Month: July 2022

The Intervention is the final step for defining the Digital Media Art Project (PMAD) within the a/r/cographic methodology (da Veiga, 2019). As so, it closes the DDB (digital logbook), which aims to testify, research and explore the full creative process of the PMAD, from its ideation until its materialisation. My DDB contains the following entries:  Inspiration: here and here Trigger Intention Concept: here and here Prototype Testing and corrections And this entry: Intervention Therefore, as a corollary of the DDB, I introduce in this entry the second edition of the artefact I’m Watching You/Me (IMWYM 2). This new version introduces strong improvements and novelties after considering the live testing of the artefact, methodological definitions, feedback from the public, recent articles and research, etc. (see the full list here). Furthermore, I also give final specs considering that the presentation will take place at the Santo Espírito Convent of Loulé, Portugal. Introducing IMWYM 2 Front-end Interface Media + DDB Components and functioning Distribution Loulé and the Santo Espírito Convent Logistics and transport Conclusion References https://lufo.art/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/fragment_AdobeExpress-0180_AdobeExpress.mp4 Figure 1 – IMWYM 2 (almost) ready for the exhibition Introducing IMWYM 2 The second version of IMWYM will be presented within the DMAD Retiro between 12 and 15 of July, 2022. It is not just part of a shared exhibition, but the corollary of a full academic year of work following the PhD course DMAD. IMWYM 2 focuses its application on the field digital arts. Furthermore, it solves several issues considering the already presented list of problems and improvements: Concept: [IN]musicality (Critical issue 1). The concept allows an exploration of the artefact from an artistic point of view. In detail, it focuses on the visitor’s experience while interacting with a special set of media made by Hybrid Immersive Models. Thus, the artefact has the goal of understanding how visitors relate a visual artwork with a musical expression (Figure 2, left). If you want to read more about the concept check this entry. Narrative: [IN]tangibilidades digitais (Critical issue 2). The narrative was composed in collaboration with a collective of 9 artists. It invites participants to come across matters inherent to working with digital art through the exploration of the tangible / intangible binomial (Figure 2, centre and right). Full description of the narrative here: [IN]tangibilidades digitais. [IN]Musicality: the second edition of IMWYM The narrative of [IN]Tangibilidades Digitais Concept of [IN]Tangibilidades Digitais and presentation of the collective of artists  Figure 2 – Narrative, Concept, and artists’ collective of [IN]Tangibilidades Digitais Front-end interface (Critical issues 3 and 5). Using the visual programming of TouchDesigner and basic programming with Python, I created a front-end interface for a better fruition of the artefact (Figure 3). I am particularly satisfied with the result since this was a very critical issue for the previous edition. Indeed, in the interviews conducted to visitors was one of the most recurrent points: what is the artefact for? What does it do? Another critical point of having an interface was the necessity of gathering data from the public, so to then use if for studying the sociological reading and understanding of the concept. Figure 3 – New front-end interface of IMWYM Interaction with the new interface The visitor chooses a drawing from the 5 available spherical perspectives. We choose a song representative of each of the 5 musicians that I was listening while drawing. The visitor picks the most representative keywords both for the drawing and for the song. If the visitor adds a choice, it will remain in screen for the next visitor. Once the user confirms the match between artist and song, the program saves the pair matched in an external file, the previous elections become inactive, and the user can start a new cycle for another drawing and artist.  Screens IMWYM 2 has: A splash screen for welcoming visitors (Figure 4, left). A credit screen telling what is the artefact about and a mini biography of the artist. (Figure 4, centre) A help screen (still in process but securely ready for the exhibition ????). A navigation screen, where we can see only the 360 navigation (Figure 4, right). A menú screen, where we can choose the drawings and songs, and interact with the rest of the screens (Figure 4, right). Splash screen for welcoming visitors In a future version I could add some background videos as well Credit screen, describing the concept, the artefact and the artist Navigation and menú screens Figure 4 – Splash and credits’ screen  Media + DDB (Critical issue 5). The graphic material has the purpose of disseminating the functioning of IMWYM in anticipation, so to give the user the possibility of learning more about it before the visit. This material was produced and gathered as part of the production for the DMAD project, as part of the collective curatorship, and individually. Currently, IMWYM 2 has: Exhibition’s sheet in English and Portuguese to be distributed in place (Figure 2). Narrative of the shared exhibition, posters (A2) and   fold-out room sheets. A dedicated entry within the CIAC’s website. Two videos, one introducing IMWYM 1, and the second one promoting IMWYM 2 (Figure 6). Figure 5 – Promotional video of IMWYM 2 Components IMWYM 2 will have the following components:  IN-1: a physical drawing (a paper on a transparent structure, with a rear camera) IN-2: a digital drawing (either from a drawing pad or a table, or from a drawing software such as Eq A Sketch 360) IN-3: a pre existing equirectangular media (in this case, five drawings from the same collection) IN-4: a mobile phone with movement and location sensors IN-5: a high-resolution camera OU-1: a projector OU-2: an external monitor Complete functioning artist A first artist or visitor (AR-1) chooses one medium between IN-1, 2 or 3 based on a personal preference. Through the artefact’s interface (IN-3) it is possible to use up to two parallel inputs, meaning that the drawing can be composed interactively along with another artist or visitor (check more about this here).  If the artist chooses IN-1, then camera IN-5 captures the drawing on-the-fly. Thus, the software directly converts and mixes the inputs and streams it in VR modality through OU-1. If IN-2 or IN-3 are chosen, the artist has visual feedback both in equirectangular mode through OU-2 and in VR modality thought OU-1. OU-1 shows the…
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