rough animatic of online interaction

Here a rough animatic showing how upload photos will be dislayed. Also shown is the route that a user would take to upload there own image.

Interactive installation concept

My concept as it stands now is a web site where a user can upload an image of their surrounding. The user is then asked to  add attributes to the image. This image is then sorted along with the attributes the users has selected.

A program  then sorts the images by the attributes the users have given. Images with similar attributes are put into sequences which are projected in a physical environment accompanied with an audio recording which shares similar attributes as the images. 

At Show and Tell last week I was given some very useful feed back which will help complete the circle of interaction (on-line users interaction generates  physical user interaction which creates more on-line interaction). The idea was to create a twitter style comment box which allows users of the physical installation to leave comments on images being projected. these comments can then be viewed by the on-line users.

Another piece of feed back I was given was to change the attributes from physically elements (location, time etc.) to human emotional elements (sadness, joy etc..). The installation would then project sequences of images relating to certain emotions. Robin also commented that these images could be geo-tagged allowing the possibly of a map of emotion of Scotland or world wide (the map would show where people arPublish Poste most happiest, stressed etc..). 

sketchbook - mind maps

Here are the sketches I created when I was trying to figure out the direction my project was heading in. There are also maps of interactive artist that I produce during research and the joining down of ideas, aims and objectives etc. (sorry for the poor layout of the images, blogspot was not agreeing with me today)

Interactive music videos

So after looking at The Wilderness Downtown interactive web video I did a little looking at what other interactive music video are out there. All of the video I found used very simple forms of interaction, mainly playing different video clips depending where the user clicks or animation which follows the users cursors. Nope of these videos really brought anything new to interactivity and didn't really change much or gain a higher purposefulness though there interaction.  

These three interactive videos are all pretty much the same as they all use animation which follows the users cursor.

Broken Bells - October

  Placebo-The Never Ending Why

Labuat- Soytuaire

Pendulum and professor Green both use 360 cameras in their videos, the user can rotate the the view of the camera as the video plays.

 Pendulum-360

 Professor Green-Coming To Get Me

The next  videos all play different video clicks depending on where the user clicks. 

Shihad -Sleep Eater 

Cold War Kids - I've Seen Enough 

Andy Grammer-Keep Your Head Up

http://theneverendingwhy.placeboworld.co.uk/http://soytuaire.labuat.com/

The Wilderness Downtown

The wilderness Downtown is an interactive music video for Arcade fire's song "We Used To Wait" from their lastest album the suburbs. The interactive video was created by director Chirs Milk and Google Creative Lab Technology Lead Aaron Koblin. The music video was bulid using HTML5 using Google Maps and Street-view for Google Chrome Experimens. 
So how is the music video Interactive? The users is prompted to input an address where they grew up. This address is used to created vissuals from Google Maps and Street-view. these vissuals are used in the video putting the user at the centre of the film narrative which portriats the user running though the streets of their town back to there home address. To complete the interactive experience the user creates an interactive postcard which potentially could be used as a visual for the North America tour. The postcard is alos entre into the Wilderness Machine which prints the postcards onto seed-embedded card (when planted a tree will grow from the card).
Creating an interactive video where the user becomes a centre part of the narrative by using simple interaction and common programs (Google maps and Street-view) is very clever But the part I most enjoyed the most and which i felt was the most interactive was the postcard. I enjoy creating the postcard which is a digital artifact but knowing that once it is entered into the Wilderness Machine has the possiblely to become something solid, physcal and a alife.
The big problem with this interactive video is that its very processor heavy. Using any brower apart Google Chrome on well spec computer results in the video become stuttery. Another problem which reduced the viewing experanice was that the video created alot of windows which pop up in beat with the music (showing different parts of the video). These windows popping up reminded me of pop up ads and i had to frigth the urge to close them all.


Here is  the Interactive video site: www.thewildernessdowntown.com
and heres a behind the work interview on creativiy-online.com (Click Here)

Xbox Kinect - Interactive installation input decive?

The new Xbox Kinect controller was recently launched this year. It sells for around £130 and allows Xbox players to use their full body as a controller without the need to hold any controller or wearing any sensors. There is three main functions the Kinect performs: Movement tracking, voice recognition and a motor which allows it rotate the main body up and down. T3 has an article on the website which explaines how Kinect works. Click here for the Movement tracking, Here for the voice recognition and here for the motor.

What I find interesting about the Xbox Kinect is that it can be used as a very cheap input device for an interactive installation. With the relative short amount of time it has taken some indulives to hack the Kinect (and program it to perfroum tasks) it cant be long before it is adpted for an interactive installation. I can’t really think of any example right now of how it could be used in aninteractive installation but maybe something like Golan Levin’s Interstitial Fragment Processor where the participants body forums the input to the installation.  

Below: just found this video of Theo Waston using the Kinect as an input device for an interactive puppet prototype, can't wait to see more developments of hacked kinects as an input device for art installations

Jenny Odell Satellite Prints

The Satellite Collection by Jenny Odell is a series of six digital collages. Odell found the images for the collages using Google Satellite and then sorted the images into categorized like pools, water towers etc. My two favourites are 195 Cargo Ships, Barges, Motorboats, Yachts, Tankers, Cruise Ships, Riverboats, Sailboats and Hospital Ship and 81 Square Miles of the Great Salt Lake. These collages are my favourites as they combine a grid pattern with a scale.
The final printed collages are not interactive at all but the processes of their creation shares a lot with interactive installation. Firstly there is an interactive element in the searching for the images used; Odell had to interact with Google Satellite to find the images. Secondly like a lot of interactive installation there is an element of data being sorted to produce an visual elements, in The Satellite Collection the images have been sorted into objects.

Even though these collages where interactive in their creation I don't feel that they can be classified as interactive art as there was no audience involved in their creation. The main interesting point about these collages is how readily available software like Google Satellite can be used in the creation of interactive installation.

Listening Post

Listening Post 2001 by Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin is an interactive installation with two very big differences. The audience instead of interacting with the piece are forced to watch how unsuspecting users of the internet interact with the web. The Science Museum has informative article on Listening Post on their website(click here)
Here a few more links
Ear Studio
Frieze Magazine
Mark Hansen

Portrait Machine 2009

Portrait Machine, 2009, by British artist Theo Watson and Kyle McDonald is an interactive photography installation which visualizes the connections between visitors of CBK Amsterdam. This is done by first allowing the visitor to take a picture of them self using a fixed camera. The visitor can see what the cameras views though a large LCD screen which is positioned vertically, a bit like a photo booth. The photograph is then stored along with all the other visitors’ photographs. These Photographs are then sorted based on a number of features, such as clothing choice, hair colour, facial expression, and composition within the frame. The installation projects both the similarities and differences in these characteristic though three LCD screens (the LCD screens are positioned vertically and in a row) each one showing one photograph of a visitor.  Portrait Machine purposes is to make the visitor aware of human connectedness and uniqueness though creating strong visual patterns and playful juxtapositions. Portrait Machine really fulfils its purpose as an interactive installation. When the visitors photograph is project on one of the LCD screens it either shows their uniqueness compare to the other visitor or their similarlest. During the short Vimeo video I found it interesting how the visitors interacted with the camera creativity to trick the installation in to creating more playfully juxtapositions of the photographs. This got me thinking how an Interactive installation could evoke the audience into trying more creative action, thing etc with digital media.

Iamnotanartist.org

Iamnotanartist.org is a blog of animated GIF commissioned by Elisava School of design. The concept, creative direction and design is by soon in Tokyo, a communication agency made up of former Elisava students and teachers. The blog is made of a grid of animated GIF which are created by viewers of the blog. The users create their own GIF by using the build in GIF generator. The GIF generator allows the viewers to create GIFs by uploading each frame of the GIF, Using their web camera to capture each frame of the GIF or uploading a GIF which the viewer has already made. The first 56 animated GIF where directed by Johnny Kelly and Matthew Cooper. Kelly and Cooper’s selection of GIFs are made up of photography and vector drawings, all in a very bold style consisting of geometric shapes. The stated aim of the blog is to “grow and be platform with the participation of young designers and creative’s from all over the world”. The blog is very interactive as it draws the viewers into interacting with it, the GIF generator, and thus allows it to fill full its intended purpose to grow and expand with the participation of young designers and creative’s from all over the world. This blog brings up the question whether the original creator of the blog id the artist or is it the viewer who are creating its content. Another interesting point is dose interactive art need to be physical or can it exits on-line and how can interactive art work be exhibit if it exits solely on-line.

Miwa Matreyek's glorious visions

Miwa Matreyek work as a multimedia artist involves the use of animation, performance and video installation to explore personally discovery. Matreyek interacts with the work by using her shadow which appears to the audience to be interacting with the projected animation and video. The execution of the work was done very well but the video visuals seem to be too contrived to appeal to a certain audience. This work By Matreyek beings up the question whether the work only need to be interactive with the artist to realise to purpose or does it need to interact with the audience.

Waste Land

Released tomorrow, 29th Oct 2010, is the documentary Waste Land by LucWalker. y Waste Land follows the artist Vik Muniz return to his homeland of Brazil and his visit to the largest garbage dump in the world, Rio de Janeiro. Here Muniz met the people who work and live in the garbage dump. He then created portraits of these people using ideas found from the garbage dump. These pieces of work where then auctioned off when Muniz returned to New York. All the processed from the auction where giving to the people of Rio de Janeiro. It will be an interesting watch, mainly how these pieces of art change the people life in Rio de Janeiro. Will they create permanent change or will it be a pasting fade in the history of the garbage dump.

Pop tech - Zach Lieberman

Marie Sester

Daniel Rozins's interactive mirrors

Poladroid

This is a great program where you drag and drops your photos into and  they out come out as polaroids. What am thinking could a program like this be used to exhibited photography, where the viewer has to "develop" the photograph by shacking it before viewing the photograph. Get the program here

Is Photography Over?

SFMOMA has been collecting and exhibiting photographs since the museum's founding in 1935 and is dedicated to the examination of the medium in all its forms. This major symposium on the current state of the field is the first in a series of public programs on photography. The texts below reflect the initial responses of 13 invited participants to the symposium's central question: Is photography over? The discussion begun here will continue on April 22 and 23, when the participants will convene at SFMOMA for a series of public and private conversations on the current state of the medium. (text from SFMOMA overview)

Morocco and spain

Flying Lotus videos

Really like this new sony and the video is ace too. not sure why i like it, maybe because of its childish nature or how rough the models and animation are but still being entertaining.



this video shows artist Leigh Mccloskey development of the flying lotus ablum cover: COSMOGRAMM. really like Mccloskey visual style and his studio is soo awesome.

Thrush

This video won the vimeo narrative award at the recent vimeo video feaative. Its completely made up using photographs which makes me think if an interactive story could be told though photographic images alone.

Kiel Johnson

Kiel Johnson has to be one of my favouritet artist/ sculptures for his cartoony, childish use cardboard in his work. Hi-fuctose has a piece on Johnson show Publish or Perish and it’s accompanied with a great interview with Johnson. (click here). Click here for Kiel Johnson's website

TheNewLeaf.org

Great piece of design work here from I Shot Him. I really like the use of character design and textures in the animation. The whole branding is really fresh and I enjoy that they not gone down the usual route of weed leafs and Rastafarian influences. There also an interesting article on the design process on The Black Harbor . (Click here)

RIP Curl Mirage

Greate video from Rip Curl showing a very interesting use of D-SLR. I would say the second video, which shows how the effect was created, was alot more entertaining.

Leeds by night

Photographer Stephen Griffin has greated a really interesting interactive way in which to display his photogrpahy project leeds by night. I really like the nature background sound and the fact that all the photographs are tag in a street map giving an extra dimenation to the images.

Make Something Cool Everyday

All the above images are from Brock Davis Make Something Cool Everyday collection on his site. Whats really nice is that you can see the development of ideas though a sequnce of time.