Project Three Presentation and Proposal

Themes and Technologies:

The third project:

–engages with the relationship between the representation of real spaces and places and their virtual equivalent

–Using software like Microsoft Silverlight and Photosynth amplifies photographic possibilities in such a way that it problematises representation

–Explores the architectural idea of deconstructivism associated with hyper architecture

–It is characterized by ideas of fragmentation, and an interest in manipulating structures.

•The final project concerns itself with the technologies that make it possible to construct photographic panoramas and auto stitch pictures to essentially create what has come to be described as auto joiners (Zelnik-Manor & Perona, 2008).

•The following images are achieved via the use of Microsoft’s Photosynth technology:

Photosynth Architectural Mutations:

Photosynthed architecture: algorithmic architecture (2011)

 

Key influences

•The visual artefacts
–corresponds to the mosaic of visual experiences contained within collage, and especially cubist collage and painting.
–a response to the expanding field of photography a response to Berger and Vertov’s description of a technological way of seeing:

-“the invention of the camera changed the way” we “saw…. The visible no longer presented itself” in “order to be seen.  On the contrary, the visible, in continual flux, became fugitive” (1972, p.18)

-Cubism “creates these fractured, multiple images which are like shifting kaleidoscopes” (Levy, M, 1969, p.322).
-Fred Ritchin in his book After Photography, states that photography is becoming “cubist” (2010, p. 123). 

-The “contradictory ‘double’ image” created by Photosynth “is cubist; reality has no single truth” (Ritchin, .F., 2010 p. 147).
-The imagery for project 3 attempts to describe in visual terms “the flickering ungovernable mobility of the gaze” (Bryson, 1983 p.121).

-Uricchio in “The Algorithmic turn: photosynth, augmented reality and changing implications of the Image” (2011):
Notes the temporal slippage contained within a photosynth. Something similar to “the ‘transient, the contingent’ that Baudelaire ascribes to the modern” (Uricchio, W., 2011, p.29)

-Uricchio argues that the photosynth recalls the imagery of the early-nineteenth-century, where long time exposure  often resulted in ghost figures (Uricchio, W., 2011, p.29)
-This project concerns itself with Photosynth’s “radical disjunctures” and the “unstable nature of the composite” (Uricchio, W., 2011, p.30).

Visual Influences

The photosynth is also referred to as the auto joiner (“joiner” is coined by Hockney). This term is associated with Jan Dibbetts, David Hockney, John Stezaker, Thomas Kellner and Gordon Matta-Clark .

George Braque Soda 1911

Pablo Picasso Still Life with Chair Caning 1912

Jan Dibbets Panorama Dutch Mountain 12 x 15° Sea II A  1971

Jan Dibbets, Musée Zadkine photo collages 1994

 John Stezaker Untitled (For Angus) Film Still Collage II, 2009 

 Gordon Matta- Clark Splitting, 1974
Chromogenic prints mounted on board

David Hockney Mother, Los Angeles, Dec. ‘82 1982

Thomas Kellner Houston Texas, Oil Refinery 2006

Tim Head’s Displacement installation also with similar themes. 

Tim Head Displacements (installation view) 1975

Visualization

•The imagery is digitally projected
•Visually it is a mosaic of different perspectives of architecture
•The original idea draws from Tim Head’s installation: the building projected on to is the same building as the one represented within the projection. 

Sources:


Baudelaire, C., (2008) The Painter of Modern Life, London:  Phaidon

Berger, J., (1972) Ways of Seeing London: BBC, Penguin Books

Bryson, n., (1983) Vision and Painting: The Logic of the Gaze, New Haven: Yale University Press

Levy, M., (1969) A History of Western Art London: Thames and Hudson

Ritchin, F., After Photography London: Norton

Uricchio, W., (2011) “The Algorithmic Turn: Photosynth, Augmented Reality and the Changing Implications of the Image” Visual Studies vol 26 Issue 1pp. 25- 35

Zelnik-Manor (2007) “Mult-View Image Compositions”
http://authors.library.caltech.edu/7695/1/paper.pdf
[Last Accessed 10 May, 2011]

Zelnik-Manor & Perona (2008) ”Automating Joiners”
http://webee.technion.ac.il/~lihi/Publications/ZelnikPerona.AutoJoiners.pdf
[Last Accessed 10 May, 2011]

Giselle Beiguelman: "Sometimes Always, Sometimes Never, Sometimes" 2003

The above footage features two video projects called Sometimes Always and Sometimes Never, both from 2005 by the artist Giselle Beiguelman. This work shows hows mobile devices such as  mobile phones "can become an impromptu interface and a vehicle or participate in an artwork" (Paul, C., 2008, p. 223). These projects consist of images shot on mobiles by visitors to a gallery space.

"In the gallery, the audience can use a keyboard and mouse to edit, in real time, the order and position of the frames on the screen and to impose coloured filters on the images" Paul, C., 2008, p. 223-224). The result in Sometimes Always "is a dynamic mosaic palimpsest" while is similar to the visual effects I am interested in achieving in my work" (Paul, C., 2008, p. 224). Sometimes Never "creates unstable saturated palimpsest" where "added colour saturation triggers a process of erasing" that means that "no action can never be repeated" (Paul, C., 2008, p. 224). The works "create a (de)generated video that is composed and decomposed (Paul, C., 2008, p. 224).

Paul, C., (2008)  Digital Art, London: Thames and Hudson

Fuel

I first came across Fuel in October or November 2000: rather late considering that they had been around since 1991. Formed at the Royal Collge of Art by Peter Miles, Damon Murray and Stephen Sorrell they adopted what Alan and Isabella Livingston called "a visually aggressive stance" (2003, p.91).

This particular film, featured if my memory serves me correctly on OneDot TV on Channel 4 in the late 90s or the early part of the new century. I am not sure of the title of this piece. They represented a new trend in collective approaches to design that "seek to reject individual celebrity of a Carson or Brody" (Eskilson, 2007, p. 381).

Further Reading:

Eskilson, S., (2007) Graphic Design: A New History, London: Laurence King.

FUEL: http://www.fuel-design.com/

Livingston, A. and I., (2003) The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers, London: Thames and Hudson.

The Cave

"Suspension of disbelief is a fundamental part of the effective use of a virtual reality Interface. Until we can ignore the interface and concentrate on the application, virtual reality will remain a novel experience instead of a serious visualization tool." (Packer and Jordan, 2001, p. 287).

This video is a video demo that explains the functionality of the CAVE®.

producer/director: Sumit Das, Alan Millman

evl contributors: Drew Browning, Carolina Cruz-Neira, Sumit Das, Thomas A. DeFanti, Alan Millman, Daniel J. Sandin.

credits: Lewis Siegel, Kathy Koller and Michelle Miller.




The Cave (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment or Computer Virtual Environment) was conceived by the media artist Dan Sandin and the engineer Thomas DeFanti with the assistance of graduate student Carolina Cruz-Neira in 1991. It was developed at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois in Chicago.


Dan Sandin, The Cave 'Virtual Reality Theatre' (Prototype: Electronic Visualization Laboratory, University of Illinois, Chicago, 1991; publicly showcased: SIGGRAPH 92, (the annual convention for the Special Interest Group for Graphics of the Association for Computing Machinery) Chicago 1992). "Virtual Realiity, accessed through dark glasses, allows users to feel as if they were in a totally different universe. For Paul Virilio, 'We are entering a world where there won't be one but two realities: the actual and the virtual' (Rush, 2005, p.237)




Michael Rush describes The Cave, a virtual environment, as “a cubic room, three meters (sic) square… consisting of stereographic computer graphics which react interactively to actions of the ‘user’, who is equipped with stereo glasses which make it possible to see other ‘playmates’ (Sandin’s word) in The Cave" (Rush, 2005, p. 234).


The CAVE's immersive experience "was intended as an allusion to Plato's cave; its multiple screens and surround-sound audio evoke the metaphor of a shadowy representation of reality, suggesting how perception is always filtered through the minds veil of illusion" (Packer and Jordan, 2001, p. 287). In his Republic, Plato "used the image of prisioners in a cave who define the basis of their reality through the shadows of fire dancing on the walls of the cave to develop concepts of reality, representation, and human perception" (Paul, 2008, p.129). The "Cave 'dwellers' do not need to wear helmets, which would limit their view of and mobility in the real world , nor don bulky gloves and heavy electronics packs, nor be pushed about by movemement retricting platforms, to experience virtual reality. Instead they put on a pair of lightweight 'glasses' and walk into the Cave, a 27-cubic-meter room with an open side and no ceiling" (Sandin, DeFanti and Cruz,-Nera, 1993 p.288).




Bibliography:

Packer, R. and Jordan, K. (2000) Multimedia from Wagner to Virtual Reality, ArtMuseum,
Available from World Wide Web: http://www.w2vr.com/timeline/Sandin.html [last accessed 05/05/10].

Packer, R. and Jordan, K. (2001) Multimedia from Wagner to Virtual Reality New York: Norton & Company.

Plato, (2008) Republic, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Paul, C. (2008) Digital Art London: Thames and Hudson.

Rush, M. (2005) New media in late 20th-century art, London: Thames & Hudson.

Sandin, DeFanti and Cruz,-Nera (1993) "A Room with a View" in Packer, R. and Jordan, K. (2001) Multimedia from Wagner to Virtual Reality New York: Norton & Company, pp.287-292.

Tutorial

After the tutorial there are a number of things to consider. I think that one of the main concerns is with the installations space. How is it to be controlled and organised? How are people going to navigate or be navigated around the space? How can be move around and in and out of the space at will? I must reread my notes from Alex’s lecture on “Space and New Media”.

Sound is another aspect of the work. Is in listened to via headphones and therefore maintaining an audience or does it surround the audience. Rob advised that I read Michel Chion on sound.

Ros asked an interesting question regarding the nature of the imagery in the previous post: why the three leaves/shapes in the centre of the work? I did say it had something to do with the nature of the migraine auras, but culturally, and this is something I did not say (duh?); three represents the trinity or the triptych in art.

The Fathers of Computer Graphics

James Whitney Lapis 1966


The Whitney Brother's John (1917-95) and James (1921-82) were key pioneers of independent American animation. They were important “for laying the groundwork for the whole field of computer animation and digital special effects” (Beck, 2004 p. 216).

John Whitney studied 12-tone music and animation of abstract design in Paris in 1937-38. On returning to the United States he joined his brother James who was a painter and produced their first film, Twenty-Four Variations (1940) an 8mm abstract film that used circles and triangles. For the production John Whitney built his own optical printer. From 1940-45 they produced five abstract film exercises. John Whitney significantly created sound directly onto film, a technique later developed by Norman McLaren (Beck, 2004 p. 216).

John Whitney went on to found Motion Graphics, Inc in 1952 to produce commercial films. Then he moved to the UPA to become a director in 1955 and then worked at the Charles and Ray Eames Studio and designed the title sequence for Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo with  Saul Bass (I assume) in 1958 (Beck, 2004 p. 216).


In 1959 John Whitney began to use a World War II gun sight (designed by Norbert Wiener?) which essentially was a simple analogue computer, to help produce simple visual effects (Beck, 2004 p. 216)..


The film Lapis, “is named after the philosophers stone in practice of alchemy and encourages notions of contemplation and a fuller understanding of the place of humankind with the cosmos” (Wells, 1998 pp. 30-31).






Sources:


Beck, J., (2004) Animation Art: From Pencil to Pixel, The History of Cartoon, Anime and CGI London: Flame Tree Publishing.

Wells, P., (1998) Understanding Animation London and New York: Routledge


Further reading:


LeGrice, M. (1977) Abstract Film and Beyond, Cambridge, Mass and London: MIT Press.

Russett, R., and Star, C., (1976) Experimental Animation: An illustrated Anthology New York: Van Nostrum Reinhold.


John Whitney Sr. Homepage: http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/profile/whitney/whitney.html

William Latham Interview

This is an interview from a documentary series called Secret Passions, from Channel 4 in the early nineties.

William Latham

Hopefully in the course of writing this blog I have shown the relevance of abstraction to my own practice. Michael Rush in his book New Media in art shows us that "abstraction is still very much alive in computer art" (2005, p. 209). William Latham's Evolution of Form is a "computer sculpture" that draws its inspiration from complex natural forms like seashells and the work of "Surrealist painters Salvador Dali and Yves Tanguy in his quest for forms that can be manipulated, reshaped (or 'carved', in virtual sculpture within the computer (2005, p. 211).

Rush claims that "Latham was amongst the first to create genetically alive forms that resemble living organisms, though there mutations only occur inside the computer (2005, p. 210)

Clip from The Evolution of Form, by William Latham and Stephen Todd, from 1989; work done at IBM UK Research Labs. Details of sotware can be found in the book: Evolutionary Art and Computers, Academic Press, 1992.

Latham and Todd have now joined Frederic Fol Leymarie (since 2006) at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and created the Mutators Research Group: http://www.mrg-gold.com

Was presented at SIGGRAPH'94 and Imagina'93 (funded by the British Arts Council and Channel 4). The sound track is from Michel Redolfi (www.audionaute.com) famous for his underwater music.

Biogenesis shows the evolution of artificial life forms in a synthetic universe where 'survival of the fittest' is replaced by 'survival of the most aesthetic'. We see cellular evolution and the replication of mutations forming chain-like structures resembling coral. The artist is like a gardener, breeding, selecting, marrying and steering the course of evolution for creative ends. The film is a record of this evolutionary process. It can be viewed as a psychedelic experience or a more subtle parody of a man's relationship with the natural world through modern technology.

This line of work is being pursued by the MRG group at Goldsmiths College in London, led by Latham, Todd, Fol Leymarie et al. (www.mrg-gold.com).

Char Davies: Ephemere

Char Davies: Osmose

"The medium of 'immersive virtual space', or virtual reality- as it is generally known- has intriguing potential as an arena for constructing metaphors about our existential being-in-the-world and for exploring consciousness as it is experienced subjectively, as it is felt."

Charlotte Davis "Changing Space: Virtual Reality as an Arena of the Embodied Being" (1997).

Charlotte Davies, artist, painter and film maker achieved international recognition for her artworks that employ the technologies of virtual reality. Her transition from traditional materials: paint and film began around 1985 when Davies began to explore 3-d computer imaging techniques. In 1987 she became a founding director of Softimage, a 3-D software company that created special effects for Hollywoods films , most notably for Spielberg's Jurassic Park.


Davies adopted the Softimaging programme for her own artistic purposes culminating the immersive multimedia work Osmose.



Osmose (1995):

Current Developments: 7

There have been some headway made in the development of my digital projections. The software After-Effects seems to hold the key to there formation.


I must make sure that I visit this site: www.videocopilot.net

How this software will transform my ideas is hard to imagine at the moment. There are plenty of questions concerning the the nature of my work: will it be interactive and if so, how will it operate. I still have a lot of dots to connect.

More imagery will be posted asap. It will include some photography!!!