Category: LookingOutwards-12

http://www.liaworks.com/category/theprojects/

Lia’s direct page^

http://www.liaworks.com/videos/animal-imagination/

Lia’s animal imagination video^

http://sputniko.com/biography/

Sputniko!’s direct page ^

http://sputniko.com/2016/04/redsilkfate/

For my project I am kind of interested in combining generative and interactive art that uses the webcam. I was looking at some artists that do similar things and I saw the artist Lia. She uses interesting tools to generate art, but she doesn’t combine these projects with people very much (in the sense that I would like to) but I am still very intrigued in her methods, like the mechanical plotter drawings. But her most interesting piece to me is her generative video called ‘animal imagination’. This video is essentially a moving drawing which is very soothing (at some points) and hectic (at other points). It looks almost like animated turtle graphics with spirals and almost slinky looking patterns. I am interested in possibly exploring these shapes to use as part of my final project and am interested in learning more about how they move and work.  I am also interested in Japanese artist Sputniko! who uses video art to convey her ideas, like in her video red silk of fate, which was based on a project that she made. The video acted as supplemental to her project, and it was interesting to see how she could use video as apart of her work– as I am thinking of using video the way she does in my project.

I am using one of my late days for this post.

One exciting project that I found was the live visuals performed by Mary Franck which accompanied electronic music performed by an assortment of artists, including Holly Herndon, Mike Gao, Luke Dahl, Colin Sullivan, Jennifer Hsu & Locky. This took place at the Modulations showcase in 2013 (an annual event that is hosted by Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics).

The performance involved a large screen which was placed behind the musicians on stage, and displayed on the screen was a progression of colorful, moving, geometric designs and dream-like images. The live visuals were created using a TouchDesigner program that Franck developed, known as Rouge, which is used for video performance and creating realtime 3D compositions.

I think this kind of audiovisual performance is really cool because of the way that it feels liberating – all the artists involved are able to realize spontaneous ideas and bring these dynamic ideas to life. This project is relevant to my final project because it uses both sound and visuals to create a whole experience.

Another project that is inspiring to me is the tape bow violin, invented by Laurie Anderson in 1977, which had a large influence in the processes of integrating music and technology. She replaced the horsehair on the violin bow with magnetic tape, and put a tape head on the bridge of the violin. Using this technology, she was able to create non-traditional sounds using the violin by manipulating the sounds captured with the tape (for example, sound could be played backwards or forwards, and rearrange parts of the sound). I think that this project is relevant to my final project because of the way in which it deals with changing conceptions of the sound that can be produced using a traditional instrument. In my project, I intend to use a visual concept of an instrument that has some traditional characteristics, and pair it with non traditional sounds (produced by the user’s keyboard).

I think both of these artists works are interesting to compare because they come from different eras, but both advance the ways in which technology can be integrated with music.