Archive for the ‘MA Thesis’ Category

UNI [THESIS] – INSTALLATION 1 HOUR PATCH 2ND RUN

July 9th, 2009 | Richard Almond

Frustratingly I was having problems getting the patch to work on Wednesday. It simply wouldn’t produce the distortion effects that it was creating before. I spent a good few hours trying to figure out what the problem was, eventually realizing that I’d accidentally deleted one of the patch’s scripts when clearing out the video pool. After replacing this I got the patch up and running, and also managed to get the camera to record properly. It had been producing a feed that was over-saturated, too bright and the wrong hue, it seems that it required a different setting to run on Mac OSX.

I again moved up to the studio on the top floor and decided on another run of the 1 hour long patch that I carried out on Tuesday. The space was busy with interviews and tours of the building going on, and so I had a lot of recording triggered, building up a nicely complex projection with many overlays. I found that people were very interested and most stopped at least for a second when realizing that they were being recorded.

There were some problems, however, with the recording function. Set to record for 1 minute, the patch outputted videos only 10 seconds long. These videos did contain a minute’s footage, only they were compressed into 10 seconds, meaning they played at 6 times the speed of reality. Although not ideal, this was a case of a happy accident, as the sped-up footage does create a pleasing effect when overlaid onto the live, realtime feed from the camera. Concurrently, there was an issue with the file sizes. One minute recordings were outputting 150 MB files which were quickly filling up my harddisk. I had to apply a compression codec to the files to reduce them to around 10 MB, as I fear that running the patch from an external harddrive may result in a large reduction in frame rate.

UNI [THESIS] – INSTALLATION 1 HOUR PATCH 1ST RUN

July 8th, 2009 | Richard Almond

Yesterday [Tuesday] saw a staff meeting held in P3, and so I was evicted for the day. I decided to carry on with my experimentation and so set up the shorter, 1 day cycle of my MaxMSP patch in a busy room on the upper floor of the University. Simply projecting onto a wall next to a through-route between a stairwell and a computer suite, there was a lot of activity which contributed to the cycle. The camera was placed alongside the projection and pointed back into the room. Some rather compelling results were achieved once the recording/playback overlay loop was activated, and people walking through the space began to take a lot of interest as they seen themselves sharing the room with its previous occupants.

I am learning that this works better as a background, passive installation, rather than one which people actively visit to engage in. Users can get impatient after a few minutes of exploring the projection and expect quickly visible responses to their interactions. As a piece of background artwork however, the installation could prove most effective. Social occasions such as parties or venues such as night clubs may generate some interesting results as a documentation of the night’s activities are built up. Again the only problem was the quality of the projection, which was washed out in a room requiring relatively high light levels. This would work so much better on a TV screen.

Click to see the full Flickr set.

UNI [THESIS] – P3 INSTALLATION PREPARATION

July 7th, 2009 | Richard Almond

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.

UNI [THESIS] – JPEG/TIFF, DIGITAL STRUCTURES IN IMAGE FORMATS

July 6th, 2009 | Richard Almond

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.

UNI [THESIS] – P3 AMBIKA INSTALLATION VENUE

July 5th, 2009 | Richard Almond

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.

UNI [THESIS] – SCHEMATIC OF MAX/MSP PATCH FOR INSTALLATION

June 26th, 2009 | Richard Almond

I put together a detailed diagram to help clarify how the MaxMSP patch for the installation will operate. The key to success will be the timeframe on which the patch operates. I plan to have various options for the total running time of the patch [6 days, 6 hours, 60 minutes], to allow for the different circumstances in which the installation may be used. Each of these timeframes will be divided into 6, equal parts, 6 x 1 day, 6 x 1 hour, 6 x 10 minutes, etc.

The HSFlow patch will run throughout the duration of the installation, data moshing the live camera feed, but during each of the 6 sections of the installation its effect will be different, due to a different range of presets being used. The effect initially will be subtle, becoming more and more abstract as each section of the installation passes.

A jitter matrix patch will also run throughout, sensing the presence of visitors by registering a disturbance in the pixel field. This will trigger a recording [the time of which depends on the total length of the installation and available storage space], which will be stored under a numerical name.

These recordings are subsequently overlaid back into the live feed at random in progressively increasing quantities. In the first section, one part in 6 will see a recording overlaid onto the live feed, in the second section, 2 parts in 6 will be previous recordings, in the 3rd section 3 parts in 6, etc.

A similar system will apply to images, which be grabbed from a harddrive or an internet server/flickr page and overlaid into the live feed.

UNI [THESIS] – HSFLOW MAX PATCH

June 26th, 2009 | Richard Almond

This MaxMSP Jitter patch by Andrew Benson simulates the effect of Data Moshing in real time. I have been doing a fair bit of experimentation with the patch and feel aspects of it can definitely be used in my animation. There are a series of variables which can be modified and with the simple shifting of certain sliders, the aesthetic of the effect completely changes. The patch can modify the live camera feed very subtly or it can morph it completely to the point of total abstraction. MaxMSP has a preset function which allows the storage of a range of variables, so the effect could be made to progressively decay the live feed, a simple counter triggering each range of presets as required.

UNI [THESIS] – THE ART OF MEMORY BY FRANCES A. YATES

June 24th, 2009 | Richard Almond

Computers and man are polar opposite. Computers were created by humans, and now humans need computers to survive. The relationship is imperative. Analogy and metaphor have engulfed computers and software since they came into existence. We have enforced human analogy into our software and expect human traits in return, yet ‘folders’, ‘files’ and ‘desktops’ all essentially refer to the same thing, bits and bytes of pure, apathetic, binary data. There are two metaphors which stand above all others in their prominence as symbols of human characteristics with which we refer to our digital world. These are ‘Memory’ and ‘Decay’.

Memory is the metaphor most widely and commonly used in the digital world. Since the dawn of man, the word memory has denoted the human ability to recall past experiences and learnings, however with the rapid shift of our culture into the digital realm, if one was to now say the word ‘memory’ to a teenager, their thoughts would likely turn to a hard drive as much as they would to a past event they had experienced. Such is the power and pertinence of this metaphor.

Decay is a far newer and lesser-explored metaphor than memory, but one of equal importance. We are all aware of the decay that exists in our physical world, we are exposed to degradation, death and destruction frequently. We still struggle however with the concept of decay in the digital sense. We forget what we have been taught, but we do not expect our computer to forget what we have used it to create. Our physical possessions decay over time, but we do not expect this of our digital possessions. Are the little software glitches and the operating system crashes decay in the digital sense?

It is imperative that we begin to understand decay from a digital point of view, living as we do in a world that could in theory have the record of its recent history completely wiped out by a rogue Trojan horse (yet another metaphor).

In “The Art of Memory”, Frances A. Yates refers to the book “Ad Herennium”, a document on rhetoric dating to circa 86-82 BC by an unknown Roman teacher.

“When he comes to memory as an essential part of the orator’s equipment, he opens his treatment of it with the words ‘Now let us turn to the treasure-house of inventions, the custodian of all parts of the rhetoric, memory.’ There are two kinds of memory, he continues, one natural, the other artificial. The natural memory is that which is engrafted in our minds, born simultaneously with thought. The artificial memory is a memory strengthened or confirmed by training.”

One could ask whether there are now three forms of memory, with the third being ‘Digitally Artificial’. Furthermore, one could question whether the human artificial memory exists at all now, and whether it in fact serves any purpose in the modern world. This would result in there remaining only two forms of memory, yet with one of the two being very different.

In the times of antiquity, long before the invention of computers or even of literacy, scholars would employ complex techniques in order to memorize stories, speeches and events. The Art of Memory was said to have been invented by poet Simonides of Ceos whilst performing at the banquet of Scopas, a nobleman of Thessaly. The poet dedicated the first half of his chant to his host, and the latter part to the twin gods Castor and Pollux. Scopas then paid the poet only half of the agreed fee, and suggested that he demanded the rest of the payment from the gods. A little later a message was sent to Simonides telling him that two young men were waiting outside to speak to him. Upon leaving the banquet, SImonides could find no one, but during his absence, the roof of the building collapsed, crushing everyone inside to their deaths. The bodies were so heavily mangled that the relatives could not tell them apart, but Simonides was able to remember every single guest from the position at which they were seated around the table. The twin gods had paid their share handsomely. Simonides realized how essential orderly arrangement was for a good memory.

This association of memory with physical space became imperative, and techniques were established to allow one to memorize vast amounts by mentally placing images in physical spaces. The artificial memory the unknown teacher refers to consists of images and places. A ‘locus’ is a place which is easily memorable, such as a family home. The method involves pacing this locus, either mentally or physically, room by room and placing an image which is to be remembered in each room. Later, for instance when delivering a speech, the individual takes a mental journey through this locus, demanding from each room what he has mentally stored there. The images placed in each room must be as explicit and powerful as possible. Scenes that shock are most likely to be remembered, and so relating an image to, say, a scene of bloody battle works particularly well. Cicero defined two types of memory, not memory as in the style of memorizing, but memory as in the material that needs to be memorized. He defined the first as the memory of ‘things’, and the second the memory of ‘words’. Both ‘things’ and ‘words’ could be memorized using the spatial association techniques. Yet another question is posed when this idea is related to today’s society, is there now room for another form of data to be memorized? We now, surely, need to remember the bit and the byte as much as we need to remember things and words.

If we ponder memory and its modern meanings we reach a crossroads. Memory now refers as much to a computer’s storage capacity as it does to that of our own brains, but the two memories are very dissimilar. Human memory is poetic, it is nostalgic and entropic. Patches come, patches go, we forget both intentionally and unintentionally and we often are unable to erase an unwanted memory. Over time our memories are altered, they develop with the individual, they become amplified and even fabricated. Each individual memorizes an event in his or her own, often very different way. Digital memory is the polar opposite. It is clean and pristine, it is simple in its binary form. It is a series of 1’s and 0’s which either exists or does not. Digital memory can be copied, replicated and backed up, time after time, each version as perfect as the very first. The bytes that comprise an image can never decay in the physical sense, they do not age. As long as they have the media to exist upon, and there is no enforced destruction (deletion, viruses, etc) they will exist in their original form. But maybe the unexpected software glitches are a metaphor for aging. Maybe a virus is to a byte of data what Cancer is to a human cell. The differences in decay in the physical sense and in the digital sense mirror the differences between memory in the human sense and memory in the digital sense. Physical decay is slow but certain, it is expected and often encouraged. Like human memory, it is nostalgic and entropic. Conversely, the decay of digital data is sudden and abrupt. Like its binary polarity, it either works or it does not.

Memory and decay exist in an inextricable relationship. Without memory, it is questionable as to whether decay exists, as there is no recollection that an object has ever existed in any other form than its current. Without decay, can memory exist? If nothing ever changes then one can never have a record of something in a previous state.

UNI [THESIS] – AGING WEBCAM

June 22nd, 2009 | Richard Almond

Messing about with an old webcam. It doesn’t work quite as well as it did…

Flickr set

UNI [THESIS] – MAX/MSP GHOST BLOCKS

June 16th, 2009 | Richard Almond

Further experimentation with the Jitter Mean patch. As well as manipulation of a live stream, the patch can also work on a pre-recorded video file. Here I ran a rendering from our Motion Capture Device through the patch. Ghostly forms of the boxes’ previous states fade to a pale mist. A trail of a past incarnation is captured. Is this digital memory acting in a poetic, human way?

Click for the full Flickr set