chewie-LookingOutwards03

Olars, Kinetic Toy

This project initially caught my attention because it resembled the artificial evolution simulations done by Karl Sims. Olars, Kinetic Toy is a parts-based tool kit that allows you to connect bodies that manipulate and twist at the user's discretion. In this video demo there seems to be two main driver-blocks containing a motor and a knob to control how that motor behaves. The kit includes ligament-type bodies as well that attach to these motors in different ways to give the creature it's animation. These ligaments come in a variety of different shapes that result in surprisingly intricate movements.

Since I was familiar with Karl Sim's evolution simulator it was really fascinating to see a similar mechanism replicated with tangible objects, where the user has to manually provide what the simulation generated automatically. It's interesting how, if the user has a goal in mind for how the creature should move, they will most likely develop it with a particular understanding of how the parts interact, which changes over multiple iterations as they experiment. Eventually that understanding becomes more efficient and accurate at predicting how different structures will behave. I could imagine a person stuck in a room forever with only this kit - working away, generating endless combinations of parts and movements, mindfully crafting a super-organism from these basic components - similar to how the evolution of these creatures was originally calculated in 1994.

I think the biggest drawback of this implementation is it's limited arrangements given a small set of components. There is only one shape that contains motors which allow for a single axis of rotation, and the rest of the static bodies have only a few pre-defined attachment points. Multi-axis rotation would be much harder to implement physically, but if they were to use something like velcro, the shapes could be attached at any position or orientation. It would also be interesting to have different shapes with motors or to include a motor on each ligament, which would allow for much more complicated motion.

As I mentioned before, the essence of Karl Sims evolution simulator plays a major role in this piece. It seems to have taken a process meant to be solely carried out by computers and launches it into the tangible world for people to naturally do what was coded into the simulator. You can see how the limited nature of the physical joints is balanced by more intricate objects to be attached, making it easier to get interesting movements from them and keep the user entertained.

nannon-LookingOutwards03

Seated Catalog of Feelings

I came across this exhibit recently at the Cooper Hewitt, and loved how simple yet exciting this experiential piece was. It is a solo experience, yet not isolated, as the artists Eric Gunther + Sosolimited carefully show you what the user is experiencing through communicative + artful projections.

In these disembodied days, where the majority of the experiences we're tuned into happen from the neck up, I am attracted to things that remind us to listen to the world with our bodies.

This piece is not only fun + whimsical, but also smart because it relinquishes so much to the viewer. It relies on the viewers' own imagination to create for themselves in their heads the feeling of "a cricket rubbing its arms together, or "making love to a snail on a bicycle seat." With the piece's carefully crafted physical + auditory sensations, it asks the viewer to take the extra step by placing themselves in the context of a given text. The text is often ambiguous enough that the viewer needs to jump to an immediate conclusion about what the sentence means (in the case of the snail example, are you a human, snail, or the bicycle seat?)

However, what I think makes the piece go above and beyond is the consideration for creating a visualization that outside/passing participants can also see. It extends the experience just a little bit (and the viewer themselves cannot see this), so that the experience remains vague, yet enticing.

https://medium.com/sosolimited/organized-vibrations-db2c782534c6

paukparl-LookingOutwards03

Sandbox - Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

These images are amplified by digital cinema projectors which create an animated topology over the beach, making tangible the power asymmetry inherent in technologies of amplification.

There are two sandboxes--one at the size of a small table and one big enough to fit a couple volleyball courts. For each sandbox, a camera and projector is installed from atop facing down. The image from each sandbox is projected onto the other either blown or shrunk out of scale. As a giant

There are three types of audience in this interactive art piece: (1) the giants, (2) the miniature people, and (3) outside spectators. Outside spectators initially see the other two interact from a distance, perhaps before deciding to join either side of the audience to experience the art piece. The gians and miniature people see each other as flat projections onto the sand, but as both sides grow to be aware of each other's presence, new interactions among them arise. Something about the blown up hands and shrunk human figures that is instantly engaging. I think we're generally very keen on seeing other people--it's what we do countless times everyday. So some very powerful twist to that reality like this could create a quite interesting experience.

yalbert-body

I really struggled to come up with a compelling idea for this project. Initially, I wanted to do something with hands using openpose. Unfortunately, it was too slow on my computer to use live.

After unsuccessfully attempting openpose, I shifted my focus to FaceOSC. I explore a couple different options, including a rolling ping pong ball, before settling on this. Initially inspired by a project Marisa Lu made in the class, I wanted to create a drawing tool where the controller is one's face. Early functionality brainstorms included spewing particles out of one's mouth and 'licking' such particles to move them around. Unfortunately, faceOSC's tongue detection system is not great so I had to shift directions.

Thinking back to the image processing project for 15-104, I thought it would be fun if the particles 'revealed' the user's face. Overall, I'm happy with the elegant simplicity of the piece. I like Char's observation when she described it as a 'modern age peephole'.However, I'm still working on a debug mode in case faceOSC doesn't read the mouth correctly.

 

ParticleSystem ps;
import processing.video.*;
 
Capture cam;
 
import oscP5.*;
OscP5 oscP5;
int found;
float[] rawArray;
Mouth mouth;
int particleSize = 3;
int numParticles = 20;
 
void setup() {
  size(640, 480);
  ps = new ParticleSystem(new PVector(width/2, 50));
  frameRate(30);
 
  setupOSC();
  setupCam();
 
  mouth = new Mouth();
}
 
void setupOSC(){
  rawArray = new float[132]; 
  oscP5 = new OscP5(this, 8338);
  oscP5.plug(this, "found", "/found");
  oscP5.plug(this, "rawData", "/raw");
}
 
void setupCam(){
  String[] cameras = Capture.list();
 
  if (cameras.length == 0) {
    println("There are no cameras available for capture.");
    exit();
  } else {
    println("Available cameras:");
    for (int i = 0; i < cameras.length; i++) {
      println(cameras[i]);
    }
 
    // The camera can be initialized directly using an 
    // element from the array returned by list():
    cam = new Capture(this, cameras[0]);
    cam.start();     
  } 
}
 
void draw() {
  if (cam.available() == true) {
    cam.read();
  }
  translate(width, 0);
  scale(-1, 1);
  background(0);  
  mouth.update();
  //mouth.drawDebug();
  ps.origin =new  PVector(mouth.x, mouth.y);
  if(mouth.isOpen || mouth.isBlowing){
      ps.addParticle();
  }
  ps.run();
  //image(cam, 0, 0);
}
 
void drawFacePoints() {
  int nData = rawArray.length;
  for (int val=0; val<nData; val+=2) {
      fill(100, 100, 100);
      ellipse(rawArray[val], rawArray[val+1], 11, 11);
  }
}
 
 
// A class to describe a group of Particles
// An ArrayList is used to manage the list of Particles 
 
class ParticleSystem {
  ArrayList particles;
  PVector origin;
 
  ParticleSystem(PVector position) {
    origin = position.copy();
    particles = new ArrayList();
  }
 
  void addParticle() {
    for(int i = 0; i < numParticles; i++){ particles.add(new Particle(origin)); } } void run() { for (int i = particles.size()-1; i >= 0; i--) {
      Particle p = particles.get(i);
      p.run();
      if (p.isDead()) {
        particles.remove(i);
      }
    }
  }
}
class Mouth{
 boolean isOpen;
 boolean isBlowing;
 float h;
 float w;
 float x;
 float y;
 float xv;
 float yv;
 
 void update(){
   PVector leftEdge = new PVector(rawArray[96], rawArray[97]);
   PVector rightEdge = new PVector(rawArray[108], rawArray[109]);
   PVector upperLipTop = new PVector(rawArray[102], rawArray[103]);
   PVector upperLipBottom = new PVector(rawArray[122], rawArray[123]);
   PVector lowerLipTop = new PVector(rawArray[128], rawArray[129]);
   PVector lowerLipBottom = new PVector(rawArray[114], rawArray[115]);
 
   float lastx = x;
   float lasty = y;
   w = rightEdge.x - leftEdge.x;
   x = (rightEdge.x - leftEdge.x)/2 + leftEdge.x;
   y = (lowerLipBottom.y - upperLipTop.y)/2 + upperLipTop.y;
   h = lowerLipBottom.y - upperLipTop.y;
   float distOpen = lowerLipTop.y - upperLipBottom.y;
   float avgLipThickness = ((lowerLipBottom.y - lowerLipTop.y) + 
                           (upperLipBottom.y - upperLipTop.y))/2;
   if(distOpen > avgLipThickness){ isOpen = true;}
   else { isOpen = false;}
 
   if(w/h <= 1.5){ isBlowing = true;}
   else { isBlowing = false;}
 
   xv = x - lastx;
   yv = y - lasty;
 
 }
 void drawDebug(){
   if(isOpen || mouth.isBlowing){
        strokeWeight(5);
       stroke(255, 255, 255, 150);
       noFill();
       ellipse(x, y, w, h);
   }
 }
}
 
 
// A simple Particle class
 
class Particle {
  PVector position;
  PVector velocity;
  PVector acceleration;
  float lifespan;
 
  Particle(PVector l) {
    acceleration = new PVector(0, 0.00);
    velocity = new PVector(random(-1, 1), random(-2, 0));
    position = l.copy();
    lifespan = 255.0;
  }
 
  void run() {
    update();
    display();
  }
 
  // Method to update position
  void update() {
    velocity.add(acceleration);
    position.add(velocity);
    //lifespan -= 1.0;
    velocity.x = velocity.x *.99;
    velocity.y = velocity.y *.99;
  }
 
  // Method to display
  void display() {
    //stroke(255, lifespan);
    //image(cam, 0, 0);
    float[] col = getColor(position.x, position.y);
    fill(col[0], col[1], col[2]);
    noStroke();
    ellipse(position.x, position.y, particleSize,particleSize);
  }
 
  // Is the particle still useful?
  boolean isDead() {
    if (lifespan < 0.0) { return true; } else { return false; } } } public float[] getColor(float x, float y){ cam.loadPixels(); int index = int(y)*width +int(x); float[] col = {0, 0, 0}; if(index > 0 && index < cam.pixels.length){
    col[0] = red(cam.pixels[index]);
    col[1] = green(cam.pixels[index]);
    col[2] = blue(cam.pixels[index]);
  }
  return col;
}
 
public void rawData(float[] raw) {
  rawArray = raw; // stash data in array
}

nerual-LookingOutwards03

I was really intrigued by Lauren McCarthy and Kyle McDonald's "How We Act Together," both by the interaction between individuals and between computer and individual. The project shows you a stream of different pictures of other people interacting with the project from before, as long as you continue acting certain facial movements. It explores modern interaction, in both positive and negative ways.

I think it's interesting that it attempts to pose these questions about modern interaction, which involves lots of virtual interaction, through virtual interaction itself, with very distant people. The whole set up itself is already "awkward and intimate" and it's cool that they chose to accentuate that with a kind of interaction that induces a bodily response.

http://lauren-mccarthy.com/How-We-Act-Together

Spoon-LookingOutwards03

A Journey, Seoul by Mimi Son and Elliot Woods.

Seoul is a piece of interactive art that consists of numerous clear acrylic plates with white detailing added to them. The plates can be placed into a box by the viewer that illuminates the plates and projects colors and patterns onto them. The project focuses on the viewer's memories, calling to viewer to assemble a box that means something to them.

I like how self-defined the piece is. It tries not to be meaningful to the viewer by making  a statement on its own. Instead, its meaning comes from the meaning that the viewer puts into it. This is interactive art on a very base level, i.e., the user has a hand in creating their own version of the piece. In fact, no two viewers will view the same piece. While they both might assemble the same plates in the same order, nobody will assemble the box for the same reason, thus fundamentally changing the piece.

A Journey, Seoul is part of a series created by the artists that includes a couple of other cities. Each city provides different interactions-- for example, A Journey, London, uses changing sounds and lights to tell different stories through the same physical model. Each iteration of the project includes the user more and more in the personalization (A Journey, Dublin is the last in the series and allows the viewer to actually draw on the panels to create their own narrative completely).

Of the series, though, I think Seoul is the strongest. London leaves little up to the viewer, making its interaction a mostly passive experience. Dublin, while quite visually pleasing, seems to give too much freedom to the viewer. The piece becomes more of a white-board than an art piece. Seoul, on the other hand, gives the viewer enough freedom to make their own memories from the predefined plates, while still keeping control over what the viewer is seeing to a certain extent. There is value to limiting what a viewer can do, as it forces the imagination to fill in gaps in their head, rather than giving the viewer the freedom to fill in those gaps in the physical world.

 

 

chaine-LookingOutwards03

Nova Jiang's "Figurative Drawing Device" (link here) was exhibited at the New Wight Gallery in Los Angeles. This device requires two people, a designated tracer and the person to be outlined, and graphs the outline with imperfections that are clearly evident. I was drawn to this piece because of its personal and irregular nature. No two outlines would be the same and it was also dependent on the tracer. The device seems to be made up of a series of metal bars that translate the bigger outline of the tracer's drawing to something that could be fit into a sketchbook's size. Although overall, I love this piece, I wonder how the traces would look if the outline was completely black, creating a stronger contrast with the white paper's background. I respect the social and psychological elements in this piece within the relationships that it creates and also the fact that a single outline is not something that can be done quickly and perfectly. The poser must stay relatively still in poses that may be hard to maintain while the outliner must focus on doing his/her best in creating the drawing. Within completion, the drawing serves as an interpretation of the participants' combined effects, which is something I find exciting.

sapeck-LookingOutwards03

483 Lines Second Edition (2015) by Mimi Son explores how light and image can create a surreal digital environment. The interactivity is in how the viewer views the piece. Today, I viewed one of Memo Atken's pieces that explores creating different environments in each eye in virtual reality. The users explore the space by moving their head in the VR environment and by attempting to focus on different parts. Son's work attempts to create similar surreal environments in reality through projection. Standing closer or farther away from the lines create senses of motion through the plane of lines. Looking at the piece from the angle of a tunnel creates a sense of motion along the plane of lines.

harsh-LookingOutwards03

Delicate Boundaries - Chris Sugrue

This project interests me not because of the artistic concept behind it(which I find a bit simplistic), but because of the novel use of media. The way the artist uses projection mapping to bridge the divide between the digital and the physical is incredible - giving digital objects a "presence" without much effort. This served as a reference point for my "Augmented Body" project.

 

rigatoni-LookingOutwards3

Recently I have been making more use of my Fitbit, and one of the social "games" I have been playing on it is the step challenges. Counting steps as a form of interactivity is a fairly old concepts, with the first pedometers showing up from Japanese manufacturers in 1985 (interestingly, Leonardo Da Vinci had envisioned a mechanical step-counting gadget centuries earlier!).

What I found unique about the Fitbit's spin on the "step challenge" concept is the virtual races you can hold with your friends. Users can pick an iconic expanse to walk across to race on like the Alps, Appalachian or Rocky mountains and can see realtime where their friends stand along these trails. The fitbit will (if permitted) use GPS tracking to figure out how much distance users cover, or utilize their gait and steps taken to generate a somewhat accurate representation of distance covered on these trails. Furthermore, walking these trails allows users to unlock 180 degree views of these locations and in-game "treasures" and unlockables.

The second and somewhat less obvious effect of this interactivity is that I find myself feeling closer to the people who do these challenges with me, regardless of the multiple thousand miles between us. The concept of catching up and being able to overtake your friends helps me feel closer to them. I am not sure if the developers realized this aspect of their product, but I think this is something special, and I see the potential in a game that makes you feel closer to people by moving relative to them.