david fodel - "because things should go up off into the header area"

STEIM

dfodel — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:27:08 -0800

I came to the STEIM orientation with the expectation of gaining deeper understanding of the commercial software they have developed, and to present to the staff several artistic projects I currently have in development.

I have used JunXion in the past, but only for basic operations in mapping HID hardware. During my stay I was able to create several new patches for use in an upcoming performance titled "Still Life in Real Time", which will premiere at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in April of 2010. For this project, I am tracking position and 3-axis orientation of several objects, which constitute a "Still Life" composition, both visually, and sonically.

David Fodel - Still Life with Guitar

The aim of the project itself is to interrogate the possibilities of real-time, structured improvisational, audio-visual composition, while incorporating the symbolic potential of the interface. The traditional Still Life, and in particular Dutch Golden Age Still Life paintings, provided me with an art historical locus and context for referencing this potentially symbolic quality of objects.

The technical aspects of the project are driven by this concept of "interface as content" and the ways in which the tangible interface and the embodied activities of the performer come to convey meaning. That being said, the technical problems then become those of creating tangible relationships between the objects, which are projected through sound and image, by selective mappings.

Screen cap of JunXion patch used for Still Life project

JunXion provides a way to create these mappings in a manner that allows for rapid prototyping. So that's what I did during my time at STEIM. I learned some of the deeper capabilities of the tool, which allowed me to explore some functionality that is key to the success of the project. I will outline these briefly below:

Creating switches without "buttons". I need to be able to tell the system to enable or disable certain functions or actions without clicking buttons, because that feels like it is an "un-natural" movement in the set-up. I was able to track large differences in accelerometer data, and turn that into a kind of switch, by storing, checking and updating a variable that denotes when the switch is on or off.
The individual object orientations, as tracked by the 3-axis accel data transmitted from each object wirelessly. Using JunXion, I map each axis to one or more MIDI CC's, and scale the data using the Tables in JunXion. This data is then forwarded on to audio and video parameters that respond to the movement of the objects.
Relative positions of each object while they are situated on the plinth or pedestal. I was able to do some quick testing using JunXion's built-in Object tracking, but it seems like I may have to use something else for the production version. I set-up a quick sketch that was able to detect blobs using Processing, but found that the actual "tracking" of the blobs is more complex. I need to be able to manage the blobs more precisely so the systems can determine how the blobs are related to each other spatially on a 2D surface. I am using a simple set-up of a frosted glass, with a camera underneath to let the system know when the objects are sitting on top of the glass, and where they are in relation to one another — the composition.

So this is mostly what I worked on but I also did some playful "what-if" scenarios with the other Orientation attendees, namely Berit Greinke, and Jeffrey Roberts. Berit was working on translating color to sound for her textile installation / performances, and Jeffrey was working with augmenting his live performance with a traditional Chinese string instrument called a Gu-Chin.

David Fodel working with Berit Greinke on color-to-sound conversions

Jeffrey Roberts playing Gu-Chin and WiiMote, David Fodel augmenting sound.

The discussions I had with Kristina and Robert were very helpful in giving me some perspective on my current work. This includes the Still Life compositions as well as my work with the Solar Wind Harp, a software (hardware under development) instrument that can "play" the solar wind in real-time via the NASA ACE satellite. I hope to be able to construct a large installation/performance version of the Solar Wind Harp with the assistance of STEIM staff in the future.

Testing Blob Detection patch in Studio 3

Most important to me was the interaction with the other orientation attendees. Hearing about the work they are doing, and the contexts within which they are working, provided a breath of fresh air, and a breadth of fresh ale to wash down some hard to swallow pills which seemed to be blurring my vision.

I have included links to brief videos of one of the experiments with Jeffrey Roberts playing Gu Chin, with one of my WiiMotes attached to his arm. The WiiMote is sending controller data via junXion to a patch in Ableton that is manipulating his live sound through various frequency domain dynamics effects processors. The other link is to a video of Jeffrey and Robert van Heumen playing together in the STEIM Studio 3.

Jeffrey Roberts and David Fodel

Jeffrey Roberts and Robert vanHeumen

Sound Design for Winner of Metropolis Art Prize 2009, Screened in Times Square

dfodel — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 09:20:16 -0800

I composed the sound design for the winning entry in the Babelgum Metropolis Art Prize.

The Babelgum Metropolis Grand Prize ($20,000) went to Denver, Colorado-based artist Christopher Coleman for “The Magnitude of the Continental Divide.” An animation exploring the way we define ourselves and our nations, the piece deals with various states of withdrawal and aggression. It is a think-piece on the state of modern warfare, where weapons and damage are dealt impersonally from afar.

Launched in September 2009, the contest attracted over 400 videos representing the work of the best and edgiest artists on six continents, competing for three main prizes worth a total of $30,000. The winning videos, two runner-ups in each category and two Special Mentions entries will be screened at a free public event in New York’s Times Square on December 17 at 7 pm hosted by head judge Isabella Rossellini.

A 2003 MFA graduate of New York State University in Buffalo, Coleman is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Denver. The artist was twice a participant in the VIPER Basel Festival in Switzerland and has had his work in exhibitions in many countries including Singapore, Finland, Sweden, Italy, Germany, France, China, the UK and Latvia. The winning entry can also be viewed here.

39˚ 44′ 11″ N x 104˚ 59′ 21″ W at the Denver Art Museum through April 4th, 2010

dfodel — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:14:31 -0800

The work is an audio-visual, interactive installation that is part of the Embrace! show at the Denver Art Museum.

I am one of the members of a collaborative team led by Timothy Weaver that includes Josh Fishburn, Brigid McAuliffe, and Nick Myers.

The show officially opened on November 14th, 2009 and our work is installed in the FuseBox Gallery on the 4th floor.

I created sound design compositions using the Solar Wind Harp, a software instrument I designed, in collaboration with Dr. George Millward of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The software allows real-time performance of soundscapes as it translates solar wind data from the NASA ACE satellite. These compositions are one component of a complex "data-ecosystem" that is always in flux, creating unique experiences with each visit to the space.

The exhibition runs through April 4th, 2010.

Link to the Denver Art Museum installation info.
Link to Embrace! exhibition info.
Link to Denver Post article.
Link to 9 News article.
Colorado Public Radio story on Embrace! (audio)
More info on the Solar Wind Harp.

Where is Love? Finalist for Future Places Festival 2009 in Porto, Portugal

dfodel — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:03:44 -0800

Where is Love? is a playful locative media project that utilizes digital mapping technologies and psychogeographical strategies to encourage participants to explore their local environment, emotionally and physically.

Participants engage with the work using a standard web-browser, to input brief stories and to upload photos of someplace where they have experienced “love”; physical, emotional or otherwise.

The active project website is located here.

The artwork employs special software to collect and store this basic information, and to help guide participants through actual physical locations, via the emotional overlay created by their input and the input of other users.

Using a web-enabled cell phone, or any standard laptop computer users can plot personal trajectories through the “love-density” of the city. Users become physically aware of intimate encounters that others have experienced in their immediate physical surroundings. It becomes yet another layer of engagement in the topology of urban space.

The project playfully conjures memory, as it is embedded in physical space, using digital technology as social lubricant. The anonymous nature of the participation works to distance the acts, even as it renews the latent emotional content of the memory.

The physical acts recalled by users are less important than the emotional state. What is important is that we all contribute to an emotional map of our physical territory, and this project creates tangible traces of something always already there.

We all understand how vulnerable using these technologies makes us, and yet we share our most intimate stories and secrets using various social networking sites and photo-sharing sites. This project bridges the idea of intimacy, with this notion of technological vulnerability, using shared emotions as social currency.

To reinforce the playful nature of the project, specially packaged condoms with the project URL printed on them will be distributed at bars, nightclubs, and other festival locations around the local area. The condom serves to signify the physical act of love, connecting the ephemeral, emotional nature of internal experience to that of the external experience of the body navigating physical space.

jamBox: Audio Sculpture at the FAC Modern Gallery

dfodel — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:54:14 -0700

In the jamBox I wanted to explore the idea of an expressive audio instrument in a sculptural form, that uses spatiallity as a key component in its operation. The jamBox responds to the physically enclosing space to set its initial "sound floor" and is then modulated by one or many participants or viewers.

An array of sensors detect proximity in several directions and the mutiple voices of the audio are changed by the activities surrounding the enclosing space of the installation.

The materials used in the physical sculpture have a crafty sensibility, utilizing bamboo, and hand-sewn felt and are designed to visually invite closer inspection. The sounds on the other hand increase in volume as participants move closer, creating tension in the surrounding space.

The work is playful and encourages group participation and interaction while deciphering its puzzle-like quality.

The jamBox has been shown at the FAC Modern Gallery in Colorado Springs Colorado

Solar Wind Harp Live at Anderson Ranch

dfodel — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:30:44 -0700

A live presentation / experiment with the Solar Wind Harp I built. Projected onto the Aspen trees at Anderson Ranch, in Aspen Colorado, in August of 2009. The software is a custom Max patch which reads solar wind data from the NASA ACE satellite in real-time, subsequently sonifying that data. I was attending a workshop led by Andrea Polli, called Sound Space and the Environment. Performance and documentation assistance by Sal D'Angio, and Yoon Chung Han. The harp was developed in conjunction with Dr. George Millward of LASP in Boulder, CO.
More info about the Solar Wind Harp here.

(dis)Placed - Anderson Ranch

dfodel — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:23:20 -0700

Documentation from an audio performance/installation at Anderson Ranch in August of 2009. The work was created as part of a workshop with artist Andrea Polli titled "Sound, Space and the Environment". Performance and installation support from Salvatore D'Angio. Special thanks to Mariana Vieira for installation support.

(dis)Placed, is an experimental audio performance work created at Anderson Ranch in Aspen, Colorado, during a summer workshop with artist Andrea Polli. The work explores the idea of how a sense of place is created using sensory mapping techniques and how these maps can be disrupted by introducing displaced environmental cues into the perceptual feedback system.

A wireless microphone captures the sound of a small creek and a performer located creekside, transmitting the audio signal to the bustling lunchtime locale on the ranch's grounds. This signal is lightly processed and sent on to a highly directional "audio spotlight" and reflected off of one of the nearby buildings to further de-localize the origins of the signal.

This reflected sound of the running water of the creek is beamed to a particular spot in the pathway of ranch attendees on their way to and from the lunchroom.

The displaced sound is experienced as emanating from an unlikely position on the roof of the adjacent building drawing into question the predictable nature of our surroundings, our perceptions, and the meanings that we create from those phenomenal signals.

Technoetic Rainforest -Gallery 023, Denver

dfodel — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:13:34 -0700

An interactive installation work by David Fodel and Sarah Soriano at Gallery 023, University of Denver, Denver, USA on May 9th, 2009.

The title of the work is taken from two previous ideas.
Technoetic is a word coined by Roy Ascott in 2003 and meant to denote a path by which we might understand the effects of technology on consciousness.
Rainforest is a work created by David Tudor which dates back to about 1965. In Tudors work physical objects and sculptural forms are activated using audio transducers, causing those objects to resonate. The objects themselves modulated the incoming audio, transforming the sound, based on the material.

In the Technoetic Rainforest, we introduce human consciousness into the feedback loop that is created between materials and electronic signal.
A system is constructed which exhibits certain sonic and visual behavior in its undisturbed state. The system consists of cameras, computer vision software, and a multichannel sound creation and distribution matrix.
Simple tones create vibrations and modulations by exciting audio transducers, attached to large sheets of plate steel.
A small vessel, filled with water, is also activated by an audio transducer. This causes the water in the vessel to create patterns and distortions in the waters surface. These patterns are analyzed using a camera and blob detection software.
Blob detection is typically used for extracting usable information from image data, normally object recognition and object tracking. The association of this technology and its visible activity on the projected screen serve to foreground an implied "intelligence" within the system.
The intelligence gathered on the incoming image is further used to modulate the audio signals, creating a subtle yet sophisticated, ecologically balanced feedback loop.
Once a person enters the room, their presence begins to intercede into the variations in the audible sounds, their bodies serving to absorb or reflect certain frequencies within the space. Their shadows in the space, or the interruption of the camera's view of the vibrating water further disturb the modulating steady state of the system.
These subtle interactions and their results become part of the feedback system which drives yet further variations into the system. In this way the system becomes an analog for basic consciousness, in that it is self-reflective.
In decoding the phenomenal world through technological apparatus, we externalize the process of modeling experience, of our own construction of consciousness. As the system evolves, our impact, understanding and actions evolve with it.

Aurora's Aeolian Harp

dfodel — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:03:12 -0700

Overview
Aurora’s Aeolian Harp is named for Aeolus, an ancient god of the wind, and Aurora, a goddess of the dawn.
An Aeolian Harp (or wind harp) is a musical instrument that is "played" by the wind. This hardware/software “instrument” is an Aeolian Harp that is played by the solar wind.
In the software version, the "strings" of the harp are digitally synthesized using physical modeling techniques, and the "wind" is real-time solar wind data streamed from the NASA ACE satellite. Science consultant for the project is Dr. George Millward of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) / CU.
The hardware is based primarily on the Arduino platform. The physicalized output hardware is currently under development (see videos). This hardware controls the tensioning of multiple strings, attached to lengths of sheet metal, for pitch adjustment, using small motors. An audio transducer is used for controlling the excitation of the assembly. All of the electro-mechanical activity is controlled through Max / Arduino software. The instrument runs in conjunction with a simultaneous live performance, or as a stand-alone installation. The software version is built with Max/MSP and the base version will be available for free download and use.

Concept
By re-framing natural phenomenon as communication processes we can re-contextualize our place in the world in an effort to formulate appropriate design strategies. Re-engaging these processes as nodes in the living social network establishes those processes as contributing elements in the dialog with our past and future. By giving voice to these processes, a sonic voice, this dialog can be imagined.
Recognizing these natural phenomena, listening to the sonic fingerprints, and immersing ourselves in this aural architecture, connects us to the natural world in unexpected, subtle and sometimes spectacular ways.
Connecting a living process, by transposing its activity into an accessible perceptual realm, allows this voice to sing, and helps to tell a story, a story of our relationship to our own perceptions, and to the natural world.
Our engagement with the invisible forces around us radically affects our relationship with the culturally and historically constructed world. By framing these processes within a communications context we situate our humanity within a more inclusive sphere.

Deployment
The platform is meant to be extensible and already consists of several iterations. One iteration will be installed at the Denver Art Museum in November 2009 as part of the EMBRACE show, in collaboration with Timothy Weaver, Brigid Mcauliffe, Josh Fishburn and Nick Meyers. Another iteration will be performed as part of the Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts in Boulder, Colorado in April 2009. This will be a mobile audiovisual performance utilizing a custom mobile hardware platform (see images).
The Harp has also been informally performed at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in August of 2009.

David Fodel & Brian Kane – Signal to Noise (untitled analog #8)

dfodel — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:19:30 -0800

An immersive audio visual environment exploring the surrogate sensory perceptual systems implicit in the recording medium. Originally performed live during a recent residency at the Experimental Television Center in New York, Signal to Noise is a series of multi-channel audiovisual installations which induce alternating currents of sensation, approaching our perceptual field from the perspective of signal processing and the subtle states of consciousness we share with the natural world.
Three related looping sources are set in motion. Of differing durations and composed of visual and audio material which has been time and pitch shifted, the sources drift in and out of phase with one another, creating an ever-changing audio visual composition.

More photos here

David Fodel is a new media artist whose practice combines aural, visual and physical phenomena to create subtle and spectacular immersive environments. His work has been screened and performed internationally. Fodel has a background in media and interaction design, and as a community arts organizer. He teaches at the University of Denver, where he is currently earning an MFA in Electronic Media Arts Design.

Brian Kane is a media artist and designer living in Cambridge, MA, USA. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), he invented of one of the world’s first VJ software tools, Vujak, and was a founding member of the multimedia group EBN. He has had a distinguished career as a creative director and game designer, and has taught interaction design at Emerson College in Boston.