I used my graphing calculator as an intervalometer to record a timelapse of our installation in Minneapolis this Summer at Northern Spark. The calculator sent a pulse to my camera over a 2.5mm audio cable. The BASIC code for a TI-83+ is below:
This post is mostly to test out the oEmbed functionality in wordpress, which is pretty neat. You do need to write the url in the HTML editor in order to avoid the automatic <p> tags breaking the embed. Even viewing it in the visual mode breaks them.
Written Images is an excellent project in generative bookmaking initiated by Martin Fuchs. He has an open call-for-entries to collect image-making applications. The site copy explains the project’s ambition:
Written Images; a project in contemporary generative print design and art. Its final products will be a book that presents programmed images by various artists. Each print in process will be calculated individually – which makes every single book unique.
I’m making my submissions using Cinder so I can get more comfortable with c++ and the XCode environment. To make my life easier, I added a WrittenImages project template to the excellent TinderBox tool that comes with Cinder. Get the template by either downloading my version of TinderBox (which contains the template), or checking it out on github. You can also look at an example of code generated by the template.
The template sets up your application to receive command-line arguments and handle batch-rendering of files to the provided paths. To use it, open up TinderBox and create a new project. Your settings should be: Target: Basic App, Template: WrittenImages. I think the code inside is pretty self-explanatory for use. To pass arguments to your application in the command-line (Assuming you named your project Sample, which you probably didn’t), do the following:
$ Sample.app/Contents/MacOS/Sample ./more.png ./like.png ./this.png
The reason for the longish path to your application is that the binary is actually in an application bundle. The Sample.app/ is just a directory, and to pass arguments to the application we need to call the executable part directly.
The written images deadline was just extended to July 15, so you still have a chance to make a submission.
Last night, Pete Hawkes and I had the opening reception for our show–Leaving Here, Being There–in the UCLA Broad Art Center. I am happy with how the show turned out, and it was great getting a chance to talk to new and familiar people about the work.
An excellent Art MFA show also opened in the nearby New Wight Gallery.
Documentation of individual projects will go up over the next week, after Pete and I go in with a tripod to take photos of the work. For now, here are a few photos from the opening.
I spent last weekend out in 29 Palms with Pete and a few dozen other artists from around the UC system. Many of us installed work in the desert, and invited the public to come see what we had been up to. Pete and I worked together after the first symposium to come up with an idea for work we thought would make sense in the desert, which resulted in a piece called Trace: Resonance Field. It is a field of ceramic plates that are struck with rhythms controlled by seismic data from the surrounding mountains. I also had a chance to install Tamarisk in a more suitable location.
We’re working on editing our documentation into a cogent bit of video for the internet. For now, you can see photos of the process and some short video clips on flickr. New photos of Tamarisk will be online soon, as well.
There was quite a bit of press for the show. Among others, there was a writeup in artinfo, and a video and photo gallery by press enterprise.
I’m ramping up for the next quarter, and have a handful of ideas I want to pursue. For one, I plan to do an independent study with Jennifer Steinkamp, exploring different possibilities for projection onto irregular surfaces. The reason I want to explore this is so I can create fragments of living worlds (like tidepools, mountain peaks, or other micro-climates⁄habitats) that occupy physical space. I have in my mind small islands that rise out of the floor that are activated by a range of animated forms.
At the moment, I’m collecting various reference images and gathering materials for a basic projector setup.
VJ Kungfu has an excellent video detailing how to build your own flexible projector mount. If you’re interested in securing your projector (or pointing it at crazy angles), I definitely recommend looking into their system. The mount consists primarily of standard lighting rig components. I’ve ordered parts and look forward to putting them together soon. Also, I’m getting up a projector to put on said mount. I started with the fantasy that I would get something super high-end, but talked myself down to a more reasonable $1000, 1080p projector. That way, I can still afford to pay my rent.