Kay Johns

Reflective Chat: Ted Talk and Predictions.

2012-02-05T20:38:00.000Z

Last week's chat was based around a Ted Talk by Clay Shirky, titled: How social media can make history. I found it quite interesting to hear more about how Web 2.0 has facilitated in social change. See video below:

Another area we discussed was predicting the news. This also gave me the idea of predicting the future where Media Gambling sites would be the next craze :-)

This short video below titled Epic 2014 attempts to predict the future of social media. However there appears to be an agenda behind this film. I see it as a propaganda exercise, as it implies in a round about way that corporate news is more reliable.

Studio Practise: Reflections and Ideas

2012-01-29T13:42:00.000Z

While the concept of my project has stayed the same, there has also been major developments which have happened due to a combination of areas.

While researching and writing my research paper I had begun thinking more about life, linking aspects of metaphysical/ontological inquiry, nature and chaotic systems together. I started filming natural generative elements of nature, and especially enjoyed the filming process, whilst observing pattern transformations within the movement of ocean waves and the shoreline patterns. One of my favourite videos that I filmed so far is: Drift Line Sand Patterns It is very calming and the pattern transformations appear more vein like towards the end. This also coincided with an earlier post about a documentary called The Beauty of Chaos In this post there is a video excerpt of a documentary which explores ideas of a mathematician called Benoit Mandelbrot, looking at how natural fractals in the world form the shapes of mountains, coastlines and river basins; the structures of plants, blood vessels and lungs. I found this all so fascinating and it led me thinking more about our lungs and breathing, and the connection between our bodies and the natural world. This led me in the direction to experiment recording breathing sounds. Also the idea of using balloons has come from a friend. When she was pregnant she would often compare herself to a balloon. This gave me the idea to start experimenting with balloons. Ideally I would like to use a number of big clear balloons with a smaller balloon inside. The reason for using clear balloons are so I can also project a video of a collection of natural generative elements through them, to express the links between our bodies and the natural world simultaneously. I have also been thinking about the equations that Benoit Mandelbrot discovered, and have pondered the the idea of projecting actual equations through the balloons, but that didn't feel right as I want to visually express the real natural world in the projection. Though I do think the maths is fascinating, but mathematics is a human concept to describe the natural world. I want to visually show the real natural world in contrast,with using balloons and breathing sounds to symbolise human life forms to express how patterns of life are all connected. The big balloons with smaller ones inside would visually symbolise the creation of an individual within a system, or a reflection of an individual within the system of the world. Some of the big balloons would also contain a small quantity of air from an individual, and I would also include the recorded breathing sound of that person in the audio to be played with a collection of breathing sounds played randomly.

I now need to do a lot of work on all these ideas through experimentation with balloons, pressure, methods for collecting peoples air and the transferring of air for an exhibition. Along with putting together a video for projection and collecting much more clearer breathing sounds from people than I have at the moment.

Project Proposal 5

2012-01-22T20:17:00.001Z

Here's my latest updated Project Proposal:

Project Proposal 22-1-2012

Reflective chat: Wikipedia Protest

2012-01-18T23:06:00.005Z

While this week's chat covered quite a few interesting topics, I have decided to dedicate this post to Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is today protesting against SOPA and PIPA by blacking out the English Wikipedia for 24 hours. SOPA and PIPA represent two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively. SOPA is short for the "Stop Online Piracy Act," and PIPA is an acronym for the "Protect IP Act." ("IP" stands for "intellectual property.") In short, these bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in our opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet. Detailed information about these bills can be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act articles on Wikipedia, which are available during the blackout. GovTrack lets you follow both bills through the legislative process: SOPA on this page, and PIPA on this one. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for the public interest in the digital realm, has summarized why these bills are simply unaceptable in a world that values an open, secure, and free Internet. From Wiki, click here to learn more.

I believe that the general consensus of the group were that these bills should not be allowed to get through. They are an infringement on rights of expression; and will have a disastrous effect on the internet. This is not the way forward for the future of the internet.

Random Thoughts and Contextual Research

2012-01-14T23:58:00.005Z

I've been thinking about the breathing sounds of my friends and family that I've been recording lately. It has been quite funny recording them, but a thought had occurred to me when I first started recording these sounds: What if someone was to die! It would be quite sad having someone's actual breathing sound, even though not really any different than having a photo or video of them talking, but to me it seems quite different. Anyway I decided not to think too much about the potential doom and gloom aspect of my project. Instead I thought I would do some contextual research on other artist's that have used breathing sounds. While I haven't found any yet using the sounds of breathing, I have found an artist that used his own breathe to blow up balloons. Here's a link to Piero Manzoni's sculpture titled: Artist's Breathe: http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=26872
While the balloon deflating, probably happened when he was alive, I found this quite sad since he is no longer alive now, but it is also so effective.

Breathing (Asthma)

2012-01-12T20:47:00.001Z

Since I've been getting asthma lately, I decided to use to this opportunity to record my breathing.

I found it interesting that by adding this sound to the balloon video, and changing the effects slightly, how it expresses a totally different emotion. Maybe I could volunteer to do Darth Vader sounds, I just need to tweak the sound slightly :-)

Breathing Experiment

2012-01-08T00:05:00.003Z

Since just before the seasonal break I have been recording some of my family and friend's breathing sounds. I also asked a few of the same people if they could breath into balloons so that I could collect their air.

Recording the breathing sounds was obviously easy, though tricky for people not to laugh while doing this. However getting people to blow up balloons wasn't working too well. I ended up using a balloon pump to initially start, as people found this easier once the balloon was already a certain size to breathe into. But I decided that for the time being I would just blow up the balloons using a pump and then add their breathing sounds to the video.

I eventually want to experiment creating an installation by hanging lots of clear different sized balloons, with smaller balloons inside, while projecting a video containing scenes of generative elements of nature through them. Also collecting different individual breathing sounds to play randomly. Since I need quite a lot of space to do this and more balloons than I have at the moment I decided to try to create a basic simulation of this environment by videoing a few balloons and then adding some effects and a few sounds. The video clip below is my first experiment of this:

Generative Art 2012

2012-01-01T15:53:00.000Z

Once again, New Year celebrations and amazing firework displays have been happening all around the world. Here's a couple of my favourite aerial generative art displays of this year. I have included these as part of my visual research . Happy New Year Everyone :-)

Placenta

2011-12-12T23:22:00.002Z

Three couples that I know have all recently had babies approximately within a month of each other! Today my friend's beautiful Baby Girl arrived into this world :-) Her partner brought the placenta home while mum & baby were still recovering in hospital. He asked me if I wanted to see the placenta. Wow, I never seen a placenta before, well not in the real world. It looked so amazing that I just had to make them a card using a photo. I couldn't believe how tree/plant like it was. This placenta seemed like a perfect example of what I had been learning previously while researching my paper in connection with exploring chaos theory and nature.

Postmodernism Exhibition at the V&A

2011-12-08T12:24:00.002Z

Recently I visited the Postmodernism Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. I had previously been to Robotville Festival on the same day, so I didn't expect it to compete with seeing lots of cool robots, which it didn't :-) But having said that I did enjoy this exhibition too, as there were aspects of the show that I loved.

Initially the first thing that I found fascinating to watch was actually a projection which was used simply as an effect to show off some of the sculptures. I don't think it was part of any of the work itself. I found this to be quite mesmerizing, which was reminiscent of watching gently moving ocean waves lit by moonlight. This also reflected onto a mirrored sculpture which was wonderful to watch. I was also puzzled by this as I couldn't work out where the projection was coming from! I ended up having to ask an assistant, which was quite weird as he said that this was the first thing that he found fascinating too, and it also took him ages to figure out where the projection was coming from.

My next favourite part of this exhibition was watching a film clip from the film Blade Runner. While I've seen this film so many times in the past it was brilliant seeing this clip as it stirred my memory to re-watch the film again.

Another video which I found absolutely amazing to view was a clip from the documentary Koyannisquatsi directed by Godfrey Reggio with music by Philip Glass. This was projected onto a large screen, and I watched this video loop several times while I was there. At one point one of the assistants walked through a nearby door which made the screen move. This happened just as the focus of the video was on an image of a tower block which made the building appear as if it was breathing. This was totally accidental but it looked so effective and gave me ideas for doing a video projection onto a moving screen.

Even though there were underlying dystopian messages in this video extract, I found it so beautiful to watch too. I came away wanting/needing to see all of this film, which I now have :-)

Click here for link to the Postmodernism Exhibition at the V&A.

Robotville Festival

2011-12-05T21:48:00.001Z

The Robotville Festival will celebrate the most cutting-edge in European robot design and innovation – and explore the cultural significance of robots. You can meet over 20 unique robots and their makers, who will be on hand to demonstrate their work and talk to visitors. Robotville

At the weekend I visited Robotville held at the Science Museum in London. See video from the New Scientist Blog. While there were so many amazing robots, I found the Swarm Robots particularly fascinating. Click here for photo. The Swarm Robots can be found on the left hand side second from the bottom. I was totally gutted that I didn't take my camera. I didn't think they would allow photography, but little children were there happily snapping away :-)

The Swarm Robots had behaviour traits similar to flocking; their intention was to stay within the group even though they would sometimes get lost. Since roboticist Alan Winfield was on hand to answer questions, I asked him why were some of them getting lost? He mentioned how this group of little robots relied on light sensors as a way of communicating to keep the group together. However due to any external surrounding light they will sometimes go off track and get lost by following another light source, but they will eventually find their way back to the group.

Here's an interview with Alan Winfield about the Swarm Robots click here for link.

Also click here to view Alan's blog.

New Ideas

2011-12-03T21:40:00.000Z

This week my new great nephew arrived into this world :-) I made a cast of his little feet and took some photos.

While this photo isn't part of my studio practise as such, the shadows made me think about previous family generations and how different and unique people are.

The same day I also began recording sounds of people breathing. I previously had been having ideas for an installation whilst writing my research paper, but I had to put this on hold until now. I began by asking a few friends and family members if I could record their breathing. This was quite fun and it was so tricky for people to breath into a recording device without me making them laugh, so I had to disappear while they did this :-)

This will be an ongoing process for a while. I will be gathering the breathing sounds of people and also collecting some of their breathe in balloons.

Research Paper

2011-11-29T20:49:00.002Z

Kay Johns Research Paper 29-11-2011

Starlings at West Pier

2011-11-19T19:48:00.004Z

Here's a video clip that I filmed today of the Starlings at West Pier. According to the Starling Trust there will be more birds arriving each day from now until December :-) click here for link to their site.

I slightly colourised the version below, but prefer the natural colours above.

Flock of birds finishing dance

2011-11-18T00:12:00.003Z

Today I videoed a flock of birds dancing at West Pier in Brighton. I just happened to be there as they were finishing their dance :-)

The version below is slightly longer:

Abstract for research paper

2011-11-17T00:30:00.000Z

This is my latest abstract for my research paper.

Generative Art: Exploring how this process simulates nature, and if the method is essential to the Artist's work? Looking a works through Joseph Nechvatal, Philip Galanter and Shardcore.

Generative art is not an art movement or ideology, it is mainly known or thought of as a process, yet artist's utilize this method for a number of different reasons. This paper will attempt to question and explore generative art by looking at some of the motives behind this practice. Beginning by giving a brief exploration of generative art, before looking at how this method may simulate nature by discussing chaos theory and its relationship to specific styles using this method. Subsequently discovering if using a generative process has been essential to the meaning within the artists work, by looking at works through the featured artists via interviews collected predominantly for this paper; in conjunction with exploring leading writers in this field.

Although generative art can be utilized as a process or tool. I hope this paper will express how it can also be a fundamental element that artist's employ, thus expressing how generative methods can hold the essence and meaning within the artwork.

Keywords
Generative Art, Essence, Simulation, Nature, Process, Chaos Theory.

Tutorial with Paul: Research Paper

2011-11-08T21:46:00.001Z

Since my last post on the topic of my research paper, I have rewritten the abstract and started writing some of chapter one. Paul asked me about my paper and we talked for a while about generative art. He recommended that I checkout Ting Theatre of mistakes, rules and dancing. I did a search for this afterwards and the first link that I found was an article which had some of the writing upside down! I'm assuming this is how it was meant to be! I've never really done much reading upside down before! While some words were easy to read others were quite tricky! I was quite surprised, I didn't think it would be as I used to watch TV upside down quite a lot as a child, but I found reading quite challenging :-) click here for link: Also here are some other interesting links:

http://www.newmediacaucus.org/wp/movement-and-the-machine-intersections-between-live-dance-performance-and-structured-sets-of-rules/

http://www.fionatempleton.org/The%20Theatre%20of%20Mistakes.htm

New Eyes

2011-10-28T20:47:00.004+01:00

New Eyes: Six artists explore the collection and reflect on the creative process.

I recently went to an exhibition at the Towner Gallery to view this collection. My friend was one of the six artist's that took part in choosing the work, so it was really interesting to see if I could guess what she had chosen. I did mostly which was quite weird. If only guessing her chosen artworks was like doing the lottery :-)

One of the pieces was by Mariele Neudecker which I loved. It appeared to be miniature landscape in a glass tank, that was filled with a solution, giving the appearance of intense fog. I was told that the fog effect had gradually transformed. This reminded me in some ways of Hans Haacke's Condensation Cube, and upon seeing this it gave me an idea. Since my not quite so waterproof camcorder anymore appears to mist up gradually, it made me think that it would be interesting to experiment with its malfunction before trying to fix the problem :-)

This is an brill exhibition, see text below for info.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes – Marcel Proust.

Through Towner’s partnership with Bluemonkeynet, an artist network based in Eastbourne, six artists have been given the unique opportunity to get to know our collection and curate an exhibition at Towner.

A painter, a printmaker, a sculptor, a photographer, a ceramicist and an installation artist, the group reflects the breadth of contemporary artistic
practice locally.

Inspired by the Marcel Proust quote, they followed their own voyage of discovery to create a diverse display that leads the visitor on a journey into the collection, its artists and their processes. The exhibition includes etchings by Picasso, teacup designs and woodblocks by Eric Ravilious and a film piece by Tacita Dean, whose work is currently on display in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall.

Also on display are works by founder of the British pop art movement Eduardo
Paolozzi, Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry, ceramics by Quentin Bell and
much more.

The works on show range from painting and printmaking to ceramics and
photography – all selected from Towner’s internationally renowned permanent
collection.

For link to website click here

Abstract for research paper

2011-10-25T13:47:00.000+01:00

Generative Art: Exploring how this process simulates nature, and if this method is essential to the meaning of the artist's work? Looking at works through Joseph Nechvatal, Philip Galanter, Shardcore and Sam Hewitt.

Abstract

This paper will be looking at a brief history of Generative Art, and some of the various methods. The main areas of focus will be exploring how this process simulates nature by discussing chaos theory and its relationship to specific styles using this approach. Along with discovering if using a generative process has been essential to the meaning within the artists work? Looking at works through the featured artists and theorists, via interviews collected by the author predominantly for this paper; in conjunction with exploring ideas by leading writers in this field.

While generative art can be utilized as a process or tool. I hope this paper will express how it can also be a fundamental element that artist's employ, thus expressing how generative methods can hold the essence and meaning within the artwork.

Random Thoughts

2011-10-09T22:57:00.000+01:00

I haven't started writing my paper yet, must admit I've been slightly side tracked lately. I've been reading various books kind of linked to my subject. Just recently I found myself reading a book about chaos theory and intoxication that left my thoughts pondering about RNA and DNA. Which came first? Could they both have emerged at the same time even? This somehow got me thinking about the isomorphs in the film Tron Legacy. I loved the idea of the isomorphs existence, they were unique and generated naturally out of the digital world of Flynn's creation, but did Clu hunt them down deliberately to leave one, knowing Flynn would protect her? Ouorra was the last remaining isomorph and later on in the film she got captured by Clu and he didn't kill her immediately, Why? Well the first time I watched this I assumed it was because he could use her to lure Flynn, but upon thinking about this again. I thought that Clu could have disguised himself, or imprinted himself inside Quorra to get out of the portal and it was all a cunning plan. Well this may not seem like it has much to do with my essay having different ideas to the ending of Tron Legacy and thinking about DNA, etc but somehow it has aided my focus, and I feel nearly ready to start writing soon :-)

Seven Sisters

2011-10-05T22:23:00.001+01:00

This week I went to the Seven Sisters County Park specifically to video for my studio practise, but my camcorder broke when I got there! Well it isn't completely broken, it seems to work for approx 10 minutes before the lens mists up, and then it needs to be turned it off to de-mist which takes about 30 minutes before I can start filming again. This was so annoying that I ended up mainly taking photos for my visual research.

Below are a selection of the photos that I took instead. It's so beautiful at the Seven Sisters, apparently this was the last day of summer weather for this year :-(

Drift Line Sand Patterns.

2011-10-02T01:46:00.003+01:00

Although I've mainly been filming natural generated elements of nature, this is the first time that I managed to capture distinct transient pattern formations which are clearly visible in a linear fashion.

While I previously have been experimenting colourising and adding more visual effects afterwards, I didn't do that with this video. I played around with the audio and added sound effects, but I found the focus on the visuals quite captivating without no sound.

I think it's fascinating that drift line sand patterns are quite similar to patterns found in the desert, only the patterns in the desert occur without the tides of the ocean waves. These patterns also appear more vein like towards the end of the video. This also coincides with an earlier post exploring the ideas of a mathematician called Benoit Mandelbrot: Looking at how natural fractals in the world form the shapes of mountains, coastlines and river basins; the structures of plants, blood vessels and lungs. Click here for the link to that post.

Below are some photos that I also took on the same day. At the moment I now feel that my visual research is becoming very similar to my studio practise.

Sunset

2011-10-02T01:10:00.000+01:00

I took these sunset photos as I noticed the clouds looked quite unusual. They reminded me of clouds in Chinese paintings.

Data is Nature

2011-10-01T13:20:00.001+01:00

Last night I went to see Data is Nature at the Pavilion Theatre. This was curated by Lighthouse to mark the end of this year's Brighton Digital Festival.

This brilliant line-up of audio-visual performers translate nature into immersive digital experiences. Data is Nature features the Brighton premiere of Natures by renowned musician Mira Calix and visual artist Quayola. In this performance, the organic behaviours of plants become part of an audio-visual world where the natural and the artificial coexist harmoniously.

Data is Nature also includes Paul Prudence, a London-based musician and visual artist, known for his stunning audio-visual performances, which use data visualisation and generative techniques to give us striking new views of nature. Lighthouse

While I found Mira Calix and Quayola's performance to be intriguing, this definitely didn't express to me a harmonious link between the natural and the artificial coexisting. From this performance I only felt the tension between the two, but having said that this was about exploring new way of seeing things.

Click here for link to Paul Prudence's blog, it's very interesting :-)

Interview with Philip Galanter

2011-09-23T21:44:00.000+01:00

Philip Galanter's paper titled: What is Generative Art was the first intensive research paper on the subject that I came across. I was very pleased that he was happy to be interviewed.

Philip's areas of interest include generative art, physical computing, sound art and music, complexity science, and art theory. He teaches graduate studios in generative art and physical computing at Texas A&M University. His artistic work includes generative hardware systems of his own design, installations, digital fine art prints, and light-box transparencies. His work has been shown in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, and Peru. As a curator he collaborated with others to create ArtBots in New York City in 2002 and 2003, and COMPLEXITY, the first major fine art exhibition focusing on complex systems and emergence. Website: philipgalanter.com

Interview with Philip Galanter:

KJ: Could you describe a little about your background and how you became interested in generative art?

PG: The first arts activity that I participated in in a serious way was electronic music. This was back in the 1970's using analog synthesizers. The part I found most fascinating, along with the notions of timbral composition, was that the synthesizer could play itself. By using a sample and hold unit, for example, one could create random voltages or cascading stair-step voltages that would in turn determine pitch, loudness, stereo placement, and so on. So I would create these systems by patching together various modules and then sit back and listen. The term "generative art" wasn't used then, but that's what it was.

I went through a long period of pursuing various musical interests including punk, industrial, and various experimental and performance art forms. Little of that was generative. It was the more typical group collaboration style of manual music production.

Around 1990 I tired of collaboration and was trying to figure out a way I could affordably create live electronic music as a solo performer. One concern I had was that it would be terribly boring to watch; just a guy pushing buttons and tweaking knobs. So I began experimenting with analog video feedback as a fast way to create lots of visuals that I could project. That led me to the edge, and I fell over and became more focused on visual art. And with video feedback I was once again back in the generative realm. Because for years my day job had been scientific programming, and even included non-artistic graphics, it was only natural that I would soon turn to digital tools for generative visual art.

KJ: Is there a reason that you use generative software as part of the piece as a message within your own art work, or do you just use generative software as a process for making the work and it has no relevance to the actual art work? I was particularly thinking of some of your generative animations: worms, blobs, and light box drawing as I would imagine using generative software played an important aspect within the meaning of this work, but I'm also curious about your other generative artworks too.

PG: The question as to whether the generative approach is merely pragmatic or whether it is embedded in the work as content is a very interesting one. Initially my interest was purely pragmatic. In support of live performance I needed more visual material than I could practically create by hand, and so using generative systems was really the only way I could go. At the time my goal was to use analog video feedback in such a way that it didn't look like all the other video feedback that had been created by then. I didn't want it to be about the way it was made. It was only later that I realized that video feedback is a chaotic system and a legitimate intention could be the exploration and presentation of chaos theory.

As my interest in generative systems grew I became aware of complexity science. It's essentially an attempt to theorize across a diversity of domains and produce models and abstractions that can apply to what previously seemed to be unrelated systems. For example, is there something we can say about ant hills, the human brain, and weather systems that helps us understand all three? At the time this was pretty exotic stuff, but now to some extent it's become absorbed into the popular culture. Unfortunately the science of complexity is more subtle and complicated than the popular interpretation and folks tend to underestimate the depth of the complexity waters.

Anyway I came to realize that generative art is all about using systems, and complexity science is all about understanding systems. I came up with a generative art theory using complexity theory as a context for considering systems. This led to a paper "What is Generative Art" that contains the most widely cited definition of generative art.

Over the years my work has increasingly become a sort of meditation on complex systems, and so the pieces are about the very generative systems they contain. The art is the system and the system is the art. I refer to this as "truth to process" in some recent writing.

KJ: Are there any art movements that have influenced your work?

PG: I believe that art proceeds by accretion. Art movements are never lost or reversed, rather each new art movement layers itself over the last. So in a way every art movement is still present and influential. But we all have our favorites. Very little art before the 20th century excites me. For me Mondrian and Pollock are huge influences, with Mondrian contributing the Apollonian principle in art and Pollock the Dionysian. But really the entire pantheon of abstract expressionists is huge for me. Minimal and conceptual art is, not surprisingly, a big influence on me. I understand and enjoy pop art although it's hard to see in my work. Maybe it's visible in my use of unsubtle fully saturated color. Warhol appeals to me both as a visual artist, but also in terms of his contributions to film and music. Without Andy there would have been no Velvet Underground, and they influenced so many others it's hard to imagine what rock music would have been like without them. Music has probably influenced me more than other visual artists, although it's hard to pinpoint exactly how that comes out.

Back when I did purely music my approach was much more Dionysian. My visual art has been mostly Apollonian. It may be time for the pendulum to swing again.

KJ: Are there any reasons why you choose to simulate nature?

PG: Artists have always learned from nature. Of course in the postmodern era saying such a thing is viewed as being, at best, quaint. But increasingly folks have tired of postmodernism. There is now a whole generation of young artists embracing science and technology as not only a useful source of tools, but as a cool and creative subculture. So you have the arduino and Maker Faire and folks wiring up kinects to sound chips and so on. There's even this notion of art-science as a hybrid discipline with a claim to its own identity. So artists have always learned from nature and so have scientists.

If you want to create art using complexity and generative systems why not study under the master? That would be nature. In my work I'm not seeking to simulate nature so much as to learn from it. Some of my work has biomorphic form in it, but I don't view that as being essential to the work. Two recent pieces, RGBCA 1 and RGBCA 2, are much more minimal in style; cubes, hemispheres, lines. But they are still generative, they are still systems, and they are about the systems they are.

Philip Galanter

Assistant Professor

Department of Visualization

Texas A&M University

C108 Langford Center

3137 TAMU

College Station, TX 77843-3137

Website: philipgalanter.com

Slow Waves

2011-09-19T14:36:00.000+01:00

I filmed these waves for my visual research as I found them quite fascinating due to their slowness and natural calming meditive effect.

Drift Line Patterns

2011-09-17T17:14:00.003+01:00

Sunny Day Rainbow

2011-09-17T14:09:00.001+01:00

During the week while I was taking photos for my visual research, a rainbow appeared. It was quite unusual since it was a totally sunny day. This was my first rainbow that I've ever seen without no rain. The rainbow was quite faint and can be seen in a couple of these photos if you look carefully :-)

Interview with Shardcore.

2011-09-13T17:05:00.004+01:00

During this year's 2011 Brighton Festival I went to see an exhibition at the Old Market called The Consciousness Engine by artist's Shardcore and Sam Hewitt. I found this to be such a fascinating experience, it has left me thinking about consciousness, freedom and artificial life forms ever since. For my previous blog post on this exhibition click here.

Interview with Shardcore:

KJ: Your video in the basement of the market place was made using generative software. Was there a reason to use generative software as part of the piece as a message within your work, or did you just use generative software as a process for making the work and it had no relevance to the actual work?

S: The use of a generative system was integral to the piece. It operates on two levels, firstly as representing one facet of conscious experience - that it is continuous, mutable experience (a feat which would either require a huge amount of scripting/editing without a generative system). Secondly, it allows for the content to appear as truly novel, just as in the conscious mind, no two moments are the same - we wanted to create a machine that, while bounded to the limits of the source content, could still produce new juxtapositions that we were unable to predict.

Looking more broadly, generative systems allow the artist to step away from the explicit form of the work, and into the realm of meta-creation - making the rules that govern the creative process, rather than explicitly creating the end piece itself. By loosening the grip on the end product, the artist is able to use the outcomes of a generative system to inform the manipulation of that system; the artist becomes a benevolent curator of the work, rather than the direct creator of the end product.

KJ: Would you say that as the artist you wanted to explore consciousness via an artificial source (the computer, core of the engine) using the process know as generative art to express and simulate existence of the natural world?

S: We wanted to explore consciousness, and that exists in a place beyond what is generally considered 'the natural world'. So, in that sense, we were never aiming to create a naturalistic environment.

The generative nature of the system, for me, was far more about creating an experience in flux, just as the conscious mind is constantly in flux - it makes no sense to take a snapshot of a mind, it's very nature is one of change - and that's why it had to be a generative machine. I wanted the viewer to be an involved observer of a simulated mind, and for that, it was essential that it was constantly changing. If we had used a pre-composed, pre-recorded film, it would have been a different piece entirely.

In building the piece, I wanted to avoid existing AI paradigms and produce a purposefully (semi-controlled) chaotic system. AI generally concerns itself with simulation of specific parts of the human mind to appear 'intelligent' in a rather narrowly defined sense.

The Consciousness Engine exists not as an end-point, but as a symbiotic process between the machine and the viewer. The viewer needs to engage their conscious mind directly with the machine for the work to exist. When no one is observing it, it's just a machine talking to itself in an empty room.

Conscious experience is primarily a constructive process - what you 'experience' of the world is mainly a projection of psychological expectations. With this piece I wanted to draw out the mind behind the expectations, the machine provided a method for doing this.

My hope was that the piece, along with the journey of installations before reaching the machine, would guide the viewer into a place where they were provoked to consider the nature of their own consciousness, and not simply assume the role of passive observer.

KJ: I found that the Core of the Engine (computer) related more to my subconscious mind. It felt like I was experiencing a dream filled full of random questions and different locations around Brighton, which were reminiscent of some of my own thoughts and memories. I'm curious was the core of the engine both the subconscious merged with the conscious mind?

S: The part of our mind that we live in, our wakeful consciousness, is but a small part of the machinations of our brains. Indeed, experiments show that the conscious mind is often 'the last to know' about what we, as individual functional entities, are doing.

So, rather than considering the subconscious in a Freudian way, I tend to see the conscious mind as a machine struggling to make sense of a series of events coming from both 'external sources' (what we see, hear, taste etc) and 'internal sources' (our memories, expectations and desires) - I guess you could consider the latter as 'the subconscious', but I tend to see them as an integrated system, with consciousness as the final layer.

It was important that the video sources used were of locations and events that may be familiar, this allows the piece to feel more like a mind like occupying a coherent space, and also to use these experiences to provoke memories and sensations in the viewer who may occupy a set of spaces and experiences.

The subconscious is generally seen as inaccessible, only visible via oblique projections, such as dream analysis. For this piece we wanted it to consider the direct conscious experience of the now.

For link to The Consciousness Engine by Shardcore and Sam Hewitt click here.

Clouds of the Sun.

2011-09-12T00:45:00.000+01:00

For this experiment I first filmed clouds in the sky. I then speeded up the video and original audio sound by the same amount. The speeded sound reminded me of flames igniting so I colourised some areas to appear flame like.

Sun

2011-09-09T22:14:00.001+01:00

Here's some photos that I took earlier today. I found it interesting to capture the pole type effect by the lens when looking directly at the sun, along with the bird flying through.

Phoenix Gallery: Solar Systems by Semiconductor.

2011-09-09T21:46:00.002+01:00

Today I visited the Phoenix Gallery in Brighton, to see an exhibition called Solar Systems by Semiconductor (Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt). I was very impressed to say the least. Such amazing photography of naturally occurring generative elements of nature. I also found this exhibition brilliant for my contextual research :-) While I did take video clips of this exhibition which I was going to put on here. I have since found their site: click here. Below is one of the films that I saw at the today. Here is a link to their other films.

Heliocentric excerpt 2 from Semiconductor on Vimeo.

Solar Systems is Semiconductor's first major exhibition in the South East for four years. Three moving image works explore the mechanics of observing the Sun, from the vantage point of the Earth to our orbit in outer space. These works are emblematic of the artists’ ongoing investigation of the natural world, which has resulted in major works on astronomy (Brilliant Noise, 2006), and geology (Worlds in the Making, 2011). Their unique approach has won them fellowships and residencies in significant scientific locations such as NASA’s Space Sciences Lab, the Galapagos Islands and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Solar Systems is curated by Lighthouse in partnership with Phoenix Brighton for Brighton Brighton Digital Festival 2011.

Cloud Formations Experiments 2 & 3

2011-09-05T20:33:00.000+01:00

I was thinking about how time is relative to the individual, so I decided to experiment with different timings and patterns.

I left my camcorder faced up at the sky and filmed clouds moving for about an hour. I used the original film and audio for track one. I then made a copy of this and separated the audio from the visuals as I wanted to speed up the visuals and stretch out the sounds for track two. I used the cookie cutter tool in the first track to create the circle grid effect and placed the other track below so that it could be viewed through the grid. The original film of the clouds can be seen moving on the actual pattern of the grid. The original sound consisted of the natural background sound, you can hear, cars, people walking, seagulls, and the sound of the wind etc. The stretched sound has quite a warped effect. The changing lighting is not an effect, it's just the moving clouds blocking out the sun :-)

For the second experiment below I used the same method but only added in another layer of video and set it to a different speed (more or less in the middle of the other two). I then cookie cut squares inside the circles to create three different timings of the same visuals, and left the same two different timings of the sounds.

MA Show at Camberwell

2011-09-05T19:57:00.000+01:00

At the weekend I went to see the MA show at Camberwell and was very impressed, click here for link. There were so many amazing art works that I found it hard to have a favourite.

Interview with Joseph Nechvatal

2011-08-29T20:41:00.003+01:00

I recently asked artist Joseph Nechvatal if I could interview him for my research paper. Below is a transcript of the interview:

KJ: Is there a reason that you use generative software as part of the piece as a message within your art work, or do you just use generative software as a process for making the work and it has no relevance to the actual art work? I was particularly thinking of your computer virus project ii as I would imagine using generative software played an important aspect within the meaning of this work, but I'm also curious about your other generative artworks too, cheers.

JN: Indeed I did not come to using generative software for its own sake or from an interest in the formal properties of generative software. After my first paintings were created using robot-assisted means in 1986, I sought to create paintings around the computer-assisted concept of the virus. So I developed this idea by considering an image as a host - used to host viruses: active agents whose role it is to manipulate and degrade the information contained in the image. The negative connotations of the HIV virus as a vector of disease is reflected in the principle of degradation of the image. But here, the virus is also the basis of a creative process, producing newness in reference to vector genetic information in biological systems.

KJ: I assumed this was the case with your computer virus ii project. Has there ever been a time when you employed generative art as just a process?

JN: No never.

KJ: Could you describe a little about your background and how you became interested in generative art?

JN: Sure. I took a BFA at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale first, making art in a permissive post-minimalist environment. I then went to Cornell University with the idea of getting an MFA, but found the art department there years behind Southern Illinois University, so I left and went to New York and Columbia University where I worked towards an MPhil, studying with Arthur Danto, most notably. In the late 90s I earned a Ph.D. in the philosophy of art and new technology at Roy Ascott's Centre for Advanced Inquiry in the Interactive Arts (CAiiA) at The University of Wales College. That was a fantastic intellectual experience. My research was focused on the immersive ideals behind virtual reality. You can examine the introduction and download the full thesis as a pdf file if you wish.

My involvement with Alife comes out of my artistic post-conceptual background. From 1991-1993 I worked as artist-in-resident at the Louis Pasteur Atelier and the Saline Royale / Ledoux Foundation's computer lab in Arbois, France on what I came to call The Computer Virus Project. This was my first experiment with computer viruses as a creative ploy. I created a series of digital paintings and a computer animation from this process. I worked there with Jean-Philippe Massonie at the Laboratoire MIS at the Université de Franche-Comté on the initial software - which was written in Basic. At the time I would launch a viral attack into the host image - which was my body of visual work accomplished up to that time. However there was nothing to see as the computer virus went through its procedures until I would check to see what had happened overnight.

The AIDS virus was impacting on me emotionally at the time, so it made sense to move in that direction. I wanted to overcome the fear I was feeling - and it expressed my attraction towards things beauté tragique. I think that the life/non-life idea inherent in the viral situation is fascinating. The text The Electronic Revolution by William S. Burroughs from 1970 was also key to the idea. In it he theorizes that the written word was literally a virus that made spoken word possible.

Then in 2002 I extended that artistic exploration into the field of viral artificial life through my collaboration with the programmer Stéphane Sikora. I met Stéphane at a conference organized by Prof. Jean-Claude Heudin called Virtual Worlds 2000, which was held at Pôle Universitaire Léonard de Vinci in Paris. The conference's goals, which, like the first Virtual Worlds conference in 1998, were to develop a discourse around the merging of Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Life (ALife) (what one might call VRALife). This involved the study of synthetic systems that exhibit behaviors characteristic of natural living systems inside virtual reality worlds.

I fell into conversation with Stéphane and from that we launched into a collaboration intended on extending my previous exploration with computer software modeled on the viral.

KJ: You were inspired by A-life work of John Conway. Is there anyone else's work that has particularly inspired you too?

JN: By the general cellular automata work of John von Neumann, by the genetic programming algorithms of John Koza and the auto-destructive art of Gustav Metzger.

KJ: Are there any art movements that have influenced your work?

JN: Dada, for sure. Also Conceptual Art.

KJ: Are there any reasons why you choose to simulate nature?

JN: It started when I was a sophomore at University, pursuing a degree in Sociology. I was deeply involved in the political/social issues of the early 1970s; i.e. the anti-war, woman’s liberation and equal rights movements. I was home in Chicago for the summer, working at some shit job to pay for my University expenses. Art had been a hobby-interest with me up to that point. Anyway, I was riding around downtown Chicago on a motorcycle, somewhat in a psychic funk. As I zoomed pass some cathedral, a large illuminated stain-glass window caught my eye. It was an intense moment of color in a black night. Something told me then and there that the way to social change was the way of nature in art - in that art addresses the natural inner unique individual rather than the group, the sociological statistical. In that sense I saw art as a means to foster social change from nature - bottom-up, rather than top down, if you will.

KJ: In an interview with Tom Barbalet for Biota.org you mentioned:

The Alife approach is only a painting tool or utilitarian expression in its manifestation. For me, my work with Alife is an abstract way of doing philosophically based art. Cyborg imagery in pop culture, I suppose, fruitfully fertilized this aesthetic effort by imaginatively inviting me to experience my ontology through losing track of my body and becoming what seems to be pure viral consciousness.

Do you mean a consciousness that exists without a body, a consciousness that has been invaded by another or did you have some other meaning in mind?

Could you explain what you mean by 'pure viral consciousness'?

JN: The history of art and the history of technology are often marked by ruptures. Most histories, overlook moments where deep fusion occurs, as I see happening now with viractuality. Perhaps, another temporal model for cultural consciousness is needed. Something other than the, majestic forward and upward thrusting model of evolution. Something more humbly folded in, on itself (as Deleuze suggests). Or perhaps something even more insinuatingly penetrating – as, in a viral-host model. I have chosen the viral model – so let us now consider the activities of the, viractual as a surge of emergent and embedded critical consciousness that ofers us a formal, clarity true to our age.

After a long period of temporal disjunctions following the demise of the modernist project and, the excessive abuses of the post-modernist non-project; I wish to now suggest that a new, clarifying paradigm has emerged based not, however, on the ideals of the raw, the pure or the, reduced - but rather on the internal tic-tic-tic bomb time of the embedded and patient viral, attack. So I am suggesting here a seething project of critique within critique that re-energizes, the broken gaps of temporal displacement that followed the demise of modernism and the, appearance of now listless – super fragmented – irresponsible – glut of post-modern deconstruction.

When looking at cultural production through the paradigm of the viral viractual, many former, binary oppositions fail to function in a stable way - and start to pulse – transfusing, consciousness. Most basically, even the defnitions of life and death are destroyed by this model;, as a biological virus is precisely neither alive nor not-alive – as it depends for its existence totally, on it's host's viability. The seeing-power of the host/parasite model alone must not escape us. A, virus cannot – and does not – exist alone. It exists solely by entering in and coupling. So when, we add the once binary defnitions of virtual and actual into the voluptuous viral model of, existence - and observe how they interact - a form of both/and fusion diference appears, dominant within the scope of the viractual lens.

KJ: I have read about the concept of viractual, which strives to create an interface between the biological and the virtual. I think most people would think of a keyboard or mouse as an interface, but would you also consider a program to be viractual?

JN: I think programing that leans towards the genetic programming can be. As you may know, genetic programming is a technique for writing code in a computer program based on artifcial intelligence that uses an algorithm-based method that takes its programming cues from biology. In my case from the biology of the virus. Indeed, for me, bio-tech genetic programming as applied to the traditions of painting and art music is so important to the ideas of viral viractuality that it may be said to be emblematic of it. This because it represents the seminal function of viractuality: that activity that occurs between the wild real-time and the captured archived.

KJ: Thanks so much, hope you have a good weekend.

JN: Same to Kay.

For more information on Joseph Nechvatal:

Website: http://www.nechvatal.net/

Blog: http://post.thing.net/blog/244

New book: Immersion Into Noise: http://www.openhumanitiespress.org/immersion-into-noise.html

leçOns de l'utopie 2011

Heart of Reeds

2011-08-29T15:33:00.000+01:00

Heart of Reeds by Chris Dury, is a reed bed on Lewes Railway Land Nature Reserve: click here.

Below is a short video clip that I filmed at the site yesterday. I especially enjoyed watching the random dance of the flies :-) I added some effects to the video, but left the audio the same.

Ron Arad's Curtain Call.

2011-08-24T21:01:00.004+01:00

Last weekend I went to see Ron Arad's Curtain Call click here. Several artist's also created films specifically to be projected for this environment.

The installation consisted of lots of individual translucent filaments that were hung next to each other to create a huge circle. Films were projected onto the filaments, which could be viewed from both inside, and outside the circle. As visitors walked through the filaments to enter the circle, they temporarily became part of the projected image.

When I first entered, I sat more or less in the middle of the circle. To my left side of the circle was a projection of an audience, on the other side was a projection of a matador getting dressed for a bull fight. While I had read about some of the artists and projections beforehand, I knew straight away that this wasn't one of them. I'm totally opposed to animal cruelty, so initially I felt uneasy about this. After the matador finished getting dressed, he smoked a cigarette rather shakily. Suddenly loud sounds of the bull could be heard. I could feel the the creature's distressed emotions piecing through my body! Yet no image of a bull was shown. Upon realising that I was the bull in the bullring I felt very scared, and knew I was going to be killed.

I thought this was a really effective interactive way for people to empathise and put themselves in the position of the bull. This was by Ori Gersht.

One of films that I had read about previously expressed a dreamlike situation which was by SDNA. I particularly wanted to experience this. Instead of walking through a forest. I felt like a forest was walking through me. This was quite surreal and I really enjoyed this experience.

While there were many amazing projections, my favourites were the two that I have mentioned, one being very sad and the other a rather dreamlike and surreal experience.

Clouds

2011-08-23T20:33:00.001+01:00

I took these photos while on the train the other day. I found them interesting as some of the trees/bushes look very much like cloud formations :-)

Tutorial with Jonathan: Research Paper Question

2011-08-15T21:10:00.015+01:00

This tutorial was quite short due to Kevin Fox coming to chat with us which I also found really helpful. He wrote a fab paper last year, click here for link.

Today's tutorial with Jonathan focused on my research paper question and a brief abstract. I usually write this at the end, but since we were all asked to write a brief abstract, I wrote one just for the time being. My question has been in a constant state of flux lately, but I now feel much happier with my latest question to explore:

Exploring Generative Art, by looking at how this process simulates nature and if this method is essential to the meaning of the artist's work? Looking at works through Joseph Nechvatal, Philip Galanter, Shardcore and Sam Hewitt.

Abstract:
The term Generative art is mainly know or thought of as a process. It is not an art movement or ideology, yet it does appear to be a process that artist's use to simulate aspects of life, whether this be for metaphysical/ontological inquiry, or simply though observing and copying characteristics of nature by employing generative systems to create aesthetic patterns.

Feedback from Jonathan:
I think your latest title that you sent me is excellent, much more focused
and manageable. As you have just been talking about with Kevin, avoid presumptions and you are doing this now, obviously your abstract will expand a bit when you have finished the paper, but overall it is looking good and I'm excited to see the outcome! I suggest you keep the interviews short and focused, the same questions for each and record obviously. Check with each that they are happy to have the transcript included in the paper, as they have agreed to be interviewed it should be ok, but they might want to see the transcript before the submission. Although you have primary sources, remember that we are looking for at least ten citations, so you will need some other sources as well, obviously your primary interviews will be the main things, but you may find connections with other writers or theorists. Other than that, I am happy! Great well done.

Cloud Formations

2011-08-11T15:22:00.002+01:00

To be honest I haven't felt like doing any artwork due to the riots here in the UK at the moment. Also the anger and arguments on my Facebook news feed has got so bad too. Some people seem so irrational and have even been threatening one another! Yesterday I decided that I needed to escape from all this anger and get back into my project. I went out with my camcorder and filmed clouds and bubbles :-)

Below is a short video clip of low level clouds that were moving quite fast, while the higher level clouds were moving very slow and were almost static in comparison. I used the original audio sound and stretched it and slightly speeded up the film. I then colourised the video, plus adding some effects. This now looks nothing like the calm clouds that I was viewing but I am quite pleased with the outcome :-)

Generative Natural Elements: Dragon Clouds

2011-08-02T17:20:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I saw some amazing cloud formations that reminded me of flying dragons. Below are some of the photos that I took of them :-)

Waterfall

2011-07-31T00:19:00.003+01:00

Waterfall with added visual effects. I used three sound tracks: the original sound track of the water which I made a copy of this and then stretched the sound and added some other effects to this for track two. I also did the same for track three but only stretching the sound quite a bit more than in the previous track.

I feel that the overall effect of this video expresses quite an intense and scary atmosphere.

Info from Wiki:
Pistyll Rhaeadr is formed by the Afon Disgynfa's falling, in three stages, over a 240-foot (73 m)[1] Silurian cliff-face, after which the river is known as the Afon Rhaeadr. The tallest stage is estimated at about 40 metres.[2] It is counted as one of the Seven Wonders of Wales and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Research Paper Question

2011-07-21T21:57:00.003+01:00

This week I've mainly been thinking about the question of my research paper. I had a crit about this with the group a little while ago and since this time it has been bugging me. Finally today I got to the nitty gritty of what I want to explore in this paper. Here's my question:

Generative Art: Process or Message?
Exploring why artists Joseph Nechvatal, Philip Galanter, Shardcore and Sam Hewitt employ generative systems?

For this paper I want to research why these artists use the process know as generative art? I will argue that generative art is not just a process for the making of art. There is a reason why most artists employ this method and I think that this process is connected to the message within their art.

I will only be researching these three artists. Two of them have agreed to be interviewed already so that's cool. I haven't asked Joseph Nechvatal yet but I'm sure he won't mind. Positive thinking there :-)

Fabrica: Cascade by Stephane Cauchy

2011-07-20T19:29:00.000+01:00

Cascade is a kinetic sculpture in which nine buckets, interconnected by a pulley system, are suspended from the roof above a large pool. Water is pumped into each bucket until, at a critical point, it tips and empties, releasing its contents into the pool below.

The flow of water – from pool to pipe, to bucket and back to the pool – creates a perpetual cycle of filling and emptying. The buckets rise and fall in cascading rhythms like bells rung in a series of changes or a string of buoys set adrift on a choppy swell.

Stéphane Cauchy is an installation artist based in Lille, France and he uses simple mechanical devices that often take the form of improbable laboratory experiments. He aims to give physical form to the dialogue between science and philosophy and to represent the ways in which we seek to understand the world and our place in it.

In highlighting the symbolism, dynamic movement and material change in everyday occurrences, he produces a poetic parallel to common place experience within which we might glimpse other magical or psychic forces at play. Natural phenomena are combined with products of the imagination in his work to explore broad concepts of time, space and the unknowable.

I really enjoyed this exhibition and must admit that I've seen it three times now. The installation works so well within the space - a former regency church. However I have noticed that the focal point for me wasn't the buckets spilling water, it was the reflections and movement of the water in the space of the old church that I found really fascinating. The video below is a short clip that I filmed of this:

Processing

2011-07-08T23:46:00.000+01:00

I recently found some really helpful tutorials in Processing click here to view from the beginning.

Group Tutorial (suggestions that I made).

2011-07-07T22:03:00.003+01:00

Some suggestions that I made in a group tutorial:

Eva:
Eduardo Kac's: Teleporting an unknown state: http://www.ekac.org/telepsim/telep.html
http://www.ekac.org/telepgarm.html

Moira:
I thought you may find this interesting to watch. It's a narrative video art piece created for the song Kotzebue performed by musical artist Cassis Orange:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOjEOoyZqIA

Osiris:
Have you seen Joseph Kosuth's: Clock (one and five)?
Clock (one and five) Here he tries to communicate in different ways, using appropriation in different modes of representation, possibly trying to express a universal truth. What I found interesting about this personally is that if doesn't matter how many examples and definitions that are used to describe a clock, no one will ever be able to see time itself. Here's some links:
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=-1&workid=8223&searchid=false&roomid=false&tabview=text&texttype=8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGAOBPCVEYI

Madeline:
Have you seen Stephen King's film The Langoliers?
If you haven't I think you may find it interesting. A group of people get stuck in the past, only in this case, the past does not exist, well not for very long. The Langoliers are thought to be the timekeepers of eternity and their job is to eat the past. Here's a link to a trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhbrLjcAPw0

Olivia:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2010/jun/17/ernesto-neto-new-decor-hayward-art

Mariana:
Interesting article: http://www.ayahuasca.com/creativity/some-thoughts-on-dmt-art/
Talk on Ayahuasca by Alex Grey:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s376qEZGY0
Interview with Alex Grey:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFjEMe7KJVU&feature=related
You've probably have seen this but just in case you haven't:http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0603/features/peru.html

Project Proposal 5

2011-07-04T00:07:00.000+01:00

To view my latest Project Proposal click here

Tutorials (Group)

2011-06-30T13:13:00.001+01:00

This week's chat session from earlier this week consisted of group tutorials. The tutorials were based on our current theoretical studies. Below is a recap on what I've been doing:

Recently I've been looking at artist's Shardcore and Sam Hewitt. I went to an exhibition by them called The Consciousness Engine where Shardcore was invigilating at the time. I had a chat with him and asked if I could I could interview him at some point and he said sure. He invited me to a talk that him and Sam Hewitt were doing about consciousness, which I went to. I've also just started reading a book called Emergence by Steven Johnson, which so far has talked quite a lot about self organisation. I also watched a programme about the mathematical ideas of Alan Turing, for instance how he used mathematical equations to explain and predict emergence of the life-like organisation of chemicals, and how the Russian Chemist Boris Belousov's work initiated the field of modern nonlinear chemical dynamics. I found this fascinating that these guys never met yet the mathematics of Alan Turing's equations explained how the experiments of Boris Belousov's nonlinear chemical experiments behaved.

I will also be looking more into Dadaism since chance and nonsensical were key elements to their philosophy.

Feedback ideas:

Moira suggested that I look at Woody Vasulka.

Osiris suggested that I look at two artist's:
1, Naum Gabo
2, Sigmar Polke's chemical paintings, who also is Osiris's step father :-)

Jonathan found an interesting link for me to read on Steven Johnson: click here

Comments from Jonathan:

Kay, I think you have done some excellent research there, and you have lots to explore, the issue will be focusing it all down to something quite controlled using specific artists work is always a good idea and sometimes good to compare it to other work that is broadly similar but maybe comes from a slightly different angle.

Thanks, I will checkout out links and suggestions and write some more here later, cheers K.

Storm

2011-06-29T23:10:00.001+01:00

Below are three short videos of yesterdays storm. I placed my camcorder on the grass in my garden and faced it up at the sky. I left it there for a short time while the storm was happening. Afterwards I speeded up the film and added some filters. I prefer the first video compared to the second and third, as I think that I may have slightly over done the effects on the other ones..... never :-)

Wave Transformations 4

2011-06-26T14:28:00.002+01:00

In this video experiment I left in all the jerky camera moving shots that I usually edit out in. I added more filters than in the previous experiments.

I feel quite pleased with how this experiment turned out considering that I did no editing of the actual film itself. I think the movement between the natural generated waves of our physical world, merged with effects from the electronic realm work quite well too :-)

Wave Transformations 3

2011-06-25T21:10:00.001+01:00

More experimental abstract colourised wave patterns.

Wave Transformations 2

2011-06-24T15:27:00.003+01:00

This is another video taken at Shoreham Beach which I colourised and added effects to. The sound had even more noise than my previous video of wave transformations due to high winds, so this time I first used a filter to clean up the audio then applied sound effects. I used both the original sound track with the volume turned down lowish, along with a copy of the original with sound effects added for the second track (volume slightly higher).The wind can still be heard but is much more subtle than it was.

Wave Transformations 1

2011-06-20T10:35:00.011+01:00

Below is a video that I took of waves formations at Shoreham beach. I then added some effects colourising afterwards to give a more abstract feel. It was a very windy day so there was lots of added muffled noise. I tried using a high by pass filter to remove this but it didn't work very well, so I used the original sound and turned this down really low and then made a second track where I copied the original sound and then added some filter effects to this track.

Below are some sketches that I did of Shoreham Beach using charcoal. I added an effect called Conte Crayon in Photoshop afterwards.

RIP: A Remix Manifesto

2011-06-16T14:40:00.007+01:00

To be honest I haven't given copyrighting or remixing much thought until I watched RIP: A Remix Manifesto click here to view trailer. You can pay whatever amount you choose (or nothing) to watch this film. It's a real eye opener into how corrupt the issues of copyrighting have become. Over the years Copyrighting has been manipulated for profit by big corporations and has nothing to do with what is fair. These laws are stifling knowledge and creativity and are out of touch with today's society.

If you are a musician and think that you have never remixed anything, then think again. How did you learn. Was it by ear or was it by learning music? Either way you have learnt from other people's knowledge. Even when you make up a riff, it's all based on your understanding of this knowledge. Is this remixing and should you be sued for copyrighting? No, of course not, no one would ever learn anything. So why is remixing thought of as so wrong? This film explains this and they recommend people watch it and have fun remixing the film too.

Below is just a little clip of my attempt at remixing this film :-)

Generative Art Programs

2011-06-02T21:00:00.002+01:00

Today I've been looking at different programs to explore generative art. I found this fab site called Media Militia: click here. I also found some live samples from Audio based Generative Art 2.0, click here.

Below is an interactive sample that I had fun with :-)

Lynette Wallworth: Evolution of Fearlessness

2011-05-28T22:29:00.001+01:00

I recently went to see this installation held at the University of Brighton's Art Gallery.

Evolution of Fearlessness is an intimate, interactive installation dealing with loss, survival and strength. The work incorporates filmed portraits of several women, originating from countries such as Afghanistan‚ Sudan‚ Iraq and El Salvador. They have lived through wars or survived concentration camps or extreme acts of violence and are brought directly to the audience, through this intimate installation, to share their stories.

Built around the importance of gesture‚ and responsive to touch, Evolution of Fearlessness provides a tactile gateway to the women contained in the piece. Whilst cinematic techniques are at the heart of Evolution of Fearlessness, the work goes beyond cinema in its immersive and interactive form, revealing the strength of the human spirit. The work resonates strongly with the themes running through Brighton Festival 2011, which have been inspired by the courage of it's guest curator, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The room was very dark, a small lamp focused on a book in one corner where viewers could sit and read. I could also see a glowing light which I first headed towards. I touched the light and a life sized women gradually appeared. She put her hand out and looked at me. I touched her hand while continuing to look at her face. She projected such intense sad emotions just by her facial expressions alone. She gradually faded and the glowing light reappeared. I touched the light again and a different women emerged. This unique but similar experience repeated several times with a different person.

I usually like to video exhibitions that I visit but this one I couldn't. This wasn't because photography was not allowed either. It was due to the emotional response that this installation had on me. It was so effective in conveying such sad emotions of each individual. I was literally in tears, and this was before I even read the horrendous stories of their lives. While there was a book containing each women's personal story to read as part of the installation, there was also a little booklet to buy. I have just finished reading all the stories :-( Although it's so sad reading their tales it shows how individuality can prevail in such awful social systems. The courage of these women is commendable. The video below is a clip about the installation.

Mid Point Review Feedback

2011-05-26T19:54:00.009+01:00

As part of the MPR the custom is to present a brief overview (5 mins) of the work so far. After that you are not allowed to speak while your work is being discussed. This was quite tricky for me :-)

I would like to say thank you to everyone that contributed in the discussion about my work. It has been brill to get such good feedback.

I have split the feedback up into three sections:

Questions
Comments
Suggestions/Links

Questions:

Moira: I wanted to ask whether you are thinking of mixing the fire video with your initial experiments?

Kay: I have thought about that, but my next steps are to continue filming natural generative elements then later experiment combining them with computer generated software.

Osiris: Yes I liked the Spiro. I think that the Spirograph is fascinating because it is only possible with circular forms. Even if the result is not circular. What are your thoughts about that?

Kay: Yes I agree I think that's also fascinating too. The end result doesn't have to be circular which reminds me of this joke: What did the triangle say to the circle? You are sooooo pointless :-) But in this case triangular shapes can be made by a circular spirograph, which makes me think a circle is not as pointless as the triangle thinks :-)

Mariana : As Kay has demonstrated with her experiments, generative elements can be digitally manipulated to create great visuals but I wonder how is she going to use those visuals at the end?

Kay: I'm wondering the same thing Mariana :-) I haven't got a clue but I like not knowing.

Louis: Are the sounds "that individual" from one spirograph to another or the graphics effected by the choice of filters.

Kay: Yes I recorded each individual sound made by each pattern then combined them all together. The colours originally used for each pattern were chosen by a random method. I then filmed the end result of this system and then later added in the effects.

Comments:

Eva: I really liked the film you made and I loved that you were struggling with not sticking with your rules.

Mariana: I like Kay’s research on generative elements, systems, interconnectivity and individuality, it opens up so many possibilities.

Moira: I am really impressed with Kay's theoretical research, and jealous of all the exhibitions she is visiting.

Osiris: I think it is a very philosophical work.

Olivia: Maybe there is a pattern within all probability?

Madeline: To me it has strong links with minimalist composers, sound structures, repeated patterns.

Louis: The fire video was simple but brilliant.

Mariana: I also like the fact that Kay is as focused on the sound as she is on the visuals because they both are a great source of work.

Moira: Yes, using the sound was a great idea.

Eva: Chance and triggering of your own memories through others. The spirogragh was a perfect interaction of old and new memories.

Mariana: I especially like the geometric patterns with great colour palettes she created with the spiral sounds.

Osiris: I understand her results correctly, up to now all existence is based on Individualism even if it comes from mechanism ? Or not?

Eva: When I was little i was always amazed at the pattern of the spirogragh as if it had never happened before as if it was by chance that this amazing pattern appeared.

Osiris: Was it clear to you all, why Kay includes Chaos Theory ?

Suggestions and links:

Madeline: I discovered an artist recently, Jack Ox, plays with structures and repetitions, influences by sound. There was also an exhibition in New York a few years ago - Radical Lace and Subversive knitting, structures created by repeated actions.

Osiris: There is always a pattern, Stephen Hawking's theory of all things!

Jedrzej: There is one artist which I will recommend for you. I remember that Phillip Glass once done an animation called Color Wheel, and it remind me a bit of what you have done with these simple shapes.

Moira: The sound reminded me of a Hafler Trio Dvd with generated sounds: Click here

Olivia: It would be interested to see them overlapping.

Mariana: In terms of incorporating generative elements to your work I thought of some ideas: you could film oil in water, bubbles, smoke (cigarette smoke) under different lightings, drops of ink in water filmed through a fish bowl.

Monkee: I like her generative drawing by spirograph! if she can record how the lines come out, like an animation of a spirograph, it might be interesting. I know it's hard to record it without seeing the spirograph.

Mariana: Another thing you can film is a cd in a microwave here is a video on youtube you can watch later, the CD makes great visuals towards the end of the video: click here

Louis: Could this concept be applied to other subjects wind movement, shifting light/moving shadows, insect movement/swarms colonies etc.

Claire: Looking at the images on the blog reminds me of these projections: click here

Moira: I also think there are endless things you could do with the Spirograph, Processing and After Effects.

Eva: For some reason I ended up thinking about this scene from Midnight cowboy after I looked at your presentation click here

Mid Point Review

2011-05-20T19:25:00.003+01:00

Mesopotamian Dramaturgies

2011-05-15T21:08:00.002+01:00

I went to see this amazing installation today by Kutlug Ataman. Below is a short video that I took of the exhibition.

Animating the atmospheric disused space of the Old Municipal Market, the exhibition brings together two works which use the theme of water to meditate on political change. The centrepiece is the world premiere of Mayhem. In this new multi-screen film installation, commissioned by Brighton Festival, water is used to subtly symbolise the transformational energy of revolution. It is presented with Su, a video installation shown in the UK for the first time.

The Guest Director of Brighton Festival 2011 is Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate. Inspired by her, the festival celebrates themes of freedom of expression, liberty, and the power of the individual voice in society. These works by Ataman strongly resonate with these themes, at a time where revolutionary change is sweeping through Ataman's own region. Ataman passionately believes in the need for democracy and freedom of expression in his native Turkey, and in the wider region.

Mesopotamian Dramaturgies / Mayhem (2011)
In Mayhem, Ataman transports us to another Mesopotamia - ?la Mesopotamia? in Argentina, itself located between the Paraná and Uruguay rivers. Here, in what Ataman describes as an "alternative promised land", we are confronted by the spectacular and chaotic energy of the Iguazu Falls. In what he refers to as a direct response to the uprisings taking place in his own region, Ataman casts water as both a cleansing and destructive force. Just as water shapes and transforms nature, the Arab Spring is sweeping aside old structures and allowing new ones to evolve.

Mesopotamian Dramaturgies / Su (2009)
Su takes it's name from the Turkish word for water. It was filmed over a year, and illustrates the different moods of the Bosphorus strait, the narrow strip of water that separates Europe from Asia. Formed of two split-screen installations, each a mirror image of the other, Su calls to mind the fluid, constantly changing nature of geographical boundaries. As visitors enter, they are met with one of the key phrases of Islam - "There is no God but Allah" - written in cuneiform script, superimposed onto the shifting waters. In one screen the text is reversed, as it is in some mosques in Turkey.
In Su, two realms often thought of as separate and opposite, are united.

Ataman intends to complete filming for Mesopotamian Dramaturgies in Syria, and was only recently prevented from doing so by the current political instability there.

About the Artist
Kutluğ Ataman (born 1961 in Istanbul, Turkey) is a filmmaker and contemporary artist. His work has been shown internationally at major forums such as Documenta, and the Venice Biennale, and at notable exhibitions at the Serpentine, Istanbul Modern Art Museum and many other galleries. His work is in international collections, including those of MoMA and Tate Modern. He is a recipient of the highly prestigious Carnegie Prize and has been nominated for the Turner Prize.

Project Proposal 4

2011-05-15T13:19:00.004+01:00

Here's my latest Project Proposal
Project Proposal

Generative Elements

2011-05-13T20:01:00.004+01:00

This is a short video clip that I made by zooming into fire.

Jardin Flambeau

2011-05-10T21:10:00.003+01:00

As night fell St Ann's Well Gardens came alive transforming into a wonderful fire garden of kinetic sculptures, flaming pots and cascades of candles. I have been to an event by the French outdoor alchemists Compagnie Carabosse before, which took place on the lawn of the Tate Modern, but this was by far much bigger and better. I felt so lucky that this event was being held in my favourite local park as part of the Brighton Festival. It transformed an already beautiful place into a magical night time garden.

I filmed and also took quite a lot of photographs here. I watched the constant transformation of the flames move in random sequences not unlike waves in the ocean. I remember watching these natural elements of nature as a child for long periods. I am today still fascinated with their generative qualities.

Below are just a few photos of this event. I choose these ones because they are quite abstract and I much prefer them to the other photos that I took. I decided that next I'm going to use post production effects on my videos of the flames and incorporate them into my own practise for experimentation.

The Consciousness Engine

2011-05-09T23:22:00.007+01:00

I had no idea this exhibition was on! I stumbled across it totally by accident and I felt so happy that I did, because this work relates in some ways to my own project. The artists Shardcore and Sam Hewitt explore notions of the collective and individual via scientific and spiritual inquiries in the search for truth.

The Consciousness Engine is a series of visual and digital art installations at The Old Market. Rooms distributed around the venue contain pieces of video and audio staged to suggest evidence of a consciousness making discoveries about its own nature. Not like a child learning for the first time but as an adult looking at their habits of self identification.
As an audience member you may explore the building in your own way and interact as you wish with phones and cameras incorporated into the installations. These allow you to contribute audio and video to the Engine and they allow It to gain information about humanity. The core of the Engine can be viewed at any time as a constantly evolving, self-editing film in the basement of the venue. As the festival progresses, video of the most memorable visitors will be incorporated into Its regular thought patterns.

My favourite part of this exhibition was a video installation in a white ceramic tiled room at the basement of the building (core of the engine). The tiles worked really well due to both the reflections of the projection on the other tiles in the room; also viewing the video projection on the tiles gave a more geometric graph like effect which also was very apt when you knew that it was a computer speaking in the video. The computer made random sometimes contradictory statements, for instance at one point it was talking about religion and then afterwards it said something on the lines of - If you are trying to put this into some sort of religious or spiritual connotation then you are missing the point! There was also one sentence that really stuck in my head - Can freedom be organised? This question ran circles in my mind because if you can organise freedom then you haven't got it, but then if freedom is not organised how do we achieve it? Could freedom only be achieved by random happenings? How do we define freedom? Can freedom even be defined within a collective because everyone's idea of freedom would be different. So can freedom only truly exist in isolation? Hmmm I still don't know about this either as this then led me thinking about existentialism being a prison for the mind! Also if we were isolated it would have to be by choice so then this would have been organised but I can't see many people opting for isolation either. I haven't really come to a conclusion. I think that freedom is very hard to achieve in society, but it can possible be organised for individual personal choice, if isolation is of your own choosing. This is by far means incomplete and I know that I will be thinking about this for sometime.

Most of the scenes in the video were of places in Brighton that I recognised. Personally I think this worked well for me because I live in Brighton, and some of these scenes triggered my own memories in a way that I felt like they were mine. I found this video to be quite remarkable, not only was it extremely thought provoking, the video was also made using generative software so it never repeated.

I really enjoyed this exhibition it also felt quite apt that I found it by chance too :-)

For link to The Consciousness Engine by artist's Shardcore and Sam Hewitt click here.

And The Birds Fell From The Sky

2011-05-09T20:49:00.004+01:00

As part of this year's Brighton Festival I first went to see an immersive video goggle performance at a venue called: The Old Market. Only two people could enter at one time and we were both fitted out with googles and earphones.

This combined both cinema and instruction based theatre to cast the audience as the main character in a wild journey to the world of the Faruk Clown. Anarchic, dreamy and dangerous, ‘And The Birds Fell From the Sky’ takes you on a joyride inside your head all the way to the edge of civilisation.

I thought this was a brilliant multi sensory experience and definitely worth checking out. I do not want to say any more at this point because it will ruin it if you thinking of going. However if you do not like surprises then click here to find out more, but I recommend that you just go and read nothing more beforehand :-)

And the Birds fell from the Sky is on every weekend until the end of the month (May 2011), at the Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove, BN3 1AS.

Phoenix Gallery Brighton: Actuate My Void.

2011-04-18T13:45:00.006+01:00

I recently visited the Phoenix Gallery in Brighton to view an interactive sound and light installation. Three artists, Angie Atmadjaja, Theo Burt, and Peter Worth explore a combination of digital generated audio, intense projected colour and reactive lighting.

Below is some short video clips that I filmed of the exhibition.

In the first gallery space there was an installation by Angie Atmadjaja titled: Intrinsic. Upon entering this space I initially felt a little apprehensive as the room was totally pitch black and I couldn’t see anything. I carried on walking quite slow until a collection of individual floating tubular neon lights started to merge before my eyes. Gradually the tubes started to resonate and I felt as if I was inside some sort of digital musical instrument that was trying to communicate with me. At first, the sounds reminded me of a machine that had to reach a certain pitch before activation. Then once the required pitch had been reached, beautiful musical dancing life forms could come to life and communicate at their correct velocity. This was so amazing to watch. It also made me feel like I had been welcomed into a new visual digital world, combined of light, dance and sound.

The second gallery space was an installation by Theo Burt titled: Four. He used four suspended light panels and four speakers to create a combination of different colours and sounds, creating sound patterns which also seemed like a form of communication. This installation reminded me of the sci-fi film called Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where Aliens communicate using colours, patterns and sounds. Even though this installation made me feel really happy I couldn’t help thinking if there were subliminal messages hidden somewhere, or if this could be used as a form of brain washing technique.

The third gallery space was an installation by Peter Worth titled: Material. This installation consisted of a different colour projected onto a square which slightly protruded from the wall, giving a digital relief effect. Bright colour and sound emanated from the square, which would then change to another colour and sound every so often. I tried to film this but it didn’t turn out very well as I really needed a tripod.
I felt contradictory emotions from this installation, while some colours where very calming, some of the sounds were not, and also verse versa. It left me thinking about the relationship between colour and sound and how people react. For instance would I prefer to look at my favourite colour with a slightly annoying sound or look at a colour that’s totally glary but with a sound that I like?

I thoroughly enjoyed viewing all three installations, they were all very thought provoking which left me feeling totally inspired :-)

Reflections on my studio practise so far.

2011-04-11T18:43:00.002+01:00

After experimenting with a generative art process I noticed that this wasn’t exactly working. I really wanted to make art using this method. I found it totally fascinating to not know the outcome and have that level of autonomy in my work. Also the work of generative artists has been extremely inspirational, and I really wanted to experiment with this process too. I really enjoyed making up simple rules to follow, it was fun but upon reaching the end result of those rules I would deliberately break them by my own intervention. The question here is, why have I been making up my own rules to break? I even liked the end result of these experiments but I just felt that I needed to make changes! I just didn’t feel content to let my artwork unfold in this way. Why did I feel like this? I reverted back to the question of my project: Existence: Individualism or Mechanism? Well I think this is what happened, when rules are implemented, even if they are your own rules they become part of a system. Somehow I felt that my individuality to create something had become lost in this system, even though I created the system to begin with!

Tutorial with Jonathan on the 4/4/2011

2011-04-05T00:19:00.001+01:00

Issues discussed/Subject: Blog and Studio Practice.

In this tutorial my main concerns were that my generative art process was not going exactly as planned! Since doing lots of experimentation I noticed that I actually prefer the approach of a part generated and part created process. I have been making up rules to start each experiment off, but then I prefer the outcome when I intervene. I’ve noticed that I’m not content with making up rules and letting the artwork unfold. This has become awkward as at present I do not have any contextual research on this approach. I’m hoping that it will still be ok to research generative artists as my main contextual research artists? I’m also hoping to find other artists that have made these choices too.

Jonathan’s suggestion and comments:

I honestly don't see a problem here, you have come to this position because of your practice and that is excellent practice based research. You just need to continue exploring and reflecting on what you are doing and why you feel the way you do. Reflective learning is often more personal than we first imagine. I think you will find in your contextual research other artists who have explored generative art and then developed a level of control or intervention, but even if you don't the issues are there for you to explore. Look at kinetic art for example, not just Duchamp. You will find loads of work that starts with rules but then the artist is surprised by what happens or actively allows the audience to shape the movement. This is all useful context you can try and understand what they were thinking and why they worked in the way they did. Look at the artist Ian Davenport, very different to what you are doing, he pours paint but in a very controlled way, but there is a freedom that the paint has which is 'generative'. In my own work with PVA glue, I talk about setting rules and I now even use the word 'orchestrate' to describe my process, but the glue has a life of its own and surprises me, but I do intervene. Remember that context can be contrasting work to your own not just similar.

Keep exploring the generative stuff and don’t worry if you want to get involved in yours and not just let it go, that is valid as long as you talk about why and what is driving you to do this. You have started this on your blog already, maybe go back and look at some of your experiments and revisit them asking yourself deep questions about why you did it that way? This is really good stuff and thinking like this early on in the course is a good sign! Challenging yourself like this will only lead to deeper work!

Use lots of tags, i.e. summarise each post with 5 or 6, maybe more tags, i.e., 1 word descriptions about the content, imagine yourself trying to find the content again in 18 months time, what words would you use to find the content again? When you can't remember when you wrote it or exactly what the title was then use much smaller collection of categories, these are where you are starting to organise the data yourself, the categories don't need to be planned from the beginning they can grow as you add more but often 5 or 6 broad categories are enough. For your artwork the words should be 'studio practice' or 'my work' something to make it clear that the content is your own not just showing us someone else’s work.

Overall this is great progress, well done.

Extremely good Blog so far.

Phew I felt much happier after this tutorial :-)

Experiments with previous spirograph sounds and geometric patterns.

2011-04-03T19:41:00.003+01:00

For these experiments I used the previous sounds from all the spirograph plates and combined them with a selection of patterns that were created using a basic system. The video below in this series of geometrical experiments is my favourite. To create this I first made up a system. I followed certain rules that I carried out to start off with. This was quite basic and each pattern change was based on gradually moving the size and angle FX in Vegas. Once I had these patterns I then randomly changed the colours and made some adjustments. I have noticed that I’m not content to just make up rules and let the artwork unfold. I also like to intervene with the creation. I have also done this with some of my previous spirograph experiments and these have also been my favourite too. So my next step is to update my project proposal. At this point I’m not quite sure what to call this process, it is part generated and part created!

Reflective chat: Analogue Vs Digital?

2011-03-30T00:45:00.007+01:00

This week our chat covered a variety of interesting topics but for this post I will focus on the subject: Analogue Vs Digital? The reason why I want to focus on this topic is because I feel that I need to explain my reasons in more detail on why I prefer analogue for the creation of music and digital for the reproduction of music.

Years ago when I first started playing electric guitar my first amp was a transistor amp. At first this was fine to learn to play on but after a couple of months I hated the sound so much that I just stopped playing. I had a friend who had a Marshall valve amp and totally loved the sound and knew that I had to have one if I wanted to continue playing. The only way I can explain this is that the sound of the valve amp seemed to flow, while the transistor amp was so compressed it felt like the sound was trapped in a box in desperate need of escape. I have since tried digital amps and I find them much the same as the transistor amp only with more effects but still the compressed sound. On the whole I think most guitarists will agree with me when I say that nothing compares to a valve amp at the moment. Yet I do have some friends that just don’t seem to be able to hear the difference, and to be honest I feel that they are missing out big time on not being able to hear this. But then I guess if you can’t hear the difference then you’re not missing out perhaps!

My reason while I prefer digital for the reproduction of sounds is because the sound is crystal clear and there’s no hissing with background noise as with vinyl or tapes. The sound can be copied perfectly. I also don’t buy music on cds anymore either, because digitally downloading music is much more environmentally friendly than buying cds, records or tapes so this all makes perfect sense to me. For this reason I also prefer to read books, newspapers and comics via computer too :-)

Click here to see Gary Moore playing guitar at a Marshall Amp Demo.

Gary Moore playing Parisienne Walkways live at Montreux in 1999. RIP Gary.

Reflective Thoughts

2011-03-23T22:38:00.003Z

After reading The Practice of Everyday (media) Life by Lev Manovich I also happened to stumble upon an interesting discussion on self-publishing Vs the publishing industry: click here

So you are probably thinking what is the connection and why is she mentioning this as well? Ok so firstly one of the questions my tutor has asked: Is art still possible after web 2.0? Manovich’s belief is that most content is being produced by prosumers, young professionals or professionals in training. Manovich wrote this a few years back and things have changed quite a lot since. Ordinary people are becoming more and more familiar with digital technology each and every day. For instance the blog post on ebooks and self publishing that I mentioned early is very inspirational. This triggered a vision of how I think art could evolve in a similar way using the self publishing ebook. Artist’s could self publish an ebook and charge just a small fee to view on computer. This could include statements, interviews, photos and videos. Also, another vision of how I see the future development of art is - full immersion within a 3D virtual environment. This would be a fantastic way to view selected exhibitions, and totally perfect for so many people, from disabled people to people in other countries that can’t afford to travel, to people with little time on their hands. The exhibitions could ask for a donation to view, or charge a small fee, or totally free and rely on advertising. However relying on advertising may affect the ethics of some artists so this may not be an option.

Manovich’s final statement: The real challenge may lie in the dynamics of web 2.0 culture – its constant innovation, its energy and its unpredictability. I totally agree with this statement, nobody can ever really tell what will take off, things are always changing and I find this quite exciting :-)

A series of experiments exploring spirograph patterns and sounds.

2011-02-27T20:57:00.003Z

Spirograph Pattern and Sound Experiment (last two plates).

2011-02-27T19:55:00.003Z

Since my spirograph set consisted of 4 different coloured plates, I decided to draw and record all the plates using the same method that I had previously used. To view method, it's the third video on the post called: Exploring the sounds and visual effects of spirographs together click here to watch. I have only made a video log showing the first spirograph plate (purple), since I have also used this initial starter method for all the other plates. To recap on this, the first plate (purple) had 13 individual patterns and sounds. The second plate (yellow) had 19 individual patterns and sounds.

Below is the third plate (blue) which has 11 individual patterns and sounds:

See below for the final plate in this set (green), it has 13 individual patterns and sounds.

Next I plan to use post production effects and experiment with all the patterns and sounds of the plates combined.

Tutorial with Andy on the 31/1/2011

2011-02-19T20:39:00.002Z

In this tutorial my main concerns were and still are to update my project proposal regarding my qualitative/quantitative research approach. I suggested that for my qualitative research I would email a questionnaire out to people and ask three questions after each experiment, and after a series of experiments I would ask between 7 and 10 questions, repeating the first three questions to see if any changes to these answers occurred. I now feel that this may possibly be too much, and I have decided to only send out one questionnaire after a series of experiments regarding my studio work. Ideally I would like between 10 or 20 of my peers to answer the questionnaire. I’m unsure at this point how often the questionnaire will need to be sent out, but my first questionnaire will be after I’ve completed a series of the spirograph visual/sound experiments seen previously on this blog. I have started to make videos of each experiment so that the experiments can be repeated. Click here to view my 1st video record. It’s the Third video on this page called video log.

Andy’s comments

Try to be more specific in descriptions / questions for questionnaire.
Remember to only describe questionnaire volunteers as peers or contemporaries.
May need to define the term individualism in opening description of my aims, but over time that may get defined through my practice.
Blog great, excellent work to date.

Video feature: 'Flock Logic' collaboration unites science and dance.

2011-02-04T19:46:00.003Z

I recently came across this intriguing project. While Chaos Theory has not been mentioned either in the video or the write up, I think it plays an integral part of this work which is very fascinating to watch.

To read more about this project Click here.

Spirograph and Sound Experiment Continued.

2011-01-30T22:41:00.002Z

This experiment consisted on another spirograph plate. I used the same method as the previous spirograph experiment but only this plate had 19 sounds/patterns. The sounds of the patterns merged together are quite different than before, though the visual effects are very similar when no effects are used.

In the first video below I added some post productions effects to blend the spirograph patterns. The second video has no effects other than using the zoom lens on my camcorder to make the patterns move.

Exploring the sounds and visual effects of spirographs together.

2011-01-23T22:54:00.007Z

This is an experiment recording each individual sound/pattern of a spirograph. The project involved first picking a random spirograph plate, then drawing each of the possible spirograph patterns on that plate using randomly selected coloured pens. First I had the system (1) the spirograph pattern. I also had the random elements (2) the choice of spirograph plate & the choice of coloured pens used. I filmed as I created 13 different spirograph patterns using various coloured pens & then extracted the 13 different audio recordings from those recordings. I then created a ‘sound collage’ by combining the sounds of the 13 different audio tracks. To this I added the visual effects which were accidentally created by zooming the camcorder onto the drawing which naturally created the movement. I had no idea this would happen and it was quite interesting to observe the effects of the zoom lens on the static drawing.

Changing Contrast:

I am quite pleased with the outcome of this experiment. I found bringing all the patterns/sounds together expresses a rather stressful emotion overall. Whilst the colours are very calming and the individual patterns are very pretty, the overlaying of all the patterns/sounds within the spirograph are quite stressful. The movement is reminiscent of a heartbeat trapped within a system which is articulated by the merging of the visual/ sound and movement creating a disturbing yet contradictory effect against the visuals of the calming colours. I found the outcome to be quite weird as this is very similar to previous work where I deliberately set out to create similar contradictory emotions. Yet with this I had no idea of the outcome.

This is a record of the method I used for this experiment:

Drawings using Spirographs

2011-01-23T22:40:00.003Z

After listening to Bruce Sterling’s talk on generative art using spirographs I felt inspired to buy a spirograph set to play around with. Although I found it quite remarkable to be able to make different patterns using spirographs, I also found listening to the sounds and different rhythms whilst drawing the patterns even more fascinating! Somehow to me it seemed pointless to only observe the visual effects when the sounds of making these patterns were equally as important. Here are some of my drawings using spirographs before I went on to record their sounds:

Reflective Chat: Quantitative & Qualitative

2011-01-20T16:13:00.003Z

This week’s chat session was on the subject of quantitative & qualitative research. For some reason I have had trouble remembering the differences between them until I found this funny video. Since watching this I don’t think that I will ever forget now :-)

Reflective Chat: Highrise

2011-01-14T23:43:00.002Z

Highrise/Out of My Window is an interactive documentary by Katerina Cizek that focuses and connects the lives of the people around the world who live in blocks of flats. This weeks chat session was centred around this topic.

Click here for link about Highrise Out of My Window.

Click here for interactive video of Out My Window.

The first window I clicked on used interactive video pan technology. Impressive, I’ve never seen real 360-degree interactive videos before. After the initial wow factor of playing with this I got hooked on the real life stories and watched them all. I was in tears with some stories, but also found it intriguing to see inside people’s homes and extremely inspirational to hear how people helped each other through difficult times. I loved the way this was done it gave a real insight into people’s lives on a very personal level.

In some ways I found Highrise quite similar to an Installation that was at the Tate Modern in 2007 called Global Cities: Click here This focused on the growth and expanse of cities and populations around the world. There were also videos of people talking about their lives too, but I found Katrerina Cizek’s Highrise/ Out of My Window had much more of an impact on me. Besides the 360-degree interactive video technology being very impressive I found the emphasis on the individual much more personal. I think this was due to the narrative, though it was debated in our chat that there wasn't one, well not in the traditional sense. For me the narrative was the connection of all these people living in practically identical homes yet all having unique lives and experiences. In one sense it’s very similar to a question within my own project: How does individualism prevail within a system? If you see the system as a structure of concrete buildings then this would be seeing how individuality exists within that system. I found actually seeing inside someone’s home gave it a much more individual and personal edge which seemed quite special.

During our discussion on Highrise some other issues arose. Open-source was mentioned and the group talked about their thoughts on whether an open-source community could create something like Highrise. While I think open-source is the way forward for many computer programs I’m not so sure for something like this. It may possibly work but I have concerns that it may turn out terrible. Since a young age I have been a fan of Star Trek, and have also watched some fan films too and to be honest found them absolutely rubbish with bad acting, terrible FXs etc. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that people shouldn’t make fan films either, but it would be a shame to see Highrise turn into the equivalent of a fan film.

Another interesting topic arose from the chat. Osiris pointed us in the direction of Sea Dragon & Photosynth:

Sea Dragon and Photosynth demo
Uploaded by tedtalks. - Videos of the latest science discoveries and tech.

I found this technology to be both brilliant and scary at the same time. I think what concerns me the most is the thought of this technology being able to recreate and replicate a person in 3d. I have visions of people being framed for crimes they didn't commit, but may be this is just me being cynical.

Project Proposal 3

2011-01-03T21:28:00.004Z

Existence: Individualism or Mechanism?
Exploring the notion of how individuality exists within a system.

Aims:

My primary aims for this project are to create a video/audio installation that expresses and questions the transformation of individuality within the conglomerate. I intend to explore the notion of how individuality exists within a system, along with questioning the notion of individualism/mechanism in my work (this may change depending on the perspective). Since this topic is quite complex I can only really hope to explore aspects of this vast subject. I aspire to convey these ideas by experimentation with pattern transformations and randomness using a process for the making of the work called Generative Art.
Secondary Aims:
To research Chaos Theory, and experiment with repetitive but random processes within both the natural and electronic realms.

Objectives:

To obtain a clearer understanding of the natural world.
To gain knowledge of theories and ideologies that may contribute to the making processes of Generative Art.
Acquire information from artists that already use this method.
Explore and create my own art using this process.
Project video onto kinetic sculptural forms.
Create a collection of generated sampled sounds.

Historical Context

Over the years my work has developed from making dynamic sculptures into creating multimedia installations, by exploring kinetics, sound and digital video. The historical context of my work can be found in a combination of art practices from Kinetic Art, Anti-Form Movement/Process Art, Video Art and Sound Art. In the past I have been intrigued by the Kinetic ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp. The Anti-Form movement and artworks by Robert Morris titled Scatter, Richard Serra’s Splatter, and the Subway Drawings by William Anastasi as they all have a dynamic quality and an element of chance. I am also fascinated by Video Art and the works of Nam June Paik, along with the experimental generated Sound Art by John Cage.

Contemporary Context

The contemporary artists and artworks that I will be researching for this project will be by Brian Eno, Philip Galenter, Bill Viola and Amy Stacey Curtis. At the time of writing, and as far as I am aware the most relevant contemporary artwork that relates to my research is called 77 Million Paintings by Brian Eno. This is a generative artwork that reflects notions of individuality and transformation within a collective.

Theoretical Context

The key words that reflect my project are Generative Art, Systems, Interconnectivity and Individuality. The theories and ideologies I will be using to explore my question/artwork can be linked to these keywords. I have listed my main theoretical areas of study below:

Dynamic Systems: Generative Art Processes, and Chaos Theory.
Popular Culture: Dystopian Future films and books.
Philosophy: Existentialism, Atheism, Marxism.
Theologies: Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity.

Methodology

My methodology for this project will be a combination of the following:

Primary Research/Contextual: I have contacted Generative Artist/Theorist Philip Galenter and arranged to interview him later in the year. I will be also be researching other practitioners: Brian Eno, Bill Viola and Stacey Amy Curtis. I will examine not only their artwork but also research how they judge what is objective and observable. I will also visit exhibitions, galleries and museums.

Visual Research: Taking photographs/video clips and drawing.

Studio Practice: To explore methods and practices relating to generative art. Since the subject of my question and process of making art simultaneously will play a major part in exploring my question, I will be researching different systems incorporated within generative art. I will also experiment and make my own systems that I will integrate within my studio practice. Here is a list of my intentions. I will keep a record of my experimentations on my blog:

Research Chaos theory, Benoit Mandelbrot and explore making sculptural patterns within the self similarity principle.
Create rules similar to tradition board games and apply them to my artwork.
Experiment with real-time video feedback to induce patterns and generate visual effects.
Learn and experiment with programming: Processing, and Scratch.
Learn how to generate fractals with the programme called ChaosPro.
Experiment with a collection of generated sounds by sampling sounds from generative instruments and sound sculptures such as Aeolian Harp, Wind Chimes, The Blackpool High Tide Organ, The Sea Organ and The Ringing Singing Tree, and possibly make my own generative instrument.
Experiment projecting video onto sculptural forms.
Play with and experiment with sculptural forms
Theoretical/Subject Research: To research Dynamic Systems: Generative Art Processes and Chaos Theory. Popular Culture: Dystopian Future films and books. Philosophy: Existentialism, Atheism, Marxism. Theologies: Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity.
Reflective research: This would possibly be in two stages, the first stage to collect and reflect on of all the relevant information gathered to write my reflective paper. This would contain information gathered from all the research sections, along with reflection on blog entries, from feedback of tutorials and group critiques to create my artwork for the final project. The second stage would be after my final exhibition. During the exhibition I would leave a comment book that will also contribute to the knowledge and feedback gained from the exhibition.

Outcomes

I am planning to create a digital video/audio installation where either video is projected onto a kinetic sculptural form or possibly there will be a kinetic sculptural installation and a video projection separately but within the same area. At this point I’m not sure about the exact outcome, though the space required will be the approximately the same: 3.5 metres squared. However from previous experience while setting up my BA Degree Show I realised that space can be limiting, and I may not be able to obtain my chosen amount of space. If this is the case I will need to know how much space I would have to work with beforehand so I can experiment within that space. Ideally I would like this area to be built with walls around and a doorway to enter that is also big enough for wheel chair access. I envision the installation to have an immersive quality where only one or two people would enter at a time.

Risk Assessment
I will need to specify that my installation will only be suitable for either one or two people entering at one time. I will do this either on a separate notice or on my personal statement so people can read before entering. This will ensure that overcrowding does not occur and that people can exit easily in case of an emergency. The kinetic sculptural installation will be powered by batteries which is not a concern as they will be hidden from view. I’m not sure at this point where the projector will need to be placed but both computer and projector will be out of the way so not to cause distraction from the artwork. I will need to see where the nearest plug sockets are and take into account the possible use of extension leads. For any cables running along the wall or floor to computer and projector I will use a combination of either cable clips or floor cable covers for both neatness and safety. All cables will need to be tested by an electrician for health and safety purposes prior to the exhibition.

Work Plan

I have split my work plan into a combination of colour coded sections. These topics
are the major stages of my work plan. The details of each section can be found in my methodology that I previously mentioned.

My plan is to research and complete all the areas mentioned in a constructive manner. While I have highlighted a combination of the research topics for the same duration this does not mean that I will constantly be researching them all every day, but what it does mean is that I will switch back and forth for each topic during this time frame until each section is completed. At this stage I do not know when all the course deadlines are so having a flexible timetable that I can change and restructure is also important to achieve these goals.

Bibliography

Books:

Austin, H. James (1999) Zen & the Brain. Massachusetts, MIT Press.

Casey, R., & Fry, B. (2010) Getting started with processing. Sebastopol, O’Reilly Media Inc.

Comer, S. (2009) Film & video art. London, Tate.

Dawkins, R. (2006) 3rd ed. The Selfish Gene. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Degrazia, D. (2005) Human Identity & Bio Ethics. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Field, M., & Golubitsky, M. (1992) Symmetry in chaos. New York, Oxford University Press
Inc..
Haralambos, M., & Holborn, M. (2008) Sociology themes & perspectives. London, HarperCollins Ltd..

Humphreys, C. (2005) A Popular Dictionary of Buddhism. Richmond, Curzon Press. This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-library.

Huxley, A. (1994) Brave New World. Flamingo.

Koterski, J.D. (2009) Biblical Wisdom Literature. Fordham, The Teaching Company.

Johnson, S. (2002) Emergence. London, Penguin Books.

Kreeft, K. (2007) The Philosophy of Jesus. South Bend Indiana, St Augustine’s Press.

Macey D. (2001) Dictionary of Critical Theory. Penguin.

Machan, T. R. (1998) Classical Individualism. London, Routledge. This edition published in the Taylor & francis e – library, 2005.

Manovich L., (2001) The language of New Media. London, MIT Press

Nies, A. (2009) Computability & Randomness. New York, Oxford Science Publications.

Orwell, G. (2008) 1984 Nineteen eighty-four. London, Penquin Books Ltd..

Parberry, I. (1987) The Parallel Complexity Theory. London, Pitman Publishing.

Paul C., (2003). Digital art., London, Thames & Hudson.

Rand, A. (1964) The Virtue of Selfishness. Canada, Signet Books.

Rush, M. (1999) New media in the late 20th – Century art. London. Thames & Hudson.

Russel, B. (1975) Why I am not a Christian. London, Unwin Paperbacks.

Sardar,Z, &Abrams, I. (2004) Introducing chaos. Royston, Icon Books.

Sartre, JP. Barnes, H, E, ed. (2003) Being and nothingness, London. Routledge.

Schneider, E. et al.(eds.) (2003) Mariko mori wave UFO, Kunsthaus Bregenz.

Sutra, M.D. (2008) Quantum Buddhism. F.Lepine Publishing.

Tyson, L (2006) Critical Theory Today. London, Routledge.

Williams, P. Garnett. (1997) Chaos Theory Tamed. Washington, D.C. Joseph Henry Press.

Films:

Gamer (2009) Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor, UK, Lakeshore Productions, 95mins.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron (1995) Bruce Pittman, USA. Atlantis films Ltd., 99mins.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron 2081 (2009) Chandler Tuttle, USA, Moving Picture Institute, 25mins.

Nineteen Eighty – Four (1984) Michael Radford, UK, Umbrella Rosenblum Films Productions 113mins.

The Island (2005) Michael Bay, USA, Dreamworks, Warner Bros., 136mins.

Journals

Burraston, D. (2007) Fundamental Insights On Complex Systems Arising From Generative Arts Practice. Leonardo. Vol. 40, Issue 4, pp 372-373.

Harle, R. (2008) YLEM Journal: Artists using Science & Technology. Leonardo. Vol. 41, Issue 5, p.531.

Leggett, M. (2007) Generative Systems & the Cinematic Spaces of Film & Installation Art.
Leonardo. Vol. 40, Issue 2, pp.123-128.

Mcknown, R. (2005) Fort Andross/Brunswick: Amy Stacey Curtis: Third Solo-Biennial: Change. Art New England. Vol. 26, no.2, p.22.

Monro, G. (2009) Emergence & Generative Art. Leonardo. Vol. 42, Issue 5, pp.476-477.

Schedel, Mg., & Rootberg, A. (2009) Generative Techniques in Hypermedia Performance.
Routledge. Vol. 28, No.1, pp.57-73.

Stasukevich, I. (2008) Crossing Over in Viola’s “Ocean Without a Shore.” American Cinematography. Vol. 89, no.3, p.10, 12, 14.

Radio

Chaos (Documentary) (1992) Steward, I. Radio BBC Radio 4.

Television Programs

Odyssey 5, Complete Series (2006) Adam J. Shully, David Carson & Jim Michaels, USA, Sony Pictures, DVD, 935mins.

The Prisoner,17 episodes, (1967-1968) Patrick McGoohan, et al, TV Series, ITV. British. 48mins (each episode).

The Secret Life of Chaos (Documentary) (2010) Stacey, N. TV. BBC Four, 9 Dec. 19.30 hrs. 60mins.

Websites & Internet Sources

Sterling, B. (2008) Design Processes Rather than Art. [Internet]. Available from:
http://www.fabrica.it/workshops/sterling_videos.html [Accessed 20th November 2010].

Viola, B. (1999) Exhibition Feature. [Internet] Available from:
http://www.sfmoma.org/media/features/viola/index.html [Accessed20th November 2010].

High Shoulder Productions (2006) Will Wright & Brian Eno “Playing With Time” [Internet]
http://fora.tv/2006/06/26/Will_Wright_and_Brian_Eno [Accessed 15th December 2010].

Galenter, P. What is Generative Art? Complexity Theory as a Context for Art Theory. [internet] http://philipgalanter.com/downloads/ga2003_what_is_genart.pdf [Accessed on 2nd Janurary 2011.

Galenter, P. (2009) The Generative Bodies Series. [Internet] http://philipgalanter.com/art/generativebodies/a/ [Accessed on 2nd January 20

Will Wright and Brian Eno: Play with Time.

2010-12-15T20:20:00.002Z

Excellent seminar on Generative Systems.

The Beauty of Chaos

2010-12-11T18:33:00.006Z

Something both wonderful and sad happened this week. I began seeing patterns much more prominent and awe inspiring than ever before. I found myself just staring at things, and became completely fascinated with a fractural cauliflower (well that’s what I called it) that I didn’t even want to eat because of its swirling complicated patterns and intense beauty.

I also watched some amazing cloud formations and tripped over a recycling bin whilst taking photos, due to being totally absorbed. I seemed to be noticing the magnificence of nature in so much more detail more than usual!

The sad part was the vote on the rise in tuition fees that was passed :-( I felt so sorry for the future generations of students wanting to study and not being able to, due to the high costs and huge debts they will face. At the moment this country seems to be going downhill fast, and I can only see things getting more chaotic. Due to thinking about this I stumbled across a book: Chaos Theory Tamed, by Garnett P. Williams. I started reading some of it, but then one thing led to another and before I knew it found a video on Chaos Theory on the internet, called: The Secret Life of Chaos. This had an amazing effect on me it was as if everything that I’d recently been thinking about this week had been put together in a video. Even the fractural cauliflower was in it, and I found out it’s either called a Romanesco Broccoli or a Roman Cauliflower. The video below is an excerpt from the documentary talking about Benoit Mandelbrot a mathematician. This clip explores how natural fractals in the world, form the shapes of mountains, coastlines and river basins; the structures of plants, blood vessels and lungs. It's a really fascinating documentary.

Discussing Project Proposals

2010-12-05T21:21:00.003Z

This week we mainly talked about project proposals and blogs. Andy recommended two sites to view.The first link gives advice on academic skills and time management etc. Click Here

The second link explains how to define a research investigation : Click Here

I have also been looking at MADA blogs from previous students. Jonathan recommended these a while back and they are both really good:

http://esmuto.wordpress.com

http://qunud.wordpress.com

Last week I ordered a book called: Getting started with Processing by Casey Reas and Ben Fry. It hasn’t arrived yet, but hopefully now that the snow has thawed it will turn up soon. During the chat session Osiris mentioned that he thought it would be possible to learn Processing in approximately 2 months. I was really pleased to hear this. Andy also mentioned that Processing is actually a Java based programme – it uses the Java runtime engine on the PC. Plus I found out that OOP stands for Object Oriented Programming: Click Here

In addition I got some feedback about my Generative Characters and Critique Videos from the group. All was good. This was a relief as I was slightly concerned someone may be offended :-)

Critique 1

2010-11-28T22:22:00.002Z

Here’s a short video of my critique. I have used toy characters from my previous experiment as avatars for the people in my group crit :-)

Generated Characters (Experiment)

2010-11-27T18:03:00.003Z

This is my first very basic attempt at a generated process. The characters are purely fictional and it is merely a coincidence if they bear any resemblance to the tutors and students on my course :-)

I started by finding some small toys and placed them all in a line. I then put all the names of the tutors and students on my course in a box, and then individually pulled one name out of the box. Each name was to given to the next toy in line. I then filmed the characters with different backgrounds. Next week I intend to generate a musical excerpt for each character.

Here’s the video of characters so far:

Bill Viola Exhibition Feature

2010-11-20T22:21:00.001Z

I found this brilliant website about Bill Viola's work. It has video clips, photos, interviews and goes into detail about the making of the work Click here

Bruce Sterling talks about Generative Art

2010-11-20T21:21:00.004Z

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

On the Fabrica Workshops Website there's also a really interesting interview with Bruce Sterling by Andy Cameron Click here

White Night Festival, Brighton 2010: Antigravity.

2010-11-20T17:09:00.008Z

White Night is one of my favourite free festivals in Brighton. It takes place every year at the end of October to coincide with the ending of British Summer time. At night the streets come alive with a variety of entertainment. My favourite art work this year was an installation by Brighton based artist Steve Geliot collaborating with JD Beauvallet, Andre Walker and the art department of Durrington High School.

Tilted: Antigravity.
I filmed just a few short clips of this event as it went on for hours.

When I first saw Antigravity from a distance it looked like a UFO hovering above Brighton’s City College Car Park. On closer inspection it appeared to be a huge balloon wearing a skirt, which was reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe’s iconic skirt-blowing scene in the film Seven Year Itch. The huge balloon was lifted into the air by a crane. Projected onto it appeared to be random images which danced in time with the music. As the night went on more people gathered and danced underneath. The atmosphere was quite magical and I thought this was by far the best event at the festival.

I would call the process of Antigravity to be in the field of generative art. The whole set up appeared to be a system with an autonomous factor. The balloon attached to the crane would be the controlled planned aspect. The projected images appeared to be random, but I didn't know if they were programmed to be random, or if they were on a loop. However the wind blowing both the balloon and skirt could be seen as an autonomous element, though arguably this could also be seen as an external system in place. Yet since the external system was an unknown factor (it could have been raining with no breeze) so I think this process could possibly be called generative art!

Brian Eno "77 Million Paintings"

2010-11-20T16:28:00.007Z

Brian Eno talks about his artwork: 77 Million Paintings.

Part 1

Part 2

7 More Hours in 77 Million Paintings (2008.03.16) from Pitch Bend on Vimeo.

Project Proposal 2

2010-11-13T21:11:00.005Z

Individualism or Mechanism?

Primary Aims

To create a video installation that explores the transformation of individuality within the conglomerate, by exploring the making of the work using a process called generative art.

Secondary Aims

To question the aspects of individualism/mechanism within my work (this may change depending on the perspective).

Objectives

· To research the methods and processes that may contribute to the making of
generative art.

· To explore and create art using the process generative art.

Definition

· Generative Art encompasses any art practice where the artist creates a process. This may be in the form of natural language rules, for instance: a computer program, machine or other mechanism, which is then set in motion with some degree of autonomy that contributes to the end result

Key words:

· Generative Art, Systems, Interconnectivity, Individuality.

Methodology:

My methodology for this project will be studio practice interlaced with the following:

· Visual Research

· Contextual Research

· Subject Research/Technique Research

· Reflective Research

Visual research would consist of taking photographs/video clips and drawing.

Contextual research would be to look at key artists that relate to my project which so far are Bill Viola and Amy Stacey Curtis. Both of these artists explore issues relating to interconnectivity, natural cycles, individuality, movement and repetition. Also Brian Eno’s installation called ‘77 Million Paintings’ reflects notions of individuality and transformation within a collective. I will continue to expand upon contextual research throughout the course and contact the most prominent artist or artists that relates to my work, and ask if I can interview them. I will also visit exhibitions, galleries and museums.

Subject research would be to explore methods and practices relating to generative art. Since the subject of my question and method of making the art simultaneously will play a major part in answering my question, I will be exploring different systems and theories incorporated within generative art. I will also experiment and make my own systems that I will integrate within my studio practice.

Reflective research would consist of all the relevant information gathered to write my paper, which would then lead on to writing the reflective paper. This would contain all the information gathered from all the research sections, along with reflection on blog entries to create my artwork for the final project.

Symposium 1

2010-11-03T12:24:00.010Z

Here’s a short video of my MADA project proposal.

I knew my proposal needed refining but it wasn’t until after making this short video that it occurred to me what I needed to change.

Project Proposal 1

2010-10-18T19:26:00.009+01:00

Individualism or Mechanism?
My aims for this project are to create a video installation that explores the transformation of individuality within the conglomerate. I am also interested in how the notion of individualism prevails within a system? Key words and interests lie in: transformation, interconnectivity, natural cycles, juxtaposition, cityscapes and reflections. This work would consist of a digital video projection installation. I would like to experiment making a 2d video collage which would then be projected onto a 3d sculptural form.

My methodology for this project will be studio practice interlaced with the following:

• Visual research
• Contextual research
• Subject research
• Technique research
• Reflective research

Visual research would consist of taking photographs/video clips and drawing.

Contextual research would be to look at key artists that relate to my project which so far are Bill Viola and Amy Stacey Curtis. Both of these artists explore issues relating to interconnectivity, natural cycles, individuality, movement and repetition. Also Brian Eno’s installation called ‘77 Million Paintings’ reflects notions of individuality and transformation within a collective. I will continue to expand upon contextual research throughout the course and contact the most prominent artist or artists that relates to my work, and ask if I can interview them. I will also visit exhibitions, galleries and museums.

Subject research would be to explore certain aspects of sociology by looking at individuality and societal structures and how they may reflect within the natural environment. This would also contain looking at some of the cultural and technological developments in contemporary society and how this affects the individual. I also will be exploring earth sciences by looking at repetitively, transformations, systems and natural cycles.

Technique research would include exploring new techniques within editing software, use of lighting effects and using new software and programmes.

Reflective research would consist of all the relevant information gathered to write my paper, which would then lead on to writing the reflective paper. This would contain all the information gathered from all the research sections, along with reflection on blog entries to create my artwork for the final project.

History and rational of my work

2010-10-17T18:45:00.007+01:00

History and rationale of my work:

I’ve always been fascinated by the visual effect of movement whether it be from human made mechanisms or movement within our natural environment. Due to this interest I simultaneously began to explore kinetics by attempting to make remote controlled sculptures and learn more about the cultural and technological developments in contemporary society. This subject gradually developed and led onto investigating aspects of the Posthuman, which was the basis for my BA dissertation:

http://www.kayjohns.net/dissertation.pdf

I found this topic to be both fascinating and scary at the same time, so my studio work began to be centred on the contradictions I was feeling. After I finished my dissertation, my research led into other areas within biotechnology, where I researched genetically modified organisms and artificial life forms. Again my studio work was based on contradictions. I wanted viewers to feel what I was feeling. My final work for my degree show consisted of an indoor kinetic installation titled: Twitter (based on the idea of genetically modified crops). An outside kinetic installation titled: Xenogenic, and a video exploring the evolution of Xenogenic.

Twitter consisted of 96 kinetic, plant-like geometric coloured straws, growing out of compost on pink paper plates.

Whilst the happy humorous visual element may strike you first. The sounds of the ticking clock mechanisms used to move the plants along with the uniform positioning of the plates in rows, gives a rather unnerving impression. The lighting in this installation was extremely important to enhance the moving shadows which also laid the path for the sinister undercurrents to emerge.

The installation Xenogenic, was outside in the college grounds, it consisted of three circles cut into the ground. This also was based on the idea of a genetically modified crop experiment, only instead of growing crops I was growing artificial manufactured life forms:

The video of Xenogenic explored the evolution of the artificial life forms:

I was and still am really happy with the outcome of both installations and the video. They all expressed the emotions that I wanted to at the time, but on reflection, it has left me asking more questions. For instance the orderly rows of plates with the different sized geometric kinetic straws, all moving at slightly different angles, also expresses a form of individuality, along with Xenogenic and the evolution of artificial life forms. This was not my focus of expression at the time, but it’s definitely an important aspect of this work, which I now feel compelled to explore further in my MA.