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.

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