All posts by omar
Valerie Walker
Valerie Walker
Indigo Griots … Solar Memories.. Northern Lights…
Using the power of solar energy stored during the day I will bring the SOUCCS station into the black box and set up video floor projections of the griots stories in Madame Ceci’s garden (a short pov video made during a performance piece in Minneapolis’s historic African American inner city, now near the expanded airport. Various interactors will come to black box and get a solar power charge, telling the TransFutonic Indigo Griot I portray, a story in exchange for the pure solar power.
Exploration of multi-green-screening leading to insertion of 3D medias is something I plan to investigate visually using 3D material I’ve recently created in a 3D stereoscopic video production residency at OBORO this year in collaboration with Allison Moore and OBORO’s media labo. Storytelling is at the heart of the Solar USB Charrging Culture Station (SOUCCS) project. By interlacing and exploring the aural and visual connections of our stories, power and the technofascinations of society I will create an immersive piece that explores technology and memories from a multifaceted female perspective..
I plan to invite audio sound artist & composer Stephanie Loveless to collaborate on the audio. I will also ask Douglas Ewart, Diasporic Griot (included in some of the Minn. video) to take part via his shakuhachi flute compostions on CD (he presents regularly at Banff Center). I will ask Stephanie Loveless to work with this into her compositions along with other Trans-Atlantic African derived sounds I have been collecting via this research.
Felix Del Tredici
Felix Del Tredici
David Clark
David Clark
Tonewall
Architectural design values often consider the experience of a space to be primarily visual, and yet from the point of view of the beholder space is a holistic sensory experience. Moreover, while vision allows us to perceive static environments, sound adds a temporal dimension enabling us to experience how a space changes over time. Sound transforms a space into a dynamic experience with respect to both the space and the interaction of bodies within the space.
Tonewall is an interactive architectural form made up of an integrated experience of light and sound. A path of light cuts across and punctuates an otherwise lightless environment, a black box. The interaction in the space begins as bodies intersect the light path. The path can be envisioned as an atonal musical instrument which maps tone to the position of bodies across the room and overtones to the elevation of bodies in the space.
As an experimental interaction, Tonewall highlights the mutual experience of a space both visually and acoustically. While bodies define the visual and acoustic elements of the space, these elements in turn define the movements of the bodies within the space. In addition, both disharmonic and harmonic sound amplifies tensions as they relate to the proximity between bodies within the Tonewall. As bodies come together and connect, separate tones become singular.
Outside the Tonewall, guests within the space are spectators; within the Tonewall they are performers. To enter the light and become visible is to become a part of both the visual and sonic definition of the space. As the performance unfolds, so too does the story and the dynamic definition of the space.
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wEAR
wEAR is an experimental headset which integrates sound isolating ear muffs with a stereo headset and binaural mics. As a platform for acoustic sensorial intervention wEAR provides a means to manipulate how an environment is heard. One possible direction for the hardware would be to develop its potential as a device to empower a wearer with the ability to manipulate their own sonic environment. The wearer would be able to personalize their auditory experience by either highlighting or filtering sonic attributes of natural sound. Beyond this potentially commercial direction for the headset, wEAR can be also be used to formulate specific research questions involving how hearing impacts one’s relationship to an environment. An initial experiment planned for the headset involves fragmenting the experience of sound from that of vision. An accelerometer/gyroscope will be used to translate head motion to how sound is perceived. Both delay and frequency filtration will sever the natural connection between the eye and ear and potentially expose previously hidden details.
Omar AL FALEH
Omar AL FALEH
Project: Tessellation
Concept: Omar AL FALEH &Nikolaos Chandolias
Support: Marcello Licitra
ACATUS, the Greek word for the mythological “floating vessel”, is a modular suspended interactive light structure that is responsive to people’s presence and action. When looked at from above, ACATUS is a rigid grid of equal squares, which is the traditional reductionist divisive systems that describe space and place in traditional architectural drawings. However, ACATUS’ grid vertices are vertically displaced to transform the perspective of those who walk under it into a varying geometrical landscape that does not obstruct vision yet influences their behavior and trajectory in space.
This formal geometrical deformation is a reminiscence of the early experimentation in deconstructive architecture where systems (semiotic, symbolic, and representational) are iteratively transformed and complexified. The resulting shapes are a snapshot of this transformation that holds evidence of its origins and futures, thus adding a temporal dimension to the genesis of ACATUS as dynamic responsive architecture that exists across the four dimensions.
ACATUS is designed to respond to different modalities of interaction: presence, motion, and sound levels. The response is rendered on the node level rather than lines, which is a symbolic reference to constellations and star mapping, which was the original path-finding and geo-mapping system, before digital systems were invented.
ACATUS exists on various states that are presence-dependent. When no one is present in the installation, ACATUS cycles between different pre-determined animated behaviors. When presence is detected, response happens on the sonic level and on the motion tracking levels, and rendering the response is responsive to the accumulated input of the multiple users within the space.
Project: Memory, Place, Identity
Concept: Sha Xin Wei, David Morris, Omar AL FALEH
Support:David Clark
This project is an experiment in replacing the physicality and permanency of the built environment by a dynamic, ephemeral, and immaterial architecture that is implied by a computationally activated touch sensation.
The potentials of such platforms allows for the dynamic morphology of this implied architecture, with its divisions, scale, and delineations, by the process of manipulating certain ephemeral elements in the space, namely: light sources.
To examine these concepts, a wearable computing device was built to be the interface between the body and space through light sensing and haptic feedback. Subjects were asked to wear a glove-like item which has a small photocell mounted to a prosthetic extension of the glove’s index finger, and a small actuator that is placed under the fingertip of the glove. The glove is connected to a microcontroller unit that handles the computation and signal processing locally and in real time. Once the photocell detects the presence of light (above a certain threshold, to focus on direct light source detection instead of environmental and refracted lights), the small actuator, which is placed on the fingertip, gets activated, therefore giving the haptic sensation of touching a solid object. The sensing process works on discreet on/off modes, which makes the haptic feedback similar to the presence, or lack thereof, of solid objects in real-life.
Navid Navab
Navid Navab
Project: Decay
Decay 崩壊 is an interactive sound installation/performance, first conceived spontaneously in March 2011 for the ”手向け Tamuke” Solidarity with Japan event. In view of ongoing triple catastrophe that hit Japan in summer 2011 – the magnitude 9.0 earthquake, the tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear emergency – and also in view of many other natural and man-made disasters that humans face everyday, Decay encourages us to recognize the material world as a platform for enlightened practices: to press against, to locate resonance, to situate the body, and to engage the world as a site of buried sound. Decay invites audiences and performers to interact with natural and artificial found objects acoustically transmuted into sculptural electronic instruments, evoking post tsunami debris. Modulated through movement, objects sing of their past lives and continually recompose themselves into new meanings. Through varied augmentation of the object’s acoustical response, the natural and the synthetic collapse in immediate vibrational relation, whispering that perhaps we are produced by objects as much as we create them.
Nima Navab
Nima Navab
Project: In-‐Between
In-‐Between is an interactive installation investigating the relationship between presence and material separation. By creating an interaction where people can directly animate their environments, In-‐Between tries raise questions as to the relationship between the idea of a place, and the place itself. Starting from an exploration into surfaces that move in response to human engagement, the project makes maximum use of air (pneumatic valves) and variable pressures to inflate and deflate, i.e. animate, architecture that is normally static – in this case, a wall made of spandex and inflating/deflating balloons. The spandex is also used as a medium of interaction, as the participant pushes on its surface to play with both its physical and audible properties. This interaction is then projected onto the ceiling in above them in real time. This interaction evokes a feeling of direct influence onto the surrounding built environment in a way that is playful and unfamiliar. When viewed directly beneath, the project appears as an optical illusion, however as the participant changes their position – rotating around the project – they will realize the ceiling bulges down up to six feet. The project is made through responsive sound, real time video with visual effects as well as the physical structure but is only brought to life through participant’s interaction.
For the second iteration of this project, the dimensions will be roughly 9 ft. x 16 ft. with a controlled grid of inflating balloons of various sizes – ranging in diameter between 1 ft. – 6 ft. that rest behind the frame of spandex.
Nikolaos Chandolias
Nikolaos Chandolias
Project: ACATUS
Funded by Hexagram
Concept: Omar AL FALEH &Nikolaos Chandolias
Support: Marcello Licitra
ACATUS, the Greek word for the mythological “floating vessel”, is a modular suspended interactive light structure that is responsive to people’s presence and action. When looked at from above, ACATUS is a rigid grid of equal squares, which is the traditional reductionist divisive systems that describe space and place in traditional architectural drawings. However, ACATUS’ grid vertices are vertically displaced to transform the perspective of those who walk under it into a varying geometrical landscape that does not obstruct vision yet influences their behavior and trajectory in space.
This formal geometrical deformation is a reminiscence of the early experimentation in deconstructive architecture where systems (semiotic, symbolic, and representational) are iteratively transformed and complexified. The resulting shapes are a snapshot of this transformation that holds evidence of its origins and futures, thus adding a temporal dimension to the genesis of ACATUS as dynamic responsive architecture that exists across the four dimensions.
ACATUS is designed to respond to different modalities of interaction: presence, motion, and sound levels. The response is rendered on the node level rather than lines, which is a symbolic reference to constellations and star mapping, which was the original path-finding and geo-mapping system, before digital systems were invented.
ACATUS exists on various states that are presence-dependent. When no one is present in the installation, ACATUS cycles between different pre-determined animated behaviors. When presence is detected, response happens on the sonic level and on the motion tracking levels, and rendering the response is responsive to the accumulated input of the multiple users within the space.
Project: Semantic Shift
The video below demonstrates a new idea that derived from the storytelling space (storytelling space.weebly.com) and has to do with how we can use transcribed utterances, natural language processing techniques and semantic clusters to re-think the way we perceive and interact with text. Every time a movement is detected (like swapping or changing-page movement) the text re-iterates itself and is recomposed in the same syntactical structure with words that derive from the initial semantic analysis.
The system could apply transformations in different parts of speech (PoS), ex. just verbs, adverbs, nouns etc. creating infinite possibilities of semantical transformations, depending on each individuals movement intensity and the designers choices. This is a demo screen capture of the system. I want to realise this project as an installation where the text is projected on a piece of paper, and each time someone approaches or interacts somehow with the paper a new semantic aspect of the text appears. Like in the example the “This is perfect and stable.” text becomes “this find just right and abiding.”. (If we have chosen just adverbs to be analysed the result would be “this is just right and abiding.”)
JoDee Allen
JoDee Allen
digital looking
This research explores mimicking digital looking effects using white textile as visual data manipulated altered through changing the camera shutter speeds. The textile is installed in the space vertically and horizontally fixed by magnets. In addition, fabric strip ends are attached to the body of a performer creating an analog form of motion capture. Through this method, human body movement is suggested by the traces of white fabric, which are being physically manipulated by a performer moving throughout and interacting with the installation space. The slow shutter effect blurs the shifting fabric and among the white waves are only brief glimpses of a body moving in and out of clarity. Live feed from the camera to provide real-‐time feedback to performer and initiate play between worlds, in-‐camera versus real space. Additionally this next iteration of the process would include hanging threads/fabric strips with contact microphones provide incoming data to affect the filmed footage by scrubbing clips from a database (non-‐linear). Eventually wider pieces of fabric will be used as projection surfaces intended to be manually opened by the installation ‘explorer’ to reveal hidden moments.
Christine Swintak
Christine Swintak
Thought Controlled Contexts: Brain Control Interface (BCI) Augmented Environments and the Experience of Everyday Architectures
Inspired by architectural theorist Juhani Pallasmaa’s assertion that primary sensory experiences are integral to the enhancement of well being (Pallasmaa, 1996/2013, 97), my research frames the question how does the layer of networked and interactive digital information affect the phenomenology of physical space? My proposed project involves the repurposing of consumer- grade thought-controlled computing technologies, specifically non-invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCI), to moderate built architectural interventions and digital enhancements. I will initially be working with a Muse brain-sensing headset provided by InteraXon Corporation essentially “hacking” the headset by hiring a software developer to rewrite the program interface to interact with a series of microcontrollers. While the specific output devices will be further developed during residence, I am currently working on a BCI that is worn on a type of “ride,” that moves a person along a 40’ long motorized track, while the space responds to their mental states by regulating surrounding architectural elements and added interventions. For example the person may control the lights, amplify sounds, trigger holographic or narrative projections etc. My initial research for the project has been funded by a Hexagram Student Grant, and a prototype will be exhibited at LIVE International Performance Art Biennale in Vancouver in collaboration with VIVO Media Arts Centre. The intention of the project is to construct multi-sensory participatory environments that both critically and humourously imagine a future scenario where the collapse of physical and digital space has rendered the internal external, and the unfamiliar familiar.