curly hair duo

Below are photos of some explorations with video projection completed with Rebecca Knowe. The main point of this exercise was to get my hands on some projectors and begin thinking through the possibilities. Here we did some experiments with double projections of video and attempting to manipulate the physical space through projection.

I will be editing some more of these photos for a future post which will include some interesting possibilities the exercises revealed.

leaving the museum

"Poincaré used to say that when truth is reached, what remains to be done is to sit back and contemplate it. Truth, when perceived in detached, static terms, becomes a precious object which can only be admired from a distance. The world turns into a museum. Look but don't touch.

Poincaré, however, had other more complex and contradictory views. The man who would sit back to contemplate, also thought it was impossible to find truth in things in themselves. Truth hovered only in relations among things."

These are excerpts from the paper Reflections about Interactivity by Luis O. Arata, posted on the MIT Communications Forum.

I might have an opportunity to construct an independent study for my spring semester. An independent study focusing on my emerging interests in design would in some ways be an escape from what I now feel like to be the museum which Poincaré talks about in the excerpt above. My feeling is that my graduate education would be stronger by creating a study which balances both the concrete (experimental making) and contemplative (theoretical musing). I am attracted to Poincaré's reasoning that sometimes truth is only revealed only through relationships.It is my opinion that by conducting a series of explorations I will have a chance to digest some of my interests and thus begin to make connections for future thesis work.

Today, I talked with Julie Beeler, co-founder of Second Story. She mentioned a self promotion piece which launched her into her interests in interactive media experiences. She explained her transition from her static graphic design background into interactive media by being something which she propelled herself into through her own diligence and passion. If I am unable to craft a robust independent study plan I will attempt to continue to feed this interest.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Here are some formative quotes I also grabbed from this past semester's sketchbook, which touch on my areas of interest with an independent study:

Thoughts from AIGA's 2010 Design Educators Conference New Context/New Practices From Ann Burdick's moderated discussion of Shifting Paradigms:

+ The idea of dropping the "graphic" of graphic design. Is it relevant to say "graphic" design? Are we communication designers? Media designers?

+ The general idea of digital-physical environments and re-evaluating our treatment of physical environments is what piqued my interest when I heard this statement in our authoring session: "What will design workspaces and classrooms look like in a mixed digital-physical future?"

+ "Study the flux, an instability of platforms, technology precedes function" From David Thorburn's thoughts on Shifting Paradigms

Other thoughts touching on my interests:

"People are increasingly comfortable with substituting representations of reality for the real" Sherry Turkle

"If you are numb to the way it looks then maybe you are numb to what it means" This is something I wrote in class while Meredith Davis was talking about Futurist poets' desire to explore new typographic possibilities

"Grit: perseverance and passion for long term goals" I found this article while searching through Psychology Journals for my K-12 Education Research.

"Variety becomes a regulator for innovation" Hugh Dubberly's explanation of the Model for Innovation map

"Avoid decontextualizing learning" An idea from my K-12 Education Research found in Best Practices for Teaching Social Studies by Randi Stone.

"Although embodiment is in constant flux, it remains the invariable nexus from where new technologies are engaged... Virtual Realism- living critically with new technology... Western philosophy is interspersed with trends, thought structures, ideologies and expressions that denigrate the body" These are quotes from my reading of Amada du Preez: Gendered Bodies and New Technologies. (I owe this to Shelley Evenson's mention of Cyberfeminism in her lecture about Design Research)

the psychological projected on the physical

I have been reading more about urban projections from some Wooster Collective posts.

Wodiczko's work stands out because of it's social and psychological depth. He empowers the people around him, by creating a place to tell their story. He calls on the public to listen by engaging with the physical world they encounter.

See more of Wodiczko's work...

I suggest reading about the Tijunana Projection (image below)

Quotes

Written about Wodiczko's early work:

"... interfacing the facades of urban architecture – whether public monuments, public buildings, or corporate architecture – with images of the body to juxtapose the physical space of architecture with the psycho-social space of the public realm"

Also, in his own words about his more recent work:

"I was animating the monuments with icons and images that I produced in order to actualize them so they could speak on contemporary issues. Now, I create a situation for others to animate monuments and project themselves.

They are becoming artists, monument animators, and truth tellers. I am becoming more of a protective person, someone who protects their process, like a mother."

This has interesting connections to both my studio projects as well as Meredith Davis' discussion on the changing face of design practice: moving from something more static to something more complex, interconnected, and user generated.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Below are more links/quotes from (projection related) projects that I have enjoyed...

"Interventions, installations, performances and events based on the phenomena of artificial light."

GLOW – International Forum of Light in Art and Architecture

Work with pani projectors ... ARMSROCK

Work with slide projectors ... Shimon Attie

TXTual Healing

"Created in the early days of 2006 by Paul Notzold and has become an ongoing exploration in how mobile technology can transform public action into theater."

crafting a new reality

I am interested in experimenting with projecting images and video. Anything I would create/observe through manipulating little projectors on campus would be primitive compared to the technology that has been developed in the area of video and projection.

Video mapping is a good example (see discussion at end of post).

I never thought of this as augmented reality but I guess it is.

Projecting an image or video into a space has the potential to alter our awareness of that space visually and physically. It could make something new which was familiar.

This feels like it overlaps with theatre in terms of crafting a mood or reality.

Thinking through this I will begin a series of studies of projecting images in spaces.

Some thoughts...

• projecting in Brooks Hall rotunda & Squash courts
• multiple and/or overlapping projections
• Could projecting in common spaces within the College of Design engage unused space while broadcasting student work. Could that broaden students awareness of other disciplines?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My official (and apparently late) introduction to the world of video mapping came from the event YouTube Play. A Biennial of Creative Video. This was held at the Guggenheim and live-streamed on youtube. The event also featured a gallery space and video mapping display (featured below).

I new I could count on Wooster Collective, a great street art blog, for more ideas. I'll have to sift through the posts tagged by projections before conducting my own guerilla projection acts.

I would also like to check out Pablo Valbuena's work.

Seeing experiments with light makes me think of another artform I stumbled on through Flikr about a year ago: light painting. Check out Troy Paiva's work.

All this focus on sight...

what about smell, taste, touch, sound?

digital vs physical // existence & memory

(All images belonging to Thomas Peterson)

Great philosophical pondering by Thomas Peterson of hello in Copenhagen

Click here to read the full article...

"As explored in “The power of digital ecosystems,” the difference between a physical ecosystem and a digital one is that the former works through the free flow and exchange of energy and the latter through the free flow and exchange of data."

"Could it be that these traces we leave behind at one level constitute the ghosts of our former selves? Could it be that these ghosts can manifest themselves in digital space as non-material versions of former me’s? Instead of being merely printed into the fabric of space-time and into the minds of others, might they also be printed into the fabric of the digital continuum and allow for a kind oftranscendence?"

"...your entire life, your every move, is recorded into the fabric of the digital “space-time” continuum where it continues to live, only this time to be revisited by later generations. Perhaps it even becomes part of a consensus of ghosts, a consensus summoned by future generations whenever big decisions need to be made or forgotten solutions to problems need to be found."

adobe online museum

Click here to check out the new adobe online museum.

This is a virtual museum space that will feature installations by artists and thinkers.

Above is a screen shot entering into the current exhibit: Tony Ousler's Uncanny Valley.

The experience is abstractly psychological... disorienting yet familiar.

In his artsists statement Ousler describes the internet as "an epistemological mirror of human consiousness."

He references Mashiro Mori saying "the closer machines come to mimicking the human form, the more disturbing they become to humans."