synth
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Synth is a light object that is constantly recreating itself. The piece is continually shifting and moving, sometimes in imperceptible amounts, other times quickly, without warning.
The content is generated by a series of low-frequency oscillators that continually shift and reposition the light inside the piece. Our eyes trick us, creating the impression the piece is alive, or offers a window into something it is not. The diffused digital signals give the appearance of an almost organic nature, tricking the senses.
Synth was initially displayed in the Department of Digital Arts at Pratt Institute. A new version was made in early 2009.
Intercept point
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Intercept Point is an attempt to understand quantum theories, using binary tools.
To get us all up to speed, let’s look at the example of Schrödinger’s cat, which is an attempt to explain how, in quantum physics, an element can exist in two states until it is observed (at which point its state becomes fixed).
“A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter, there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small that perhaps in the course of the hour, one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges, and through a relay releases a hammer that shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts”
from Schroedinger, “The Present Situation in Quantum Mechanics”
A text is sent from a sender (on the left) to a receiver (on the right). When a viewer opens the door on the center box, 4 LED panels freeze in one of four colors (red, green, orange, dark). The viewer has frozen the state of an intercepted message. Displayed on the panels is a quantum encoded ASCII character. As soon as a message is frozen, the sender and receiver, aware their conversation has been interrupted, start again.
Modules
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I worked with Miren Arenzana on these pieces, initially shown at the Montehermoso Cultural Center in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. They are 30 objects made of silicone with electronics inside. The sides of the modules are concave, to act as suction cups. When moved, the lights inside the modules change. There are several different behaviors to choose from. The pieces are designed to travel throughout the museum, allowing people to place them wherever they wish, with their chosen color pattern.
PicTV
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PicTv is a low cost digital video generator designed for experimentation. It has 2 Pic microcontrollers, one to set up the horizontal and vertical sync and one that has the “fun” stuff, the drawing and interaction. This was done as a final project for Gary Schober’s Advanced Tech. class at ITP
In 2009, PicTV appeared in the Glitch Book
a few words about the project and ntsc (aka scott’s paper for gary)
The drawing code
John’s page (currently at archive.org)
Olivier’s page (again, at archive.org)
wiki (once again, archive.org (stupid nyu servers!))
watch it in action! (mpeg-4 video)
as a goof, i plugged an analog camera into pictv v1.5 and added a color burst crystal, then separated the r g and b components. here’s what it looked like (at least the red and green)
This inspired the whole thing
This was an invaluable resource
This helped a lot
So did this
This is a (very) handy (windows) application