2009 Spring: COLA 3950/5950 Art for the People/Art on wheels

in watching the various outings from the minneapolis art on wheels website, i became really thrilled by three in particular that stood out.

1. the outing that was in the "798 Art District" in Beijing, China was an absolutely beautiful display of wordplay and movement in simplicity upon all the buildings by using poetry. Hank Colton's poetry and how interactive the portable projectors were with the crowds of people was truly like a dance. not to mention, the fact the videos soundtrack was an orchestrated version of kraftwerks, "komputerliebe" totally made me listen over and over repetitively to it. it was a transformative experience and sparked more ideas of art.

2. the video documenting the beijing film academy was one of the first films i ever saw for the minneapolis art on wheels performances. the reactions of the people on the street were what i enjoyed most, children, young middleaged people watching as the projections of water&dye, roses and branches (all organic in form) being shown inorganically. the silouettes made the visual language more powerful.

3. MAWs collaboration with the obsidian arts in the "obsidian of the north" was truly one of the reasons why i wanted to take the class. community involvement was the key in this documentation because it involved a neighborhood that was predominantly black displaying art that had a face an individuality to it. there were profiles projected of history of famous faces and everyday people. the children dancing infront of the screen showing the interface before the actual projection was precious. this is why art shouldn't be restricted to a gallery or a wall, but the whole world is your projection screen. not to mention the album leaf song made it even more touching!

art for the people is truly what i think MAW is about and there are many more videos i could have commented on, but these i chose because they exhibited the reactions to the crowd in a way that were touching and the subject matter was all very diverse. whether it was china or ne minneapolis, it was like bringing this virtual visual world to the reality in which we live.

maj

Posted by maj at 8:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

so here's a few outings i enjoyed and found ideas in worth developing further...

the lyndale outing - i liked the casual feel of MAW's involvement in the neighborhood gathering, and the ease with which people were able to use the equipment. the projections didn't seem to be the focus of the evening's gathering, but rather served as something that brought curious people out together.

the zero 1 block party in san jose - tag-teaming with projectors is a great idea. it seems like a well-run duo, or trio, could completely own a city square.

urban echo in downtown minneapolis - good use of the new sidearm of choice for most first-world people... i don't think the possibilities of cell phones have been completely fleshed out at all. the use of twitter (a group-based text messaging system) in the RNC and the december riots in greece show the political possibilities of this ubiquitous tech.

it seems to me that in these outings it could do us well to take on some of the logic of street entertainers and snake oil peddlers - how do we keep people with us? what are we trying to sell? the power of a fluid and adaptable message...

perhaps applicable in some places to art on wheels - here's something i read earlier this month about the magic circles of djemaa-el-fna, the infamous public square of marrakech:

His patter is nonstop and lightning fast, accompanied by the rhythm of two spoons clattering back to back. In his palm he mixes blue, yellow, and red powders with attestations of each one's pharmaceutical credentials and claims. One for virility, another for longevity, a third for levity - all man's bodily needs are herewith catered for. Opening the way for others, he swallows a gulp and calls out for a buyer. His pet iguana hungrily eyes the crowd.

Posted by Timothy at 6:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Heads up that I'm setting up the 'laser tag' software on the first floor of Regis-West this Thursday at noon.

Check out an example here.

Hope to see some there!

-Andrea

Posted by anderpander at 8:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Projected Content

Posted by anderpander at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another invitation, this one by MAKE Television and the Saint Paul Science Museum, who did a MAKE profile on me and MAW. The people at the Science Museum know MAW and have been wanting to get us there for some time. They apparently have some projection spots already in mind....

Invite is below: any interest?

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This is Nick Watts again from Make: television. I’d like to tell you about an event we have on March 14th called Make: Day where we are taking the spirit and mission of the series and creating a fun, interactive, engaging experience at the Science Museum of MN. The event will feature dozens of talented makers exhibiting, demonstrating and performing. Details for the event are still taking shape, but I wanted to reach out to you first to see if you’d like to participate?

The people at the Science Museum are very flexible, and have basically given us the keys to the place to do what we want. I’ve walked through the event and there are a bunch of cool places I thought would be great for projections. The outside of the building is also an option. I‘d love to talk more about this with you, and answer any questions you might have. What’s your immediate impression?

Posted by Ali Momeni at 7:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Hello, I was contacted by someone about the MN Arts Advocacy day;
Email is below.

Anyone interested in participating?

-----

Hello Ali,

My name is Miranda Bryan and I am Minnesota Citizens for the Arts' new Campus Arts Advocates Intern. I am contacting you because we are looking for arts supporters – students and professors – to attend Arts Advocacy Day.

Arts Advocacy Day at the Capitol happens on February 24, 2009 and it would be wonderful to see Minnesota College Campuses represented! Minnesota Citizens for the Arts is a statewide Advocacy organization that organizes the arts community to lobby the Minnesota State Legislature and Congress. Our mission is to ensure opportunity for all people to have access to and involvement in the arts. Annually, we host Arts Advocacy Day at the MN State Capitol to make sure decision-makers know about the strong arts community in Minnesota and that we need their support. This is a very important year for the arts since the state budget is facing a shortfall of at least $5.3 billion, and the last time Minnesota faced a large deficit in 2003, state arts funding was cut by a third. Arts people come from all over the state to take part in Arts Advocacy Day. It's the best arts networking opportunity of the year!

If you know of any students that have a passion for the arts and want to get involved in Arts Advocacy, please pass them on to me or forward this message to them. Attached is a PDF file with information about Advocacy Day. You can also find more information and RSVP by going to www.mncitizensforthearts.org and click on the "Sign up for Arts Advocacy Day on February 24th Today!!" link.

Thank you for your help!

Sincerely,

Miranda Bryan

Posted by Ali Momeni at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Sound designers, musicians, producers and engineers are all familiar with manipulating sound through the use of audio processing. Most examples of processing, like filters, reverbs, and delays produce a relatively predictable result. I'm interested in processing that has an unpredictable result. For example, the octave pedal that purrs like a robotic kitten when you feed it harmonic input, that I wrote about in Octave Pedal Rhodes. I have a similar interest in producing sound directly from visual media with tools like Michel Rouzic's Photosounder, which I used for Conversion of Graffiti into Sound.

Original Electric Piano Pattern (MP3)

One of the first things I tried to do with Photosounder was to capture the image it creates from imported audio in order to use an image editing application as an audio processor. This didn't work very well because much of the resolution was lost with the screen grab. Since then, Michel has added a feature to export full resolution spectral images of sound. This makes the concept of using a Photoshop filter as an audio processor possible.

Glowing Edges Electric Piano Pattern (MP3)

To test this concept I created a simple pattern with an electric piano patch and opened it in Photosounder. Without changing any settings I immediately saved the sound as a bitmap image. Next I opened the image in Photoshop and started experimenting with filters. Once I had some filtered images I loaded them back into Photosounder to see how they sounded. Gaussian blur and Liquefy created some unique effects, but my favorite of the bunch was Glowing Edges. This filter seems to transform the electric piano into a haunting choral passage. I'll be posting a similar version of this article on AudioCookbook.org as well. If anyone is class is interested in trying this out, let me know.

-John Keston

Posted by kest0053 at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Description
Art for the People/Art on Wheels is a vehicle for familiarizing students with the Minneapolis Art on Wheels (MAW) project, as well as a way for students to participate in MAW.

Minneapolis Art on Wheels is an on-going public arts initiative. We leverage advanced mobile technology to bring socially engaged art and technology into diverse communities. We aim to use the scale and accessibility of our exhibitions to make the Twin Cities an international leader in socially engaged and technologically enhanced creative projects. We are able to produce moving images up to several hundred feet, outdoors, in public spaces. Our emphasis on mobile devices (i.e. cellular phones) and gestural interaction with media (e.g. laser tag, real-time video tracking and gesture recognition) allows a wide audience to interact with mobile media. The project engages students in creative use of technology and materializes this engagement in the form of community outreach and temporary public art.

The goals of the course are:
1) To introduce students to MAW's hardware and software instruments for public and mobile projection
2) To create opportunities for students to create and show works for sound and video in public spaces
3) To create a collaboratory where students from divergent backgrounds and with different skills can interact, collaborate, create and resarch the many possibilities of mobile technologies applied to public art.

As we meet as a class only once per week, students are expected to spend around 6 hours per week on individual/group work outside of the classroom. Though some time will be allowed during class periods to work, most studio work should be done outside of the designated class time, so as to save that time for group work, demos, lectures and outings.

Schedule
Weeks 1-2: Introduction to public projections
Weeks 3-4: MAW instruments: Computer Hardware, Computer Software, Bikes, Mountings, etc.
Weeks 4-5:Laptop based digital video production and projection
Weeks 6-7:MAW Software tool kit
Weeks 8-11:Group Research Projects
Weeks 12-15: Final Projects

Grading
The breakdown for grading is as follows:
1) %25: Familiarity with MAW's instruments
2) %25: Contribution to group research project
3) %25: Final Project
4) %25: Participation and Attendance

MAW relies heavily on a wide range of technologies. As a result, it is expected that students show mastery of MAW's mobile projection instruments, as well as the basics digital video projection. Students' familiarity with these topics (covered during the first 4 weeks of the course) will be tested regularly and makes up %25 of the final grade. Student contribution to the group research project and the final project make up %25 each, and attendance and participation account for the remaining %25.
Participation
Participation, presence, intellectual contribution to the MAW community is the most important evaluation criteria.

Posted by Ali Momeni at 8:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)