Category: Looking Outwards Week 1

2016 AICP Sponsor Reel – Dir Cut from Method Studios on Vimeo.

This video was made by AICP, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, a studio based in New York and Los Angeles. While I do not know what particular software they used to make this video, I do have an idea of their process. They used dancer and mapped their movements onto the computer. With the shape and movements of the dancers captured, they mapped on different textures and played with it, with the accompaniment of music, to create an amazing video. I believe this project to be just an experiment to test their texture mapping abilities. With it’s success, the studio would likely be able to texture map almost anything, given the complexity of the human body and it’s movements.

“People walking on dreamy waves.”

Raven Kwok is a rising interdisciplinary programmer and artist originally based in Shanghai, China, and particularly specializes in computer-generative visuals. Even though he has many amazing works that I’d like to introduce, unfortunately he keeps a relatively low profile so that it was difficult to unravel upon his creative process. However, as shared by the artist, he usually uses processing for most generative art contents — some serious, and some less serious or even sarcastic. The example I found is an interactive piece that he essentially created using a grid of LED panels along with infrared sensors which detects the audience’s movement on the panel, and therefore forms waves of geometric shapes.

hi mysketch names clair

function setup() {
    createCanvas(200, 200);
    background(0,0,0);
}

function draw() {
    noStroke();
    fill(0,0,255);
    ellipse(100,100,100,70);
}

This art piece is called the Hylozoic Veil, a living construction of sensors, chemical beakers, and delicate acrylic links and fronds. Created by Philip Beesley, Hayley Isaacs, and Benjamin Wiemeyer, and displayed around the globe, it is a marriage of science, computer programming, and art. It is currently displayed at three stories high in The Leonardo, a museum located in Salt Lake city, Utah. When guests enter the museum, the Hylozoic Veil senses human presences and reacts, unfurling plantlike fronds, or stretching and compressing subtly. It even has sections attached to beakers, which filter and collect chemicals like Carbon Dioxide, much like the processes of several living organisms. The project itself was, according to Beeler, modeled off of protocells: “prototype cells that use inorganic ingredients combined into cell-like forms.” Its construction took the work of several volunteers, as well as the writing of entirely new programs in order to manage the complex chemical processes that make the project tick, including the millions of microsensors. The project itself is not meant to be seen merely as a sculpture, but as an environment. It breathes as guests engage with it, and lives on when the museum closes for the day.

This piece inspires me because it embodies the marriage of art and science that I aspire to in my career, as well as the ingenuity and delicacy that went into it’s construction. It kindles thoughts of a future where, should the forests on the earth ever disappear, something as eerily beautiful as this may replace it. It is exciting to think about what future projects this may inspire, and what other artistic “environments” may arise.

Philip Beesley’s Website and his own post about the Veil

TRANSFORM is a project lead by Professor Hiroshi Ishii of the MIT Tangible Media Group. The project play with the design and technology to transform the still furnitures into a dynamic multi-functional machine driven by computing data and energy.  By utilizing a set of sensors and numerous kinetic shapes, the table display can easily achieve a variety tasks facilitating daily desk activities. For instance, the shapes can easily shift and hold objects such as cups, fruits and office supplies, and it also move them to places as desired. The impressing aspect to me is that they managed to transform the stereotypical fixed furnitures into such tangible and interactive display, which can support a range of practical uses. On the other hand, I also admire the organic motion, which was inspired by natural interactions among wind, water and sand. The organic motion in some activities also stimulates a emotional response of the views, which does not seems artificially stiff. The gesture interaction are also beautifully done as it is more naturally for users to activate certain tasks with simple hand movement above the display. Although I understand the successful project demo video contributes a great part of our impression, in my opinion it is still a brilliant attempt to introduce tangible interactions into our daily still furnitures, and it also contribute to the exploration of the future interactive smart home environments.

Hey Y’all

Although first installed in Japan, 2013, Homogenizing and Transforming World has traveled to Hong Kong and is currently being exhibited in the National Gallery of Singapore. It’s an interactive installation that consists of large, white balls that create sound when a person touches them. When someone interacts with a ball, the ball emits a sound and new color that changes/affects the balls around it until all the balls in the room have changed. The balls have data-collecting sensors and are wirelessly connected to each other. This installation was inspired by the nature of the internet and how everyone is able to contribute and share that overtime affects communication and expands knowledge to others. Like the digital world, this installation is ever-changing and dependent on user interaction.

What I find fascinating about this installation is how simple it is for representing a large concept. It absolutely embodies the essence of the internet and how it is always changing, how quickly our actions can influence our environment and how expansive and infinite the technological world is. I love how the colors and sounds of the balls are calculated responses to the interactions of the person and with the past interaction responses. They’re not making default, automatic colors or sounds. They are truly being altered as more time and interactions occur.

My only critique (and I’m not sure if this may be a feature that documentation just didn’t show) is that it seems like this installation responds to one’s touch at a time. A participant might have to wait till after a change to occur to see how their touch influences the space; rather than having multiple people touch various balls and that form of interaction changes the space in a certain way. In reality, the internet has constant contributors dumping stuff online at once and this installation would be stronger conceptually if it embodied this characteristic as well.

Source:

Teamlab’s website

teamlab’s color-changing floating spheres in singapore respond to human touch

http://www.wetheurban.com/post/161822428609/teamlabs-color-changing-spheres-respond-to-human

http://cuteandkids.com/enjoy/museums-art/art-human-touch-teamlab/