Introduction…
The Scale Electric workshop (19 & 20/07/2010) couples the power of the Atomic Force Microscope to touch the infinitesimally small with the potential of the Full Dome environment to immerse participants in visualisations of the incomprehensibly big.
Throughout the last Century we were reintroduced to the idea of an invisible world. The development of sensing technologies allowed us to sense things in the world that we were unaware of (or maybe things we had just forgotten about?). The Scale Electric - the invisible ‘hertzian’ landscape was made accessible through instruments that could measure, record and broadcast our fears and desires. These instruments endow us with powers that in previous centuries would have been deemed ‘occult’ or ‘magic’.
Our Twenty Fist Century magic instruments mark a dramatic shift from the hegemony of the eye to a reliance on technologies that do our seeing for us - things so big, small or invisible that it takes a leap of faith to believe they are really there. Our view of the ‘real world’ is increasingly understood through images made of data, things that are measured and felt rather than seen. What we know and what we see is not the same thing - if you see what I mean?
Our ability to shift scales, from the smallest thing to the largest thing has been described as the ‘transcalar imaginary. The workshop will enable participants to touch the nano level and then immerse themselves within it through visualisations and sonifications.
Context:
Scale Electric extends a series of collaborative projects orbiting i-DAT’s research agenda. It builds on:
practical workshops to explore the application of novel and innovative technologies to creative practice (http://www.i-dat.org/2006-slidingscale/, http://www.i-dat.org/far-away-so-close/, http://www.i-dat.org/ahobartletti-dat/, etc)
projects with the Immersive Vision Theatre (a 40 seat 9m Full Dome digital projection system) a transdisciplinary instrument for the manifestation of material, immaterial and imaginary worlds - modelling, visualization, sonification and simulation.
research projects such as Arch-OS and Ecoid’s which stream real time data to facilitate insights into complex temporal architectural and ecological systems (http://www.arch-os.com/)
and more recently nano technology projects in collaboration with the Wolfson Nanotechnology Laboratory and John Curtin Gallery, Perth, WA - Art in the age of nanotechnology, 5/02 – 30/04/2010 (http://johncurtingallery.curtin.edu.au/)
Output generated by this workshop will contribute to the Ubiquity Journal Published in 2011 by Intellect. (http://ubiquityjournal.net/, http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/index/).
Scale Electric explores some of the ‘transcalar” (http://www.elumenati.com/products/TInarrative.html) conundrums that are increasingly intruding into our daily consciousness.
Schedule…
Monday 19/07/2010
10.00-10.15: Introductions, Briefing: Location - Babbage 213
10.15-10.30: Presentation 1: Prof Mike Phillips.
10.35-10.50: Presentation 2: Dr Chris Speed.
10.55-11.10: Presentation 3: Prof Genhua Pan.
11.15-11.30: Presentation 4: Pete Carss.
12.00-12.30: Tour of the AFM & IVT
12.30-13.30: Lunch
13.30-14.30: Production Planning: Location - Babbage 213
14.30-17.30: AFM Scanning: Location - The Wolfson Nanotechnology Laboratory,
Tuesday 20/07/2010
10.00-10.30: Briefing: Location Babbage 213
10.30-12.30: Project development AFM & IVT
12.30-13.30: Lunch
13.30-15.30: Project development AFM & IVT
15.30-17.30: IVT Manifestations
Process…
A: Experiencing Atoms:
The first practical session will utilise the AFM in the Wolfson Nanotechnology Laboratory to produce data and images. The materials themselves will be defined during the morning session. Participants will be asked to propose matter and associated narratives for examination.
B: Modelling Experience
Software templates will allow the interpretation and visualisation of the data gathered by the AFM. These visualisations will be hacked, tweaked and ultimately experienced within the Immersive Vision Theatre.
Project Team…
Pete Carss (http://www.i-dat.org/pete-carrs/)
Prof Genhua Pan (http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/gpan)
Prof Mike Phillips (http://www.i-dat.org/mike-phillips/)
Dr Chris Speed (http://fields.eca.ac.uk/?page_id=65)
Supported by…
The Institute of Digital Art & Technology: [http://www.i-dat.org/]
Manifest Research Group
The Wolfson Nanotechnology Laboratory
The Centre for Media Art & Design Research
Ubiquity Journal
Welcome to FULLDOME UK 2010. A celebration of the FullDome experience, we present a day of screenings, presentations, discussions and perhaps some realtime performance. The event takes place at the Immersive Vision Theatre (IVT) based at the University of Plymouth on Saturday 10th July 2010 and runs from mid-day until late evening.
The event is free, but numbers are limited so please let us know your interest via email or by using the online form. We will be updating this site with more information on a regular basis, with more details of the screenings and guest speakers coming shortly – go to:
Remote Sensing: Ecoid Workshop.
The Ecoid Workshop will be delivered by Luis Girao with support from Mike Phillips, Chris Saunders, Pete Carss, Musaab Garghouti.
“Idly, he wondered what these geometric forms really represented - he knew that only a few seconds earlier they had constituted an immediately familiar part of his everyday existence - but however he rearranged them spatially in his mind, or sought their associations, they still remained a random assembly of geometric forms.”
(Ballard, JG)
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i-DAT is developing a range of ‘Operating Systems’ which dynamically manifest data as experience and extend human perception. Arch-OS [www.arch-os.com], an ‘Operating System’ for contemporary architecture (’software for buildings’) was the first i-DAT ‘OS’, developed to manifest the life of a building (currently being installed as the i-500 (www.i-500.org) in Perth Western Australia. More recently S-OS was released (Social Operating System) and follow up with Eco-OS, an ecological operating system.
Eco-OS explores ecologies. Eco-OS further develops the sensor model embedded in the Arch-OS system through the manufacture and distribution of networked environmental sensor devices. Intended as an enhancement of the Arch-OS system Eco-OS provides a new networked architecture for internal and external environments. Networked and location aware data gathered from within an environment can be transmitted within the system or to the Eco-OS server for processing.
Eco-OS.
Eco-OS collects data from an environment through the network of ecoids and provides the public, artists, engineers and scientists with a real time model of the environment. Eco-OS provides a range of networked environmental sensors (ecoids) for rural, urban, work and domestic environments. They extend the concept developed through the Arch-OS and i-500 projects by implementing specific sensors that transmit data to the Operating Systems Core Database. Eco-OS also enables the transmission of data back to the Eco-OS ecoids to support interaction with the environment (such as light shows and the transmission of audio/music in response to the network activity).
Descriptor:
Eco-OS: Eco-OS consists of: the Core database, which collects, stores and makes available data and the sensors - ecoids.
Eco-OS Core Database: is an extension of the established Arch-OS Core database. The Eco-OS Core collects the data transmitted to it by the ecoids. The data is parsed up and published through a range of flexible tools (flash, Max MSP, Processing, Java, etc), feeds (xml, rss) and web 2.0 streams, such as Twitter and Facebook, which allow artists, engineers and scientists to develop visualisations, sonifications (music) and interactive projects. Eco-OS can operate in passive mode, simply collecting data from the environment or interactive mode, feeding back recursively through the environment.
Ecoids: are sensor devices (small pods) that can be distributed through an environment (work place, domestic, urban or rural). The sensors allow environmental data to be collected from the immediate vicinity. The sensors can be connected together through the formation of Wireless Sensor Networks (WNS) that enable the coverage of an extensive territory (several kilometres). Each ecoid has a unique id and its location within a network can be triangulated giving its exact location. Consequently locative content can be tailored to a specific geographical area.
Ecoids consist of programmable (Processing, Java, etc) embedded technologies (Arduino, etc) and network technologies (Zigbee/Xbee, GPRS and Bluetooth). Designed to be attached to objects (architecture, trees, rocks, etc), free form (water-based, balloons, free standing) or as mobile sensors. They can be powered or draw power from the environment (solar).
Ecoids can also be used to produce content be receiving instructions from Eco-OS. Distributed performance can then be orchestrated across a large territory through light displays or acoustic renditions.
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Timetable:
SMB302 is free from 11.00 to 17.00 on Friday 22nd, smb302 is free again on Monday 25th from 09.00 until 13.00 and SMB 303A if free on Tuesday from 09.00 until 17.00 hrs.
Friday 22/01/2010:
11.00 - 17.00: Introduction and Hardware Workshop. Smeaton 302.
Saturday 23/01/2010:
Team design work.
Monday 25/01/2010:
09.00-13.00 Further Hardware development. Smeaton 302
09.00-17.00 Software tools and packaging design. Software Babbage 213/221
Tuesday 26/01/2010:
Software and visualisation
Smeaton302 is available all day.
Wednesday: 27/01/2010
10-12. Final production and cleaning up. Babbage213
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Teams:
Teams will consist of 4-5 people. A mix of hardware, software, visualisation and product design skills is encouraged. Ideally PhD, Masters, MPT and DAT students should constitute these teams.
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Construction: The Smeaton labs will support the electronics development.
Kits consist of: Xbee Pro, Sensors (Humidity Sensor, Light Sensor, Temperature Sensor, Stretch sensor), Batteries, and connectors.
Please bring your laptops to allow better connectivity with the systems (University ports/restrictions etc can cause problems).
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Software/plugins:
Xbee interface, php, Processing, Java, Flesh, VVVV, Quartz Composer, www.nodebox.net
http://www.arch-os.com/downloads.html
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Construction: electronics workshop developing the xbee hardware systems.
Interface: connecting the xbee to a PC.
Network: Mesh network of xbee ecoids.
Broadcast: xml feeds from the xbee network to the internet.
Visualisation: generatibg visualisations from the xbee feed.
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Tools:
Mobile: rss feeds, java apps, pachube for iPhone.
Dome: 3D Studio max, Blender, Unity 3D, Quartz Composer (and audio).
GreenScreen. Greenscreen templates.
Web: Pachube.com, etc…
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Collaborators:
These individuals and organisations will be building on this Far Away So Close workshop. There are of opportunities for involvement in these collaborations if you would like to taker this work further.
1: Dr Chris Speed: Edinburgh College of Art: http://ubiquityjournal.net/
Check out the PHYLOGENY WORKSHOP. SAT 20 - SUN 21 FEB 2010
2: Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World. www.ccanw.co.uk
3: North Devon Biosphere Reserve. http://www.northdevonbiosphere.org.uk/
4: James Moore. University College Falmouth. http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/
5: Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, Nagoya, Japan. And festival: http://setouchi-artfest.jp/
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Arch-OS - VILLAGE SCREEN @ The Glastonbury Festival Big Screens
Aqeel Akbar, Immersive Media Assistant at the Immersive Vision Theatre was selected to join the team of seven artists working on site at the festival. The dynamic visualisations shown on the screen included the Quartz Composer real time Arch-OS data visualization developed in the i-DAT/AHO/Bartlett workshop.
“The Village Screen project was a unique collaboration led by the region’s 2012 Creative Programmer, Glastonbury Festival, Team South West and Relays (Legacy Trust UK programme), and including the UK’s network of Creative Programmers, screen agencies and the BBC’s Live Sites team, brings the Village Screen to Glastonbury for the first time this year. The screens will be used to showcase the work of some of the best new filmmaking talent, digital artists, VJs and games developers from the region and the UK.
The 25m2 screens (there are two of them, back- to- back) will broadcast a mix of short films, archive footage, gaming sessions, classic pop and highlights of the BBC’s coverage of the Festival from 10.00am to 3.00am every day.
Village Screen was coordinated by Richard Crowe, London 2012 Creative Programmer.
e: richard.crowe@london2012.com
AHO+BARTLETT= i-DAT: A trans-disciplinary research workshop on Arch-OS
25th - 27th February 2009
A trans-disciplinary research workshop on Arch-OS: Architectural ecologies: from aesthetics to behaviour, an interdisciplinary approach to affecting the relationships and interactions between inhabitants and their architectural environment. With:
Advanced Architectural Design, AHO Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Norway: http://www.aho.no/en/
&
A.V.A.T.A.R, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, UK: http://www.avatarlondon.org/
Workshop details: AHO+BARTLETT=i-DAT.pdf
This workshop will experiment with and forecast potential future use, impact and value of using ‘data’ generated by a building and its inhabitants, to recursively influence behaviour, creating a symbiotic ecology with a potential greater environmental awareness. Through an interdisciplinary approach it will encourage the development of an organic list of solutions or potential methodologies for building design based on the study of the main factors: behaviour, data and interaction. The resultant hybrid construct has the potential to expand and evolve our physical and conceptual space, and behaviours and interaction within these.
Fallout Boys and Cannon Girls
Workshops for young people aged 13 - 16.
Plymouth Arts Center, Saturday’s 27 September, 4 October & 11 October 11am - 4pm.
Free
Join artist and writer Mark Greenwood, working in association with i-DAT and Plymouth Arts Centre, for three days of creativity linked to the exhibition Kings Island by Tom Dale. During these workshops participants will be using writing, sculpture and objects, as Mark leads an investigation into local myths, monuments and celebrities. The resulting work that will be exhibited during the Plymouth Respect Festival on i-DAT’s 10m x 5m low resolution Urban Screen.
Advanced booking is essential and you can book for one or both workshops.
Contact Plymouth Arts Centre on: 01752 206 114 or info@plymouthartscentre.org
Artist’s Statement:
Mark Greenwood is a performance artist/ writer originally from Newcastle but now based in Plymouth. He has presented work across the U.K, Europe and the United States over the last ten years. Utilising indefinite durational practice as an art form, Greenwood’s interests lie in writing as a socio-physiological practice and the interrelations between gender, memory, cultural location and identity. Parallel to the generation of poetic texts through experimental procedures that seek to subvert and resist the structures of hegemonic discourse, Greenwood incorporates the ideology of gambling and chance in his current work.
As well as collaborating with London artist Liam Yeates through the medium of film and video, Mark regularly curates the Red Ape Language Project at Plymouth Arts Centre and contributes writing for a number of on-line art journals including AN Interface, Writing from Live Art and Total Theatre. He recently completed an MA in Performance Writing at Dartington College of Arts and is currently researching a doctorate in Fine Art at Kingston University in London.
March 25th-28th 2008. The 3rd European workshop and conference in immersive cinema will be held in and around the University of Plymouth’s newly developed immersive vision theatre. The conference organisers have invited key-note speakers on the topics why dome? how dome? and what dome? and invite further contributions on each of these topics from the dome community. We welcome lectures or less formal presentations, as well as demonstrations or workshops in the immersive theatre and other domed environments. http://elcetl.org/conference/
i-DAT has developed a programme of digital media workshops for Children and young people through an ongoing collaboration with Creative Partnerships, AimHigher and numerous schools and community organisations. i-DAT is currently engaged with the delivery of Widening Participation workshops (over 1000 participants over the last 2 years) for AimHigher and several research and networking projects for Creative Partnerships (Infinite Infants, aimed art reception level play environments, and Projecting Plymouth online resource for young peoples creative production projects). Many of the viral technology projects, such as the v-mOb workshops are also targeted at engaging young people in creative production through a range of new and domestic technologies.
It’s about creating imaginary worlds that have a special relationship to
reality - worlds in which we can extend, amplify, and enrich our own
capacities to think, feel, and act.”
(Laurel B, 1993, Computers as Theatre Brenda Laurel, Addison-Wesley)
The current series of workshops actively involves young people in playful engagement with the production and publication of their own mobile music videos. The workshop takes the aspirations of Brenda Laurel’s ‘imaginary worlds’ one stage further by providing participants with a mechanism to share their desires across a community of peers. Workshop participants will be able to create dynamic micro-masterpieces by capturing, producing and distributing mini-movies.
The workshop explores the creative potential of the worlds most ubiquitous communications system: the Internet. As well as being a resource of near infinite information, it is also a mechanism for communicating ideas and distributing them to a potentially massive audience.
Having said this, the workshop is essentially about having fun with computers, probably the most simple and effective way of learning about these complex technologies.
Check out videodat on You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=videodat&search_type=&aq=f
The main part of the session will take place in the University of Plymouths Digital Media Studios. Here the music videos will be created on, and for mobile phones. The workshop is completed by a session will then take place in the Immersive Vision Theatre. Participants will get a chance to experience its cutting edge surround sound system accompanied by immersive generative visualisations, whilst being given an understanding of the origins of fulldome environments – from domed architectures, planetariums, multi-projector film environments, flight simulation and virtual reality.
Driving the workshops forward is a bunch of dedicated student ambassadors from the BA/BSc Digital Art & Technology course. Drawn from across all years of the programme the team bring a range of contemporary experiences to the workshop participants.
NB: Workshop participants are encouraged to bring their mobile phones (especially Bluetooth enabled camera phones) as well as a CD or MP3 of a music track they like to the sessions.
SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) / Rapid-prototyping workshop & Looking into the Eye of God seminar. The Bartlett School of Architecture, i-DAT, m-DAT, nascent-research, trans-techresearch. Sliding Scale (13-15/12/06 to 19/01/07) presents a view of our relationship with the peculiar landscapes of digital technology as an ‘ecology’. In exploring these landscapes we navigate through a territory that is disturbed, moist, blurred and vacillating. We are forced to focus on the ‘relationships between’ where process replaces product in importance, just as systems supersede structure. The tools that form these landscapes are harbinger’s for a meaningful ecological (both machinic and natural) audit of specific sites and processes. They demand the development of new strategies and protocols for their users (designers, engineers, architects and artists) and require that the sites, agents, provocateurs, disparate observers and drifters that consume and influence their output critically engage with them. http://www.nascent-technology.net/SlidingScales.pdf
(15/12/2006) i-DAT & The Bartlett School of Architecture are collaborating on an SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) and Rapid-prototyping workshop to generate an exhibition to be installed in January 2007 at University College London. The workshop and seminar are part of Nascent Research Digital Knitting Practice based research workshop, the Tran-Technology research Seminar series (Looking into the Eye of God) and the Invisible Architectures module for m-DAT. This continuing collaboration with Unit 20 of the Bartlett School of Architecture builds on last years Arch-OS workshop held in the Plymouth Planetarium. http://www.nascent-technology.net/SlidingScales.pdf
