Godmode by Tim Knapen (2007) is an installation “that allows you to play God by bringing to life any creature you draw”.

I am a very big fan of works like this that bring drawings to life. Another one to check out if you haven’t seen it is Drawn by Zach Lieberman.

In this piece, it uses the metaphor of an old photocopier to bring drawings to life. Take a thick pen and do your drawing. Place it in the photocopier and press scan. A few seconds later, the light coming from the photocopier hitting the ceiling contains your creature moving around with others.

This video shows it in operation.

Its great that it uses a photocopier, as it adds to the magic. Theres no sort of obvious “this is a technology installation” about it, as we are so used to them already. You could put this in schools as a surprise for the young students.

I really like the animation style too, how it bends and warps each drawing. This is shown in this video and this one.

“Inside of the photocopier, there’s a camera, a beamer and pc which runs custom made software that analyses and animates your drawing. The software was written in Java and uses processing by Ben Fry and Casey Reas and JMyron by Josh Nimoy”.

More photos here. Good work Tim.

Called iProcessing & created by Luckybite (see BirdBox Alarm Clock)…

“iProcessing is an open programming framework to help people develop native iPhone applications using the Processing language. It is an integration of the Processing.js library and a Javascript application framework for iPhone.”

Of course you can also make iTouch apps in openFrameworks, and soon export from Flash CS5, or if you are hardcore just the native SDK, but we like easier entry points and saving some boring work.

There are some speed & graphics limitations, and one downside at the moment is : “It is unknown as to whether apps created using the framework will be approved if submitted to the App Store”, but things will improve over time & this is really good news for students who are just starting out in coding Processing.

Much better coverage on Create Digital Motion & CreativeApps.

Thanks Tom Hulbert @ Luckybite!

So to start off, here are projects I wish I had written about recently…

The Image Fulgurator by Julius von Bismarck is a device for physically manipulating photographs. It intervenes when a photo is being taken, without the photographer being able to detect anything. The manipulation is only visible on the photo afterwards.

related project : the sms guerrilla projector

Playing the Building is an installation by David Byrne, on in New York until 24th August, go and see it. (thanks Andy)

Following on from Evoke, Usman Haque has created Primal Source for the Glow festival in California. “making use of a large-scale outdoor waterscreen projection system, Primal Source will appear like a mirage, glowing with colours and ebullient patterns generated by the competing or collaborative voices, music and screams of people nearby”. Coverage and video on Notcot

Golan Levin has created Double-Taker (Snout)… “orients itself towards passers-by, tracking their bodies and suggesting an intelligent awareness of their activities. The goal of this kinetic system is to perform convincing “double-takes” at its visitors, in which the sculpture appears to be continually surprised by the presence of its own viewers — communicating, without words, that there is something uniquely surprising about each of us.”

Jason Bruges Studio have created Applause, an array of computer controlled flags at the Goodwood Festival of Speed for Veuve Clicquot. The flags rotate to point at passing race cars or to watch polo matches. Concept render videos shown on Dezeen, documentation of project on main JBS site.

Karsten Schmidt (aka PostSpectacular) has been super busy with his Processing based works. These include generative book covers for Faber print on demand, a cover for Print magazine using genetic processes & 3d model printing, as well as a fiducial generator for use with Reactivision tracking software.

Snog is a new frozen yogurt shop in London. The branding concept & design by ico design, architecture and lighting design (including a led video display ceiling with moving clouds) by Cinimod Studio.

Theodore Watson, Emily Gobeille and Meredith Dittmar have a new show at the Riviera gallery in New York until 10th August. Well worth a visit.

Moritz Waldemeyer was interviewed for this weeks BBC Culture Show, giving a tour of his work in his studio.

It was available on the UK only iPlayer, but you can now watch on youtube here.

More from Moritz on Pixelsumo
By Royal Appointment
OK Go Costumes
This happened #1

London based Troika has been commissioned by Artwise Curators to create a signature piece at the entrance of the new British Airways luxury lounges in Heathrow Terminal 5.

“In response, we created ‘Cloud’, a five meter long digital sculpture whose surface is covered with 4638 flip-dots that can be individually addressed by a computer to animate the entire skin of the sculpture. Flip-dots were conventionally used in the 70s and 80s to create signs in train-stations and airports. We were fascinated by their materiality, by the way they physically flip from one side to the other. The sound they generate is also instantly reminiscent of travel, and we therefore decided to explore their aesthetic potential in ‘Cloud’.”

The project took 8 months in development, manufacturing and installation. Troika was responsible for the concept, design, executive design and engineering, project, production and installation management, and over-viewing all the operations from start to finish.

Manufactured by Mike Smith Studio
Controls by Pharos Architectural Controls
Installation by Alternative Access

It is really fantastic and I recommend you watch the two videos here www.troika.uk.com/cloudvideos.htm

Troika also reveal a lot about the development process behind the project. It really was a gigantic undertaking.

I’m very impressed!

[update 1]

“While Cloud was being assembled, we went on to create the animations. Since the shape is complex and the distribution of the dots is somehow atypical, we needed to create visualisation software to help us imagine what they would look like. The visualisation software has been programmed in-house in Processing, while the main control software was developed by the team at Pharos Controls”.

Troika have been kind enough to send me screenshots of this visualisation & allow me to publish them here and here

More posts on Troika:
Schizoporotica
Datasound
This happened #1

Usman Haque has been commissioned to create Evoke for the Illuminating York festival. You can see the work from on Fri 26 Oct until Sat 3 Nov, from 6-11pm. From the website…

“Evoke is a massive animated 80,000 lumen projection, which will light up the facade of York Minster. The facade is brought to life by members of the public, who use their own voices to “evoke” colourful light patterns that emerge at the building’s foundations and soar up towards the sky, giving the surface a magical feeling as it melts with colour.

The cathedral, built to link conceptually earth to the heavens, has been a site for the conveyance of words, dreams and aspirations for hundreds of years. The facade is designed to orient the gazes of passers-by upwards. As an attempt to continue this tradition, the patterns of Evoke are generated in realtime by the words, sounds, music and noises produced collectively by the public, determined by their particular voice characteristics. The colours will skim the surface of the Minster, pour round its features and crevasses, emerging finally near the top of the facade where they will sparkle high overhead.

People with voices of different frequencies, rhythms or cadences will be able to evoke quite different magical patterns upon the surface of the building - a staccato chirping will result in a completely different set of visual effects to a long howl for example, blending old and new to continue animating the facade of the Minster.”

Created using Processing.

I’ll update this post after the event once photos and video emerge of the final work.

As mentioned in a previous post, the documentation of my work at Moving Brands is now online.

An audio responsive installation for the launch of Muon, new speakers from Kef and Ross Lovegrove. Launched at the National Museum of Science and Technology (Leonardo da Vinci), during Salone del Mobile in Milan.

Created in Processing for a 10×5 metre LED floor. My role was in the creative programming of the project at Moving Brands, under the supervision of Karsten Schmidt (aka toxi) and creative direction by David Eveleigh-Evans.

The concept was to create a liquid experience to engage all the senses. Fluid forms would emanate from the position of each speaker, playing with movement and intensity of light in response to audio triggers. A monocromatic and minimal aesthetic compliments the form of the speaker design. During moments of impact during a piece of music, bright light and accents of colour would appear between the fluid forms. The volumetric light created a relationship between the visuals reflected in the curves of the speaker and the movement of shadows in the grand hall space.

Links: Full documentation, including videos and behind the scenes.

Futher documentation on the Moving Brands site & Toxi blog.

Flickr photos: toxi, pixelsumo, eveleighevans, faroekat

Most persistence of vision projects I have seen involve moving a strip of leds fast enough that our eye perceives it to be an image. Make magazine has covered many projects of this type.

Jens Wunderling, a student of the Digital Media Class at UDK Berlin, has created at second glance, an alternative approach to POV. Instead of moving the LEDs, Wunderling has them fixed in position, but plays with saccades (our eyes never look straight, but always make fast tiny movement around an area).

So if you happen to glance past the work, you may notice something unusual. On second glance, if you shake your head, you will be able to clearly see the symbol. Created as a “guerilla messaging device, made to place hidden critical messages within the abundant medial environment in the city”.

Developed using Arduino and Processing, the source code of which is available on his site, and 32 ultrabright LEDs.

Watch video
Development blog

More from Jens Wunderling
loopArena at Cybersonica, Building a multitouch, loopArena multitouch

If you are in Milan for the Salone del Mobile, be sure to put a visit to this on your schedule…

The launch of Muon, an incredible two-metre tall speaker system, in one of the most fascinating locations in Milan, the Sala del Cenacolo. This exhibition is the extraordinary result of the convergence of two masters. The Loudspeakers, made from super-formed aluminium, are remarkable reflective sound sculptures created by the advanced research centre of KEF, the British-based world leader in sound technology and designed by Ross Lovegrove, considered one of the most innovative designers of the 21st century.

I’ve been working with Moving Brands, who have been commissioned to create an architectural scale audio responsive experience for the launch. You really must see this in person if you can. More information on this when I return.

April 19th – 23rd
12.00 noon 9:00 pm
(Invitation only launch on 18th).

Address: Leonardo da Vinci, National Museum of Science and Technology, Sala del Cenacolo – second cloister, Via San Vittore 21 Milano (Area Magenta) Click here for map.

Press release (via Dezeen blog)

I rarely post any motion graphics work, but is so lovely I was too tempted.

Universal Everything have produced this viral ad for the launch of Audi TT in Australia. Their site says “We created a software-based realtime wind tunnel to generate the HD video, an interactive wind-tunnel is currently in development”. It was art directed by Matt Pyke at Universal Everything, who brought in Karsten Schmidt, aka Toxi, to program the visuals using Processing. In his Flickr comments, Karsten explains that the rendering process took 4 hours, and that a making of video is on the way. More on this soon.

Watch video

Flickr images

[update] Karsten has now released some interesting insights and a behind the scenes video into the process, check here.