something in the way

Sans Titre (I believe I can fly) by Camille Laurelli.

found at rhizome

Advertising Agency: McCann-Erickson, Manchester, United Kingdom
Creative Directors: Dave Price, Neil Lancaster
Art Director: Dave Price
Copywriter: Neil Lancaster
Illustrator: Rob Brown
Typography: Karen Matthews

It all started with this animated gif I found lurking on the internets some months ago...



I saved it for the day I was inspired enough to make the effect with Javascript. That day was yesterday...



I know I know, this isn't really branching, it's just a disgusting worms kind of effect, that was something I got while playing with it. The code is simple, a bunch of particles and you generate a random value that apply to the direction of each particle (aka random walk). To get branching now you need to randomly generate more particles on the position of these particles. Here it's the result:



I posted the effects over twitter and minutes later @thespite emailed me a modified version of this last iteration.



That was interesting! I didn't know <canvas> had a method for blitting. It gave an effect as if it was algae continuously growing while the camera was moving back. To enhance the effect I changed the path drawing to thicker circles.



That looked nice but was starting to be too visually complex (and cpu intensive). I like the 2D version better and then I wondered how could it work if I wired some of the values to the sound amplitude of a tune and then using <audio> again. Here it's the result.



I spent 10x more time looking for a track that suited the effect than doing the effect itself. In the end I found a nice track at the always-interesting enoughrecords netlabel.

And... that is all for today... as usual, with Javascript, the source code is one right click and one left click away. Have fun!

PS: It was nice to see that most of the effects worked on my Android phone. I guess they also work on iPhone? :D

Some artists continually seek to tear down boundaries, to find new powder, new territory, new worlds to explore. They're the ones that hop the fence to get to places no one has ever been.

Other artists understand that they need to see the edges of the box if they're going to create work that lasts. No fence, no art.

Can't do both at the same time.

My guess is that you're already one kind of person or the other. When people present you with an opportunity/problem, what's your first reaction? Some people immediately start looking for loopholes or weak boundaries. "You didn't say we couldn't do xxx". For these people, the best and most obvious solution is to completely demolish the problem and play by different rules.

Other people, some just as successful, take a hard look at the boundaries and create something that plays within, that follows the rules, but that is likely to win because of this.

In my experience, either can work, but only by someone willing to push harder than most in their push to be remarkable. Going with the flow is a euphemism for failing.

• Installation: bitPong
• Concept + Development: Douglas Edric Stanley
• Development Platforms: Processing, Wiring
• Location: Fondation Vasarely, Aix-en-Provence (map)
• Festival: Gamerz.05
• Dates: 26 november - 4 december 2009
• Times: 10h - 13h / 14h - 17h

I have finally found a venue to show a decent working version of bitPong, a piece I created some time ago when I was still working on the close relationship with phsyical implementations of data and their aesthetic consequences.

The idea is simple: a two-player game, based on the uber-referenced Pong, here played with 8-bit controllers. When I say « 8-bit controller », I mean literally 8-bit, i.e. 8 buttons, each representing 1-bit of data. Collected together, this byte represents a 256 value variable which is used to control a visual paddle representation within the game. To aid players in the conversion of 1-bit discrete switches into their collective base-two 8-bit value, each button has been labelled: 2^n, i.e. two to the power of zero, two to the power of one, two to the power of two, and so on. This is otherwise known to mere mortals as the values 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128. To move your paddle, you must add each of these values together in order to position it somewhere between position 0 and position 255.

For those who know little about how the computer works internally, this is how the computer moves from the well-known binary 0 | 1 value, to complex values such as the letters you are reading right now: by associating a different value to each bit (the 1 values of « 0 1 0 1 0 1 » get converted to « 0+2+0+4+0+8+0+32 », otherwise known as the value 42) the computer can use a physically limited scheme (0 or 1, on or off, yes or no, true or false) in order to represent a far greater sum of possibilities (here a number from 0 to 255). bitPong plays off of this configuration and brings its dynamics to the surface of the playing field. In order to take control of your paddle, you will have to quickly master binary encoding.

In this Victor Vasarely inspired version of bitPong, hexagons populate the playing field and create an added diversion. Therefore, bitPong has now turned into something like a two-player bitBreakout. I was actually inspired by the following sign which is posted on the wall just next to my installation, indicating the escape routes out of the museum.

I have to admit, even considering the current legal battle of the Fondation, and the related embezzlement of it’s holdings by its president / family members, all leading to the current dilapidated state of this curious monument, it’s still a pretty cool place to show work.

Shared by Alcides Fonseca
Boa compilação. Não percebi foi o Handivi.

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