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LiveForm:Telekinetics |
| Description The Waag Society for Old and New Media has in 2004 commissioned Canadian artists Jeff Mann and Michelle Teran to produce and present the second iteration of the LiveForm:Telekinetics Project. LF:TK involves the creation of a series of site-specific installation/performance works connecting hybrid physical/virtual spaces using streaming media and networked kinetic objects. The commission is part of the Connected! project of Waag Society, a two-year programme of performances, lectures, workshops, installations, and emergent events exploring collaborative networked media and live art. The LiveForm:Telekinetics project is envisioned as a laboratory that examines the intertwining of social networks and social spaces with their technological counterparts. As a work of art, it challenges and expands the notion of performance, the relationship of the artist and audience, production and exhibition, and ideas of locale and presence. The project creates hybrid installation/performative works, augmented with electronic devices and network systems, to create shared spaces and live social situations. Two-way streaming media such as video, sound, and graphics, are used to connect together physical sites via the Internet. Everyday physical objects within the environments become kinetic communications interfaces, animated with embedded sensors and actuators. In LiveForm:Telekinetics, mediating technologies are human-scale, built into architecture, furniture, decorations, utensils, toys, and the bric-a-brac that we surround ourselves with. The laboratory extends into "real-life" social spaces, site-specific situations with varying degrees of public/private intimacy, evolved rituals, and systems of objects: the café, the street corner, the kitchen. The common objects, social codes, and relationships of everyday life are analysed, and augmented with their digital correlates - hardware, software, and networks - creating a fabric in which distinct physical locations are overlaid with each other, forming composite sites that exist simultaneously in multiple places. Within these sites, participatory performative actions are evolved and evoked through hacked and rewritten codes - programs and recipies that subversively instigate and convene new social structures, interactions and ways of being together. The electronic collapsing and interfolding of place happens then not only on the level of speech-based media - instant messaging, audio chat, and video conferencing - but through a subtext of digitally activated collections of artifacts and the amplification of their function as networks of social and gestural communication devices. The overall effect might be more of a participatory blending of the ambience and presence of the spaces, rather than a typical performer-audience relationship. A pilot project was produced in 2001/2002, which explored the dining room as site, and the table as social and network interface. Two dining rooms were constructed in gallery spaces at InterAccess in Toronto and the Waag in Amsterdam. Video streams were embedded in the tables, mixing together the surfaces - plates, food, hands, etc. - between the two sites, as well as forming an electronic space where text messages and graphics were overlaid onto physical space. Sound and conversation were carried through the food itself, and various tele-operated kinetic objects created a sense of presence and melding of social gestures between the two spaces; for example clinking one's wine glass with a spoon would cause a motorized representation of the gesture to occur on the other side. While it is not the intention to repeat the "connected dinner" theme, the new work in 2004 will be informed by and significantly expand upon the groundwork laid in the pilot project. However, rather than construct an artificial social environment in a gallery setting, wireless network technology is used to enable situating the work in "real-world" social spaces as performance and installation sites, as well as the creation of mobile or wearable interaction systems that can move throughout the urban area and other remote locations. At the same time, a gallery space is set up as an increasingly public workspace, a locus of construction, experimentation, and documentation. Live connections from the public-space installations are also reflected back into the gallery for interaction, again blurring the distinctions between presentation and participation. The creation of an interactive web site presence is also important, not only for ongoing extensive documentation, but as a system for collaborative groupwork between remote locations. The work to be developed is intended for presentation in various cities and spaces. In future presentations, the artists would work together with local artists and organizations, plus an international network of collaborators, to create site-specific connected installations and interventions in different locations. The work is suitable for presentation at festivals, galleries, and similar venues. While a minimum duration would be approximately two weeks, longer durations of local interaction are desirable. Ideally the project will form an ongoing network of linked environments. Our collaborative method of working and its emphasis on the development of open "recipes", allow us to seed knowledge and skills as the basis for a continuing network. The work then, is not a predetermined installation, but takes an experimental and malleable approach; evolutionary strategies mirror the social and electronic networks it investigates. While based on specific ideas, it is open to dialogue, unpredictability, and exchange. In order to carry out this work, the goal of LiveForm:Telekinetics during the coming months is to further develop our system for creating connected situations. We hope to extend the research and development of a body of technologies, collaborative methods, and modular techniques that will provide the basis for future manifestations of the project, and to carry out a focussed preparation and rehearsal for public presentations later in 2004. We propose to continue the development of the technologies established in the pilot project, including the creation of kinetic interface objects with embedded internet and wireless support for direct connection to network access points, and enhanced server software to facilitate their interconnection. Further development of the Keyworx software and techniques would be carried out, plus research into related applications for shared streaming media. Web-based systems for remote collaboration and documentation will be constructed using appropriate open-source software toolkits. Some development will be undertaken using the advanced broadband network of Waag Society, the Banff Centre, et al; however the emphasis will be on systems that are scalable to ordinary internet connections, so as not to restrict the project to the few research network access points. Secondly, we would utilize these developments in the creation of new prototypes, experiments, activated objects, and fundamental installation elements. We plan to address a range of aesthetic and conceptual issues that arose in the pilot project, such as: - To what extent is it necessary or desirable to establish direct and overt communications channels between the connected spaces, such as face-to-face videoconferencing or text messaging? What is the qualitative and experiential difference between connections based on language exchanges, and those based on more ephemeral senses of presence, such as fleeting shadows, murmurs, and shards of overheard conversations? - Which individual qualities of gesture, movement, visual and sonic representations, language and body-language, are most important for people to recognize respond to the "live" presence of others within their environment, and to distinguish that sense from random kinetic events such as wind blowing in trees or the mechanical movement of machines? - What roles do people play in these spaces? How can traditional ideas of performer and audience, provider and consumer, player and spectator, be modified to investigate a spectrum of varying shades of intentionality and engagement? What new forms and mutations of social interaction, entertainment, or play might arise? - How can new forms of augmented interactivity and trans-local telepresence be implemented in such a way as to enhance social value without detracting or distracting from that which has already evolved? Goals & Objectives Building on the groundwork of the pilot project in 2002, we seek to further develop the technological elements, collaborative methods, online systems, interactive elements, and conceptual approaches, as described above. We aim to produce a working system of tools and techniques whereby we will be prepared to construct and present connected spaces on-site at various public venues. Technological Elements: - Further background research in appropriate existing technologies; creation of a comparative database of potential tools & systems for kinetic interface, graphics/sound, and online systems; further development of new tools and techniques for the above. Kinetic Interface: - Circuit board designs and firmware for MIDI-based interface to sensors, DC motors/solenoids, and R/C servos have already been developed in the pilot project; carry out further refinements. - Development of additional MIDI-based boards for control of more advanced actuators such as stepper and industrial servo motors, pneumatics, miniature hydraulics, etc. - Further development of more advanced interface circuitry using embedded ethernet, 802.11b, and protocols such as Open Sound Control, for direct and wireless connections to the Internet. - Exploration of techniques for mechanical construction; machining, molding, rapid-prototyping. - Creation of more robust server technology for transport and synchronization of motion data. - Testing and improvement of Waag Society's Keyworx technology, adding additional capabilities. Graphics/Sound: - Low-cost techniques for embedding graphics/sound into objects and environments. - Programming of Keyworx, Max/Jitter, etc., patches for specific applications. - Cross-media connections between graphics/sound, text messaging, sensors, and kinetic objects. - Custom programming as necessary for multi-channel, multi-site streaming; synchronization with motion-control data. For DSL/cable connections as well as broadband/Internet 2. Online Systems: - Refinement of effective collaboration tools for support of "connected lab" methods of working. - Implementation of more efficient content management systems for rapid web documentation. Collaborative Methods: - Further background research and investigation of existing projects and methods. - Establishment of a set of appropriate methods for group work in the context of building connected installations, including goal-setting, game-playing, brainstorming, task management, evaluation, etc. Interactive Elements: - Study and analysis of the social functions and systems of objects and spaces; creative work on reflecting, altering, and subverting those functions. - Application of the above techniques in prototyping various interface objects and environments. - Building up of a repetoire of basic and modular elements and techniques that can be brought to and applied in different installation settings and specific sites. Conceptual Approaches: - Through ongoing collaborative experimentation, to explore and address questions and ideas about: sense of presence, intentionality and attention, functionality vs. play, language vs. gesture, and so on. Production and Presentation Production activities for LiveForm:Telekinetics will commence in the spring of 2004, and run through the fall. The artists will work at the Waag, supported by a team of creative technology professionals, and in collaboration with other participants in the Connected! Programme, both local and remote. In addition, a co-production residency period is planned at the Banff Centre, tentatively scheduled for June 2004. Since the work is predicated on an open and exploratory relationship with social spaces and systems, production and presentation phases are not strictly seperable. Several iterative cycles of research, production, public presentation, documentation, and critique will be undertaken throughout the project. An invitation has already been received to present the work at the international Biennale of Electronic Art, Perth in Western Australia in September 2004; and the Melkweg, one of the most well-known presentation spaces in the Netherlands, has expressed interest in hosting an installation this year. The project will be finalized during a period of several weeks in December 2004, in Amsterdam. This will consist of an installation in the Theatrum Anatomicum, plus site-specific works in nearby public spaces. There will also be opportunities to connect with other international spaces within the Connected! network. Throughout the project, Waag Society will undertake a comprehensive publicity programme including press releases to newspapers, radio, television, and online forums; arrange artist interviews with the media, and promote cultural events listings in various publications. Printed invitations and other promotional materials will be produced and distributed through Waag Society's network. LiveForm:Telekinetics also enjoys strong support from the Canadian Embassy in the Netherlands, which will contribute to promotional activities, receptions, and so on. Contact For more information, please contact: mishaARTubermatic.org (replace ART with @) jeffARTjeffmann.com --J.M., April 2004 |