Design Development // Interim review 12/12/13

“What''s a crit without a technical glitch?”

Despite the very awkward (walking to another room to fix the) technical fault regarding the video to projector setup during my presentation (!) the day was informative and educational to say the least! 

The design process is again leading to new thoughts and developments, given some expert advice from the 'Usual Suspects' and the two guests speakers from the AA and UCL.

Main questions posed:

Is the framework over engineered? could it be constructed more simply and still enclose an immersive experience? 

What message does the riot information projection convey? can it be refined?

Design Development:

Presentation sheets:

Experiment set-up No: 5:

Framework construction details:

The Video Projection:

                                

           

                Original test reel which was displayed during the presentation (Video: Tina Zacharia)

               Can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L-jbI9Zlh0&feature=youtu.be

Visual feedback loop x Video information projection (Presentation: Tina Zacharia)

Riot glossary: building the narrative (Presentation: Tina Zacharia)

The Crit Panel: left to right: Gabor Stark, Sam McElhinney, Abigail Batchelor (AA), Dr. Sophia Psarra (UCL)
 (photo: Tina Zacharia)

Aiming to capture the essence of human interaction through an ephemeral collection of imagery via a visual feedback loop posed the questions of execution and structural simplification. 

Review Test Setup!!

Setting up the loop today to make sure things run smoothly... fingers crossed!

Photos (Tina Zacharia)

Riot reel "Teaser trailer"

...just a little snippet of what is to come!!

Layering projections

Original Video (Tina Zacharia) also found at:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtysSmMf0C8&feature=youtu.be

Following my prior studies and experimentation with varied materials, the most successful in transmitting light through layers has proven to be the medium gauze linen; excellent in allowing for fluid movement as well as the ability to be pulled taunt. The above video illustrates the diffusion of image projection through the 3 hand made screens.

Designing the projective screen // Material testing

Following the preliminary, one layer experimental studies into clear / translucent materials for surface projection; recording levels of Light permeability, Reflectance, Tactile material quality, results have shown that clear / opaque plastic sheeting material samples were highly reflective which visibly diminished the clarity of the projected image. The stripped samples tested favourably added to the distorted effect but due to their lightweight and thin nature, effective image stabilisation could not be achieved.

A selection of the material samples which were tested together with their results may be found below:

Transparent polyethylene sheeting 

Fine woven cotton scrim 

Mid grade woven cotton scrim 

Interaction with Rough grade cotton scrim 

Rear view through projective surface to wall

Surveillance // Julia Scher

Julia Scher, Recovery Agent (R.A.), 1987

Performance with security and surveillance equipment. One of the first installation presences animating the world of security sales with a mad-cap, jungle-like structure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_r-cA7vMU4

"I originally saw surveillance in terms of looking at landscape, because indeed there was the landscape through the lens or eye of a camera rather than my own eye. I don't, however, agree that space is the battleground. More insidious and less visible to the human eye is identity, created through multiple data bases and hierarchies imposed and created without laws or the knowledge of those being judged. These virtual spaces are far more interesting for me and far more dangerous. At least you can see actual space. Virtual space is another ruse, because our virtual identities have to be created before we can pass through a virtual space. What kinds of hierarchies are going to be employed to keep us in or out of those virtual spaces? I can penetrate those walls without being a physical presence. I'm interested in the extremity of this battleground.

I have always found my best work to be "encounter work" — looking at the phenomenological world one enters. An experiential aesthetic interest. It continues here, in digital, programmable, plastic, and sensory testing areas. I have always thrived in initiating an impossible project (an invisible one, a ridiculous one) here in real new worlds (still smooth, new, and dependent new worlds) where visitors can deal with their own flexible script. It's not museum walk-through alone. It's cramming methodological reiterative tour guides — alongside on-your-own, have-what-you-will poem gardens. . . .

Surveillance space has been a metaphor for controlled space, controlled life. Electronic control devices in their earlier applications were placed at the edge of lived space (you would see the guard at the edge of the building underground, or hidden away). Now as surveillance and security (and kid scrutiny) has become more foregrounded in architecture, television, transportation, etc., its unmasking or its display has been FUN FOR ARCHITECTS.

To unmask (and deconstruct) was a way to criticize, undo, reveal, and be revolutionary. Now, it's part of an aesthetic of exposed foundations, a deconstruction of architecture. No longer on the edge, or behind the camera's hidden-eye security, THE APPARATUS comes out of its shell and acts as a prism and white-hot calculator in space"

Excerpted from "Julia Scher interviewed by Paul D. Miller," Artbyte, October-November 1998, 42-47, and from an email interview with Julia Scher by Bruce Jenkins, Film/Video Curator at the Walker Art Center.


Source: http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/exhibitions/details/espace_scher#ixzz2lhKQeKjw
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Cildo Meireles: Fontes (Fountains/Sources)

…When a work of art kidnaps you for a fraction of a second, it takes you to another time …I realized that, of all the movements that I had studied, conceptual art was the only one that didn’t use any of the things linked to art: inks, brushes, canvases. It could be made from anything. It gave complete freedom. It is the most democratic way to produce art that has come up. That is something that deserves credit.

First person perspective through the maze of rules:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0kxLG1chNU#t=49

Emerging design...update!

'Social Theatre' rig

This immersive, theatrical installation is designed to explore and expand upon the ways in which space can be used to resonate with the human experience. The installation begins to ask if it is possible to exist within a surveillance space. How do we react to such a situation and does it change our perception of space when directly confronted with the surveillance device.

The suspended strips provide for the transitional phase between external space and internal surveillance space; encouraging a polarised encounter between excitement and anxiety. The carefully placed set of strip components allow for a modest level of personal control, the potential for discovery and exploration as well as a sense of precariousness (i.e. danger)

The loop/ video projection creates a series of intersecting occasions between the participant and the set-up which ignites a range of reciprocal / sequential movements. The participant enters and constructs a personal experience; of power and control. The participant’s enters a constantly shifting dialogue; each interaction will in turn have a mutual reaction – video projector output is directly affected by the input and vice versa. Information provided by the video, the loop and the participant is not just passed but mutually constructed.

The use of scaffolding emphasises the designs temporality, providing a platform for social and political exchange / transformation.

Riot Iconography - "Layering the loop"

Coke? Riot icons - feeding visually stimulating imagery within the loop

Researching into how visual stimuli (namely moving textual and flashing imagery) respond the feedback loop, I set up a sample reel in order to test various scenarios, alongside adapted setup (i.e height / angle)

Resultant stills are below:

1/ No Camera rotation

2/ Camera rotation - 90 degrees

  

3/ Projector displacement - 45 degrees

4/ Image manipulation (through player)

Icon Layer stills (Photos: Tina Zacharia)

Hungry? EAT POPCORN

The birth of subliminal advertising as we know it dates to 1957 when a market researcher named James Vicary inserted the words "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coca-Cola" into a movie.

The words appeared for a single frame, allegedly long enough for the subconscious to pick up, but too short for the viewer to be aware of it. The subliminal ads supposedly created an 18.1% increase in Coke sales and a 57.8% increase in popcorn sales.

Vicary's results turned out to be a hoax. But more recent experiments have shown that subliminal messages actually can affect behavior in small ways.

A Harvard study from 1999 employed a similar method to Vicary's -- subjects played a computer game in which a series of words flashed before them for a few thousandths of a second. One set got positive words like "wise," "astute," and "accomplished." The other set got words like "senile," "dependent," and "diseased."

Despite the fact that these words flashed far too quickly to be consciously perceived, those who received positive words exited the room significantly faster than those who got negative words.

However, William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist, prominently spoke out against subliminals when the movie adaptation of his book came under fire for including allegedly subliminal messaging. He said, "There are no subliminal images. If you can see it, it's not subliminal."

So do advertisers consciously choose to include subliminal messages in their ads? Can they harness subliminal power to associate their products with sex and power? If so, does it actually affect a consumer's buying decisions?

http://www.businessinsider.com/subliminal-ads-2011-5