After all the work that Lukasz, Eli and I put into Dusk, I thought a quick video about the work was in order. In the artist talks at Underbelly Arts, I often found it difficult to explain to people concisely just how the project works – hopefully this video fills in the gaps somewhat.
Although we were proud of what we accomplished in the short space of time we had at Underbelly Arts, this first incarnation of the Dusk project does feel unfinished. A huge benefit of taking part in Underbelly Arts is the opportunity to document our work in this way, so that it might have another life at sometime in the future.
Dusk in action on the opening night of Underbelly Arts.
Underbelly Arts kicked off last night with an opening party and a successful launch of Dusk. We were all happy (and relived) to see the project come together, and it was especially nice to watch people playing with the work.
Today marks the final day of Underbelly Arts, with a public festival event. We’ll be on site for an artist talk at 4pm, but if you can’t make it along, I’ll be putting together a wrap up of the whole project in the coming days. In the meantime, there are more videos on Flickr.
It took 10 full days, but the project is (all but) finished. The last coat of paint hit the floor this afternoon and lights went into the tree. We also did a very quick test of video mixing from 2 laptops, and whilst it isn’t perfect, it’s not bad for a project that we had to create with such a short turn around.
Tomorrow I’ll post some video of Dusk in action, but in the meantime there are some shots of the final build after the jump. If you’re coming along to the Underbelly Arts festival, make sure you stop by to check out our artist talk, at 4pm and 6pm.
For the first time, we saw what will become the basis for our fireflies projected onto the warehouse floor. These little fellas are called ‘boids’ and at this stage look like a certain male reproductive cell. They’ll take a more complete form soon.
As you can see in the video above, Lukasz has programmed the boids (in openFrameworks) to simulate flocking behaviour: they prefer to move in groups, but when faced with a physical object – in this case, our papier mâché rocks – they will split in various directions, creating new flocks. The size and shape of the physical objects need to be traced out for the program, however camera motion tracking of people in the space will have a similar impact on the boids, allowing participants to herd the fireflies into different areas of the projection.
Saturday was the first opportunity we’ve had to spend a full day working on Dusk, in the warehouse. We took the opportunity to start construction on the physical objects that will occupy the projection space: a thatch tree and papier mâché rocks have begun to take shape. These objects will not only provide some tangible shape to our work, but also represent places that our responsive, projected fireflies will call home. When frightened, they will escape into one of these object, which will in turn respond by colour, lighting and sound.
Whilst it was great to see the physical objects take shape, we’re still plagued by projector issues. We had sourced what we thought was a projector with a 1:1 throw after our initial problems, but it turned out to be closer to 1.2:1, making the projected space quite small. We need to discuss whether this decrease in size will compromise our work, or if it will still be as effective as a smaller space. Either way, the ever-shortening deadline is leading to ever-shortening blog posts. Pictures tell a story, and there’s more of those after the jump…
Day 2: our first major hurdle(s)… Last night we tested the projector inside the warehouse space. At 5000 lumens, brightness was not a problem, but the limited throw certainly was. The model of projector we’re using needs a lot of distance (throw) between it and the surface to be projected on, to create a large enough image for us to work with.
Whilst there is a lot of space in the warehouse, we couldn’t figure out a way to give us enough of a distance for a top-down projection that would feel immersive. The best we managed was around 4m x 3m, and once the area includes physical objects, this doesn’t leave much room for people to move.
Next week, a few of the members of angryPixel will embark on a 10 day artist residency to create an interactive installation project at the Underbelly Arts festival in Sydney. Aside from being a great opportunity to work on a piece that will be presented to the public, Underbelly Arts provides artists with the ability to present their work in progress, as public tours take place during the lab period: July 7th-15th.
Working alongside other talented artists will also expose us to new ideas and hopefully take our work in unexpected directions. Following the lab residency, the Underbelly Arts festival will take place on July 17th, with all completed work presented to the public.
The concept for the angryPixel installation – Dusk – is loose enough to give us some latitude in direction. I will post regular updates as the project and lab unfolds over the coming weeks.
Along with applications for designers and artists, we’re now accepting expressions of interest from musicians of all shapes and sizes – but only until April 2nd, 2010. If you’re interested, get in touch with a short paragraph about yourself and your music, and a link to some of your tunes online. Contact details are here.
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