Groove Mechanic » art http://groovemechanic.net Tech. Music. Toys... they're all the same Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:35:47 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc Kaleidoscope http://groovemechanic.net/2009/02/kaleidoscope/ http://groovemechanic.net/2009/02/kaleidoscope/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:13:04 +0000 abel http://abelallison.com/wp/?p=331 abelandtable_crop

Kaleidoscope

The Kaleidoscope is an interactive, reactive system for tessellating the world around you.  The project is part of an ongoing investigation of creative expression using images from the world around us.  It uses a live web-cam as the video input, tiling the image on-screen to produce kaleidoscopic images.  The system also allows for feed-back loops by pointing the camera at the screen.  The result is a recursive fractal image that moves and fluctuates as the camera tries to auto-adjust to the ever-changing image.

The idea for a video kaleidoscope was the result of brainstorming with Hayes Raffle and Sean Follmer at Nokia Research.  For the installation, the camera was surgically implanted into the eye of a stuffed bunny rabbit, and the kaleidoscope image was displayed on a 28″ television screen mounted on the floor.  The software was written using Processing 1.0.1.  There is no other image processing done aside from taking part of the camera image and tiling it on screen (i.e. no additional color operations, etc).
Kaleidoscope from Abel Allison on Vimeo.
Click thumbnails to view full image. The Kaleidoscope was displayed on a standard television turned on its side. The low-res image of the tv made for some great effects. To make the setup look nicer, the TV was covered with a sheet. I cut a hole in the top so that the screen could show through. This cute guy was my excuse for a camera stand. I wanted something creative and provocative. Something to attract people to the image. This guy was made by cutting open his back, removing an eye, and shoving the camera up and through the eye hole. I then sewed his back shut with needle and thread. The Touch IdiotBox abelandtable img_0737 A wondeful look This is a resulting image when the refracting glasses were worn by the rabbit. Pretty neat. This shows the more traditional kaleidoscope mode. N triangles tiled around a center point. Every other triangle is reflected so that the edges coincide. We discovered half-way through the night that the Rabbit could wear the glasses. You can see the difraction of the christmas lights on the TV screen. I guess that's me taking the photo. I love the TV's interlacing artifacts. abelandtable_crop ]]> http://groovemechanic.net/2009/02/kaleidoscope/feed/ 2 Cellular http://groovemechanic.net/2008/12/cellular/ http://groovemechanic.net/2008/12/cellular/#comments Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:28:13 +0000 abel http://abelallison.com/wp/?p=116 picture-10_crop picture-10 picture-9 picture-8 picture-12 picture-11 picture-101 picture-91 picture-81 picture-17 picture-16 picture-15 picture-14 picture-13 picture-12_0 picture-11_0 picture-10_0 picture-9_0 picture-8_0 ]]> http://groovemechanic.net/2008/12/cellular/feed/ 0 The A Project http://groovemechanic.net/2008/11/the-a-project/ http://groovemechanic.net/2008/11/the-a-project/#comments Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:36:28 +0000 abel http://abelallison.com/wp/?p=139

The A Project

This was an experiment with the letter ‘A’.  The goal was to see what sorts of silly things I could do with one image.  I guess the goal was to impose a constraint and see what resulted.
An 'a' disintegrating into tiny a's This 'a' disintegrates into dust An animation of a's being broadcast to the world Converting greyscale images to ascii Entry I made for Chris Reed's filler book. picture-2_crop ]]> http://groovemechanic.net/2008/11/the-a-project/feed/ 0