January 2010

Been a very, fucking, crazy 4 months or so. Things are on par for both the Trichrome art book, a few shows planned for the Spring and Summer in NYC, and some new work on projections and mapping including a concept project involving oscillators, spectrum analyzers, and projectors. A bit on the geek side, keeps me thinking.

** Projections

My primary focus these days is actually obtaining projectors. Projectors are expensive, especially for large installations. That along with the fact that I am working on projects that require *many* projectors (3 or more), this has been my primary goal. You can't work on projects like this without having projectors available to you at all times. Okay, so there's that. On the other hand, the brain keeps moving forward irrespective of whether or not the materials are available.

Some refer to it as "Video Mapping" which is essentially where you map a 2d image on a 3d object (although you can map a 2d image on a 2d object and make it appear 3d). If done well, the output can be stunning. A simple example of this is the Polygon Window:

This maps polygons to (what appears) to be something of similar shape. On the other hand, you don't necessarily need to 1:1 map the visual onto the 3d object to make it convincing. As in, you don't need to have a duplicate 3d object with a 2d projection "tracing it" unless you're trying to create an outline. Either way it looks awesome, just a matter of your creative goal.

Another good example is by Nuformer media which produced this video mapped projection. This is a pretty impressive example of transforming buildings. Although I think the technique is awesome I think the content could be better. They prefer to project for commercial/marketing purposes other than artistic and it shows.

So, James Clerk Maxwell, aka the 'father of additive color' used to do lantern-type projections using three separate colored lights to produce a color image. I've been thinking of doing this with modern projectors outdoors. Three projectors each projecting a single color and blending the three together. Especially at night the effect may look nice because three separate independent beams will converge at a single point to project an image (or video, or anything). This may be a good thing for DUMBO arts festival.

** The Ambitious Plan, a very ambitious plan. In a very drafty form.

So I got to thinking about technology and art (a pretty recurring theme with me) and thought of the prevolence of wireless technologies these days...This invisible technology which is everywhere. Wireless is running our country more than ever in history. iPhones and Blackberries and cafes jammed full of laptops are at epidemic levels. *everyone* has a wireless device. One thing about wireless, clearly, is that you cannot see it.

On the other hand, you can. Wireless frequencies can be "viewed" using spectrum analyzers. If a frequency or set of frequencies can be "seen" by an analyzer, usually in a waveform, then you can appropriate that frequency visually. So, the thought was,

What if I took an area, say a park, placed several receiving antennas (technically at least three) on the outside of the park, had spectrum analyzers pick up signal (lets say for example, the frequencies where text messages occur), run them through a program to visualize the messages, and with some more programming determine the rate and direction at which the messages are actually entering the park. It occurs to me that this could work, and if it did work it would look something like this concept diagram:

Ok, so, what the shit?

First we have three antennas, probably 10-12' in height that receive signal. The spectrum analyzers take in the signal and processes it. Carriers use different frequencies so we'd pick one carrier- say, AT&T. It doesn't matter whom we choose because all carriers are transiting a ton of SMS messages all the time. The antennas are configured to triangulate within this area (the park). By triangulating one can determine location anywhere inside this triangle. One can also determine the rate (speed) and direction of the signal as it enters the triangle. We can also determine the strength of the signal which is important.

With software and a server with analysis software the analyzers will take in signal from the antennas and output it as raw information including coordinate data. The server is not included in this diagram but it would connect to all three analyzers.

At this point we should have enough data to "see" the frequencies entering and traversing the triangle. We should know where they came in and we should know where they exited (not all the time, but enough of the time). With this we do a "little bit" of programming magic and filter down the incoming SMS so that there aren't an insane amount of messages flowing through. We'll see later why this is important.

This is where it gets fun and the idea becomes a little less than completely fucking insane. Or maybe it gets more insane...unknown.

If everything went according to plan we should have clear data coming in and out of the triangle. At this point the heavy programming begins. The data, strength of frequency, fall off, and rate *should* be sufficient enough to write code to identify each "stream" (sms message) and then represent the stream in color. A rendering engine would take data in real-time and convert it into data based on a scale. So we make a scale of the park (Central Park, yeah right, but for purposes of explanation). Lets say this area in Central Park that is covered by the triangle is ~100K sq ft. The program will compute the data on a scale relative to this area. The program would then generate an image that may look something like this:

the image will be scale-relative based on input data so if all works out we should be looking at a color-coded sms message crossing a specific area

We then take an image of the park from our camera:

And then we overlay the computer image on top of the actual live footage. Which I will not disrespect you by trying to mock-up an image.

So look at the first image to remind yourself of the setup. With this information image the camera projecting a real-time view of a park...People walking through the image, dogs, kites, picnics, kittens dancing a two-step jig, etc.

This real-time image projects onto a large screen in the park. It's likely this should occur later in the day or perhaps at night providing the camera is sensitive enough. There are few projectors under 5 trillion dollars that can clearly project during the day..

Should everything go according to plan, an overlay of the SMS signals entering the park will be blended into the live image. It should, and will, visually describe data passing through us.

And if the stars align, I should be able to stand in this park and send a text message and watch it exit the park visually.

Notes:

* Color code signals based on strength of signal (gradients say, dark red is strong, light red, pink is weak)

* Color code and identify messages exiting the area.

* Create a "history" to show communication that occurs over time. E.G. Back and forth communication by two people will be remembered and the color-coding will indicate a "relationship"

 

Copyright (C) 1999-2010 by Alex Swain.