Pixelsumo is a blog about interaction, with an emphasis on play, installation, video game culture, playgrounds and toys. Written by Chris O'Shea.
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TwitterThe Pool
Posted February 8th 2010 under Light, Playgrounds
The Pool by Jen Lewin is a really interesting and modular approach to creating a light based game / playground space…
“The Pool is an environment of giant, concentric circles created from interactive, wireless circular pads. By entering the pool, you enter a world where play and collaborative movement can create a cascading effect of swirling light and color .
Each pad in The Pool is its own wireless controller. All of the 120 pads communicate and listen to each other in an organic network formed in the same way people interact. The Pool has no single master computer and does not use a router to route or control connections. Each pad is independent, and simultaneously interacts and listens to its environment based on user feedback.”
I’d love to get my hands on the set-up to prototype game ideas.
Hello Haptic
Posted February 6th 2010 under Inclusive, Tangible
“Hello Haptic is a flash card kit for the blind children to learn various haptical experiences about nature.
Visually impaired children are able to self-educate themselves about different parts of nature with this learning aid. They will be properly stimulated about diverse characters of nature as well as fulfilling their curiosity through their first-hand tactile knowledge.
Created by Rhea Jeong in collaboration with Sunmin Lee, Saehee Lee, Youngsoo Hong”
Kinetica Art Fair 2010
Posted February 5th 2010 under Installations, Kinetic, Kinetica Museum, Light, Sculpture
So last night I went to the opening of the Kinetica Art Fair, in the P3 gallery space London. Its never really a good idea to go to an opening night if you want to appreciate the work, as its always too crowded, but I’ll do my best. The show is on until 7th Feb and I do recommend you go and see this.
You can see my photos here. There are much nicer pics on the Telegraph site, also a video from the BBC.
Remember is that this is an art buyers fair, and nearly all of the work is for sale. This means that it is less of a curated exhibition, with a combination of artists selected by Kinetica and artists that have paid for their booth. Personally I’d prefer to see a yearly curated Kinetica exhibition, with less work and more focus on quality, but in todays economic climate that’s not so easy. That said, the majority of work is good & the show is definitely worth a visit.
There are themes that run through the show, with machines that draw things on paper, moving light patterns and persistence of vision, mechanical moving devices and digital works using LEDs & lcd screens. Like last year, Kinetica have combined the masters (works from 1920 through the 60s) along side more recent projects. I often prefer the more analogue moving objects and devices as they have a certain magic about them. The interactive pieces tended to have quite a shallow feedback loop, with sensors triggering video clips or sounds & not really adding that much to the experience, so perhaps they would have worked just as well without this.
So some works that stood out for me…
My favourite piece was Trace by Balint Bolygo, “A revolving plaster cast of the artist’s head is slowly deconstructed into a mathematical diagram that changes as time passes”. As the head rotates, the arm presses into the curves & shapes, mechanically moving a pen that is drawing a topographic image of the head.
Probably 2nd in my list would be these sculptures by Roseline de Thelin. Using only fibre optic cables, she has created these haunting figures, like ghosts in suspended animation. They don’t move unfortunately, but one could see how they could move slowly using a tight led mesh, but there is something nice about the approach taken in this piece & the way they are presented.
Then in no particular order…
There are a couple of pieces using small LCD screens and in Flutter Cinimod Studio use them to demonstrate a butterfly in flight. Mounted against a mirror you get a reflection making them whole and having a line of screens gives it a sort of zoetrope or sort of onion skinning effect. The videos are controlled by overhead thermal cameras, but like many of the interactive pieces there its a feature that perhaps isn’t needed.
3d led matrix arrays have been done many times before, but squidsoup have created ocean of light that is quite a calming experience, feeling like the light shapes that move around within have volume to them. Watch video here.
And finally Revolver by Vincent Leclerc.
I’d be interested to hear what you think of the show & which works you like. Feel free to post a comment.
Maison Hermès window display
Posted January 22nd 2010 under Advertising, Installations, Retail
I’d only recently seen this on designboom, and I had to post it as its such a well made installation.
Just watch this video.
based on a window display he first presented in 2004, the japanese designer tokujin yoshioka has now restructured it using a japanese actress currently being presented at Maison Hermès, japan. the installation will run from now until january 19th, 2010.
‘on designing a window-display of Maison Hermès, I intended to express people’s daily ‘movements’ with a suspicion of humor. there are moments when I perceive a hidden presence of a person in the movements born naturally in daily life. I created a design where one can perceive someone behind the scarves as if life were being breathed into them. the window is designed with an image of woman projected on to a monitor. the scarf softly sways in the air in response to the woman’s blow. ‘ - TY
Musical Toys
Posted January 22nd 2010 under Sound, Toys
Quite a few blogs have been posting the concept Original Sound Track from Ricardo Seola recently (shown above). Watch video. A wooden toy train moves across a track, with its front teeth plinking across pegs on the track, inspired by a music box. You can then tack the track and build different layouts to alter the order of musical sequences.
The concepts reminds me of a combination of…
Sound Chaser, from Yuri Suzuki : watch video (vehicle drives around re-configurable vinyl to play audio).
And …
MUSIK LOK (1972)
“The little train has a small 8 note keyboard on the bottom. As it drives along the track, the coloured switches push the keys, so you get your own programmed melody. In other words, this is an analog step sequencer for 3-year old children”
(posted here)
The Daily Shelter
Posted January 22nd 2010 under Furniture
I’d previously written about projects that use dinner tables as places for play & exploring here and here.
Continuing along this theme, Ingrid Brandth has created Daily Shelter…
“Feeling safe is not necessarily being safe.
We feel protected and secure in surroundings that
are familiar to us, where we can control the
space around us - physically or psychologically.The Daily Shelter is a table inspired by my grandfather
Sigvald Andreas Brandth. He was an inventive designer
who based many of his ideas on excitement,
humor and secrets.
And just like his many designs, this table has a hidden story.At first glance it looks like an ordinary table.
But for the one who knows its secret, it can be
transformed into a shelter where one can hide from
scary sounds, ghosts or family members.
Just like a snail feels safe in it’s house.”
Augmented Reality Roundup
Posted January 13th 2010 under Augmented Reality, Games
I’ve never really written very much about augmented reality on Pixelsumo, just an alternative reality. The other week I was talking at an Augmented Planet event, where various demos were shown & discussed.
I am slightly cynical towards AR because many things I have seen don’t work, so I decided to post some projects that I actually do like.
For me, bad uses of augmented reality are where it is used just as a gimmick. Showing a 3D model on a marker? I mean common, the ARToolKit was developed nearly 10 years ago! The experience has to be meaningful, with the technology being part of the context in which it is used, and enhance an experience, not making it harder. If you are aware of the technology as the main focus, then it hasn’t worked.
Watch this parody video…
Or how bad is this? :)
A lot of marker based stuff doesn’t work, due to lighting conditions, obscuring the marker or just being too slow. The problem is that we get used to these flaws as part of the experience of using AR, so we just accept them.
To be honest, I’m not keen on the concepts of augmented magazines, corporate brochures, band videos & business cards. What happens when the novelty of AR wears off?
So what do I like?
Le monde des montagnes
Written about previously already. Lovely.
levelHead
levelHead by Julian Oliver is a great spatial memory game. Players use a plastic cube, each side covered in an AR marker, acting as a window into a virtual room, whilst tilting the cube to make the character walk. I like this because the display cube is used as a tangible link into the virtual world, and the markers themselves help act as visual helpers to remembering which rooms belong to the cube sides.
Augmented Reality Magic
Augmented illusions from the ‘virtual magician’ Marco Tempest, watch video. Whilst in contemporary magic you have no idea how a trick is done, here its easy to say ‘oh its done in the computer’. However there are traditional card tricks linked into some AR graphics here. The system recognises the cards (rather than needing AR markers), with the software for this magic being created by Zach Lieberman & Theo Watson. Pictures of the software in action here.
Also check out the Magic Projection (created by Zach for Marco).
EyePet
In EyePet, Sony have brought AR to the masses in a game, much more accessible than any other attempt at AR for homes before it. More of an advanced toy than fully fledged game, you control your virtual pet via the PSEye camera as the interface. As well as motion vectors from your hands movement, they have used ‘magic card’ as AR markers to let you interact with your pet (shown here). Most impressive is the technology to turn your drawings into 3d objects that the pet can ride & play with (shown above). Watch this video, and this one. I suspect when the new PS3 motion controller is released this spring will bring a host of improvements to EyePet.
Lego Digital Box
When you take a child to buy a box of Lego, the box doesn’t just show the pieces that are inside in a random pile, it shows that these pieces can (or should) be made into. Watch video. So its a very logical idea to let children see what their creations could look like when finished & also animate them. Why is it good? In store you get to instantly see how the Lego pieces animate, and the technology doesn’t rely on large ugly AR markers. Created by Metaio for Lego (via Notcot)
ARPool
“The RCVLab at Queen’s University demonstrates Deep Green, a pool playing robot, and ARPool, an augmented reality system for teaching the science of pool”. Watch video. Sure it works as a training aid, but also opens up ideas for creating new rules & games on a pool table. Although, this Obscura Digital product might be too distracting?
Total Immersion
French company Total Immersion are one of the leaders in this field for years. They have done too much to mention (3d face mapping, markerless space tracking, pattern recognition), but check out their videos here. Also check out the videos of team member Emmanuel here for tonnes of great behind the scenes & experiments.
AR on iphone
Yes there have been a few apps that overlay arrows pointing at tube stations, and demos of using the AR toolkit, but the marker-less space tracking is really going to be the key to success. Apple, please allow developers to use the camera in your sdk!
The Active Vision Group of the Oxford University Engineering Department created PTAM (Parallel Tracking and Mapping) by Georg Klein & David Murray, watch this awesome video (from 2007). Now supports multiple cameras & multiple maps (with source code), see PTAMM. As you can see from this video, they have PTAM running on iPhone.
I suspect that other companies, such as Total Immersion & Metaio have iPhone technology ready to go when Apple buck up their ideas. Why is this important? Well the popularity of the device could see interesting AR apps and games appearing that really push the boundaries of outdoor AR and pervasive gaming.
Augmented Reality Toys
For his final project of Interaction Design Master degree, Frantz Lasorne created a toy prototype, asking the question how we might play if wearing a head mounted AR viewer device (view videos). Read about the project here.
Musical Heads
Posted December 9th 2009 under Art, Kinetic, MovingImage, Sound
Three examples of crazy musical heads…
drum|head
drum|head was a small project by murat n konar a few years ago whilst he was studying at the Royal College of Art. Its a simple idea but lots of fun. Project a video of his face on to a foam face, when hit like a drum the facial expression changes. Watch video.
Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc.
This year Chris Cairns created the short film Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs. A real labor of love for the director, featuring many talented musicians. Its very well done, watch here.
Nathaniel Mellor
(image source: Mute)
Artist Nathaniel Mellor’s animatronic recreation of ‘The Father’ from Giantbum, 2009. “part of a $75,000 art piece on sale at Art Basel Miami Beach 2009″ (Via Engadget). Watch video.
Mr Jones Showroom
Posted December 4th 2009 under Products
We invited Crispin Jones to talk at This happened about the process of bringing the digital product Tengu to market. You can watch that presentation here.
Mr Jones has just opened a real life showroom, selling both Tengu & his range of watches, in Oxo Tower Wharf (London). More information.
Its great to see a designer take this leap & I wish it every success.
Decode: Digital Design Sensations
Posted November 29th 2009 under Decode
On 8th December the much anticipated Decode: Digital Design Sensations show opens at the V&A Museum. Thankfully it is on until 11th April 2010, so you’ve plenty of time to get there.
“Decode: Digital Design Sensations showcases the latest developments in digital and interactive design, from small, screen-based, graphics to large-scale interactive installations.”
I’m *very* happy to see a contemporary institution like the V&A really taking on this show and raising the profile or digital and interactive media, hopefully giving it the full credit its due. Maybe its a good sign of things to come.
Decode is a joint collaboration between the V&A and onedotzero. onedotzero have been commissioning various forms of work since 1997, and its their relationship with V&A (originating from conferences & education projects in 2004, to the 2007 Friday Late Transvision event) that has made this show happen. Newly commissioned works for Decode include Mirror Mirror from Jason Bruges Studio, bit.code from Julius Popp, On Growth and Form by Daniel Brown.
Artists & designers in the show include Aaron Koblin, Ben Rubin, Casey Reas, Chris O’Shea, Daan Roosegaarde, Daniel Brown, Daniel Rozin, Everyware, Fabrica, Golan Levin, Jakob Mandøe, James Frost, Jason Bruges Studio, John Maeda, Jonathan Harris, Joshua Davis, Julius Popp, Karsten Schmidt, Lia, Marius Watz, Mark Hansen, Mehmet Akten, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, rAndom International, Robert Hodgin, Ross Phillips, Ryoji Ikeda, Sascha Pohflepp, Sennep, Simon Heijdens, Stanza, Troika, Universal Everything, Wow.
There is so much in the show, I’ve split them out into 3 posts: Interactivity, Code & Network
Identity
Fresh off the success of his generative identity for the onedotzero festival (created with Wieden+Kennedy London), Karsten Schmidt has been commissioned to make an identity for Decode (watch video). You can download the source as well as an app to play with. You can recode and submit your version of the identity, and it could be selected to appear on the London Underground CBS screen network. Read about the process.
Events
In the events section you will see a whole host of workshops, evening showcases, conferences, talks & drop in sessions. Too much to list here.
Pixelsumo coverage
I’ll of course post any photos to my flickr, and over the coming weeks & months I hope to bring you some more in-depth coverage, such as interviews with the curators, as well as reflections on the show, conference/seminar coverage etc.
Decode: Network
Posted November 29th 2009 under Decode, Network
Continuing coverage of the line-up for the Decode exhibition. More coverage here.
—
Network
“We are all linked through systems of networks. Mobile technologies have become increasingly widespread, allowing us to be connected to each other almost constantly. The internet has given artists and designers new platforms for production, interrogation and dissemination.
This networked world has provided the basis and tools for works of art and design that are multi-sited and global. Networks are saturated with the traces of our lives: messages we send, blog entries we post, borders we cross. Artists and designers are drawing on these traces of human presence, and using the ‘memory’ as the basis of new works. Translating our digital tracks into readable and understandable visualisations, they tease out the threads of our digitised activity.”
Works include…
bit.code (2009)
by Julius Popp
We Feel Fine (2005 – ongoing)
by Jonathan Harris & Sep Kamvar
Flight Patterns (2008)
by Aaron Koblin
Exquisite Clock (2009)
by Fabrica
Listening Post
by Mark Hansen & Ben Rubin
Sensity (2009)
by Stanza
Social Collider (2009)
by Sascha Pohflepp & Karsten Schmidt
Make-Out (2009)
by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
—
More Decode coverage here.
Decode: Code
Posted November 29th 2009 under Decode, Installations, MovingImage
Continuing coverage of the line-up for the Decode exhibition. More coverage here.
—
Code
“Computational code contains the core data necessary to run a computer programme. It is also becoming an increasingly prevalent design tool. Code is both a new ‘material’ that artists can use and an inspiration for their subject matter. Practitioners are exploring the beauty of algorithms and the artistic potential of computational systems.
Programmers, who work with code to create computer programmes, are a recent addition to the creative arts community. They develop and craft bespoke code, working individually or collaboratively within a design team. Alternatively, they may re-use code from an existing open-source library.
One of the most significant developments within digital design is the concept of ‘open source’. Designers publish their codes on the internet, creating libraries pf creativity free for others designers to borrow, develop or pass on within the design community and beyond.”
Works include…
TI (2004)
by C.E.B. Reas
On Growth and Form (2009)
by Daniel Brown
Nature (2007)
by John Maeda
House of Cards Video, 2008 / Interactive version, 2009
by James Frost & Aaron Koblin
Swarm Draw (2009)
by Joshua Davis
Solar (November 2009 edition)
by Robert Hodgin
Enerugii Wa Antee Shite Inai (Unstable Energy) (2006)
by Karsten Schmidt
Everyone Forever (2006)
by Universal Everything
Stockspace (2009)
by Marius Watz
Digital Zoetrope (2008)
by Troika
Arcs 21 (2009)
by Lia
data.scan (2009)
by Ryoji Ikeda
—
More Decode coverage here.
Decode: Interactivity
Posted November 29th 2009 under Decode, Installations
Continuing coverage of the line-up for the Decode exhibition. More coverage here.
—
Interactivity
“Digital technology enables a wide range of reciprocal relationships between digital artwork and the viewer. Using a combination of technology such as sensors, cameras and tracking, together with feedback and coding, both artwork and human can respond, react and interact instantly.
Many of the works displayed in this section of the exhibition respond to human gesture, tracing the presence of the viewer and translating it back into the work. They also frequently incorporate images of the viewer. The pieces are immersive, inviting participants to interact within a virtual space, deliberately blurring the lines between design, interaction, play and performance.”
Works include…
Light Rain (2007)
by WOW
Weave Mirror (2007)
by Daniel Rozin
Oasis (2008–9)
by Everyware
Opto-Isolator II (2007)
by Golan Levin
Body Paint (2009)
by Mehmet Akten
Video Grid (2009)
by Ross Phillips / SHOWstudio
Dandelion (2009)
by Sennep & YOKE
Venetian Mirror (2009)
by Fabrica
Tree (2005)
by Simon Heijdens
Lightweeds (2006)
by Simon Heijdens
Audience (2008–9)
by rAndom International & Chris O’Shea
Flow 5.0 (2007)
by Studio Roosegaarde
Dune (2007)
by Studio Roosegaarde
Study for a Mirror (2008)
by rAndom International (software by Chris O’Shea)
Mirror Mirror (2009)
by Jason Bruges Studio
—
More Decode coverage here.
PhoneBook
Posted November 17th 2009 under Mobile, Narrative, Toys
PhoneBook is a nice concept from Mobile Art Lab in Japan. Its such a simple idea, to combine a Iphone with a childs picture book. You put the phone inside the book itself, with a window to the screen acting as a little portal within the book. Then whilst flipping through the pages to match the scene on the screen, you can use the touchscreen & tilt sensors to interact with the animations.
Lumiere
Posted November 11th 2009 under Installations, Light
“LUMIERE is a four-day festival (12-15 November) that will brighten the historic city of Durham (North East England), bringing a sprinkle of winter magic to the North East. More than 50 artists will create a breathtaking series of installations, illuminations and performances using light. Lumiere will turn the city into a winter wonderland, transforming its stunning buildings, streets and riverbanks, with a nocturnal winter festival that will amaze residents and visitors alike”.
I wish I had time to go, sounds great.
An Artichoke project, in partnership with Sky Arts.
Many works in the programme, including some Pixelsumo faves…
