TESTS
Four Focal Points: Upper Thoracic, Lower Thoracic, Center Lumbar, Upper Pelvic
STRAP-ONS
PROJECTION SCULPTURE
Possible idea: Using wire and a semi-transluscent material (e.g. scrim, tulle), I’d like to sculpt the spinal curve so that when the posture is in proper alignment, we see a complete vertical column with no concave or convex distortion. However because the projection will go through the scrim, it’ll still create an otherworldly layering effect.
I) Spinal Vision
By placing cameras facing outward along various nodes on the back vertebrae column, I’d like to offer another sense of posture based on picture composites from the spine’s perspective. This idea was actually inspired by Ms. Keane’s presentation on posture a few weeks ago, which triggered an old fantasy of mine of depicting what plants or trees would see if they could see from every surface area or from all its leaves––except transpose that to the human spine.
The most direct depiction would be to simply depict what the spinal cameras sees at any given point in time. Presumably, where the spine curve is convex, the spine would “see” a greater range and the picture composite would be more spread out, whereas where a spinal curve is concave, the spine would “see” a more focused area and the composite would be more squished together. Initially, the computer posture was what I had in mind in terms of a single curve:
However, as you can see in the range of postures above, as well as the natural vertebrae alignment, there is usually more than one curve in the spine. I will probably focus on the thoracic (4) and lumbar (5) areas, and then make adjustments according to the sensitivity of the camera images.
One of the most interesting aspects, then, is how to depict these curvatures in an interesting and sufficiently familiar way. One possible way is to project the composites onto a white surface whose curves are proportionally matched to the curves of a correctly aligned spine.
II) How would you project spinal vision (in an installation)?
Pieces of You (2010) from Yoon Chung Han on Vimeo
III) Spine Eyes
A) NIKON S1000PJ
B) XACTI
A Series of Walks / A Series of Walks (Displaced) from Nahana Schelling on Vimeo.
C) SPARKFUN CAMERAS + BREAKOUT BOARDS
D) PS3 EYE CAMERA
I am interested in the idea of how a sense of self is dependent on a definition of an “other” and in what ways this definition (of self as opposed to other) poses a barrier to empathy.
In this first foray into different aspects of empathy, I specifically became fascinated with the controversial Milgram and Zimbardo experiments, and the ways in which power dynamics inspired the desire to control others, as well as how those who are controlled can identify more with the authority-power than fellow victims of that power. To be sure, these cases seem extreme, especially with the manipulation of pain and torture, and to this extent, they do not seem applicable to our own daily interactions. Nonetheless, given the ubiquitous evidence of such abuse on various scales (from schoolyard dynamics to slavery to totalitarian regimes, etc, etc) it is worth looking at the ease in these studies at which people became comfortable with torturing others.
With respect to our “Rest of You” class, I wonder if there are any ways of measuring empathy, how we could become conscious of the role of empathy in group dynamics, and if/what technologies make us more empathetic (a few articles on children, technology, and empathy).
11/9/2010 Presentation: A Look At Empathy
I was super excited when Mike Cohen mentioned the Trapcode plug-in that can be used in After Effects. I started playing with the particle systems, coding it to match sound and other drawn movements I’d worked on already. Chris Kairalla and I agreed that these types of plug-ins (like with special effects in Psd and Illustrator) usually feel generic and unprofessional, but I think I was able to tailor it enough to my piece that it actually works ok. So far I’m pretty happy that nearly every still shot I’ve taken from the animated piece has yielded a pleasing result.
1) Scribble
2) Turbulence
There are many obvious benefits of installing bamboo groves in airshaft spaces. These hardy tree weeds are beautiful, they provide excellent air remediation, they grow extremely fast, they can withstand the cold winter, and they can grow up to 75feet. They can also be harvested and used as building material, food, and even water filtration.
Aside from these well-documented benefits which I will describe more in-depth in relation to this airshaft project, I think bamboo holds a lot of promise in other ways that could be implemented in modular ways:
a) Directing Light
Revisiting Solatube’s manipulation of light as well as fiber optic cabling, I wonder if bamboo wouldn’t be a good encasing for piping light.
b) Directing Water
Because of its unique structural properties, bamboo could be used as a way of collecting and directing rain water.
c) Live scaffolding
Bamboo is notoriously strong and is oft used as scaffolding for building construction. I’m really curious to see if it could be used as a living scaffolding on which a light-weight vertical garden can grow.
And did I mention they’re beautiful?
I wanted to start playing with the edges of the Big Screens frame itself, drawing it in and playing with scale, nesting, repetition, and rotations. I think this rectangularity could represent the digital digestion of natural breaths represented by the circle language already developed so that both the circles and rectangles duel/duet in framing each other. In some ways, I’m exploring how the Big Screens frame can be shrunk down into pixel size and then explode outward again into a pixel frame, thereby toying with the fact that content is shown through pixels and framed within the screen.
Frames within frames:
Rotating the frames into a circle:
All these demonstrate tiling and repetition: as if the Big Screens frame were taking snapshots of itself, sometimes rotating the snapshots on a z-axis, shrinking them and then taking more snapshots, ad infinitum.
Combining the frame aesthetic with the circles
Neil has created a digital interpretation of our breath recordings which I thought would be nice to represent as “Big Screen pixels”––i.e. taking the border dimensions of the Big Screen and manipulating them proportionally. I’ve been really inspired by Bach fugues these past few weeks (thanks especially to Matt Ganucheau’s awesome Theory Club presentation) and this digital visualization has definitely influenced my thinking for this project.
Below are some storyboard examples of Big Screen pixels by themselves and in conjunction with the circle breaths. There’s a part of me that feels that introducing the rectangular structure risks the danger of simplifying the concept (now it’s a duality of circle and square) even though visually it might look more complex, but this is an exciting challenge.
EXAMPLE 1:
EXAMPLE 2:
EXAMPLE 3:
EXAMPLE 4:
Below are some examples of existing lighting options that could be customized for airshaft spaces. (Interesting work has been done on solar technology for space exploration and orbital greenhouses.) Incidentally, this post will be updated periodically as I gather more information about installation, maintenance needs, costs, etc.
a)Solar Tracking Mirrors:
Various solar tracking mirrors direct sunlight to a specific target by locating the position of the sun and adjusting mirrors accordingly. One could also build a network using the “master-slave” mirroring system.
Other examples of a heliostat:
b) Fiber Optic Light Cables:
Extremely expensive, fiber optics is nonetheless a worthwhile model to look at for channeling light into dark spaces. The Swedish company, Parans, has developed a way to use fiber optic cables to get natural light into buildings. Again, a bit much for airshaft space, but keeping this on the back burner.
c) Piping Light
Another way of piping light was developed by Solatube, a company that uses highly reflectant material to redirect sunlight into interior spaces. From what I can tell it simply uses reflection and then a lense diffuser to deliver strong and even light. I’ve included this model as a way to think about how to get light into individual apartments to enable indoor gardening, but also as a springboard for considering what sorts of reflectant materials with which we could paint or afix to airshaft walls.
Many of New York City’s apartment buildings offer a unique feature: the airshaft. 
In the shape of a square or “u”, these airshafts were originally made to ensure airflow through apartments buildings, but more often than not, they are dark, stale spaces to open your windows to.
I’m curious how feasible it would be to convert these ubiquitous “dead” spaces into a place for community oriented living systems that could serve multiple uses. This is primarily a research project that will delve into existing technologies, as well as social models, for implementing the principles of permaculture in an urban environment. Beginning with issues of light and water, I’ll be looking at ways to grow things seasonally in NY, as well as how to build communities around the shaft spaces so that it can not only become more like courtyards, but also possibly producing food. I love the idea that eventually, different shafts could be growing different foods or plants that could be exchanged with other shafts…. Crops by Blocks perhaps?
Intro (Example 1.a):
Abstract visuals of waves (Example 3):
Questions:
1) What is the best way to do audio?
2) If live, is it better to do processing, OF?
Neil’s latest sketches in Processing:
http://itp.nyu.edu/~nh724/bigscreens/img/
VISUALIZING HEARTBEATS WITH EMAIL:
I’m keen on the idea of sending heartbeats in emails which would convey a sense of the body a person is inhabiting while writing the email (ok, that sounds funny but there is a disembodiment involved with emails that makes it feel weird to even bring the body back in).
ORIGINAL MOCK-UP
Conceptually, one of the key issues I’m curious about is how much analyze-able information to convey. I’d like to strike a balance between enough accurate data to express a general rhythm, but also enough open-endedness that the recipient can’t know all the time what’s going on. Hence, the decision not to indicate when a person is editing or has taken a break from writing. After running through various trials with a simple Processing sketch, the problem is that the heart beats much faster than the mock-up suggests below.
ROUGH PROCESSING SKETCH
TRIALS 3) IR LED––FINGER PULSE
TRIALS 2) PIEZO–PRESSED TO WRIST
TRIALS 1) PENNYTRODES––GSR & ELECTRODES
Without filter:
With filter & using electrodes:
NEXT STEPS
If, as Berkeley posits, “to be is to be perceived” perhaps an interesting component to understanding the rest of you is perceiving how other beings perceive you.
I’ve been playing around with the idea of enabling plants to vocalize the point at which your touch hurts them. Two materials I’d like to use for their tactile appeal are moss and magnets. I started playing with magnet suspension on strings and I’d like to eventually map the breaking point of the tension caused by your touch matches to the point at which moss gets harmed by your touch.
Here are a few models I’ve been experimenting with (imagine the magnets covered with moss):
Audio-wise, I was thinking about sounds that, um, sound acoustic or “organic” and as people touch too much or too hard, the sound breaks down into a more digital version. I don’t know, I’ll have to play with sounds more to develop a better sense of how to give voice to plants. I’ve also been thinking of instruments such as the theremin and capacitance sensors, as well as flex and stretch sensors.
This is a mock up of what it might look like to get someone’s heartbeats with an email they send you (click on the images). It’s interesting to see that the heartbeats not only remind the reader of the actual life writing the email, but they seem to exist as a ghost narrative of how the email gets written. When did the writer pause? Was he thinking about what to write next, or did he simply get distracted? Was she excited here or did she go back and do some edits? While we could think of ways to disambiguate the narrative, I think leaving these questions unanswered, and thereby the desire for knowledge unfulfilled, helps the reader pay ever more attention to the presence of a life in a way that is connecting rather than as an object subjugated to a reductive understanding.
I played around with different colors and ways of graphing the beats, but the additional information seemed to limit expression rather than enhance it. I do enjoy keeping the beats subtle, somewhat ghostly and suggestive of ink blots.
I’m in the process of throwing together a sketch that takes your heartbeat input and maps it out with your keystrokes while you’re writing on the sketch.