Processing

http://processing.org/
Processing is a programming language, development environment, and online community that since 2001 has promoted software literacy within the visual arts. Initially created to serve as a software sketchbook and to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context, Processing quickly developed into a tool for creating finished professional work as well.

Processing is a free, open source alternative to proprietary software tools with expensive licenses, making it accessible to schools and individual students.

120 Feet of Video Art: Final Exams at NYU's Big Screens Class
Dan Shiffman isn't like most professors. Instead of Scantron sheets and bluebooks, Shiffman prefers to give his final exams on a 120-foot video wall that's the equivalent of six 16:9 displays linked end-to-end.
Shiffman, a wizard of the graphical programming language called Processing that many of the students use to fill up the screen (a few others use openFrameworks, another visual language) has taught this class for two years now. Processing has been used in tons of music videos, data visualizations and interactive video art and is popular for its relative simplicity as a way to turn code into amazing visuals.

view more here



Shiffman is the primary author of the "Most Pixels Ever" library for Processing, which allows projects to sync up across multiple displays seamlessly without delays—and not just your dual-head monitor.That hasn’t really been an option thus far in Processing, unless you were to go the hardware multiple-monitor route. Most Pixels Ever is amazing because it can handle the 6 million pixels of IAC's video wall without blinking, and without it, this class would not exist in its current form. All the art-tech nerds thank him as we file out the door.

Read more here

Jennifer Steinkamp

A visual artist who crafts computer-animated projections for site-specific spaces, Jennifer Steinkamp uses her work to explore new means of producing and experiencing art. Employing virtual-reality software like a painter wields a brush, Steinkamp constructs lifelike installations of nature in motion, derived entirely from code.

The artwork is interactive. Steinkamp builds her pieces in relation to their site's architecture, and sets the projectors at a low level so the viewer's shadow disrupts the imagery, provoking a playful point of immersion.
http://jsteinkamp.com/



Loom consisted of two overlapping video projections; one contained a horizontal pattern, while the other vertical. When combined, the two created a weave. Because there were two projections at angles, the viewer created two shadows that disrupted the projection; one shadow revealed the vertical lines while the other was filled with horizontal lines. The image formed a cube that matched the perspective of the space, which was a deep tunnel. The lines warped with a water like pattern.

Automatic Projector Calibration

This callibration solution is a collaboration between people from Carnegie-Mellon, Mitsubishi Electric Research Lab and Stanford. Watch the video demonstration.



You can find more here (pdf) and here

Video projection tools v2.1

The videoprojection tool was developed during a workshop that Hc Gilje gave for students of scenography, choreography and directing at KHIO in Norway june 2007, and further developed for the workshop he had at the medialab prado in Madrid may 2008 (including some features from the newly released max 5).
The workshops were an introduction to working with video as a tool for creating and transforming spaces: to thinking of video as light, and how you can mask a projection to project on multiple objects and surfaces within the projector´s projection angle and to exploit the depth of field in video projectors.
You can find more here: http://hcgilje.wordpress.com/resources/video-projection-tools/
http://hcgilje.wordpress.com/
http://hcgilje.com

The Callas Project

CALLAS (the acronym stands for Conveying Affectiveness in Leading-edge Living Adaptive Systems) is a integrated project funded by the European Commission.

In the project vision, ambitious challenges are pursued: partners from different countries are working together in pursuit a common goal that will contribute to reduce the cost and the complexity of development of multimodal interfaces in the Digital Entertainment and Information context.

• to produce a set of components (known as Shelf components) which can be used to generate emotionally-aware user interfaces (or Affective Multimodal Interfaces).
• to handle interoperability between the components through the open source CALLAS Framework
• to provide APIs to 3rd party developers through which the shelf components and emotional model might be accessed.

Finally, the capabilities of the CALLAS Framework will be demonstrated through the development of CALLAS Showcases, significant test-beds in the context of New Media, embryonic samples of applications of the future.

CALLAS aims to design and develop a Framework based on a plug-in multimodal architecture, invariant to configuration of Multimodal Components, to interpret and process emotional aspects in real-time for easy and fast development of applications for Art and Entertainment, paying attention to the value of users, who are no longer passive spectators of artistic performances, but stimulating sources of human communication. The project is developing selected scenarios for Art and Entertainment, to showcase CALLAS technology in different typologies of space: theatres, home, squares, festivals, etc., as the "space" is one of the most interesting factors where human emotional interaction takes place. A strong attention is given to all interface and interaction aspects, to minimize the complexity for multimodal handling, to make creative industries and artists free to develop truly interactive art, keeping the technology burden hidden and preserving the naturalness of user interaction, not altering the spontaneity of their experience.

http://www.callas-newmedia.eu/

Build a Portable Screen

http://www.seej.net/create/?p=43

I do a lot of projection installations, in unique locations, usually with about zero setup time. When I looked into buying a professional 10’x7’ “fast-fold” screen, I was blown away by how much they cost. Instead, I decided to design my own, using easy to find materials.
The Challenge:1. Fast to set-up2. Fits in a cab3. Front or rear projection4. Affordable
Tools:Sewing machineScissorsPipe cutter ($20 most hardware stores)
Materials:Aluminum Electrical Conduit ($11 for 10’ pole)4 Aluminum Elbow Joints (”Speed-Rail” brand, 1” dia. roughly $10 each)Front Projection Material (Dazian in NJ, $110 for 9’x7’)OR Rear Projection Material (Dazian again, $170 for 9’x7’)Lycra Fabric (strong, not thin stuff), stretches in both directions (most fabric stores, $16 for 3 yards)
Instructions:
1. Once you have all the parts, lay out the screen material.
2. Cut out the stretchy lycra material 12” wide by 7′. You’ll need two strips this size. Its what keeps the screen tight to the frame.
3. Put your sewing machine on wheels. I used a 1’ sq. piece of pegboard with small wheels attached. Its a lot easier to move the sewing machine than the whole screen and lycra roll.

4. Pin the lycra to the screen, with about 2” overlap on the front and back, sandwiching the screen material between lycra. You’re making a sleeve for a pole to go through, tent-style.
5.Wheel the sewing machine along this seam, with a very wide zig-zag stitch. Don’t over-sew, as the screen material has a tendency to rip when there’s too much stitching. Thicker thread is better for the same reason. Again, fewer stitches is stronger, as the vinyl can rip easier with a lot of holes in it from too many stitches
6. Cut the aluminum conduit. Allow for space to stretch the lycra. Poles should be about 6” wider than your actual material (3″ per side). This is a very tricky step, and may require cutting the pipes to allow the screen to stretch enough, but not too much, on the horizontal. Cut them down in small increments until the screen is held tightly by the lycra.
That’s it!
To make the screen cab-ready, the poles have to be cut down to 5’ lengths. Luckily, aluminum conduit comes with couplers and screw ends, and the 10’ poles can simply be cut in half. The 7’ poles cut down as well, but you have to cut out the middle 3’, so you can keep both ends.
If you need it to be free-standing, cut some small poles and put them perpindicular to the screen in the elbow joints. If you need it hung up, use an eyehook in the speedrail joint instead of the allen wrench screw. I often will get rid of all the allen screws, replacing them with eye hook screws, so I don’t have to track down an allen wrench at 6 in the morning when tearing down…sigh. We learn….
This screen design comes from lots of trial and error. It looks very professional, but costs so much less than a 9′ x 7′ pro screen. And, because all the parts are pretty easy to find, its simple to adapt the frame to different screen sizes.
Best,cj"

http://www.seej.net/create/

Liberate Your Avatar

http://creativetechnology.salford.ac.uk/paulsermon/liberate/
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid823425610?bclid=1201016440&bctid=1398215641
An interactive public video art installation incorporating Second Life users in a real life environment. Located on All Saints Gardens, Oxford Road, Manchester, for the Urban Screens Festival, October 12th 2007 from 5pm to 6pm.
The merged realities of ‘All Saints Gardens’ on Oxford Road, and its online three-dimensional counterpart in ‘Second Life’ will, for the first time, allow ‘first life’ visitors and ‘second life’ avatars to coexist and share the same park bench in a live interactive public video installation. Entering into this feedback loop through a portal between these two parallel worlds this event exposes the identity paradox in Second Life. ‘Liberate your Avatar’ examines this new crisis and reflects the history of ‘All Saints Gardens’, relocating Emmeline Pankhurst as an avatar within ‘Second Life’ where she remains locked to the railings of ‘All Saints Gardens’.

Frontera by Lilia Perez Romero

http://cfisrv.finearts.uvic.ca/interactivefutures/IF07/?page_id=37).

Big Screens

ITP Big Screens Testing Round 2 from shiffman on Vimeo.




http://itp.nyu.edu/bigscreens/

The Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) is a two-year graduate program at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU that explores the creative use of technology. Student creations aim to augment, improve, delight and beautify people's lives. ITP doesn't invent technologies -- we add imagination and invent new uses for existing systems. Areas of focus change as technology, and the interests of students and faculty evolve.

Video: http://www.vimeo.com/generatorx/page:1

See also: http://luciabigscreen.blogspot.com/