Joy… it’s a student blog.

Our groups idea is to make an art gallery visitor feel as though they are an artwork being looked at, instead of the normal “they look at an artwork”.

From my original research into already existing ubiquitous computing installations or artworks, there is only one that stands out for being similar to our project in any way, and this is the “Come to pieces” installation, created by Camille Utterback and Adam Chapman.

As is the case in our proposed installation, this piece uses footage taken of people visiting the gallery space, and allows them to see the footage taken. This piece takes four different video feeds from various angles to capture more than the normal style of viewing such that you would see when looking in a mirror for example. Instead “Come to pieces”, or as it is also known, “Miroir pour Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, allows the visitor a view of themselves or others in a way that they would not normally experience. It is for this reason that I  have chosen to compare and contrast our proposed installation with  “Come to pieces”. This project however, does not justify exactly the type of feeling that we would like our viewers to experience from our installation.

Taking a further look into the world of ubiquitous computing, another almost daunting project found its way onto the computer screen. Surface Tension (Video) is an installation that, is ubiquitous to the point that you know how you are interacting, but there is no real way to control the situation or the fact that you are interacting. There is a screen with an eye on it. As you walk in front of the screen, the eye follows you, watching your every move using motion tracking software.

Therefore the idea/project that I have chosen to compare and contrast our proposed installation with, is the “come to pieces” piece from the original research, while making reference to the “surface tension” piece also for support and alternative ideas, because our project is a combination of aspects from each of these installations.

… I can see that our group will have a full working prototype of our project. We will have 2 imac screens, and make use of both the iSight cameras, and will feed each video feed back to the other screen. This prototype is to make sure we can get the coding working and the project is not too high to reach for our group.

 Focussing on motion tracking/capture in flash and the likes.

Coincidence? This semester in Studio, it’s all about UBIcomp (ubiquitous computing), and creating a ubicomp installation to be put into the ipswich art gallery’s “new media” space. The current exhibit ties in relatively well, and is a real example of where our studies could effectively take us. Art Experimenta is the current theme/work on show which encompasses works that are technologically based to create what we call art. The most eye catching exhibit for myself, was the (unsure of the name) installation of artifacts on a circular table, with a downlight above it casting shadows. When touched, an artifact will produce a shadow of the motion they would perform were it active. For example, a watering can when touched will show a shadow of a stream of water coming out of the spout.

Although I found this uninspiring for myself, the notion of the ‘waterfall house’ piece was inspired. All that is shown on the projector screen is a house in a normal neighbourhood, with gushing water coming from the windows and door etc onto the street like a house was placed over a waterfall. The other exhibit that stood out for me, was the video of the cars parking and the pedestrians walking across the zebra crossings, guided by the hands. The hands help the cars not to crash into other cars, and stop all accidents from occurring.

The exhibits definately produce inspiration for new works of the same nature.