My last project of the semester was a response to the concept of gesture. This is my second-ever installation-ish piece, and it was well-received. When someone moves in front of the camera, the motion is detected and represented on-screen as the spinning of hundreds of tiny discs. Faster motion makes the discs spin faster and change color more rapidly. The effect is even more interesting when using a projector to cover a whole wall with the spinning discs.

From watching people interact with this piece, I learned that everybody loves to see their actions interpreted and expressed in an alternate form. Although I find this project visually interesting, I was concerned about the fact that it doesn’t communicate any explicit information. That turned out not to be a problem from the user’s perspective, as everyone I’ve shown it to immediately starts waving their hands around, jumping up and down, and making all sorts of strange motions, becoming entranced by the patterns that “they” are creating on the screen.

After a couple minutes, though, the colors become such a hodgepodge that they cease to exhibit interesting patterns. So, following one of the great pieces of feedback I received, I added a timer that resets the grid once a minute. That reset encourages further experimentation and allows people to “take turns.” Users seem to get more invested in their motive experimentations when they can claim full ownership of the visual result, as transient as it is.

Watch a video here:

I’ve officially submitted my Search Explorer project to Rhizome’s 2009 commissions process! Watch the demo, and if you like what you see, I’d appreciate your vote!

As you can see, people seemed to have a good time at the ASCII art show on Saturday. I had a blast, and was really pleased with how my ASCII Photo Booth turned out.

The “booth” was weeks in development, and often took priority over my regular school work. But I learned a ton about Processing, worked with live video for the first time, and also figured out how to generate and print PDFs. Also, although I was half-expecting the application to crash at some point, it never did. What more could I have asked for?

Here’s what it looked like during installation:

It was fun watching people use it for the first time, and I got some usability-related insights that will help me improve future installations. But most people understood it right away. You sit down in the chair and see your image translated into ASCII text on the screen. Click the mouse, watch the countdown — 3… 2… 1… Smile! — the screen flickers for a moment, and a second later your image emerges on paper from a laser printer. Cool!

Update: Just posted this video of the photo booth in action:

One thing I observed is that the best images were created by the people who didn’t rush and took some time to experiment with the system. They would lean in closer to the camera, then farther back, watching the on-screen text regenerate in response to their motion. The final images were sharpest when the subjects sat completely still before and during the exposure. That felt appropriate, given that ASCII is old technology, originating from a time when computers were much, much slower and unable to process images at all. As with early photography, a clear image in ASCII takes time to develop.

I was happy to see people walk away with a physical artifact of the experience, in this case a photo of themselves or of a friend. I hope that one or two of those dynamically generated, original artworks will end up on a refrigerator somewhere. (If you had your picture taken, leave a comment below and tell me about your experience.)

More pictures from the evening below. The gallery sign (excellently designed by Colin, who curated the show):

JK’s ASCII video wall:

Project: Pick a potential thesis issue you want to explore and respond to it.

Theory: I’m very interested in how the virtual and the physical realms trigger affect each other and effect changes or events in each other via ongoing feedback mechanisms. It boggles my mind to think about how many (physical) actions we take in the real world as a result of (virtual) information fed to us through networks, where data exist as light and are literally weightless. How do flashes of light become manifested in the physical, experiential world?

My theory is that the user is the point of intersection (and interaction) between the physical and virtual realms, between objects and information. The Earth enacts gravity and other physical effects. Computing systems enact data transfer and processing. But only sentient beings can find meaning in both, because they can understand what gravity means and understand what data transfer is by extrapolating outwards, taking what they grasp about these physical/virtual systems and applying them to hypothetical scenarios. I can imagine what would happen if I threw a glass vase up in the air: It would fall back down, hit the ground, and probably break into pieces. I’ve never thrown a vase before, but I can model and predict that outcome with near-certainty because I have inferred the rules that govern the system.

So, as a user/sentient being, my job is to intepret inputs, deduce the rules of the system (that would produce those inputs), decide on a course of action, and then physically manifest that action. In the case of a digital system, my physical output (throwing a vase, pressing a key, clicking the mouse) is input for the virtual system, which responds according to its own rules, and on and on the feedback loop goes.

I don’t think this project was extremely successful at addressing those ideas, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Try it out, and see if you can (1) deduce its rules and then (2) use them toward your own ends. Post a comment below with your findings.

Credits: Word list courtesy of mieliestronk.com.

Launch project >

Project: Respond to readings about anticipation, particularly as it may be used for communication.

Theory: I was particularly interested in two definitions of anticipation by Mihai Nadin:

Anticipation is an expression of the connectedness of the world, in particular of quantum non-locality.

Anticipation is an attractor within dynamic systems.

With connectedness and attraction as my two main themes, I set about creating a system whose elements would not just react to, but act in concert with the user’s input. Specifically, the idea is to use the element of anticipation (instead of words) to communicate instruction about how to interact and trigger events within the system.

Medium: This is my first project done using Processing. I won’t say anything more about the interface — just try it out and leave a comment. Was it successful?

Launch project >