 |
| Original Watercolour |
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| Watercolour with white background |
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| Duplicated, rotated and multiplied with white background |
Duplicated, rotated and multiplied with black background. Like the effect but perhaps the symmetry is a bit too much.
Saturday, 7 April 2012
New Watercolour rotated and multiplied
Duplicated, rotated and multiplied with black background. Like the effect but perhaps the symmetry is a bit too much.
Friday, 6 April 2012
Random Number Generators
In my Unit 1 feedback my tutor had suggested that I look at some Markov chains and just general random number generators. Together with my developer we have looked at how random numbers are generated in PHP, which is what we will be using to generate visuals and sounds in my project. We found out that PHP uses the Mersenne Twister
"The Mersenne Twister is an algorithm for generating random numbers. It was designed with consideration of the flaws in various other generators. The period, 2^19937-1, and the order of equidistribution, 623 dimensions, are far greater. The generator is also fast; it avoids multiplication and division, and it benefits from caches and pipelines." (Bellew.net)
We found an interesting article that explained how a computer, which is essentially a logical machine, can never really generate a number that is completely random. It states that any man made algorithm can always be cracked, therefore only natural randomness is truly random. (source) Certain random algorithms tend to pick out a seed which is likely to create a totally random number, such as the time of day. However, as my developer pointed out, once a hacker identifies the seed, this too can be cracked. Of course my project is not about security, therefore hacking is not really an issue, however it could be interesting to generate a different seed perhaps through something natural.
I'm also thinking about how I could perhaps use natural chance to select the music for the project. However I think that for the computer generated 'chance' I will stick to the PHP random number generator. Of course I have set up a number of boundaries in order to avoid slow loading speed, but still keep the viewer interested. The boundaries I have set for the interface are explained more in detail in an earlier post.
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Reflective Writing: The Authenticity of Digital Art
The Authenticity of Digital art (reflections on Digital Art: The Quest for Presence taken from: Dunking bird productions)
One of the many arguments against digital art, or perhaps the reason why it is sometimes snubbed off, is perhaps the question of whether or not digital art is authentic. I found this article particularly interesting because I have written about chance and authenticity in my research paper and I have quotes Jesse Schell who believes that we are at a time where people are demanding authentic and ‘real’ things rather than being drawn to the digital.
The article refers to German philosopher, Walter Benjamin who questioned the ‘presence’ of mechanical art as well as its ‘historical aura’ which is basically the effect of time of a piece of work. The fading and cracking paint work as work as the general wear and tear of a piece tends to give it a certain value. People tend to be fascinated by these elements and it is obvious in the way they approach vintage and old objects with a certain sense of longing. These effects are of course lost when a piece of work is exhibited on screen, although the nostalgia for 8 bit games is very popular so it is worth considering whether or not digital art has provenance or not even without the tangible qualities.
Of course the author reminds us that digital art cannot have any ‘original’ since it is made up of binary code, which is basically instructions for a construction on a screen. Digital art is in the article, linked to the invention of photography, which was one of the first mechanized ways of making art. The fact that it was so quick to take a picture (when compared to making a painting) the question of whether this should be art or not, often cropped up. If the camera could create an exact reproduction, how did this affect the authenticity of art?
“Perhaps Robert Rauschenburg's description, "the place between art and life", which he used to describe his work, now applies to life itself...the twilight zone of curious invention were such things as "post-modernism" can rise like toadstools from the debris. In his twilight zone between art and life, Rauschenberg invented his aesthetics off. He got rid of the canvas, splashing paint on stuffed goats, tires, bed blankets. He created sculpture, attached it to a wall and applied paint. He stretched canvas and applied no paint or just one "non-color" of paint. He designed costumes and settings and sounds and let them loose with only slightly programmed or even random activity. Art no longer had to be "object" at all. His work released the first spores of something new, that marks a place in time after "modernism". This place being inhabited by, among other things, computers and digital art.”
The author goes on to say that although people often miss the ‘sensual pleasures’ of traditional art, in the time it takes to prepare to create a traditional piece, and artist can actually create more art. Rather than ‘wasting’ time watching paint dry (literally) and rather than risking to ruin a painting by overdoing it, a digital artist can afford to keep adding and experimenting with the piece until he/she is happy with it. If it is ruined, taking a step back is of course possible by reverting to previous save points. Of course risk is one of the beautiful features of traditional art; it’s nice to know that a brush stroke has been made right on the first right. There is in fact a certain element of spontaneity and chance in this, which is sometimes hard to spot in digital art pieces.
“Synthesis is the strong suit for digital art. Bringing together old ideas and techniques in radically new ways, never before possible, is what the machine does best. Apply photo-techniques to paint, turn the machine loose, then edit it all back as if on a word processor. Drop shadows onto thin air. Texturize light. Smear pixels. Import the old and spit out the new...synthesize your imagination.”
One of the many arguments against digital art, or perhaps the reason why it is sometimes snubbed off, is perhaps the question of whether or not digital art is authentic. I found this article particularly interesting because I have written about chance and authenticity in my research paper and I have quotes Jesse Schell who believes that we are at a time where people are demanding authentic and ‘real’ things rather than being drawn to the digital.
The article refers to German philosopher, Walter Benjamin who questioned the ‘presence’ of mechanical art as well as its ‘historical aura’ which is basically the effect of time of a piece of work. The fading and cracking paint work as work as the general wear and tear of a piece tends to give it a certain value. People tend to be fascinated by these elements and it is obvious in the way they approach vintage and old objects with a certain sense of longing. These effects are of course lost when a piece of work is exhibited on screen, although the nostalgia for 8 bit games is very popular so it is worth considering whether or not digital art has provenance or not even without the tangible qualities.
Of course the author reminds us that digital art cannot have any ‘original’ since it is made up of binary code, which is basically instructions for a construction on a screen. Digital art is in the article, linked to the invention of photography, which was one of the first mechanized ways of making art. The fact that it was so quick to take a picture (when compared to making a painting) the question of whether this should be art or not, often cropped up. If the camera could create an exact reproduction, how did this affect the authenticity of art?
“Perhaps Robert Rauschenburg's description, "the place between art and life", which he used to describe his work, now applies to life itself...the twilight zone of curious invention were such things as "post-modernism" can rise like toadstools from the debris. In his twilight zone between art and life, Rauschenberg invented his aesthetics off. He got rid of the canvas, splashing paint on stuffed goats, tires, bed blankets. He created sculpture, attached it to a wall and applied paint. He stretched canvas and applied no paint or just one "non-color" of paint. He designed costumes and settings and sounds and let them loose with only slightly programmed or even random activity. Art no longer had to be "object" at all. His work released the first spores of something new, that marks a place in time after "modernism". This place being inhabited by, among other things, computers and digital art.”
The author goes on to say that although people often miss the ‘sensual pleasures’ of traditional art, in the time it takes to prepare to create a traditional piece, and artist can actually create more art. Rather than ‘wasting’ time watching paint dry (literally) and rather than risking to ruin a painting by overdoing it, a digital artist can afford to keep adding and experimenting with the piece until he/she is happy with it. If it is ruined, taking a step back is of course possible by reverting to previous save points. Of course risk is one of the beautiful features of traditional art; it’s nice to know that a brush stroke has been made right on the first right. There is in fact a certain element of spontaneity and chance in this, which is sometimes hard to spot in digital art pieces.
“Synthesis is the strong suit for digital art. Bringing together old ideas and techniques in radically new ways, never before possible, is what the machine does best. Apply photo-techniques to paint, turn the machine loose, then edit it all back as if on a word processor. Drop shadows onto thin air. Texturize light. Smear pixels. Import the old and spit out the new...synthesize your imagination.”
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Empty Words Part 1 - Reflections & Thoughts
Part 1
Soft Sounds – rattlings, hushing and drops, echoes – playful voice of a woman comes in – saying random words out loud. Somehow the sound is very pleasant although unintelligible. Start to notice the sharp contrast between vocals and consonants. Sometimes she stretches the words and they are more like noises rather than whole worlds. There’s emphasis on single letters. Some moments of no voice over – this pause feels like it is part of the sound piece, like a period of waiting. Sometimes it sounds like abstract poetry and sometimes it sounds like a story / fairytale being read to a child. At a certain point it becomes hectic and almost aggressive.
Part II – My impession is that the voice seems less playful and calmer. The general atmosphere is less hectic. Much less rattles and rustles – much less noise in general. Softer sounds – a more natural ambience.
Notes from the Cover:
“A mix of words, syllables, and letters obtained by subjecting the Journal of Henry David Thoreau to a series of I Ching chance operations.”
“What was interesting to me was making English less understandable. Because when it’s understandable, well, people control one another, and poetry disappears.”
“A transition from language to music. It’s bewildering at first, but it’s extremely pleasurable as time goes on. And that’s what I’m up to.”
John Cage in a radio interview on Empty Words, 1974
(to be continued...)
Soft Sounds – rattlings, hushing and drops, echoes – playful voice of a woman comes in – saying random words out loud. Somehow the sound is very pleasant although unintelligible. Start to notice the sharp contrast between vocals and consonants. Sometimes she stretches the words and they are more like noises rather than whole worlds. There’s emphasis on single letters. Some moments of no voice over – this pause feels like it is part of the sound piece, like a period of waiting. Sometimes it sounds like abstract poetry and sometimes it sounds like a story / fairytale being read to a child. At a certain point it becomes hectic and almost aggressive.
Part II – My impession is that the voice seems less playful and calmer. The general atmosphere is less hectic. Much less rattles and rustles – much less noise in general. Softer sounds – a more natural ambience.
Notes from the Cover:
“A mix of words, syllables, and letters obtained by subjecting the Journal of Henry David Thoreau to a series of I Ching chance operations.”
“What was interesting to me was making English less understandable. Because when it’s understandable, well, people control one another, and poetry disappears.”
“A transition from language to music. It’s bewildering at first, but it’s extremely pleasurable as time goes on. And that’s what I’m up to.”
John Cage in a radio interview on Empty Words, 1974
(to be continued...)
Feedback Unit 1 - thoughts
In this post I will be dissecting my feedback from Unit 1 and looking at how I can improve the suggested solutions.
You have developed a distinctive visual style in the way material is presented, although it is still not clear whether the two strands of your work should exist independently or as one.
I wanted to have some kind of contrast between real life and visualisations, kind of like how we see in films such as Tree of Life and Enter the Void. I thought it might be interesting to see both strands working together in a randomised grid. I'm thinking of having the watercolours as a representation of sound, but this might change.
With regards to chance, there is a need for you to define and delineate exactly which processes will be driven by chance, and how the mechanical processes that drive the narrative(s) actually function. Beware of the illusion of randomness - it is not a panacea, but you have correctly identified the need for boundaries and "structured randomness" that actually delivers an unexpected outcome. It will be essential for you to design a sequencing method for your material, possibly using Markov models or some other weighted probability system. Otherwise there will be as many unsuccessful moments in your work as there are successful ones as far as the audience is concerned.
I am actually using two methods of chance; the natural process - where I had asked people to tell me a story from their life. This is of course dependent of who I choose and how they are feeling at the moment ( + other factors). Besides this there is the way that the randomisation happens on screen, and this happens by randomisation through code. I am currently discussing with my developer the amount of radomisation that will happen at one go. I will be posting this on the blog soon.
Paul Coldwell research paper feedback:
This intelligent essay sets out to explore the challenge to mainstream film narrative by the use of chance and a database aesthetic. The argument is well controlled throughout and extensively referenced. There is a real sense of working through a proposition and exploring its validity. The writing is clear and the examples used to carry the argument are well selected. These examples take in a broad approach to the subject, Buneul, Cage and Duchamp along with others but keep the argument focused. There is potential here to be developed into a conference paper.
You have developed a distinctive visual style in the way material is presented, although it is still not clear whether the two strands of your work should exist independently or as one.
I wanted to have some kind of contrast between real life and visualisations, kind of like how we see in films such as Tree of Life and Enter the Void. I thought it might be interesting to see both strands working together in a randomised grid. I'm thinking of having the watercolours as a representation of sound, but this might change.
With regards to chance, there is a need for you to define and delineate exactly which processes will be driven by chance, and how the mechanical processes that drive the narrative(s) actually function. Beware of the illusion of randomness - it is not a panacea, but you have correctly identified the need for boundaries and "structured randomness" that actually delivers an unexpected outcome. It will be essential for you to design a sequencing method for your material, possibly using Markov models or some other weighted probability system. Otherwise there will be as many unsuccessful moments in your work as there are successful ones as far as the audience is concerned.
I am actually using two methods of chance; the natural process - where I had asked people to tell me a story from their life. This is of course dependent of who I choose and how they are feeling at the moment ( + other factors). Besides this there is the way that the randomisation happens on screen, and this happens by randomisation through code. I am currently discussing with my developer the amount of radomisation that will happen at one go. I will be posting this on the blog soon.
Paul Coldwell research paper feedback:
This intelligent essay sets out to explore the challenge to mainstream film narrative by the use of chance and a database aesthetic. The argument is well controlled throughout and extensively referenced. There is a real sense of working through a proposition and exploring its validity. The writing is clear and the examples used to carry the argument are well selected. These examples take in a broad approach to the subject, Buneul, Cage and Duchamp along with others but keep the argument focused. There is potential here to be developed into a conference paper.
Thursday, 15 March 2012
Sarah Scicluna's Robots
One of my students who is doing her thesis on mechanical Chance methods has produced some really interesting automatic drawings built by little 'robots' that she has constructed herself. The robots are essentially moving machinery with an attached open pen that draws along the path that the robot decides to take. There are many features that I find extremely interesting in this project. The line itself is built from tiny little dots that immediately make it clear that the drawing has not been constructed by a human but by a machine. The lines themselves incorporate this very digital aesthetic, almost like a Processing sketch. This creates a cool contrast between the clearly traditional medium and the digital outline.
Aside from the technical details however, I find that there could be an interesting argument about the authorship of the drawing. Of course the idea behind the process is Sarah's, but technically she is not doing any of the drawing herself. Is the robot the artist? Can one comment on the beauty of the composition of the piece when it was created by a mindlessly roaming robot? Can Sarah take credit for a drawing that took three hours to create, during which, she was baking cookies instead? The answer is of course, yes, because it was her concept all along, however the fact that the drawing looks so good in the end does get one wondering about the beauty of randomness and chance, and how the formal elements are still present in every sense even with such lack of control.
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Reflective writing on Chat 13/03/2012 + other research & work
So this will be my next purchase:
One of my students who is doing her Thesis on Chance has brought it to college recently and it has some really good essays, so I had a look through and I will be buying it for a closer inspection.
I have also just received a copy of "Empty Words" a new CD release by the Wandelweisser group and kindly sent to me by one of the musicians themselves, Antoine Beuger (also interviewed in my research paper). I have written a detailed review of the pieces and will post it very soon on the blog.
I have had a look at Darren's and Jess' work. Here is what I sent to Darren (since internet at work was down):
"I just had the time to view Darren's linked blog posts. I'm really interested in this project because I'm working with Chance narrative myself so randomness plays a big role in my project. I really like that you are playing around with people's free will.. this should be interesting..
"Maybe people won’t get it, that’s ok. Well maybe it’s not ok actually because the interaction isn’t very fun! I’d like this to look appealing and I’d like the interaction to be inviting and a little fun, maybe so that if you don’t get all the free will and randomness stuff you at least have something nice to look at and interesting or fun to play with."
This is the exact same issue I have with my own project; trying to make something curious, intuitive but fun at the same time. In general I'm really looking forward to see how your project will turn out. I also like how it looks visually."
I had a look at Jess' videos and really liked what she is trying to communicate. I commented on the fact that even though she is communicating a sort of, negative message about how technology is hurting communication between people, the natural sounds and comfortable setting also make it look normal and less dramatic. Jess also had some videos with herself as the protagonist. She commented on how she wanted to put herself as one of the protagonists because she is also being affected by 'loneliness' of technology I suppose.
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