LookingOutwards-10 – Page 5 – [OLD FALL 2017] 15-104 • Introduction to Computing for Creative Practice

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The sensoree NEUROTiQ spa was headed by Kristin Neidlinger, a biomedia concept designer. It consists of a headpiece that “animates” your brain by illuminating and mapping brain waves using color. It was applied in the setting of a yoga class, as an experimental project. The headpiece uses the Muse Brain Sensing Headband to identify activity and brain wave patterns of the user, and then animated the headpiece to display colors according to the user’s cognition levels, attention, resting rate, meditation and sense of deep sleep.

This technology would be used in notifying people of their more relaxed states of mind, which would promote mental well being.

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For this week’s looking outwards, I have chosen to report on Nova Jiang’s project Landscape Abbreviated. It is a kinematic maze constructed with modular planters with the capability of rotation which forms new paths and routes, while being a beautiful garden.

The parts of the maze is rotated and reconstructs is maze is controlled a computer program that obeys and follows certain mathematical algorithms. This makes the maze dynamic and ever changing, which encourages the audience to appreciate it from different angles and perspectives. I really appreciate that this project combines both natural and mechanical components. Nova Jiang holds a masters at UCLA. She seems to be currently an independent artist who creates projects that encourages the tactile and creative participation of the audience, resulting in structurally open systems in which joy, disorder and improvisation can thrive. Attached below is a link to the project.
Link

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Website

“We Make the Weather is an interactive breath-controlled installation created for New Cinema program hosted by Eyebeam and The Creator’s Project. Inspired by Hurricane Sandy, it uses seam carving, breath detection, motion capture, and the Unity game engine to explore the human impact on the environment”.
Karolina Sobecka is one of the main designers in this project. This project is teamed up by filmmakers, creative coders, artists, designers and motion graphics specialists to investigate the future of cinematic storytelling in the New Cinema hackathon. In We Make The Weather, the viewer wears a headset with a microphone sensor that monitors his or her breath and tracks its ebb and flow, and level of intensity, then uses this information to controls a virtual figure crossing a never-ending bridge, powering the visuals and sound within the 3D animated landscape.
I think this project is really amazing because it combines narrative and interactive themes together. It blends their idea that human beings are actually influencing and changing the environment no matter what you are doing, even breathing, into the movie-like scene. This project puts audience into a movie scene and let the audience feel and sense the effects that they can impose to the environment. The project idea is really amazing and meaningful. Also, the technology that they use are very broad. They use 3D animation tool, virtual reality technologies and so on to create the interactive scene. Such installation with both narrative and interactive theme should be more widely spread.

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Filtered Transparencies – LISBON 2015 from Filipa Valente on Vimeo.

Filtered Transparencies is an dynamic, interactive installation that manipulates the users’ experience within a space through different sensual elements. The installation uses multiple layers of light streams and sound to surround the user inside the project and allow for a unique experience. What is interesting about this project is how the artist creates an intangible but clearly-present space. There is nothing concrete or structural in the project (even the screens that light is projected are light and transparent), yet the user feels as though there are some sort of massive elements that are surrounding them because of the illusions created by the “filters” of sensual elements. The installation is also interactive in that people could manipulate themselves the kind of environment that they are in.

The artist, Filipa Velante is an architect and environmental designer based in the US. She did her studies in Architecture both at the undergraduate and graduate level at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Additionally, she completed her Masters in Media Art and Architecture Mediascapes at SciArc, LA. Based on the projects that are curated on her website, one can clearly notice her concentration on experiential design, whether in the form of architectural projects or media installations like Filtered Transparencies. Many of her projects are those that engage the public through the incorporation of environment and senses, as is manifested in this particular project, as well.

Velante originally designed the installation for the Paseo Festival in Taos, New Mexico in September 2014. Later on, a further developed version was commissioned for the WEDO User Group 2015 conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

More information on the project can be found on the Project Page

mmirho – Looking Outwards 10 – perfect.city

perfect.city is a project developed by Mary Flanagan. The project is an exploration of the South Korean city of Songdo, a planned international metropolis developed by Gale International. The city is designed to be perfect. Mary modeled it in the program Sims 2, and I personally respect this because it takes the enormous scale project of building a city, and boils it down to a simple generated simulation. If the design is so “Perfect” then let’s see what happens when people are put there. It’s almost a culture test, rather than just a theoretical prediction.

Mary Flanagan is an inventor, artist, writer, and designer that creates games, installations, poetry, and essays. I’m unsure as to where she studied, but she has presented at a wide range of top universities and is very active in general with all of her writing and artistic creation.

Here’s a link to the project on her page:

[perfect.city]

Here’s the video link:

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“TRANSCENDENCE 115” is a collaboration between the digital artist LIA and the Portuguese experimental music project @c, created by Miguel Carvalhais and Pedro Tudela. It was created for the composition *Three-Body Problem* and was released in 2016. The starting point is a “system of forms and actions, an algorithm for visual composition,” which is then enhanced by the music and LIA’s interaction. You can watch it below.

I really admire this work because it seamlessly weaves together audio and visual in a way that is very difficult to do. Low heaves of noise push forward rounded lines, and high tinkling sounds fracture them into angles—it is endlessly entertaining to watch and listen to. I also love the way it uses orbits and patterns to make the entire image seem full, cohesive, and mesmerizing.

LIA, the co-creator of “TRANSCENDENCE 115”, is known for being a pioneer in software art. She is an Austrian artist who lives in Vienna and has been active since 1995. She uses a wide range of media, such as video, performance, software, installations, sculpture, projections, and digital applications. However, her primary working material is code, which she leverages for fluid and conversational interaction between human and machine. You can view more of her work at http://www.liaworks.com/.

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Geode is a series of geologically inspired puzzles created by Jessica Rosenkrantz from Nervous System. She used agates as inspiration for the puzzles. I found it particularly interesting how she mimicked the way agates are naturally formed in the algorithm that her computer generated agates emerge from. For each generated agate, colors were derived from photos that were taken by Jessica.

Jessica Rosenkrantz is the co-founder and creative director at Nervous System. She graduated from MIT with degrees in biology and architecture. She also studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She focuses on generative design methods using both algorithmic and physical tools to create innovative products and environments. She pulls inspiration from the complex and unconventional geometries in natural forms.

Jessica Rosenkrantz; Geode; 2017

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Daily tous les jours is a company that creates interactive pieces in a public setting. Mouna Andraos who founded the company Daily tous les jours and she has a principal saying that “The design studio uses technology and storytelling to explore collaboration, the future of cities and the power of humans. They are best known for their work in public spaces, where passing crowds are invited to play a critical role in the transformation of their environment and their relationships. Their projects lie at the intersection of digital arts, performance and placemaking, utilizing contemporary tools that range from sensors, cameras, mobile phones and real-time data, to musical instruments, dance choreographies, writing, food and meditation.”

Her works are mostly presented in a public setting where all types of people can interact and bring positive change to the society that they present their work in.

One of their companies project was the Market Street Prototyping and it is shown in the Video.

Daily tous les jours website

Mouna Andraos bio

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Yael Braha’s Project Mapping

Yael Braha is a creative director working at Obscura Digital, who has a lot of experience designing projection mapping shows for large scaled buildings and facades. One of the projects I really enjoyed was the show for AHA, a multi-day festival of lights celebrating Cleveland. Her team at Obscura tends to approach imagery through a very hands-on approach, which I admire, as they brainstorm, create and record slow-mo footage from big to small. The project transformed a 370 foot by 70 foot tall building into an animated canvas, and created high engagement with the community who gather to enjoy the facades. Yael Braha has a degree in Graphic Design and a masters in Fine Arts in Cinema.

Video from Obscura Digital

http://www.yaelbraha.com/

http://obscuradigital.com/work/aha-cleveland/

hyt-Looking-Outwards-10: Chris Sugrue

Chris Sugrue is an audiovisual artist, experimental designer, programmer and educator. Coincidentally, the eye-tracking assignment that we did last week was in fact developed by her as well — an augmented smart device that allows drawing and writing through eye movements.

One of my favorite artworks of hers is Delicate Boundaries (2007), an interactive installation that dissolves the boundary between digital flat screens and physical space, specifically using human body as a “medium” to explore our relationship between these spaces. She created projections of tiny bugs that are able to climb from the screens onto your arms and hands. In a way, the illusory projection confuses our sense of virtuality and reality.

From a technical perspective, the project was written in openFrameworks on C++ platform, as well as incorporating the use of digital projector, video camera, and infrared lightings in order to detect human movements. I think these interactive installations are very intriguing and informative and I hope to reference these artworks into my own practice.

Press converage of the artist and project: https://news.gestalten.com/news/delicate-boundaries

More on Chris Sugrue’s website: http://csugrue.com/