In the Line of Sight

In the Line of Sight is featured in CyberArts 2009, Prix Ars Electronica Exhibition

September 4 - October 4, 2009

OK Center for Contemporary Art, Linz, AUSTRIA

http://www.ok-centrum.at/ausstellungen/cyberarts_09/cyberarts_09.html

See images and video of In the Line of Sight at Elaine L. Jacob Gallery in Detroit.

The picture above shows one of the flashlights in a microphone stand and clip. The microphone clip still needs to be slightly modified, so that it also allows the flashlight to sit exactly horizontally. This can be done with a little cut near the clip’s hinge (see picture below):

The microphone stand is approx 6 feet tall (fully extended) with an adjustable height from 3 feet to 6 feet. It comes with a cable strap (which is a little too big for the BNC cable but still can be used). The BNC cable does not pull at all on the flashlight, so changing the flashlight’s orientation due to cable strain is no issue.

Finally, by chance I stumbled over this old William Shatner live album from 1977 which has relevant cover art (see a picture of the cover here)

We continued our work with Rebecca and Don on Dec. 6th with a full day video shooting of individual movement sequences for a database of clips that are fed to the flashlight matrix. We are currently working on editing the clips and arranginging them in a database for a generative/emerging dance choreography in video (Quicktime .mov, H.264, 720×480, cropped from 16:9 HDV to 4:3 DV).

We have started to work with Rebecca Bryant and Don Nichols of past)(modern performance duo on movement studies for the source video portion of In the Line of Sight. The first videos recorded on November 21, 2008 feature improvisations and experiments toward a database of suspicious and ambiguous movements in space - related to current technological developments in surveillance technologies that are less focused on the comparison of facial features and more on the analysis of movement patterns. Below is an example of our first experiments (Quicktime video format, MPEG4):

HDV_longshot_02.mp4 (20.2MB)

These are the first digital sketches of a possible spatial arrangement of the flashlights. This sketch is modeled after the early visualization posted here. The top picture shows a perspective of the curved flashlight matrix, the smaller pictures underneath illustrate close-up, top and side views.

More sketches of different spatial organization possibilities will follow. The digital models were built by Micah Bowers (graduate student in Electronic and Time-Based Art at Purdue University).

Below are some pictures of an early model visualizing a possible arrangement of the flashlights.

Side view:

and top view (we aimed to arrange the flashlights in a way magnetic field lines behave):

Recent developments in computer-aided surveillance technology suggest artificial intelligence algorithms that are based less on the comparison of facial features than the analysis of  movement patterns. For example, the department of electrical and computer engineering of the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering has developed a surveillance system that analyses human gait and corresponding activities, such as humans carrying objects like backpacks, handbags, or briefcases for  “suspicious activities”.

This is the conceptual framework for a dance performance in which the performers develop an abstract choreography based on the afore mentioned technological concept of suspicious movements. The choreography is designed in a non-linear fashion, individual parts will be recombined by computer software (click on the image below to see a higher resolution diagram):

We will tape the performers with surveillance cameras to create a high contrast between the background (black) and performer (white). This footage is the main source for the 10×10 flashlight matrix. At the same time, using pattern matching algorithms, certain movements in the recorded dance performance trigger related videos in a database of prerecorded film excerpts. After the film excerpt is played back, the video switches back to the dance performance.

We are deliberately taking into consideration the subtle glitches and errors of our pattern matching algorithm that will create new and unexpected combinations of the combined materials.

This picture shows Francis Picabia’s landmark stage set-design for Relâche (1924), an avant-garde ballet created by the painter and his composer friend, Erik Satie. The idea of putting lights on the stage challenged traditional theatre lighting in which performers on stage are lit and the audience disappears in the dark. In a Dada gesture Picabia lit the audience from the stage, temporarily blinding them and thus reversing the role of audience and performer. In the Line of Sight can create a similar situation when audience members walk through the flashlights’ light beam and see themselves in the spotlight.

Otto Piene’s Electric Rose (see: http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/electric-rose/) is yet another example for a possible alignment of the 100 flashlights