Digital Media Art Project: Intervention
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:
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.
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.
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.
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).
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
- 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 result in VR modality with a Field of View previously set (e.g., at 60º), i.e., the spherical anamorphosis converted in a moving linear perspective viewport according to the camera’s position.
- A visitor (VI-1) chooses a drawing from the available collection of spherical perspectives.
- VI-1 Interacts with IN-4, sending OSC data to the software through compass and gravity sensors. Every new position of the phone discovers a new part of the drawing.
- VI-1 chooses a song of the available artists. The selected tracks represent the musicians that I was listening while drawing the spherical perspectives.
- The visitor picks the most representative keywords both for the drawing and 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.
- Hence, the data gathered during the exhibition help to understand how visitors relate music and immersive drawings.
Distribution
I present an ideal scheme for IMWYM 2, which also solves issues 10, 11, 12 and 13 (Figure 6).
However, for the incoming exhibition in Portugal I will consider just those necessary for v1 (described here). Furthermore, some components are not on the scope of this exhibition (such as the glass table for drawing), and certain possibilities (such as hanging stuff from the walls) rely exclusively in the policies of the exhibition’s place. Sadly, I will get this information much probably within next week, right in time for the presentation.
Loulé and the Santo Espírito Convent
The exhibition will take place at the Convent of Santo Espíritu, in the city of Loulé, in Portugal. While doing the shared curatorship works, we were informed about the available rooms for presenting (Figure 7). Once I had that in mind, I did some study sketches for getting the best for IMWYM considering the issues mentioned before (Figure 8). This helped me to define the space and the integration with other exhibitions of the [IN]Tangibilidades Digitais.
Finally, considering the available space, v1, and the integration with the work of my colleagues, this should be the final scheme of IMWYM:
Logistics and transport
The equipment necessary for IMWYM 2 is:
- A laptop able to run TouchDesigner and EqASketch360
- A projector
- A projector screen
- A drawing board, fixed on the wall or on a rigid transparent support
- A high resolution camera with a solid tripod
- A mobile device with Zig Sim Pro installed and with movement and location sensors
- No internet connection is needed, the artefact works with a local network
- Electricity plugs
- HDMI / electricity cables as long as the position of the projector and the computer might need.
As the major part of the equipment will be provided by the CIAC, there is no need for me for big movement plans. The most complicated thing to bring are the spheres and the physical drawings, which I might either bring with me or print in Faro after my arrival.
Conclusion
With the closing of Intervention I arrive to the end of the developments for the digital media art project. Of course, this is just a formality, since this is just the beginning of a long path of research. Indeed, I introduced IMWYM 2 with both an ideal scheme that solves big par of the issues previously presented, and with a concrete version v1 to be presented in a few days in Loulé. It is quite clear that IMWYM has still a lot of work to do and things to solve.
Yet, following the a/r/cographic methodology helped me to organise a path within certain margins that kept me contained and focused. Therefore, I seize the opportunity of this last post to thank:
- to Pedro Alves da Veiga, author and referent of the methodology, professor and (nice) devil of our PhD course;
- to António Bandeira Araújo, whose councils and words are always more than accurate and valuable;
- and finally, to my colleagues, with whom I had the pleasure of walking this path and I will also have the pleasure of sharing a week full of art and comradeship.
See you in Loulé!
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