Artworks Data Table

This work expresses the movements of a ballerina in a magnificent costume of organdy and lace. It is generated by a purely programmatic approach, without traditional drawing and painting. Beginning with a geometric concept based on a spiral, the process generates a great variety of unexpected forms through a sequence of parameters complicated by mapping affine transformations.
Yayoi Yokoyama explores the relationship between digital technology and forms with an emphasis on visual technology. Her works have been widely exhibited in national and international venues, including the SIGGRAPH 2001 and SIGGRAPH 2003 Art Galleries. This series of work was exhibited at NICOGRAPH International in June 2009 and in New York in July and August 2009.

Digital expression using the computer can create images that are not always intended. I have been creating artwork based on such incidents for some time.

I am like a flower and a plant from another era. I am interested not only in the lovely figures of flowers but also in the details – the colors, the petals, and the shapes. I create artwork of imaged flowers and plants using 3D computer graphics. I have made more than 100 electronic flowers and plants, but the impressions of these images resist the materiality present in the artwork. I felt it limited my artistic expression. Therefore, I thought it is necessary to make combine them create to create an altogether different image.

I trimmed a part of the image of the first flower, and tried to create various effects. At this point, the real art-making begins. I tried to increase and decrease the amplitude of the trim angle, changing each by changing the parameters. The expression of the flower changed greatly, and began to look like a kaleidoscope. These changes were easy to make and after witnessing several successive changes it reminded me of watching a creature tirelessly morphing its own form.

The flowers, created with 3D computer graphics, were adjusted delicately so as not to alter the particular atmosphere and characteristics which allowed them to bloom realistically for each different image. When the crystals of the flower were collected and laid out, a “flower illustrated book” was completed.

The title, “Crystal Flower,” arose because the electronic flower bloomed like the real thing, and realistically bloomed again, taking on the image of a crystal. Though the image is extracted from about 100 flowers, each flower crystal piece continues to grow.

Dance is an artform using the human body. These works were made to reflect various dances. I think dance is the most beautiful when the movement of clothes and dancers match. My aim in presenting this work was to achieve rhythmical movement and varied beauty. The works submitted are images of ballet, flamenco, and a tango. Ballet is expressed as an exquisite movement in a solemn atmosphere, flamenco is expressed as passion, and tango as a bending and twisting of the body. The visual narrative is important to me – I try to create works which tell a story that delight and intrigue. There are a lot of mathematical forms in my works. The mathematical form is natural and integral to computational art. There are many strategies in computational work: some involve repeating simple designs or mathematical concepts, or a set number of iterations. I always feel that image making is all about a balance in proportion. I have found that the more I inform myself of these proportions the more they enter my intuitive creative process.

When I make something, I want to build it by destroying it. It is a self-­portrait of my memory. Perceiving the figure gradually deconstructed may be viewed as a metaphor for the violence of aesthetic experience. A bizarre contradiction between the lightness of translucent texture of simplified human shapes and the cruel appearance of brutal accident provokes a twisted essence.

“chelovechki-01” (“little people”) – a surreal representation of human emotions, thoughts, feelings. It is a fantasyland of our unconscious.

MovISee is a digital software for people to create personal visual outputs. We use a depth camera to create mixed reality for people to explore the selected information and ultimately transform their understanding the ability of their body movement to create composite customized visual outputs. In short, it is a system to recreate information and explore personal creativity. The results reveal the sedimentary relative movements through filming; time and space are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and interpretations become multifaceted; multi-layered images are created in which the fragility and instability of our reality is questioned.

Shifting Nature is an interactive installation that studies visual form and the influences of nature and technology on human art develop­ment. It seeks a deeper understanding of the relationships among humans, nature, and today’s technology.

One of the aims is to create visual representations through technol­ogy that generate unique experiences for the audience. Another is to create a sense of involvement with, and enhancement to, our living environment. Ultimately, this project explored the potential of the emergence of art, design and technology. The outcome demon­strates the important of wilderness and natural processes.

Nature is connected to our creative process and is one of the sources for artistic inspiration. Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) was a legendary teacher, painter, and catalyst of the Abstract Expressionist movement who influenced generations of artists across Europe and North America. He wrote the following in his Search for the Real and Other Essays: “Nature is the source of all inspiration. Whether the artist works directly from nature, from memory, or from fantasy, nature is always the source of his creative impulses … ” (B.Chipp., Herschel 1968, p.536)

Super*Nature is an exploration of the simplicity and purity of natural forms: how nature can be infinitely simple, how its simplicity can give us new kinds of experiences, and how this essence can lead us to reflection and the quest for experiences that mirror this equilibrium. The work transforms the visual to a metaphorical level and manifests philosophical experiences by presenting connecting organic forms to each person. It allows individuals to travel through the expression of natural forms and, by extension, their peaceful minds and thoughts.

Summary

It is a collection of generative selfie series by using computer algorithms to bring awareness of Asian female faculty on US campuses being isolated, and marginal in a predominantly white institution of America.

Abstract

A selfie is a form of art. Over 1 million selfies are now taken every day. Selfies are not always as spontaneous as they seem. They can be a communication tool like any other that can be manipulated for purposes. Selfie + CODE III is a collection of generative selfie series by using computer algorithms. The algorithmic processes expend the concepts of traditional self-portraits to generative and expressive selfies delivering thought or feeling. The artist started taking her generative selfies in 2015 to raise awareness of Asian female faculty being isolated and marginal in a predominantly white institution (http://www.socialhomelessness.com). Her generative selfies have captured psychological moments to express those individual identities are devalued and deconstructed by a homogeneous institution in the United States. It has been shared by social media. The virtual supporting system at Facebook, “Like”, by her diverse mentors and friends, helped her to persist and survive in a regionally isolated and exclusive community. Eventually, It has brought her psychological reconciliation and healing to succeed in dealing with difficulties.

Tracking the Net is an installation under the form of an interactive netted cube of 3X3 meters with rear-projection onto one wall, with high-resolution image. It can host from 1 to 10 interactive visitors, which can navigate and interact in real time.

The cube has its own electronic sensors and active notes, which reveal the presence of the visitor. Movements of the visitor can be detected and measured over a wide space in order to control a real-time animation. The visitor can interact with the virtual environment by touching, pushing, and manipulating the net. Just by interacting with the net the visitor can navigate and interact with the virtual objects, sounds, music. Movement of the nets are detected by infrared cameras (Qualisys) and identified by real-time tracker.

Interacting with the net the digital environment morphs into a high-speed vortex. The space morphs into a different environment. A highway of information, streams, discs, whir, layers of network cyber landscape appear, arriving, moving, crossing from all directions. Streaming towards different information nodes. From an electronic stream all expands into an intangible cyberspace, there are no boundaries … We are in the habitat of Cybor Net.

The next step of Tracking the Net is an installation of 4X4 meters with rear-projection onto 4 walls, with high-resolution images (stereo and non-), able to take form 1 to 20 interactive visitors, which can navigate and interact simultaneously in real time.

The Netter cube is composed in a large scale with the innovative cable: Live Wire! Live Wire is ELAM’s innovative, cable like, electroluminescent (Ell lamp. It is a thin fibre, 0.7 mm (0.275″) lighting diameter, emitting light when an alternating current is applied to the electrodes the fibre ends. Live Wire construction is a multi-layer coaxial cable with a dielectric layer made of electroluminescent phosphor particles.

This image series is an ongoing project inspired by the work of legendary filmmaker Jordan Belson. The spiritual and sensual experience of viewing Belson’s profound abstract films and images, touched me with the kind of cosmic sense that a person of Chinese descent grows up with, bringing out my own inner image of a connected universe in various forms, ancient and modern.

After making realistic 30 modeling animation work with high-tech computer systems for quite a few years, I find myself eager to pursue work of more aesthetic and spiritual experience, to explore the power of abstract expression in visual art.

In today’s world, our daily lives are translated into social media activities and social media timelines. Social media records are posted online with our recording devices (smart phone, camera, recorder). Without these recording devices, duplication and variation of the same object would be required in order to produce movie frames. Animation is a recomposition of “time,” and I compose animation with multiple episcopes and clocks. We live in the objective material world with subjective perceptions of time. Nowadays, these subjective times are combined and translated in various ways (e.g., social media). This work aims to critique these situations using clock animation without recording media.

Growing out of pioneering research in applying artificial life to “morphogenesis,” (free-form generation of computer-animated 3D worlds), this film spawns a menagerie of sensuous “life forms” that flow and evolve in a geometry-warping dance.

This work focuses on evolutional butterflies and describes scientific principles as well as applications of aesthetical fundamentals. It explores why butterflies are beautiful from the scientific perspectives of shape, motion, and color. Based on those principles, it aims to “predict” how butterflies looked in ancient times and how they might appear in the distant future.
The main concept is “hypothetical virtual butterfly”. The project begins with various conceptual sketches of hypothetical, multi-dimensional future butterflies. The layers represent the shape of wings and eyespot patterns in each period. Eventually, the work goes so far as to build butterflies from future planets. As a very first approach toward interplanetary, multi-dimensional butterflies, we are preparing a simulation environment for analyses of interaction between bodily dynamics of virtual butterflies and aerial dynamics of a planet. In this simulation environment, planetary air is modeled by small particles, assembly of which can represent fluid dynamics.
One Buccuo sculpture is a huge balloon with very complicated and unique structures. Its wings are constructed of multilayered balloons. The other is a huge object made from fiber-reinforced plastics. Their behavior is affected by the audience. Their eyes react to viewers’ movements, and they flap, rotate, and pump up their multi-dimensional, structured wings.

Cellular is a lenticular 3D image framed in a light box. It is a visual bridge to the micro­cosms of cell reproduction and growth. The image, which shows delicate and emergent vibrations of growth in a micro­scopic world, is a still from an animation based on an algo­rithm that models the growth of 3D cells. The intuitive self-­organization of these cells engenders complex evolving objects.

Three pieces of 30 lenticular images with HDTV animations were generated by the artist’s artificial life algorithm for “growth art.”

Three pieces of 30 lenticular images with HDTV animations were generated by the artist’s artificial life algorithm for “growth art.”

Three pieces of 30 lenticular images with HDTV animations were generated by the artist’s artificial life algorithm for “growth art.”

Cerebran is a stereoscopic HDTV animation. It expresses the depth of our perception and the depth of our bodies, neurons, and brains. This is the first HDTV artwork produced in Japan. It has been exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Art Tower Mito, and the NHK TV Studio.

COACERVATER – The works of Yoichiro Kawaguchi on the CD-ROM set includes a 216 page color book on the subject of Artificial life creation.

There are 21 works by Kawaguchi from ‘Pollen’ (1975) to “Artificial life metropolis: Cell” which appears as highspeed moving pictures and still images in beautiful color.

This CD-ROM is specially packed in the jacket of 3-D work.

Three-dimensional images are more sensually appealing than two-dimensional ones. In 1979, we presented a Japanese traditional mask called Hannya as an optical three-dimensional artwork. After that, we sought new ways of presenting artistic impressions in three-dimensional photography. In CORE-CELL Tower, we introduce a
mixture of spatial effect and false illusion. The resulting dizziness, a consequence of abstract patterns generated by algorithms, is found to be luscious. An abstract pattern amplifies the effect of spatial awareness in three-dimensional photography.

A new visual representation of ecological space inside artificial creatures. The movie was rendered with in-house software.

My pieces are being carried out on a paradigm that “growth model is created by the recursive structure of the self-organization, thus being the fruit of complexed form of evolutional cells.”

This work expresses the motion of a dancer captured in real time and a 3D CG object’s reactions to the motion. The audience, jumping or dancing in front of a screen, becomes a part of the image and its organic and geometric shapes. The work reflects dance

We tried to represent growing emotion by computer for mixed reality. Audiences affect the feelings of the virtual creature in “Gemotion” by touching the screen. Three movies projected on the wall screens also represent the state of feelings of “Gemotion.” (Gemotion = Growth, Gene + Emotion).

Until now, attempts to realize the concave-convex movements of liv­ing things in three-dimensional CG images have not been success­ful. In this work, a 3D image is interlocked with actual depth in the real world instead of only in the virtual world. It becomes the world of complex sensations where cyberspace and real space are mixed.

The Hannya is the Japanese traditional mask for Noh, a well-known dance similar to Japanese Kabuki. This work presents an illusion of stereoscopic images. The image data are derived from an ancient mask.

In Hydrodynamics Ocean, big waves roll toward viewers from a calm ocean. Drops of water fall from the sky. Viewers enjoy an experience of scientific beauty, as if they are visiting a stormy ocean. They can even create their own storms.

My pieces are being carried out on a paradigm that “growth model is created by the recursive structure of the self-organization, thus being the fruit of complexed form of evolutional cells.”

This mixed-reality work represents the growing visual impact of lenticular 3D imaging. Viewers can participate in this visual field without using any tools beyond their own eyes. As they stand beside or walk around this huge column of 3D images, they experience a kind of meta-perceptual vision with a feeling of devotion stimulated by deep stereoscopic CG visuals. This 3D image is the highest resolution image composed in 15 serial flames and the first time such a huge-scaled lenticuler image has been used to cover four surfaces.

Objects generated in ecological space move and wriggle using “growth algorithms.”

Zodiacs on the Lower East Side is an interactive web work weaving stories of past and present in imagery evoking the former immigrant neighborhood of New York’s Lower East Side. Exploring the union of a time forever gone and the current neighborhood, we create a narrative from existing and lost architecture, tenement buildings and synagogues, mixed with traditional signs and motifs from medieval manuscripts, portraits of immigrants, scenes of Eastern Europe. Symbolism adapted from Zodiac murals in the neighborhood’s Stanton Street synagogue provide links to cross-cultural folklore, deeply rooted in centuries of tradition. Mousing over each screen reveals videos reflecting the wandering minds and imagined associations of immigrants who inhabited multiple worlds and traditions drawn from a culture of wanderers. In one, a Lower East Side apartment building morphs into an old European village, visualizing the thoughts of an immigrant standing on street corner, remembering one home and living in another. In another, the Zodiac symbol from the Stanton Street synagogue is linked to a medieval drawing of the same sign. The videos include commentary by historian Elissa Sampson, contemporary sounds by composer Bob Gluck, and traditional Yiddish songs sung by Sylvia Tepperman.

Every biologic organism has a unique body pattern such as fingerprints, irises, palm prints, and faces. These distinct biometric patterns on the body represent a person’s unique signature and identity. They are intuitive and powerful resources that represent the individual’s genetic identity through its microscopic patterns and their complicated networks. Thus, these body patterns, known as biometric data, can provide a means not only for discovering our genetic code but also for exploring hidden narratives in relation with others.

In this digital era, the main problems with the use of biometric data are the misuse of personal data and privacy issues since the data contains information acquired from individuals. Sometimes, biometric data can be stolen for other purposes or crimes, which is a source of great concern in society. Although people are afraid of having their biometric data stolen, the use of biometric data is becoming more commonplace in this era due to the ease and convenience it offers as a method of verifying an individual’s identity.

As more digital applications request people to input their biometric data as a more convenient and secure method of identification, the possibility of losing their personal data and identities may increase. The phenomenon of biometric data abuse causes one to question what the notion of “real” identity means and what methods can be used to define identity and hidden narratives. The questions of identification and the insecurity of biometric data have become my inspiration, providing artistic approaches to the manipulation of biometric data and having the potential to suggest new directions for solving the problems.

Eyes is an interactive art installation and a series of biometric data artworks with my previous artwork Digiti Sonus. It’s an interactive biometric data art that transforms human’s Iris data into musical sound and 3D animated image. The idea is to allow the audience to explore their own identities through unique visual and sound generated by their iris patterns based on iris recognition and image processing techniques. As a part of the installation, selected distinctive iris images are printed in 3D sculptures, and it replays the sound generated from the iris data and projects 3D converted image images. The audience members can compare their iris-based sonic results with others, and question the “problem of disembodied identities’ in the digital era through the existence of audiovisual representations of individuals.

This research-based artwork has an experimental system generating distinct sounds for each different iris data using visual features such as colors, patterns, brightness and size of the iris. It has potentials to lead the new way of interpreting complicated dataset with the audiovisual output. More importantly, aesthetically beautiful, mesmerizing and a bit uncanny valley-effected artwork can create personalized art experience and multimodal interaction. Multi-sensory interpretations of the iris data art can lead a new opportunity to reveal users’ narratives and create their own “sonic signature”, which will be able to trigger a new way of interaction in the fields of art and science.

Every biologic organism has a unique body pattern such as fingerprints, irises, palm prints, and faces. These distinct biometric patterns on the body represent a person’s unique signature and identity. They are intuitive and powerful resources that represent the individual’s genetic identity through its microscopic patterns and their complicated networks. Thus, these body patterns, known as biometric data, can provide a means not only for discovering our genetic code but also for exploring hidden narratives in relation with others.

In this digital era, the main problems with the use of biometric data are the misuse of personal data and privacy issues since the data contains information acquired from individuals. Sometimes, biometric data can be stolen for other purposes or crimes, which is a source of great concern in society. Although people are afraid of having their biometric data stolen, the use of biometric data is becoming more commonplace in this era due to the ease and convenience it offers as a method of verifying an individual’s identity.

As more digital applications request people to input their biometric data as a more convenient and secure method of identification, the possibility of losing their personal data and identities may increase. The phenomenon of biometric data abuse causes one to question what the notion of “real” identity means and what methods can be used to define identity and hidden narratives. The questions of identification and the insecurity of biometric data have become my inspiration, providing artistic approaches to the manipulation of biometric data and having the potential to suggest new directions for solving the problems.

Eyes is an interactive art installation and a series of biometric data artworks with my previous artwork Digiti Sonus. It’s an interactive biometric data art that transforms human’s Iris data into musical sound and 3D animated image. The idea is to allow the audience to explore their own identities through unique visual and sound generated by their iris patterns based on iris recognition and image processing techniques. As a part of the installation, selected distinctive iris images are printed in 3D sculptures, and it replays the sound generated from the iris data and projects 3D converted image images. The audience members can compare their iris-based sonic results with others, and question the “problem of disembodied identities’ in the digital era through the existence of audiovisual representations of individuals.

This research-based artwork has an experimental system generating distinct sounds for each different iris data using visual features such as colors, patterns, brightness and size of the iris. It has potentials to lead the new way of interpreting complicated dataset with the audiovisual output. More importantly, aesthetically beautiful, mesmerizing and a bit uncanny valley-effected artwork can create personalized art experience and multimodal interaction. Multi-sensory interpretations of the iris data art can lead a new opportunity to reveal users’ narratives and create their own “sonic signature”, which will be able to trigger a new way of interaction in the fields of art and science.

Summary

Roads in You is an interactive biometric-data artwork that allows participants to scan their veins and find the roads that match their vein lines. Users can explore the correlation between individuals and environments using the hidden patterns under the skin and the vein recognition techniques and image processing.

Abstract

The roads of your veins is an interactive biometric-data artwork that allows participants to scan their veins and find the roads that match their vein lines. The vein data as one of the fascinating forms of biometric data contain uniquely complicated lines that resemble the roads and paths surrounding us. The roads resemble how our vein lines are interconnected and how the blood circulates in our bodies in various directions, at various speeds, and in different conditions. This new artwork explores the line segmentation and the structure of veins and compares them to roads in the real world. The participants can also export the data and keep them as a personalized souvenir (3d printed sculptures) as part of the artistic experience. Through this project, users can explore the correlation between individuals and environments using the hidden patterns under the skin and the vein recognition techniques, image processing and artificial intelligence. This project also has the potential to lead the way in the interpretation of complicated datasets while providing aesthetically beautiful and mesmerizing visualizations.

Every person has a different structure of veins in their body. The vein is one of the main sources for biometric data that has been commonly used for various identification devices and software. The complexity and uniqueness of the pattern in the data and the indirect contact during the capturing process are the main strengths of vein data. From an artist’s perspective, I believe meaningful and creative approaches can be explored to find a new correlation between the beautifully intricate vein lines and the objects of a similar form in the real world. Among the various objects and systems that surround us, we chose to use roads in maps due to the similarities of road system design to the lines of a palm or wrist. Inspired by the idea of palmistry, the “the roads of your veins” allow the audience to have an immersive and dynamic experience as well as an aesthetically beautiful outcome. Roads and paths surround the cities and natural environments and are encountered in everyday life, consistently changed by human impact and we always choose where to go from an enormous number of options. The direction, length, and number of roads determine the process of the journey, the starting point, and the final destination. Road constructions have been one of the huge impacts on earth. The questions of the roads and paths, and its impact to our environments have been inspirations for this project.

This work allows us to rethink and reshape on the point of how the nature and our environments resemble our bodies and how we can discover it by technology. The enchantment of discovery is a value of this work and participants can take journeys from their bodies to the world with help of big data, data mining, artificial intelligence and image processing techniques.

I am a ______ Neuron is an interactive WebVR artwork of creative exploration within a virtual ecosystem where viewers can create their own personalized 3D artificial neurons, interact with them, and observe their interactions in the virtual cosmic world. It offers a playful and audiovisual engagement with the complex interconnectivity of various factors from the universe. Through a collaboration with an astrophysicist and a neuroscientist, it was possible to discover fascinating facts about the similarities and differences regarding how galaxies interact during the formation of the universe and how neurons interact with one another in the development of the brain. In this interactive artwork, the 3D artificial neurons function as small floating galaxies in the universe, and various factors consistently modify the properties of the 3D neurons based on what happens in the actual human brains and galaxies. Live feedback from participants controls the three main factors (gravity, gas, and photons) to constantly change the environment and the neurons. The open-ended continuation and the aesthetic integration of the cosmic world give insight to the viewers about the analogies between neurons and galaxies and the virtual entities in the macro- and the microscopic world. Neuron-to-neuron interactions are a key part of this artwork. When neurons collide with other neurons, a special sound is emitted and the visual properties of neurons (such as scale, design, opacity, and colors) that represent interactions of the actual neurons in our brains are changed. Unlike the real neurons, these virtual neurons float around in the 360-degree open-ended virtual world like dynamic, artificial living creatures.

Unique sound samples are associated with each neuron. The background music represents the artificial cosmic universe and the special sounds are played when the 3D neurons collide with each other. The carefully created sound samples are continuously composed in many ways over time-based on the input from the participants, meaning the music composition is never the same as our nature and the universe constantly evolves and changes.

One, an interactive art installation that immerses viewers in an animated fantasy, consists of a single drop of ink in a small suspended Petri dish and a large projection of the same drop. Under the Petri dish, input sensors connected to a micro–controller generate 2D and 3D animation of the projected drop. Viewer interaction with the physical drop of ink induces complex and intricate animated responses in the projection. The animated ink blot suggests a microcosm where viewer interaction is the means of evolution.

One resists the need to taxonomize (associated closely with the practice of scientific illustration and visualization) and instead offers an opportunity to consider the reflexive condition between observer and observed. It provokes viewers to experiment in order to get the results they believe are positive and beneficial—those which are visually pleasing. As viewers heedlessly play with this small environment, they are also being acted upon. In the end, the message is simple. It is not the tagging, classification, or observation of life that will lead to greater social responsibility, but an appreciation of the oneness of all things.

This work is aimed at visualizing the movement I experienced in a certain environment. For example, it is difficult to perceive a flight path in the vastness of the space that is visible from a small side window of a jetliner at high speed. After landing, I have a peculiar feeling of looking back at a faraway landscape that the plane flew over just few minutes ago.

In Transposition III, I intended to visualize this sort of unordinary movement in unfamiliar environments with a graphical method. A successive series of photo images is the basic structure of my work. These images contain some hidden information of space. With the help of 3D computer graphics, it becomes clear and we could find some very amusing things that never appear on photo images by themselves.

In the continuous photo images of Transposition III, it is very difficult to grasp the spatial relations of clouds in the sky. By composing correct 3D graphical elements generated by a match-move software, these relations become exceedingly clear. Furthermore, the well-defined path of a camera makes it possible to show my real experience of flying movements in the world of 3D computer graphics.

Transposition III consists of 13 sequential photo images combined with 3D graphics and some diagrams that present the flight path of an airplane. The sequence is the main theme of this work.

This study discusses media technology that enables the continuous creation of performers’ physical improvisation as inspired by the reflection of imagery evoked from the audience. To realize this, the authors have focused on “shadow media,” which promote the continuous creation of imagery through “bodily awareness.” The authors have developed a system that can project shadows of the performers in various ways, which are then transformed into various shapes and colors. The shadows are connected to the performers’ feet and projected on a “passable” slit screen set up between the stage and the audience. As a result, the interactive and mutual creation of imagery by performers and audience can form an “empathetic” stage. To demonstrate its validity, the authors applied the system to a dance performance at Festival della Scienza in Genoa, Italy

“Sunagimo” means the liver of the bird in Japanese. This work is not created to be an aesthetically pleasing 3D computer graphics piece, but is designed to convey the dirtiness and mud-like smells that the title implies. This film is conceived to be the complete opposite from recent computer graphics works that focus on beauty. Similar to food preferences, “Sunagimo” is subjectively judged by the person witnessing it. The theme of the piece incorporates “the thing spent in large quantities and the thing to spend.”

주마간산 is a four-character Chinese idiom that means to look at the scenery while horse riding, and it means to skim through the outer surface of things. 주마간산(Jumagansan), a collaboration between photographer Kim Hun Soo and painter Kwack Youn Soo, captures the scenery of the city as viewed from various perspectives while traveling by various transportations. They live in a city, use the same transportation, and look at similar landscapes, but each person’s gaze varies. Even if it is a passing impression, the landscapes that contain each image are piled up and accumulated in the time and space of the city in which we live.

Octodad is a third person adventure game about destruction, deception, and fatherhood. The player controls Octodad, a dapper octopus masquerading as a human, as he goes about a day of his life. His existence is a constant struggle, as he must master mundane tasks with his unwieldy boneless tentacles while simultaneously keeping his cephalopodan nature a secret from his human family. The player controls Octodad like a marionette, dragging his arms and legs around while his body flops along. The player’s goals are often simple household chores made difficult and interesting by the flailing, tenuous control they have over Octodad’s body. Being an octopus also has its strengths. Octodad can slip through tight spaces, grab objects with his suckers, and knock things around with tremendous strength. But if the player does things too out-of-the-ordinary, Octodad’s family will grow suspicious and realize what he really is. If they do, it’s game over for Octodad!

Time Machine is a work constructed on the principles of zoetropes. Through the use of a 200 w motor to control speed and rotation, in combination with a pulsating strobe light, the artists create the optical illusion that 15 separate frames of an animation are actually connected. A small step motor added to the work references a number wheel, which spins separately from the animation, so that that the viewer understands the work as being about expanded time.

Hummingbird is a live, on-stage dance performance, in Los Angeles, of two people 2,000 miles apart. This film is the documentary record of the performance and the technology behind it.

Chih-Chun Huang dances live, on-stage at the University of Southern California, dressed a s a wood nymph or a Shakespearian Puck. Cho-Ying Tsai is “dressed” only in computer animation; her physical body is 2,000 miles away in a motioncapture studio at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her movements are recreated in real time in Los Angeles by a fully articulated, animated avatar capable of morphing from baby to robot to fairy as the performance progresses. The avatar is projected on a custom silver sharktooth scrim, in what Ella Thompson {co-artistic director of the Internet2 performance event) described as “stellar use of layers of light, revealing a subtle local dancer in stage light under the luminescent projected avatar:’ Dancing to the piece “All My Hummingbirds Have Alibis” by Morton Subotnick, the performers dance over, under, and through one another. The live performer alternately jumps over the virtual performer, or, at will, passes through her, as if passing through a ghost on stage. Ann Doyle, Program Manager of Arts & Humanities for the Internet2 Consortium, described the Hummingbird performance as “the single most stunning marriage of art and technology that I have seen in my 17 years of working in information technology.”

The goal for these performances is to combine all of the advantages of film (unlimited locations, unlimited view angles, freedom from restrictions of space and time) with all of the advantages of live performance (audience interaction, audience response, the awe that the audience feels when a performer can accomplish something really special in person on stage in front of them, and also, the nail-biting possibility of unexpected real-time failure). The goal is achieved through a unique combination of motion capture, real-time internet enabled computer animation software, Internet2 data transmission, and custom display with live performance: an ensemble referred to as “Hummingbird technology.”

Virtual reality is the ultimate expression of multimedia technology. Hummingbird is more than multimedia. It is multi-reality, a new model for delivery of art. Physical-world performers dance in the virtual world; virtual-world performers dance in the physical world; the two perform together without respect for limitations of space and time, fusing physical reality and virtual reality into a watershed audience experience.

www.firstsunrise.net/ArtsTech.html
www.isl.uiuc.edu/Events/internet_2.htm
www.kcg.edu

Statement: DYP (Digital Yellowed Patterns) is an algorithmic artwork, rethinking the physicality of the book in digital age. DYP detects the user’s finger movement on a digital reader, thereby generating through tacit effects the yellowing of books over time. It is inspired by the traditional printed book. People can easy recognize the time-yellowed patterns on a book cover, touching and remembering significant memories of the past.

Sound Figures by Ernst Chladni (1787) is the origin of systematic attempt to visualize sounds as image. Inspired by Chladni’s acoustics research, thesis of Structural Analogy is that aesthetics of audiovisual transformation could be enriched by systematically integrating music information retrieval (MIR) and pattern formation techniques into creative processes. Sound visualization using short-term acoustic features is one of the effective strategies in engaging audience in live audiovisual performance. However, short-term acoustic features alone are not sufficient in engaging audience in art forms that require time to unfold narratives, such as in audiovisual composition and interactive installation. To examine this thesis, a custom computer graphics application that integrates the open-source Essentia MIR toolbox is developed and capable of visually modeling causality based on a source sound signal. This music video is created using the above software application, which enables examination of emergent connections between sound and visual at various spatial and temporal scales through computation and algorithms. Structural Analogy is an ongoing experiment that investigates techniques necessary to visualize narratives in source sound signals. Since 2016, Structural Analogy has been exhibited at international venues, including FOCA, SBCAST, DDP, WOCMAT-IRCAM Forum, and CURRENTS.

Quetzalcoatl 2.0.1.2 is an Internet-based work comprised of 10 dynamic projects. Each project evokes in a contemporary way the ancient experience of a ubiquitous but discernible god known by the Aztecs and Mayans as Quetzalcoatl (the latter called him Kukulkan.) He was a creator deity having contributed essentially to the creation of humankind. Quetzalcoatl also embraces all the natural cycles, and thus the journeys of our species. Historical and cultural symbols are mixed with present-day signs and elements generated on real-time: instant news, stock market quotes, changing tweets, satellite data, and so on. This aspect of the work engages people to perceive the past and the present as a unified construction. The navigation is simple and intuitive. One line of text puts you in the next project.

To Afar The Water Flows reconstructs the city into a garden utopia, emphasizing a genuine harmony between man-made structures and the natural surround. I am using cubist composition and projection mapping technology to enhance the physicality of digital video.

A set of daily objects that combine physical and ubiquitous computing to allow users to live their daily lives playfully. Amagatana, an umbrella, makes clashing sword noises when swung around, and Fula, a muffler, flutters and billows by itself in response to the user’s motor-action potentials.

We live surrounded by displays such as TV, smartphone, computer. These bitmap displays consist of pixels arranged in a two-dimensional plane. 7×7 was created by re-arranging these pixels multidimensionally. This display consists of 49 pixels, and these pixels do not overlap in the front, at the back, up, down, left or right. Therefore, each pixel is able to represent all six directions. By using these 49 pixels, 7×7 expresses “Iroha,” which is an old Japanese pangram that expresses one of the aesthetics called “Mujo (impermanence and ever changing).”

CD Prayer is a portable CD player that prays for the obsolete media. It revives a CD as a halo of Buddha and plays hi-fi music for us. This artwork was created by remixing the 3D data shared by Yahoo JAPAN under Creative Commons license (CC-BY-3.0).

“Inside Out” is a kinetic installation that expresses the pointlessness of boundaries. We humans draw lines to write letters and sketch pictures. Drawing lines can be said to be an essential part of our culture and making art. However, we also draw lines to divide people by nationality, ethnicity, and religion. These lines rely on ephemeral and constantly shifting social contexts. Making meaningless boundaries between people hinders mutual understanding and does not solve global problems. Therefore, I decided to create an object that does not differentiate inside and outside by lines to embody the pointlessness of human boundary making.

Extended Summary:

After living in Singapore for eight years, I came back to my home country, Japan in 2018. And I realized that Japanese clearly distinguish people between their insiders and outsiders. This insider means not just a family member, friend, or colleague, but a group with a close backgrounds and ways of living. Japanese are generally kind to insiders and even tolerate injustice. On the other hand, Japanese are too strict than necessary to outsiders. Now, I am also one of the outsider of Japanese society. That’s why, I could notice that there are so many visible/invisible lines in this world to divide people. And it motivated me to create arts. This artwork is built as a cube-shaped robot with twelve edges. Side edges rotate actively, and it consists servo motors, a microcontroller, a wireless communication module (XBee) and a LiPo Battery. Other edges are passively expanded and contracted by telescopic structures. By combining these edges, this artwork repeatedly inverts the inside and outside. As a result, this work invalidates the boundary between the inside and the outside.

A character or letter is a two-dimensional symbol. Also, it is a static image. But we cannot write a letter without moving our bodies and spending time. Thus, each character or letter potentially has a time axis. In order to reveal this time axis, the device called Mojigen. was created. Mojigen writes alphabets in the air by the trajectory of coil springs operated by eight robot arms. By observing Mojigen from different points of view, the viewer notices that characters and letters contain a time axis with dynamic movements.

Summary

Turn Over is a kinetic art that illustrate the change of human and society. Twenty four set of Y-shaped object, which means person in Chinese, turn on a flat surface and gradually makes various pattern.

Abstract

The Chinese character “人“, which means a person, is similar to the alphabet letter “Y” rotated 180 degrees. When this character is arranged regularly in a lot on a surface, the lines of the characters starts to look like the boundaries of stacked cubes. Then, if one of these characters is turned 180 degrees, the orientation of one cube is also changed (For example, the top surface becomes to the side surface). This turn over of single character is too small to be noticeable. Sometimes it just seems a kind of contradiction or in-coherent. But when many characters turn at a time, it breaks boundaries and becomes a drastic change. This illustrates our change as an individual and a society.

I have been making work based on the theme that things like flowers and jewels are always universal. This work is based on the childhood memory of opening a toy box and a jewel box. It includes various jewels and laces, and glasses made with 3D computer graphics.

The work was created with the very simple method of rotation symmetry. But the variation of the geometrical pattern is based on changing parameters of the symmetrical shaft, so the rotation angle cuts off the image in unexpected ways. Using the computer reduced the time required to create good symmetrical repetition. Eventually, the images started to become more complex, resembling flowers and fruits and crystals that changed over time. The completed image feels like a kaleidoscope view of the materials

When you search for images on Google the search results from the World Wide Web are displayed in a grid. Google’s own algorithm determines these search results. By “using” the algorithm, the author has attempted to deliberately arrange the images, to use the search engine results as a canvas to draw an art work. Then we can bomb on Google as graffiti artists bomb on city because Google has become a huge infrastructure of the modern era.

In the sculptural installation, The Unbearable Lightness and Heaviness of Being, rapid prototyping machines were used to print the 3D forms, which were then installed in unique formations with other natural materials.This work contains conceptual and formal contradictions. Conceptually, it embodies an existence of opposing forces – depicting organisms in flight, but rooted. Structurally, the natural and synthetic are fused; fragile, intricate forms made of plastic and advanced digital technologies are juxtaposed with organic matter.

NHK has developed a new style of content creation for a puppet show. The performers operate the actual puppets in a CG environment called Uncompleted Contents, and the complete contents are produced with them in real time. This production style presents limitless possibilities not only for TV programming, but also for interactive elements.

Mishka is a playful depiction of human nature and culture. The main protagonist, a little monkey with a human face, is tired of his corruptive life. He goes from one doll party to another without much joy or engagement. But his life is changed when a three-eyed crawling creature appears and brings Mishka to a mystical place of purity and innocence. By attempting to steal the eggs from the Bird Queen, Mishka breaks the sacred rules and is taken to hell. His soul is taken by Death, and he returns to the world as a mechanical doll whose only purpose is to entertain.
Yuliya Lanina is a Russian-born American artist living and working in New York City who creates alternate realities based on sexuality, fetishism, and identity. All of her characters are dolls and toys made from dissembled parts that have been restructured with other found objects, which makes her works visually provocative. They are both dainty and disturbing, and the viewer is simultaneously drawn in and repelled. The modifications to the figures are both visual and electronic as they become robotic creatures with altered functional capabilities. Characters, sets, storyline, music, editing, and choreography are all Lanina’s creation.

Summary

When the traditional opera mask art culture meets the new media art, what kind of sparks will be generated, and new ways to promote the traditional art culture will be explored.

Abstract

Drama mask culture is a classification in the long history of Chinese traditional culture. But now many young people had been almost forgotten this kind of culture, our purpose is to think through a can make young people more likely to focus on a way, the opera masks appear in public, utilizing new media in this work, we break the traditional opera masks, allow the user to the style of be fond of according to oneself design their own opera masks, generated by AI technology will play facebook elements (eyes nose mouth lines) into various styles: Pixel style, style and line fault style more popular modern fashion elements, such as the user side/tablet and mobile phone use through the program can design their own opera masks, and then click send projection on the wall, appreciation of their own design art show facebook generation process and form, get belongs to own a new opera masks media work. This work wants to let you know: in fact, traditional culture has not been outdated, and can be very cool.

Cloud Pink is an immersive media installation with a giant stretchable fabric that covers the entire gallery ceiling. Viewers can poke this sky with their fingers, stirring the simulated pink cloud that floats on it.

Lying down on a hill, with your eyes filled with the endless blue sky, your perspective is suddenly distorted, and clouds drift at the tip of your nose. You stretch your arms up to the sky to touch the clouds but you can’t reach them. It’s another world just above your head: clouds. Touch the pink clouds drifting on a giant fabric screen and remember your childhood clouds of dreams.

I spent countless sleepless nights just to realize my unproductive and romantic cloud of words. But isn’t it beautiful to feel the clouds at your fingertips?

Lord Kelvin, widely known for determining the correct value of absolute zero temperature, firmly believed that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible. Neil Armstrong got into a steel can, flew through space, stood on the surface of the moon, and stared at the earth. Levitate is a humorous new media interpretation of gravity, the last scientific fetter of humankind. Dozens of serenely levitating balls suddenly float up and dance as your mind resonates with them. How can you tell if it was the electro-mechanic phenomenon created by electric circuit boards, or if it was just the effect of your psychokinesis? An art gallery is not a science museum.
Maybe it was not the psychokinesis that levitated the balls, and the whole thing was not a supernatural phenomenon at all. But how can you be so sure that the thought, “Your mind can levitate the balls,” is a belief less true than Lord Kelvin’s belief that heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible?

Memoirs is an interactive installation piece. It is a memoir of humanity’s struggle to invent home appliances in pursuit of happiness. The piece is composed of a brown TV tube panel with a Polaroid camera on top. Its antique look stimulates a sense of nostalgia for old-fashioned home appliances. As you come close to the piece, a custom-made Polaroid camera automatically recognizes your face and takes a picture of you, and a physically simulated photo paper falls down and hits the pile of photos inside the virtual interior of the piece. Its digital data travels halfway around the earth to a web server in a distant country. Even though film-based photography is perishing and digital cameras are penetrating everyday objects, nothing can substitute for the feeling of anticipation while waiting for a photo to develop. Like bringing film to the photo printing office, taking a card with a printed web address from a stack creates a space in which to reminisce about the good old days. As you stand in front of the piece, the line between the virtual self and the physical self blurs. With photos stacking up on the web server, participants collectively build and share a single memory through the piece. Because of its intense and antique visual imprint, even when our experience with this piece dims, our shared childhood memories of electronic home appliances will remain.

Machines do not understand human language. Even tiny animals have the wits to guess our intentions by the tones of our voice. But machines simply can’t. If you want to command something to them, you need multiple steps of translation until your words are finally converted to a series of “ons” and “offs.” To speed up these translations, programmers have invented numerous gadgets. But their working principles exceed the grasp of our common sense. So we, the artists, don’t understand how these translations work and get lost in translation. We need metaphors, not interpreters or compilers. By patching wooden video effector modules like the
1980s’ audio synthesizer, you can cascade through a series of video effects in real time, creating limitless combinatory output videos on the brown tube TV sets. The way it functions is simply a metaphor and has nothing to do with what’s inside the circuit boards of these tiny video translators. But your instinct will guide you through what happens on the TV screens while you play with them.

<Oasis> is an interactive installation that invites visitors to touch and play.

A surface covered with black sand turns into a virtual oasis when people grab and remove a handful of sand. In this micro-oasis, virtual creatures will be born and prosper. People can manipulate the population and spatial boundary of living by shaping the pond or moving pebbles. From a god-like perspective, people can enjoy touching the tactile material of this installation and watch it become full of life.

A real-time machine-vision engine is used to interpret the shape of the pond and positions of pebbles.

Swarm intelligence was implemented to simulate the flocking behaviors of virtual creatures, and their lifelike motions are programmed in Java with OpenGL.

R: The mechanism through which a sentence on paper reaches your retina falls on at least one of the following scenarios: It’s the light reflected by the ink molecules that were absorbed through the capillary fibers of the pulp of the paper that you’re holding. Or it is the visible light which was originally a beam of electrons that was bent and fluoresced by electromagnetic forces. Or it is the sum of lights that just passed through the barriers of liquid crystal molecules. Or it may have come from tiny little light bulbs that illuminate through plasma discharges. One certain fact is that you don’t imagine any of these situations described above when you read a sentence like this one. But that is until you stand in front of the piece “R”.

Like inspecting the internal structure of a clock through a magnifying glass, whilst witnessing a delicate micro symphony of tiny little mechanisms, gears and windup springs, when you are in front of “R”, you’ll find yourself experiencing the elaborate procedures that humankind have invented to make a soulless machine draw a picture in itself. “R” is a giant wooden kinetic sculpture made of thousands of hand-carved components. It constructs an image with thousands of black and white ping-pong balls, reminiscing the Altamira cave paintings as much as the more recent splendid images a light emitting diode matrix displays. It is like a refuge from the furious competition of high-tech inventions trying to create revolutionary devices worldwide by making you turn around and look back to the actual meaning of creating devices that create images. The piece works in two ways- in passive mode it constructs ready-made images by stacking up black and white ping pong balls in predefined orders. In interactive mode, the piece detects human activity nearby itself and drops the balls accordingly. Over time multiple spread dots of black ping-pong balls accumulate imagery and reflect surrounding activity, whilst leaving traces of visitors passing by.

I wanted to create a mysterious garden in a 3D space. Each person who appears in this animation has the same human form, since each is a part of the garden. They imitate the birds, trees, worms, statue, everything. And finally, they build a black garden themselves.

In the 19th century, postcard-size stereoscopic photographs were very popular. 30 Muscle aims to recreate these photographs with 21st-century mobile communication technology that captures the
perspective and depth we perceive in real life.
Today, mobile phones are essential components of our daily lives. Camera phones, especially, enrich conventional audio communication by sending images. 30 Muscle is a stereoscopic moblog system that
shoots stereographic images and posts them to a weblog using two mobile phones with cameras arranged in a line. A custom controller sends a serial communication signal to synchronize exposure times
in the camera phones so they can be operated as one mobile device . This project is partially supported by CREST, JST.

This string instrument generates its tone through the tailoring of strings along the unique shape of a deer’s antlers. Its tone may resound the howling roar of the very lord of nature. In Japan, one often hears of how damaging deer can be, but they are one of god’s messenger.

We can watch the shape of the trees grow. But we can’t see the Blood vessels stretching throughout the body to carry blood. They have common branching structure. These natural morphogenesis structure is worthy of the form which is ruled by them.

Halcyon is named for the mythological bird of ancient Greece, said to charm the winds and seas into a calm during the Winter Solstice. Gameplay is one part spatial action puzzler and one part interactive stringed instrument combined in an experience designed specifically for the iPad. Colored currents travel inexorably toward each other. Strum the strings to match the currents, creating both phonic and visual harmony.

Take on the role of the Halcyon, conducting nature, untangling currents, and bringing calm to the wind, sea, land, and stars.

A Head of View is an immersive surround audio/video sound environment in 3D game-space that can be experienced and altered in real time simultaneously by several players. The centerpiece of the installation involves a new approach to navigation through live video tracking of the players’ body movements and manipulation of a miniature wireless representation of players’ heads.
This work attempts to playfully embrace and expand upon the cognitive dissonances inherent in all multiplayer game-spaces: the ability to imagine and perceive both the space and the player’s place within it from multiple aural/visual perspectives but in a non-goal-oriented, cooperatively controlled environment.
Players are invited to freely move through the space within which they are embedded. They can choose to passively explore the environment, but at any time they can also move beyond the passive role and perform various physical actions within the space (moving objects, touching walls, flying, etc.). The results of these actions, depending on their nature and relationship to the space and other players within the space, range from minute alterations of the musical texture to surprising new moments of sonic invention.

Moderation was inspired by the forest-spirit scene in Hayao Miyaza­ki’s movie “Princess Mononoke.” Participants walk onto a projected image that shows water gently rippling over river rocks. The first step generates a circular ripple around the participants’ feet, and subsequent steps generate a flowering of colorful flowers as water spirits dart about. As participants step away, the plants wither and brown, leaving a trail of flotsam. After the initial interaction, most par­ticipants react by running quickly to make more plants and creatures appear. However, if the participants do not moderate their demands of this magical pool by responding to the cue of a dimming image, then the pool fades completely, leaving them bereft. This relation­ship metaphor demonstrates that good relationships are maintained by careful observation of what one’s partner can reasonably deliver and appropriately moderating one’s requests to that expectation. This lesson applies to our relationship with the environment and our friends, lovers, children, and colleagues.

Shadow Garden is series of interactive pieces where participants discover a world that reacts to their shadows. The participant walks between a projector and a screen, casting a shadow. A computer paints images, through the projector, that appear to interact with the shadow in real time. The psychology of the shadow as an extension of one’s body is such a natural concept that participants immediately grasp the interface. The connection between shadow and body is so innate that many participants claim they “feel” the projected images touching them.

The work uses a garden concept to de-emphasize the technological and evoke wonder and awe. Often, digital artwork over-focuses on the technical by choosing modern themes that isolate participants from the virtual world into which the artist invites them. The organic nature of gardens puts the participants at ease and focuses their attention away from the technical gadgetry and toward the beautiful interactive imagery. Six independent systems are displayed on the same screen: a flurry of butterflies, a stream of liquid sand, trails of swirling flame, swarms of creatures like fish or ants, a diversity of growing flowers, and undulating colors of galactic star clusters.

Fundamentally, the pieces are neither about shadows nor gardens but rather the feelings created by interactivity. For example, participants attempting to catch butterflies will talk to each other saying: “Shhh! Don’t move, I’ve almost got one.” Sometimes they will shake with the tension of trying to hold still. Or, when playing with in the insect swarm, participants will timidly insert their hands to create a shadow and then jerk away with fear as soon as the creatures swarm towards them.

As they warm to the creatures, participants play with them as if they’re a school of fish and begin to enjoy them. It is such feelings, both mental and corporeal, that we, as artists, seek to evoke through interactivity.

Since the 1950s, the number of people who live by themselves is growing exponentially. In the 10,000 year history of human civilization, this is the first documented period where large proportions of the population occupy their own, individual, dwelling. Today more than half of the residents of Manhattan live alone. The Watertight collection is an incomplete archive of infrastructure that supports single-occupant living in New York City.

As the depth information of the environment is collected, the software program Skanect converts the data points into a visual representation in digital form, known as a mesh. Once the mesh is complete, the specimen is prepared for archiving. A computative process, called “watertight”, translates the virtual representation into a format suitable for 3D printing. This algorithm rounds up the geometry of the mesh, filling holes, interpolating missing features, and estimating corrections for data errors.

The physical replicas of the habitats are created through additive manufacture with a Stratasys J750 printer. The 3D prints are made of thousands of layers of a liquid photopolymer which is cured under ultraviolet light. This photopolymer is an acrylate plastic, and is predicted to retain its structure indefinitely.

My art practice varies in terms of the themes and media I bring into play. In my process I tend to combine traditional cinematic techniques with interactivity, layering visuals, compressing and expanding time, and fracturing narrative. Thus, I utilize video as the core form of my expression, but my video work has included single-channel experimental work, audio-visual installation, and interactive installations. In my work I deploy non-linear narrative to cover a wide range of topics,
from poetic meditations to documentary interventions, and these serve as a continual inquiry into the nature of our interaction with the environment by utilizing expanded interactivity.

Points of View is an expansion of my work with experimental narrative formats; it is an expanded exploration of non-linear narrative design, depicting documentary-based materials.

Points of View aims to increase exposure to B’Tselem’s important and unique project through the creation of a map-based, database-driven interactive documentary that both situates the footage in its location of origin and creates new narrative threads of meaning from the stories that emerge. Viewers can browse the clips randomly or follow pre-determined video trails that are connected via events and tags. The video trails offer viewers a way to learn more about particular
events or areas, but also allow them to make their own connections—creating non-linear narratives that resist the fixed conclusions that can be provoked by linear documentary filmmaking—and experience life in the West Bank and Gaza from multiple points of view. This work relates to the theme of acting in translation as it brings into play multiple realities and potential truths by revealing unexpected juxtapositions between various kinds of lived experience. Different choices of interaction lead to different emphases, underscoring the multivalent nature of both conflict and quotidian life in the region.

A re-creation of the 1923-1936 Kurt Schwitters Merzbau, the famous Dada workspace. An interactive node of the KS Virtual Museum System, created by VanGogh TV for the Sprengel Museum, Hannover.

Summary:
Exploration of the concept of the “Zone” inspired by “Roadside Picnic” novel written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, a search for individual artistic expression within a complex digital environment consisting of multiple medias (traditional and digital drawing, computer animation, programming and sound) with visuals drawing from abstract expressionism (the art of Franz Kline in particular) but transposed to and enhanced by the means of interactive computer animation.

Extended Summary:
The Zone. Seemingly dead space. It becomes a dominating, uncontrolled, autonomous entity in a presence of a human being . It manifests its reactions by changing state of objects that belong to it. The Dog is one such object. It’s an expression of an abrupt, aggressive motion and destructive influence of the Zone. The concept of the Zone is inspired by “Roadside Picnic” – a novel published in 1972 and written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky but can also be tied to movie “Stalker” directed by Andrei Tarkovsky (1979) and to a nuclear disaster that occurred on 26th of April 1986 in Chernobyl in Ukraine.

Dog of Zone merges traditional drawing, 3d computer animation, programming and organic but digitally processed sound. Taking an advantage of wide range of media Lukasz Pazera searches for means of individual expression within a complex digital environment and unifies his artistic and programming experiences in a single piece of work. Visuals draw from abstract expressionism (the art of Franz Kline especially) and are based on transposing small scale gestural drawings into the language of three dimensional computer animation but without loosing drawings’ original qualities. The resulting imagery is both expressive and precise.

The purpose of the Work is to create an impression of being in a place such as The Zone. The final effect takes a form of interactive projection dedicated for a single participant. The participant becomes co-author of the dramaturgy of events by directing the progression of events through his/her own physical activity. The projection provides a strong, compressed experience. It is tuned for an instantaneous, iterative perception.

The Zone offers a journey and some kind of reward. It all begins with white frame. The course of events is divided into three basic stages, first is manifestation – an appearance of a dog figure caused by the initial presence of the participant within the bounds of the Zone. The deconstruction starts with participant movements. Each and every strong enough activity will cause involuntary, sudden reactions from the dog. These in turn will cause gradual disintegration of its form. This process cannot be stopped, only slowed down. The essence of the dog is contained within the process of its expressive deconstruction. Narration or dramaturgy are only derivatives of the creature’s visual transformations. The reactions of the Work are dichotomous in their nature. The dog repels, discourages further activity, struggles to maintain its territory and the relative state of equilibrium extending its existence. The Zone, on the other hand, tempts, encourages action revealing subsequent stages of the disintegration of its object. Eventually, the figure will deconstruct and transform into a still image which will remain on a screen as long as the participant stays within the bounds of The Zone. This transformation is the third and final act of the projection. In the end the dog is irreversibly erased and the space is asleep again. There is no activity, no objects, no defense nor attack – only a white lit wall.