Response to Darren

Response to Darren Lorenzi

This was a nice way to address defining a space within a public space. By using the caution tape you created a boundary that was meant for people to view from the perimeter but not to engage. In this you are setting your own parameters for the public space and in doing so dictating the mood and feel by using caution tape. The way that the tape was put up was a bit careless because blue painters tape was used and it caused a bit of a deviation from the read of the overall piece. I liked the attempt to project the MJ silhouette onto your body and it was a shame that there wasn't proper equipment available to in the EQ to make that happen. I do have to say that I didn't hate the video projected on the screen though. It made the text easier to read and I was able to make out the fact that the text were occupations. This enabled me to dig a little deeper into your concept and understand that this is an internal struggle as opposed to a portrayal of someone else's struggle. The image of Michael Jordan was interesting to see as a body outline and I wonder if that projection might have been better suited on the ground within the space. This way I would be able to read the chalk outline as a person that is no longer with us. This was a nice exploration of your previous sketch and I think that you are starting find a comfort zone of incorporating yourself into your own work. Nice work on this installation and I am looking forward to see what you make next semester.

Final Installation - The All Seeing Eye

Concept

I want to create an altar that forces the viewers to interact with it on multiple sides. I was originally going to address the center pillar of the raw space by having a platform that had an RF receiver embedded into it that was hung from the pillar. Around the pillar would have been 3D printed icons that would be able to be placed on the platform and then activating video. I was then motivated by addition of the "Bring Your Own Beamer" 1 credit course and wanted to create something that would tie over into a usable installation for that class. I still wanted to address the same space and a very similar concept.

I would like to create a Altar celebrating light and sound. When you walk into the space you would be confronted with the main portion of the Altar, "The All Seeing Eye" It is a glowing orb that modulates in color as it detects your presence in the space. The thought is that the front will have 2 modes and can be toggled by a switch. The first will have a slit scan patch running and the eye will fade throughout the full color spectrum. The other mode will detect up to three bodies at a time and each of the three will control Red, Green or Blue values of the glowing eye. 

On the adjacent sides of the pillar will be prayer stations where you can create an audio soundscape for meditation. This will hopefully force the viewer to circumambulate around my Alter, each taking a moment to kneel and pray or interact and dance for the eye. 

Space

I used the Raw space primarily for the pillar and the space around the pillar for others to stand and watch. It is a perfect central figure and stands strong like a monolith. It also helped that the space's light can be finely tuned and can be dark enough to allow the light emitted from the eye to be the area of emphasis. The pillar went up about 12 to 15 ft hight and allowed be to place the eye higher so the video captured would be that of a surveillance camera. 

Construction

For the Eye, I used an LED RGB stage light that can be controlled by a DMX controller. To control it I used a LAN box and programmed an Isadora patch to detect blobs within the space. Each of the 3 blobs that were detected had their values connected to each channel of the RGB scale. I took 2 lamp shades and formed them into a dome to diffuse the light and make it look like an eyeball. I then used a color CCTV camera to capture the image. Beneath the eye I installed a flat panel LCD screen that would display video from either of the 2 modes. Above the monitor is a switch that I have connected to an Arduino in order to toggle between the 2 patches. At the prayer station I have an iPad that is using Bloom HD that has been set with specific parameters for the viewers to create music off of.

Installed

Sketch Installation - Time

Concept

I wanted to take the opportunity to address a time based work in a public space. To make this piece approachable to the public, I want to make a sort of photo booth that can be used to grab stills at will. The way that I plan to incorporate time into the piece is to have the image degrade over time. I would like o have the presence of the viewer start a timer that will degrade the picture a bit more every second. The viewer will be able to take a snapshot at any time and print them Photo Booth style (3 - 5 images, 6x2 strips). There will be a counter superimposed on the screen so that the viewer correlates their time in the space with the degradation of the image. In further explorations of this, I would like to work new triggers and filters for multiple bodies detected in the space.

Space

I have decided to install my piece in the main lobby of the Conway center. This works great because most of the people loitering in this space are working on homework or studying and are often looking for a quick escape. Since I can not mount or hang this installation, I will have to create a stand that can support a TV and have chosen to create it based off of the the dimensions of the semi circular desktop in the lobby area.

Installation

After measuring the desk height, depth and rise of the "backsplash" lip and its depth. I then used the measurements to attach the mount to my stand that I constructed at home and ensured the TV and met the opposite end of the structure. I used a color CCTV camera and a GorrilaPod to mount on top of the extended TV and the feed was imported into Isadora. The visuals created by the patch were then output via VGA. In order to increase the fidelity of the Blob detection, I had to create a dark black backdrop and increased the threshold of that image in the patch.

Sketch Installation - Living Element

Concept

Chris and I decided to work together this in this sketch and in doing so we decided to work off of the comment that was made during Chris's responsive installation of him needing to be in the work. In this piece Chris would be the living element and our concept was that in our society today, people are to immersed in the digital realm. The only thing that is tactile is the device that mediates their interaction. The goal was to have a living being be the device and through the physical touch, they could activate the space. 

Chris is such a great subject because he is quite approachable and and his ideals fit well within the concept of the human spirit. In talking we decided to use the Makey Makey again but instead of using a device that can be handled by the viewer, Chris would become the device. In order to trigger the patch, the viewers would have to engage with Chris and only when they create a bond between their skin and his is when new videos would play.
The way we wanted the interaction to work out is for Chris to initiate contact with the viewer by extending his hand for a hand shake. This would set the ground and he would not allow them to release from his grip. The goal then was for them to trigger the the sensors along his chakra. The triggers were placed along his 3rd eye, heart and Naval. There was a 4th trigger on his left hand that was meant to create a full circular connection.

Space
We used the Raw space to have the access to the large projection screens that were created over the summer by Chelsea and Brent. We wanted to have the viewers feel hugged by the screen and planned on having chris stand right in front of them. This worked out well because it divided the space well enough to create our own smaller division of the room. We hung a short throw projector from the bars on the far wall in hopes that the viewers would all cast their own shadows onto the screen projection.

Installed

 

Sketch installation - Responsive

Concept

I want to expand on the idea of the creation of a centralized altar and how it can facilitate the interaction and the responsiveness of the space. I am hoping to use my Arduino along with my Parallax RFID reader and embed them into my altar. I want to then take multiple RFID tags and embed those into different objects that I will place around the room. These objects will hopefully be discovered within the space and in the viewers exploration, I would hope that they would place the object onto this central altar. I want to use a space that I can project onto all or at least three of the walls. Each object, when placed on the altar, will change all projected images simultaneously. In doing so it will completely change the mood and atmosphere. I want the element of discovery to be the biggest take away.

Space

I want to use Room 206 or the white installation room. With the grid and the white walls, it serves as a great canvas for a totally immersive space. I will center my altar in the west 2/3 of the space and project on the far three walls.

What actually happened.

I ended up using my Makey Makey instead of my Arduino. It suited the time sensative nature of the sketch and still helped me realize how this would work would one day evolve. I also used a ionic column cap that I bought at an estate sale for like 5 bucks and topped it with part of an old water fountain that I disassembled. I filled the inside of the water fountain with foam and embedded into the foam was washers placed in a really specific pattern. These washers have cables that are tied to them on one end and the other ends are plugged into different ports in the Makey Makey.

installed

Final Project Proposal

Questions

When addressing site-specific installations, it is difficult to interpret the connections that will be made by each individual. You can only hope to strike a chord with each viewer with the intention of conveying a specific concept. The installations that have effectively conveyed this idea have been Sid’s intimate installations within her claustrophobic studio and notes of memorabilia and also Justin’s multiple wall projection of the creepy fish tank. They both made me forget of my surroundings and I felt immersed in their environments. In both I was very aware of my own part of the space by way on intimate interaction or total immersion. I also like how Adrianne’s first sketch with scale had all of us move through the entire space and really explore the size of the raw space. I tried to do something similar by using the raw space to allow my first scale piece to feel even smaller than it already was by putting it on the far end of the room. By forcing the viewer to move through this large dark space allowed their eyes to slowly adjust and allow the clarity of my piece to unravel just as slowly.

What I have yet to fully explore, is what does the space itself mean to the concept of my piece. How does it add to the read of the work and or how do they feed off each other with the presence of the viewer. I understand that there is a great connection to be made within the space and installation, but they both are transformed by the presence of the audience member and the work's ontological recognition is possible because of that viewer. The audience is what makes the space come alive and through their interpretation, if successful, it allows your concept to come to fruition. A few pieces that could further explore this idea through more sketches would be Darren’s wall mounted commercial eating cloud, my television altar, Adrienne’s bike part sculpture/projection, Amanda’s wall piece and Chris’s water bottle boat. All of our pieces were conceptually strong but didn’t directly address the room or the presence of the viewer in the space. The opportunity that we all had was to release any limitations we may have put on our project to better convey our concept and apply it to the use of the space. Some of us used a portion of a space but didn't really address why it was used or what influence it was supposed to have on our work. 

I have enjoyed the work that we happened to walk into as opposed to giving us a chance to approach it. Justin's mid term was a great example by using a transitional space to house his installation. We the viewer walk into a space expecting to view work in the body of the space but are confronted with a work of audio, engaging us from both sides of the walls. The reason I liked this so much is because it was so unexpected and I felt, for a moment, caught off guard. Amanda's revision of her wall piece was also successful in the way because we didn't know there was an audio element right away. We want to look at the work from afar, but the faint sound element really drew us into the core element of the installation, the heart. I think that there is a real opportunity with the element of sound and I think there were some great ideas thrown around about how to make that happen.

In all I believe that we are all on a steady path to creating another round of sketches that further explore the meaning of space and how it can be enhanced by the viewer's presence.

Concept

I want to address the center pillar of the raw space and use it to hold a majority of my installation. I would like to also use the projector and screen on the adjacent wall to display videos that I will have created in my Experimental Production class this semester. In class I will be creating visual poetry from abstracts pertaining to my religion (title in progress). My abstracts are still being worked out but will cover intervention in human existence, the aura of our lords, Gifts of knowledge from our lords (agriculture, technology, mathematics, astronomy) and a retelling of stories that present themselves in multiple religions (the great flood, ascension, angels, demons, virgin birth, etc.). I will also be making printed 3D icons/idols depicting the lords of my religion, I will also be printing reliquary and “archeological findings” of my imagination that show the religions’ past. These will all be installed in cases that I install onto the center pillar. The parts of the enclosures that are not glass will be covers or etched in either my own created script (fake language) or cuneiform script. On the east wall of the pillar will be the “altar” along with the controls to change the content displayed on the screen. Embedded into the altar will be a monitor to assist in the interaction with the piece.

Sketch Installation - DIY/Scavenged Material

Concept

I am wanting to create an altar out of trash. I want to continue to comment on Alien intervention and I am planning on using visual poetry that I am creating in my Experimental Production course. The centerpiece of my work is a DLP Tv that I found in the alley. This was serendipitous because It serves as a perfect subject for my altar. We as a society spend more and more time in front of this box and it has become a source of Knowledge for some but for most others it is a numbing agent pulling the younger generations further and further from their own imaginations and beliefs. I am still working with evolving the plane in which the projected image resides and I want to create a sense of mystery in how this device will work.

Space

I wanted to use a space that had a feature wall behind it. I liked the 207 lab room because is had that beautiful brick wall that I would be able to have as my backdrop. The brick symbolized the strength behind my point of view and served as a buttress to my research on this topic. I wanted to be able to have my audience come in and see the layers of this installation. The deconstructed TV/Altar should be first and as they view it in the round, they can see me, how I am connected to it and the impenetrable wall behind me.

Construction and Installation

Once the TV was stripped down, I found imagery that depicted Prophets with the glowing aura along with symbolism of all religions. I chose to use the imagery of the glowing prophets because this is a theme that ties across all religions and I am focused on unifying these religions through Alien intervention. I glued these images to the facade and the housing of the TV. I did this to emulate a shrine and solidify my message. In the display area of the enclosure is where I wanted to display my video. I left the TV's mirror in place so you can stand in front of it and view the horizontally projected image. I used a Pico projector and a mirror project upward and then used a found lamp shade to catch the light of the projected image. I also found to wall paper in the back of Blick that was bright white and brought a clean religious feeling to the compiled garbage. The video that I used was 6 minute Visual Poetry piece that I created in using found footage. The abstract used to create the video was on the topic of human creation by the hands of the alien race.  Having it projected onto the lamp shade gave it a feeling of an aura pulsating within this altar and the imagery that you were seeing was being filtered into the altar via Audio, Video and ethernet cables that I had attached to my head.