Yikes-it’s been a while since I’ve posted! To be honest, I’ve been a bit busy with my own interactive work! After finally *conquering* the sadistic world of arrays, I made my first video game ever using Processing, an interactive platform and coding language that is basically a more art-oriented version of Java. It’s a raindrop game where you have to “catch” raindrops with the mouse before they hit the end of the screen. While it’s not my original code (its from Daniel Shiffman’s ‘Learning Processing,’ which is absolutely a fantastic tool), I did manage to make the raindrops way prettier and create some gravity to add more of a challenge.
I can’t wait until I learn how to reference external videos and images! It’s going to be sick. Over the next month I will FINALLY be learning the “cool” stuff–videos, imaging, advanced object-oriented programming, converting to html, and translating to Java, C++, iPad apps, etc.
So stay tuned. As soon as I get to the point where I can put some stuff online, you can bet I will. In the meantime, new interactive art showcasing to follow…
This morning my brother told me to google “zerg rush,” which, to anyone who doesn’t play Starcraft, means complete gibberish. Still unsure if it was work-friendly or if Zerg was a word for some kind of freaky porn, I decided to take the risk and do it anyway. For the ladies in the house who don’t dork out on the regsies: zerg rush is a Starcraft reference for battling insectoids.
When you google ‘zerg rush,’ the O’s from Google’s logo launch an attack on your search results, eating them up unless you have extraordinary index finger strength to click them all away before they do any damage. Even if this is true, you will still lose, I don’t care how good you are at Starcraft. When the deed is done, you have the option to submit, share, and compare your score with others.
This is the first instance of interactive search engines that I’ve ever seen, and it means exciting things for the future. What if you were to launch a completely interactive search engine? What is the intention and reward from doing this? Well, in Google’s case, it does a few things: 1. They’ve pioneered the interactive search engine style, claiming it as theirs. 2. They will draw even more people to their site while this goes viral, attracting fringe audiences, gamers, and nerds. 3. They can test out interaction on google to see how well it does, how many people it draws, and as a result, it serves as a prototype for future interactive implementation. So, it could and probably will be a huge moneymaker for them.
Google didn’t really need to test this out, since it’s pretty obvious that adding interactivity to any commercial product will take you straight to the bank. We can’t help it-we’re a curious species and we’ve been wanting to push random buttons since we were toddlers (how often did you argue with siblings over who gets to push the elevator button…?). But I’m glad they did, because they are giving us a taste of what’s yet to come, and I can’t wait to see more.
Below are some of the creepiest interactive pieces I’ve ever seen, and somehow they all come from the same confusing company: Diginfo. Based in Japan, this talented-yet-possibly-very-evil company is well on its way to patenting the world’s first interactive sex robot. The first video shows an interactive poster you can make out with, the second is a sketchy hand-shaking device, and the third is a disconcerting robot that is supposed to communicate the presence of the long-distancep party with whom you are communicating. What can we expect next from this company? I’m afraid to guess. Not pictured here is an interactive kissing device, which you can check out here after you’re done being freaked out by the videos below!
Some really creepy insight on the Interactive Poster from Diginfo:
“The current system only produces visual changes, but we could also include the scent of shampoo from the person’s hair, or a lemon-flavored film on the lips, or a speaker that whispers ‘I love you.’ People who’ve tried this system advised us to do those things, so we think there’s still plenty to be done.”
While each of these projects is no small feat of science and technology and could surely be used for something good, it is disconcerting that Diginfo feels it necessary to digitize human beings and relationships. No matter how good your programming skills are, there’s simply no way to replicate the real touch of a real person. Is this a step forward for technology, but a step backward for humanity? I guess it goes with the age-old saying: just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Interactive Makeout Poster:
Robot Hand: This hand communicates grip force and body temperature.
Telenoid R1: Lonely? This robot will provide more than enough “presence” for you.
Check out this cool interactive piece by Jack Schulze and Timo Arnall called “Nearness.” If you’re a frequent YouTuber you’ve probably seen videos of “near field communication” inventions before, which basically just means that two objects can communicate by existing in close proximity. What I like most about this type of work and this piece in particular is how clearly it shows that “everything happens for a reason.” Now, usually when people use that phrase they are talking about some kind of higher power, usually God’s plans, something happening because of specific intent or destiny. No one can know that. This piece demonstrates what we do know–cause and effect. Everything happens as a result of something else happening, a domino effect, butterfly effect, whatever you want to call it. A piece of dust lit up by the sunlight catches your eye for a split second, and your entire day is affected whether you like it or not. The same is apparent in this piece, except unlike in our own lives it’s all laid out in front of you. It’s such a simple idea, isn’t it? But it’s what created life. It’s not to be underestimated. Watch it play out in “Nearness” below:
Scott Sona Snibbe has been in the interactive art world for a long time and has an impressive track record, having collaborated in the past with artists Bjork and filmmaker James Cameron. What I like best about his work is his objective; Snibbe says, “The purpose of my work is to bring meaning and joy to people’s lives….By using interactivity, I hope to promote an understanding of the world as interdependent; destroying the illusion that each of us, or any phenomenon, exists in isolation from the rest of reality.” His work succeeds in this, dealing mainly with interconnectivity, cause & effect, relativity, and illusion. Below are three of my favorite pieces; “Make Like a Tree” (2005), “Falling Girl,” (2008), and “Boundary Function” (1998). The first two use shadows captured by camera, one of Snibbe’s preferred motifs. “Boundary Functions” is quite interesting, especially in how it must be perceived uniquely in different cultures. Americans are quite fond of their personal space compared to many European and Asian countries, so I’d be curious to see the varied responses from these audiences.
“As viewers walk in front of Make Like a Tree’s projected wall, their shadows are recorded and return to this same image as eerie figures in the foreground and background that move between trees, disappear suddenly, and fade into the distance.”
“Falling Girl” (2008) collaboration with Annie Loui
“Falling Girl is an immersive interactive narrative installation that allows the viewer to participate in the story of a young girl falling from a skyscraper. During her miraculously slow descent, the girl reacts to the people and events in each window. Daylight fades, night falls and passes, and at dawn, when the falling girl finally lands on the sidewalk, she is an aged woman bearing no resemblance to the young girl who started her fall minutes before.
Captured on an interactive wall, the silhouettes of viewers viewers appear in apartment windows to juxtapose against the ever-present central image of the girl in silhouette falling slowly as she gets older and older. In this way, viewers participate in this tale about the shortness of our lives and the petty concerns that often occupy us.”
“Boundary Functions” (1998)
“We think of personal space as something that belongs entirely to ourselves. However, Boundary Functions shows us that personal space exists only in relation to others and changes without our control.
Boundary Functions is a set of lines projected from overhead onto the floor, dividing people in the gallery from one another. When there is one person on its floor, there is no response. When two are present, a single line cuts between them bisecting the floor, and dynamically changing as they move. With more than two people, the floor divides into cellular regions, each with the quality that all space within it is closer to the person inside than any one else.”
“Petros Vrellis has created an interactive visualisation and synthesizer that animates Vincent Van Goghs “Starry Night”, using openframeworks to create a simple and elegant interaction. A fluid simulation gently creates a flowing fabric from Van Goghs impressionist portrait of the Milky Way and night sky over Saint-Rémy in France using the thick paint daubs as the particles within the fluid.
A touch interface allows a viewer to deform the image, altering both the flow of the particles and the synthesized sound, and then watch it slowly return to its original state. The sound itself is created using a MIDI interface to create a soft ambient tone out of the movement of the fluid that underscores the soft movement. Beauty through simplicity at its finest and most playful.”
Cinimod Studio and Dominic Harris made “Ice Angel,” an interactive LED screen that gives you wings when you flap your arms around like a bird. Super cool in theory, but in practicality the message gets a little garbled. As you can see from the video below, what’s keeping participants from enjoying it fully is the half-second lag. As this audience member quickly realizes, the lag seems to go away if you go really, really, really slowly. But what kind of angel wants to move slowly? No human angel, that’s for sure. Seems like something that could be fixed.
Here’s what the creators had to say:
“Ice Angel blends the act of youthful playfulness when creating snow angels with modern digital manipulations,making the viewer assume the role of both performer and portrait subject.
As the user moves their arms a new wing shape appears, unfurling from the shoulders, moving and displacing virtual snow. The wings are created dynamically and are linked to the participant. The artwork has a ‘memory’, capturing a hidden view of the participant and their angel wings, and this specific angel identity remains linked to that participant in any future encounters with the artwork.
The merging of angel mythology and the natural phenomenon of light travelling to earth creates an intriguing intersection. In modern terms, light is our messenger, allowing us to view the universe. An angel’s form is inherently human, yet an angel always originates from beyond.”
I’m going where no Bizarre has gone before and triple posting these seeper people. Check it.
“Created for the Puffersphere, a multitouch spherical screen developed in collaboration with Pufferfish, this interactive display allows users to navigate the globe and explore the internet in a 3D space. Pins in the map signal new YouTube uploads across the world. When the user touches a pinhead a pop up box appears displaying the latest YouTube video posted in that territory. This multitouch, multiuser experience is an intuitive, responsive insight into global online activity.”
“A couple of depth camera experiments we built for the WIRED event in London, 2011. A rotatable depth visualisation and a Post Impressionist inspired interactive. Realised with smoothed out texture contours, derived using the co-sine of the depth map.”
Yup, it’s happened again. I’ve fallen in love with this company! Double-post it is. Can’t wait to see what other cool stuff comes our way from the peeps at Seeper.
Simply using LEDs and a Canon DSLR, Mercedez-Benz was able to create a virtually “invisible” car by displaying the camera’s view onto the LEDs. Really neat stuff.
L.R.'s Bizarre Bazaar 