abstractmachine

10 August, 2010

Multi-touch demo reel

Filed under: abstractmachine, atelier hypermedia, code, collaborators, design, hypertable, media design, student, workshop — Douglas Edric Stanley @ 19:18 pm

Monolithe - 2001 A Space Odyssey

Over the past year I have been working for Seconde Nature designing a public multi-touch platform via my Atelier Hypermédia in Aix-en-Provence. It’s a fairly ambitious project and involves many partners and most importantly, a whole bunch of students and researchers from five different schools/departments exploring interactivity from the perspectives of art, design, architecture or some combination therein. While I’ve been tooling away at the project in some form or another over the past 12 months, the production team was officially formed at the beginning of 2010 and still has about 6 months to go before completing the project with an exhibition planned for early 2011 in Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. In other words, we’re only at the half-way point and anything you see here should be considered highly work-in-progress, and purely experimental/speculative in nature.

That said, we have amassed enough material from the exploratory/workshop phase of the project to create the following document which can be considered a collection of ideas that we found interesting enough to record and group into this 20-minute demo reel. There were actually far more ideas explored than those you will see in this reel but they were unfortunately either lacking decent documentation or were simply too preliminary/unpolished. That said, many if not all of these ideas will need to be completely reworked during the production phase of the project. Only a few will be retained and most of those will be redesigned in collaboration with our content partners.

All of the projects were built within one of the four workshops, with each workshop lasting either 1 or 2 weeks. In total, this reel represents the accumulation of about 6 weeks of direct prototyping.

Download Video: HD quality: Mur Communicant.m4v iPhone compatible: Mur communicant iPhone.m4v Firefox compatible: MurCommunicant.ogv

14 July, 2010

Museogames

Filed under: abstractmachine, code, exhibition, play — Douglas Edric Stanley @ 05:46 am

Museogames

I was invited a few months back by the very respectible Poptronics to participate in this exhibition which, now that I’ve taken the time to explore the website a little, actually looks pretty interesting. For the « interviews » section of the exhibition, I was asked to revisit the ugly Invaders! brouhaha, as well as to opine on the age-old debate yawn! on the relationship between art + gaming. I am also in pretty cool company; folks like Nicolas Nova, Invader, Isabelle Arvers, Frédérick Raynal, etc.

Museogames Museogames

I’m particularly interested in the scenography of the exhibit which attempts a mise en scène of the both the public and private act of old skool gaming. Video games have over the years often been constructed as a very private act — not all that different from the act of reading –, while at the same time utilizing explicitly shared media such as the family television set as its transmission device. Even in the context of collective gameplay the ultra-tricked-out PC often encloses the gamer through various devices, in an attempt to surround the gamer within their specific perspective of the game world/gameplay. The Gameboy of course created the ultimate template for this enclosure and will further cement this relationship via the 3ds. And yet simultaneously, this configuration has very much been called into question, thanks to phenomena such as Guitar Hero/Rock Band or Nintendo’s own Wii.

Museogames Museogames

The question therefore become, how to expose such a configuration; how to exhibit the game as both image-sound media object and human-computer apparatus. This is not only a question of gameplay, although there is of course that aspect as well: we cannot very well pretend to exhibit the video game as cultural artifact without in some way exposing its various forms gameplay from within the immersive shell. But it is also the notion of another form of shared configuration, specifically of the human-computer embrace that takes place when we sit down and pick up the joystick in its invitation to play. There is an interesting spectacle in that embrace, or at least when considered as a phenomenon in and of itself.

Museogames

There are also a few other curiosity pieces, such as Sega’s stereo-laserdisc « Time Traveller » which I was actually able to play a few weeks ago at California Extreme 2010. It’s a strange pseudo « Hollogram » device, which plays more or less like laserdisc classics such as Dragon’s Lair. The cheez-y gameplay sucks, but of course you knew that already. Nevertheless it sure feels like an under-explored technology that I wouldn’t be surprised to see recycled in some modified form over the next few years.

Time Traveller Console Time Traveller Screenshot

20 January, 2010

Video Gamerz’05

Filed under: abstractmachine, code, exhibition, hypertable, play, youtube — Douglas Edric Stanley @ 23:01 pm

Quick post to link up to the Gamerz 05 video that just went live and where you’ll find a few seconds of my bitPong installation. I also shot my own video of the piece, in which I take advantage of this little known device called a tripod, but since I still haven’t had the time to edit it I shouldn’t complain. When I finally find the time to link up the gazillion things I’m working on right now, you’ll hopefully understand why the silent treatment. Until then, here’s the video, with some of that all-around-sloppy-soup that we have come to know as Jankenpopp:

1 January, 2010

twothousandten

Filed under: abstractmachine, code, machine — Douglas Edric Stanley @ 00:00 am

30 November, 2009

ofxiphone+MapKit

Filed under: abstractmachine, atelier hypermedia, code, collaborators, student, workshop — Douglas Edric Stanley @ 22:33 pm

Today we began our week-long « Mobility » workshop at the Aix-en-Provence Art School. We kicked off the session this afternoon with a conference from Thierry Marcou, director of the Villes 2.0 project at Fing who gave a general overview of the major issues facing the city as it evolves in the current networked era, as well as techno-social experiments, services and creations illustrating these tendencies.

Then, starting tomorrow, we’ll be working in two groups exploring the question of Mobility from an artistic point of view, using either the iPhone/iPodTouch platform via OpenFrameworks, a specifially-designed GPS platformed designed by the Atelier 3D, or some combination of both.

While Memo Akten couldn’t be here this week (cf. Decode), he nevertheless was able to come two weeks ago to the Atelier Hypermédia and help me (actually, the other way around) write a MapKit addon for the ofxiPhone project. This is a pretty cool little addition which allows you to run the standard Apple+Google MapKit library from within OpenFrameworks, and (magically) without breaking either. This addon is already sitting in the current svn/git of ofxiphone if you’re geek enough, otherwise it should be available within the next few weeks when the OpenFrameworks download is updated.

ofxiPhone MapKit Addon Example

26 November, 2009

bitPong

Filed under: abstractmachine, code, exhibition, hypertable, interface, play — Douglas Edric Stanley @ 22:04 pm

bitPong, Douglas Edric Stanley, 2009

I have finally found a venue to show a decent working version of bitPong, a piece I created some time ago when I was still working on the close relationship with phsyical implementations of data and their aesthetic consequences.

bitPong bitPong

The idea is simple: a two-player game, based on the uber-referenced Pong, here played with 8-bit controllers. When I say « 8-bit controller », I mean literally 8-bit, i.e. 8 buttons, each representing 1-bit of data. Collected together, this byte represents a 256 value variable which is used to control a visual paddle representation within the game. To aid players in the conversion of 1-bit discrete switches into their collective base-two 8-bit value, each button has been labelled: 2^n, i.e. two to the power of zero, two to the power of one, two to the power of two, and so on. This is otherwise known to mere mortals as the values 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128. To move your paddle, you must add each of these values together in order to position it somewhere between position 0 and position 255.

bitPong bitPong

For those who know little about how the computer works internally, this is how the computer moves from the well-known binary 0 | 1 value, to complex values such as the letters you are reading right now: by associating a different value to each bit (the 1 values of « 0 1 0 1 0 1 » get converted to « 0+2+0+4+0+8+0+32 », otherwise known as the value 42) the computer can use a physically limited scheme (0 or 1, on or off, yes or no, true or false) in order to represent a far greater sum of possibilities (here a number from 0 to 255). bitPong plays off of this configuration and brings its dynamics to the surface of the playing field. In order to take control of your paddle, you will have to quickly master binary encoding.

bitPong bitPong

In this Victor Vasarely inspired version of bitPong, hexagons populate the playing field and create an added diversion. Therefore, bitPong has now turned into something like a two-player bitBreakout. I was actually inspired by the following sign which is posted on the wall just next to my installation, indicating the escape routes out of the museum.

bitPong Fondation Vasarely, Aix-en-Provence

I have to admit, even considering the current legal battle of the Fondation, and the related embezzlement of it’s holdings by its president / family members, all leading to the current dilapidated state of this curious monument, it’s still a pretty cool place to show work.

26 September, 2009

WJ-Spots, print edition

Filed under: abstractmachine — Douglas Edric Stanley @ 12:56 pm

MCD has just annouced the publication of WJ-Spots #1 – 15 Years of Artistic Creation on the Internet. It is a billingual (French/English) publication.

WJ-Spots #1 Publication

As readers of this blog might have noticed, I participated a few months back in Anne Roquiny’s WJ-S project at the Maison des métallos, Paris. For those that don’t know the system, WJ-S is a multiscreen networked performance apparatus, allowing for real-time mixing of the web, à la DJs and VJs, hence the moniker « WJ-S ». So while I spoke last may on subjects ranging from protocol politics to sleepy surfers, Isabelle Arvers and Anne Laforet clicked and mixed a visual tapestry on the WJ-S system for the parisian audience. Now that talk, along with some 40 other talks from various artists and intellectuals, has been compiled into an illustrated publication.

Here’s the English press release:

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WJ-SPOTS #1 15 years of artistic creation on the internet

WJ-SPOTS is a project that was conceived of and designed by media curator Anne Roquigny, in which artists, critics, thinkers, inventors, researchers, curators, organizers and producers of cultural events are invited to look back on 15 years of Internet history.

The interviews are conducted inside the WJ-S multi-screen environment www.wj-s.org, transformed for the occasion into a space for thought and investigation. Online browsing of a selection of emblematic websites, chosen by the speakers, take place simultaneously on 3 big screens. Real time surfing is like a magnified and augmented thought presentation, offering multiple of points of view while the participants answer a series of 5 questions.

With the participation for WJ-SPOTS#1 of : Aliette G Certhoux, Agnès de Cayeux, Anne Laforet, Anne-Marie Morice, Annick Rivoire, Annie Abrahams, Antoine Schmitt, Bruno Alacoque aka weweje aka s.u.n aka datatank, Albertine Meunier, Christophe Bruno, Collectif MU, Cyril Thomas, David Guez, David-Olivier Lartigaud, Douglas Edric Stanley, Elisabeth Klimoff, Emmanuel Vergès, Eléonore Hellio, Etienne Cliquet, Fred Forest, Grégoire Courtois aka Troudair, Gregory Chatonsky, Isabelle Arvers, Ivan Chabanaud, Jacques Perconte, Jérôme Joy, Jocelyne Quelo, Joëlle Bitton, Julie Morel, Lucille Calmel, Mabuseki, Margherita Balzerani, Martine Neddam aka Mouchette, Michaël Borras aka Systaime, Nathalie Magnan, Nicolas Frespech, Nicolas Maigret, Olga Kisseleva, Olivier Auber, Olivier Forest, Peter Sinclair, RYBN, Thierry Théolier aka ThTh, Xavier Faltot.

The first WJ-SPOTS took place in Paris, on May 27th & 28th, 2009, from noon to midnight, and was programmed within the framework of two digital events : Futur en Seine and Les Immatérielles.

WJ-SPOTS#1 was a two-day opportunity to discover approximately 40 outstanding figures of the French Internet community and the online content (texts, sound, video, animations…) browsed and downloaded in real time by Isabelle Arvers and Anne Laforet, from the gigantic hard drive that is the web.

The participants commented and analyzed, from an artistic perspective, how the Internet has been progressively taken over as a space of artistic creation, from its beginning until now : online creation, software art, code art, ascii art, flash art, google art, generative art, interactive art, collaborative art, tactical media, locative media, telematic art, network performances, etc.

WJ-SPOTS #1 is the first edition of a series of events and publications that will be organized in 2010 and 2011, in partnership with international media and cultural organizations.

WJ-SPOTS plays on numerous levels of re/transmission and publication.

WJ-SPOTS is a public event where it is possible to interview online artistic creators and surf in real time their selection of Internet sites.

WJ-SPOTS makes it possible to see the live retransmission of the event on the Internet on the Selfworld site.

WJ-SPOTS makes each of the interviews available via video on demand, on the server of Digitalarti.

WJ-SPOTS provides access to the artists’ bookmarks.

WJ-SPOTS is also a collection of bilingual (French and English) special editions, produced and published by the magazine MCD.

WJ-SPOTS #1 is supported by

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ACHETER EN LIGNE / BUY ON LINE - Paper, 104 pages – 9 euros - PDF, 104 pages printable – 7 euros

17 September, 2009

Temporal divergence

Filed under: abstractmachine, code, exhibition, interface, live, publication — Douglas Edric Stanley @ 19:59 pm

After some complications actually getting into the country, I am now finally in Brazil for the 8° Encontro Internacional de Arte e Tecnologia in the capital city of Brasília. Last night was the opening of the exhibition on « computational instinct » where I’m currently showing a new piece, « Bohlen’s Experiment No.1 ». And tomorrow Joseph Nechvatal and I will be each be giving lectures as part of four days of conferences organized by the Laboratório de Pesquisa em Arte e Realidade Virtual.

The installation as well as tomorrow’s lecture are my attempt at a response to Suzete’s invitation to present something around the subject of « computational instinct ». The subject is vast, and this piece is by no means to be considered my definitive response. But it has allowed me to work out a certain framework for thinking the subject of instinct, and from which I’ve come up with this proposition « no.1 » in what could easily be extended into a series.

While I suppose there are a lot of directions one could take the concept of « instinct », I actually decided to avoid the whole innate vs. aquired debate, and focus instead on the environmental conditions of behavior, in other words looking at existence not from the perspective of a subject (transcendental or otherwise) in conflict with its biological predispositions, but instead from the perspective of a being historically embedded in an environment; i.e. a question of « Umwelt » as a formative ingredient to embodiness. From this perspective, instinct is not some contrary force acting against us, but rather the residue of our environmental context that exposes itself through our behavior. From an evolutionary perspective, instinct could then be considered a context within which behavior takes place; it is the behavorial framework that reveals something about the nature of our consciousness and how this consciousness is shaped by our negotiations and inscription within the world.

Which leads me back to this first experiment which like all experiments is about exploring the limits of a concept. While the concept of Umwelt is highly cybernetic in its conception of stimulus and effectuation, I found it more interesting to approach the concept of Umwelt from a purely temporal perspective. So I asked the question: what is our temporal behavior? and its corrollary can we experience other temporal existences? And if indeed the answer to the latter is yes, is our experience of temporally divergent worlds limited to communication or can we also simulate such environments, through immersion or other means?

In « Bohlen’s Experiment No.1 », I have recreated a machine described only on paper in Philip K. Dick’s 1964 science fiction novel « Martian Time-Slip ». In the novel, Dick suggests that communication could be made with autistic children via temporal variation devices:

« There’s a new theory about autism, from Bergholzlei, in Switzerland [...] It assumes a derangement in the sense of time in the autistic individual so that the environment around him is so accelerated that he cannot cope with it. In fact, he is unable to perceive it properly, precisely as we would be if we faced a speeded-up television program, so that objects whizzed by so fast so as to be invisible, and sound was a gobbledygook, you know? Just extremely high-pitched mishmash. Now this new theory would place the autistic child in a closed chamber where he faced a screen on which filmed sequences were projected slowed down. Both sound and video slowed, at last so slowed that you and I would not be able to perceive motion or comprehend the human sounds as speech… » – Philip K. Dick, Martian Time-Slip

The novel goes on to discuss an attempt to build such a device, but which ultimately fails for various reasons concerning the intrigue.

Obviously, a similar device has already been made for the image: it’s called « 24-hour Psycho » and « Five-Year Drive-by (The Searchers) », by Douglas Gordon. And stretching the image this way is fairly easy, at least from a technical point of view: just slow it down. But I got to thinking about the sound, which is continuous medium and not discontinuous like the film frame: how could we stretch the sound in a more consistent way while avoiding the chipmunk effect?

In my first attempt at creating Bohlen’s device (Bohlen being the character hired to actually build such a thing in Dick’s novel), I decided to create a purely audio communications device wherein one could communicate in real-time and yet to two divergent scales of real-time. You speak into a microphone, and out the other end your speech is stretched from anywhere to 1x to 100000x. You can adjust the speed with a dial.

Therefore, you co-exist in two temporal scales, and yet both, while temporally divergent, can still be considered real-time in the cybernetic sense; it is merely the biological rythm or scale of that real-time that has shifted. Indeed, as my colleague Jean Cristofol has argued within our various theoretical working groups (cf. « lenteur »), real-time is a temporal form, and not a measure of speed. s Speed and feedback are in fact two very different temporal forms.

On the technical side of things, this piece is little more than a real-time adaptation of Nasca Octavian Paul’s Paul Stretch algorithm. Basically, it uses FFT to analyze the frequencies of the sound at any single point within the wafeform, and then scrubs through those frequencies indepedently of the temporal constraints of the incoming audio. The result is fully comprehensible speech, no chipmunk effect, and yet stretching on a scale which can go from seconds, to days, and even (if desired) years. As anyone who has heard 9 Beet Stretch knows, the result can be quite beautiful.

While there are some other questions I’m asking as well in this piece, notably the question of consciousness in relation to the speed of computation, I’ll discuss all that tomorrow. This talk will also be reproduced in a publication some time next year. I’ll also try to add some photos to this post once I’ve had a moment to return to the exhibition space with a camera.

2 June, 2009

Sirènes et blablabla

Filed under: abstractmachine, atelier hypermedia, code, interview, live — Douglas Edric Stanley @ 22:12 pm

Sirènes et blablabla

Tomorrow I’ll be taking part in a radio debate on the subject of collaboration between artists and technicians, with the opening question: « how do artists and technicians work together ? ».

It is an odd formulation, no matter how commonplace, especially considering the obvious role form and forming play in any production of art. As if the artist came before the forming, instead of the other way around, or (even better) simultaneously. But of course, the idea itself has become so common that we have somehow taken it for granted as if by mere repetition we had somehow forgotten to distinguish temperament and disposition : art and technique are somehow, in some parallel universe that would be simultaneously our own, two disparate entities that after having been separated at birth can now be brought together in some novel embrace. That we still have to disentangle ourselves from such artificial constructs, it’s maddening. Art and the technosciences, two opposing forces brought together at last, how charming an idea — how charming, and how charmingly tedious. When do we get to move on from the preliminaries to the actual nature of our contemporary state of affairs?

28 May, 2009

WJ-S

Filed under: abstractmachine, code, interview, live, physicalization — Douglas Edric Stanley @ 15:50 pm

I’m posting this quite late, but there are a few hours left in Anne Roquiny’s latest incarnation of WJ-S, a system she designed for audivisually mixing the web, like a DJ, or a VJ, hence « WJ ». At the Maison des métallos in Paris, Anne, along with Anne Laforet and Isabelle Arvers will be mixing the Internet while speakers of various ilk simultaneously discuss the last 15 years of artistic creation on the web.

Since I couldn’t make it up to Paris (train strikes), I’ve instead posted this pre-recorded presentation which will be mixed in with a series of links I was asked to comment. *Note: My presentation starts at 23h20.

Here are the links I discuss (in their order of appearance):

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