abstractmachine

• Master of Arts HES-SO in Design
• Media Design / Spaces & Communication
• Institution: Haute École d’Art et de Design Genève
• Duration: October 2009 - June 2011
• Deadline for applications: 29 May, 2009

I have been invited to take part in a new department at the Haute École d’Art et de Design Genève exploring the emerging field of Media Design. Anyone who reads this blog should be able to see the affinities of what I do at the Atelier Hypermédia and the announced objectives of this new department. Although officially I will be intervening in the field of algorithmic design in its various manifestations, as well as specifically in the world of experimental game design, there are many other fields that this department (and its sister department Spaces & Communication) deal with that I too dabble in, so I assume I will be working on some of those projects as well.

To head off a question I can see coming : I will not be leaving my position at the École supérieure d’art d’Aix-en-Provence. I am currently starting up some important development projects in Aix-en-Provence (more on that later as it becomes official) and so, for the moment at least, I will be intervening merely as an invited lecturer to begin with the 2009-2010 session.

However, this does mean that I will be holding a lot fewer workshops in the future. I know that these workshops are very popular, but unfortunately these intense sessions are often too numerous and more importantly too frustrating to all involved because of their transitory nature. That said, if you are looking for brilliant and motivated young artists to run workshops on art & code, or the physicalization of objects, I can (and often do) recommend a whole slew of people I have worked with and trained over the past several years who are in many ways more competant than I.

Added note to all those across the pond who are looking for a more economic means of getting a quality higher education: over here in Europe, where institutions and infrastructure still work the way they’re supposed to, higher education fees are amazingly reasonable. Although currently in France major efforts are underway to model the education system on — gulp — the American University model, for the moment these suicidal tendencies have yet to give sway. Whenever I work over in my home country I am absolutely appauled by the fees, often up in the $20,000 range and beyond. Although I’m currently paid peanuts, I at least can take some consolation in the affordable cost of studying with me (these two factors of the equation probably have something to do with each other, by the way). So comparatively, the 320€/semester of this new department seems perfectly reasonable, especially given the fact that Geneva is an amazingly expensive city, along the lines of New York, Tokyo, etc. I don’t know if those fees apply to swiss students only or are a flat rate, but whatever the case they’re definitely far less that the fees which have gone totally out of control back in the States. Given the hard times, it’s perhaps time to reset the tuition fees along with the rest of the economy.

Here is the English announcement of the two new departments. En français plus loin.

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• NEW MA PROGRAMMES IN DESIGN
• OFFERED BY HEAD – GENEVA
• CALL FOR APPLICATION

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• MEDIA DESIGN
• 4 full-time semesters / 90 ECTS
• http://head.hesge.ch/spip.php?rubrique424&lang=en

The Media Design Masters programme is addressed primarily to students / designers, principally active in the field of new digital media (interaction, internet, game design), wishing to extend and develop their practical work. It also permits creators operating in closely related fields (graphics, fashion, architectural design) to expand and question their discipline by incorporating into it the approaches, tools and the potential for expression and communication of emerging technologies.

This professionalizing programme, unique in Switzerland, aims to train designers whose skills are based on the mastery of techniques, critical reflection and aesthetic evaluation. It provides the opportunity to invent and develop mechanisms, products or applications, as well as their content, through the employment of the codes and tools specific to digital technologies and networks.

Based on the fact that digital technology is a universal intercode making it possible to unify and to create crossovers between the different fields of media design, the programme covers the whole range of visualisation, modelling and communication processes involved with the new media. The teaching, which highlights the importance of the code and programming, encourages convergence of the different media design fields to which the students’ projects bélong : interaction design, dynamic data visualisation, digital fashion design, locative and mobile media, electronic publishing and publications, digital performance and real time.

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• SPACES AND COMMUNICATION
• 4 full-time semesters / 90 ECTS
• http://head.hesge.ch/spip.php?rubrique423&lang=en

The Masters in Spaces and Communication programme is addressed to students / designers for whom space (interior architecture / space design) or visual communication (graphic design, web design, video, signage) constitute the principal fields of activity and who wish to extend and develop their practice. It also permits creators working in closely-related areas (architecture, industrial design, typography, photography) to expand and question their discipline from the angle of an overall communication incorporating the spatial components.

The programme combines the capacities of graphic design and signage with those of space design and architecture following a multidisciplinary logic and a combined practical perspective. This Masters gives priority to the field of concrete spaces while still leaving a significant place for the use of new virtual media technologies and resources. It offers the chance to experiment and to develop real, ephemeral or lasting projects, in connection with the major cultural structures, companies and economic events (forums, fairs or shows) and the international organisations based in Geneva.

The teaching emphasizes the interactions between the different professional fields : exhibition design, design of commercial spaces and services (stands, show-rooms, concept stores,…), signage and graphic design in the public space, event design and corporate identity.

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These Master programmes attaches prime importance to research, and benefits from numerous institutional and private partnerships on the national and international level. Supervision is provided by versatile and multidisciplinary teams of lecturers, professionals, creators, researchers and invited contributors.

Deadline for application: 29 May 2009

• Qualification awarded: Master of Arts HES-SO in Design - major Spaces & Communication / Media Design.
• This qualification is internationally recognized.
• Fees: CHF 500.- / 320 Euros per semester.
• Language: teaching is given in French with additional contributions in English.
• Collaborations: two other majors of the Master of Arts HES-SO in Design are offered by ECAL – Lausanne (Art Direction and Product Design).

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• DEUX NOUVEAUX PROGRAMMES MASTER EN DESIGN
• OFFERTS PAR LA HEAD – GENÈVE
• APPEL À CANDIDATURE

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• ESPACES ET COMMUNICATION
• 4 semestres à temps plein / 90 ECTS
• http://head.hesge.ch/spip.php?rubrique423

Le programme Master Espaces et Communication s’adresse aux étudiant-e-s / designers, suisses ou étrangers, dont l’espace (architecture d’intérieur / design d’espace) ou la communication visuelle (graphisme, webdesign, vidéo, signalétique) constituent les terrains d’action principaux et qui souhaitent élargir et approfondir leur pratique. Il permet aussi à des créateurs actifs dans des domaines connexes (architecture, design industriel, typographie, photographie) de développer et d’interroger leur discipline dans la perspective d’une communication globale intégrant les composantes spatiales.

Espaces et Communication croise les compétences du design graphique et de la signalétique avec celles du design d’espaces et de l’architecture dans une logique multidisciplinaire et une optique de pratique concertée. Il vise à former des designers dont les compétences se fondent sur le développement de concepts spatiaux et communicationnels innovants, sur la maîtrise des savoirs et des savoir-faire, ainsi que sur une réflexion critique et éthique. Informé par les apports théoriques des sciences humaines, valorisant le potentiel créatif de chaque étudiant-e, ce master original, unique en Suisse, offre la possibilité d’expérimenter et de développer des projets réels, éphémères ou durables, en lien avec les grandes structures culturelles, les entreprises et manifestations économiques (forums, foires ou salons) et les organisations internationales implantées à Genève.

L’enseignement met l’accent sur les interactions des différents champs professionnels : design d’exposition (exhibition design), design d’espaces commerciaux et de services (stands, show-rooms, concept stores,…), signalétique et graphisme dans l’espace public, design d’événements et communication institutionnelle (corporate identity).

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• MEDIA DESIGN
• 4 semestres à temps plein / 90 ECTS
• http://head.hesge.ch/spip.php?rubrique424

Le programme Master Media Design s’adresse prioritairement aux étudiant-e-s / designers, suisses ou étrangers, dont les nouveaux médias numériques constituent le terrain d’action principal (interaction, web, game design) et qui souhaitent élargir et approfondir leur pratique. Il permet aussi à des créateur-rice-s actifs dans des domaines connexes (graphic, fashion, architectural design) de développer et d’interroger leur discipline en y intégrant les démarches, les outils et le potentiel d’expression et de communication des technologies émergentes.

Ce programme professionnalisant, unique en Suisse, vise à former des designers dont les compétences se fondent sur la maîtrise des techniques, la réflexion critique et l’évaluation esthétique. Il offre la possibilité d’inventer et de développer des dispositifs, produits ou applications, ainsi que leurs contenus, en mettant en œuvre les codes et les outils propres aux technologies numériques et aux réseaux.

Basé sur le constat que le numérique constitue un intercode universel permettant d’unifier et de croiser les divers champs du media design, le programme concerne l’ensemble des processus de visualisation, de modélisation et de communication impliquant les nouveaux médias. L’enseignement, qui met l’accent sur l’importance du code et de la programmation, favorise la convergence entre différents champs du media design dans lesquels s’inscrivent les projets des étudiant-e-s: interaction design, visualisation dynamique des données, digital fashion design, médias locatifs et mobiles, édition et publications électroniques, performance numérique et temps réel.

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Ces deux programmes Master accordent une importance primordiale à la recherche et bénéficient de nombreux partenariats, institutionnels ou privés, noués au niveau national et international.
Leur encadrement est assuré par des équipes polyvalentes et pluridisciplinaires d’enseignant-e-s, de professionnel-le-s, de créateur-rice-s, de chercheur-euse-s et d’intervenant-e-s invités.

Délai d’admission: 29 mai 2009

• Titre délivré: Master of Arts HES-SO en Design - Orientation Espaces & Communication / Media Design
• Ce titre est internationalement reconnu.
• Coûts: CHF 500.- / 320 Euros par semestre
• Langue: la langue d’enseignement est le français, complétée par des apports en anglais.
• Collaborations: ces deux orientations master font partie intégrante du Master HES-SO en design qui offre également deux autres orientations à l’ECAL – Lausanne (Art Direction et Design de produit).

• Pinguino Processing Library: Pinguino_01.zip
• Authors: Stéphane Cousot, Jean-Pierre Mandon, Douglas Edric Stanley
• Hardware: Pinguino, Jean-Pierre Mandon

Last week, Stéphane Cousot wrote a basic library for communicating between Processing and Pinguino. While you’ve probably heard of Processing before (since you’re reading this blog) you’ve almost certainly never heard of Pinguino. It’s one of the roll-your-own projects that we are developing here at the Aix-en-Provence School of Art in order to fill our own needs. It is loosely based on the Arduino platform, most of all its philosophy, but redesigned around PIC microcontrollers with integrated USB. In other words, it’s our in-house Arduino.

The project is in its first year of development and experimentation, and a lot remains to be ameliorated, most of all the editor and the installer. But as in the past we have found that the best way to mature our technologies is to use them in our own work as if they already work (or at least as if they will work), we figured that we would just jump in head first and start developing all the various pieces, even while we’re in the middle of building crazy festivals like the next Eniarof. So while Stéphane is here for Eniarof, I decided that it would be best to put him to work on developing a Processing Library to connect up directly with the Pinguino circuits various projects are building for their attractions.

Jean-Pierre developed the original solution using the libusbJava wrapper to libusb. This is not a virtual serial port, but direct communication with the USB bus. Stéphane then took this solution and built the basic library that we will use to further develop the communication protocol between Processing and Pinguino. One of Jean-Pierre’s original ideas for his platform was to build a default mode that would allow Processing, Pure Data, Python or one of the many other languages and environments we use, to directly command the Pinguino. There is something similar to this idea in the current Firmata protocol built in to the Processing Core Libraries. But we’re still a long way from getting there. For the moment we just have a simple protocol to get pin states, change pin states and send/receive more generic, or non-pin related messages.

Here is a video of Stéphane running his demo:

And some photos:

Some time has passed since my Invaders! installation started something of a $#!¥storm back in August at the Leipzig Games Convention. I tried to give the piece some context and gave a few interviews to responsible journalists, but ultimately the whole thing just blew up as people lost all sense of scale and started taking for granted all sorts of assumptions about the work. Ok, so that’s the backstory, and you can think of all that what you will.

But now that hipster pop acts such as Röyksopp are reportedly referencing the work (I have my doubts) and given that some time has gone by, it is perhaps finally possible to post this video which I have already been showing to crowds at various talks over the past few months. It’s actually not that great of a video, but it does shed a little more light on what actually was going on in Leipzig. As it has been reported elsewhere, there was something of a disconnect between the public reaction to the piece on-site, and people’s reaction on-line. Playing it was apparently very different than just reporting on its visual aspects, especially the types of images at the end of the video, I assume, where you can see the full extent of the damage of the buildings as the game matches ever more closely the historical progression of events (planes, impact, fire, structural damage, jumpers, etc). It would obviously be better to release a more complete video tracing the way in which the game itself mapped the historical events back onto the 8-bit classic, but given that the Games Convention itself wasn’t really the ideal place for this type of analytic meditation anyway, I’ll just go with this video testimony of people playing it, as it was presented. Some people only saw either the Kotaku image, or the Laboral Video, which made for another form of disconnect as people didn’t understand what was actually going on and therefore what the fuss was all about.

Here’s the Röyksopp video by the way:

If it’s true that Röyksopp is referencing my piece, that’s very cool, especially since it’s a great song. Again, I have my doubts since many pop acts don’t really use imagery all that critically, pull $#!¥ in from any direction, and therein pastiche everything into one big self-same pile. It’s always frustrating to see the extent to which music videos often end up whitewashing the images they reference. There is a long history to this tendency, although there is perhaps one recent notable exception: Justice’s « Stress » which was able to reference Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, and recontextualize it with a new political charge which it successfully maintained throughout, going so far as to provoke significant debate in France concerning the ontological status of the image (Is it protest? Is it glorification? Is it criticism?):

Pulling all this back to the Invaders! debate, I actually had an interesting public conversation with Louis Bec last november at the Biennale Figures of Interactivity while presenting this work. According to Bec, there are certain complex calculations in mathematics that require the introduction of a « zone d’ombre» in order to be resolved, and that if you do not in fact include this shadow region, the equation becomes incalculable. Bec tried to draw an analogy by suggesting that September 11th had become culturally unthinkable, and that in order to re-render it imaginable so as to process it, a certain « zone d’ombre » is required, which he suggested comes here in the form of a historical reconstruction (or simulation) of the event which reconstructs the violence in a highly symbolic form so as to able to process it. He went on to create similar analogies with animal simulations of violence and combat in play, and so on. That last part is actually part of the general narrative gamers often use defending the role of violence in video games and I don’t know if I want to get lost down that path because the argument hangs on a certain subtlely that often gets lost in translation. But beyond this idea of simulation, for Louis, the ambiguity of this work « on violence » is merely one of the pre-requisites of needing a shadowy region in order to render the violent act re-thinkable.

I just noticed that an interview I conducted a few days ago has gone up on Weecast: Interview de Douglas Edric Stanley, professeur d’art numérique.

It’s in French (désolé pour ceux qui n’en parlent pas) and it handles the usual suspects (code, teaching, gaming, and on-line tutorials). As it turns out, a lot of people use my cours sur la programmation dans Processing. So Weecast wanted me to talk about them and tried to convince me to make some videos for their site which is all about online tutorials (en français, sorry). Just last week I had people from Brazil, Spain and two schools here in France describe how they use my online courses. All that’s great, but the classes are kinda old and really need some updating, and most of all, should be video tutorials. The problem is of course that I only have so many hours in the day and I’m in the middle of a gazillion other projects. For me to take time out right now I need some sort of context where I can get paid for the time taken away from other projects. So at first I was very interested at Weecast’s proposal: remaking my Processing tutorials into video webcasts that I can get paid for. Their model is pretty reasonable and the prices are low. But therein lies the rub, and the ethical dilemma. I personally would prefer either some sort of advertising model or some sort of sponsorship when it comes to making on-line classes on Processing, because Processing is ultimately free software (as in freedom as well as in beer). These are all old dilemmas, I know, but I still feel like they haven’t been resolved. As I mention in the interview, imagine having to pay a few bucks to learn how to use sound in Processing. As we say in French, c’est un peu vache (”it’s kinda cow”?). For the moment I’ve suggested to Weecast: hey, find some public funding or sponsorship so that we can make those specific classes free. But I’m not so sure that’s really a model. Hmmm.

I dunno, a sort of ambiguous issue for me. Anyone have any other ideas?

• Attraction: Henniraof
• Design & Development: Lola & Douglas Edric Stanley
• Festival: Eniarof 0.4
• Dates: 27 + 28 March, 2009
• Times: 18:00 - 24:00
• Location: l’École supérieure d’art d’Aix-en-Provence
• Software: Henniraof (Mac OS X only)
• Development platform: OpenFrameworks

Antonin Fourneau and I are gearing up for the next Eniarof which begins construction next Monday and will open March 27th and 28th for two evenings of fun (18h-24h), open of course to any and all publics (animal, mineral, vegetable, fantasmagorical, whatever). I’ll post more at a later date concerning Eniarof itself, what it is, etc, but for the moment I will simply mention that we have some great special guests this year, including Nicolas Boone (cf. BUP) and Etienne Cliquet, along with previous eniarofers (cf. Charcutrie Brilliant), the students of the Beaux-Arts de Toulouse, and finally all the various stragglers and hangers-on who will throw up attractions with whatever means they can muster. This will all be taking place at the École supérieure d’art d’Aix-en-Provence and we’re open to all sorts of propositions, so if you want to join in on the fun, make yourself known and we’ll figure something out. Make sure you read the Dogme Eniarof first, as it gives the general theme of that-thing-otherwise-known-as-eniarof.

Anyway… long story short, before I get submerged by the Eniarof beast, I wanted to post a fun attraction my daughter and I made in a couple of hours for Eniarof. She’s 12, has seen every digitalinteractiveroboticgenerative thingamajig you can throw at her and really could care less. Twenty million screens and a gazillion sensors? Yeah whatever. It networks halfway across the globe and into space? Hasbeen. When she was four she shook the third arm of Stelarc, at five she was introduced to a man named Naut Humon, and over the years has met all sorts of other wonderful extraterrestrial constructs. Zzzzz. Next! So what could I possibly propose to peak the interest of a been-there-done-that 12-year-old? Actually, for years she’s been asking me to make something that matters, you know, something people might actually care about, like, for example, something with horses. I actually do have a wonderful installation along these lines (think Elephants, Stallions and Giraffes) but which has yet to find the right exhibit/curator, so she waits and waits still. So I finally gave up waiting, and as Eniarof was coming up we found a few available hours and created a horse simulator we are calling Henniraof. The functions of this horse simulator are simple: you wear various iterations of horse heads and bodies made out of cardboard, and prance about in an arena we will build for the occasion with similarly low-budget materials. Add one webcamera, one Optical Flow algorithm, a MacMini, some speakers and some horse noises and you have yourself a really fun horse simulator.

I’ve included a link to the downloadable software. Remember, this was made very quickly and while it could be far more sophisticated this would totally defeat the purpose as an Eniarof attraction. Rule one when making an Eniarof attraction: once it works good enough for people to have fun with it, you should stop and move on to the next attraction. Rule two: do whatever it takes to get to rule one.

Added note, the source code will probably not work in your OpenFrameworks installation, since I’ve done some nasty hacking into my version of OpenFrameworks. When the next version of OpenFrameworks comes out its’ OpenCV module should have Optical Flow integrated in the basic installation; I’ll re-compile at that point. Sorry about that but I’m too busy right now. Until then, the code is simply listed here as a reference. Again, sorry…

That said, we plan to add Optical Flow into the next iteration of the OpenCV Processing Libraries which should actually be pretty easy to do in and of itself. It’s really just cleaning up the current library, updating to the new OpenCV release, and fixing some major architectural mistakes we made (impossible to use multiple instances, etc) in the first library that will take time.

The horsehead construction formula was designed by Lola in just a couple of minutes. Basically I left the room to get some industrial-sized staples and when I got back she’d designed this brilliant system, so I take no credit for the design (other than some vague notion of genetic influence). All of the elements are both structural and visual. The black tape reinforces the solidity, designs the look, and simultaneously protects users from the sharp edges of the big staples (it also helps keep the staples from ripping).

Ingredients:

• Cardboard box
• Tape (black gaffer tape gives great contrast with the brown cardboard)
• 4 x Necrobutcher-sized staples (or just cut coat-hangers into staples, whatever)
• Pliers (for working with the staples)
• Cutting knife or scissors

Steps:

1. Get a box.

1. Flatten the cardboard box by identifying the natural seam where the box was glued together and tear at this point. This should give you a flat piece of cardboard to work with.

1. Identify the ugliest side and remove it. In my example, I’m removing the side where the handle was torn off (probably through use — those eggs must have been pretty heavy). Keep this piece, we will use it later for the horse’s mane.

1. Fold the remaining sides together to make the horse’s head shape. You will probably figure it out pretty quickly by looking at the photos, but the basic idea is to make an elongated horse head by folding the two side-flaps over one another. I recommend folding the lower flap over the upper flap.

1. Chose the strategic points for the four staples and place the black tape on both sides (inside and out). Try to position the back staples at a strategic point: not too close to the edge of each flap so as to risk tearing the cardboard, but high enough to be used as the horse’s eyes once covered with tape. This is a judgement call, but you don’t really have to be all that perfect about it. We noticed that as long as you get the eyes close enough to the position of true horse anatomy eye sockets, imagination takes over.

1. Push the staples into the cardboard (using pliers, or an industrial staple-gun), fold the ends down as flat as possible, and place a piece of tape over the staples, in order to protect whomever from scratching/cutting themselves on the staples. Remember, Eniarof is an event open to animals of all ages, so let’s try to avoid meaningless accidents (thereby leaving room for meaningful ones). Of note: once you’ve placed the two staples at the horse’s muzzle your structure should be pretty solid and you’ll be able to work fairly easily on the rest of the horse head.

1. In order to make your horse even more solid, and simultaneously build his/her bridal gear, wrap one long piece of tape around the nose.

1. Cut out the ears. I suggest first making a drawing on the pieces you want to cut. I also suggest using the cutout from the first ear to draw the second ear. This should give both ears the same size/shape.

1. Create the mane with whatever scraps you have remaining and attach them with tape.

1. The method you use to make your viewport is up to you. Here I’ve started cutting from where the original handle-hole was cutout and simply cut horizontally to the same length on the other side. I then wrapped the edges with tape so as to avoid tearing the cardboard and eventually cutting the players’ own muzzles. Make sure that your viewport is large enough for the eyes and the nose. Note that you should now be able to see through the hole at the horse’s nose on the other side.

1. All horses should have a name. Naming your horse is a pretty easy affair. Remember, nothing is superfluous. Here we’ve chosen two names based on the cardboard boxes’ original packaging information: « Boulette » was the name of our first horse, and « Calibre » our second, although I now regret not having retained « Oeuf » from the packaging. Living in France it would have been easy to name our horse « Picard » or « Carrefour » (wheras in the States I suppose it would be « Kellogs », « Joe » or « Safeway », depending on where you shop), but then you’d have a lot of horses all with the same name, so « Boudin », « Tripes », « Sponges », or « Spam » is probably a better bet.

1. Voilà, you now have a horse puppet. Download the software, set up your camera and go get all jiggy wit’ it.