Color Occurence (Frecuencia de color)
From Medialab Prado
Descripción del proyecto / Description of the proyect
Preguntas iniciales / First day questionary
1. ¿Cuáles son vuestros objetivos a corto plazo (qué esperáis terminar en dos semanas)? / What is the short-term objective (what do you expect to finish in 2 weeks)? Coming to the actual site of the facade and getting to know the city, understanding the location better and adapting the original proposal to fit the situation better. Rigorous investigation of theories and writings on Twitter, twitter use in unexpected ways and its integration beyond our current understanding will lead up to a deeper understanding of the project. On top of technical development of the custom program for color occurence we will explore options of multiple camera use, as a detailed way of experiencing the physical facade through the live feed. In the end we would like to have a studied and operational prototype most specific to this location as we can fit it.
2. ¿Cuáles son vuestros objetivos a largo plazo (qué posterior desarrollo pensáis para el proyecto)? / What is the long term objective (what posterior development do you think of)?
This answer might be developed over time, we are currently looking at possibilities until the end of the workshop. We are not sure is medialab will show the project in the future but according to those plans we will start thinking about possibilities.
3. ¿Con qué colectivos o grupos de personas trabaja el proyecto para abrir el proceso de producción? ¿Cómo? / Whith which collectives or groups of people does the project work with to open up the production process? How?
We are a balanced mix of: Zevan who is a computer programmer and computer artist. His computer art is oftentimes interactive. His content is strongly influenced by his background in drawing. Ann who is a video installation artist. Her work's content is usually related to society of fictions, omnipresence of cameras, technology and defining the self through those. She usually does not work with interactivity yet always had a strong reflection on the viewer as well as the specific installation space. Sebastien who is a cultural theorist and musician can bring an educated viewpoint of cultural analysis and push our creative concepts. Tamara who is a graphic artist, performance artist and a twitter fanatic can challenge our design and potential performance options.
4. ¿Cómo pensáis que el proyecto se adaptará al entorno donde se ubica la fachada digital y qué repercusines sociales tendrá? / How do you think the project will be adapted to the digital fachade's enviroment and which social repercussions will have?
It will mix a live feed from the actual space in front of the digital facade and merge it with a global and instantaneous translation of what occurs there, through twitter (as we explained in the presentation). It will smudge the geographical differences between the real environment in Plaza de las Letras and the constantly connected rest of the world. It will be an exaggerated, fantastical version of what happens to us when we are online.
For us as artists, it is imperative that the result should be both cerebral and visceral to the viewer in Plaza de las Letras.
5. ¿En qué otros proyectos o teorías os habéis inspirado? / What are the inspiring projects and theories; background, context, references?:Paul Virilio on society of Speed and Disappearance. The show he did at Fondation Cartier, Paris in 2008: A video in which he speaks of society of speed and disappearance, and the diminishing relevance of geographical differences due to constant movement of people, and especially the data visualization of peoples' movement in the world he commissioned to several artists, successfully visualized his theories. : In addition in L'espace critique (the critical space) in which he discusses in length that the presence of a computer in a room frees its function from its architecture, meaning if a computer is present the room can have a large range of functions and it "flattens" the old architecture that used to inform "office", "playroom", etc. into a screen. This is influential on our project since we are playing with the idea of physical space (with the live feed of the actual point of view of the facade) and mixing it with visualization that is geographically unlimited and instantaneous in speed.
The LED facade is a tool for a public call out be it a political one or a commercial one, yet coming to the site for the first time one discovers it is placed in a rather hidden plaza, almost on the paseo del Pardo but not. The Plaza is intimate and the screen is huge and is targeted to a large audience. This situation invites exhibitionism of intimacy or intimate behavior.
Twitter is also a tool for exhibitionism of intimacy (though not limited to this kind of exhibitionism, also of personal knowledge, opinions etc). For that reason it is most prominent in the live feed manipulation in the project we are developing.
thinking about the following:
- screen = broadcasting. public interaction is not a conversation or a dialog. - triple contingency: Artists --> passersby, public, Twitter users. Who is the "sensed" audience? Notions of spectatorship. - closed space of the plaza (as in "personal space") vs. almost unlimited Twitterverse - phatic space: How to encourage social gestures? - spontaneous order through colour occurrence - judging colours by word combinations only? (Will "Golden Brown" always result in the song by the Stranglers?) - create a flow; there is no "missing" information, it is generated anew all the time.
6. ¿Cuales son vuestros requisitos técnicos?/ Which are your technical requirements?
Currently:
We need Processing with the GSVideo library and an internet connection on the machine connected to the led screen.
We need access to the rooftop camera to run tests to see if it works. We would also like access to the wireless cameras.
That's it for short term requirements.
Notes from daily meetings
friday feb12
1. think about the different audience situations: random passersby, large crowd, performance. 2. The twitter audience options: local - displaying local languages only, international - many languages, many characters, could be more suitable to a place like New York, our followers only - a twitter performance.
- friday tutor round table
1. consider the size of letters as mapped on the image as well as which images get precedence over others to get to be seen large
- 2. research which are the languages spoken in this area to be included in this version of CO.
- 3. if we organize twitter performances we should think about how they can be more specifically involved (maybe they can collaborate with a person physically here).
- 4. we shouldn't delete twitter characters like :) and so because they reveal that it is twitter.
upload test images for saturday here
Sunday feb14 meeting
Concept notes:
We want to tweet mention back the sentence to the users, as they wrote it while replacing the color name with color occurrence. for example. "i hate green bananas" will get a tweet mention " i hate color occurrence bananas" which will arouse their curiosity to learn about the project and be more active.:We prepared a diagram that balances conceptually the audience's in and out takes from the screen which we see as a two way mirror.
Tuesday, Feb16 project evalutation.
- 1.State of the project
Theoretical framework established and thoroughly explored. Basic tools developed. Development plan changed and reshaped.
- 2.Objectives for the 23rd
Have a working prototype with colour detection and motion tracking.
- 3.Visualizations. Visualization tests being considered.
Animations. Different kinds of collision detection and movement visualisations.
- 4.Interactions. Type of interaction. Which kind of relationship is established with users? How?
Double interaction, random or spontaneous performance. Twitter users and passersby form two publics on each side of the two way mirror.
- 5.Technical requirements. Which technology is missing?
mySQL database integration. Animation programming. Wrapping it all up.
Friday 19 notes
reworked interaction concept
- Basic premise:
- The screen will be divided into five columns, according to the five screen areas as indicated by the edges.
- There will be a one player mode and a two-five player mode.
- The two play modes are "monologue - choosing your words wisely" and "opinion leader - silence is oblivion")
- There will be a 140 character limit for the screen, to strengthen the twitter interconnection
- It will be done in Processing, as all of the openly accessible code is made for Processing
One player mode, "monologue".
One person enters the plaza. His colour gets detected, the background tints in that colour, the word landscape is generated. A word locks on him (standing sill in the desired place for two seconds or so), depending on his x and y coordinates within one column. He can then move within the column's y-axis to scale/zoom the words he selected in and out. He considers words for his monologue and tries to choose them wisely to create the maximum impact. Moving closer to the screen, the words get bigger (like a mirror - two-way mirror), moving away they get smaller. By changing the column and standing still for two seconds, he can select another word. This basically what game makers call an "exploration game", a free friv game with no real objective other than exploring a landscape or a foreign world, which in this case is the virtual plaza de las letras.
Up to five players, "opinion leader".
Two or more persons enter the plaza and let words lock on them within different colums. The "equalizer" comes up. The players' columns are set up to contain words in their specific colours. The screen flashes, the game begins. Movement keeps the equalizer going, until it reaches the top. Whoever moves the most, whoever creates the biggest stir, will have the equalizer reaching the top first. He is now "opinion leader", the screen background will tint in his colour, all the words that have been created within the equalizer will change to a word landscape which the winner can scale/zoom. If conditions for a new friv game are fulfilled, the game restarts.
phase plan for the project
Phase 1
to be accomplished by Monday evening.
- Have a first prototype of a moving word cloud, a word swarm, waves.
- Output optimized stills for testing
- Solve colour detection issue
- Decide on font (Arial = Twitter, Helvetica=better looking)
Phase 2
by Wednesday
- Colour database in English populated
- Colour tracking done and working or workaround found
- Twitter hash tag introduced
- Language separation working, collaborators start on Spanish colour database
Phase 3
by Friday
- Explored possibility of using additional cameras and joining signal
- Motion and background aesthetics completed and decided
- Player interaction on plaza tweaked and working
- Twitter mention (feedback to Twitter users) implemented
Phase 4
by Monday
- Join theoretical framework and actual working project
Tuesday 23 notes
The phase plan and the interaction concept both won't be put into practice. We'll have a working prototype with a slightly different approach (focus on the initial conceptual restrictions), which will depend much more heavily on spontaneous interaction ("colour booth"). In that way it is a step back to the multiple cameras approach. You can now enter the spotlight, let your colour be tracked, thus generate words for the others to look at. Possible: Semantic tweaking. Colour oracle. Let the big magic screen tell your colour fortune.
Feb 24th - updates and plan for perfected application (phase 2)
color picker is online so anyone can contribute to the color names. All data will be stored and used by the application for the output.
using instructions: http://mtcanvas.com/11am_call/tool_vid.html
color picker ENGLISH VERSION http://mtcanvas.com/co/data_pop.html
color picker SPANISH VERSION http://mtcanvas.com/co/data_pop_sp.html
color database http://mtcanvas.com/co/browser.html
May 8th CONCEPT REVISION
For the LED facade in the Plaza de las Letras (Plaza of the letters) in the literary Barrio of Madrid, we decided to create an emergent text work linking color as it is interpreted in spoken language with Twitter. The project selects at random a color name from our database, which is constructed out of colors named by our online contributors worldwide: contributors enter their name and associate a word or phrase with a color of their choice. We chose color as described in words for our variable since it perfectly demonstrates subjectivity of perception.The color database becomes a personal, current and multilingual “spoken language” color library. When a color is selected, a Twitter search is performed for tweets containing this color name and the tweets are displayed, generating a cross among international cyber communities.
Twitter is antithetic to literary language due to it’s distortion/evolution of language as we use it online, therefore it is a curious choice to bring it to the plaza of the letters in the literary Barrio. Twitter is also the contemporary evolution of public communication, though each of us encounters it alone in front of the computer screen, it is a public platform that is usually experienced intimately. We found the giant LED facade to exist in a rather intimate plaza, provoking thoughts of exhibitionism of private behavior or a public call out to a private audience.
Twitter use is a mirror to contemporary cultural exchange. A society consumed with technology, exhibitionism through technology and cyber friends. Since in a city there are endless, disjointed, physical encounters of people, the twitter language is an extremely relevant language to merge with the city-scape.
color picker ENGLISH VERSION http://mtcanvas.com/co/data_pop.html
color picker SPANISH VERSION http://mtcanvas.com/co/data_pop_sp.html
color database http://mtcanvas.com/co/browser.html
Ficha técnica y arranque / Technical details and starting up
Instrucciones de instalación del proyecto en un equipo desde cero / How to install the project in a clean computer: Simply place color_occurrence.exe on the computer you wish to install on and open the application. The computer must have an active internet connection in order for the project to function correctly.
Como ejecutar el programa / How to execute the program : Simply open color_occurrence.exe and let the application run. The computer must have an internet connection in order for the project to function properly.
Breve resumen de como utilizar el programa / Briefly, how to use the application?
To launch the application simply open color_occurrence.exe and let the application run. To add colors to the color database in english or spanish go to one of the following urls:
Spanish: http://mtcanvas.com/co/data_pop_sp.html
English: http://mtcanvas.com/co/data_pop.html
Página web / Web site: http://coloroccurrence.wordpress.com/
Open Source, Licencia, condiciones de uso / License, Terms of use Open Source MIT License
Archivos que conforman en el proyecto / Files included in the project: color_occurrence.exe color_occurrence.fla (source)
- Sistema Operativo (versión) / OS (version): Windows
- Software utilizado (versión) / Used Software (version): Flash
- Visualización/ Visualization:
- Base datos y scripts/ Database and scripts: MYSQL and PHP
- Otras tareas /For other tasks:
None - Para la programación / For coding: ActionScript 3.0 .
- Video tracking: None
Resultado tras el taller / Results after the workshop
Propuesta de programación del proyecto en la pantalla / Programming proposal for the project on screen. one entire evening a week will be ideal.
Tiempo máximo de proyección / Maximum screening time. no restriction.
Tiempo mínimo de proyección / Minimal screening time. 1 hour
Eventos/actividades / Events/activities.
to be announced.
Autor/es del proyecto / Author(s) of the proyect
- Ann Oren
Born in Tel-Aviv, received a BFA in Film&Video and an MFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts, NY. She also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Exhibitions include “Freewaves” The Hammer Museum, LA, “Expanded City” WRO 13th Media Art Biennale, WRO Art Center, Wroclaw, Poland “View From Here” PS122 Gallery, NY, “(IN)TANGIBLE, Taller Boricua, NY, “E4C” 4CULTURE Gallery, Seattle, “Festival du Cinema de Paris”, Paris, France, “Come out & play” APEXART, NY and coming up "MOVES10" Festival of movement on screen, Liverpool, UK. Residencies include Spiro Arts, UT. Oren is a grant recipient from The Jerome Foundation, The Visual Arts Fund, The School of Visual Arts and the National Board of Reviews, NY.
- Zevan Rosser
Zevan Rosser was born in Queens New York and began working with computers at age 11. Growing up he experimented with photo manipulation, 2D and 3D image generation, sound manipulation and simple interactivity. He received his BA at the School of Visual Arts in New York. At SVA he realized that he had to move away from existing software and start writing his own. During the summer between his sophomore and junior years he taught himself how to program in numerous scripting languages.
After college, Zevan became a freelance designer, programmer and consultant for design firms and ad agencies in NYC. In 2006 he began teaching Computer Art at SVA and now teaches in the undergraduate, graduate and continuing education departments.
Zevan is the co-author of Learning Actionscript 3.0: A Beginner's Guide [O'Reilly].
- Massimo Avvisati
- Sebastian Pfaller
- Tamara Acosta
Colaboradores / Collaborators
Enlaces / Links
The source code for final the project can be downloaded here: http://mtcanvas.com/co/color_occurrence.fla
Snippet
import codeanticode.gsvideo.*;
TweetsForColor tfc;
GSCapture cam; ColorPicker colorPicker = new ColorPicker(); int res = 10; Tweet[] words = new Tweet[1000];
PFont font;
void setup() {
//size(320, 240);
size(1024, 768);
cam = new GSCapture(this, 320, 240);
font = loadFont("condensed14.vlw");
textFont(font);
tfc = new TweetsForColor(this, "colorlist_en.txt", "en");
for (int i = 0; i < words.length; i++) {
words[i] = new Tweet();
words[i].x = int(random(screen.width));
words[i].y = int(random(screen.height));
}
}
void draw() {
if (cam.available() == true) {
cam.read();
image(cam, 40, 40,192,157);
//colorPicker.drawRects(cam);
}
pushMatrix();
translate(40,40);
scale(192/320.f,192/320.f);
for (int i = 0; i < words.length; i++) {
words[i].update(cam, tfc);
words[i].paint();
}
popMatrix();
}
void onTweetsForHSB(HashMap foundColor) {
color c = ((Integer)foundColor.get("color")).intValue();
String colorName = (String)foundColor.get("name");
String[] tweets = (String[])foundColor.get("tweets");
println(c + " " + colorName + " " + tweets);
}
/*
}*/
