Interactive Media with Max - Student Work 2017

Just wanted to pop in and post a video of Golan Levin on TED Talks... He's and artist and engineer who creates these programs that integrates the use of the body and sound to create art. Really cool stuff!!

Hey, I just wanted to say thank you Pat for the training and knowledge you gave us. Especially spending time working out kinks and frustrating technology. I really enjoyed this class. (=

My group, Melaney, Chalanie and Andres, reviewed Camtasia Studio ( http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/ ) as part of our final project. We used the program to capture the output of our webcam windows going through Pd. We had originally tried another program but the webcam feed would freeze as soon as you started recording. When using desktop recording software this is something to watch out for, as if the program is too heavy on memory, processing, and or graphics requirements, it will pause or seriously delay other graphical instances going on. These programs are usually better suited for creating tutorials or such, where smooth movement of either the mouse, typing, or other desktop elements isn't a must. Camtasia studio on the other hand worked perfectly when recording the live webcam feed, even though our patch calls for 6 windows (five for effects) running simultaneously. We also recommend Camtasia as it is very, very easy to use. Once launched, on Windows, this is what the inter

Here's our patch! The class didn't get to see it, but what it basically does is add effects like aging, ascii, motion tracking and kaleidoscope to a .mov of your choosing while outputting and receiving MIDI data to and from Ableton. As our video we chose Animal Collective's My Girls . For blogging purposes we created a short video using Jing to show some of the effects, however the recording didn't capture the effects as fluidly as they actually appear on screen (the cube doesn't really twitch like that!) I had a hard time embedding the video properly so here is the direct link; Jing Recording: Video Sample  Our patch really fun to play around with. If you want to try it just make sure your video is encoded using Photo-JPEG. If you have Quicktime Pro 7 just open the video you want to use then; File> Export> Options> Settings (Under Video)> and set the Compression Type to "Photo - JPEG" This is what it looks like in Pd, a

Vilma here from the Cory-Danny-Vilma team! Below is a recap of our presentation today. Cory using contact juggling as a musical instrument through Pure Data and Ableton: The behind-the-scenes PD patch: And here's what's going on in Ableton:

Hi, Francesca here again. The one problem I had with NodeBox was that unlike puredata, Isadora, or any of the VJing software I have come across is that I was not sure what to do with the images you create. Also, their are not as many people working with NodeBox compared to something like Processing which has a huge community of support. Still, on the NodeBox website I found some really cool ideas which were powered by NodeBox and I thought our class might like them. The first one I saw that was really interesting is called Prism .  The colors algorithm (workname Prism ) matches a color palette to any given subject. It retrieves colors for apple (which would result in soft greens, yellows and reds) with the same ease as retrieving colors for jealousy (which would result in bright yellows and sickly greens). Because Prism is a computer program, it makes no difference between both concepts: the two of them are just words it runs through its filters. It doesn't even understan

Hello! Francesca from the Alexa, Francesca, and Marsha group here. I decided to take on looking at other graphics applications and languages because I had previously For this class I investigated NodeBox . Nodebox is interesting because it renders graphics and animation in Python . I'm not someone who knows very much about computer programming languages but I had at least heard of Python and knew that it was a widely used language. The way you create in NodeBox is interesting. The image on the left is from the first version of NodeBox. You can see the code on the right and the resulting image on the left. The code is pure Python. It's actually really fun and easy to get it to make shapes and colors. I could see this program being taught to give people with no programming experience a taste of what programming is. The second version of NodeBox was much better of an experience. This version has four panels on the user interface. It's easier to show a diagram so one I

Hey everyone, Danny here. At Pat's suggestion I decided to dual-boot linux on my laptop to help with Pure Data. I've always heard good things about Linux, but also that it can be difficult for new users. The Ubuntu website made things incredibly simple through a .exe installer that did all of the work for me. Once this was set up I did run into some problems where my wireless card and sound card were not properly supported. With some help from Antoine (thanks again!) I was able to get the drivers I needed. Although over my head at the time, the wide variety of options you had through the command console was pretty amazing. It did take a little while to get used to the Linux interface, having been so accustomed to the windows desktop. However, there were some things that I instantly fell in love with. The Ubuntu Software center was the easiest way to get new programs that I've ever seen. Rather than having to search on the internet for new programs and applications, I coul

According to UF: DIG 2931C – Section 79999 – Digital Media Studio – (undergrad) – Exam 13D DIG 6931C – Section 8001 – Digital Media Studio – (grad) – Exam 13 D Exam Group 13 D meets 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday Dec. 13.

I visited DJ Spooky's website as Professor Pagano is teaching next semester's audio class and recommends a book by him (Sound Unboand). The DJ's site utilizes several avenues of multimedia information: streaming audio clips, phone QR codes, and applications for your ipod that you can buy and use to remix his works with. His dissemination of info on the site is quite innovative and he seems to be a great model for successfully getting his message out. His music is alright too...

Hey guys here is that creativity video I made for one of my classes I was telling you all about today. You can check out all of my videos at... http://vimeo.com/user4135491/videos Heads up: This video was made to show what I got out of my grad class... several references in the video were to "dead poets society" and on a technology article on how to recreate the wallet (essentially trying to get someone to think outside of the box)... Creativity Portfolio from Tim Difato on Vimeo .

How to use Google Translate (German to German) to make a beat box. http://techcrunch.com/2010/11/29/google-beatbox/

A little dance for all to enjoy Dancers: Josh Stansbury Kendra Hamann Emily Pozek Olivia Ruggieri FEATURING: Pat Pagano ENJOY

Hello Everyone, I found the link to this site when I was searching on info for motion tracking in Pure Data. It's student projects from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design's Interaction Design course for Spring 2010. There is a description of each Pd patch and a zip file with the source files. Most of the projects look pretty interesting, though it seems the students had all semester to create the work... http://www.ecuad.ca/~lpaul/FinalProjects/DIVA202.htm

We will be working together for our final project!! We will be exploring and collaborating with specific displays from PD (such as the groovy choice). We really enjoyed playing with the features with petes pluggins and have a few we want to work with. We will be working with motion capture and creating movement that plays off of the noise made on ableton through midi. For an additional software study we will look at Module 8. We will create a movement based video within the separate effects we have learned throughout this course. whoooooooooooooooooooooo!!! :)

Cory, Danny and I (Vilma) are in a group (what's a good acronym for us? all I can think of is CornyMa, heh) and so far we've figured out how to use mgrid to send midi to Ableton, and we've created a patch that keeps the notes within any scale we choose. Next, we're going to experiment with blog- and color- tracking patches with Cory contact juggling in front of the camera. I'm hoping one of those patches will be better than mgrid for our purposes! We've also been thinking about how to musically jam over any of the pieces that we've created during the first half of the semester, as well as looking into relevant FreeFrame plugins to discuss at our next meeting. Lastly, I've just downloaded Resolume and I'm about to start its tutorials. Hopefully it'll give us some neat ideas for our project!

The O-Bow uses a light sensor to track a bow of a violin and output it to a MIDI device via keyboard to be played. The interesting part is that it actually reacts to velocity of the bow increasing or decreasing the volume as a violin would. http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/22/o-bow-repurposes-a-mouse-sensor-for-artificial-bow-tracking/

I was looking around the interwebs for PD patch ideas and found this. This was built by Media labs at MIT and is basically a video capture 'brush' that is paintable on a projected surface. I can definitely see people building easy patches for this. http://web.media.mit.edu/~kimiko/iobrush/iobrush_quicktime_medium.mov

This is a cool use of compiled youtube videos from different people to make a orchestra that you control. Try it out. http://www.multiurl.com/ga/audiogravity-18th-september-2k9

Molly and Ana here! We finally figured out how to trigger sound through our motion using pdp mgrid! Here is proof: OK. And we also thought of what we wanted to do for our final project. We are going to try to record Ana reciting a poem or monologue, and then use Molly and Elise's movement to trigger various parts of it. Our group is Molly, Elise, and Ana. Elise is going to explore Isadora with the thirty day free trial.

As our final project Christina, Matt and I are going to play around with motion tracking as well as color tracking with pre-recorded video that we either shoot ourselves or get off the internet and incorporate Ableton. More to details to come.

Hello Everyone, Just wanted to let you all know the protocol for getting Pd in Mac OSX to recognize the FreeFrame plugins once they are downloaded from http://www.troikatronix.com/ . Pd > Preferences > Path will open up this dialog box. Navigate to where the dmg files unpacked to (Library/Application Support/FreeFrame). Now Pd should see the files.

Hello all, Julie , Whitney and Melissa here. We will be working together in a trio exploring motion tracking via mgrid while also communicating with Ableton through midi. For an additional software study we are looking into Module8. We plan on presenting through a video captured by manycam and if time permits we might play with some creative editing of the video in a Module8 program or basic imovie. That is all for now <3

Since Pat wants us to include FreeFrame plugins in our final projects, here's how you do it For Macs go to Troikatronix.com/downloads and download the Plugin Installer only. This is what Pat did in class on Windows, so it may be different for Macs.. but hopefully not too different.  Download a plugin, for example "Pete’s plugins" from the freeframe site . Save to desktop or in a folder that you can easily find it. You can then extract the files to the folder that contains PD... if this does not work, just go to PD file-path-new and type in the place where the plugins are saved (i.e. your desktop). You can now create an object in your patch that contains the plugin , such as pix_freeframe PeteBloom    (don't forget the spaces!) Make sure to write the exact name of the plugin as it is named in the folder, or it will not work.  Hope this helps! Melaney and Chalanie P.S. pix_freeframe is used for GEM and  pdp_freeframe is for PDP and PIDIP

We've decided to create a bit of choreography and blob track ourselves in PD with some effects (warhol, mgrid, etc) and add MIDI from Ableton to accompany our choreography! We plan to use PD for the  video and effects (including FreeFrame plugins) and the MIDI control. ManyCam will be recording our video. Ableton will (hopefully) be spewing out our self controlled soundtrack, which we will record as a separate track at the end. By the end of it, we'll throw it all into a separate video editing program to tie it all together Here's our inspiration... get excited!!

This is a not so new 3d modeling program that I used a few years ago and has become more popular with linux users due to its open source and free price tag. It may not have alot of render plug-in like rhino or 3ds max, but it is still very powerful and is a great intro 3d modeling. http://www.xaraxtreme.org/

If anyone wants to try installing ubuntu, here's some tips: The best way to install it is to use the Windows Installer. that can be found here: http://www.ubuntulinux.org/desktop/get-ubuntu/windows-installer Do understand that it will basically split your hard drive for you, which means you'll have a bit less hard drive space. It shouldn't be a problem Once you've got it installed, the best way to get PD is to go into "Applications" up in the left corner. From there, go into "Ubuntu Software Center", and go to "Get Software". Type in "Pure Data" in the search bar in the top left corner. Click on the pure data icon, and as long as you're connected to the internet, it should immediately install Pure Data. Pretty nice, eh? To get MIDI support: Go back into "Ubuntu Software Center", and go into "Get Software". Type in "Jack Control". Click on the "Jack Control" icon. That should gi

So.. We were able to get the Warhol and the luminosity filter to work in our videos. We also learned how to use the m-grid to control midi in Ableton. We are still working to get all of these tasks to occur in the same video. It was definitely a process of trial and error. We had a hard time keeping everything functioning without the program failing but we are learning a lot about the details of constructing patches. We will keep exploring. K, thanks- Olivia and Kendra

Here is an old projection design project I was introduced to about a year ago for a class. Some of the projection devices were revolutionary at the time, but it has caught on with alot of artists and has become more popular.

Chris, Tim, Cornelius and I worked on combining two patches in PD. This is what it came out like!

So here I am, trying to make music (not just noise) by sending midi data from a motion-detecting PD/GEM patch into Ableton. I used "route" to make all the notes be within the c-minor (natural) scale. Check out the below screenshot. Depending on which x-coordinate your camera detects movement in (1-8), it sends a bang to one of the eight note values connected below "route." If you know a bit about music theory, you'll see it's minor because there's two semitones in a whole step, one semitone in a half step, and so forth... The y-coordinate deals with what octave of a c-minor scale. The lowest is C1, which is midi note 12, but since the y-coordinate can't be 0, the lowest note played is actually C2. And whatever the camera detects as the y-coordinate is multiplied by 12 since there are 12 semitones in an octave.

Marsha, Alexa, and I are trying to use blob tracking to create music. We have already figured out how to have two colors tracked by the computer and have that data converted to MIDI. MIDI in PD does not seem to be working for my computer. Our goal is to have two screens- one screen would be our control screen and the other would be what the audience sees with an effect. - Francesca

We forgot to pull up the video at the end so you could see what we were tracking, but I doubt you will regret taking the time to watch this.  Enjoy! Straight Sass (aka Em and Josh)

Is this what you want us to achieve Pat? Seems like something we started to touch base on in class. Hopefully if I master PD I'll be able to combine all the programs and get it to look something like this:

Here's a video of someone controlling a robotic arm using PD and an iPOD.

Here you go pat, heres the code for last class Tim Difato #N canvas 35 156 1184 673 12; #X floatatom 414 85 0 0 0 0 - - -; #X obj 385 134 translate; #X msg 452 86 0 0 1; #X obj 385 44 gemhead; #X msg 501 163 0 1 0; #X obj 385 205 rotate; #X floatatom 403 165 0 0 0 0 - - -; #X obj 212 283 gemhead 1; #X obj 212 321 world_light; #X text 185 21 load in a model file; #X obj 501 37 loadbang; #X obj 33 85 cnv 15 220 70 empty empty empty 20 12 0 14 -195568 -66577 0; #N canvas 0 22 454 304 gemwin 0; #X obj 132 136 gemwin; #X obj 67 89 outlet; #X obj 67 10 inlet; #X obj 67 41 route create; #X msg 67 70 set destroy; #X msg 182 68 set create; #X msg 132 112 create \, 1; #X msg 238 112 destroy; #N canvas 87 154 247 179 Gem.init 0; #X obj 59 26 loadbang; #X msg 118 81 reset; #X obj 118 113 outlet; #X obj 59 45 t b b; #X msg 51 75 lighting 1; #X connect 0 0 3 0; #X connect 1 0 2 0; #X connect 3 0 4 0; #X connect 3 1 1 0; #X connect 4 0 2 0; #X restore 289 80 pd Gem.init; #X connect 2 0 3 0; #X connec

#N canvas 202 107 1228 617 12; #X floatatom 414 85 0 0 0 0 - - -; #X obj 385 134 translate; #X msg 452 86 0 0 1; #X obj 385 44 gemhead; #X msg 501 163 0 1 0; #X obj 385 205 rotate; #X floatatom 403 165 0 0 0 0 - - -; #X text 185 21 load in a model file; #X obj 501 37 loadbang; #X obj 33 85 cnv 15 220 70 empty empty empty 20 12 0 14 -195568 -66577 0; #N canvas 0 22 454 304 gemwin 0; #X obj 132 136 gemwin; #X obj 67 89 outlet; #X obj 67 10 inlet; #X obj 67 41 route create; #X msg 67 70 set destroy; #X msg 182 68 set create; #X msg 132 112 create \, 1; #X msg 238 112 destroy; #N canvas 87 154 247 179 Gem.init 0; #X obj 59 26 loadbang; #X msg 118 81 reset; #X obj 118 113 outlet; #X obj 59 45 t b b; #X msg 51 75 lighting 1; #X connect 0 0 3 0; #X connect 1 0 2 0; #X connect 3 0 4 0; #X connect 3 1 1 0; #X connect 4 0 2 0; #X restore 289 80 pd Gem.init; #X connect 2 0 3 0; #X connect 3 0 4 0; #X connect 3 0 6 0; #X connect 3 1 5 0; #X connect 3 1 7 0; #X connect 4 0 1 0; #X connect 5 0 1 0;

Got it!!!!!

After pulling out many hairs, Julie, Melaney, and Chalanie finally got the patch to work. Here it is. Don't forget to give us our extra credit Pat!

The winning code... For A Henderson and Marsha #N canvas 35 156 1184 673 12; #X floatatom 414 85 0 0 0 0 - - -; #X obj 385 134 translate; #X msg 452 86 0 0 1; #X obj 385 44 gemhead; #X msg 501 163 0 1 0; #X obj 385 205 rotate; #X floatatom 403 165 0 0 0 0 - - -; #X obj 212 283 gemhead 1; #X obj 212 321 world_light; #X text 185 21 load in a model file; #X obj 501 37 loadbang; #X obj 33 85 cnv 15 220 70 empty empty empty 20 12 0 14 -195568 -66577 0; #N canvas 0 22 454 304 gemwin 0; #X obj 132 136 gemwin; #X obj 67 89 outlet; #X obj 67 10 inlet; #X obj 67 41 route create; #X msg 67 70 set destroy; #X msg 182 68 set create; #X msg 132 112 create \, 1; #X msg 238 112 destroy; #N canvas 87 154 247 179 Gem.init 0; #X obj 59 26 loadbang; #X msg 118 81 reset; #X obj 118 113 outlet; #X obj 59 45 t b b; #X msg 51 75 lighting 1; #X connect 0 0 3 0; #X connect 1 0 2 0; #X connect 3 0 4 0; #X connect 3 1 1 0; #X connect 4 0 2 0; #X restore 289 80 pd Gem.init; #X connect 2 0 3 0; #X connect 3 0 4 0;

hi this is how you do it :) open gem basic model AND gem video simple video copy the gem simple video and paste it to the model  and disconnect the texture box from the rectangle box (if you don't the video will appear in the background)  then all you have to do is connect the top of rotate to the bottom of texture and thats all bye!

Daniel here, After having countless frustrations with PD in Windows 7, I've finally managed to dual-boot Ubuntu 10. After some problems with the wireless driver, I've got it fully functional. You'll need to download drivers if you have either an ATI or NVIDIA graphics card in your laptop. If it's integrated you may have difficulties. PD is working and I have access to PDP and P.i.D.i.P. It's even more stable than the OS X version!

Hey all, If you are anything like me and you might be a bit confused or just curious to learn more about Pure Data this website I found is amazing and has tons of examples. When you open the page an attachment called PDJoanneumLecture.zip should be at the bottom. Download it for tons of examples. It's not sketchy and it helps a lot. Here is the website: http://grh.mur.at/blog/pd-workshop-joanneum Have fun!

Our Findings: PDP We had to keep putting the message autocreate 1 and attach it to the pdp_glx for the window to open. Is there a reason why we have to do this? Why don’t they already have this on the patch to begin with? We also came across the the message “could not create a grabber channel” many times while trying to play with PD. Why did this happen? Maybe PD was frozen? Overall we learned that PD can be fun and interesting, but a bit temperamental at times (especially if you don’t really know how to use it) Example 1: the video image looks auburn.. . like orange sand. The images are delayed, and it has an embossed effect. It reminded us of sand art. The color was like a burnt sienna. We noticed that if we changed the pdp motion phase, the images kind of create a shadow to the image…sort of like a ghost like wiping (It’s hard to describe these things). We also noticed that changing the rgb from the pdp gradient, it changes the color of the video as well Example 2:  The images

Chalanie and I (Melaney) will be buddying up to investigate all the examples in PDIP (mostly color tracking and such). Couldn't get together earlier in the week (sorry for the late post), but we'll keep you posted!

Josh and I have been working with the color tracker and also some other functions. We tried using Aging_help, this will allow you to create a 'old tv' look and you can change the static levels for the appearance. We attached this patch to the color tracker patch. We also used the dice_help which showed your video image in different size dice. We attached this with the aging. When we first opened the help patches we copy and pasted the pdp_glx to the pdp_ieee1394. We also found it helpful to delete the start and stop buttons and replace them with togle boxes. We also found that where the lines were connected top to bottom/ bottom to top effected how they worked. QUESTION: Every time we made a patch we would have to save and close out of PD and re open it for the video to appear? WHY? How can I fix that? We also looked through the examples- What we learned Ex 1: creates a hazy effect, also if the object or person is still the image is more clear. Ex 2: stacks up the objects

jacqueline and i are trying to play with the mosiac setting on pidip. We couldn't get the little video box to turn on but we turned on the webcam. We them went back to mgrid to try to figure out how to open the box but it still didnt open. We got Josh Stansbury and Melissa Coleman to come and help us try to figure it out. They helped us trouble shoot a few different things. we opened and closed about 6 times and it still didn't work. We tried to work with the autocreate comments but they didn't work either. can anyone help us out?? my webcam is on but the video box wont open-- please. help. us.

http://timdifato.bandcamp.com/track/bush-of-ghost-remix Tim Difato- Bush of Ghosts remix

Whitney and I will be partnering up and working on the mgrid and example 13 references in PD. We will attempt to blob track and export MIDI and play into Ableton. :)

Check out this website and download and extract the files at the bottom. It includes extensive examples and help. :) http://grh.mur.at/blog/pd-workshop-joanneum <3>

Alli Baldwin, Elise Frost, and Melissa Coleman are a group and we have decided to explore motion and sound tracking/ detection. We have been experimenting with the pdp examples as well as pidip via mgrid, and are now beginning to better understand how we will utilize "bangs" as well as multi layered patches within our project. That is all for now <3

Josh Stansbury and I will be working on using PiDiP as a color tracker like listed on the website. More information to come :)

Mary Gatling and I will be working on a color mapper for our homework!!

Yo. Ana Placido and Molly Nichols here. This is our discoveries. Ex 1: in PDP: Video detects movement with dream like effects. Blurred sepia lines unless the object holds still. The level of the pdp_motion_phase effect the delay of the transformation brought on by movement and the brightness and contrast. The higher the number, the more contrast and the slower the delay. Ex 2: The visual representation of reverb. Depicts accurate colors. Lines can be blurred. The shapes, when moved, are followed with the image and stacked on top or the once again still object like a deck of cards. Ex 3: Stan Brakage: Dante’s Quartet. Colors, tempo, texture, motion phase can all be manipulated to produce desired strop like effects. Ex 4: Like example 3 with a zoom and rotation effect. Zooms in to the texture, rotation rotates the image on its axis Ex 5: Creates noise. Can zoom in and out, rotate the image in its axis, blur it, and saturate the color or leave it gray. Ex 6: “Coming to from being

i'm a little late writing about this, but i attended the improv show on thursday night. it was really interesting to see how artists could connect at the same time being so far away. The one i enjoyed the most was pat's work where people could sign on with their phones or on their computers to send in where they were, their name and something they were interested in. it would automatically show up on the screen with a bunch of pictures popping up like if you were to type into google images a word and a bunch of pictures would pop up. last the 4 dancers were avatars in different places. one in gainesville, one in new york, one in japan and one somewhere else i can't remember. it was so cool to see them playing each others instruments on the same screen. we were all saying we wanted to see a clear video at the same time of the actual people doing it so we could see the translation of real life to figure on a screen. we went to the back to watch kristin but she was act

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/11/05/ios-4-2-to-support-midi/ Apples new iOS 4.2 to support all-out midi. Pretty sweet for anyone interested.

To compromise for the bad quality of my phone's camera, this picture to the left is an artsy rendition of the third presentation of the IDMAA 2010 CONNECTING the EDGES: An Inter-Continental LiveVibe presentation. The presentation was called "In the Same Space at the Same Time" and showed how people can use motion-capture and multi-channel video technology to collaborate in the same virtual space even if they're all around the world. Additionally the dancers in the demo played sounds by touching the space above their heads that had sound boxes in the virtual world. They also caused a sparkle reaction when the they occupied the same space at the same time. The first presentation, called "I-M-Age," showed a live improvised interpretation of artistic time periods by a Korean cellist and a dancer/percussionist in Vancouver. If there were any pictures that they were seeing while playing, we couldn't see them on the screens in our classroom. The second present

The colors of this piece remind me of one of my favorite painter's work, Anslem Kiefer. Kiefer does very large scale works and they have this crusty aesthetic to them. Like Brakhage he is using nontraditional materials - his oil paintings sometimes incorporate straw, clay, lead. I saw one that had part of a foldingchair incorporated within it. "Mothlight" is worth looking at a few times. A piece like this would be interesting to score. Brakhage manages to have the piece be reminiscent of fluttering wings and collage. It has a frenzied look about it. Since I am interested in digital audio sampling it is interesting to look at a filmed piece that seems to be a celebration of the fragmented, rather than a traditional narrative.

I went to watch the performance of Connecting the Edges the other night in the Digital Media Studio. I had no idea what I was in for or what the show was going to be like. I actually did not even know we would be watching it on screen while it was happening in Vancouver. When I walked in I was expecting something happening right in front of us. I was excited to find out it was not and excited to watch it in a different way and view than I have before. I really thought this was a very interesting and unique. I had never seen anything performed in this way before. The first performance with the Violin player - I M AGE - This was very cool. All three violinist were amazing and it was very neat how they were playing from different sides of the world. Seeing the man perform in Vancouver and then the other two on the other side of the world was a crazy jump. As the camera would switch on and off to each place it was interesting to see how they played together and what each person w

Thursday November 4 I attend the "On The Edge" where we were able to see in real time 3 live performances. The first was a of a musician in Korea with a dancer in Vancouver. The second was of our very own, Pat using the software that I saw in use at the last Digital Media event with the audience using their smart phones or computers to input information that was then generate onto the screen, while Pat was mixing music. The last piece was really amazing, the technology was so cool. They had four dancers one in Vancouver, New York, Korea, and Gainesville, each moving in real time, but being generate on screen as a colored avatar. Two of the dancers I know and adore personally, so it was especially exciting. The whole evening really was amazing.

I attended the LiveVibeTV broadcast of "Connecting the EDGES" this evening and it was really moving. All of the these edges of the world were brought together to create art in the digital and virtual space. The first piece was interesting with the live music being played from Korea and another person improvising movements and sound from Vancouver. The visuals on the screen behind gave the performance depth and something to focus and link the music to. I thought it was so interesting and summed up by the Emcee when he said "cultural technology". Because even though these artists were around the world, we could still understand their language through sound and art. The second piece was a montage of photos in a "Jam" that Pat organized. This was really cool to have everyone submit their name and interests and have an instant photo show of what would come up on a search engine. It gave a sense of exactness in the community and spontaneity that can be realized

Stan Brakhage's Mothlight is interesting in its disguise. You can not tell what is making the shapes or designs just by watching the video. The movement is extremely quick and shaky. There is not a smooth transition between images. I wonder if the speed and transitions are due to what was available at the time technologically or a choice that Brakhage made. It also seems as though this is almost a silent film, meaning there is no intentional "background" music, however it seams as though the shuffling between images makes a rustling noise. This accompanied with the brown shades makes the film feel very "earthy." As the video continues there are recognizable shapes at times, what looks to be leaf shapes, star shapes, branches, or flower shapes (Though they are made from moth wings). Also the video switches between a lot of negative space and strips of moth wings interchanging with consecutive slides that are completely covered in wing designs.

As a dancer and a film junkie, I am extremely fond of this movie and Maya. She is a creative genius. I appreciate pioneers so much and can truly claim her to be one. I love how she took two arts, film and dance and combined them to create a masterpiece. I can't help but wonder if she had any psilocybin intake to influence this or was this a dream of hers. How she brewed this idea baffles me and I could not find the answer that I was looking for anywhere. I did find websites that wreaked with such art that one can assume of the wonderful times they would share with this artist! Too cool!

While exploring Stan Brakhage and his genius, I grew this odd fascination for insects. With this I really appreciated his strenuous work and showcased it to my friends whom agreed with me on the hectic yet calming effect of the film. Interested in his work, I began to research Brakhage and came across a fellow admirer of his work who had taken still frames of the film. The pictures to the left and the right are taken from his website and are really remarkable to look out. This is what Brakhage used. It is so awesome to look at in a still frame for you are able to depict every detail.

Hello everyone I will be available for about 45 minutes tomorrow for any questions regarding GEM. If you would like to meet with me at 3PM florida/12 noon Vancouver time you will need to SKYPE me. My Skype user name is "shreeswifty", no quotes. Otherwise there is NO CLASS tomorrow. So far i am seeing a bunch of very good posts regarding the Maya DEREN and it looks like VILMA wins the bonus POINTS!! for randomizing the colors. The goal is to make your live video or webcam stream to look like the VERY EYE OF NIGHT footage. I am sure you can do it! Webcams are rather cheap now if you do not have one on your computer. Consider buying one, but do not spend too much money. People who try to skype me will get a bonus point(s) and i can quickly answer questions before i return to my rehearsal. There WILL BE an extra credit opportunity on Thursday @ 7PM At the REVE to view and blog on our performance. So choose what you like either skype me or attend the show on thursday! Patrick

In discussing American avante-garde filmmakers, we were introduced to Stan Brakhage's "Mothlight" and Maya Deren's "Meshes of the Afternoon" and "The Very Eye of Night." Made in 1963, Mothlight is one of Brakhage’s older films. It has hundreds of moth wings, leaves, and other organic debris pressed together between two strips of tape. Brakhage described the film as: “What a moth might see from birth to death if black were white and white were black.” I especially like how starting at 3:03 it looks like a moth crawling across to the right and then crawling back to the left. His 1981 film "The Garden of Earthly Delights," in which paint and plant material goes by at 24 frames per second, is similar. It's interesting how some people use it to enhance their musical performances but others find it insulting to Brakhage to add anything to it at all. Here it is with music added: Even earlier than Brakhage was the creative Ukranian-American M

Hey, I figured out how to get the cube to randomly change color every second. Maybe there's another way too? I "packed" the RGB so that I could get three inputs to hook up to "random" objects. But the random object generates numbers 1-99 instead of numbers from 0 to 1, so I multiplied each by .01. The metronome ("metro") asks for milliseconds, so I inputted 1000 to equal one second, and metro is also connected to "pack" so that it sends the data to "color." Lastly, I inserted the "bang" to start it.

I watched the video "Meshes of the Afternoon" (1943) by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. It reminds me of "M" (1931) by Fritz Lang, but with more of an avante garde angle. I think that's why I liked this film the best of all the ones I watched. It had a storyline with the good old fashioned use of symbolism, but with elements of experimental film making. The effects that the piece utilized are all creative usages of the film itself, or how to work the camera. CGI has made the current movie makers of today a little lax when it comes to creative shot composition or transitions. It also perfectly captures those terrifying moments when you don't know whether you're dreaming or not. Through simple camera tricks like spiraling the frame position or low angle shots, it keeps the feeling of a dream state without bringing in fog and glitter. I also liked that it stayed true to dream logic. Spatial orientation and relationships are skewed, objects change into ot

Stan Brakhage Moth Light video was so interesting to me, first the idea of all the time used to glue each wing for each frame is just amazing. I really liked the idea that he used, and would love to use these images at some point with dance. Maya Deren The Very Eye of the Night, much like Moth Light I really enjoyed the film. The beginning was very interesting, and as the film moved into the dancers, it had my attention the whole time. I think that it is amazing that short films just like this have helped shape the 'digital media' world of dance. Both tutorials that where listed have been very helpful in understanding PD. I really enjoyed the playing with the motion detector, though I think I still need to have a better understanding, I am still finding my self just moving things around and seeing what happens, I do think that this helps.

After watching Mothlight, I noticed that it may have been interesting if Stan Brakhage hadn't named the work "Mothlight"...what if he had named it something totally different? Would images of moths flying across a light source come to my mind as I watched it? I also saw a few interesting images of leaves creating and disappearing before my eyes.  I tried an experiment of turning off all the lights in my room, placing the video on full screen, and playing music along the video. It was an experience; my eyes saw a lot more than the first viewing when I watched it in silence. In Maya Deren's The Very Eye of Night, the dancers almost seem like carboard cut outs that she overlayed over the night sky, but as the dancers began to dance, I began to really question exactly how she created such work in the 50s when advanced technology wasn't around to create such types of video effects. It looks like she used a negative effect on the dancers. I also noticed her choice of

MothLight: After watching the video again, I came to the conclusion that I was not a big fan. Naturally, when I look at pieces of work (art, video, music, etc.) I try and find a theme, message, story,etc. Here I just saw a convoluted sequence of images that had no story to tell or vision. Again this is just my personal opinion, but flashing (what 9 fps, frames per second) of random moth wings illuminated by the camera projection just doesnt do it for me. I understand the artistic value in the time he spend making these by hand and thus I respect that aspect, but just because something is custom and took a long time doesnt mean it is art, or does it? Maybe I'm wrong, but I wasn't convinced by this piece. The Very Eye of Night: Unlike MothLight, I really enjoyed Maya Deren's The Very Eye of Night. First I love the motion, the camera work and the technology for that time. I love the early stage keying of the dancers and placing them in a space back drop. I can't imagine

For this week's lecture on the American Avante Garde, the piece that most interests me is Merce Cunningham and John Cage's 1965 work, Variations V . Looking into the making of the piece, I found that it is truly collaborative: John Cage and David Tudor (an experimental composer and pianist himself who Cage often worked with and composed music for Tudor to perform) devised the musical material, Cunningham directed the choreography, and Stan VanDerBeek and Nam June Paik's manipulated the television images that were projected on screens behind the dancers. Aside from the interdisciplinary nature of the performance, what is most forward thinking, or "avante garde" about the work is the utilization of technology that "interacted" with the dancers. Billy Klüver, Cecil Coker and Witt Wittnebert, devised a system in which photocells and radio antennas were activated by dancer's movements, triggering 10 different tape-recorders and short-wave radios. Cage, Tu

The intricacies of Mothlight stand out to me the most. The fact that it doesn't have sound is very interesting because the images flashing so quickly seem very loud to me. If Stan Brakhage did this with old film and pasted every moth's wings on each strip, then this is true artistry. I think that the beauty lies in the details in this case, because he is demanding that we look at the film so closely. He has created this line of images when strung together are life-like in nature. In The Very Eye of Night , I am brought to a different world. The music with the background seem to give a feeling of otherworldly or extraterrestrial. Even though footage is 2D, the movie has another dimension to it. And when I look at it, I feel as if I am there. The images of the bodies on the screen is very eerie to me. However, when they start moving in patterns, I am brought to a place of more comfort. I feel like I am watching a telescope and a kaleidescope simultaneously. The dancers' face