NTQ, also known as Near Tag Quality (+), is a DIY graffiti printer created using Arduino, Solenoid and 7 Spray cans. Created by the french branch of GRL (Graffiti Research Lab) this project was developed in 2 month between mid-may and mi-July. The idea is not new but their goal was to build something and opensource it. The single spray system uses a solenoïd valve with a number of transistors to get enough voltage from the low signal issued by the Arduino board. The whole thing costing about 200€.

Continue reading.... NTQ – Near Tag Quality [Arduino]

Niklas Roy has just sent us details of his “My Lttle Piece of Privacy” project Ver 2 now making it’s way accross France for a number of exhibition in Créteil, Maubeuge and Lille. Named “Big Brother” (as it is about 10cm wider than the one in his workshop window) uses a Makita drilling machine motor. All the coded has been rewritten: The machine vision software is now coded in C++ (with OpenFrameworks) as there were some stability problems with the former Processing application. As a plus, it also performs faster with a top speed of ~3m/sec, which basically positions the curtain more precise. The microcontroller codes are also written from scratch. The old version had some servo adjustment potis inside the control box (for the PID settings). Now, the maintenance interface is completely screen based. Niklas has implemented a simple but powerful protocoll for the communication between Laptop and controller. Via this protocoll, not only position data is transmitted, but also all servo parameters – which are then stored in the controller’s internal EEPROM.

All the code, schematics, plans and plenty of other useful documents are available online for download. I especially enjoy the “IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS THAT THE SERVO SETTINGS ARE CRITICAL. WRONG SETTINGS CAN RESULT IN THE SERVO’S SELF DESTRUCTION.” note in the documentation.

The curtain will be shown soon at the travelling exhibition “Paranoia”, full exhibition available here (pdf).
Dates are:
March 10th-20th, Maison des Arts Créteil
March 24th – April 3rd, Le Manège de Maubeuge
April 13th – August 14th, Gare St. Sauveur, Lille

The exhibition is curated by Charles Carcopino.

Darkgame is a sensory deprivation computer game by Eddo Stern currently in development. The game plays on physical manipulation of the player’s senses as the central focus of game strategy. The immersive gameplay is based upon the experience of communication and conflict under stress of sensory deprivation and sense isolation. During the game you are equipped with custom made head gear, applying different sensations to your head as you are navigating the virtual world interacting with other players over the internet.

Eddo Stern works on the disputed borderlands between fantasy and reality, exploring the uneasy and otherwise unconscious connections between physical existence and electronic simulation. His work explores new modes of narrative and documentary, experimental computer game design, fantasies of technology and history, and cross-cultural representation in computer games, film, and online media. He works in various media including computer software, hardware and game design, kinetic sculpture, performance, and film and video production.

Read interview on gamescenes

/via gamescenes

Created at the workshop with product designer and electronic music composer Yuri Suzuki, the following objects use the seemingly trite sound of a door bell as its starting point to create and suggest alternatives to the generic sound-scapes of everyday life that we often take for granted. Yuri designed the toolkit to make the door bell, which contain several actuators and plastic structure as seen in the photo below. The rest was down to the workshop attendees to make new door bells-sound machines.

What effect would a whispering or moaning doorbell have? How would we interpret bird songs or the sound of barking dogs – as visitor or host? What happens if the first impression is disturbed by an unexpected sound? Can the sound of a doorbell have an effect on the very notion of hospitality?

One day I found great kettle designed by Richard Sapper. The kettles’ beautiful sound plays the notes C and D and sounds like small locomotive. Inspired by this, I made a kettle of my own. A musical kettle, which became part of the series’ re-design sound scape’. As the kettle boils it whistles your favorite tune… I want to contribute to the design of daily domestic noises: alarms, mobile phones, a doorbell; I have the opinion that not enough thought has been given to the noises they produce. Yuri.

This workshop was the last event of Yuri’s residency at the Iaspis in Stockholm 1 Nov 2010 – 31 Jan 2011, a collaboration with Tokyo Wondersite.

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Created by Sputnic, RACER is an analogue recreation of a computer racing game in the style of the classic WipeOut. The actions of the arcade player are directly reflected by the remote controlled model car in the level.
Live video image from the car’s perspective  is sent back to the arcade. It consists of a modified vintage arcade machine, a RC model car with a wireless camera, and a self-constructed racetrack/game level made entirely from cardboard.

The car is a 1:28 model as you get them in the shops. The only modification is a plate to carry camera and lights. On the arcade side there is a basic arduino microcontroller, the remote is controlled by a different controller, both communicate via a serial cable. One part of the job is to help out when the car crashes. Arcade and track are setup in seperate rooms. The installation is highly modular and can be set up in about three hours.

This project needs our help to continue. Please donate as low as €5.00 here.

racer.sputnic.tv

[via boingboing]

Olars by Lars Marcus Vedeler is an electronic interactive toy inspired by Karl Sims‘ evolved virtual creatures. Having thousands of varieties in movement and behaviour by attaching different geometrical limbs, modifying the angle of these, twisting the body itself, and by adjusting the deflection of the motorised joints, results in both familiar and strange motion patterns.

The main objects, what you see indicated by both beige and blue colour contains an Arduino Duemilanove board together with 2x servo and switches. A simple configuration within beautifully crafted objects. See images + video below.

Music by ‘Toy’; “Golden Fish in Pool”
Collaborative work with Ola Vågsholm
Oslo School of Architecture and Design, spring 2010

I have been following his work for some time now (10 years) but recently, at Flashbelt,  I had a pleasure of meeting Jared Tarbell and was deeply touched by his inquisitive nature. If you have seen Jared speak, or even better have met him, you’ll know exactly what I am talking about. His talk, beautifully executed, took us on a journey from the images of sun, recursion experiments to geodesic spheres and beautifully crafted laser-cut boxes. Some of this work was from a while ago, by no means new, nevertheless composed and contextualised into a perfect harmony. He talked about inspiration driven from nature, observing plants and different organisms inhabiting our planet, the way these patterns evolve, scale, the logic behind them and visual aesthetic they posses. His desire to “replicate” or “evolve” these, poeticising their nature,  results in an endless collection of experiments driven by his algorithms left me breathless. Some of these were created using Flash, others with Processing but regardless of tools used it is their prescribed evolution and aesthetic derived therein they all devise an ecology of beautifully developed and executed work.

He modestly writes:
I write computer programs to create graphic images.  With an algorithmic goal in mind, I manipulate the work by finely crafting the semantics of each program. Specific results are pursued, although occasionally surprising discoveries are made. I believe all code is dead unless executing within the computer. For this reason I distribute the source code of my programs in modifiable form. Modifications and extensions of these algorithms are encouraged.

Born in 1973 in the high altitude desert city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Jared Tarbell was first introduced to personal computers in 1987. Working mostly with flash and generative art, in July 2005, Jared co-founded Etsy, an online marketplace to buy and sell handmade goods. Etsy has grown significantly since then and now has approximately 60 employees and sales of $10 to 13 million per month (wiki). Jared continues to work there today, building tools and visualizations for shoppers. Jared holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from New Mexico State University and sits on the Board of the Austin Museum of Digital Art. When not engaged in programming, Jared nearly always tries to find himself outside, exploring the mysterious wilderness areas of New Mexico together with his wife Laurie where they moved to few years ago. He is not accepting any work at this time nor is any of his work available for purchase. I have been told getting hold of these can be somewhat tricky but his code is openly available for download (+). Jared does regularly give talks and my understanding is that Flash on the Beach in Brighton, UK is next. If you live in the UK, this is definitely worth a visit and rest assured I will be making my way down to say hello.

http://www.complexification.net
http://levitated.net
Jared’s Flickr

Jared’s publications:
New Masters of Flash 2004, APress ISBN forthcoming
Flash 3D Cheats Most Wanted, APress ISBN 1590592212 
The Hidden Power of Flash Components, Sybex ISBN 0782142109
Fresh Flash: New Design Ideas, Friends of ED ISBN 1903450993 
Flash Math Creativity, Friends of ED ISBN 1903450500

Here is one of Jared’s geodesic sphere’s assembled by Ralph Hauwert.

Inspired by the brilliant use of an early 80′s concept in the recent OKGo ‘WTF’ video (see below), Mehmet Akten aka memo created this little open-source demo in Processing. It works in real-time with a webcam.

You can download the source here.

Memo writes: I tried to keep the source super minimal and as easy to read as possible. For better results, you can try running an erode on the subtracted image, do a contour analysis and smooth the edges slightly. It also helps to run it in front of an empty wall with stable lighting, and ideally a webcam which has manual exposure / shutterspeed / gain etc.

If you are looking for a QuarzComposer version of the same, Vade made one and you can download it here.

See also how the original OKGo video was made here and the King of Pop’s version from over 3 decades ago here

Few days ago Alex Beim posted a link to a video the team at Tangible Interaction created about how to make a quasi omnidirectional light marker for slow shutter photography. Where we didn’t know what this for was then, Alex earlier sent us a direct message on Twitter:

Time to get creative this holiday! http://www.lite-write.com is our gift to you from @tangibleint and @companypolicy

The  Lite-Write is a simple openFrameworks application for your Mac or PC that creates the same long exposure effect of light writing with a camera. Using your quasi omnidirectional light marker (or any other light emitting objects such as your iPhone) you can draw as if you were using long exposure camera. Captures are saved in the folder “Captures” when you hit the Spacebar or “S” Key. See the growing collection of images now available on Flickr.

See lichtfaktor for inspiration.

Download

Karl Klomp (’79 – NL), media artist – vj – theater technician. His research focus on live audiovisual expressions and interfacing with a fasination for glitch-art, hyperkinetic audio visuals and glitch grabbing. Dealing with video circuit bending, frame grabbing, hardware interfacing, max programming. Also doing commissioned video hardware tools for other artist. Together with Tom Verbruggen (Toktek) they play live av performance (toktek vs mnk) across the country. Bookings via AllesLos. Also doing audio/video circuit bending workshop, often in collabaration with Gijs Gieskes.

Below are few of many videos available on Kar’s website and vimeo. For full details on the projects please see karlklomp.nl

See also Digital Decay [Reference, Theory]