Luciana uses medical electrodes to analyse brainwave activity, and visulises them with audio and a 3D graphical representation of the data.
This was a fascinating topic, exploring the way the mind works and how it behaves under differnet emotional and physical states. This techonolgy opens up all sorts of possibilites to gain greater understanding of the human mind and our thought processes, and could have benefitial insight into the way we learn, and benefit rest and meditiation.
What i also found particually fascinating was when she mentioned the reults of using the brainwave analyser on plants, and the way they reacted to different stimuli. Human understanding in these areas is very limited, and it will be interesting to see how research in these areas develops.
''IBVA is a form of biofeedback for the brain called Neurofeedback. It's a training process of using technology to provide you with more information about what your body is doing than your ordinary senses provide. This "feedback" helps you learn to use your mind to develop greater control over your body, or, in the case of neurofeedback, your brain. IBVA is already used by :
Rona Innes demonstrated some interesting sensors and examples of input devices. The Arduino looks worth further research. Mike blow also mentioned it in his talk earlier. I was initially put off as it seemed quite complicated, but it's definitely worth another look. I was also interested in the video input Rona demonstrated, particularly using a web cam into flash or director to display graphics, or visual effects on the video. ghostly mirror was particularly impressive, the effects are quite stunning. This would be worth exploring more, especially if sound input could be added also. Some of the flash stuff which displays graphics that are triggered by sound via a microphone I've been looking at recently, and did some research with voice activated software and voice recongnition. This gave variable results - the voice recognition stuff needs time to train the software to recognise voice input and not give garbled output. Will spned more time see what interactive art could be triggered by vocal commands and sounds. I've also just sent away for a webcam to have a play over the break.
This is a video i found again, i mentioned it in an earlier blog
It's similar to the system being developed at MIT, (mentioned earlier) and it will be interesting to see this technology develop. While it has relevence to this project, it reminds me of the last design futures project.
Monday 10 December 2007
Cheap Imitation David Rokeby
"Cheap Imitation" is an homage to Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase
This interactive artwork is a faceted image projected approximately life size on a wall of the gallery. Each facet is interactive, emerging from darkness only when there is movement in front of that facet's exact location in the painting. If there is no movement, the projection is all black. Small gestures like hand movements will draw one or two fragments into visibility. Full body movement across the whole painting reveals the entire work. This is an impressive piece, the original work re-interpreted with new media to produce something that is close to the original aesthetically, while expanding on the theme of movement and form.
Screenvader is a stunning web art site, with lots of cool randomly generated graphics, and a smart looking interface. A nice use of flash. The graphics are really impressive and each stands really well on their own, - with a new image generated with the click of the mouse, i can't help feel something is lost when the image is replaced with a new one. (cheers to Andreas for showing me this site)
Sound Fountain is an installation which captures and replays sounds in the space in which it is placed. Sounds are captured using a microphone and introduced into the system as a graphic bubble. The size of the bubble is determined by its length and its volume. Each bubble exists as a unique element, interacting with the other bubbles in the system flowing and over-flowing from one container to the next. As the bubbles become older they lose their colour, colour which was determined by the time they were captured. When they fall from the last container they are gone forever.
There's a video of the installation in use (check the above link) It's amazing to see the people interact with it, barking and yelping like wild dogs, it's very funny.
-Jaron Lanier - "..we will communicate through gestures, body movements, and grimaces, like our primitive ancestors..."
Essay - Observing Systems-Arts from a Systems-Theoretical Perspective.
Extract from Francis Halsall's Systems-Art Theory Essay. -
'If the field of art history, with its obsessive concern fro the materiality and 'specificity' of media, the supposedly 'dematerialized' realm of virtual and digital media, as well as the whole sphere of mass media, are commonly seen either as beyond the pale or as a threatening invader, gathering at the gates of the aesthetic and artistic citadel'
I have to wonder why a text which discusses new media arts' slow acceptance in the art world a result of it's inability to articulate to a wider audience ironic, when the text itself is written in a language which is convoluted and unnecessarily wordy. On first reading it was virtually intelligible, it was only by discussing it today and translating it into English that it made more sense. Something that is written exclusively with academics in mind as its audience, is clearly a victim of the same failings it painfully states is effecting new media.
So it discusses how new media art is having a tough time being accepted within the art world, and is seen as something threatening to artistic sensibility, or in some way a grotesque blasphemous challenge to the often arrogant attitude of fine art practitioners and critics. This is nothing new, the history of art is peppered with similar such cases where a new media or style of artistic interpretation has initially been challenged by the existing art world. In the 16th century, the work of Dutch realist painters were accused (by mainly Italian Renaissance painters) of having little artist merit as they simply recorded what was in front of their eyes, without any artistic interpretation or embellishment. This initial lack of acceptance for new art forms can be seen with the introduction of photography. It took a long time for it to be accepted as an art form, its mechanical method of capturing images, coupled with the fact that the photographer didn't 'work the canvas' in ways familiar to traditional painters, meant that photography was dismissed by many art critics and theorists. The same can be said for the arrival of digital photography and digital photo realistic images, there was an initial reluctance to accept them as valid art forms, citing the same excuses as all the times. Also text is probably not as relevant today as when it was first published, as nowadays new media art has generally been accepted within the art world and society as a whole. Installations and exhibitions around the world make use of and incorporate new media technology in both the creative process and the display methods. Online web-based art is also expanding from its niche following to become a more common medium.
Ellie Reese in her discussion made the point that the setting for a piece or art is a major importance when viewing. For the artist to have complete control over their work and limitations on how it is displayed is understandable, for if they are trying to say something with their work, its important that it is placed in an environment where this is best achieved. But I'm not convinced that taking a work out of it's intended or optimal environment is as terrible as she believed.
One could argue that all experience is personal, so 10 people viewing a work of art in a exhibition will have 10 different experiences, and could potentially have been affected in 10 totally different ways, whether those had any connection to what the artist intended is an important point.
There's been much discussion about the problems and implications of viewing video footage on sites like Youtube, where the quality has been reduced to ensure that its playable over the Internet, and that viewer is loosing something important by seeing them in this online context. Interestingly in response to this, i recently went to see Addictive TV at an event in Brighton marking the end of a film festival. Addictive TV are a couple of DJs/VJs who have played all over the world, including recently on the roof of the National Gallery in London, where their art of remixing video footage and scratching it into an audio track was visible to thousands of people, projected on multiple screens and the sides of buildings. I saw footage of the event online, as well as some of their other work of film remixing. After seeing them live, i can honestly saw that what i saw online had way more impact on me than seeing them live. The screen at the event may have been massively larger than the 3 inch movie playing on my monitor, but the definition was actually better than the fuzzy screen, plus it was easier to see because of all the coloured lights dancing across it at the gig. Despite the fact that the music was compressed over the Internet, it sounded better than the gig, where the levels were set wrong - rendering any dialogue in the film to be barely audible mumblings, and the high tones pretty much dominating the rest of the sound. I have my PC hooked into my stereo -so the sound quality is better than desktop PC speakers, but for the sound to be so superior to that of a sound system in a club stuck me odd at first. But then i considered other music events I've been to in the past, and if you compare the sound quality at an event , to listening to a studio album that's been meticulously engineered to sound as crisp and rich as it can, then you often encounter massive differences. So which one is the better audio experience, the live gig, or listening to it on a stereo? Which would the artist prefer as a method for delivering the optimal in sound quality?
We've all seen the image of the Mona Lisa, hundreds of times in many different settings and media format. Her smile is still enigmatic, even when on a 5 inch postcard. Leonardo da Vinci finished painting this classic piece in 1519, and the environment in with it was created and displayed is very different form that of today; it's had various homes in it's life, and still today it draws big crowds. Someone seeing the image for the first time will likely be view a copy, but may still be moved by it. Is the context so important?.
Ellie Rees's work entitled Britney is a video of the artist playing a Britney Spears song on bottles She has strong views on whether it is suitable for the popular video site Youtube, despite the content being pop trash - I've never heard Britney Spears music described as fine art. I would have thought Youtube would be the perfect vehicle for her new media piece.
Toccata et Fugue in D Minor on a Bottle Organ on the other hand IS available on Youtube..
This young artist uses a well respected piece of classical music in his work, the editing may be raw - i know Ellie is a proponent of the unedited performance, but who is to say if one is less worthy than the other, who is to say which is art and which is not. By putting one in a exhibition space it is stamping it with exclusivity. If something is worth saying, why limit it to saying it in a short period of time at a gallery, especially if it is a new media artwork? Is not art for the people?. To have on demand access on the web is giving it a much wider audience than it has in a single gallery. Not all artwork should be displayed in a gallery, where the atmosphere can be austere and pretentious, it should be more accessible.
To quote Banksy , who's not afraid of giving his vision a wider audience - "Art is not like other culture because its success is not made by its audience. The public fill concert halls and cinemas every day, we read novels by the millions and buy records by the billions. We the people, affect the making and quality of most of our culture , but not our art. The Art we look at is made by only a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success of Art. Only a few hundred people in the world have any real say. When you go to an Art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionares."
Interaction can be said to be a dialogue, and for our purposes between man and machine or computer, although the term can apply to an exchange between two or more of anything. Chris Crawford describes good interaction like a conversation, requiring 3 steps if it is to function correctly - 1 - 'A' speaks while 'B' listens 2 - 'B' considers what was said 3 - 'B' offers a response to 'A' Interaction breaks down if one or more of these steps is omitted or performed incorrectly. If at step two 'B' doesn't listen properly to 'A', his answer will have less value and the conversation would be unsatisfactory. If at step one, 'A' fails to communicate articulately, then 'B' will have a hard time understanding him. Applying this to interaction in a multimedia environment, if the interface design is difficult to understand, then the user will have problems conveying his needs, or if the method or delivering a response is flawed, the user experience will be poor. Crawford also states, specifically as regard to games, that the higher the level of interaction the better- games with a low level of interactivity are less successful than those with higher level and better quality interactivity. The user is also important, -are they asking the right questions, or is their goal within the boundaries of what the programme can respond to? The user becomes the author, following his own path through the possibilities of the programme, albeit in a controlled manner, as all the options have been the creation of the programmers and designers. This relates to Monivich's Myth of Interactivity and Barthes Death of the Author.
New look website is up and running, jam packed with graphic design images, art work and photographs. In the process of adding a shop, which will sell a forthcoming range of t-shirts.
