[AG-TECH] Artists and Live Video....

[Nestor J. Zaluzec]

Jen

I've gotten asked ocassional about  using  parts 
from my TelePresence site by artists. These
two seem to fit your theme. If not it  will give you
some ideas to talk about.

Nestor

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Dear Mr. Zaluzec,

After seeing your web page ANL/TPM
Macroscope Camera I was facinated as to how you realised the Remote Control
Function of the web page. 
 I am an Australian artist who works and lives and Karlsruhe, Germany. I have
made works which use the internet, for example a work whereby a sewing machine
was connected to the internet and was made to sew text from various news services.
 I am planning a new work where I will use the WebCamToo live video software
in order to view and control a robotic arm. The arm will have a pencil in its
claw and will allow the user to literally draw and perhaps paint onto a piece
of paper over a web browser. There is naturally a degree of humour associated
with the work.
 I already have WebCamToo, the robatic arm and am now prepared to begin
programming (or should I say ask a programming friend to help me) with the
control interface. 
 Your page is the only thing until now that I have found that contains almost
all of these elements.
 I would be very gratiful if you could let me know how the script was
developed and/or some tips as to running this type of script.


yours sincerely,


Steven Greenwood

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Here was  another that I was part of for a while.  But the lab was too hi tech and the
changed to offices, to fit their story line better. 



     Architects Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio have worked in many media using the built environment and the
     visual arts to reveal societal norms that operate invisibly to govern and inform daily relationships. One recent area of
     this investigation has focused on "liveness" -- a term that originated in broadcasting and has grown to be synonymous
     with authenticity and a trusted reality. 

     For their first project for the web, entitled Refresh, Diller + Scofidio have taken office webcams as their point of
     departure, with the intention of examining the role of live video technologies on everyday life. A webcam is a camera
     that takes pictures at set intervals, that can range from 15 times per second to once per hour, then instantly transmits
     the images to a web server, where the image becomes simultaneously available to anyone on the web. At present,
     thousands of webcams exist, broadcasting live pictures of fish tanks, traffic conditions, vending machines, private
     bedrooms, offices... 

     The artists speculated on the motivations for these cameras: "The live cam phenomenon can be thought of as a public
     service, or a mode of passive advertisement, or it may be a new type of exhibitionism, or self-disciplinary device. The
     desire to connect to others in real time may be driven by a response to the "loss" of the public realm. But, however
     varied the motives, live cam views always seem casual and lacking dramatic interest and content; they appear
     unmediated. Despite this apparent innocence, cameras are willfully positioned, their field of vision is carefully
     considered, and behavior within that field cannot help but anticipate the looming presence of the global viewer." 

     For each of the dozen sites located in the US, Europe and Australia that Diller + Scofidio selected for this project,
     they have constructed fictional narratives using text and fabricated images. For every site there is a grid of twelve
     images, one of which is live and refreshes when clicked; the other eleven have been constructed for this project with
     the aid of hired actors and Photoshop. None of the people from the actual location appear in the fabricated images;
     however, the juxtaposition of the live and the fictional establishes a provocative correspondence. The stories, which
     range in time from a single day to several seasons, concentrate on subtle changes in behavior as a consequence of the
     acknowledged presence of the camera in the office: a gradual shift in dress style, the activities of an after-hours
     cleaning crew, a ritual of stacking paper, one person's discreet and incessant ordering of take out food, and a potential
     office romance unfolding by the water cooler. There is nothing shocking or dramatic, rather, everyday conventions
     are slightly modified, either to perform for or to hide from the camera. 

     The flip side to the performative role chosen or imposed on the people at the live site is the role of the spectator at the
     other end. Diller + Scofidio argue that liveness appeals to both ends of the technophile/technophobe spectrum: "For
     technophobes who blame technology for the collapse of the public sphere, liveness may be a last vestige of authenticity
     -- seeing and/or hearing the event at the precise moment of its occurrence. The un-mediated is the im-mediate. For
     technophiles, liveness defines technology's aspiration to simulate the realŠin real-time. Lag time, search time, and
     download time all impair real-time computational performance. But whether motivated by the desire to preserve the
     real or to fabricate it, liveness is synonymous with the real -- an object of uncritical desire for techno-extremes." 

     Regardless of where one falls on the technophile/phobe spectrum, it is hard not to be captivated by the potential of
     witnessing something uncensored, no matter how banal. Yet this excitement requires an act of faith that what you are
     seeing truly is "live," a faith increasingly difficult to achieve given the bag of technical tricks available, especially on
     the internet. This skepticism aids, to a degree, these artists' desire to tease the distinctions: to undermine the authority
     of "live" over mediated experience and to collapse the two into an indeterminate unity. 

  
=========





>Hi all,
>
>BU is having a brainstorming meeting Thursday evening, 1/25, at 5:30PM
>Eastern time to talk about the possibility of an arts/vr/ag project for
>the Boston Cyberarts festival in April-May, 2001. A few artists from the
>Boston area will be joining us for this meeting.
>
>This is a project of the BU HiPArt group (http://scv.bu.edu/hipart/).
>
>If you have experience in art and/or vr, and are interested in joining us
>for the brainstorm, please let me know. Thanks.
>
>- Jennifer


===========================================
Dr. Nestor J. Zaluzec
Materials Science Division
Building 212
Argonne National Lab
9700 S. Cass Ave
Argonne, Illinois 60439 USA
Tel: 630-252-7901,  Fax: 630-252-4798
Email: Zaluzec at aaem.amc.anl.gov 
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TPMLab: http://tpm.amc.anl.gov
MMSite: http://www.amc.anl.gov
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The box said ...
"This program requires Win 95/98/NT or better..."  
So I bought a G3 Mac !

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