2010 Work

Processing Work

This shows the code progression. Clicking on each link will bring up a demo of each piece. A short description will be displayed on the page and more information. The workings of the code with heavy commenting can be found within the source code link. Some pieces do not work due to the fact that my work progressed and changed but the source code links will provide information on what should happen or the idea that I was going for. The code generally shows a small part of the whole. A modular approach to the code was taken as the enabled me to break up a complex problem and break it down to manageable pieces. An OOP coding practice was taken as much as possible so as to enable the code to fit together more easily at the end.

Comments to be read in the source code take the form of // or /**/. Please Read!

If only a directory listing is given then it means that the pde files should be read (These are processing sketches which are basically just java files).

A java browser plugin is needed to view these. Alternatively you can download processing at http://www.processing.org and run natively.

Sites

Image/Sound Collaboration.

The initial project that I worked on in a collaboration with Josh Angell. This was a piece that was going to utilise user contributed sounds and images to create an audio, visual piece of live computer generated music and digital montages to create a party feel. The use of the work being created by the audience reappropriates the work and creates a work that is personal to the spectator. It is a work created by a community.

Orginally this piece was a 50/50 collaboration however my partner was unable to put in the time to the work so my ideas had to be scaled down. Instead I focused on the imagery and not the audio. This led me to using social network sites, mainly facebook as a way to generate the pieces and be parsed automatically to the exhibition. This led on to the idea of It's not me, It's us.

It's Not Me, It's Us.

http://tim.orangesauce.org/notmeus

It's Not Ne, It's Us (notmeus) was a stage in my work where the concept was that people were to post images to a facebook group. From there, the images were to be parsed in to the exhibition via some code and all the images would be displayed so the viewer would get a general view of what the online community had created as a whole. The idea was that the artist wasn't the one who had created the work. The artist stepped bck from the work to allow a community of people to create something for themselves. The work was further going to be opened by the fact that I would release the source code to an appropriate place (such as the processing discourse) and the imagery would be allowed to be manipulated through new permutations of code that had been created by people online.


A statement that sums up this work:


Despite involving and being influenced by others, the work of the artist is often self-directed and centered around their own response to a subject of their choice. Instead of that, I am interested in the open source ideal of using mass collaboration to develop work. I wish to facilitate the production of an artwork where no individual has sole creative control over the work. Therefore, my work is about the community that creates it - what they, as a whole, choose to create.

My artwork begins by providing a platform for the rest of the group to utilise. Using social networking sites and my own website, anyone can connect to and change the artwork anywhere in the world as long as they have an internet connection. The artwork is displayed physically at the exhibition purely as a way to output what is created.

What shall we make together?

What Do You Want To See?

http://tim.orangesauce.org/whatdoyouwanttosee

What do you want to see is title for this work. This has moved away from social networks and more towards the spectator or potential spectator. It asks the question - What do you want to see? Again this puts the power in the hands of the spectator and asks them to play an active role in the artwork. Without this community, there will be no work to show. With them a visualisation of what it is that people want to see can occur. The viewer is asked to write what they want to see via an online form. After that an image search will return and the results will be displayed in the exhibition. Again, like notmeus this work is the visual work of the community but instead of asking them to create work themselves they are merely asked what it is in words that they want to see. Images are then reapproppriated from search engines and displayed back to the audience.


A statement for the work follows:


My artwork and methodology is powered by the online and open-source world. Taking the ideals of these spheres as well as using the tools they provide, I aim to create an artwork that is not about the artist but about a community as a whole.

The subject of my work is the public that receives it - what we are looking for and what we come together to produce. I am interested in utilising the spectator and the possibilities of mass-collaboration via the Internet to create the work. In this exhibition I ask the question: What do you want to see? And aim to meet every request using the internet.

The artwork will be available for people to interact with online or at the exhibit itself. Every requested image forms a part of the work, creating an ever-changing feed of imagery resulting from user input.

Untitled Progression

For What Do You Want To See? I had the plan to present the work as a projection to give a basic approach to the way the images were actually viewed and so the viewers would focus more on the images projected and the ideas being portrayed. Unfortunately, I was unable to acquire the projector reserved for me so I decided to display them on computer monitors instead.

The work for What do you want to see had to be displayed in some way. The progression form the work being virtual to having a physical presence within the gallery required some consideration. After the projection idea I was initially going to be showing the results on monitors stacked on one another in a heap to give an impression of what it was the spectator had chosen. I felt that more than one monitor would provide an overall view of the imagery within the piece.

From this I decided to produce a vertical tower reminiscent of the feeds that social networks pour out. So the monitors were to be stacked up on top of each other.

I produced some tests of the monitors freestanding on top of one another as can be seen here-

Image0503.jpg Image0504.jpg

The visual aesthetic of the monitors being stacked vertically gave an ominous presence to the piece. This, for me, had links with social network sites and the controversy that is often created over data privacy. I decided to use text as well as imagery in the way that social networks heavily use imagery and text to interact with one another. This had links with my work as I was interested in using other people's data for my own usage.

The piece changed slightly to incorporate this stacked presence that the monitors suddenly gave. In order for the monitors to be stacked a unit was required for the mointors to be housed in. As I was trying to conceive this ominous presence I had decided to create a forced perspective with the mointors gradually getting smaller towards the top. Some of the images of the build for this piece can be seen here -

As the piece had become a physical piece it also had only one real physical location. This differed to the virtual world of online social networks sites. The idea that we interact with social network sites from our own computer screens, putting up all our data, not considering who might be able to view what we submit etc; became quite an important consideration for the piece. It was able to show all this data that we put on the internet in one, physical place showing people what happened to the interactions that they make online.

I had realised that most of the work I had produced required me to make some kind of decision on how or whether the submissions from people would be included in the piece. I decided to write this into the piece with me acting as a social mediator mimicking the way that social networks have their terms of conduct etc. People could text, picture message me or interact with the piece online in ways very similar to how social networks are able to be interacted with.

At this point my statement for my work had to yet again be re-written as follows:


Whilst the internet and social networks appear to increase our connectedness to one another, it has been found that loneliness is becoming more common amongst the tech-savvy generation. My work seeks to utilise the connectivity made possible by the internet whilst addressing some of the problems it has brought about. By filtering and aggregating content provided by those interacting with my work, I emulate the role of the computer. Yet in doing this, a moral code is added to the computational code, and the expectation for immediacy frustrated.


It was felt that the way that my work was being displayed within an almost sculptural piece was inefficient for what I wanted to display. Also, I hadn't been able to test my piece as network connectivity to the space had not been turned on yet. The decision was made to turn the piece from the physical piece that it had become, to an online, virtual piece with a computer in the gallery displaying what can be seen online. People would be able to interact with the piece both there and online, at home or elsewhere.

On the day that the show installation had to be finished it was felt that my work would be more appropriately placed in the canteen. This, for me, totally changed what the work was and how it was to be approached. There were also technical challenges to be overcome in a very short amount of time.

I decided to change the work to a purely online piece as I was unable to have any phyiscal space in the canteen other than a screen on the wall and a plinth with mouse and keyboard placed on top for people to interact with. Once again this piece became a virtual space and I found it appropriate to advertise the ability to interact with the piece both online and at the exhibition itself.