Project that Surprised Me – Hyper-Matrix by Jonpasang

The Hyper_Matrix by Jonpasang really surprised me at the time. It is a kinetic 3D matrix landscape that is created by the Jonpasang, a media artist group based in Korea funded by the Hyundai motor group in 2012. The installation consists of motors that control small blocks which creates shapes and landscapes.

I actually had the chance to be at the exhibition in 2012 so this was very surprising to me at the time. The seemingly pixelated patterns were abstract but it was new and interesting in its own ways. This blocks and motors had redefined the space and it transformed the place into a whole different place.

Project that Inspired Me – Petting Zoo by Minimaforms

I was inspired by the Petting Zoo by Minimaforms, which is a experimental architecture and design studio. The Petting Zoo is speculative life like robotic environment. The artificial intelligence creatures have developed to learn and explore the behaviour through the interaction with the participants.

The idea that this creatures the so called ‘pets’ develop their own behaviours as they interact more with the participants was really inspiring and intriguing idea to me, since almost every living creature learn as they experience over time. This broke my ideas of robots and rather gave me a second chance to think about it. Also I think the interaction between the two makes people feel intimacy and curiosity at the same time.

Project that could have been better – Turn Signal Biking Jacket

This project was not done by a group of artist but rather one person who was figuring out a way to bike a little more safer at night. When the biker turns left or right she can tell the person behind where they are going. Since it was not a big scale project and rather a personal project there are limitation compared to other projects but I think this has potential in becoming something useful to daily life.

Plantas Nomadas (Nomadic Plants) by Gilberto Esparza, 2011.

Plantas Nomadas is an artifical lifeform that is powered by solar and microbial fuel cells. It moves around with multiple legs and recharges its energy supply by slurping up bacteria-rich polluted water in nearby ponds. From an engineering standpoint, I found this piece to be impressive due to its clever use of self-recharging energy supply; longetivity of power is a severe limiting factor in the development of modern robotics, and most environment-friendly power sources simply do not provide enough juice to get larger machines moving. From an artistic standpoint, the robot truly is alive – it needs to eat to survive, it actively seeks new sources of food, and it directly affects the environment around it in an automated fashion.

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/18853622

Official Site: http://plantasnomadas.com/

The Abovemarine by Adam Ben-Dror.

The AboveMarine is a above-water omnidirectional rover base that is controlled by the position of a brightly colored fish in a glass bowl. The fish simply positions itself in the direction it wants the machine to go, and a camera sitting at the top of the fishbowl detects the position of the fish using color tracking, and the rover moves in that direction. I thought this piece was funny – many humans may believe they are the only animals capable of controlling vehicles for travel in forbidding environments, but the Abovemarine is evidence of the contrary: it appears as though fish can control Abovemarines just as well as humans can control submarines. Whether the fish can control the device in an intelligent fashion showing intent of traveling to a particular destination is a story for another time.

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/104899925

inFORM by MIT Tangible Media Group.

The inFORM project is a physical display platform that records depth data from a Kinect and transforms it into a real-life 3 dimensional physical display of the recorded depth by controlling the positions of array of solenoids. The resulting dislay can also physically move small objects on its bed without much difficulty. It is an interesting concept for a 3D depth display without having to wear any kind of head gear, but I think it still kind of lies in the realm of 2.5D, rather than full 3D. The range of the length and width is great, but the depth feels somewhat flat in respect. In addition, the fact that there is no way to show objects that have side-depth rather than top-depth is somewhat disappointing, but even so, it is a interesting device that shows good execution of a novel concept.

Vimeo: http://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/inform/

So this is pretty:

FLOE from Ozgun Kilic on Vimeo.

Honestly the reason I’m posting this one is because it’s really visually appealing, and a lot of what I’m sort of worried about as we get into working with robotic kinda stuff and 3D material is that I’m going to have trouble applying my usual aesthetic to it. The fact that artwork like this -which in the end, is very simple yet still elegant in its own way -is able to be made with arduino makes me a lot more comfortable with the idea of working with it.

 

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.

Ok this one is really incredible though. I don’t know how to judge the levels of complexity in creating things like this, but I think what’s being done here is absolutely gorgeous. Pretty much it’s taking a slice of a tree and using the patterning of the rings to make music. It’s literally translating the entire life of a tree into music. Firstly, that’s just a fascinatingly cool idea. Second, the music actually sounds kinda good, which is pretty neat. It’s a kind of a cool way to make generative audio art (if not an environmentally unfriendly one, unfortunately). I just think this is super inspired and hauntingly pretty.

 

And now for my grand finale

Nikola Tesla in Sound and Light from Marco Tempest on Vimeo.

Real talk: watch this video, because beyond the cool sleight of hand combined with the projected animations, it’s about Nikola Tesla, who is easily one of the coolest scientific historical figures on the face of the earth. Seriously if you don’t think Tesla is cool then you don’t know enough about him. He tried to build a death ray. That should be enough to get you interested in him.

Anyway as far as I can tell, what’s going on with the arduino is I think it’s mapping separate animations to various parts of the pop-up book as the pages are turned. I have no idea how simple or complicated this is, but there’s a making-of video if anyone’s curious (http://createdigitalmotion.com/2012/06/pop-up-video-tesla-synesthetic-hallucination-and-augmented-book-science/)

Anyway, I think this is a fantastic combination of animation, 3D art, and stage magic. Rock on, dude.

SOMETHING THAT INSPIRED ME
Auto Auction by Chris Eckert

Auto Auction is the realization of what has long been a pipe dream of the marketing world: a product that sells itself. When turned on, the Auto Auction will automatically open an online auction for itself. For every new bid that is placed, a disembodied hand will sound a bell, and the current bid price is displayed by tumblers on the front of the object. I find this piece profoundly inspiring on multiple fronts. One, the craftsmanship is impeccable. The representation of the online auction house with obsolete symbols such as the auction bell and number tumblers triggers nostalgia within me for a time which was far before my birth. But the aesthetics exist with a separate purpose in mind: increasing the objects value in the online market.
Realize that the very act of turning on this work of art results in its sale to another individual. Without some shifty bidding wars with yourself, the Auto Auction can only be used once per owner, during which time both the value of the object and the next owner are constantly in flux. Chris Eckert’s use of the Arduino to create such a conceptually strong work of art inspires me to look beyond simply creating something that is “beautiful”, “functional” and/or “interesting”.

SOMETHING THAT DISAPPOINTED ME
Daily Stack by Anders Hojmose

Daily Stack takes a stab at physically representing your workflow through stacking color coded blocks. The base of the stack hooks up to a computer, which displays a timer. For each block placed on the base, the computer program runs a timer, during which the user is doing the activity associated with the color of the current block (blue = work, orange = procrastination, etc.). While stacking modular forms in different orders to create a variation of a digital program is a promising idea, the simplicity of the variation and the inherent flaws in the core concept of Daily Stack ruins it. Firstly, the only difference between a “work” timer and a “procrastinate” timer is the color, which takes no advantage of the interactivity being provided with this stack of blocks. Secondly, one rarely ever sets a block of time aside for procrastination, nor is a procrastinator likely to work all the way through a predefined span of work time. Representing workflow with a stack of color coded blocks is far too rigid to be accurate.

SOMETHING THAT SURPRISED ME
Thesis_Light_3 by Hyeonmin Jun

When I clicked this video, I was expecting a two dimensional piece, based on the thumbnail image. Instead, I was thrust into Hyeonmin Jun’s Digital Media Design thesis, Computational Distortion Environment with Shape-shifting Methodology. In this particular facet of the project, Jun experiments with attempting to create breathing sculptures. The leaf-like topographic object will slowly rise and fall, giving the illusion of breath. When Jun approaches the leaf, it quickly exhales and closes up. The effects of this interactivity are more significantly conveyed when the lights are turned off, and the sole light source comes from within the leaf. When the leaf breaths in, the gaps between its layers reveal light, and when it breaths out, the light disappears. A room full of these would be wonderful. Only the area near the viewer would be dark, while the rest of the room would undulate with breathing light fixtures.

I was inspired by “ToDo” by Chris Eckert.

“ToDo” is a sculpture by Chris Eckert which uses an Arduino Uno to “numerically control” a mechanical arm which meticulously writes a never-ending todo list. By merging random aspects of his life together, Eckert manages to de-personalize small endeavors of his own by bringing them into this public sphere. Aside from the personal aspect of the list, something about the handwriting of this machine intrigues me. I love the way that it has it’s own, unchanging personality separate from it’s creators which is identifiable.

“Cube Pix” by Xavi’s Lab was a bit dissapointing.

Cubepix Demo Test – by Xavi’s Lab from Glassworks Barcelona on Vimeo.

“Cubepix” by Xavi’s lab and Glassworks is an interactive installation which allows viewers to control the display itself. It had the potential to be a wonderfully interactive display which married physical motion with projected imagery, however the means by which it takes user input is too exaggerated. It relies on major body movements to actuate the cubes which are overused. I would have like to see the display integrate subtle movements if at all possible rather than these cliche hand wavy gestures.

“Linyl” by Ishac Bertran, Natalia Echevvarria, and Shruti Ramiah was pretty cool but it left me wanting.

Linyl from Ishac Bertran on Vimeo.

“Linyl” is a project which converts photographs into colored disks which can be read to create ambient lighting. I think that the idea behind the technology of Linyl is awesome. Condensing one form of a data, a photograph which contains multiple compositional elements into a single dimension of color is fascinating to me. In turn, taking this condensed form and utilizing it as a light source is a subtle way of transferring that image to the people in a room through some sort of “osmosis”. I feel that the strict integration of this project with sound takes away from it’s potential however. The light itself, without sound, should be able to speak for each image it represents.

Admiration: Pinokio

Pinokio, created by Shanshan Zhou, Adam Ben-Dror, and Joss Dogget, is an animatronic lamp that responds to faces and sounds. It has various behaviors, the most amusing of which is its ability to prevent itself from being turned off. Processing, Arduino, and OpenCV were used to make Pinokio.

I’m immediately reminded of Luxo Jr., Pixar’s lamp mascot. From a technical standpoint, I’d be interested to see how Pinokio‘s joints are modified from those of the typical lamp, as Pinokio appears to be capable of relatively fast (although relatively noisy) movement. I’d also be interested to see how Pinokio‘s observed behaviors are expressed in its programming.

For more about Shanshan Zhou, click here. For more about Adam Ben-Dror, click here. For more about Joss Dogget, click here.

Surprise: Tropism Well

Tropism Well, made by creative studio Harvey & John, is an interactive sculpture that pours drinks. Through a combination of an Arduino Mega and a ultrasonic sensor, Tropism Well is able to sense one’s presence and “bow” toward them. The weight of the liquid is used to create the bowing motion.

I’m particularly fond of the graceful motion Tropism Well is capable of. Although the bowing motion is simple, it is well executed and gives this robotic sculpture a feeling of life. I also like Tropism Well‘s elegant design, which is somewhat reminiscent of a fancy piece of furniture.

For more about Tropism Well, click here. For more about For more about Harvey & John, click here.

What Could Have Been: Daily Stack

Daily Stack, created by Sebastian Rønde Thielke and Anders Højmos, is a stack of wooden blocks placed on a base that interfaces with one’s computer to create visualizations of time commitments. There are three types and sizes of block, each which represent a kind of time commitment (work, break, and procrastination), and a time-span (60 minutes, 30 minutes, and 15 minutes.).

While I think that visualizing one’s time is a worthwhile idea, Daily Stack seems a bit contrived. The overall atheistic is charming, however I can’t help but think how easy it would be accidentally knock the blocks over.

For more about Sebastian Rønde Thielke, click here. For more about Anders Højmos, click here.

 

The Infinite Adventure Machine (prototype 01) from David Benqué on Vimeo.

“The Infinite Adventure Machine” by David Benqué is a program designed to create fully computationally generated stories based on common storybook traits. Apparently, all aspects Russian folk-tales (the type of stories this project was based upon) can be boiled down into 31 traits. This is very reminiscent of Joseph Campbell’s “Hero” analysis in Western literature.

The project on it’s own can only generate synopsis of stories, but to think that these synopsis are actually functional and engaging is quite impressive. I would like to incorporate this type of computational generation into some of my own work.

This Monome-like device is actually made out of 64 arcade-style buttons. The outputs of the buttons are strung through maxmsp to determine the final sound. I think that as a piece, the design is great. An arcade button is something which begs to be touched. The responsiveness of the button paired with sound allows users to transfer that urge to play into musical notes. This project was simple and to the point and I really enjoy that. Possibly designing some kind of system which could replicate human-response to this machine is something I would add on.

Synthpond is an application which uses maxmsp to create soundwaves/nodes that generate responsive sounds. Users can place nodes anywhere along a plane and once utilized, the nodes interact with each other. Soundwaves bounce off certain nodes and don’t react with others to create an immersive user experience. From the documentation I have seen though, Synthpond just seems like a quick application to use rather than an experience. I feel that to more truly realize the Synthpond idea it should be showcased in an area much larger than a phone so that people as well as placed nodes can interact with the waves created by the sounds they trigger.

Project That Inspired

This project was very inspring to me. The space is well thought out and perfect for encompassing this tiny world.

Dramatic lighting, sound, and characters make this piece seem layered in narratives and concepts. I also greatly appreciate the aesthetic of this project I love the weirdly clean but childlike taste in material. It still has a roughness to it, not everything is perfect, but all of the little mechanisms are tuned perfectly.

Surprised

This piece by Felix Luque is comprised of 10 rhombic dodecahedrons that can be combined to create a tessellation of an infinite space. Watching the implementation of these devises was very to me, much more interesting than stills of the possible shapes you can create. The choices of colors in the materials for some reason seemed too heavy to me. The sounds that the system makes are most interesting to me and the patterns of flashing lights.

 

Potential

This video isn’t a piece, but a study of max/msp jitters. The visual images created hear have vast potential to me. The choices of color made by this artist are very interesting and to me these images look extremely unique. I will reference this video in the future for aesthetic choices.

Versum

Versum by Tarik Barri, an artist from the Netherlands, is a real time 3d virtual space, which is controlled by the user. It invites the audience to fly through and create their own musical trip. The virtual world of Versum is seen and heard from the viewpoint of a moving virtual camera with virtual microphones attached. This camera, controlled in realtime by means of a joystick (or any other kind of controller) moves through space. It was the base of many other projects by Barri. One deviation of Versum was where he used his software to visualize tweets in Germany, called Tweetscape, it shows how one project that is as open ended and malleable as Versum can be applied to different spheres.

∆ inkblot

Inkblot by Amanda Ghassaei is very simple and very accessible to not only use but to build themselves by an average person. It is like a simplified and graceful version of Versum. It produces abstract symmetric patterns and a slowly evolving synthetic drone. It layers the drones on top of each other creating a layered complex sound. With that said, I do feel like its missing something. I am a little disappointed that it creates a soundscape in an environment that has its own sounds, but does not incorporate its environment.

Drawing Machine

Drawing Machine by Harvey Moon is made from processing, Max/MSP, stepper motors and adafruit arduino. It takes weeks or months to draw a picture. This surprised me because it would take its feed from a live camera from Taiwan and then draw the city real time, incapsulating single moments along the way.