here) called the Nintendo Power Glove. This was pretty expensive when bought at that time, and trust me it was the crap. Even though the motion tracker and the finger bending sensors weren't all that (compared to today), having that on made me feel something like Johnny Quest - it had buttons on the back and everything.

NOTE:
WIRED GLOVES ARE OFTEN ALELD DATAGLOVES OR CYBERGLOVES, THESE TWO NAMES ARE A TRADEMARK AND RESPECTIVLY BELONG TO "SUN MICROSYSTEMS".

After all this being said, we must all remember that physical computing applications tend to depend more on people for input, and amplify that input into another form (e.g. animation/ sound/ motion.


Arduino

Our Tutor is pretty keen on the little Arduino Microcontroller component, I can see why too. First of all it is a very affordable piece of kit and secondly since it is an open source piece the vast number of tutorials available is simply amazing.


Artists to look up:

Scott Snibbe
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
Christian Ristow


Links:

My previous blog (artificial intelligence):
http://virtualspace-islam.blogspot.com/2007/05/artifcial-intelligence.html

Micro controller seller:
http://http/www.makingthings.com/products/KIT-MAKE-CTRL/

Very fun to read up on:
http://www.nastypixel.com/instantsoup/?page_id=2

Slightly in depth but still an intresting read:
http://www.timedia.com/physical.html

Intro to Arduino:
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/09/intro_to_the_arduino_week.html


Book:

Physical Computing / Author – O’Sullivan & Igoe:
ISBN -13: 978-1592003464

Week One

Open Source

During the first lecture, we mainly covered topics relating to open source software such as Processing and Arduino. Open source software doesn’t just mean having access to free software and its code, there are certain rules and regulations that must be followed in order for it to become as such. Rather than having me explain the guidelines for this (since I have no idea how to get it down on paper without getting the reader mixed up) I will simply copy and paste an extract that does the job flawlessly (these standards that are set out are quite remarkable and kind of remind me of the 4 laws of life which the robots must follow in the movie iRobot (2004)).

The guidelines are as follows:

1. Free Redistribution

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

Rationale: By constraining the license to require free redistribution, we eliminate the temptation to throw away many long-term gains in order to make a few short-term sales dollars. If we didn't do this, there would be lots of pressure for co-operators to defect.

2. Source Code

The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as compiled form. Where some form of a product is not distributed with source code, there must be a well-publicized means of obtaining the source code for no more than a reasonable reproduction cost preferably, downloading via the Internet without charge. The source code must be the preferred form in which a programmer would modify the program. Deliberately obfuscated source code is not allowed. Intermediate forms such as the output of a preprocessor or translator are not allowed.

Rationale: We require access to un-obfuscated source code because you can't evolve programs without modifying them. Since our purpose is to make evolution easy, we require that modification be made easy.

3. Derived Works

The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.

Rationale: The mere ability to read source isn't enough to support independent peer review and rapid evolutionary selection. For rapid evolution to happen, people need to be able to experiment with and redistribute modifications.

4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code

The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time. The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.

Rationale: Encouraging lots of improvement is a good thing, but users have a right to know who is responsible for the software they are using. Authors and maintainers have reciprocal right to know what they're being asked to support and protect their reputations. Accordingly, an open-source license must guarantee that source be readily available, but may require that it be distributed as pristine base sources plus patches. In this way, "unofficial" changes can be made available but readily distinguished from the base source.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups

The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

Rationale: In order to get the maximum benefit from the process, the maximum diversity of persons and groups should be equally eligible to contribute to open sources. Therefore we forbid any open-source license from locking anybody out of the process. Some countries, including the United States, have export restrictions for certain types of software. An OSD-conformant license may warn licensees of applicable restrictions and remind them that they are obliged to obey the law; however, it may not incorporate such restrictions itself.

6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavour

The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of endeavour. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

Rationale: The major intention of this clause is to prohibit license traps that prevent open source from being used commercially. We want commercial users to join our community, not feel excluded from it.

7. Distribution of License

The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.

Rationale: This clause is intended to forbid closing up software by indirect means such as requiring a non-disclosure agreement.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product

The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.

Rationale: This clause forecloses yet another class of license traps.

9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software

The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

Rationale: Distributors of open-source software have the right to make their own choices about their own software. Yes, the GPL is conformant with this requirement. Software linked with GPLed libraries only inherits the GPL if it forms a single work, not any software with which they are merely distributed.

10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral

No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.

Group Work

We have also been asked to create some sort of a chain reaction project as group. It’s not something I’m looking forward to since there will be a lot of opposing opinions and strong headed people may raise many arguments.

Will elaborate more at a later date.

Links:

“The Open Source Initiative” – A library for Open Source related information http://www.opensource.org/

Impact of Open Source software

http://eu.conecta.it/paper/

Broken down definition of Open Source software http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Definition

Background, Ethics, Media, etc…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source