One thing that was quickly realised in the first class, after some discussion with other students, was the possible issues that would arise when exibiting an interactive installation at the COFA Annual student show. There is only going to be a one day bump in for installing work and with uncertainty with the lighting and spacial conditions, having a motion tracking system, which relies upon light as a constant for comparison, is not such an ideal way to approach the work. But with restrictions comes the creative challenge to rethink.

Original Concept

Alternately, my interactive installation highlights the importance of inter-communal interaction with Nature by creating an environmental performance that grows with co-operative interaction.

Although my original concept has changed, it has only slightly deviated, and possibly strengthened in its specificity. Rather than using a central array of concentric trees as an element of Nature to attract the audience to interaction with each other, I will be using a drum circle.

The drum circle was the original inspiration for a part of the emotional aesthetic of my work; it was through spontaneous moments with friends and the experience of Akron/Family and their communal sounding chants that invited this concept of the drum circle to my work. It has now also become the structural idea for my installation.

In this diagram the blue circles represent the wooden logs for seats, the light blue rectangles are various instruments and the black rectangle is the computer and speaker setup with the grey wires leading to preassure sensors that are on the seats. Note: it is my intention to hide the cables and speakers with a leaves and campfire setup, which shows the remanence of those who came before you.

The concept is quite the same as previously mentioned, where as it aims to put the performance dependence on communal interaction and make technology the catalyst, not the mediator of the experience. When a participant approaches this setup they can hear a chant and drum circle already happening. As the participant sits on a log, the particular instument they sit infront of is faded out from the sound they originally heard. For example if you walk up to the drum circle and sit infront of one of the drums, then you will hear one of the drum beats fade out. The ideal hope for this work is to get more than one person sitting down at the circle. The more people who participate, the more pre-recorded sounds will dissapear and hopefully be replaced with the participants playing.

This is a fairly simple technical work, but it is finding ways to encourage the intended interaction and installing the work, which I feel is where I will gain most experience in this semester.

The original idea for one of my final works was to create a photographic novel that aimed to comment on the risk of depending on technology for social interaction, as well as exploring my own anxieties of the divide between the modern world and the domestification of everything that exists within it. Now that the final semester has begun I have decided to do a rethink of the size of my projects and rather than creating a large scale project that logistically meant many shoots to create enough images to tell a narrative, I have decided to embark on a number of self portraits that still convey the original concept. I’ll then combine these photographs with a number of other landscape photographs I will take and have taken through the span of my degree to make a catalogue of landscape inspired photography.

Mangroves by night - one spotlight

The shot above was taken on 100 iso slide film in my NikonF3p with a 1/8th shutter speed and 2.8 f/stop. The plan is to have a series of self portraits in this setting. I will be using another spotlight so the background canopy, which is actually a lot more forboding than can be seen in this image, can be totally illuminated. I will then be standing in the foreground and aim to be lit by either a syncronized flash or an LED hand held light.

The conceptual framework of these images will be to explore the fear of wilderness that is invoked through humankind’s domestication of all life and nature, while showing how our dependency on technology for survival feeds the fear of anything wild and uncontrollable. More test shots to come in the next few weeks.

My Lilypad gear - micro controller and components

First step: sketch up some concepts

Throughout my degree I have had the pleasure to be creative. I really think it of it as a privilege to be able to endeavor in something you are truly passionate about – especially when it is a means for living. Being able to think of a concept and then produce the idea into a tangible artwork is one of the most rewarding processes. Throughout most of my work I have thought of ways to explore concepts with social impact, commenting on elements of modern society I have found interesting or challenging. With this project I have decided to create something a bit lighter in concept. As it will be technically challenging, learning electronics and textiles simultaneously, I think having less concern on conceptual research will allow for a simpler, more polished work, leaving scope for future conceptual development.

Hug activated LED brooch

The diagram above is the hug activated brooch I initially intended on creating with my E-textile LilyPad technologies. The LilyPad is a micro controller that can can be incorporated into textiles. Electronic components can be connected to the LilyPad through the use of conductive thread. It is the same as making circuits with micro chips but because the LilyPad is designed specifically for textiles, it uses thread to connect the sensors and components of the circuit to clothing and is even washable (making sure the power supply is removed). The LilyPad is programed with code that sends operations to the various elements attached to it. In the above diagram the conductive fabric acts as a switch, when closed with the hand spanning across both sides, the micro controller can then send an operation to the LED brooch telling it to light up.

After a bit of observation I realised that creating a switch that would close when anyone hugged you would be quite difficult as there are so many different kinds of huggers out there. Also conductive fabric is very hard to get in Australia, so after another visit to the drawing board I came up with the hobo handshake activated brooch.

Hobo handshake activated LED brooch

In the above diagram you see how the switch is now situated in a glove using conductive thread, activated when someone shakes your hand. One line of thread runs from the LilyPad on the front of the garment and half way to the palm of the glove, while the other side of the switch will run from the LilyPad to the back of the hand and around the fingers to the other half of the palm. When someone’s hand connects the two sides of the thread, the switch will close, sending a message to the LilyPad micro controller . The conductive thread will make the leap from jacket to glove by using metal press buttons that will be clipped into the end of the jacket sleeve and the glove. I also intend on connecting an accelerometer (like what is found in Wi Remotes and iPhones) to the glove and sending tilt values to the LilyPad to change the color of the LEDs.

Second step: devise a small practice task

Before opening up the LilyPad Micro-controller (bought from the lovely people at Little Bird Electronics) and tinkering with code and sensors, I decided to attempt a simple electronic merit badge tutorial. This gives me the opportunity to get a hang of the conductive thread and learning the basics of electronics at the same time.

Conductive LED brooch with switch

As you can see from the above image the little task was successful. This is the front of the brooch base that can then be used to sew a translucent design onto. The idea is to create a simple fabric brooch design that can be illuminated at night.

Switch and battery

The back of the brooch base has a switch (made of velcro that has had the coductive thread sewn through it) to turn on the LED. Also at the back is a small pouch that holds the coin battery. There were a few problems I came across when making this first version of the brooch base. Firstly I could only get a 3v battery and the typical voltage needed for this particular LilyPad LED is 3.2 – 4 volts. Secondly having a velcro switch meant that every time the velcro was pulled apart, the tear frayed the conductive thread quite a bit. Lastly the pouch was not putting enough preassure on the two sides of the battery, which made the LED blink with the poor connection. To remedy these issues I am going to look into a higher voltage battery and use more than one LED or use a resistor; I will be using a snap button to connect the switch; I will try to use firmer material for the pouch and make it a tighter fit for the battery.

Once all of these technical issues have been remedied  I’ll be using this fabric brooch tutorial from this Vintage Indie: What you make of it blog, tweaking it to make it also a night-time hit with the LED switch.

On its way to being an LED fabric flower brooch

Minsky’s Piano Bar

Back Alley

I was faced with the problem of needing quiet (to avoid attracting residential attention) lighting in my location at night. After a quick visit to Kennards Hire to enquire about generators to run a portable studio flash kit off, I quickly came to the realisation that the cost of the generator was not in my budget, especially when considering contingencies of not having all shots done in the one night. But with constraints come solutions so I quickly started to look into 12v lights to run off a car battery. Bellow are a few photos of the setup that has arrisen from the low budget.

This little battery comes with a handy handle, which after trying to lug my mate’s old heavy duty four wheel drive battery into the mangroves, is a priceless back-saving feature. I picked this up from a local car wrecker for $40 dollars. It came fully charged and even with some free maintenance advice – buy a cheap trickle charger and keep it off any metal or concrete surfaces to stop it from going flat.

This little bad boy above is my DIY attempt at a soft-box. It comprises of a washing basket ($6) 12v spotlight ($15) and some white cardboard ($1). To put it all together I cut out a hole in the bottom of the basket a few centimeters less of the circumference of the light and with a little bit of squeezing and pushing had the light wedged tightly in the basket. Then it was just a case of cutting sheets of white cardboard to fit inside the basket to reflect the light out the top rather than loose it out the sides. I secured the card with the use of a friend’s staple gun. White card was the second most reflective material I could have used, this was taken off the DIY studio lighting soft-box tutorial I found on the net, but the alternative material mylar film meant extra dollars on the budget and wait on delivery.

The spotlight had a cigarette charger connection, but luckily my dad had a few battery clamp connectors laying around, so once we figured out that the tip of the cigarette charger was the positive connection and the ring the negative it was just a case of snip snip, twist, tape. If you wanted to splurge another $10 you could also buy battery clamps that have a cigarette charger adapter, but I am a student and don’t have that money to burn.

Once the clips were connected and current ready to flow all I needed was material to diffuse the spotty-ness of the light. With a few conversations with my crafty mother and a trip to Spotlight (fabric store) I came home with some Organza, a transparent dress material, ready to complete my soft-box. Two meters of Organza set me back $4, although I have a feeling they accidently discounted that for me as I did some shopping around on the phone and it wasn’t that cheap – all in the name of DIY low budget creations – thanks Spotlight lady. I’ve had the pleasure of many trips to Super Cheap Auto and Spotlight in the past few weeks. But without the help and advise of all involved I wouldn’t have had the knowledge to be able to create such a cheap ($94) dual light, quiet and portable setup.

symmetrical landscape subverted

I was really taken back by how easily an image can take on an entirely new feel just with a simple compositional rotation. The original image is so recognisable as a landscape, but when it is subverted through a simple rotation, it can be abstracted from the initial recognition and convey a mood or comparrison to other elements. Initially it reminded me of a smoke trail pouring from a steam train, but after another visit to the image and with a zoomed inspection it reminded me of biological imagery, possibly of the lungs.

zoomed in view of the image

No matter what this image conjures in the mind, it is definitely something I am going to take a little further. The potential interest I have in the detail as well as the overall image is leading me to shoot with a medium format camera; potential for some large prints, which could go towards my final year photography element.

original composition of symmetrically reflected landscape

In the above movie we see into the world of the MIT high-low tech media lab. This is where my interest began in the E-textile idea. I hope to get my project started once I get my hands on the technology; Arduino LilyPad, conductive materials, soldering kit.

My concept is to create broaches that are connected to a LilyPad Arduino controller through metal snap buttons to the lapel of a jacket, which is also connected to a conductive material switch that runs across the back of the jacket. The idea is when a person’s hand connects the fabric switch during a hug (the conductivity of the hand closing the switch), then the controller will be sent a message that the switch has been closed and in turn will send a message to flash LED lights that are inside the broach. With the addition of a bluetooth or wi-fi module there could be future development with phone applications, environmental applications or audio/visual artworks.

Here are just a few more links to interesting projects using E-Textiles.

Makezine: Geek Chic: Massive e-textiles round-up

How to get what you want: DIY

Leah Buechley: LilyPad Introduction

Post Thumbnail: By Shannon Henry

Primarily the book, Against Civilization, was inspiration to create a post-technological, future primitive society for a script I was writing at University. The script was also a means of exploring my obsession with the need to fulfil some kind of primitive void; an endeavour urged on by my frustration with society’s proclamation of progression through the praise of technology as its means, and the denial of the wild as its motivation.

So when I attended a Feminist conference in Sydney (F Conference) I approached a woman who was, by some form of fate, speaking about pre-civilised roles of women in a workshop. This woman was also affiliated with a book store at the conference so she pointed me in the direction of The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Friedrich Engels to address my friend Tania’s question, on the role of women in pre-civilised societies.

After finishing the book I have come away with some interesting insights into the development of family and economy through periods of human existence. This book also introduced many elements of social thought, mainly Socialism, that I must research more to get a better understanding of Engels’ ideals, putting a lot of what he says in this book into context. Although it is clear Engels sees the beginning of private property as the beginning of most oppressions; loss of Mother Right, slavery, and class differences, all being created from the individualistic destruction of community and introduction of paternal, systematic power through commodity.

I don’t aim to review this book, as my scarce knowledge in Anthropology and Socialism, would render my attempts quite lame and most probably flawed, but what I will do is encourage others to read the chapter on family in particular. In the chapter on family I was introduced to the term Mother Right. Mother Right is the kinship importance of the woman in early stages of human family. Before the existence of monogamy, humans were polygamous (men) and polyandrous (women). Because women would have many sexual partners, as would men, the children of that woman would not belong to any man who has been her sexual partner, because the individual father could not be determined. To then know your kin would only be through your mother, and your mother’s brother would become your father. Now considering procreation was enacted between separate groups of kin, the importance of the woman was ultimately the importance of belonging to a community that would care for you. It was in this ‘family’ and community way of life where the woman was the most influential and praised element.

Another enlightening point for me in Engel’s book was the fact that with the introduction of private property and the move from group marriage to ‘pairing families’, women were forced to be monogamous. This was to be able to prove a child’s kinship to their father, who now was responsible for the family wealth; the property, domesticated animals and slaves. Because the husbands were responsible for agriculture they were then in possession of the commodities that now kept people alive. If the father was to die, and without strict monogamy for the wife, then the means of living for the wife and child would be given to the husband’s kin, which was not them. So to prove the child’s legitimacy to the father, the wife was forced to be monogamous, and the men weren’t.

I don’t feel as if I could provide any real insight into the rest of the concepts, and dare to say I may have bastardised the ones I have tried to discuss so far, but I think that this book should be read. Even if just for the chapter on the origin of the family. It has cooled my romanticism, and replaced it with some context to the past and where civilisation has lead us to. It speaks more enthusiastically about the removal of wealth through concepts of Socialism than I can assign myself to, with the little knowledge I have of it, so I’ll leave you with a quote from Fredrick Engels himself. Here he speaks of the true ’sex love’ that only proletariats (working class) can enjoy due to the absence of wealth and how the future generations not in Capitalist production can add to ’sex love’.

“But what will be added? That will be settled after a new generation has grown up: a generation of men who never in all their lives have had occasion to purchase a woman’s surrender either with money or with any other means of social power, and of women who who have never been obliged to surrender to any man out of any consideration other than that of real love, or refrain from giving themselves to their beloved for fear of the economic consequences.”

In the second year of my degree I was introduced to Processing. Processing is open source software, created by Ben Fry and Casey Reas, intended to introduce Visual Artists to code based computer programming for producing interactive media. It is primarily a code based software, which appealed to me, as I have always been fascinated with creative coding. The process from concept to production crosses between Hemispheric Dominance (left or right brain) when trying to put ideas into practice. I’m not quite sure how I came to love coding, but it is a medium I become obsessed with the more I use it; I will often forgo eating or hold out from bladder relief until I have figured out why my code isn’t working. On the other side of this obsession often comes great reward when a concept comes to fruition, or develops into something completely new and often unexpected. 

Screen capture from a Processing Sketch

What makes the experience of creative coding less cumbersome is the nature of open source software communities; the open source community is largely a supportive one, always willing to share advice and code that should always be respected with proper attribution. The benefit of products like Processing is that there is an open slather of developers who create what are called libraries that can be plugged into the software. These libraries provides functionality that become easily adaptable to your project. For my final work I have decided to use motion detection as my main approach for detecting audience participation. To do this I will be using a library called OpenCV, an open source computer vision library originally developed by Intel. 

As can be seen in my previous post on my installation setup, my camera will be positioned above my installation space and through motion detection, trigger points stored in the software (placed around a group of trees) will be checked for movement, and if triggered will my application will send a message to my sound software.

I will be using a piece of software called OSCulator, developed by Camille Troillard, to receive and send messages sent by Processing, via a library called oscCP5, developed by Andreas Schlegel. OSCulator can communicate through midi, which is ideal when using sound programs like Ableton Live to control pretty much anything that Abelton can do itself. The main problem I have come across so far is the use of the library oscP5. As an Art student trying to use code as a medium, I am not as adept with coding manuals as a Computer Science student would be, so translating function references from code documentation has been trying, yet saying this, a valuable experience to help with understanding other libraries in the future. But after some tinkering with examples provided with the library I had messages being sent from Processing to OSCulator based off my trigger points and motion detection.

A snippet from a Java Documentation page for oscP5

Messages are sent from OSCulator to Ableton Live in the form of Midi notes. These Midi notes are used to trigger sounds stored in tracks arranged in Abelton. The benefit of using this setup, rather than sound libraries provided in Processing, is possible control of other effects (EQ, Panning, Volume, Plug-ins) later in the development.  From this point I will be physically testing my application, testing different lighting conditions, tree arrangements and participant interaction. By doing this I will be able to have a better scope of the possible application behaviours that may be problematic in the final exhibition. This work will be continued in my final semester of University called Advanced Multimedia Authoring. In this class I will be testing my work and possibly be creating generative visuals to be projected down onto the installation space.

My experience to date with soundscapes has been one of spacial transformation. The placement of sounds in sound pieces create the aural equivalent of perspective and focal length. The use of reverb, panning and volume are just a few technical elements that create a spacial depth in soundscapes. But there are many more elements to creating impact and a conceptual experience with sound; content, style and interaction with the sound, and the space it is projected into, play important roles in striking a conceptual chord in the experience.

Content

When considering the content of a sound piece one must first consider the context of the piece. The samples that are chosen should be done with intention and reflect the concept. This does not mean that juxtapostion and sounds out of context cannot be explored, but rather that all content be integral to the intention of the work.

In my installation I place context in the experience of people and nature as the dependencies. I aim to make these two elements the only avenue for experience. Technology in my mind should stay as a tool and only answer to the actions of the participants within the nature of the space. Creating that as my conceptual context, I want the sound to be a reinforcement of nature and community. Using voice and sounds of nature, I hope to make an experience of community that uplifts nature as a tool for these experiences. I will be using field recordings from nature as key elements within my sound. Taking sounds of animals and the impacts of the natural climate on Flora.

In considering the way I am to create/collect the sounds for my nature content I have researched various field recording artists who use nature as content for their sound work.  One Musician that has inspired me is Marc Fischer; through his blog Dust Breeding I have seen some really creative and exciting ways to approach the collection of sound. Rather than just standing in the open pointing my mic at anything that will come close enough, I will be experimenting with ways of interacting with the animals and nature (as non intrusively as possible).

Style

It is not fitting to have sharp sounds in something that is trying to evoke a feeling of aura. Likewise having ambient soft sounds will not evoke excitement. The intention of my work is to create an uplifting communal experience with nature. The sounds will then need to be uplifting, create excitement, and encourage interaction. Keeping in mind my content I have looked for some inspirations that could be drawn from in composing my sound. The band Akron/Family with sounds from their album ‘Love is Simple’ introduced me to an idea of community through vocal participation.

The above snippet from Akron/Family ‘Lake Song/New Ceremonial Music For Moms’ is something that moved me as I have been in situations with friends where spontaneous chanting and instrument banging has turned into an amazing communal experience. To recreate this for audiences in a gradual and communal way will be the most challenging task.

Interaction

I want people to communicate within the experience, work together and interact with the physical/natural elements of the space without feeling as if they must tread lightly. There is a distance that we have between modern space and nature. Even the possible exhibition of this work will most likely be inside, forced by economic and technological constraints. This is why I want the interaction with my natural elements of the installation to be supported and encourage with the excitement and communal qualities of the sound. I want the experience of the participants to encourage communication, not self reflection, as I believe more ambient reverberated soundscapes could encourage.

NB: Home page icon by Flickr user woodleywonderworks