David Wicks :: Works » Selected Work

Trace: Resonance Field

Wicks — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:31:31 +0000

Created in collaboration with Pete Hawkes, Trace is a series of ceramic plates installed in the desert that are struck according to past local seismic activity. Each plate repeats the recent history of movement at a site in the surrounding mountain ranges, transforming it into rhythmic percussion. The overall effect is something like a seismic gamelan, a subtle audible and visible trace of the activity that came before it.

Audio excerpt from Trace (wear headphones)

Trace work was installed in 29 Palms—just North of Joshua Tree—as part of the Dry Immersion III: Desert Projects exhibition. Process photos and video are available on flickr.

We used python to turn the seismic waveforms into data usable by an arduino microcontroller that drove the motors. Elaine Hu fabricated the ceramics.

The making and exhibition of Trace was supported by a grant from UCIRA.

Tamarisk: Desert Installation

Wicks — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:14:11 +0000

I showed Tamarisk as part of the Dry Immersion III: Desert Projects exhibition in 29 Palms. The salt-encrusted concrete plates and generative trees were installed on the foundation of an abandoned homestead. This documentation is from the day of the exhibition, and the day after, when it rained.

Portable Forest

Wicks — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:47:40 +0000

Portable Forest is a jacket that plays bird songs and the sound of water. As you zip up the jacket, bird calls begin to echo around you. You start at a trailhead, a few birds nearby—just able to make out the sound of a nearby brook—and progress down a riverine path until reaching a waterfall when the jacket is fully zipped up.

Portable Forest is an attempt to create a portable natural space; one the wearer can raise around themselves wherever they are.

I gathered audio on a series of hikes in Southern California to set the tone for the walk. For the final tracks, I used bird sounds from ASU and a water sound from freesound.org.

Rebecca Fenton helped with photography and gave sewing advice. ITP provided information on making potentiometers using conductive thread.

This prototype jacket was made with Arduino. Small pockets of green fabric were sewn in to an existing jacket—one which I’ve taken many hikes through the woods in—to hold speakers that responded to the zipping and unzipping of the jacket.

Source code for controlling the embedded MP3 players from Arduino is available on github. Process photos can be seen in the flickr set.

Box Clock

Wicks — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 07:08:39 +0000

BoxClock is transforms time into a simple playground. The current hour can be read by counting the number of vertical gray bars in the background. The minute of the hour is represented by the number of gray boxes in front, with the seconds of the current minute bouncing back and forth within the minute until they run out of space.

You can grab the embed code and customize the colors of your clock by changing the noon and night parameters from the full-window box clock.

BoxClock is now available as an app for iPhone and iPod touch. Get the details here, or buy it now on iTunes.

Blob Family Outing

Wicks — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:11:54 +0000

The blob family goes out for a winter stroll. Each character and all animation is generated programmatically. The small blobs move around in a sort of two-dimensional flock and are all attracted to their favorite uncle.

The first blob was created for Lukas Vojir’s monster gallery. This family grew out of that initial study.

I wish I could read faster

Wicks — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 22:18:24 +0000

I wish I could read faster is an expression of my being happily overwhelmed by the amount of good stuff that’s out there. Books fall from the sky continuously, producing more content than could ever be read in the amount of time given to each book. Over time, stacks pile up and fade into the background.

You can throw the books around by dragging them with your mouse. Interact with I wish I could read faster.

Destinations

Wicks — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:20:41 +0000

“Where do you want to go?” and “Why do you want to go there?” are the basic questions behind Destinations. Continuously changing, Destination’s main page shows people’s responses to those questions. It is an introspective exercise and a forum for the exploration of shared aspirations.

You are invited to share your responses to the above questions. All submissions are announced on the timespentalone twitter feed, and select responses are added to the main page rotation. So, Where do you want to go?.

timespentalone

Wicks — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:25:44 +0000

Time spent alone is a series of interactive scenes conceptually linked through their being conceived in solitude and intended for display in the isolated social space of the internet. They are daydreams, worries and solitary trips.

Time Spent Alone launched with two scenes in October 2008. Currently, there are four scenes displayed on Time Spent Alone: I wish I could read faster, Destinations, Unravel, and Things left behind.

Site Structure

Time Spent Alone is navigated from the main page by clicking on the large thumbnails for each scene. Once in a scene, you should use your browser’s back button to return to the main page.

Most scenes are only one page deep. Destinations has multiple pages of depth to allow users to either browse or submit destinations.

The other scenes have a dropdown information bar that hides at the top of the page. That information bar contains a link back to the main site.

Current Scenes

Technical Details

The main page of Time Spent Alone was built using html, css, and javascript. The different scenes within the project use different technologies, including Flash, Java, and PHP.

To get the most out of Time Spent Alone, I recommend using a modern browser with good javascript support, a recent version of the Flash Player (9.0.115 or higher), and support for Java applets. I use Firefox 3, and Safari 4 on a Mac with Flash Player 10.

Transition

Wicks — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:23:56 +0000

Transition, a short animation, was created using a system that overlays an audio spectrum onto a spatialized representation of cellular automata. The forms generated shift from one representation to the next, constantly inhabiting a state of change.

The software used to generate Transition was written in processing. I created the music for this video with a few tracks of classical guitar and a bent electronic toy.

Intersections

Wicks — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 04:16:06 +0000

Generative animation programmed in processing.