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Work Samples |
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| On Everything
- Pall Thayer
"On Everything" generates a real-time audio/visual presentation of everything by appropriating material being shared by the worldwide public in the form of shared images and diaries. The source material is endless, thus the work goes on forever. Material is synthesized, mixed and, ultimately, abstracted, to allow for varied interpretation. "On Everything" knows nothing of the content of these materials. It reflects everything while reflecting on nothing. That is up to the viewer. Pure-Data, Perl & Processing, with source material from Flickr & Blogger |
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getawayexperiment.net - Nathaniel Stern (and Marcus Neustetter) getawayexperiment.net proposes a dialogue between the virtual and physical processes of sign and site design and perception. Stern and Neustetter have transformed several information-based web pages into collaboratively constructed communication sites. Initially, they commissioned local sign-makers in Johannesburg, South Africa to "re-mix" five, live websites by painting stylized versions of each image on their main pages. For a limited time, participants from anywhere in the world can edit any one of these "getaway" pages, by uploading their own replacement images. When not editing a given page, each individual image is randomly pulled from the site's live database, thereby transforming the "getaways" into dynamic collages that signify something completely new. PHP & MySql, html, CSS + JavaScript |
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| Digital Crustaceans:
Homesteading on the World Wide Web - Ingrid Bachman/Pall Thayer In February, 2007 a version of this work was exhibited as part of the Zoo exhibition at Interaccess gallery in Toronto. It involves using motion tracking devices to gather the motion data of hermit crabs in a large aquarium. In earlier versions of the work, the data was used to traverse the Web, portraying the crabs as searching for homes. When Ingrid asked me to collaborate with her on a new version of the piece, I suggested using Second Life instead of the Web since the idea of the home page is rather dated and Second Life is truly meant to be a home on the Internet. Thus, in this version, the movements of the hermit crabs directly affect the movements of avatars in Second Life in real-time, allowing them to explore the various virtual regions available and to expand their horizons beyond the confined space of their real-life aquarium. At the same time, the movements of the crabs are plotted in real-time on an architectural plotter. Daily records of their accumulated movements are displayed on the gallery wall. Perl, PHP, LindenScript Live hermit crabs, iSight camera, HP pen-plotting printer |
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step inside - Nathaniel Stern step inside is an immersive, multi-sensory environment, which calls attention to the perceptions of, and imperceptible within, identity. It provokes us to re-think our selves as "collage[s] in motion," and challenges Cartesian notions of consciousness. step inside implies multiplicity and movement as intrinsic to our being; it asks viewers to explore the noise and stillness attendant on the performance of self. "I swing, therefore I am" (Elizabeth Ermarth, Sequel to History). When 'stepping inside' the 3 x 3 x 3 meter interaction space, viewer-participants are immediately confronted with an amplified and echoed trail of noise. This, they'll soon discover, is the sound of each footstep they take, of all the footwork in the room. A video camera, opposite them and connected to the step inside software, reads their bodies, and separates them out from the background. However, instead of a video mirror, they see only a profile, and are disallowed a frontal reflection. This left-hand 'projection' fills their 2-D forms with white noise. The amplitude of the echoed footsteps controls the video's opacity. The 'result' becomes a variable wave of embodied noise. A written statement, as a provocation to movement,
is on
the far wall of the space. It invites participants to perform, direct,
react to, and interact with, the images and sounds they create. It asks
them to try walking, crawling, gesturing, with their bodies; play
between silence and tapping, scratching, audio-theatrics on the floor. External, non-participant viewers will also see the performer's projected image, but not their bodies or actions inside the space. They can only guess the intent of step inside's participant, who can likewise only attempt to promote a well-read representation of self. There's a literal wall between what we project with our performance, and how this might be perceived. step inside literally frames, and accents, the minute details of willing and unwilling communication. Rather than mirroring us back to our 'selves', it provokes 'identity as question,' and shifts our perspectives on where and how this does not begin or end. step inside won a "major award" in the 2004 Brett Kebble Art Awards (South Africa) and was subsequently purchased for the Johannesburg Art Museum permanent collection. Max/MSP+Jitter with external cv.jit objects + contact footstep detectors, iidc cam, mixers, lights, wood, plaster, BP screen |
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| Did The Earth Move for You?
Nude Studies in an Unstable Environment In this work I continue my exploration into issues of subjectivity and abstraction. In earlier work I have focused on attempting to remove the artist from the creation of the visuals as a way of avoiding subjectivity. Now, however, I have come to the conclusion that we cannot avoid subjectivity and shouldn't. The subjectivity of the artist is what makes a work of art unique. Thus I have adopted the term "diluted subjectivity" as a reference to the way in which I mix elements of my own subjectivity with other elements that are received either through interaction or appropriation. In "Did the Earth Move for You?" I approach the idea of diluted subjectivity by combining my own process-based approach to automated, computerized screen-painting in real-time with imagery appropriated from Flickr.com, on one hand, and real-time seismic measurements from Washington State, on the other. As I am constantly exploring relationships between the new media of computer and Internet based art and historically traditional modes of art-making, "Did the Earth Move for You?" examines the common traditional practice of the nude study. The Flickr images all share the fact that they have been labeled by their respective owners with the term "nude". Since the tagging of the imagery is a conscious, human act the reasons for applying the tag can vary. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the image portrays what a viewer might regard as "a nude" in the traditional artistic sense or even a non-artistic sense. On the other hand, the automated computer processes that guide the image selection see only the tag and not the images' actual contents. So, to the computer the images are all interpreted as "nudes". As a way of diluting the artist's subjectivity further, the computer's "repainting" of the imagery, pixel by pixel, is guided by data received from a live seismic monitor located in Washington State in the US. Aside from abstracting the imagery, this also introduces a different sense of "real-time" into the work. Instead of the work simply creating its own real-time event, it is directly linked to the real-time events of earthly tectonic activity. The progressive elements of the work are not guided strictly by the work's own evolution over time but are guided by the movement and evolution of the Earth's surface plates. Although the work exists in a state of the present moment, the distortions introduced by the seismic data add an element of temporal transparency, allowing portions of previous moments to linger within the otherwise shifting present. The use of live, geophysical data represents a subjectivity beyond any means of human control. The resulting experience is a mixture of the rigidness of automated computer processes, the unreliability of human consciousness and the instability of the Earth's surface. The work will be accessible on-line in early April, 2007 Perl, Processing/Java, Pure Data Flickr images, Live seismic data |
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