MOTION TRACKING

SIX AND THE CITY

AE EXPERIMENTS

STEP BACK, ZOOM OUT

After the first experiment with motion sensor torches I realised how limiting my chosen site was and decided to take a step back and have a wider look at the South Back area. While Arena was interesting in how it directed peoples' movement along the river, it was also restricting it to several paths. The next step to take is to map the traffic along the riverside with focus on locations where people walk in many different directions rather than along the river only, where they intersect and cross the sidewalk. I would also like to present it in a presentation encompassing both the film of the site as well as time based graphic representation/animation of the visitors' flow along the site, as inspired by the following work by Quayola called 'Natures'

Natures 3B from Quayola on Vimeo

The mapping I'm going to undertake will give me basis for further project development and additional light experiments based on the information from the mapping exercise.

MOTION TRIGGERED LIGHT EXPERIMENT

MOTION AND INTERACTION

I spent some time last week thinking how to get people to interact with Arena, what it is that encourages them to slow down and notice it. Not only kids, who immediately want to run around it but people of all ages. After looking at other places where one can see people gathering just to sit around I noticed that fountains, or any structures with water running through them for that matter, tend to attract people. However, since the site already runs along the river this solution seemed not only too obvious but also not the most appropriate.

At some point I gave up and took a step back. And then it struck me: what I really want to propose is not a solution that will get people to actively interact with the sculpture and site but rather something that will involve them as they rush past the place.

I started looking at interactive art for some more indirect and abstract solutions and ideas. The first I came across was the impressive work of an architect and artist Thomas McIntosh,  called Ondulation. The 'temporal sculpture', as the artist referred to it, translates sound waves into a visual experience. The artist placed sound speakers under a huge basin filled with two tons of water. The sound waves from the speakers trigger the water to ripple into more and more complex waves as the music becomes more complex too. This is lit and projected onto the wall for the viewers to have a full audio visual experience.

http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/video.php?NumObjet=19030

What this triggered, was an idea of linking different elements to get a new and unique solution. I also liked the directness and simplicity of the work, done without digital translation but by purely mechanical means and thus very direct.

I realised what kind of solution/proposal I had been looking for: an installation of lights triggered by the movement of people passing by.

To begin with I returned to my records of the site to find if there is a traffic pattern around the Arena and, indeed, people do tend to walk around it along four main paths, ignoring the remaining, less direct ways to pass it.

That would give an initial ideas how to locate sensors and lights to trigger and place the installation.

I have thought of several triggers worth consideration and giving different results:

shadow
movement
noise

There are also many ways in which the lights can be placed as well as the kind of lights to be used, again leaving me with a whole array of choices and results that I could get.

One thing about the installation idea is that it brings me back to my initial points of focus: light and shadow as well as drawing peoples' attention to the site. This time, however, it is visitors' actions that trigger the lights and effectively surprise them.

The best place to begin with is to place the lighting in the overshadowed areas of the sculpture, where it rises off the ground creating dark corners.

Another way to do it is to have the light projected upward or at an angle and moving, sweeping the area. With this option it would also make sense to install the cameras to film the movement, however this again raises a number of questions regarding programming the movement and its direction.

At this point what I'm left with is extensive research both into the site possibilities and technology/setup limitations and options.

INITIAL PROPOSAL IDEAS

The Architectural Furniture to be proposed my Arena, my chosen site is, as yet, undefined in shape and form.

Its function, however, will be to explore the light within the site and encourage the playfulness that comes from innocence as these are the two most striking characteristics of the site.

Visiting the site and observing people interact with it, I found it amazing how only children actually step on it and play around it. It reminds me how restricted adult people can be, following forms and unwritten rules that only children, unaware of them, break. On occasion I would see groups of young people, probably students, taking a seat on Arena and relaxing, however not once did I see there older people or tourists - they always choose to sit on benches.

DREAMING...

Odd as it may sound, I has a dream about the site and project (need a break?). In my dream, the waved form of Arena was brought to flat surfaces, like a bench, or a table. The broken circle was there as is but with more rectangular, if curved in a circle, shapes. Also, it was placed on a sort of revolving plate with metal rail around it keeping it in motion, slowly but ceaselessly. I still remember the feeling I had - of surprise, I was aware it wasn't what it should be, and disbelief but at the same time it seemed perfectly real with the constant motion and light and shadow changing as it rotated...
Quick sketch model of the structure:

EXPANDED CINEMA

Expanded cinema is a form of art where the viewer not only watches the film as in the cinema but also engages with it.

What started as films involving other forms of art and technology, as in Stan VanDerBeek's films such as Wheeeeels No. 2, 1959

http://ubu.artmob.ca/video/vanderbeek_stan_wheeeelsno2_1959.mov

developed into a new art form, taken out of the confines of movie theatres where the audience is passive into the public areas with the audience becoming participators in creation, as in Anthony McCall's films/installations of light projected onto a room where people entering it would also enter the film space and alter it with their presence, as in Long Film for Four Projectors and Four Projected Movements as well as the more recent Between You and I:

Not only is McCall's work interesting in terms of experimental film/art/installation but also its focus on light and shadow, within the space ad in relation to people moving around it.
One interesting concept about light is that it can define and modify space and our perception of it. It can define space same as objects placed inside even though it is not a material object itself.
One can see that clearly in Rosa Barba's installation using old, loud projectors filling a room with light and sound. The projectors are arranged with consideration for space, filling it and giving it ambience that is only enhanced by constant whirring of projectors, immersing visitors fully upon entrance.












The theme of light and shadow in space is ever present in film but there are also artists who deal with light as such. One of the big names is James Turrell. His art deals with light in spaces and as such modifies and defines them. However, his interest in light is broader than spatial definition, it really is light in all its aspects.

Some if his works are holograms with their eerie colours, partly resembling the results one gets when using pinhole cameras - blurred shapes and exaggerated colours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holography

Holography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that it appears as if the object is in the same position relative to the recording medium as it was when recorded. The image changes as the position and orientation of the viewing system changes in exactly the same way as if the object were still present, thus making the recorded image (hologram) appear three-dimentional.
This technique was invented in 1947 by Dennis Gabor, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1971. The discovery came as an unexpected result of research into improving electron microscopes.The technique, as originally invented, is still used in electron microscopy, known as electron holography, but holography as a light-optical technique did not advance until the development of the laser in 1960s.

However, this is just one way of looking at light. Since the game of light and shadow is ever present on my chosen site, with its curves taking the opposites of fully lit by sun or covered in deep shadow depending which side you look at it, that is one way to explore the possibilities of developing the project around that.