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Hey all,
I'd love to have some people ride along and help out as I do an outing next Monday (april 6) in north mpls near juxtaposition arts. I'm going to head out from Regis by bike (weather permitting, as always!) at 6pm and we'll probably be out until 10pm.
-Andrea
Hello all,
Our friends over at CLA-OIT are organizing a short public event on April 16, at 12pm, in the Mississippi Room (appropriate!) of Coffman Union. During this event, various groups that have benefited from CLA-OIT's support (like MAW) will present examples of their work. CLA-OIT is a critical university branch for our sort of work; they have been very supportive of our effort, and continue to help when they can.
We are signed up to present some MAW action.
I would like to take the following over there:
-two back pack units (running interactive applications using the iPod Touches)
-one big bike with several projectors mounted to it to project videos of our previous outings.
I am looking for volunteers to help prepare and run the outing.
We will meet in Regis W130 at 10.30am, and we will be back by 1.30pm.
There will be catered snacks/drinks.
Please let me know by posting a comment to this entry.
Thanks,
a
Create one stop motion animation (2 minutes length or more) using the maw.stopmotion. Create the stop motion animation with a specific public location in mind where you will show the work.
Here's video of me testing my Gestural Music Sequencer. Perhaps we can use it at an outing or on the Mississippi trip. As you can see the video has been mirrored so it's easier to follow your own movements. The X axis of the brightest pixel in each frame is used to determine the pitch, while the Y axis is the dynamics. The application outputs MIDI data that I'm routing to Reason. I've programmed the up and down arrows on the keyboard to increase or decrease a multiplier that, along with the 15 fps frame rate, determines the time between each note on event. I've also enabled a group of keys to adjust the transposition.
http://www.hobt.org/invigorate/timeline.html
this website was referred to me, apparently this theater did tours up and down the mississippi, they do puppet theatre. anyone want to look into this?
Minneapolis Art on Wheels projection outing during Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art. Used poem interpretation of Pres. Obama's inaguration speech regarding Muslims in the Middle East.
i talked with danika about this over email, but wasn't able to get ahold of martha this week, so I'm taking the liberty to post some thoughts on this topic of... THE BOAT.
three options: huck's houseboat, a tugboat, or a raft.
the houseboat option, first. the houseboat is big, comfy, and extravagant. keep in mind the temporary rental nature of the houseboat. also, the easiest one to do. the houseboat brings to my mind issues of privilege. what would you do to subvert the possibility of people seeing this trip as being UofM spring break 2k9?
the tugboat is fast and cheaper. you could rig all kinds of things to it. more creative possibilities.
I didn't realize the raft was an option being discussed. are we thinking about a raft that we build ourselves? if so, there are some very good examples and resources to be consulted out there that have done crazy things in the past, such as miss rockaway armada, the swimming cities of the switchback sea, the floating neutrinos (the first two projects used the original floating neutrino raft design), thor heyerdahl (who has built many different boats using pre-modern technology to, at least in part, prove that non-European civilizations could have crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans first). even more creative possibilities.
is there a possibility of refurbishing an old boat for cheap?
I think most importantly I wanted to emphasize the considerations for our aesthetic approach in the form of the boat itself, and the ways we can develop this aesthetic. i also don't want to be too anti-comfort or anything, but i also would like to consider how travelling in something like a houseboat seems more like mtv's real world than a truly enriching, creative experience.
let's take an idea we were touching on last class meeting, the notion that we're more like magicians with a travelling magic lantern show, or something. what sort of aesthetic do we desire for our mode of transport?
and now, a more general list of things to consider:
questions:
sustainability
privilege
practicality
aesthetics
long-term
speed
time
labor
scale/size
mobility and project appropriateness
living environment
different sectors of the boat
sustainability:
waste management
alternative energy sources
recycled materials
supplies:
food
water
materials
finally, who gets to swab the poop deck?
we still don't have entries from the two groups below.
PLEASE POST RIGHT AWAY.
----
The River: Stories, Heritage, Magic
Lyric
Kara
Stephanie
Sinan
The Vessel: Huck, Tug or Raft
Danika
Martha
Timothy
Physical/Planning components
Media
Incorporation of music, everyone’s, compiled onto determined number of computers; no internet—complete compilation of any/every piece onto these designated, unless everyone wants to bring own computer—must have saved files; expounding on that the incorporation of music from everybody, what that entails (laptops, lack of internet, etc.) Perhaps everybody could,
designate a particular song of their choice to a performance that they
would personally feel relevant to the river/trip/whatever
Pre-launch survey
Power source, boat; survey vessel, proper placement lights (safety, hazard zones, back-up); most convenient location of projection, multiple locations? Accessible to multiple people/performers, best angles/projection
Types of Performances—will mesh with prior geographical research
People explore interests/ideas, collaborate, develop and implement; tentative schedule, plan, identify locations/contexts of interest along Mississippi
What will be our main stage?
Boat as projector, as projection (both vehicle and art); docking, transferring equipment ashore
Types of performance and who involved? How much of controls and main stage can/will we make accessible to audience, what would we be comfortable facilitating/teaching? How can we make the projection itself accessible to an audience? What spaces should we consider?
Ideas: For the performance areas, the river and the bluffs would provide a great natural stage that would be perfect for us to do projections on, but this raises a question about publicity; if we project onto these areas, who would see it? While doing projections for our own enjoyment would be fun, we might have to consider more options for performance areas, such as water, buildings, trees, boat, other boats, water-front structures; projections from the boat would be most effective in urban areas where we could possible project onto buildings and other stimuli of that nature (like the St. Louis Arch) and
then for the rest of the performances go out on foot for versatility sake. It is all dependent on what people decide to project and where they want to project.
Projecting from boat, projecting from dock; some type of bodily performance taking place on boat projected upon from shore, other location--ourselves as actors
Planned and Requested Performance—How much to plan versus what material we have for improv performances based on audience request/curiosity;
For music
Because of the river and the river-boat theme, one should consider music that's roots are based off of the river, especially in St. Louise and north of this. One primary example of this would be bluegrass and other types of folk. Because this genre's roots are based off the river (including lyrics all about steam boating down the Mississippi, I personally know a couple,) we should try to incorporate this as much as possible. This could also be applied to the local artist that was suggested in our last brainstorm, because this area, especially St. Louis, is loaded with Bluegrass artist. I actually know one that lives in St. Louis;
Musicians?
Types of Performance/Activities—For the People
Area initiatives, local festivals, community organizations, events—political happenings, issues we would like to address?
How to present ourselves? What do we want to project
Will we have a theme? Mission, statement? Go with the flow?
Michael, Ryan, Brit
"I think what Ali means is the coding/computer work vs physically building things" John, Inna, Andrea and I discussed using Google Talk on March 10th, to discuss the plans for the Mississippi trip. The basis of our discussion was using the resource of water as a installation in our media making process. Since analog by definition is "is the process of taking an audio or video signal (in most cases, the human voice) and translating it into electronic pulses." This theme created three main concepts, create real-time sound, story telling, and organic projection.
One of the concepts that came out of our discussion was a way to create sound in real time using water as a sound source. Since we will be surrounded by water, there will already be these sorts of sounds in our environment, but if we have a way to amplify many other types of sounds made with water and perhaps process them electronically, we might be able to produce audio content that blends into the environment, or cooperates with it in some way.
To do this in real time poses some challenges. For example, wind could interfere with microphones, so some sort of wind screen or shielding would need to be used. Underwater microphones were also suggested, which would not have a problem with wind while under the surface of the water. An alternative is to prerecord a library of water sounds that could be used for performances. However, I think that being able to use water as an instrument for performing brings in an organic element has a certain charm that might be difficult to achieve with samples.
Feedback might also be a problem, but we could use processing in Max or other software to dynamically adjust the microphone levels. I've seen video of this being done with a feedback piano at Stanford University Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. Here's a video that illustrates some of their work including the feedback piano project.
http://vimeo.com/3384555
Some examples of how liquid could be used to create sound include: submerged microphones, pouring water from one container to another, droplets of water falling into a container, blowing bubbles into a container through a straw or hose, tapping on metal containers with moving water inside, water draining down sinks, and so on. Using prerecorded sounds we could also use surf, waves, rain, streams, rivers, splashing, etc.
Another concept that came up was in recording to do a play on how humans interact and a sort of storytelling occurs with a play on words. Like when little children play telephone under water and you see how stories change over time, and how meanings become distorted. It would be interesting to do an underwater telephone game where someone tells a story and see how that translates about going down the mississippi, but not only translate but to further it by changing the sound of a human voice into electronic pulses to match the meeting between analog and digital. Another aspect we looked at was how water affects us and what it means to us. It must carry a certain meaning since we will be traveing down it, so artists that use water in their work was suggested. The depletion and usage of water in today's society, and how that is affecting us and how it will effect us in the future. We want to use water as a vehicle for sound production and basically translate it to how past meets present, analog meets digital, how there are parallels that exist.
Some ways of executing the organic projections and sound was using some things we already have that contain analog: CD players, iPods... using it to project video analog. Let's carry out the visual aspect of analog. It is also important to state that even though we are making the plans of how to execute these programs, through MaxMSP, Proccessing and such, we should all educate ourselves on how to look outside the box and create new forms, new sounds, new images in a more lowbudget sense as well. USE THE WATER, it is our biggest installation/collaboration yet.
Artists we referenced were: John Cage, Beth (TJ Barnes' wife) and artists from http://eai.org (electronic arts intermix), http://www.wwar.com/categories/Artists/Subject_Matter/Water/
just a few observations of music videos done by artists that would be kind of cool to project. the songs match the videos pretty well and since last class i feel like these also are also a way of playing with form and space.
Minilogue - Animals from ljudbilden on Vimeo.
Sent to MAW@umn.edu...
"Hi Guys
My name is Rock&Roll and I'm i a local hip hop band called Just.Live.
I'm wondering if you guys have ever done anything like video for live shows. Images that would run on a screen behind a performer during a concert.
I think that would be awesome to have something like that made for our concerts.
Any Thoughts?
Rock&Roll"
check it: http://www.myspace.com/justlivehiphop
hahaha!
Madeline Douglass wrote to Maw@umn.edu...
"Preservation month is both a local and national event that highlights
both endangered historic buildings and historic buildings that have been
saved and reused.
The project would involve projections of images and text on vacant
endangered historic buildings.
The buildings could include, the Bardwell-Ferrant house at 2500 Portland,
the Pauline Fjelde house at 3009 Park, and the Valspar Corporate headquarters
building at 1101 South Third Street."
Anybody interested in spear-heading this?
see similar project here.
My friend Katrina is creating a proposal for a theatre piece that will take place next year, if accepted. She sought me out because she is familiar with our class and MAW and greatly hopes to collaborate with anyone who is interested.
Her goals are to recreate the traditional theatre setting and construct a piece that will explore new and innovative ways to communicate between actors, audiences and designers. She’s tired of the typical performance delivery and the placement of audience members as mere spectators. She is excited about projections that could create abstract scenes, completely devoid of the usual props/scenery construction. She also mentioned shadow puppets!
This would truly be a collaborative project, as she has not written or decided on a definitive script. She would like to develop it along the way, feeding off of the ideas of those involved (actors, designers, etc.)—somewhat of an improv planning process and collective development.
Thank you for your thoughts in the first brainstorming session. We will continue to do this regularly for the rest of the semester. Starting with the above map, I have devised four groups.
Please find below your name; the group titles should sound familiar and have some common meaning to us all after our 1st brainstorming session.
...
The Main Stage: Light, Sound, Performance and for the People
Michael
Brittany
Ryan
The River: Stories, Heritage, Magic
Lyric
Kara
Stephanie
Sinan
The Vessel: Huck, Tug or Raft
Danika
Martha
Timothy
The Makers: Analog Meets Digital
John
Inna
Maj
Outreach: Local Artist, Potential Stops, Appropriate Venus Everyone.
Andrea and I will contribute to all groups to the best of our abilities.
An assignment for Thursday is:
1) Get together (physically or virtually) with your group members and have a critical discussion of the problems and possibilities of your group's focus
2) Post a 500 word report of your discussion, findings, ideas and recommendations to this blog, BY WEDNESDAY MARCH 11 AT 6PM. This will allow the rest of the group enough time to study the reports.
You will receive a class email list in a separate email.
Ali
Another lil patch to try.
This one, for creating stop motion animations very easily.
It uses the built-in camera, or another (hopefully better) video camera connected to the computer thru USB or Firewire.
To start the patch, follow the pink/red numbered steps...
Some examples of projections in public spaces, of varying degrees of complexity and success, for your digestion and critical evaluation:
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Body Movies
Krzysztof Wodiczko: CECUT project
Pablo Valbuena: Hague City Hall
TODO Interaction and Design: Artificial Dummies
Haque Design: Evoke, Primal Source, Burble
Antione Schmitt: Facade Life
something interesting if you feel so inclined
"Even so, the human need for that moment of communion is completely transparent. Some say that half of the world’s languages will go extinct in the next hundred years and with them, countless concepts and modes of thought. No one has tried to quantify the impending changes in music, but in a hundred years, someone will dream into sound. What dreams?"
http://www.arthurmag.com/2009/03/04/the-menace-of-mechanical-music-the-reconfiguring-of-memory-and-hope/
New version of the multi-video projection patch with many of the requested features.
New features include:
-masks for each video
-auto alpha channel transparency with gain and threshold control
-unified position controller for all video
-ability to store and recall presets of the whole patch.
Please test and comment.
The stand-alone application for Max OS X is here
Ali
The wheels are now officially turning.
I have submitted a grant for our Mississippi (on a boat like this)/Fargo tour and have leads on other funding sources. Please study the grant application to get a sense of the over all plan/schedule.
We should now make it out collective goal to make this trip happen.
There are two grand areas of work:
1) Financing, Planning, Logistics for the trip.
2) Devising an artistic goal for the tour and plotting the means to achieve that goal
We will spend some time in class on Thursday brain-storing/white-boarding the above areas.
Come to class with an artistic vision for what a MAW @ Mississippi/Fargo trip would, could, should be; your ideas will give us a place to start the discussion.
Exciting!
Ali