Course Description
Alchemy works in between the base and the noble, the quick and the dead; it transmutes matter monstrously between substance and object or subject. We explore alchemical aspects of calligraphic media responsive to live gesture and movement. This seminar introduces real-time media synthesis based on physical simulations and continuous topological dynamics, guided by phenomenological questions such as: What makes something tangible? Do causality or temporality imply tangibility? What kinds of temporality are there? What makes a medium responsive, active, agentful, lifelike? How do we make ethico-asethetic gestures in such media?
In this working seminar, the aim is to creatively translate and extend notions from alchemy and physics in video as a responsive, calligraphic medium.
The seminar is an experiment bridging three disciplines: contemporary media art (in this case the synthesis of video and sound inspired by alchemical notions), science (computer simulations of physics), and history and critical studies of science (history and philosophy of alchemy and early modern science). It's a working seminar in poetic translation between these disciplines.
The theoretical ambition is to flesh out some philosophical investigations of material transformation, topological media, and the region between the natural and the artificial. The experimental ambition is to produce some software "instruments" that create video textures that respond to gesture or movement in real-time.
The seminar's success relies on participants pooling their expertises from different disciplines and taking initiative in exploring the relevant literature and presenting work to their peers. Students will present papers and chapters from the readings. Technical experts will partner with artists to create video/sonic "matter" or "instruments" responsive to live movement and gesture.
In projects, students will create alchemically inspired, real-time, time-based media instruments using the professional real-time media framework: Max / Jitter (and MSP). We build on work from the Topological Media Lab, in areas such as calligraphic video and gestural sound: http://topologicalmedia.concordia.ca/projects.html .
This seminar welcomes students from fine arts, critical studies of media arts and sciences, and computer science and prepares students for work in responsive spaces, experimental performance environments and installations.
Prerequisite
None.
We will pair students with complementary abilities. A first course in philosophy OR computational physics is preferred. Familiarity with Max/Jitter is helpful but not necessary. Students who do not have any formal preparation are welcome to contact the instructor prior to enrolment.
Readings
There is no required text, but the major references are hilighted. This representative bibliography will evolve.
Landau, Rubin H., and Manuel
J. Paez Mejia, Computational Physics: Problem
Solving with Computers. New York: Wiley, 1997, Book & Disk edition, 520 pp. ISBN 0471115908 (cloth) (selections).
Max, MSP
(real-time sound) and Jitter (real-time video) References, Cycling74.com.
Newman, William R. Promethean
Ambitions:
Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature. University of Chicago Press, 2004.
ISBN: 0226577120 (cloth).
Readings in applied computer graphics and computer vision.
(see J. Stam example article)
Readings in applied computational physics (e.g. interacting
particle systems and lattice physics).
Readings in philosophy and performance studies.
Topological Media Lab, Calligraphic video and gestural
sound, http://topologicalmedia.concordia.ca/projects.html#calligraphicVideo,
http://topologicalmedia.concordia.ca/projects.html#soundhttp://sponge.org
Stam, Jos. "Flows on Surfaces of Arbitrary
Topology", ACM Transactions On Graphics (TOG), Volume 22, Issue 3 (July
2003) : Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2003, 724-731.