hi devs,

i’m now sending out values from the ‘breather’ i’ve built. it sends this message:

/rt/state/breather/m n, where

m is the intensity of the breath, and n is the volume of air contained. the latter is to communicate whether the last breath was a breath in or out, but it could be later made to be a characteristic of the breath, ie. short breaths yield less volume.

you can control the behaviour via OSC:

/rt/state/breather/weakness n

and /rt/state/breather/adrenaline n

weakness makes the breath less calm and fluid, adrenaline makes breath faster and shorter.

it relies on msp for some of its parameters, so it’s maybe best run on my machine, but it can be moved to others, since all the IO is via OSC. it’s incorporated into my master pro/rt/snd patch as a subpatch, but if anyone wants to extend it i can make it available as a module in the general repository.

again, my machine is 10.0.0.10, and you’ll have to add yourselves to the udpsends in the [network] subpatch on my machine. also a reminder that my mic intensities are always sending out if you want to experiment.

I’ve simplified the event topology to a bare minimum that still has a chance of flow in two dimensions, and has a beginning, muddle, end. Let’s call it the VISIT4 topology, since it’s got only 4 states: NIGHT, DAY(=DAYDREAM=DESERT), GLASS, FIRESTORM.

We media folks met and talked about the experiential aspect of these states last week. Basically, the room leaves its NIGHT activity as the clock shows it’s Gallery business hours (9 - 19h?).

NIGHT is time for the Gallery to dance (danse macabre, sibelius’ valse triste, hiphop, etc. according to the season) as you like. It would be interesting to suggest autonomous life, autonomous intentionality, locked behind glass.

DAY is when the clock shows Gallery is open for business and there’s a minimal activity in the room. (We can set the threshhold just below one-body’s-worth of activity by calibration under the Gallery’s conditions, or we can use the surveillance camera trained on the receptionist desk to see when someone is near the receptionist area.) It could be interesting to characterize DAY state as when no visitor is there in the Gallery, but it’s open, and showing its dreams. What those “dreams” are is up to the creators to interpret. We did speak about playing back processed, previously recorded material.

As visitors infuse the Gallery, the room gets “wetter” (derives more energy from visitors). As it gets wetter, more weather happens: i.e. the state tends away from DAY and toward the mixture between GLASS - FIRESTORM .

GLASS is viscuous, liquid, continuous. In this state, horizon is distinct from sky: the projections on walls are distinct from projection on the ceiling. The visitor may be able to “write” on the surfaces — only one attractor (that associated with the biggest blob?), permits writing, e.g using a scattering of dust.

FIRESTORM is violent; sparky, atoms in void. Maybe nervous in the sense that the dynamics are quite sensitive to perturbations from sensors. Eg. motion from camera input drives the particles very hard, bc the particles’ masses are low, or attractors’ gravitational masses are high.

In terms of physical configuration, what distinguishes GLASS from FIRESTORM could be how people are positioned and / or moving near the sculptural elements in the room: the Cells, the Sensate Tapestry, possibly the Suitcase in the other, hidden room.

I don’t know what activity should tend to correlate with GLASS & FIRESTORM in the most tangible or compelling way. My first cut guess would be to sense whether people (a person) are gathered close to a (any) sculptural element. For example, people “touching” (within threshhod of our sensors) any part of the Cell structure or Tapestry could send the system into FIRESTORM.

This we’ll have to work out in situ, in vivo, of course.

On 7-Mar-08, at 12:54 AM, gregory rubin wrote:

Dear Xin Wei and JC,

I hope this note finds you both well.

Following today’s conversations with both Josee-Anne and JC, and then meeting with the team here in Winnipeg, I am providing you with an overview of our schedule for Montreal, as well as a list of items and requests regarding space and equipment.

Firstly, Xin Wei, thank you for arranging and offering accommodation. I have asked Candace and Evan to contact you directly. And I will get in touch with Tim and Morgan.

Our arrivals and departure itineraries are as follows:

Gregory: Arrive Saturday, March 8, 12:38 pm, Air Canada 8564. Depart Tuesday, March 18, 8:20 pm, Air Canada 8569
mobile: 4 1 6 5 8 7 8 2 4 0

Evan & Candace: Arrive Sunday, March 9, 12:38 pm, Air Canada 8564. Depart Tuesday, March 18, 1:55 pm, Air Canada 8567

Evan mobile: 2 0 4 2 9 6 3 8 2 7

Candace mobile: 2 0 4 5 1 0 1 6 1 0

Also, these past few days we have been making some cell prototypes, experimenting with water in the cells, as well as preparing pieces for the structure & cell templates. We’ll get photos of the work on the blog in the next day for you to see the progress. We’ll be producing some more prototypes in the next couple of days, and bring the work with us to Montreal.

Work Schedule:

Monday 10

Shopping for supplies - tapes, vinyls, fabric, tubes, etc…
Setting-up the work space and cell presses
Making cell prototypes

Tuesday 11

Producing cells in time for campfire.

Wednesday 12

Mass Producing cells

Thursday 13

Producing cells
Work in Gallery: hanging lines (morning)

Friday 14

Work in Gallery: making PVC tube structure, hanging cells (morning and afternoon)
project review (afternoon/evening)

Saturday 15

Cabane a Sucre!

Sunday 16

Refining the cell

(Producing more cells?)

Monday 17

Refining, (Producing more cells, hanging in the gallery?)

Tuesday 18

Refining, (producing more cells, hanging in the gallery?)

We are bringing to Montreal:

-nichrome wire (and related electronic equipment)
-Teflon tape
-some vinyl
-samples of PVC tubes
-samples of materials (meshes, fabrics, screens for the projections)
-sample cell templates

The bulk quantities of materials (inc. vinyl and PVC tubes) will be purchased in Montreal, after we have arrived. We can do this on Monday the 10th in the morning before we get access to the workshop and start setting up the press stations.

Space and Equipment

JC has confirmed that there is space available in the TML.

-We would like there to be an open space about 10 X 12 feet for laying out the cells, testing configurations. The work stations could be set up around this area.
-Can we get a couple more tables into the lab so that there are a total of three work stations?
-Equipment: drill, jigsaw, a few power bars, extension cords.
-If this amount of space is not available in the TML, would there be an alternative space to work in? It’s best if the work stations and laying-out-area are all in one room.
-JC: please go ahead and cut out the materials for building the cell presses. I can come in either Saturday or Sunday and help with the setup in the TML.

Gallery

I understand that hanging equipment will be available both Thursday and Friday mornings.

-Can we get access to the Gallery throughout Friday to hang cells and the cell structures (we won’t need the hanging equipment for this)?

-Can we get access to the gallery before Thursday to check out the space?

That’s it for now. If there is anything I have missed, or you have any questions, please let me know.

Thank you for your attention. I look forward to meeting you all in Montreal!

Gregory

CC: Josee-Anne, Patrick

See Patrick’s drawings of cells now in the TML Galleries / album “cells” –particularly the suspension side image:

jelly + cell

2_cell

musclecells

nervecell

plant cell

shadow-projection cell

shadow-projection cell

sonic cell

structure_side_image

suspension system

I’ve sketched some ideas on the layout of the main gallery, capturing some of the discussions with Patrick, Harry, JA, Tim…. (Also had conversations with Flower, Lenka, Elena for the blackbox, and Louis-Andre, Elena, Tim, … not represented in these sketches.)

Waiting on other folks.

The idea is to cluster the head-height cells near the corridor side of the space, leaving a scattering of them in the central area. Harry suggested bouncing the ceiling projection from a suspended projector (2m from grid), off of a 2m wide mylar, for effective throw of 6m. JS should confirm with Harry & Patrick+JC whether this would yield enough coverage of image-bearing cells on the ceiling.

Perhaps the Weaving (20′ x 4′ Sensate Tapestry) could be suspended from the ceiling near the entrance to the Gallery. (Marguerite and Elliot can confer with Patrick et.

Currently, I’m assuming that JS projections go onto the walls, eg the Atrium, ceiling, and Mackay walls (if we can fit the Sensate Tapestry parallel to the short wall on the corridor side of the Gallery). Need to confirm this.

Spoke with Harry re. Lightfield. Current idea: one good place to mount the moving beam (light) would be near the grid, about 1m out from the center axis of the Atrium wall. Its beam should have a clear play over the floor, over the bench. It may (or may not) scatter through a few carefully placed, transparent, head-height cells that “trickle” into the main air space.

The other lightfield installatio, along the base of the St. Catherine wall, would work best if that wall is left blank, I think. We could project from a projector suspended from the grid flush with wall, beaming down to a 3.7m wide x 5 cm high image-bearing custom-made screen / reflective surface. The point of that projection is to transmit and transmute (perhaps contrapuntally) the activity from the sidewalk. (We can mount a web-camera atop the St Catherine wall, looking out to the sidewalk, and process it through a simple Jitter patch.)

The main atmosphere effects: I’ve been emailing / talking with JS, Tim, Morgan about the states of the room. Now I have some semantics for the VISIT topology; it can be a fusion of season and weather: spring (EXFOLIATION), summer (verdant), fall (FIRESTORM), winter (GLASS stillness).

Hi Patrick, JC, JS, Harry,Tim,Does the sketch below make sense? There could be two phyla of cells: “cloud” cells near the ceiling, and “head-height” cells. The strato-cells are filled with an image-bearing material (lexan, tracing paper, white chalk dust). The head-height cells are the diverse species of cells as described before.

JC made one cell with lexan embedded into it for JS to test projection. If we project from floor up to cells onto ceiling we should have a lot of coverage. Will the Jitter textures as pictured in JS’ recent Gallery posts work on these ceiling “cloud” cells?The Jitter projected on to the “cloud” cells can be quite distinct from the Jitter projected onto the atrium wall. OR it could be the same field, but with a variation as the one’ eye lifts from the atrium wall to the ceiling. see the attachment of the Sala dei Giganti in thePalazzo Te.During the GLASS state, the atrium wall and the cloud ceiling can show distinct Jitter visuals, but perhaps in the FIRESTORM state,we can achieve a dizzying effect by filling the entire gallery with one continuous field of MeteorShower.As the state evolves from GLASS to FIRESTORM, JS’s instrument(s) can go from sluggish translucent oily slicks, to the fast-streaking (very low inertia) particles that whip around the movements of the visitors. Maximum can show brief flashes of very different structure, such as the needles, but I’d prefer to not use visible planar/linear geometrical shapes unless they can fit into the alchemical. The point is to fuse symbolic and natural orders, rather than “cast” geometrical shapes into matter. (Neo-euclidean form may emerge from material flow, part of which is due to human activity, but neo-euclidean form should not be imprinted by us designers onto matter. I’m not dead set against figurativeness, only that the figurative should come directly out of and dissolve back into the visual material’s idiomatic dynamics. Similarly for sound — but I think for sound this comes for free. What do you think, Tim?

Sala dei Giganti, Palazzo del Te, Mantovahttp://www.palazzote.eu/W3C/w3c_quicktime/set_giganti03iscrizioni.asp

Let’s see if we can agree on a regional spatial configuration of the sculpture + projectors & image-bearing surfaces in the main space by Tuesday morning so Harry can make critical decisions on the design of the lightfield.   We need sufficient lead time to get, build, work with the lighting gear.

This includes coordinating  the placement of projectors (one on floor + one just below grid,  near center vertical axis of left-hand wall?), on what they beam (strato-cells + the atrium wall ?), as well as the placement and visual type of the cells.
I’ve chatted with JC, Harry, JA, Tim, Morgan, Elena this past couple of days.  Soon JS.   I’ll chat with Patrick on the weekend.   I’m leaning toward one cloud at eye-level of mostly transparent cells, plus another denser cloud of image-bearing cells high up across much of the ceiling.   This way Harry’s beam will dapple through the cells when / if they intersect.

And this would simultaneously give a sense of density upon entry to the gallery, yet leave most of the floor space clear in the interior for the projector beams, the light-beam, and most importantly for the visitors to absorb the space.

On 15-Feb-08, at 12:48 PM, Harry Smoak wrote:

I’m here (in the lab) today well, but also won’t be here after 5:30.

What’s the status on the ground plan and location of projections.
Need to know for lighting.

On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 12:41 PM, Timothy Sutton <timsutton@fastmail.fm> wrote:
Hi all,

I’m around this afternoon, but probably won’t be able to still be here
by 5:30. In the meantime, I’m plucking away at learning the basics of
FTM and this concatenated synthesis stuff.

On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 12:34 PM, Prof. Sha Xin Wei
<sha@encs.concordia.ca> wrote:
Hi Morgan, JS,

JS said he has some patches for multiclocks that he’ll give you.

Gentlemen — please  coordinate ASAP to avoid duplicated effort.  I’m
assuming that Morgan if you can supply the clocks by Friday then  this
should strike off of JS’ list,
so JS can focus on creating the Jitter instruments that I and Morgan can
drive,
Hope to see the Jitter wraps at least
by Friday
so we have an API  public layer to code against

When I am free Friday end of the day,  I’d like to  see you guys netsend
some dummy engine params from one Mac (Morgan’s and My Macs)  to another Mac
running a JS patch.

Netsending and Receiving 3 floats (for clocks), and a 4-vector.  Dummy
visuals is OK!  We must get the the plumbing in place. and work outward
from there bc then we can get into roughing in the entire show.

My approach is to sketch the entire 20 day event and work in the
implementation details as we go, depending on the materials and elements (eg
sculpture, soundfield, lightfield)  as they emerge.

Let’s aim  to get some rough overall timing in place by the end of our next
programming session.

State 0 _ EMPTY - NIGHT
State 1 - INSIDE
State 2 - OUTSIDE
State 3 - MOB

Understand that this is just one topology , and that the topology may change
to a 5-state one with very different semantics.

The 5-state dynamics will allow a more meaningful transition from NIGHTLIFE
to  DAYDREAM

Thanks
Xin Wei

New — rough concept — sketches are up considering,

1. cell architecture (suspension areas & system)
2. traffic mapping (in rapport to cell architecture)

Give us your ideas.