Thursday, April 30, 2009

Project subject/theme/title,

The title and theme of my project is kinetic responsive art. This is the term I am using to describe the subject of my piece. The genre that I am using to describe my subject incorporates old interactive/kinetic art principles with new technologies that are used within contemporary responsive, Interactive and algorithmic art forms.

I have used this term kinetic responsive art because it draws upon two main principles from these genres. Kinetic art depends on motion for its affect or for the process to work and responsive art produces a response from an environment or input.

Project conceptual description,

The concept behind my final piece is to create juxtaposition between the old principles and ascetics of kinetic art and the new technologies that appear to be governing contemporary responsive and interactive art.

I feel like I have achieved this by creating something that astatically looks low tech and very robust and crude in its appearance, but actually is technically complex.

Contextual information to situate my project,

The context in which this project is situated in is responsive art. This is because it generates a response to various inputs from the user and the environment that it is situated within. It also has ties within kinetic art because of the physical interactivity that is required and generative art because of the algorithms used to determine which sounds and visualizations are played.

Technical description,

For this project I have used three main technologies. These include MAX MSP, Reactivision and Flash actionscript 2.0. Reactivision is a piece of symbol tracking software which was then incorporated into MAX MSP to determine the x and y positioning of the symbols and also determine the individual number id of the symbols them selves. MAX MSP then sends this information in flash where the collision detection, visualization and audio out is generated by using actionscript 2.0.

Project placement

This project was produced as an installation piece for an art gallery or room of some type and is intended to be used, viewed and interacted with by the general public and the environment that it is situated within.

Overview of production process,

The three main pieces of software that I have used in the production of my piece are:
• MAX MSP
• Reactivision
• Adobe Flash (with action script 2.0)
I have also used some open sauce code which was take from the internet. The code that I have used is as follows:
• Actionscript code to get values into flash was taken from http://www.nullmedium.de/dev/flashserver/
• I also used a downloaded MAX MSP file that was taken from
• http://reactivision.sourceforge.net/

For the physical piece itself so the box and the mechanical side, I have used bits and pieces picked up from car boot sales, coat hangers and random nuts and bolts. This was done on purpose to have a low-tech look and feel to the project.

Evaluation,

This project I feel although has suffered from a few technical difficulties/set backs has still proved to be a successful and interesting development. I feel that the old a run down look provides an excellent contrast to the technical processes involved with the audio and visual out puts of the piece and the algorithms used behind the scene.

The main emphasis on this project was to take principles from what can be considered old methods of interactivity or non digital based inputs and have them create an output threw a digital/algorithmic process. This I feel I have obtained although the actual functionality of the piece is not as polished as I would have preferred it to be.

Improvements I would make upon this project and where it would have been heading if I had more time to develop my idea further would have been. Building in some temperature sensors onto the handle to get a reading from them user and also another temperature sensor in the room somewhere and maybe a light sensor so that I would have more inputs from the surroundings to create a more environmentally responsive piece.

Physical Production,

Bellow are some images of the box I have constructed for my final piece. Although I have not managed to build in any heat or light sensors for the box at this stage the symbols rotate with the turn of the handle and the cylinder and are tracked by the web cam,.

This means that I am then able to take the x and y positions of these symbols and process this information using reactivision and MAX MSP and incorporate this into flash to do the collision detection, visualisation and audio out put.





Physical materials that I used were all found or purchased second hand for very little amount.

The box is a mahogany box with brass hinges which I obtained from a car boot sale.

The bar which the cylinder rotates on is actual a piece of chopped up coat hanger from my cupboard.

The cylinder is a hacked down biscuit tin that was found rattling around in my kitchen.

The handle was also from a car boot sale it was actually part of an old hand drill as mentioned earlier in my blogg.

The gears were obtained from the robotics department at Plymouth University.

And all the nuts, bolts and screws were just random bits and piece I found in and around my house.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Production Technologies,

After a bit of research I have found some software which I can use to implement my idea. The software is called Reactivion. This is a piece of symbol tracking software, which can identify a number of different symbols from a live web cam feed. I will use this software in conjunction with MAX MSP, which is a visual programming and processing program.

MAX MSP will be used to determine the individual symbols x and y locations on the screen and also the symbols individual id number. This information will then be transferred into flash and using actionscript I will generate some algorithms to process the information from MAX MSP.

If I have enough time I would like to also incorporate some heat sensors onto the handle of the box to take the users temperature and one in the room to help generate some more parameters that I could use within my algorithms to determine the visual and audio output from my piece. This will help create more of a feed back loop or a type of action reaction loop between the piece and the user.

By placing these sensors on the box and in the room also gives the box a kind of awareness of parameters within its surroundings and makes it more of an environmentally responsive piece as well as a physically responsive piece.

Research,

I have added the video bellow of an old music box working because I wanted to compare and contrast the video by Jim Bumgarderner with it. This is the type of contrast that I am aiming to create with my project.



this video was taken from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T7688c4mzQ

Research,



The video above I feel is very relevant to my project because it shares very similar basis of how the old analogue music box mentioned earlier but this is set with an algorithm.

Also I would like to adapt this visualisation into my own piece and maybe have it projected so the user can see it when they interact with my piece.

Above is a video of work done by Jim Bumgardner and was taken from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0gs6ykCWis

Reserch,






Above is an example of a rustic looking object that I consider to be a form of interactive art. This is the type of thing I am looking to create for my final piece.

The old fashioned music box above works by turning the handle which then spins a cylinder that has numerous notches in it that when collide with the pins produce a sound.

My final idea is take this music box example and use the old aesthetics and interactions and update the technology within it. By this I mean to implement maybe some type of motion or symbol tracking with the box itself so when you turn the handle it spins a cylinder that rotates and reveals different symbols to the webcam. These symbols will then trigger a sound of maybe some type of visualisation.

The aesthetics of the finished product itself are very important to this project, as this is what will attract the attention of the user in the first instance and encourage the user to interact with the piece and contribute towards the juxtaposition of the modern technology used within it.

Bellow is an example of where I am thinking of sourcing my handle for my box. I like the look of these style handles as I feel that it will contribute to the rustic low-tech style aesthetic look that I Am looking for, for my box.

Development of idea,

So looking at more physical or older principles of interactive art like mentioned earlier with Marcel Duchamp’s rotary glass and the work done by Alexander Calder with his kinetic sculptures. I have started to form an idea that the physical interaction between the user and the piece should be taken from what could be defined as the older principles so maybe a handle or leaver something low tech and almost rustic in appearance. Which would then set in motion some type of program or algorithmic-based process.

The appearance of the piece that the user will be confronted with I feel should be of an more physically based rather then a screen or projection of some description. This will then be contrasted by the outcome of the interaction so you have so type of physical low tech input which then produces a digital sound or visualisation of some type, which has been generated by this low tech interaction.

Further ideas,

Looking at the time scale that I have it would seem that making a set of four installation pieces would be very ambitious for this assignment and technically challenging. So the idea for the over all project would be to create four different pieces that approach old and new principles of interactive art and compare them to each other and maybe one of them could use principles from both, but sadly I only realistically have enough time to create one.

The idea that I have chosen to explore more in depth is to take a piece of what is considered to be older principles of interactive art and integrate concepts and principles from contemporary interactive art concepts. So taking something that is based upon physical and mechanical technologies and using digital algorithms and processes to manipulate the input and output further.