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Monday was spent making the venue suitable to host my installation. Firstly, the screen was created with a simple linen sheet, which was weighted at the bottom then hung from the top on various ceiling protrusions. The screen effectively separates the space into a public section and a private section, and allows for rear-projecting, allowing visitors to fully interact with the installation. Although the projector threw a suitably-sized window onto the sheet, the expected problem of lighting levels unfortunately appeared. The data moshing patch I am using seems to operate within a rather narrow range of light quality, and tends to require fairly bright levels. Of course raising the light levels means that the resulting projection becomes washed out and visually ineffective.

Initially, I experimented with a couple of small desk lamps placed on the floor in-front of the screen. This cast a upward light which created a pleasant ambiance in the space, and I quickly discovered that the MaxMSP patch preferred only one of these lamps to be active. Further refinements saw a shield built to direct the light away from the screen and towards the visitors, and this significantly aided the patch. One factor which continued to pose problems however, was the camera itself. Unexpectedly poor quality, the camera is an external web-cam and is capturing very unnatural colour, saturation, contrast and brightness levels. All attempted tweaking so far has proved unfruitful and so an alternative may be required. The camera was positioned on a small ledge above the centre of the screen.

There was a small amount of successful experimentation done, mainly using the MacBook’s built-in iSight, the results can be seen in this Flickr set.

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I have spent the last couple of days thinking about how and what to present in my final crit on the 20th. One thing I feel would be very useful for explaining the process of digital decay through image glitching is to show a series of screenshots of an image as it is progressively decayed. The concept of digital structure is very interesting, and yet another metaphor for consideration. In the code that comprises each digital image, there are huge differences in structure depending on the file type. I have done some experimentation with two files, one a JPEG and the other a TIFF, and through similar destructive techniques applied to each, I have highlighted the differences.

Click here to see the various stages of decay.

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I’ve managed to find a suitable venue to host my installation, and a very convenient one at that, being a small storage room in P3. The space is deep in the underbelly of the University of Westminster, it has no natural light and so lends itself well to projection work, it also benefits from some degraded, decaying surfaces which allow for some interesting effects when projecting images of digital decay. I’ve done some initial experimentation in the space with projecting my MaxMSP patch, and there were a few issues thrown up which need consideration.

Mainly, there is a fine balance to be acheived in the lighting of the installation. Because there is a direct link between the camera and the projector, enough light is required to create the desired effect in the patch, but not too much as to render the resulting projection washed out.

There is also consideration to be made over the actual surface for projection. There are a number of suitable wall surfaces within the room, but due to the locations of powerpoints and the fact that part of the room is still in use as storage, it may be sensible to cordon off a section with a screen. This screen could then be used to rear-project onto, meaning that visitors may closely study what is on the screen without interfering with the projection.

Click here to see some photographs from initial projection experimentation.

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