Public Art class 11

April 13

Dataton Watchout

Paradigm:

• Space (stage)
• Time (timeline)
• Resources (media window) = things to populate space & time

What media can you use:

• Still images, moving images, sound
• How to get them in: File, Import
• How to arrange – Keep files in same or subfolder as watchout file so relative paths can be used for media. Media must be moved to another computer with watchout file – they are stored externally.
• Handling media (p. 31)

• Images: bmp, gif, jpeg, psd (maximize psd file compatibility when saving), pict, png, targa, tiff. QT used to read images in.
• Can handle alpha channels – p. 106 on transparency

• Moving images: mov, wmv, avi, dv, mpeg 1 or 2

• Mpeg 1 for a lot of small video clips (medium quality)
• Mpeg 2 high quality, supports HD
• QT animation – high quality, low compression
• DV (AVI file format)
• Windows media 9

Sound:

• Jpeg, aiff included separately from the movie
• Normalize, EQ, compress

From HPAC documentation: Use uncompressed QT split into 5 horizontal segments. Native resolution 1536x1024, but media files need not be in this resolution or aspect ratio. Segments should also be split into a file size under 4 GB. If using compressed, please use .mov encoded w/ h.264 encoder.

What you can do with it

• Play (set duration)
• Tween: RTS(negative flips)
• Do not use scale in Watchout to reduce size of very large image, do

beforehand in image editing pgm. Can change anchor position in dialog box Opacity Color/contrast (be careful) Alpha channel Volume (audio files)

How to change: Key frames (set points that the computer will interpolate between) Set interactively or bring up dialog box by pressing enter when clip or cue is highlighted

Workshop

• Import 5 images, 2 w/ text (forward, backward)
• Drag from bin to stage
• Can move interactively on/between stages (Ctrl/arrow to move 1pixel at a time, or highlight media and press enter to see dialog box)
• Move to layer 2 – 10 sec
• Change duration
• Drag image to layer 1 at 5 sec, duration 1 sec
• Play – image in layer 1 will occlude image in layer 2 for 1 sec.
• Drag image to 15 sec, duration 1 sec
• Set initial position at screen 1, animate through all screens
• Set play cue at 15 sec, name “migrateR”

Yellow sun allows temporary disabling of layer (won’t see image)

• Import movie file
• Place pause cue at Fm. 1

To loop file, drag end of cue beyond natural duration of media and check LOOP in dialog box

Some possible patterns of interaction

PD control patch (Drew)

Professional opportunities

see main public art links page

watchout"programmer" - eg. of available job Message 163 of 200

Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:01:35 -0800 Author: "Jim Muse" <jimmuse@museprestech.com> Subject: Watchout programmer - Chicago Body: Hi, all.

We are looking for a Watchout programmer to work at McCormick Place in Chicago 11/17, 28 & 29 (Thanksgiving weekend).

I have two very simple shows that will need to have videos laid in to a time line and tweaked.

Famous last words... should be simple.

Anyway, contact me with availability, rate and CV off forum at jimmuse@museprestech.com

Thanks,

Jim Muse CEO Muse Presentation Technologies

Digital Art/ Public Art (Christiane Paul) discussion

Flow; Networked commons

Intention of essay is to examine how digital art has used electronic networks to redefine the notion of public space

Notions of public discourse, civil society have suffered as a result of emphasis on the individual - a key concept in the US form of democracy, one of the things we find most abhorrent or at least strangest in socialism/communism is the emphasis on the social agenda, the welfare of the masses – different societies have different perspectives on the balance between the individual and the community. Rosalind Deutsche has an eloquent argument about the failure of democracy

--An important element in all public art is varying degrees of audience participation and agency. Degrees of agency are measured by the ability to have a meaningful effect in the world and in a social context.

--Historically, video art and live video installations attempted to challenge traditional power relationships by allowing a much broader range of people to talk to one another – Hole in space, Nam June new year’s eve around the world Cable access – promised democratization Kit Galloway and Sherry Rabinowitz – Hole in Space, 1980 [[1]]

--are new media egalitarian in structure

--what is the encoded agenda in an example of hardware/software (political, for eg.) (they tend to make us, encourage, allow us to do certain things and not others) pd/GEM vs Watchout

--mass media fabricate non-communication, if one defines communication as an exchange

distributed vs. centralized – protocols that control communication (tcpip, http, etc.) peer to peer vs. client server networks are both/and, not either/or

digital media redefining the public space – how? Not shared territory but non-locality Exists outside of a single nation’s or state’s jurisdiction Commoners = communities of interest despite physical location

p. 9 – Fostering audience agency is an activist goal for many artists. Examples? Reasons? (any communal activity encourages cooperation over conflict) Loren Carpenter driving game, pong [[2]], [[3]] Mary Flanagan, Giant Joystick [[4]]

Turns (Margaret Lovejoy) Agonistics (Warren Sack) are open to outside information but still establish closed system in that the material is organized on the basis of specific parameters that cannot be changed by participants. Artists create context.

Artists invite Collaborative creation – Agora Xchange – Natalie Bookchin [[5]]

The Pool, Jon Ippolito [[6]]

Blast Theory – combines real and virtual locations in a game of cat and mouse

Tele-collaboration, telepresence Teleporting an unknown state – Eduardo Kac [[http://www.ekac.org/telepsim/telep.html[[

Critical Art Ensemble (tactical media) - addresses issues of corporate power, sometimes includes input from participants [[7]], [[8]] sometimes not as in Halifax Begs Your Pardon [[9]]

The Yes Men [[10]]; Bhopal compensation [[11]]

Reading

Lichty, Patrick. Agoras and Conversations:Virtual Worlds, Public Art and 2nd Life, Public Art Review, issue 41, fall/winter 2009