User:Zalán Szakács/projectproposal3

Graduation Project Proposal Draft 3
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Athanasius Kircher – Magic Lantern

Samuel von Hoogstraten (1675) – Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst

Zoetrope

Praxinoscope

Praxinoscope

Phenakistoscope

Eigengrau (project working title)
(German: "intrinsic gray", lit. "own gray"; pronounced [ˈʔaɪ̯gn̩ˌgʁaʊ̯]), also called Eigenlicht (Dutch and German: "own light"), dark light, or brain gray, is the uniform dark gray background that many people report seeing in the absence of light.

What do you want to make?

I am fascinated by the epoch of the 19th century, the pre ages of the cinema, where humans created different spatial illusional models of bringing dead materials of photographs and paintings alive through inventions such as zoetropes, praxinoscopes and phantasmagorias. These were early intentions, where through mechanical or human movements projections appeared on the stage. The public was entertained by subjects such as the supernatural, where ghosts and skeletons were the main inspiration sources. Multiple senses were triggered at these events such as vision, audio and tactile of the little electronic shocks attacks coming from the chairs at the climax moments of the shows.
My goal is to reinterpret these media objects into our contemporary context, called as well post-digital spaces. This term could be described as physical spaces build by digital components such as custom made softwares, sensors, digital interactions, algorithms, where the digital merges with the physical, creating a hybrid environment. New perceptions will be triggered through technology in a physical space. The phenomenology of space should be mentioned of which Michael Foucault wrote that it taught us “that we do not live in a homogenous and empty space, but rather in a space that charged with qualities, which may also be populated by phantasms. The space of our dreams, the space of our passions - they contain a kind of inner quality.”1
Searching the answer for the following main question: How do new sensory installations allow for new forms of experience and understanding?
The intentions behind the project Eigengrau is that it pushes the boundaries of different human spatial illusion effects with very basic elements such as light, haze, sound. Searching the solution for this question How could I achieve a big impact on the audience with these basic elements? Goal is to unter take weekly experiences with different LED strips, where different characteristics of light will be analysed such as speed, luminance, color, motion, rhythm, structure and vibration. These tests would help me to formulate my answers to my main question, which would create a good foundation for the final light installation.
The interactive installation uses light (LED) as communication methods of breaking the individual bubbles of humans and bringing more people together for a dialogue. It only starts working as at least two people are standing underneath. It receives data from heat sensors and motion sensors. Different LED strips will light up and the installation starts to work as spatial illusion. The structure consists of two grids one on the top and one on the ground, where different LED strips are installed in a grid of 4 x 4 = 16 on the top and 16 as well on the ground so in total 32 LED strips of 1m. Each strip has also its own sound, which creates an audiovisual immersive installation.

This installation manifests a new understanding about the post digital spaces and the importance of light for its audience. It sets its goal to create a community around this term and make it more accessible this installation for a broader audience.

How does this work differentiates itself from other light installations?

by it's critical view on interaction and the use of technology
the way of using data (heat sensors) for the interaction
the scenography part (afterimage)
interplay of the surfaces (top and button LED part) creating a unique spatial composition

How do you plan to make it?
Firstly I am investigating into two research ways:

Literature for the thesis (research consists of books and articles around media archaeology, philosophy, psychology light, brain, emotions, space, human perception and technology)

Prototyping for the graduation project (artistic, hardware and software, Arduino, LED)

What is your timetable?

September – October 2018: Research + Prototyping
November – December 2018: Prototyping & human testing with sensors, some parts are in 1:1 scale
January – February 2019: Finalisation of the installation parts: technical drawing, final software
March – April 2019: Production of the final installation
May 2019: Testing and documenting the process
June 2019: Buffer time
July 2019: Graduation Show

Why do you want to make it / Relation to previous practice

Since the antiquity humans were fascinated by light and it’s illusionary characteristics, as illustrated by the metaphor of Plato’s Cave. Around the fifteenth century, perspective and camera obscura were invented and since then this spatial depiction has become the norm to all other visual representations. Joost Rekveld writes in 2007 the following about these discoveries: 'Perspective was accepted as a ‘scientific’ and true method based on optics, but also as a model of how people could observe space. Gradually people realised that perspective was mostly about a way of looking at reality.' 1

Towards the end of nineteenth century non-euclidian geometry was discovered by mathematicians such as Friedrich Gauss, Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, Janos Bolyai and this brought up the concept of the fourth dimension, the concept of time in relationship with space.

Movement and light became an important motivation for the artists and designers from Bauhaus such as Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.

The digital developments of the twentieth century brought mankind new spatial perception such as Cyberspace. 'This space appears to be real and at the same time not geometric or not real in any physically determined way. We use completely new concepts to visualise or understand this space: rhizomes, networks consisting of nodes without any hierarchy, etc.' 2 (Rekveld, 2007) In 1970 the Artist Dan Graham coined the term “cyberspace” by this he meant a space which is meditated through the feedback technology of video tape; It was Graham who –11 years before William Gibson used it – coined the term “cyberspace” to describe the new inter-subjective technological space created by the interaction of humans within a video mediated circuit”

[See: Steps to an Ecology of Communication: Radical Software, Dan Graham, and the Legacy of Gregory Bateson; William Kaizen: Art Journal, Vol. 67, No. 3 (FALL 2008)]

After the millenium humans desired new understandings of spatial concepts as called ‘post-digital spaces’. These are psychical spaces build by digital components such as custom made software, sensors, digital interaction, where the digital merges with the physical, creating a hybrid environment. Human senses are triggered by these elements, while creating new sensory experiences, which have been deeply researched and experimented by scientist and artist in 1960’s such as James Turrell in his Ganzfeld Effect spaces. Our everyday life is deeply interwoven with screens and interfaces therefor there is a tendency and desire to break out of them.

Who can help you and how?
PZI staff
Children of the Light
Sound:frame

Relation to a larger context

roiji ikeda
james turrel
nonotak
joris strijbos
uva

strp biennale
atonal berlin
mutek montreal
ctm festival
todaysart
china light festival
ars electronica
sonic acts
algorave
live coding culture
algorithms from nature

References
Reading

Sources 1 2 Joost Rekveld 2007, Mental Spaces, viewed 15 October 2018, <http://www.joostrekveld.net/wp/?page_id=590> 3 Joost Rekveld 2007 Mental Spaces, viewed 15 October 2018, <http://www.joostrekveld.net/wp/?page_id=590>