let the camera pick my colours
colour. caries weight of words and meaning. a complexity that is astounding. and powerful. each time it is introduced into a system, it brings these things with it. how did we come to these colours? in the beginning. attached to so many things now, but what were they once, if anything at all, when they were just...

the images on the left are stills from a program i wrote in C for Danny Rozin's class Pixel by Pixel. The program processes data from a video camera. One pixel at a time, it determines the brightness of a pixel in relation to a threshold. If the value is above a threshold, it returns a 1 (white), below returns a 0 (black). Using this new data, the program then, 24 of these pixels at a time, assigns the binary representation of this colour and prints a bar of that colour below it's 24 bit representation.

I am interested in this way of arriving at colour. i chose to introduce colour using specifically the vocabulary that we have chosen to represent colour on a computer. an audience can take it to mean what they want. but for me, it was the first time i was able to bring colour into my work in a way that was satisfying and honest.

xicui entertainment center - content prototype 1

*** here is a link to run my first demo ... this is just a draft, more to show a concept...a work in progress ***
It is important to remember that at the core of all computational processes is physical matter. Physical matter, a material, like brick, stone, grass or air. Our imprint can and should be seen in this matter. A brick wall as a discrete system, has a tendency towards expressing an inherent state. When another discrete system, such as a person comes into contact with the wall. There are pathways, channels, entry points into the system of the wall. Keys access these. Keys are everywhere…walls can be anything. You need an entry point to change the state of the wall. And depending on the wall’s natural tendency (rigidness….or high probability) towards a certain state can influence our ability to effect the wall. That being said, data stored in databases is the same as the data of walls. It is a new material however, with the ability to mimic, transform, a template to create virtually any system…and apply to it virtually any properties.
This is a really exciting idea for me, what happens when the material of computers, bits, is packaged in ways that it can be extended onto all different properties. Where the interaction between discrete systems, trying to connect becomes the structure of the system itself.

The xicui entertainment center is a building facade with 640x370 square led panels. Each led panel, doubles as a solar panel, with photo-voltaic cells that store energy during the daytime. With no light, the wall has an inherent texture, tendency towards a certain pattern. This pattern is described by 3 different categories of pixels that make up the wall. The darkest panels are the ones with the most photo-voltaic cells (let the least amount of light through. The medium have the middle range of photovoltaic cells, and the brightest have no photo-voltaic cells.

Using data from the density mappings of the 3 ranges, this program cycles through the wall, addressing each pixel, one at a time. For each pixel, the wall as a discrete entity is projecting a state (on/off), the state of the wall is not random, it is influenced by the value from the density mapping, specific to each individual pixel. The state the wall is expressing is pulled towards a value determined by the density map. Analogously, the human has their own control. A single isolated entry point, counterpoint, where a vocabulary is shared with the facade. Like the wall, the human can project a state, using the same on/off language. The human and the wall are analogously addressing the same point on the wall. Ultimately, the human has the final say on what value the current pixel will display, but if the wall is in disagreement with the human(determined by probabilities derived from density maps), this will be shown with a red line appearing perpendicular to the current pixel. The size of the line is proportional to the interaction, communication between human and wall at that discrete entry point in time/space.

The effect is one where I hope to create a new wall whose structure is described by the interaction between the human and the natural state of the walls material. A push, pull between both forces...where both discrete bodies are represented, cycle into and form an inherently transformative system.

I have been working on developing a software model in order to study innovation from this theoretical and practical perspective. I am doing, pretty much all of my design projects as iterations of this, because this is how I think we should be designing things. Data is a huge subject, what to do with it, how to clean it up is an important problem and question. I think we should be designing with this in mind. Where the things that we design are specifically to channel, and transform data. Built in sensors (entry points)....which in itself is a transformation between spaces(when you choose entry points, data is lost...), and algorithms on top of this to compute and determine how this data is used, and is recycled back into the system.

on windows

windows. the first thing that comes to mind is uncertainty. we build walls, but are not so sure of them. not sure that they are supposed to be there. a window is a hesitation. an uncertain commitment to something rigid. an acceptance that our walls are not absolute. dissatisfaction with our tools as incomplete, indefinite, representations of our expression. windows make walls movable. open walls up to, and acknowledge the possibility that walls can always be better. if not at that moment, in that circumstance, some other. the vocabulary of windows exists for a reason, a concession, plea, that walls are indefinite.

simple communication model - v2

How much data can you derive from a this simple system? 2 pixels. 2 states. communication. center panel is a visualization of the interaction between left and right pixel. When both pixels are the same, a pixel of their colour is output. The pixel decreases in size depending on how many times it takes for both to be the same. Behind it is a coloured square. (more of the coloured square is revealed when there is miscommunication).

run the code.

This becomes a visualization model, not only of simple, realized communication, but also missed communication.

This simple probablistic ruleset is being used to reconstruct a panel in my 2d screen. If this ruleset can be extended to the screen, where else can it be applied? What other models can it build?

If you map the 2d screen onto a cylider, you have a new dimension, a new space to work within.

Problems that I have with these images...
1. the colours need to go away. Any colour other than black and white have an arbitrary relationship to the system. They are usefull now in terms of seeing what is going on, but I ultimately need to get rid of them.
2. I'm also struggling with another assumption. I need some parameters that define the "space" within which this system is operating. Right now the starting point parameters is the screen. If I map it to a cylinder that is another decision. It would be interesting if I didn't have to make this decision, and the ruleset would be able to do it for me. These are more things that I am thinking about...

code (won't render because opengl)