Inspired by current sampling techniques, either as a piece of hardware or as software, Ishac Bertran takes an analog route emulating the audio tape cut&paste technique by literally cutting and pasting pieces of vinyl to create samples. Ishac tried out different techniques, from wire cutter to knife, to finally settle for laser, carefully considering laser power to get the cleanest cut possible and avoid any jumps between the samples.

The best setting was to let the laser go through *almost* through the vinyl, and then crack manually the last thin layer (1). If the laser goes all the way through, it melts too much material and leaves a gap (2). If the laser doesn’t go enough deep, it’s pretty much impossible to take the piece out without creating an undesired crack (3).

Continue reading.... Analog Vinyl Sampling [Analog]

This is a preliminary test model of a kinetic pavilion by Yannick Bontinckx and Elise Vanden Elsacker. The final model will contain 28 servo motors controlled by an Arduino Mega and a Duemilanove board all connected to Rhino & Grasshopper via FireFly. The demo movie below includes a TouchOSC & gHowl setup which allows the structure to be controlled via an iPad.

Multiple kinds of ‘sketches’ can be uploaded to the pavilion
- Weather Data: mean values of solar irradiation are processed and shape the pavilion depending on climate, daily, monthly and hourly data. (Software used: Autodesk Ecotect and GECO for Grasshopper.)
- Human Interaction: control the pavilion using the iPad’s accelerometer and a TouchOSC XYpad interface (Software used: TouchOSC & gHowl.
- Motion tracking: human movement/other movement through live webcam feeds.

More information/updates including the final model will be posted in the coming weeks on Yannicks site. Also check out flickr for Processing app screens.

Eva Schindling (Austria) creates hardware and software solutions in the interdisciplinary zone between art, science, technology and design.  This project called “Circuit Explorations” is one of her last projects which studies in complex and emerging electronic circuits.

“Circuit Explorations” addresses the questions if any system has the potential to show emergent behavior as long as it follows the guidelines for emergence we learned from studying examples of nature and if the emergence of complex behavior can be made to appear by carefully tuning a systems parameter and setup.

Eva explains:
Small electronic circuits made from analog components (resistors, capacitors, transistors, inductors, diodes) serve as building blocks for a larger network of interconnected units. The circuit schematics for the individual units are kept simple in their number of components and are deliberately not designed to forcefully recreate behaviors already found in nature (circuits mimicking neuron behavior). The network consists of many units with similar simple circuit designs that produce predictable behavior in form of oscillation, delay functions or signal inversion. Each unit has input and output connections linked to one or more other units in the network. By linking these simple circuits up into a large network, all the electronic circuits are interconnected, influence each other and cause an overall more complex behavior. The conception of the hardware part of the research in form of a modular kit allows for a more free and exploratory plug-and-play research.

See also other interesting projects by Eva Schindling here.

Sensors readings from the circuit are used for a screen-based visualization that reveals linear, random or complex behavior in form of different visual patterns.

The New Museum will present “Brion Gysin: Dream Machine,” the first US retrospective of the work of the painter, performer, poet, and writer Brion Gysin (born 1916, Taplow, UK–died 1986, Paris). Along with the exhibition, the museum has launched an iPhone app, inspired by Gysin’s Dreamachine (1961). It is a kinetic light sculpture that utilizes the “flicker” effect to induce visions when experienced with closed eyes. While the application itself maybe deserved a little more love, it’s a lot of fun regardless + it’s free.

Working simultaneously in a variety of mediums, Gysin was an irrepressible inventor, serial collaborator, and subversive spirit whose considerable innovations continue to influence musicians and writers, as well as visual and new media artists today. The exhibition will include over 300 drawings, books, paintings, photo-collages, films, slide projections, and sound works, as well as an original Dreamachine—a kinetic light sculpture that utilizes the flicker effect to induce visions when experienced with closed eyes. “Brion Gysin: Dream Machine” is curated by Laura Hoptman, Kraus Family Senior Curator, and will be on view in the New Museum’s second floor gallery. More ..

(via rhizome)

See here for Dreamachine replicas manufactured by 10111.ORG from 1992 to present day.

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: Free
Developer: The New Museum

Kyle McDonald and Golan Levin reading about domain shifting between polar and Cartesian geometries noticed that flowers make particularly interesting subjects for this transformation. Working with Golan’s open-source BloggieUnwarper panoramic-imaging software (see below) with some flower photographs from Flickr, the duo produced the “flower panoramas”.

A modified version of the software — the FlowerUnwarper — was optimized for unwrapping flower images, and is available here (including source code). The software is built in Processing and uses the ControlP5 library.

Golan’s BloggieUnwrapper is software created in both openFrameworks and Processing for unwrapping the panoramic videos produced by the popular Sony Bloggie solid-state camera. The inexpensive Bloggie ($160-190) camera allows for the creation of 360-degree panoramic digital video, at relatively high resolution, at a consumer price-point.

Using the software, the image is ‘unwrapped’ creating a continuous 360º video panorama (see movie clip below).

An unwrapped panoramic video of our car’s interior, shot using the Sony Bloggie and its 360-degree lens attachment. The original video, which can be seen at vimeo.com/12578371, was unwrapped using custom software created in OpenFrameworks.

Read more about the software + download (processing + oF) at flong.com/blog/2010/open-source-panoramic-video-bloggie-openframeworks-processing/

Similarly, I have come across this project recently, an analog example of distorted image by Ross Ching, a graduate of San Diego State University’s film program. Using a 24-inch monitor laid horizontally flat playing the distorted video, with the help of a chrome cylinder positioned in the middle of this image, the images is ‘unwrapped’ allowing you to observe the landscape or any other panoramic video without distortions. You can read about this project at rossching.com/distortions/.

Somewhat an analog version of Golan’s software and an interesting comparison between physical and digital translation of the distorted.

Created using 64 traditional arcade buttons and MaxMSP patch, Travis‘s creation mimics the very popular monome devices.

And here’s how pretty the final wiring looks! I still am going to tie everything up but I think it ended up really clean. Input boards on the left, output boards on the right. I tried a few wiring harnesses before I settled and duplicated. I think this helped make everything really clean and reliable (everything worked the first time!).

Video below shows the arcade monome running Max/Msp + Midi/OSC converter + Polygome + Ableton Live 8 + Commodore64 VST.

For more monome creations, see this group on vimeo.

Monome x Arcade Buttons « Defcon6.

Continue reading.... Sixteen Candles [MaxMSP, Environment]

Continue reading.... GravSynth [iPhone]

Continue reading.... Wii Spray [Flash, Environment]