dynamic video

summary of my talk at e32 the other night:
(http://e32.hitart.com/)

started by showing some video footage of live mapping (action painting combined with storytelling) at bronxartspace last month:
(http://eswip.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/life-mapping/)

(http://www.bronxartspace.com/mar2010.php)

in the video stills above, the video projection symbolizes the world. the colored tape represents travel between different places the participants had been, leading to the spot of the piece. the video projection was always changing, so that we never saw quite the same composition repeated. my goal last night was to share how video can be manipulated by a computer in order to create dynamic video montages.

showed a short clip (still above) i had made while experimenting, trying to figure out what i might want the piece to look like. this is a linear (not dynamic) video – it just plays straight through and then repeats. ultimately i wanted the result to be unpredictable, but within parameters (for example, never too dark). this video clip is composed of the same layers used in the completed dynamic video.

where did the video clips to be combined come from? the first few were made at my “uncle’s” “farmhouse” in connecticut.

a camera on the balcony looking down onto the field recorded ruthie and i as we told each other our life stories, walking from place to place in the snow, creating the first maps.

here‘s what that camera saw:

i wanted to show more points in time, so i layered that video, spacing the footage five minutes apart in time, stacked on top of itself:

here‘s a still from the result of that editing:

the next video clip used was an animation i drew. it shows two moving lines connecting all the places ruthie and i had talked about earlier.

i projected that animation onto our earlier maps made with our footprints in the snow:

here‘s what the video camera recording that saw. this is the third video clip the computer combines to compose the dynamic montage.

after deciding to expand the project to include other collaborators, justin agreed to come over.

we had another “blank canvas” to use:

here‘s a snapshot i took while justin and i were making our initial life maps. you can see the video camera in the upper right:

editing that video to show different points in time by stacking layers resulted in the fourth video clip used in the piece, here’s a still:

the fifth video clip is a hand-drawn animation of justin’s map paired with the same map for me done earlier with ruthie::

the sixth video clip is footage of projecting those digitally-animated maps onto the maps we had made with our footprints in the snow.

here are all six videos the computer can use in different combinations to create compositions:

one decision the computer makes is which part of the video to show. here are two stills of the first video playing simultaneously, at different times. the location of elements in each video changes the composition of the image. in the lower-left of each example below, i appear to be entering the frame in one, but leaving in the next; ruthie appears to be following me in the second one. all of the examples i‘m showing are just ten seconds, but some of my work has twenty or fifty or more hours of video the computer can show.

there are different ways the computer can layer different video clips together to form new compositions. one way is by making video clips translucent:

another way to show multiple layers at the same time is by “blending” them. there are many ways to do this; here’s an example (“overlay”). the differences between some blending modes are subtle.

the differences between some blending modes are subtle, others less so. here are the six i decided the computer could use in life mapping:

the final piece uses three layers. the computer can decide which video to show on each later (and keep changing them).

the computer will keep choosing (and changing) blending modes for the top two layers.

the computer will also keep adjusting the translucency of the top two layers.

and that’s everything the computer is doing to make the ever-changing video used in life mapping. it will select which of six videos to show on three different layers, at random points in time, at random translucencies, in any of six blending methods.

the result of delegating those decisions to the computer means that the result is always a little bit unanticipated. within a predetermined structure, there’s room for unpredictability. i don’t like to know the ending when i‘m reading a novel or watching a film, and i don’t want to know exactly what i‘m going to see in my own art either. working with collaborators and computers is one way for me to keep finding surprises.

technique discovery

if your fingers cramp up, holding the brush like this can help.

cone-viewing walk dvd (aai benefit saturday 4/17)

today (saturday 17 april 2010) at 12 noon i'll donate a one-of-a-kind dvd to aai at cuchifritos. details:

http://aai-nyc.org/Benefits/worksonpaper/worksonpaper2010.html

opening: saturday 17 april 2010

12pm-7pm

exhibition will be open

monday 19 april 2010 through saturday 24 april 2010

from 12pm-7pm

at cuchifritos gallery/project space

inside essex market, nyc

my work:

http://eriksanner.com/random/2010/aai_benefit/aai_cone_walk_100415.pdf

somebody will get a single-edition dvd, a piece of paper explaining the project (printout of the pdf linked above), and a limited-edition pamphlet.

"cone-viewing walk between cuchifritos and dorkbot"

on wednesday evening, april 7th 2010, i walked from the canal street subway station to cuchifritos. from there i walked to dorkbot at location one. i took pictures the entire way. i was looking for traffic cones. whenever i saw a traffic cone, i would slow down, and take several pictures of it, before resuming my journey.

i walked for a little over an hour. i took 771 pictures. in my studio, i made a video showing all of those pictures one after the other at different speeds. the video lasts eighteen minutes. i burned the video onto a dvd.

whoever buys it will get the only copy, and there will never be another.

show-and-tell tuesday 4/20

talking a little bit about what the dynamic video aspect of lifemapping represents and how it functions. hope you can make it.

it's still. it moves. 6

e32 @ 5c cultural center lounge

20 april 2010

6:30ish to 10ish

68 ave c @ 5th st, nyc

http://e32.hitart.com/

http://5cculturalcenter.org/index.html

traffic cone transcending traffic

a traffic cone which is part of a landscape with vehicles driving through it (a traffic cone's natural habitat) is continually painted.  the traffic cone is vibrant, saturated orange, while the rest of the landscape is murky and dim.  the transitory cars are also translucent, making the brevity of their appearance in the scene a counterpoint to the stable constant of the traffic cone.  "traffic cone transcending traffic" is a new media installation in progress, incorporating computer-composited dynamic video which is projected onto a static painting of the scene.

so, how does the traffic cone transcend traffic?  in addition to being a stronger part of the piece due to its vibrant color and central position, it is also visible even when a car passes in between the cone and the viewer - the car becomes invisible where the cone appears.  furthermore, while individual vehicles appear for a mere instant, multiple layers of the traffic cone being painted (memorialized) are shown simultaneously.  the surface onto which the dynamic video is projected is a painting; the traffic cone is painted orange.  the traffic is not painted at all (although the road on which the traffic travels and the barricade and other constant elements of the landscape are).  the traffic cone therefore transcends the traffic by its physical reproduction, by its prominence in the composition, by its ability to make portions of vehicles disappear in order to let it remain visible, by its constant presence in the piece, and by the number of layers it occupies in the projected computer-composited digital video element of the piece.

in a single piece, "traffic cone transcending traffic" explores a few themes which are often on my mind - the nature (and definition) of painting, the evolution of painting, the use of technology in order to expand the dynamic range of color, the concept of painting as a time-based rather than a static medium, and the appreciation of traffic cones as an aesthetic practice.  "traffic cone transcending traffic" is related to "square of cones," "cone time," and "eight views of a traffic cone, eight times removed (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chashama/4132152226/in/set-72157622745970459/)."

videoing of the cone occurred on the 8th and 9th of april, 2010.  painting (and videoing) the cone layers hasn't begun yet, nor have editing and programming.  the final installation will be variable in size and the final painting will be completed on-site when the piece is to be shown.  i will likely create a smaller version in my studio as well.

"traffic cone transcending traffic"

working on a new piece.  will describe another day.  related to "cone time" (http://eswip.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/cone-time/) and "eight views of a traffic cone, eight times removed" (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chashama/4132152226/in/set-72157622745970459/,

http://eriksanner.com/random/2009/how_to_enjoy_traffic_cones/proposals/090824_eight_views.pdf). as much about "place" and "context" as time - brings together many of the things important to me - what painting is, evolution of painting, painting as a time-based medium, and aesthetic appreciation of traffic cones - all in one piece.  excited to have started it.

twenty-five hours of artmaking

current state of the first improvisation (in yellow, blue and orange).  blurry picture taken with my camera phone.  that's an oil painting on canvas (four feet high by five feet wide) on the wall.  below it you can see my palette on a chair, to the right is the laptop showing the photoshop "painting" which is being projected onto the oil painting.  you can't see the projector and video camera, both to the right of the computer.  think the first part of making this improvisation (the oil painting and the photoshop "painting") will be complete in a few days.  editing and programming the digital projected element will probably take a couple of weeks after that.  but i'm getting to the point where i can more or less envision what it's going to look like, at this point it's more about doing the work than figuring out what to do.  there's still some of that, but way less than at the beginning, with the blank canvas and the blank screen.  inevitably becoming less and less of an improvisation the more time i spend working on it.

this feels paradoxical and slightly unnerving - the whole reason i wanted to make improvisations is because i want to explore while i'm painting, i don't want to already know what a piece will look like - but there's no escaping, eventually we know what it is becoming.  the perverse aspect of imagination - the more real it becomes, the more difficult it is to imagine the infite alternatives which do not exist.  the plastic arts born of our minds become the concrete arts of the real world.