Interface Exhibit

The Interface exhibit in Bethesda Maryland was intriguing. The first piece I saw there is called "Look" by Thomas Edwards and Scott Hutchinson. It is a multimedia piece incorporating oil on paper a motion sensor, and animation. There were 12 different paintings of a pair of eyes. When you approach the screen you can see several paintings of eyes flashing as if it were a person looking at you. When you move to the left, the eyes move left. When you move right, the eyes follow. Every so often they would blink! To the left of the video screen there were the original paintings. Each revealed only enough of the person's face to see the eyes and eyebrows.

The second piece I noticed was annoying but interesting. It also had motion sensing components. It is called "Blame" by Thomas Edwards. It has a motor that turns a pointing hand that stops when someone is close enough. As it pauses pointing at you a voice says something like, "I blame YOU, for teens getting their new from the Daily Show", or "I blame YOU, for Global Warming." It was interesting to see how many different phrases came out, but irritating to listen to all day.
The third piece that caught my eye was a collection of similar pieces all called "Parasite" by Claire Watkins. In these pieces small metallic objects were moving on a piece of canvas. Behind the small paintings of what seemed to be microscopic cells were magnets moved by motors. As the magnets spun the metal pins or shards moved with it. Making each piece come alive as if it were its own organism.





One of my favorite pieces there were two paintings entitled "10-30-05" The date of Halloween. The paintings had very extreme diagonals with yellows, oranges, reds, and browns. The paintings were eerie, but warm and pleasing to look at.
A piece called "Flock of Needles" also used a magnet, but there were needles hovering and circling around it. They were tied to string that was attatched to different walls of the corner of the room. This piece was fascinating. Another favorite was the "Looking Glass." It was a video piece that recorded the viewer with a small hidden camera. There was a program created with something similar to the Max capabilities that replayed what you do over and over with other twists. There would be three of you moving one after the other, or a small viewing of only your eyes. Sometimes weird color and contrast changes would occur, or the program would find various ways to play with the video. These were fun to play with.

Over all the exhibit was fun. I had a great time there.

Sounds and Shapes

Levin and Lieberman created audio visual art that uses the contours of hand gestures. In these Manual Input Sessions different hand movements make different sounds. Based on a previous audio visual project with a mouse they used these same goals as a guide for their new piece:

Simplicity/Difficulty: Easy to use, but sophisticated.
Repeatability/inexhaustible: The system response constantly with constant output, and never responds the same way twice due to
Create, Manipulate, Destroy: The system provides sound and visuals that can be made, used, and erased.
Audiovisual Commensurability: Sonic and visual dimensions are equally malleable.

They were influenced and aided by prior work on audiovisual tracking media. One of them was Myron Krueger's VIDEOPLACE system. In this body and hand movement was tracked and used to play various games and make various recreational artwork. It used computer vision to capture silhouettes of hands and bodies. It was programmed to detect the point of fingers to use the system. Mulder et al.'s Sound Sculpting allowed hands to manipulate a 3D object to create various sounds. It was effective in allowing the hands to control audio and visuals. Lyon et al.'s Mouthesizer. This piece was useful for tracking interior contours. A small camera observes the mouth. The movement of the mouth controlled different sounds. The inside of the mouth was tracked by comparing color and contrast of the mouth.

Manual Input Sessions are a way of expression of hand gestures. One model of this is the Neg Drop. In this system interior contours of hands is used to create an object. The size and smoothness of the interior space changes the sound and thickness of the objet. When the hand opens up, the objet drops and interacts with the edge of the projector screen. The Innerstamp model works the same way expect the object doesn't move and it plays one continuous sound. The Rotuni model creates a rhythmic melody for each contour tracked. A virtual clock arm originating from the center of the contour searches the perimeter of the contour like a radar line. The length of the clock arm controls different sounds. This model needs no interior contour. These instruments manipulate realtime audiovisual media through the use of hands over a projector. It makes for an interesting avenue into future media involving visual tracking and audiovisual manipulation.

Indeterminacy

When I think of indeterminacy I think random, free thinking, undecided, optional. Like a five year old child, or a slot machine. Indeterminacy in media is non linear and in realtime. It is composed of works that lead to many different conclusions; if there even are conclusions to come to. Linear recorded media goes in one planned direction. It leads to one conclusion. Like an episode of Smallville. If you bought and watched all the seasons, you will not be surprised if you watch them again (though you may want to). An episode will never end differently. But the course of the series is undetermined because it is not finished yet. It is being recorded in real time. Non linear media keeps on moving in different directions never stopping, never fully understood. Linear media is set in stone with definition.