Final ReacTable Mock-Up

Below is a mock up of what my ReacTable table will look like. I have the Macbook on the bottom shelf which powers the whole experiment through using ReacTIVision software and PurData. Pure data is a programming language which can read MIDI files via Open Sound Control which is the main audio signal for my ReacTable. The ReacTIVision software is programmed to recognise the Fiducials on the top of the table, when these are moved or rotated through user interaction, PureData distorts the sound through changing the level of the Sin wave. Therefore creating a rather flexible interface for a number of users to use at the same time and create a piece of music. This is exactly what I wanted to make as an example of interaction without the need for the spoken language, opening barriers and crossing boundaries for people all over the world.

Sound and Reactivision

After days of struggling to get the sound working with ReacTIVision, XML and Ableton Live I finally decided to use PureData and Reactivision to get the fiducials to link the sound to a Pure Data with help from Musa's blog

This proved to be much easier than using ableton as this send a message to the open sound source to play an oscillator sound so when the fiducials are rotates the sin wave increases.

Now I will have to make my own smaller version of the ReacTable to use to discover whether the table brings people together to make a song with out spoken communication but purely through interacting together and using the senses.

Composition on the Table



Four white tables have various user interfaces such as switches, dials, turn-tables and sliding boards that a player can touch. Projectors suspended from the ceiling project computer generated images onto the tables and interfaces. Projected images change in real time as if they were physically attached to the interfaces when players operate them. Also sounds are produced in relation to the movement of images.

Jam-o-drum


By combining velocity sensitive input devices and computer graphics imagery into an integrated tabletop surface, six to twelve simultaneous players are able to participate in a collaborative approach to musical improvisation. The Jam-O-Drum was designed to support face-to-face audio and visual collaboration by playing on drum pads embedded in the surface to create rhythmical music and effect visual changes together using the community drum circle as a metaphor to guide the form and content of the interaction design. The Jam-O-Drum is a permanent exhibit in the heart of Sound Lab at the EMP.

FTIR Musical Application


A musical interface for a large scale, high-resolution, multi-touch display surface based on frustrated total internal reflection. Multi-touch sensors permit the user fully bi-manual operation as well as chording gestures, offering the potential for great input expression. Such devices also inherently accommodate multiple users, which makes them especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive tables.

AudioTouch


AudioTouch is an interactive multi-touch interface for computer music exploration and collaboration. The interface features audio based applications that make use of multiple users and simultaneous touch inputs on a single multi-touch screen. A natural user interface where users can interact through gestures and movements, while directly manipulating musical objects, is a key aspect of the design; the goal is to be able to interact with the technology (specifically music based) in a natural way. The AudioTouch OS consists of four main musical applications: MultiKey, MusicalSquares, Audioshape sequencer & Musical Wong

MUSICtable


An ubiquitous system that utilizes spatial visualization to support exploration and social interaction with a large music collection. The interface is based on the interaction semantic of influence, which allows users to affect and control the mood of music being played without the need to select a set of specific songs.

realsound



An interactive installation combining image and sound through a tangible interface. By operating 24 buttons in on the table top he visitors can create an audio-visual composition of their own design. Each button has its own unique sound that is linked to an image.

Reactivision

I started to make my own interactive music player today. The aim for this final artefact is to design an interface which overcomes the language barrier between cultures. To do this I used a webcam, ReacTIVision 1.4, Flash and actionscript.

The web cam was put on to a clamp and then fiducial markers were laid out in front of the camera. The camera is connected to the application ReacTIVision 1.4, which is programmed to track these markers and enable multi-touch finger tracking.

Below is an example of the Flash interface which uses the TUIO protocol to connect to the ReacTIVision application.



Below is an example of the fiducial markers seen through the web cam. On a closer look the markers are labelled on paper, and the green numbers show the application has recognised markers. The green text on the left demonstrates the short cuts that can be used within the application.


This is an example of what can be seen in flash when the markers are moved. They are represented as grey boxes and track the markers where ever they move. At the moment when they are moved the hand will interrupt the signal, so it the camera would need to be below the table and lit by an LED light.


So now, the sensors are set up and working. The next step is to research how to get the sound samples working with this. The sound can be added through changing the .xml code in the reativision application to work in MIDI mode. Used in conjuction with Abelton Live or Reaktor music technology software the sound will play when the marker is moved by the user.

Bloom Iphone App

Artefact 6: ReacTable

After watching this at Ars Electronica and filming this as an example i wanted to create something with this in mind. The experience was truly inspiring, a group of people that had never met before, and that all spoke different languages managed to connect through interaction with the ReacTable installation by Sergi Jordà, Marcos Alonso, Günter Geiger and Martin Kaltenbrunner www.reactable.com.

This diagram explains more clearly how the table works:


And these are the different image tags that the camera sensors:

Final Live Client Project Film

Watch From Strength of Feeling to Floating Coffins in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Title Sequence

For the title sequence I could go all out and do some fancy sequence, although I don't feel as if this would benefit the film in any way. I would like to keep the intro short and simple, with no deterring the eyes as the film to come required a great deal of movement at such a fast pace, i don't want the viewers to get too fed up before the film has already begun.

This is a simple outline for the template of my credits which I will be producing in Live Type. So far this is the best animation/motion graphics programme I have found to do simple credits in, and i can easily export the files as .mov's and import them straight into final cut pro.


Here is the first draft for the title sequence, however I altered this afterwards to include my name at the beginning.


The video below is a quick example of the scrolling credits that I will use at the end of the film. Again, not too exciting or eye catching but it serves its purpose and is simple looking, as not to deter from the look of the timelapse film.

Artefact 5 - Narrative

After doing the four other artefact which were based around the sense of touch, taste, smell and sight I am now interested to take what I have learnt and experiment with what would happen if these were combined.

I am thinking instead of using one person in each experiement, but to use a whole group to test the level of interaction and whether objects can relate to a narrative.

I researched for a list of fary tales which would be recognised globally. Little Red Riding Hood had the most translations I could find.

Other cultures' names for Little Red Riding Hood

Afrikaans: Rooikappie, meaning Little Red Cap Albanian: Kesulkuqja, meaning 'Red Cap' Arabic: ليلى و الذئب, meaning 'Layla And The Wolf' Armenian:Կարմիր գլխարկը ("Karmir glkharky") Basque: Txano Gorritxo Bulgarian: Червената шапчицаChervenata shapchitsa), meaning 'The (Little) Red Hat' ( Catalan: La Caputxeta Vermella, meaning 'The Little Red Hood' Czech: Červená karkulka Chinese: 小紅帽, meaning 'Little Red Hat' Croatian and Bosnian: Crvenkapica, meaning 'Little Red Hat' Danish: Den lille Rødhætte, meaning 'The Little Redhood' Dutch: Roodkapje, meaning 'Little Red Cap' Esperanto: Ruĝkufulino Estonian: Punamütsike, meaning 'Little Red Hat' Finnish: Punahilkka, meaning 'Red Hood' French: Le Petit Chaperon rouge, meaning 'The Little Red Hood' Galician: Carapuchiña Vermella mea ning 'Little Red Hood' Georgian: წითელქუდა (tsitel quda), meaning 'Little Red Hat' German: Rotkäppchen (und der Wolf), meaning 'Little Red Cap (And The Wolf)' Greek: Κοκκινοσκουφίτσα (Kokk inoskoufitsa), meaning 'Little Red Cap' Hebrew: כיפה אדומה (Kippah Addumah), meaning 'Red Cap' Hindi: नन्हि लल छुन्नि (Nanhi Lal Chunni), meaning 'Little Red Cape' Hungarian: Piroska, meaning 'Little Red' also a proper feminine first name Icelandic: Rauðhetta, meaning 'Red Hood' Indonesian: Gadis Berkerudung Merah, meaning 'Red Hooded Girl' Italian: Cappuccetto Rosso, meaning 'Little Red Hood' Japanese: 赤頭巾 (Aka Zukin), meaning 'Red Hood' Korean: 빨간 모자 (Ppalgan moja), meaning 'Red Hat' kurdish: کیژە گچکەلە كلاو سورەکە Latin: Lacernella Rubra, meaning 'Little Red Hood' Latvian: Sarkangalvīte, meaning 'Little Red Head' Lithuanian: Raudonkepuraitė, meaning 'Little Red Cap' Norwegian: Rødhette, meaning 'Red Hood' Persian: شنل قرمزی, meaning 'Red-Caped' Polish: Czerwony kapturek Portuguese: Capuchinho Vermelho, meaning 'Little Red Hood'. Portuguese (Brazilian): Chapeuzinho Vermelho, meaning 'Little Red Hat'. Romanian: Scufiţa Roşie meaning 'Little Red Cap' Russian: Красная шапочкаKrasnaya shapochka), meaning 'Little Red Hat' ( Serbian and Macedonian: Црвенкапа (Crvenkapa), meaning 'Red Hat' Slovak: Červená čiapočka, meaning '[Little] Red Cap' Slovenian: Rdeča kapica, meaning 'Red (little) Cap' Spanish: Caperucita Roja, meaning 'Little Red Hood' Swedish: Rödluvan, meaning 'The Red Hood' Thai: หนูน้อยหมวกแดง, meaning 'Little Girl With Red Cap' Turkish: Kırmızı Başlıklı Kız, meaning 'Girl With Red Cap' Ukrainian: Червона ШапочкаChervona Shapochka), meaning 'Little Red Hat' ( Vietnamese: Cô bé quàng khăn đỏ Welsh: Hugan Fach Goch English Bosnian Chinese

Artefact 4 - Sight

This was a simple experiment to see if people associated colours with a range of emotions. It turned out to be a hard task for the participants, but provided some interesting results.


Colouring Emotions from Camilla Insalaco on Vimeo.

First Edit of Timelapse Film for NAE

Watch NAE Timelapse  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Past Degree Show Identities

To gather some more ideas about degree shows identity I had a look at some other degree shows in the past and what they have done.

Here is the university of Brighton's flyer for the 2008 Degree Show. This is pretty striking, and so much so that I actually remember it from last year.



This is a similar colour scheme to what we would like to use taken from the idea 'neon networks'. Here is an example of Kingston's exhibition identity for the whole school of art and design. There approach is clean and sophisticated with an edge, and their aim when designing the identity was to show how Kingston students look at things differently.










This link also shows a more current exhibition based around the word 'reveal'
http://thisisdavewood.co.uk/degree_show.html

Well enough looking at other peoples work, just hopefully this will set the standard to get us thinking.

Exhibition Ideas

Last week in a meeting for the identity of the exhibition a few of us thought of some ideas which may be a step closer to having a final idea. There were lots of words and concepts thrown around and we seemed to all decide on the popular idea of 'collide' which then became 'fusion'. We all seemed to be happy with this but then as time went on with discussion we did just start thinking it sounded like the men's razor advert.

However with this aside, we looked at visual data diagrams in colour type wheels. Something a little like this:





However I don't feel as though this is an identity which suggests more than the different of elements coming together into a circle. It is more conceptual than visual this idea, so the next step I think is to find a visual identity which can instantly recognise the image we want to portray. This sounds easy but is proving to be very difficult.

Colouring In

Mid Point Review

After visiting my client I felt a sense of relief that everything I had worked so hard on was finally being shown to the client.

The feedback was very positive and encouraging, all I need to do now is find a soundtrack for my film, add the ending which is the final opening event for the exhibition and then add a title page and credits.

The NAE gave me a contact for the soundtrack, local DJs Origami Box who are interested in seeing the film to see if they can work with it.

I am currently trying to upload this to the internet as it is such a huge file and 25 minutes long at the moment it seems to be a tricky task. Although Veoh, seems to be quite a fast uploader and there is no limit on the size of the file or the length so hopefully this will proove to work.

Colour Quiz

Camilla+Insalaco took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Sets herself idealistic but illusory goals. Has be..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

Live Client Project - Editing

The current editing process is taking much longer than expected as the clips seem to be taking hours to render and then export. I have tried different compressions for the .jpeg files, and in the end it was quickest and easiest to put each day together as an Image Sequence in Quicktime. I then saved this as a .mov and am now editing it in Final Cut Pro. I have edited one week so far and it seems to be going pretty well, the export is so far taking 15 minutes which is good, although this is only to MPEG-4 format, at a low quality. It seems any other format wont export because the file size is too large. Overall there were roughly 7,000 .JPEG images for each days worth of footage. Towards the end it was nearing to 14,000 .JPEG's a day. Overall there have been about 120,000 to edit. At the time I didn't realise what a large project this would end up being, and how time consuming. However, i am learning along the line so it seems worth while.

Artefact 3 - Smell

In this weeks artefact I am aiming to discover what effect the sense of smell has when inlcuded with watching given texts. The two texts are: a Hovis advert and a film trailer for the film Chocolat.

I want to find out is whether the sense of smell can sway a persons view of the piece of text chosen. The two texts are:

Hovis Advert


Chocolat Trailer


This will be important for research in Interaction Design, to justify whether interaction is becoming a common language that can be shared all over the world because the senses do not involve the spoken language but operate on a more emotional level.

Serpentine Gallery Construction

Multimedia Exhibition Ideas

amalgamate |əˈmalgəˌmāt|
verb

combine or unite to form one organization or structure : [ trans. ] he amalgamated his company with another. | [ intrans. ] numerous small railroad companies amalgamated | [as adj. ] ( amalgamated) his true genius lies in synthesis, in an amalgamated vision.

Chemistry [ trans. ] alloy (a metal) with mercury : [as adj. ] ( amalgamated) amalgamated zinc.

ORIGIN early 17th cent.: from medieval Latin amalgamat- ‘formed into a soft mass,’ from the verb amalgamare, from amalgama (see amalgam).

6D Cinema

Adlabs has produced India’s first multi-sensory cinema which consists of 3D images, and simultaneous experience of smell sound touch and motion, and interaction with the characters.

The only sense not included is taste. However, it would be simple to make this a 7D cinematic experience. The film is a 30 minute piece about the evolution of India, so to include taste there could be a range of Indian food to be tasted throughout the film. Like in Noel Coward's adaptation of Brief Encounters, when the characters ate cucumber sandwiches, so did the audience.

Artefact 2: Taste

The main aims of the artefact is to discover:

• Can taste be used as a sense to enhance user experiences to create a multi sensory interaction design?

• Is taste about personal preference to be tested by an electronic tongue?

• Does taste trigger memories, like the sense of touch?

• To discover whether it is too soon to be considering this as a form of interaction as there is not yet an existing device which uses this sense

The artefact consisted of 6 bowls filled with food that the taste buds are sensitive to:

• Salt (Doritos)
• Sugar (Lychee, Poppets)
• Sour (Lemon)
• Bitter (Vinegar)

The participants were blindfolded and asked to taste and were interviewed and filmed.

When asked if they would like to try before they buy via interaction, i.e mobile phone half said they would like to, half wouldn’t.

Three quarters of the participants would also not trust an electronic tongue to be involved in taste testing e.g for wine or a new flavour crisp. They would want human testing because a machine could not test personal preference.

When the food was placed on a different part of the tongue the flavours were much more enhanced. Lemon juice was much more bearable and sweeter at the tip of the tongue rather than at the back.

Personal taste was the main difference in all the experiments.

Culture made the participants trigger more memories about seasons, and experiences.

Fussy eaters were more likely to like the idea of trying the taste of something new via their mobile phones (if this technology were to become available)More traditional thinkers would not like this change as taste is personal and they would not be sure their phone would be always clean.

Artefact 2 Research: Taste: Electronic Tongue

For years scientists have been developing a way to enhance user interaction by creating a multisensory experience.

The electronic tongue is one development that could have the potential to change the world in which we live in now. The tongue is being tested to have the ability to taste and analyse:

- liquid food
- beverages
- brews, analysis of homogenates (flesh food, fruits, vegetables)
- analysis of vegetable and olive oils.
- Raw materials, intermediates, final products, taste substances, food additives.



The tongue is also being tested to have basic human perception of taste such as salty, sweet, bitter, sour and umani, and even mimic the movements of the mouth.

With this new chemical technology...what is next, tasting the menu before you order via your mobile phone?

I aim to test in my artefact whether this is something which people could actually get used to doing this? Is there a need to taste before you buy? Is taste really that important of a sense to use during interaction? and finally how could taste be crossed between cultures, is there a cultural divide between tastes and how would this adapt in technology?

John Baldessari: Painting a room

Here is a link to a timelapse piece made in 1971.
http://www.ubu.com/film/baldessari_colorful.html

Artefact 1: Touch

The first artefact is an experiment investigating the sense of touch through interaction with objects and textures.

The participant was blindfolded to eliminate of the sense of vision, taste and smell. The purpose was to discover whether the participants’ individual experience or cultural background affects the response to an object.

The objects used are based around the factors that formulate the sense of touch:
- Pressure (Flour, Kitchen Foil, Peeled Grapes)
- Pain (Lasagne sheets broken up)
- Temperature (Hot Water, Cold Flannel)
- Individual Experience (Grass, Hair)

The results showed that the object initially intimidated the participants because they could not see it. This triggered uncomfortable reactions and an initial dislike for the object followed by a warmed reaction to the object, and then memories were triggered. The cultural differences were apparent with the German participant, as he was calm, logical and methodical although did not reveal as many childhood memories but more intimate, personal memories.

Most of the memories triggered were from childhood as young as 5 and were connected to the grass, foil and the broken lasagne. Many of the participants described similar memories of school playing fields in primary school and packed lunches. The German participant compared these textures to seasons rather than childhood memories; although this may be that he is much older than the other participants.

The experiment was successful in showing the individual reactions to object although it often triggered similar memories, therefore suggesting that there is a common form of interaction with an object.

If I were to do this again I would limit the participants’ sense of hearing more, so that they do not guess through sounds. Although on the other hand this did help participants trigger memories.

The next artefact will investigate the sense of taste.

Client Project Editing Research

This film records the process of dismantling an exhibition. There a a few camera angles and the film cuts between the three. The time stamp is kept on the film. There is one frame every 20 seconds, this is particularly quick. The process is not covered for long and there is not much progress in the film. However, in my filming there is much more detail, although this means the film will be much much longer than this. I will need to experiment with different timing for the clips in my film and concentrate on the soundtrack used. This one is a fast drum and bass beat which is simple and effecting, creating a sense of adrenaline whilst watching the film.

New Art Exchange Exhibition Opening

Here is the New Art Exchange where my time-lapse filming has been taking place.

The project so far has run smoothly, with only problems being with the capturing and the age of the old laptops using for the capture. I originally started with two web cams attached to two old laptops with views from different perspective. At the end of the filming i ended up with one webcam, and one stand alone .avi web cam with a wide angle view.


This is the view which will be seen in the webcam. Most of the footage is from this angle.


This is the webcam on the window sill in the NAE. This view manages to capture the whole space of the gallery with the light behind the webcam to get a good quality image.



This is me filming the opening event for the exhibition 'Floating Coffins' by Zineb Sedira which the web cam footage has been leading up to. This extra footage captures the public flooding into the exhibition.

The filming went well, although I didn't manage to record a soundtrack for the film as there was a DJ that would have been playing songs which i would not have the rights too use in my film. I will search local bands to record for a soundtrack.

Hort

I came across Hort a German design company a few years ago when reading the creative review. it is interesting to see how they have developed over the years as I stumbled across them again online. They are a real inspiration to me, as i was always interested in making live visuals for bands as they were performing live. Hort have made visualisations that look amazing, and suit the style of the music perfectly. They also set up two day workshops for people of all design disciplines in which they teach a different way of learning, with no computers allowed!

Cildo Meireles @ Tate Modern, January 2009

Last week I went to the last day of the Cildo Meireles Exhibition. It struck me the amount of ideas i managed to come away with from this exhibition. It was very different to the usually gallery exhibitions due to the large scale installations and the opportunity for the visitors to actually interact with the installations and make their own mark on Meireles' work.

Through (1983-9)

This installation was the the largest of all and consisted of a glass floor, a range of netting and curtains, fish tanks and a large cellophane ball. The visitors were led onto the installation from each corner. As the first step was taken, the glass from underneath shattered, creating a huge sense of danger and foreboding whilst navigating through the maze of curtains. The sensation was quite difficult to come to terms with, as all the visitors were watching their step very closely to make sure they did not fall and cut themselves on the glass. Many questions were running through my head about health and safety but I tried to ignore this and concentrate on the installation.

The installation was set out like a maze and all the walls were transparent, such as the shower curtains, wire netting and fish tanks. This made it possible to see the centre of the maze which was a massive ball of cellophane.

It is the sense of touch that I was interested in this installation, and how the sense of touch can affect the emotions felt when seeing. The cellophane ball was threatening because my feet were on the broken glass, it felt as if it was leading to something much more dangerous than cellophane. Meireless suggests that these feelings and emotions are created in childhood when we are told that glass is dangerous, and therefore triggers these emotions.




Volatile (1980-94)

This installation consisted of one large room, separated into two sections, a floor filled with talcum powder and the slight scent of gas. As instructed, people were advised to take their shoes and socks off beforehand. After one step in the talcum powder the sensation of the talcum powder running through your toes is truly sensational. The first section of the room is dived off from the main room and is extremely dim, so the focus really is on the sensation of touch in your feet. when you walk through to the next section there is a candle lit in the talcum powder. Then suddenly, the smell of gas hits you and you are forced to feel a sense of emergency and terror, that this room could potentially set on fire.

Cildo's attempt for this installation was to associate 'sensation and emotion, producing an almost instantaneous link. It also navigates through this region of fear...This is beauty which also points at this insignificance of being'.

For me, i was thinking about the installation and the reaction of people in the gallery. this installation was special because the visitors were able to interact with the artwork, and feel the work through the senses, rather than just a mental observation. The senses used were mostly touch, smell and to see. Emotions then also became involved, as some people in the installation commented that it was reminiscent of the Jews in the concentration camps during the Holocaust.

It is emotional links that i would like to make in my first Artefact Experiment, to see what triggers these kind of reactions and how I can make these happen through eliminating other senses and just including the sense of touch.



Missions (How To Build Cathederals), 1987

This installation has an interesting concept and involved the sense of vision and touch. It was was built for Brazilian artists as a memorial for the times between 1610 and 1767 when the seven mission settlements were used to convert the native people of Argentina and South Brazil to Christianity.

There are 2,000 bones attached to the ceiling and 600,000s coins on the floor, and joining the two elements are 800 communion wafers. The reason behind this is because the missionaries hoped they could offer the Holy Communion to eradicate the cannibalism that was present at the time.

In terms of my artefacts this could be useful for the concept. However this is not relevant to my first artefact, but may be later on when I have my results.



Fontes (1992/2008)

This installation was made with 6,000 rulers, 1,000 clocks, and 500,000 vinyl numbers.

When you first step into the installation, there are 6,000 rulers hanging from the ceiling in a parallel spiral pattern, meaning that the visitor is to walk through the rulers to get to the middle. As the middle approaches, the rulers get denser and denser meaning you are almost blinded by the rulers and are just walking without seeing. On the floor are 500,000 vinyl numbers, and the walls surrounding the rulers are covered in 1,000 clocks all ticking to a different time. The soundtrack of ticking clock increases in volume when you reach the middle of the spiral, making time seem much more important, almost making it feel like a race to get back out again. The sensation is quite irritating, because as you keep going round and round it eventually just becomes so full of rulers that you don't even realise how to escape the maze.

Meireles is attempting to literally measure the phenomena of time and space though the clocks and the rulers. The strange this is that the rulers are all measuring a different measurement, as they are connected in a non-numerical order, and the numbers on the clocks are all in the wrong position.