02: Monday. Arrive at Concordia
At Concordia we were introduced to Sha Xin Wei and his crew of talented techies at the TML (Topological Media Lab). The TML is a research arm of Hexagram " a media arts and technologies research/creation institute". At their disposal the TML has the "black box" an approximately 25' high space with permanent lighting grid, control booth, a raised concrete floor, black damper panel clad walls and a giant projection screen wall. The space is a dynamic environment for total media and sound work. The TML crew brought new iMacs, high end digital video cameras, streaming spot cameras, microphones-- condenser mics, contact mics (which record vibrations), wireless mics, projectors, sound mixers and synthesizers, a lighting board, and all the software and hardware needed to make the black box into one large grotesque perturbation. It was a pleasure getting to work with Harry, JS, Marie Josee, Morgan, Elliot, Flower and the rest of the crew over the week.
Image courtesy of Daniel MacGibbon.
03: Tuesday. Hexagram Tour
Floors 10 and 11 in the Engineering and Visual Arts building are devoted to Hexagram and the approximately 80 researchers (including graduate students) that are supported by the facilities. Hexagram operates coordinately between the Université du Montréal, L'Université du Québec a Montréal (UQAM) and Concordia University. Hexagram boasts state of the art sound, animation and film editing technology-- including suites for Avid, Final Cut, and Maya. There are also rooms devoted to rapid prototyping equipment such as 3D printers and scanners. The 3D printer uses a sugar-type solution to build objects-- the printer deposits the ink much like an ink jet printer. The user has to have some familiarity with the proccess as the fragility of the objects varies with size. When completing especially small pieces the application of "ink" has to b controlled by physically re-orienting the piece as it is being printed to allow for the best results. There were also large format fabric plotters, which allowed for printing on everything from silk to vinyl, high resolution large format paper plotters, and an amazing collection of looms and other weaving equipment including an automated Jacquard loom. Hexagram also offers a metal machining shop, wood shop and studio space for installations and research.
The Jacquard loom, 3D printer, 3D scanner and prototypes/molds produced by the 3D printing process.
Image(s) courtesy of Nick Bell. Sound studio and editing suite complete with speakers and cube shaped mathematically designed acoustic tiles which decrease reverberation. The corners also have fitted panels to reduce the base reverberation.
Mark Sussman, an assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and a founder and co-artistic creator of Great Small Works, a theatre collective in NYC, stopped by the black box to discuss his work. I was especially interested in Mark's lecture because his background is in puppetry, performance and the toy theatre. Mark spoke about the importance of staging work, about notions of impression, spectacle and the unpredictable. His talk re-asserted for me the importance of connection through narrative in my own work, and he highlighted for me that the thrill and surprise by which an artifact or environment is experienced becomes a measure of the engagement by which we explore our own surroundings.
Mark also sent me Heinrich von Kleist's essay, " On the Marionnette Theatre" of which I have included a passage below:
In addition, he went on, these puppets possess the virtue of being immune to gravity's force. They know nothing of the inertia of matter, that quality which above all is diametrically opposed to the dance, because the force that lifts them into the air is greater than the one that binds them to the earth. What wouldn't our good G. give to be sixty pounds lighter, or to use a force of this weight to assist her with her entrechats and pirouettes? Like elves, the puppets need only to touch upon the ground, and the soaring of their limbs is newly animated through this momentary hesitation; we dancers need the ground to rest upon and recover from the exertion of the dance; a moment that is certainly no kind of dance in itself and with which nothing further can be done except to at least make it seem to not exist.
Soon I will post further thoughts on Mark's work and on its connections to enchantment, event space (an idea proposed by Mette Ramsgard Thomsen) , and my own theoretical postulations. For more information on Mark click here.
The crew with the TML gave a short show-and-tell about some of the software, namely, Max/Msp and Jitter which can be used to generate video effects in real time via a life camera feed.
04: Wednesday. Textiles and Interactive Fabrics
Today included a discussion and presentation by Barbara Layne who directs the Studio subTela team. Their research at the Hexagram Institute involves the "development of hand-woven fabrics with embed microcomputers and sensors to create surfaces that are receptive and responsive to external stimuli. Light emitting diodes are used to create a flexible message board. Wireless transmission can change the patterns and texts from a distance. Layne's demonstrated a series of electronically embedded garments including a dress with photosensors that reacts to light and a jacket embedded with an LED grid which allows for scrolling text and interactivity between wearers.
1 comment:
hey Marnie - what a cool collage photo of the Jacquard Loom! good job! g
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