Moderate successes.

First test run of my apparatus was not without it's flaws but that was to be expected. I did four separate exposures in a variety of locations and methods to get an idea of what works and what doesn't. My first exposure was standing outside AUT tower and just spun and rolled it in my hands; second exposure was rolling across Aotea square; third exposure was a multiple exposure where I aimed the pinhole at several brightly and different coloured fixtures; fourth exposure was rolling it down a steep hill covered in bright yellow leaves.

The main technical difficulties was in that as it rolled, the opposing holes would get misaligned by either the two cylinders turning or becoming pushed closer together or starting to come apart. If I were to reconstruct it, I'd create some sort of mechanism that actually locked it in place. As a temporary measure, I used strong duct tape to stop it from turning and drilled another hole to ensure that it would stay within the vertical range of the pinhole.

I cannot express the extreme joy and relief that I felt as my first film came through the C41 and I saw that there was something on it. At that point I didn't particularly care what. Once all four half films had come through, it was into the scanner which, designed to read individual frames, protested at the lack of said frames. Regardless, two of my four trials gave good results with relative continuity between frames and variations of colour and light patterns.

The most successful ones were actually my two more controlled exposures, possibly because it was on the uncontrolled ones that the aperture misaligned and got closed up as these ones were more or less unexposed. At least I know from this that my method of changing and storing films is successful and my canister is light tight. Below is the result of this exposure and what the exposure was of. The colours are at this point a little inconsistent due to the nature of the scanning so the method of scanning will require some experimenting.

My next exposures were planned and taken with these ones taking into consideration and, despite many technical difficulties with the temperamental machines at work, they came out again with varying degrees of success, giving another reference point to again work from for my final trial.

The important thing at this point is to not lose sight of the brief and original concept. Where my most successful trials so far have been my controlled exposures, ideally the more random ones where the path of the apparatus takes over are more fitting in my exploration of light and space. The controlled exposures can perhaps be justified in terms of drawing attention to the normally overlooked fixtures of the city as dynamic in their own aspect but my initial idea is more focused on movement through and around the city. Perhaps I need to bring this back to and reevaluate my brief before my next round of trials to clarify what I am trying to achieve and what these exposures show so I can then bring this together and convey it more successfully in my video.

Ready to roll

It's what you can't see that will make the magic. Both in the operation and construction of my apparatus and in the way in which my footage is captured. Today I completed construction and so tonight is the eve before I take it for a test run. All that was left to do was to adjuct the height of the holes so they lined up and glue in my foam circles which will keep my interior cylinder in place.

Armed with four rolls of film, tomorrow I will take to the city for a few rounds of experimentation and then out to the photolab on Wednesday, and after analysis of results, further experimentation thereafter.

We were from the word Go, Day One of the BCT, encouraged to take risks and this is definitely one of the biggest risks I feel I've ever taken with a project. I always like to do relatively simple concepts which I know will work. In theory, my apparatus follows established principles and methods of pinhole photography and I have taken every care to construct my apparatus according to these; from the light tight construction, to taking into account calculations of aperture, focal length, and ISO, to painting it black, to the fine tin foil pinhole, to 'borrowing' a dark bag from work to enable me to change film on site without need for a darkroom.

At this point perhaps what I'm most apprehensive about are the things which are now more or less beyond my immediate control; the spin of the interior cylinder, risk of over/under exposure, and even damage to the exterior appearance (ie chips in the paint job).

At this point only have vague ides around how to compose my final video but this is something which will inevitably be based on the result of my apparatus. I have a few ideas and am actually thinking about using processing again to perhaps create something where the physical movement of the apparatus will have another element of control over the immediate visual result. I also have a potential artist model in mind but will be doing more research on video art. Workshops on Final Cut Pro will also give me a better idea what I have to work with and what I am capable of in the remaining amount of time, how to best use it to my advantage. I have used very simple video editing software before so I think it will be more or less easier with this background to adapt over the the new software.

But first, tomorrow we go for a roll around the town!

Stuck on you.

Despite a slight apprehension towards welding, what with the sparks and the bright and potential damaging light, it proved to be mostly painless. It wasn't too hard, just a matter of developing technique and perhaps my project wasn't the easiest one to work with. After attempting to weld the first cylinder to a circle (with the help of a technician of course!) it proved to be a rather messy result, even somehow managing to, rather counter productively, weld a hole in the cylinder. This was most inconvenient as I need my apparatus to be completely light tight so for the second half, we decided perhaps to just spot weld around, enough to hold it in place and then fill around the base with a filler later.

I was unhappy at this point at the two cylinders didn't fit quite right within each other any more and looked rather haphazard. Nothing that couldn't be fixed with some paint, and of course the filler, so it was off to Placemakers for some metal primer which, as luck would have it, was coloured as well. I was intending to paint it black in any case so as to avoid light bouncing around, though it could have an interesting effect also, but it is not my intention at this point.

The black finish was a definite improvement and the fill was then added around the edge. It was at this point I realized that during this process of fabrication and construction, where it's form was ultimately determined by its function and purpose, the aesthetic value of it was still also and important driving force. The fill also significantly improved the appearance by not only sealing up the bottom to ensure the inside would be light tight, but smoothed out the rough ridges created by the welding and now it merely awaits another once over with some black paint.

On the final stages of construction now, it awaits the final touches to ensure it's intended functionality. The holes need to be altered slightly to ensure they line up to actually let light in, whilst checking that there are no unwanted light leaks. The interior cylinder needs to be secured inside in such a way to ensure it spins freely to expose all around it as it rolls, whilst restrained so that it doesn't actually make contact with the edges to avoid damaging the negative. Again, this could prove to have an interesting effect but it is not the effect I'm after. Perhaps when I have achieved the goals of my initial intention, I can then modify my apparatus to experiment with these elements.

Pinwheel camera

To represent my concept through a physical apparatus, I have chosen to approach the collection and presentation of video footage in a slightly different manner. Rather than creating something in which to mount a video camera, the apparatus itself will act as the camera as well as the vessel. I have taken the concept of the pinhole camera which, like artist model Darren Glass, I will use to capture the effects of light as the camera itself moves, exposed onto negative film.

To allow for ease of movement, I have designed a light tight cylinder which can rotate to open or close the pin hole with a smaller interior cylinder which spins a bit more freely within the canister. to ensure a relatively even exposure of the film. I will need a dark bag with which to change the film in between exposure to more easily get a variety of exposures in different locations and lighting conditions within the city. It will be relatively lightweight and small for easy transportation. It may also take some experimentation and calculations to figure out the ideal exposure time.

A few hours, several different machines and a shower of sparks later, I had my pieces cut out. Not exactly to my calculations, however careful though. The equipment in the 3D lab was easy enough to use with the introduction workshop with James and the extremely helpful technicians. At this point, the most difficult thing was putting enough pressure on the blade / guillotine which cut the metal sheet into usable strips.

Beginning to assemble it required a bit more careful thought as to the smaller details, such as drilling the pinholes, and figuring out the best and best possible order to do them in. The pinholes were drilled and the metal strips were curved to shape and spot welded together, ensuring they locked into place when the holes lined up. Despite a slight reluctance to brave the welder, it was all go ahead and ready to them weld the cylinders down to the circular plates. This proved to be even a little more daunting by the fact that each technician seemed to be giving me a different bit of advice as to the best way to approach it, but in the end I found myself kitted up with the arc welder in hand...

Where at first it seemed an interesting combination between the video and the use of metal, perhaps that is part of what is making us again push our creative potential and come up with something new and different. Where metal does seem somehow a little more intimidating to work with than, say, wood, it's potential is perhaps a lot more. It also seems to link a lot more with the location of the city in the base of it's construction. When you think city and construction, you think loud drills and sparks and metal scaffolding and solid metal structures and skeletons. A lot of interesting bits and pieces seem to be under construction in the 3D lab, the cylinder / circle / wheel / sphere seeming to be a popular choice. I feel confident in my idea that it will give a different outlook as I have chosen to explore the depiction of video in a different way.

That's how I roll

Introduction to our new studio project immediately set me off in excitement when we stared off in a discussion of art history and the distinctions in pre to post modernism in relation to what was happening in society and with people at the time. As with the large project, I am going to look at and bring in aspects of art history to explore and deepend my conceptual ideas.

The idea of exploring or depicting the city in a new was is reminiscent of the Situational Shuffle introduction activity where we look at different methods to move around and interact with our immediate and everyday surrounding environment. Similarly this project is to be undertaken in the city and experiencing it in a new way. So I was thinking about the psychology of the city, the common perception being that it is a centre for turbulence and movement. The city itself is a collection of static buildings and fixtures, yet moving through the city, you feel like you should be in rush just because of the subconscious effect of environment and the movement which epitomises it.

Maybe it is as a result of recently having been to Wellington to see the Monet and the Impressionists exhibition but I started thinking about depicting fleeting effects of time, light and weather conditions. With my background understanding of film and darkroom photography, I thought about the essence of photography is in simply just light. It is how the light is captures and present which gives us photography, from the roots of photography in pinhole cameras, to film to the digital medium today. Like the impressionists, it can be a different challenge to somehow convey the fleeting moments in time, the qualities of light. The simplest example of conveying this in photography is that of extended exposures. I have previously explored use of extended exposures as means of conveying movement and in fact, the city is filled with many different types of movement.

To expand upon this further, we take photographs in terms of the final image, the containment within a single rectangular frame. Why not expose an entire reel of film in one go? Artist Darren Glass has taken a similar idea in creating abstractly shaped pinhole cameras, such as a circular shell in which the negative is contained which is then rolled down a hill, capturing the space, the colour, the light around it in a new and different way. So then it seems to almost negate the idea of movement to capture it in a single image but from the introductory Bullet effect exercise, it made me think about how really film and movie is also just a multitude of single still frames composed in sequence to give the impression of movement.

Also closely related to time is the idea of narrative, a beginning, a middle and end but like Glass, I prefer the element of the random and the abstract nature of the outcome. It gives a larger scope of possibility for composition into a final video into what is more conceptual and subtle. I just need to be careful to avoid it being too overly complicated like my last project so still need to keep it relatively simple yet effective in how I construct my apparatus and resulting video.

Bullet

I've always been interesting in expanding beyond the constraints time and space of a single photographic image. What we experiemented with yesterday as our warm up activity was perhaps another sort of way of thinking about these aspects in relation to film and viedo, which is essentially composed of a multitude of single still frames which, when combined create movement. Inspired by the likes of The Matrix or an ad by Toshiba, we were to create our own bullet effect by setting up a series of cameras to go off in sequence around a moving figure.

Even though I'd been hoping for a group activity for a change from the individual but our group of a dozen or so proved to be a little difficult to co-ordinate. We began by attempting to find a way to set up a dozen cameras spanning across a spectrum of brand, quality and models, no two cameras alike. We went into the logistics of timer, resolution, zoom, aperture, focus and the like before decided to just go for it and give it a go. We quickly abandoned using multiple cameras in favour of one SLR shooting on burst. initial ideas including everyone in a chain moving around the camera to emulate the movement of the camera but this did not have the indented effect.



We only managed to deviate even further from there from there with everyone having their own vision as to how we could approach. After experimenting and tossing around ideas as bit more, we simplified it back down with the single camera moving around a single figure, rising up from a crouch, perform a movement to return to the crouching position by the time the camera had completed a half circle around him.

As usual, artistic license and individuality came out in our chosen movement which we would then attempt to weave together into a video. I was perhaps a little too ambitious and managed to strain my legs a bit. Each individual persons' segment went something like this:

I thought it would be quite funny to put these together as some sort of cheesy superhero team , but then ended up attempting to shoot a playground as my setting in which to place the people. I used the same method to moving around it while my camera was on burst to give that sense of space and perspective so as to not lose the effect of the movement of the figure when the original background was chroma keyed out. I chose a playground as the movements were quite playful and it would provide different elements and levels to place the figures.

This to was abandoned due to my not having taken enough shots to create a fluid enough back ground and simplified it down instead to the figures starting outside a paper box which would then close on them and when it reopened, it would be a different person inside. If I chose to develop this further, it would be fun to play with different timings so as to have more than one box at a time and having people almost teleporting from box to box.

The overall effect was quite rough as a result of the original images with jagged transitions and the background not entirely keyed out. It was an interesting effect which could be interesting if controlled and worked for the nature of the relatively simple one day activity to introduce an idea. I personally would want to keep my images more crisp and refined but I do like the simplistic sort of stop motion effect of composing the images, which again relates to the content of the video. Even if this can't specifically be integrated into the next studio project, the concepts will undoubtedly have potential to carry over.

More cheese

So what I ended up with at the end was perhaps not very experimental as much as calculated and methodically planned out. I was always thinking about what I could add on rather than just playing around. Regardless, what I came up with was a simple game. Content with my interaction between the mouse and the player, I integrate more of an aim for the player vs. the aim of the program.

Whenever the mouse reached the edge of the screen, the image of a cheese would be replaced with another image of the same cheese but with a chunk missing, progressively getting smaller with every success of the mouse. This was done with the method of creating an animation, with each frame triggered by the x value of the mouse. I introduced counters which added the successful hits of the mouse and total hits which I was intending to set up as a percentage score of how accurate the player was.

The game then seemed too basic so I introduced the element of the random. Triggered by a timer, a segment of cheese would appear at a random position which, when clicked upon, triggered a random number. Each random number changed an element of the game which would be reset if another segment was clicked on. These elements included manipulation of the speed of the mouse, the remaining amount of cheese, invert the colour of the screen, make the mouse change y coordinates randomly, generate a distracting back ground and generate a second mouse. This was how I approached the idea of changing elements of the program whilst incorporating them into my original sketch. Other elements I would've also like to play with would've been changing the orientation of the screen or other colour manipulations.


This last part I actually found surprisingly easy to program, and throughout the process it was always the things I thought to be more simple which proved to be more complicated. I personally found when I approached Processing with logic and rational thinking, especially the more mathematical aspects. Though it was difficult program to get the hang of, especially not having dealt with any programming language before, it was an approachable challenge I enjoyed and think would come in useful in future studio projects and enable me to grasp more of what is potentially possible with it.

Whack-a-mouse

Given new brief, we were to expand upon and experiment with our sketches created in Processing last aweek. We were directed to just take risks and have a play in approaching this, to just change number, manipulate and modify to see what we get. I have found this a difficult way of working as my style is more deliberate, methodical and calculated - I have to think about and approach logically what I am doing so for the first day on the brief was quite frustrated.

First day on the brief, I thought about the connotations and meanings behind each individual element - which I then realized was perhaps getting too conceptual about it, as is, my usual method of working. Feeling a little overwhelmed by all the individual elements in my sketch, I figured I'd start by taking the individual elements and manipulating them, before eventually bringing them all together again in a final sketch.

So I then decided to start with making my bende dots a bit more dynamic and tried to make them bounce around the screen. About five hours, three or four examples and a lot of frustration later, I had one red ball bouncing around the screen.

I ended up getting bogged down with the complexity of the examples I was trying to adapt as they had some more complex bits of programming I am not yet familiar with. Therein I do understand where Kim was coming from in his recommended approach that it is better to experiment and see what happens rather than coming up with an idea of what you want to do which may be beyond your capabilities. As an example, he gave us a simple sketch consisting of a loop which filled the screen with identical, organized, uniformly spaced squares. I admit I thought this was very basic as I was familiar with the loop and what each part of it controlled but after a bit more encouragement from Kim, I ended up with a pulsating mass of coloured circles which keep changing colour, creating a shimmering curtain. Still a very simple sketch.

From there I decided to start a bit simpler first with the cheese instead, heading in the direction of a game like interplay between the mouse and the cheese. In a short while, I had created sketch which created a randomly sized and coloured hole on a yellow background - Make Your Own Cheese! Until I figure out the proper way to upload the sketch, you can copy and paste it from here.

Upon learning how to import images and sounds, the scope of possibility widened again so by the end of the day, I had a mouse running horizontally across the screen, reappearing at a different Y-Coordinate each time it disappeared offscreen. An image of a mallet is attached to the cursor which upon clicking, swings the mallet down. If the mallet successfully hits the mouse, Roy Lictensteins 'Whaam' appears on the end of it - a bit of a joke following on from my adaptation of his use of bende dots. By the end of today, it had developed into a game as such, where by successfully hitting the mouse, it's position was reset to the left of the screen but it's speed would increase with each successful hit. If the mouse reached the opposite end of the screen, it would come up with a game over.

After getting away from Processing for a bit and thinking it over and even discussing my ideas with people not directly involved in year 1 BCT over a coffee, they were quick to offer more suggestions on making it more interactive as well as how to bring back the cheese. So from here, I'm continuing on trying to make it more of a game with more of a complex objective and with counters though need to keep trying to incorporate a bit more creative play and experimentation.

Say cheeese.

New half a semester, new paper, new project - new piece of software to sink my teeth into! The concept of programming with processing seemed a little daunting at first but walked through in baby steps definitely made it a lot more feasible. At the same time it was rather frustrating in that it seemed like an overly complicated way to create an overly simplistic image - one which could have been created in the simplest of imaging programs in maybe five minutes - but it is important to keep the bigger picture in mind.

From learning basics such as creating basic colours, shapes, lines and curves, opacity and placing them on a x y coordinate window, the possibilities began to expand rapidly as we introduced movement and other variables. Always we were shown examples of what is possible with processing, hence we are only splashing in the puddles. I found it relatively easy to keep up with it all and keep adding onto my creation, content with the relative basics and only minor frustrations which will eventually enable me to tap into the greater potential of the software in the endless varieties of combinations of numbers and characters.

Day 1 I was not content with creating some simplistic image composed of a few mere shapes and colours so trawled through my collection of art history images for inspiration which was found in the genius of Roy Lichtenstein. A well known name and body of works, synonymous with the pop art era, consisting of cartoon like images made up from repeated circles applied with a toothbrush through a perforated screen to create patterns, background and shading. Images were often appropriated and the scale and methods related to ideas of mass production to simulate the effect of commercial printing, like a magazine or newspaper image blown up to reveal the method of printing with dots. I chose to use an image of cheese as it was relatively simple to construct and had possibilities to expand upon. With the new techniques we learnt, I developed animated 'stink lines', flies which moved when the mouse came near it, and a mouse which followed the cursor, set against and detailed with a series of bende dots.

My biggest source of frustration so far has been trying to work out a mathematical formula to make the animated lines reverse direction - something I still haven't figured out and I'm sure there's some terribly simple way to do it I've managed to overlook. Besides from that, I've enjoyed using processing so far as it works on concepts of logic, such as mathematical equations. In that sense I find it easier to use than MAX/MSP because it is more easily laid out exactly what is controlling what and points out more simplistically where your errors are coming from. At this point, errors are still very frequent.


Image: Untitled (Paper Plate) 1969
Image: M-maybe 1979
Image: Close up of bende / benday dots