Category: Uncategorized

Bands in Isolation

3d visuals using photogrammetry for interviews with bands during  quarantine

I came across a 3D photo inpainting demo from researchers Shih et al via a twitter post from ML artist Gene Kogan. The neural networks involved create a depth map of the input, then synthesize new color and depth content to (somewhat) realistically fill the spaces between. As Kogan’s experiment shows, it even works on artificially-created images like Deep Dream output.

I wanted to use their Colab to restore the dimensionality of old family photographs. This photo is particularly interesting to me — I think it shows something about love, home, and maybe privilege. Beyond the initial shock factor of bringing these two-decade-old moments ‘to life,’ I thought it was interesting how the algorithm failed to do so perfectly. For example, it couldn’t understand the simple checkered pattern on my mom’s shirt and distorted it. The profile of her face is also imperfect, making the scene feel more like a paper cutout. The kitchen is also a little wobbly, as if I’m viewing the scene through thick glass. As usual, ML has created a visual equivalent of the distortion and degradation of memories in the human brain (… insert my BHA Capstone here.)

Project 1: Squirrels

Image/tech –

Working tests with old footage in DAIN and Topaz, determined that best course of filming minimum fps is at approx 120fps – image interpolation below that, while smoothing out the motion, loses the subtleties of squirrel expression. Frames from there at 2x (280fps) feels like a good starting speed of motion, but depends on the clip.

In order to enhance with topaz, original video needs to have had really good lighting conditions (earliest squirrel clips with high iso and lots of grain, cannot effectively be ‘upped’ in quality, even with AE and Premier attempted grain removal and other edits).

Set up –

Some of the more recent shots – My thoughts: I feel leaning too far into human assembled and placed sets – feels artificial, loses the whimsy and uncanny

Currently looking to create sets that meld into the natural surroundings and lean towards ‘squirrel built’

 

Project 2: Sleeping Beauty

progress –

Actors: contacted and discussed means of recording audio with all but one actor in the video (have not received a response yet, but further feelers have been sent out)- of all other ‘voice actors’ 1 will be doing a recording individually (does not have the technology to join the zoom meeting (camera/recording capabilities on computer) and the rest will be meeting over zoom – current tentative schedule for this upcoming Sunday.

Script – General outline completed, exact lines in places need to be written out, (linked here, text in Finnish – subtitle translation will be done in accordance with recorded audio, not written script). Plan to do multiple recordings/ runs of the script, not for the specific dialogue, but to create a relaxed setting and room for commentary on the video as it is being watched.

Video editing – currently in progress of very light cutting. Timing of video and dialogue being developed in parallel.

Notes on tone – I have been working with mama Barron and a naturally developing tone has been that of overly dramatic narrator/storytelling, paired with the humor and amusement of watching themselves as children (a few very good moments of evil cackling happening “HÄHÄHÄÄh”).

Side note: I have also been made aware that *somewhere* there exists a Cinderella performance (with some “exceptional” evil step sisters) and a laundry detergent ad performance.

Some updates:

For the past week I have been working on automating my slit scanning turntable with Arduino. Lots of cardboard and wires going on. It’s ending up being a bit more complicated than I thought, as I cannot fabricate an attachment exactly fitted to the motor without a 3D printer, so right now the problem is that my machine is a bit wobbly and doesn’t have a lot of torque. I’m hoping to get this down in the next day or so.

I tried to get my DSLR to work with a Processing sketch, but I learned my phone actually has a better level of video resolution, so I am dropping that plan.

Unfortunately I have very little memory left on my iPhone at the moment, so I wanted to transfer some of my data onto an external hard drive through my laptop. However, it seems that my Apple drivers or USB cables aren’t working, so I have been tirelessly trying for the last few days to fix that.

I am currently working on a photogrammetry test. I also have a potential candidate photo for my final series.

See everything below.

This is an image of kitchen utensils. One of the most important aspects of my life is family, and one of the foundational aspects of my family is dinner. We have cooked and eaten dinner together almost every night of the week for my entire life, and it is a value I hope to uphold when I have a family of my own.

Some images of the Arduino machine.

I have not fully committed to one final project yet, and have been experimenting with multiple projects. Every time I had trouble proceeding with my main project (“Slime Language”), I started on an alternate project to keep myself creatively active and 3 works slowly evolved.

Slime Language

This idea began last year while I was trying to create a photo series on the black fugitive image and coded languages by using poses influenced by sign language.

However, I did not feel as if this was the final rendition of this idea; since, I felt like I captured the fugitive image aspect but not the coded language concept. For the Person in Time assignment for this class, I chose to revisit this series to work on balancing out the coded language part. This resulted in a QWERTY like system for your hands using latex gloves based on finger phalanx sections and letter frequency in English.

 

Again I was not content with the rendition of the concept. The movements were awkward and slow. I also tried to do machine learning with Google Teachable Machine but the movements were too small for it to detect changes. By using the Teachable Machine, I also realized that having your hands out in front of you for the messages you form to be read was an uncomfortable positioning in general. Most importantly, the execution felt as if the concept strayed from my body of work.

I then began looking into Christine Sun Kim and her work with sign language and music. By using the movements in signing, she created these drawings/diagrams and I knew this was more of the direction I wanted to go. My work as a whole deals with black culture and hip hop, and the recent rendition of “Slime Language” just did not have those parts of my work. I then began looking into sign language slang and sign language translators for concerts. After this round of research, I decided to turn Slime Language into a series of movements creating slang/idioms signs based off of lines in songs.

 

Medikaman Mayou La

“Medikaman Mayou La” is an alchemical booklet of translated Haitian home remedies and systems of medicine. All presented remedies are from my mom’s knowledge and the book covers various solutions for fevers to pink eye. The ingredients are all herbal and plant based.

The book combine universal and niche information. For instance, the illnesses are written in the universal medical term and the ingredients (if applicable) are referred to in their scientific name; the instructions are written in both Haitian Creole and English.

As of now I am still completing the written parts of the book, but I also want to add some diagrams or drawings.

After the book’s completion, I wanted to release it on Facebook or spread it through WhatsApp. News and the word of mouth spreading of medicine for ailments has been somewhat replaced by social platforms for non-American families and I wanted to see what feedback I would get from those communities.

 

Black PepperMint

Inspired by the short workshop we did with Nina Katchadourian, I wanted to continue working on a series using objects to physical impose images. Nina commented on the image I showed and mentioned how it felt like the hair became a shrub and I wanted to continue to push this concept.

I also looked into the material I was using and its symbolism and found out that mint is thought to heal, protect, and stimulate the conscious mind. Intrigued by this I began to focus on similar placements of the material within the images.