Here is a portfolio of a french web designer named Gildas Paubert experimenting with processing js. (go in the « play mode ! » section).

Continue reading.... Playing with Pixels [Javascript, Processing]

The spectacle and surplus masculinity of Hollywood is hardly run-of-the-mill source material for generative art, but Canadian software artist Jeremy Rotsztain has been diligently exploring transforming cinematic convention into rich, abstract compositions for three years now. Rotsztain’s Action Painting project (first featured on CAN in fall 2009) employs scenes and sound design—’data’ from action movies—as raw material to generate abstract expressionist style animations. “Revving Motors, Spinning Wheels” (below) is one of four videos released by Rotsztain this summer that illustrate just how far this project has come – the piece reads as a love letter to both Jackson Pollock and Jason Bourne. On close viewing the source material (culled from Ronin, The French Connection, etc.)  is clearly organized thematically and the video functions as a serial examination of the stock components of definitive chase scenes. Screeching brakes, blaring sirens, lead-footed acceleration and the inevitable Ballardian-endgame all filter through the mix in clusters of topical clips.

Continue reading.... Action Painting Redux [openFrameworks]

Created by Patrick Juchli, Holger Müller (sound) and Bernhard Frey (Design, Trailer), The Lake is a sound journey. You plug in your headphones, see a playing card on your screen, turn this card once, twice, many times, and every time you turn the card, you will delve deeper into the new world. All you’ve got is a single playing card and all you can do is turn it. The card will never change and there is no puzzle to solve but on each turn, sound will change and lead you somewhere new.

It takes ten steps to reach the lake, and after that another ten, another twenty. You arrive in a car, you are walking across an open field and through a forest. You remember the rain, the wind is blowing again and at some point there will be a kite flying high above you…….Everything repeats itself and yet each time it feels different. You remember things and see them in a different light.

Headphones are a must.

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: $1.99
Developer: Maybe its the Lighting

Japan’s leading electronic composer Ryoji Ikeda focuses on the minutiae of ultrasonics, frequencies and the essential characteristics of sound itself. His work exploits sound’s physical property, its causality with human perception and mathematical dianoia as music, time and space. Using computer and digital technology, Ikeda has been developing particular “microscopic” methods for sound engineering and composition. Since 1995 he has been intensely active in sound art through concerts, installations and recordings: the albums +/- (1996), 0 degrees (1998) and Matrix (2000) have been hailed by critics as the most radical and innovative examples of contemporary electronic music. With Carsten Nicolai, he works the collaborative project ‘cyclo.’, which examines error structures and repetitive loops in software and computer programmed music, with audiovisual modules for real time sound visualization. The versatile range of his research is also demonstrated by the collaborations with choreographer William Forsythe/Frankfurt Ballett, contemporary artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, architect Toyo Ito and artist collective Dumb Type, among others. Ryoji Ikeda received the Golden Nica prize at Prix Ars Electronica 2001 in the Digital Music category.

Here are some of his projects;

test pattern [2008] _ test pattern is a system that converts any type of data (text, sounds, photos and movies) into barcode patterns and binary patterns of 0s and 1s. Through its application, the project aims to examine the relationship between critical points of device performance and the threshold of human perception.

Test Pattern [nº1] In this first edition of the project, an audiovisual installation, test pattern involves a sequence of tests for machines and humans, comprising visual patterns converted and generated from sound waveforms in real–time. The installation comprises 8 computer monitors and 16 loudspeakers aligned on the floor in a dark space. The 8 rectangular surfaces of the screens flicker intensely with black and white images, floating and convulsing in the darkness. 16–channel sound signals are mapped as a grid matrix, passing and slicing the space sharply. Via a real–time computer program, the signal patterns are converted into 8 barcode patterns, which are tightly synchronized. The velocity of the moving images is ultra–fast, some hundreds of frames per second at certain points, providing a performance test for the devices and a response test for visitors’ perceptions.

Test Pattern [n˚2] presents flickering black and white imagery that floats and convulses in darkness on two screens, one on the floor and another floor to ceiling, in time with a stark and powerful, highly synchronised soundtrack. Through a real–time computer programme, Ikeda’s audio signal patterns are converted into tightly synchronised barcode patterns on the screens. Viewers are literally immersed in the work, and the velocity of the moving images is ultra–fast, some hundreds of frames per second, providing a totally immersive and powerful experience. The work provides a performance test for the audio and visual devices, as well as a response test for the audience’s perceptions.

Test Pattern [live set] presents intense flickering black and white imagery, which floats and convulses in darkness to a stark and powerful, highly synchronised soundtrack. Through a real–time computer programme, test pattern converts Ikeda’s audio signal patterns into tightly synchronised barcode patterns on screen. The velocity of the moving images is ultra–fast, some hundreds of frames per second, so that the work provides a performance test for the audio and visual devices, as well as a response test for the audience’s perceptions. Test Pattern is the third audiovisual concert in Ikeda’s datamatics series, an art project that explores the potential to perceive the invisible multi–substance of data that permeates our world. Taking various forms – installations, live performance and recordings – test pattern acts as a system that converts any type of data (text, sounds, photos and movies) into barcode patterns and binary patterns of 0s and 1s. The project aims to examine the relationship between critical points of device performance and the threshold of human perception, pushing both to their absolute limits.

datamatics [2006] _ datamatics is an art project that explores the potential to perceive the invisible multi-substance of data that permeates our world. It is a series of experiments in various forms – audiovisual concerts, installations, publications and CD releases – that seek to materialise pure data.

Using pure data as a source for sound and visuals, datamatics combines abstract and mimetic presentations of matter, time and space in a powerful and breathtakingly accomplished work. datamatics is the second audiovisual concert in Ryoji Ikeda’s datamatics series, an art project that explores the potential to perceive the invisible multi-substance of data that permeates our world. Projecting dynamic, computer-generated imagery – in pared down black and white with striking colour accents, Ikeda’s intense yet minimal graphic renderings of data progress through multiple dimensions. From 2D sequences of patterns derived from hard drive errors and studies of software code, the imagery transforms into dramatic, rotating views of the universe in 3D, whilst the final scenes add a further dimension as four-dimensional mathematical processing opens up spectacular and seemingly infinite vistas. A powerful and hypnotic soundtrack reflects the imagery through a meticulous layering of sonic components to produce immense and apparently boundless acoustic spaces. datamatics, alongside the recently released and critically acclaimed dataplex album, marks a significant and exciting progression in Ikeda’s work.

datamatics [ver 2.0] is the new, full–length version of Ryoji Ikeda’s acclaimed audiovisual concert. For datamatics [ver.2.0], Ikeda has significantly developed the earlier version of this piece (premiered in March 2006), adding a newly commissioned second part. Driven by the primary principles of datamatics, but objectively deconstructing its original elements – sound, visuals and even source codes – this new work creates a kind of meta–datamatics. Ikeda employs real–time programme computations and data scanning to create an extended new sequence that is a further abstraction of the original work. The technical dynamics of the piece, such as its extremely fast frame rates and variable bit depths, continue to challenge and explore the thresholds of our perceptions.

See more on www.ryojiikeda.com.
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New submission to the Experimental Gameplay Project (‘Art Game’ theme) is the new game by Cactus titled This is Infinity. The game is 3d first person glitch like experience “meant to put you in a state of confusion, where you feel lost and alienated from the world you enter. You have to explore your own perception to figure out what you’re seeing, what you’re doing, and what will lead you to progress”.

More details about the game from Cactus:
To summarize the game: Find four portals, figure out what to do after you enter each portal, then figure out how to get to the end. The objective in each area is fairly simple, but because of the way the game is presented it can be hard to figure out. Observe the elements you see in each level to get a clue to what is actually going on, and you’ll probably be able to beat the game relatively quickly.

(Windows Only)

You can download the game here and once you have had a play make sure you also check out other Cactus’ games.

(via EGP)

Action Painting, also refereed to as Masculine Expressionism is the latest project by Jeremy Rotsztain that using data from action movies as material generates a series of “action paintings” in the style of Jackson Pollock.

In Action Painting, gestures are extracted from action film sequences (car chase movies, fight scenes, explosions, etc.) and used as material to compose digital paintings. Pun intended. For example when Jason Bourne drives backwards through the streets of Paris in a nail-biting police chase, when the underdog Rocky Balboa battles Apollo Creed, when a helicopter chases a high speed train through a tunnel in Mission Impossible, the app takes these sequences and playfully converts them into abstract expressionist images.

Action Painting was created using openFrameworks. For each frame of video, the software samples the changed pixels, saving them to the computer’s memory. It then rearranges all the sampled pixels on screen to compose a series of abstract expressionist images, which are presented as large format prints and video installations.

For more information see mantissa.ca/projects/actionpainting + this flickr album.

(via @mat3i)

Devil’s Tuning Fork is an exploration game viewed from a first-person perspective, where you play as a child trapped in an alternate reality after catching a strange illness and falling into a coma. The unknown world is a dark one and has no illumination, but a tuning fork that you find at the start of your adventure can be used to feel your way around the maze of rooms and platforms.

Watch the clip below for what may seem a scary little adventure. Available as a free Windows download, 42.8MB.

See also this flickr set for more wonderful images.

(via @differentcloth + IndieGames.com)

In September of 2009 the indie rock band Moderndog (Thailand) contacted Michael Paul Young to design the motion visuals for their upcoming 15th anniversary concert. The show had a set of 26 songs, in which we designed video content for 14 songs. MPY with the rest of the team approached each song with around 10 video options for the main projection screen, along with numerous designs for the LEDS built into the stage design.

Direction, Design and Lead Animation by Michael Paul Young
Animation & Design Assistants: Lee Suetorsak, Taechit Jiropaskosol and Jackkrit Anantakul
Soundtrack by Moderndog