VIX Sound+Light+Motion

My first week in New York city has been so busy that I have not had much time to do a retrospective of my eventful week, from August 15th to 22nd at EMPAC in Troy, NY.

I am happy to report that I was successful in creating a “visual music” presentation on 3 screens with one of the aspects controlled in real time using gesture control.

Adafruit shipped my Arduino boards to EMPAC and I was able to research on the internet and receive help from others in the workshop to understand how to make the system work. I chose the infra-red distance sensor and used information from the Adafruit website to help me program the board. My trusty Ubuntu computer handled all of the Arduino code uploading while I ran the Isadora program on the Macbook.

My performance was thrilling for me, but I was inspired and informed by the work that everyone else in the class showed on Saturday, August 21, 2010.

The first work we saw was by Joff, a theatre instructor who has a company that puts on plays in Second Life. The work included a grassy field with images of human figures that were short videos. The figures would fade in, seem to be sleeping, then move in some way, then fade out. We were invited to interact with the figures, but I found it fascinating just to watch them.

It was eerie and engaging as an installation and Joff might develop it further as a performance or to be more interactive. (continue reading…)

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Guru Mandala -- Victoria Gibson

EMPAC — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center

My application to attend the summer intensive workshop has been accepted. August will find me in New York at one of the most advanced media arts centres in the world learning sophisticated control technologies. This workshop is intensive, going from 10am-10pm for 7 days on campus in residency.

LIVE.MEDIA + PERFORMANCE.LAB

8/16 – 8/22

The workshop addresses emerging and professional art practitioners, scientists, researchers, and students from different backgrounds in performance and new media committed to sharing their interest in developing a deeper understanding of composing work focused on real time, interactive or time-based experiences and multidisciplinary collaborative processes (video, sound processing, projection design, lighting, choreography and directing).

This workshop will assist me in realizing my Immersive Environment Instrument (IEI) and possibly lead to collaborations with other media artists that attend. An opportunity that has come along at exactly the right time to help me create my vision requires some pre-production consideration.

A Macbook Pro looms in my future, but I will still try to program and control my sensor array with Ubuntu.

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I am so excited to be chosen for the second round of the 2009  Seoul Olympiad Design Competition! This world-wide competition attracts entries from designers from many fields, from furniture and fashion to industrial and animation. I entered the magazine I made to demonstrate my integrated media skills. Only 661 designers have been chosen to advance to the second round of judging in all categories. I don’t know how many are in my graphic design section, but probably hundreds remain.

Last year, the 2008 Seoul Design Olympiad was a huge event with Cirque Du Soleil performing, the world’s largest recycled plastic sculpture and an enormous design conference. The winner of the competition receives an award and all of the final round designers have their work displayed in Korea at the event.

Download a copy of my entry, pictured at left,  here. If I reach the final round, there will be a “People’s Choice Award”, where internet votes are counted. If I get to this point, I will let you know.

Victoria Gibson, Artist Journal was written, photographed, edited and designed as a solo project. So many of my web and graphic design contracts have multiple contributors that I wanted to showcase my work.

The project was created using Open Source Software on a Ubuntu Linux operating system. Photos were taken with a Nikon D50 and processed using UFR plug-in for the Gimp. Design was completed with Scribus. The computer is an Asus notebook from Korea.

It is encouraging to receive international recognition for my design work. Wish me luck in the second round.

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