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I went to mona to check out the Experimenta Utopia exhibition. It was fantastic, this time I went with a view to what parts of what installations I thought worked well and why.

Possibly one of the more powerful works in the exhibition was “Whose Utopia” a film about workers in a chinese light globe factory. A large projection on an end wall, at first I walked past it barely pausing to take it in. But after view most of the other works I came back round and sat down to take it in. It was only once sitting that I let myself be taken away by the film totally engrossed in something I had so easily walked passed. I later wondered how much the long wide bench had been responsible for my viewing this great film, The cushions on the floor of Patrick Bernatchezi’s “I feel cold today”, weren’t successful in luring me in, although I did stand and watch it for a while. I found it odd that I thought I would be examining how various screens and spaces were set up but ended up contemplating seating. There was nothing outstanding with any of the projection spaces although I did enjoy the play of light and shadows in “Schattenspiel (shadow play)” .

The part of the exhibition that excited me the most was the attention the interactive works were getting. Although I have been interested in this as a great form of Art (at least conceptually) for some time I have seen very few interactive work (in real life) that I have actually liked. I also feel that many distrust much of this work and question its validity. But to see so many of these works together and being well received gave me faith that pursuing interactive art is a worthwhile venture. The amount of attention the interactive work was getting gave some validity to my thoughts on how technology is driving social change and the evolution form consumer to creator for the general population. (there is a post in that)

I have given up on the generated sound idea not for ever but definitely for this project, getting beep, pings and bleeps is easy bit it completely takes the work to somewhere else that what is intended, the work is best when its view with a quite and reflective manner, I have worked hard to create organic textures obviously computer generated sounds are completely destructive to this work.

Maybe if I had a library of orchestrated sounds that were chosen based on the Kinect data it could be interesting or if my beeps were heavily filtered but I don’t really have those skills at this point in time or the time to peruse this when there are plenty of other things to do.

What would this work sound like ?

While working I have tended to listen to Soma moody electronica, the slower tracks would be the rough style of sound that first comes to mind when thinking about sound.

I’m not particularly interested in playing a track to accompany my work, its not what the work is about.  What if the sound was created like the visuals are ? Now this is an interesting thought, I have experimented with generative sound before and it is feasible to build a sound bed from the kinect data.

What then should it sound like?

Rain - electricity - magic – increasing in intensity, with lots of movement dying down as the image settles.

After a few gallery wanderings I’ve decided I really don’t like TV’s and monitors for exhibiting work.Even some projections that are just another slightly larger screen can be uninspiring. The TV or monitor tends puts me in to the frame of mind I am when watching TV (mind switched of or more usually thinking about something else) I have never like worked presented on a computer for similar reasons and although professionally creating interactive content for kiosks in exhibitions I despise computers as content delivery systems in museums.

I have always loved the big screen and think the power lies in its ability to fill your vision.  In my search of the perfect set up the spaces I like best involved lage projections in to relatively small spaces, you come round a corner or through a door and bam your vision is filled with the work, you are in it part of it its very hard to ignore.

My desire to have the viewer actively part of the art will require this type of immersion. This is going to be a challenge as Art School doesn’t have mang great projectors or screens and finding a location to set this up will be difficult. But this should be my goal as big as possible as encompassing as possible.

No a very arty thought just worried about passing. What is enough to make assessors happy ? Is it really enough just to get last years work happening in a space ? It doesn’t feel like a semesters work surely there needs to be more.

Although not the best way to see people engage with my work it was great to see the first image come in. It wasn’t quite how I left it but I was getting images up it was working. Every few minutes I was getting a new image (not what I had planned) it looked like I was seeing too much floor. This was just stepping over my threshold of someone in the space and giving me lots of false triggers, the worst thing was that I had a minimum time between uploads and that meant I was often capturing an image just as somone entered the space before very much had been drawn. I did get the occasional good image which showed people were there and everything was working. Still plenty to work on but I was fairly buoyed by the whole experience.

The viewing the exhibition remotely was actually a very interesting experience. This tiny glimpse in to a room at the other end of the state. I enjoyed the still images I had grabbed before, waiting for the perfect moment when chaos and order produced just the right mix.  These images froze a moment so it could be examined in detail but the moment is about what leads up to it and what follows these images weren’t they were just a reminder. But looking at these images from afar they weren’t memories As I hadn’t been there. They flet like ghost reaching out to me from where I might could have been. Its hard to explain but it did feel like I was connected to the space by those shadowy figures. I doubt I would have felt like that if they were normal photos of people I felt that process of me trying to formulate the shapes in to people somehow gave them more importance. It exciting when you find animals in clouds maybe its just this, maybe its just me excited watching my baby and others would find nothing of interest in it, either way its something that I will continue to explore.

General feedback was really good, people liked my work and were engaged with it. I had quite a few good comments from various sources, very encouraging. Given that it was my first attempt at setting it up and there was little time to polish any code I’m pleased that I might not be just me (and a handfull of e-media types) that finds this stuff interesting.

I thought I would be dropping in to UNI for about an hour to set up today. Oh so very wrong. There was the physical mounting and connecting to be done which all went relatively smoothly (thanks to my purchase of 10m usb and 10m vga cables).

The interesting part was the placement of the Kinect. I found a stool that I decided to have as the focal point. This proved to be an excellent (lucky) idea. By placing the stool in front of the screen it shifted the focal point of the work. The stool invited the viewer to come and sit down, thus it drew them in to the Kinect zone. It also by getting the viewer to sit down this suggest this is a work to contemplate to take your time over. Now you are sitting it easier to spend a little more time taking it all in.

In another piece of inspired placement I placed the kinect in such a position that the viewer wasn’t seeing them selves front an angle people often see them selves in a mirror, the Kinect behind and of to the side revealed the viewers profile they weren’t watching them selves the were looking at themselves looking off in to the distance (this slight shift would also gain me some more contemplation from the viewer) Finally placing the kinect further away from the screen meant people trying to hide of in the background were likely to move close to the Kinect and thus make more impact that they might have thought.

I would have tried dozens of placements with the kinect spending several hours to find my final setup. I was fascinated by how much difference the placement of these 2 objects made.

Finally I adjusted set up a single spotlight to softly illuminate the stool, again adding importance to it (as well as ensuring it wasn’t lost in the dark)

Having this full day to play with the space was vital in the success of the work, I also understand now why my showing to the class previously was so unsuccessful. This day also helped me to realise why choosing to focus on installing this work is a valid goal with this day just being the first step. I am also determined to ensure I will always endever to tailor any work to fit a space and not just assume I can plug it in.(hopefully have several days to do so).

So after some tweaking to my settings and a check that my images were being sent online it was a matter of giving Ryan a run through on starting it up.

With open day closing in and me becoming more disappointed about not being able to attend I have experimented with the work saving grabs and posting them online. This way I will be able to use my phone and check on progress. I have added some scripts to do this and have set it up so content will only be posted if there has been a recent change to the scene. With this I can almost be in both places at once.(not really but its as close as I’m going to get).

Screen running the work on a monitor is not my final intention, this went against my idea of people being part of the space. The image was small and everybody just sort of stood back. Occasionally people would wander in to the space and wave about(I hate waving) then step back out.

There was no discovery for these people they were already standing in the room when everything was turned on. The screen was small and letting people stand back and not be part of the work goes against what I was trying to achieve, its was about being in the work not looking at it from a distance.

I had no props to seed the space, and still just placed the Kinect where it was convenient.

All of these issues need to be thought through. This actually backs up my decision to concentrate on turning the tech that I have developed in to an instalment. Just running the tech is not enough to capture an audience.

I’m still happy with the idea (for now) execution is everything.