Work

lubar – Looking Outwards – 1

Rain room by Random International 

This is a piece that I was exposed to at some point freshman year, and is one that I have continued to return to over and over again. 

Rain Room is a large interactive installation of downpour rain indoors that allows audience members to walk through it and stay dry. "3D depth cameras" places across the top beams of the structure track human movement and control the sprinkler grid, turning off the water in a 6 foot radius around a body.

What draws me to this piece, is its seamless integration of interactive programming, human gesture, and natural phenomena in a way that recontextualizes the audiences experience and interaction with the event of walking through the rain. It evokes a sense of whimsy and creates an experience of discovery and curiosity, 'the controlling of the weather' striking a balance between 'how does this work', and 'how do I work within it'. The disappearing mechanisms and simplicity freedom of gesture in interacting with the space make way for the fully immersive, interactive experience. The work is by Hannes Koch and Florian Orktrass and installed by Random International, the sheer scale of the piece and the venues it has been created in reveals a large team behind the actuation of the work itself. I would assume that this is formed from a combination of "off the shelf" and custom software.

What is particularly exciting about this project is that it proposes opportunities in the future to create work through computing that manipulates and simulates moments that really accurately mimic and expand on natural phenomenon in a way that changes the context of its experience, and creates truly wonderful moments. 

vingu – looking outwards 1

Tabita Cargnel calculated the movement of playing the violin and translated to a interactive piece where you move your limbs and "dance" to play the violin.

It's interesting to me because I played the violin for around 10 years, and although it is very technical, I've never seen it broken down/displayed like this. It's also interesting to recreate something very human, with technology, and how they map certain body parts to mechanical parts. In addition, it's not completely mechanical, there is still a human aspect to it; the mechanics are just aiding the experience.

I found the installation piece great because it utilizes the whole body to play the violin. (as I mentioned earlier, mapping different body parts to an object, that is unconventional) It also is very inviting and much more easier to play using this installation piece (which is funny to me, because when you learn to play the violin, it takes weeks, even months to play a nice sounding note). The way this is set up, it is more user friendly for the public, and there is no wrong way to play/dance/interact with it (while on the other hand violin is very strict with its technique).

The artist spent a lot of time understanding and calculating the mechanics of the violin. In addition, they were considerate of making this intimidating instrument "user/public" friendly. Re-imagining the violin. I like how the installation piece is fitted for one person, so it still has that solo/personal quality for the violin. Maybe for a suggestion, I'm curious how it would look like scaled up to a whole room. Rather than it be for one person, it is for a whole group of people (like a duet, or quartet, or even string orchestra). I imagine that it will look like a spider web where people crawl through, which sounds very interesting.

Tabita's recent works surround interactive installations, and bridge the gap between art and technology to "create honest and sometimes very literal pieces of work." (from her website) She was trained as a musician, which shows in some of her sound/music related works. She also studies robotics in college. It seems like her interest and music and technology inspires some of her pieces.

vingu – reading

0. The Critical Engineer considers Engineering to be the most transformative language of our time, shaping the way we move, communicate and think. It is the work of the Critical Engineer to study and exploit this language, exposing its influence.

In my interpretation of this tenant, it explains that Engineering is evolving and a huge influence and part of human nature (or the Critical Engineer). I found it interesting because it compares Engineering to a "language" which is a form of communication and expression (it is a human quality term). This tenant claims that Engineering is the most transformative language, pretty much stating that the human nature/curiosity to explore and create new things is very strong. It highlights the interaction between the human, and the tool/creation the human is using (like cars, or even shows to walk in). It also brings up the increasing public knowledge of new technology (like how Leone Battista Alberti challenged the past views of art which prompted the pre-renaissance which allowed the public to be more involved and knowledgeable in art). I think that this tenant shows how humans are technology are closely woven together, and as humans progress, so does Engineering (there is always a human quality).

vikz-01-Reading

 

3. The Critical Engineer deconstructs and incites suspicion of rich user experiences.

The third tenant informs how Critical Engineers often raise doubts and question the level of validity and credibility when user experiences become too rich, too seamless, and too, for lack of better words, "perfect" -- said in an eerily utopian way.  I found this to be particularly interesting because, as a society, we want our products to work in absolute harmony with us; the more integrated, attuned, smart and intuitive our devices and systems are with us, the more we expect such flawless services, and the more we rely and are satisfied with them. In many cases, a flawless user experience is the "norm" to be expected, and it is only when such a service is failed to provide that we take note of the bad design actually being presented.

Many forms of services, products, and systems that we engage with and encounter today are more often than not, heavily entwined with thought out user experience -- from niched and developed VR experiences, to engaging with everyday platforms such as social media. Whereas there is still a somewhat clear distinction in how a digital VR world differs from the actual world experience, this line can easily blur and become confused with the real world -- akin to how we engage with social media platforms today. There is an upwards trend in becoming a content creator, and as more and more users engage with such role and influence, it becomes more difficult to distinguish what stories, informations, and experiences are true to nature, and what others are merely fabrications and/or replicas.

clox-lookingoutwards01

Quite frankly, I am not familiar with many interactive AND computational projects. However, I became more interested in learning how to code after I attended Robin's Sloan's workshop: Automatic Telling: A Cyborg Fiction-Writing Experiment (at the Studio). The workshop unfolded over the course of three days, during which the participants, coming from a wide range of disciplines--from game design to English literary studies-- sat down together on a long, continuous table to co-author, with the computer (specifically, an artificial neural network trained on artists' biographies and other corpora and developed by Sloan), a brief account of a fictional artistic movement of the late twentieth century: The Center for Midnight: A History in Fragments.

The tool that Sloan created, to me, promised a new way of thinking about writing, and challenged the sanctified position of the singular, genius author (now joined by a virtual "ghost-writer"). On a personal level, I wanted to believe that such a tool could help me get over my fear of writing.

Instead of supplanting the craft of writing, I strongly believe that this kind of tool augments our intelligence. Emerging from AI, AIA research, some propose is concerned with developing tools using AI to create "new cognitive technologies," or apparatuses that allow us to "explore and discover, to provide new representations and operations" of our own cognitive processes and intellectual frameworks (Carter, Nielsen, 2018).

Is this not the same intent with which Robin Sloan created his machine-learning-augmented text-editor? Have not all the objects (i.e. the quill, the pencil) and physical infrastructures (i.e. desks) through which we engage in the practice of writing been implicated in shaping the way we think about and feel writing (with our bodies and mind)?

vikz-LookingOutwards-01

 

Last year, teamLab's talk regarding their Borderless and Planet environments was one of the first momentous exposures I had to the Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, and greatly motivated me to wanting to take this class as well (in addition to also seeing the student work showcase). teamLab describes themselves as "an art collective, interdisciplinary group of ultratechnologists whose collaborative practice seeks to navigate the confluence of art, science, technology, design, and the natural world." I believe that teamLab does develop their own custom softwares and scripts, to which they utilize across their exhibitions. I was lucky enough to just recently visit teamLab's Borderless exhibit on my recent trip to Japan, less than a month ago.

teamLab's Borderless is collaborative co-creation space for visitors to embrace creative and individualistic opinions and observations, while collaborating with strangers, families, and friends. At first glance, it seems to be just fascinating, exciting playground for young kids to frolic around and enjoy how intelligent of a world can respond to their each and every motion, however, upon further scrutiny and researching more into the mission purpose of teamLab, one can connect how each and every interaction and exhibit room space catalyzes some form of self awareness and discovery, in parallel with creating and existing in harmony with others.

There are many aspects that could be greatly expanded upon, and overall this environment space serves as a catalyst for many other monumental works and thinking to sprout from. Although extremely supernatural and mystical, which proves great delight to kids, I think it would be really interesting and beneficial if teamLab and/or other creators would be able to implement this sort of environments and interactions more seamlessly into everyday learning, rather than have it be an isolated experience that one would have to visit in order to be directly affected.

From what I gathered from their exhibit, it seems like teamLab is greatly inspired by the need to fill the gap between bringing together creativity and traditional classroom learning. In a growingly technological age where children can easily become more isolated, in combination with a culture that strictly enforces learning through traditional means of reading and writing, with right and wrong answers, teamLab aspires to facilitate a more organic, creative, and individualistic co-creating and learning environment.

 

clox-01-Reading

  1. "The Critical Engineer expands "machine" to describe interrelationships encompassing devices, bodies, agents, forces and networks."

Tenet six, essentially claims that a "Critical Engineer" expands the notion of a "machine" beyond its particular physical manifestation and function (and certainly beyond the abstracted sense of "a machine") and understands and seeks to highlight that its existence requires and is inscribed by several other material and social factors. For example, when personal computers were first being disseminated into the wider public, engineers had to find a way to make them accessible to an unfamiliar, unspecialized public. How, for instance, could they get amateur or professional writers (accustomed to pen, paper, typewriter and desk) to convert to a digital writing platform? Some early word-processors and desktop interfaces chose to adopt the features of their analog predecessors (i.e. Microsoft Bob). Basically, these engineers had to understand that these "machines" had to be translated to accommodate (and slowly adjust) existing social, cultural, and material norms-they certainly did not exist in some vacuum.