VIX Sound+Light+Motion

UniverCity Net - digital art by Victoria Gibson

Research into the Immersive Environment Instrument (IEI) continues and this post is about the visual surround aspect of the presentation. For background information on this project click here. There are lots of links to examples, but none I have the right to re-post. My digital artwork, UniversityNet, has become a kind of logo for the IEI, so I post it to break up the text heaviness of research.

My goal is to bring the cinematic experience of film into live performance within a virtual reality simulation. Exploring a non-linear narrative that references three time periods — past, present and future, to construct a communication that is open to individual interpretation. Resonating with an audience on an emotional level, the performer improvises each show as a unique construct. Using a sensor array, events are triggered with dance-like motions that communicate emotional intention through gesture.

The University of California,  Santa Barbara is the host institution for the AlloSphere, an incredible facility designed by Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin.  Dr. JoAnn Kuchera Morin assembled a team that included world renowned architect, Robert Venturi, to design and construct this feat of engineering. She talks about her work on TED with a really interesting video.

In 2000 she began the creation, design, and development of a Digital Media Center within the California Nanosystems Institute. The culmination of her design is the Allosphere Research Laboratory, a three-story metal sphere inside an echo-free cube, designed for immersive, interactive scientific and artistic investigation of multi-dimensional data sets. She serves as Director of the Allosphere Research Laboratory and Center.  . — XMedia Lab

There is a lot of interesting research in Santa Barbara that may apply to the construction of the Immersive Environment Instrument, but it is not portable and it was designed to facilitate research, not performance. There is no room for an audience, but compositions could be shown on video as seen on the TED site. The challenge would be to translate as much of the effect of this multi-million dollar facility into a portable touring show.

Many of the elements of the IEI have been used in performance before, as the idea of surround sound has been in use since the introduction generally credited to Stockhausen. The idea of surround video has been used by a collective, Workspace Unlimited, among others. Their example, Hybrid Space 360, is really interesting because it has already been presented at EMPAC – Experimental Media and performing arts Center Rensselaer in New York, 2008. There are photos on their site, but as it in Flash, you have to navigate yourself, click on projects to view the data . . .  I cannot even link directly.

Their interesting concept is of an interactive installation, not a performer controlled environment. The Immersive Environment Instrument will tour with Victoria Gibson in Girl Can Dream, the first composition for the instrument. Later, other musicians will be invited to join Victoria to expand the sensor array and integrate other personality styles.

A lot of recent development in software has made still photos panoramic and there are even very inexpensive point and shoot cameras that offer the ability to select the nodes (nodes are individual photos — see Wikipedia) required to stitch together photos in this way. With the proper viewer, an on-line panorama can be achieved. See the Apple VR site for examples of Quicktime panoramas (plug-in required) .

Ubuntu Users — The most promising thread in this area seems to be freepv not found in a repository by Synaptic yet. Build instructions on the site.

Anyone with the quicktime plug-in can view movies made of panoramic photos on this company’s site — Studio 360. These examples are not the photo itself, but a movie of the panoramic photo.

The concept of surround video is tricky, so I propose to set up separate nodes, the same way panoramic photos are really separate photos. This will also give me more flexibility in using lights to soften the edges of each node to aid in blending or to use the nodes a unique, distinct images. I do not expect surround video to be available soon as large studios are having enough of a challenge with Imax, Omnimax and conventional 3D films.  I think that it is more cost effective and realistic to project each node independently and let the instrument create a Cinematic Virtual Reality (CVR) illusion. Cinematic Virtual Reality is a term I created for the visual component to the Immersive Environment Instrument.

Share on Facebook

UniverCity Net – digital art by Victoria Gibson

As an Integrated Media Artist, I have many project ideas that I am constantly working on. My most recent project proposals have been seeking support to develop a new instrument for me to play in performance. My current goal is to develop a performance instrument that works using gesture control and sensors to create an alternative reality environment.

Although my core training is in music, I have studied dance and motion and have spent years of my life in on-stage performance as a musician. In my recent presentations, I have played computer based instruments and I realize that a lot of the impact of musical presentation is about the gesture of producing the sound.

If I am to continue to use the computer as a performance instrument, I need to develop a controller that responds to dance-like movements. The vision of being able to focus physical energy through dance and control audio and visual elements was crystallized into my need for an Immersive Environment Instrument (IEI). (continue reading…)

Share on Facebook

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.

Share on Facebook

Podcast (girl_can_dream): Download

My newest available technology is the podcast and I have decided to start a weekly singer/songwriter podcast titled, Girl Can Dream. I am producing this using low technology, my Zoom H4, set on stereo and an open source wave editor, Audacity on Ubuntu Linux. I am doing a minimum of editing as I plan to record these songs in the studio for a paid download. The next step is to add a payment system to my site and start making material available, for now I will thankfully accept donations.

The music business is changing so rapidly now that I hope I will be able to reach people through my podcast and find an audience for my songs. By minimizing the production, I am keeping costs reasonable, but I am donating a lot of my time. I am hoping that my podcasts can become self-supporting and then I can continue making them. The title of the series, Girl Can Dream, is inspired by my work with Ione at a workshop held at the Western Front in Vancouver.

Last December, I went to a dream workshop and had to  confess that I did not dream, or  I didn’t remember my dreams. I was given some directions to work with my sub-concious self and I have been writing down my dreams now. I still do not remember them well, but now I have opened up to dreaming and I realize I dream every night.

Songs come to me from a meditative space that is similar to the sub-concious dream state, but I have learned, through my studies with my Guru Sunitha Bapooji, how to meditate properly. Meditation now helps me to solve my problems and develop my patience. Patience has always been a difficult virtue for me to remember because everything always seems to take so long to develop. Now I must be happy and excited that I can record my songs and you can listen to them.

Please comment and let me know your opinion on the podcast. This is my first step towards distributing my music and I hope that it is a success — after all a –  Girl Can Dream.

Share on Facebook

I was very honoured to be asked to produce the film that was shown as the visual component of this concert in the Walter Phillips Gallery, located in the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Pauline Oliveros explained the concept and gave me freedom to develop the 20 minute film using the photos provided and my own digital artworks. Ms. Oliveros was inspired by President Obama’s speech in Cairo and the Codepink efforts to encourage peace by building three playgrounds in Gaza.  I obtained permission to use photos from the Codepink Flikr stream, with attribution, from:

Jean Stevens
National Media Coordinator
CODEPINK Women for Peace

The Codepink  projects are very worthy and I was proud to be able to support them and be associated with an initiative that is intended to bring people together to work for peace.  In addition to the photos of children and playground construction in Gaza, we used photos of American children playing in a playground provided by Ione.  She explained at the concert that she thought it was nice for them to play together. Ione was inspirational in the production of this film as she helped me to gain a more precise understanding of the concept of the musical work.

Many people complimented me on my work after the show and it will remain one of the highlights of my time in Banff. I did document the performance on video and the audio was recorded by the Banff Centre technicians, led by John DS Adams. At some point, I hope that my film, “A New Beginning: A Playground” will be shown during future concerts when Pauline and Ione perform this piece. When the audio is mixed, there are plans to produce a DVD with the soundtrack of the concert.  When it is complete, it will be available from the Deep Listening Institute site.

Tech Notes: All photographs and digital artworks were prepared in open source software, The Gimp. The film was created using Final Cut Studio on a Macintosh workstation owned by the Banff Centre.

Share on Facebook

Chris Chafe, pictured left, has an office at the Banff Centre and I was completely impressed with his musicianship and improvising talent. I have been informed by Pauline Oliveros that:

Chris Chafe is the director of CCRMA at Stanford University. He is on sabbatical leave and is in residence at Banff Centre until September 2009.

While I was in Banff, he was involved in several Telematic concerts that involved Pauline Oliveros and Ione in the “Chris Chafe, Pauline Oliveros, Ione Trio”.

I was thrilled to find a Ubuntu Linux user and he told me that he was using an application called jacktrip, based on jackd to patch the Telematic communication over the internet.

I will talk more about this later, but I witnessed some very low latency musical interaction between Chris (in Toronto) and Pauline Oliveros and Ione in Banff. This concert could also be experienced live in Second Life, a virtual reality, on-line world. These mixed reality concerts, where avatars are watching concerts that the real person is playing in are a new experience for me.

After he returned to Banff, a rehearsal with Jonas, who I met in WA, and another musician I did not know, both  in NY state;  joined Chris and Pauline in Banff through the internet connection facilitated by jacktrip. They recorded in Banff using Ardour on Ubuntu Linux.

This is a really interesting area to explore in Linux and he will be an invaluable resource to help me develop my move into Open Source music. “The Chris Chafe Trio”, including Chris, Pauline and Ione,  also performed live in the Walter Philips Gallery in Banff and I produced the film that accompanied their musical performance. I will devote a post to this concert, and write much more about all of the exciting work that I was involved in supporting Fleck Fellow, Pauline Oliveros. While I was in Banff, I was too busy doing the work to write about my experiences. I did take photos and will be posting them as soon as I can.

Right now I am at an internet cafe in Calgary and I plan to start my journey home to Vancouver with stops in Banff, and Summerland. More photos and posts as soon as I have reliable internet. Thanks to Pauline Oliveros for the corrections.

Click here for larger map

Share on Facebook

This past week, I have been involved in documenting the programming and rehearsals and finally, the recording of the audio for the musical quartet, EHRES. This is only one of the projects I have been involved in while I have been in Banff, and it has been very exciting to watch the MAX/MSP programmer, Ryan, work on creating a gesture control patch.

John DS Adams not only plays in the group, he was the recording engineer on a hugely complex session that included 36 tracks of recorded audio. I have lots of work to do editing the video and photos and  then editing them to the music that was recorded yesterday and today.  I should have some photos ready to post soon, but I want the group to see them first.

The next steps include processing the photos, editing the video, matching the visuals to the mixed audio and authoring a DVD.  I will be busy for a while doing this.

I have quoted some information about the ensemble sent to me by Norm Adams, composer, cellist and electronics player.

Exteme High Risk Entertainment System (EHRES)

EHRES is Pauline Oliveros, John DS Adams, Ione, and Norman Adams: a quartet of performers employing a groundbreaking system of acoustic and electronic interconnections for live performance. EHRES creates multilayered networks of connections allowing all sounds to be shared, processed and distributed to a multi-channel sound system.

The web of connections begins with the interaction of the artist’s immediate music making process. EHRES balances on the unique qualities of listening, intuition, emotion, timbre, and range that make their individual methods of music making present. Their web extends further into electronic sound, as the musicians process various signals, as the artists interact with one another’s acoustic and electronic sounds and as the sounds move through the performance space, via the immersive, eight channel speaker array.

Musical structures are created spontaneously within each of the performer’s instruments/systems and extends into the interconnections and interactions between the artists and the control of their systems.

EHRES has performed on the suddenlyLISTEN Series in Halifax, Nova Scotia; on the NUMUS Series in Waterloo, Ontario; and at The Lincoln Center Outdoor Festival in New York City.

Tech Notes: I have tagged this post as Open Source because all of the photos will be processed in Ubuntu Linux using various software. Ubuntu software handles RAW conversion with a Gimp plug-in or in RAW Studio.

Share on Facebook

Mac users click on the first picture to open the slideshow.  See Tech Notes below for known issue with the Cooliris plug-in required to operate the PicLens option.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

12►

I have arrived safely in Banff, but not without some adventure.

There is a sacred connection to the mountains for me and the air here is very different. I always feel a profound change when I enter the Rockies. These are serious mountains; they have roots that reach deep and their heads reach into the heights where the air is thin. Riding through them as the clouds gathered and the wind gusted was a real challenge to the spirit and the body.

The final result is that I made it safely. The details will be for another day, but for now, enjoy the photos.

Tech Notes: I am still using the Nextgen photo Gallery plug-in, but they have made some changes and now are compatible with the Cool Iris 3-D Firefox plug-in. I have it working in Ubuntu Linux and it is really an excellent navigational tool, showing the photos in a moving wall. So far, it does not work on the Mac — all I get is a black screen and without the plug-in the PicLens slideshow is low resolution and very pixeled. I may have to change plug-ins to one that is more if this one is not cross-platform /browser friendly. Let me know your experience with the slideshow.

Tech update: If Mac users click on the first photo, a slideshow will open, clicking on the photo will close the slideshow. Full screen does not work. On this Mac it crashes Firefox. I tried disabling the Lightbox Gallery plug-in, but it had no effect. Cool Iris Firefox plugin claims to support mac OSX but it does not seem to be as compatible as the Ubuntu version.

Tech update 2: From the Cool Iris site. This worked for me. Now the PicLens option opens the Cooliris plug-in and the navigation is 3-D.

Some Mac users report launching Cooliris brings up a blank screen and hitting ESC crashes the browser. If you have an Intel-based Mac, turn off Rosetta emulation. To do so, open your applications window, click the browser icon once to highlight it, and then hit Command-I to get an info box. Uncheck “Open using Rosetta.”

Now to try it with Windows and other browsers. Let me know your experience.

Share on Facebook

The weather has been absolutely perfect as I left Vancouver and rode my bike to Abbotsford before stopping for gas. I had noticed that gas prices in Vancouver had jumped to $1.06 this morning, so I took a chance that in the valley, the price would be lower. My educated guess paid off and I topped off the tank for $1.04 per litre. After getting back on the freeway I headed towards Hope and took the Coquihalla Hiway. I was very surprised to find that the toll has been removed from the road as I was prepared for the toll booth to appear around the next bend. At first I thought they had been moved, but when Merritt came in to view I knew that the road is now a real “freeway”. I had to drive into town to get gas, so I think there must be a closer station to the turn off. A friendly gentleman with a pickup truck, painted with the name of St. Agnes Hot Springs,  pointed me in the right direction to take the highway to the Okanagan and I passed him on the road. He passed me again when I stopped to take some photos  and was kind enough to check on me to see if I was OK before motoring on.

The highway between Merritt and Peachland has always been a mix of desert and lake areas and I stopped by a slough where I took a photo of a red winged blackbird and some ducks.  The land is all fenced, with cattle gates on the dirt roads that branch off because most of it is still open range land with cattle roaming free until round-up time. It is very high over the pass and there was still a bit of snow near the road as the sun created heat waves off the pavement. The ride was uneventful and I pulled into Summerland very satisfied with the peformance of my Yamaha FJ.

Happily, my hosts here have already discovered Ubuntu and I am remaining open source as I type this post on their computer. I hesitate to work on photos on someone else’s hard drive, so the trip gallery will have to wait until I unload everything and get on line in Banff tomorrow.

Share on Facebook

An exciting new space that is not limited to any one project or technological application. Sound+Light+Motion will be my multi-media journal with as much tech as I can squeeze into the screen. My Live More Lightly site will become totally devoted to that project and links to tech notes will lead readers here. I will try to list Tech notes at the foot of each post so those interested in the gritty details will be satisfied. I may collect them on a page sometime so a progression of development can be traced.

I don’t want to get too ambitious, but I find these posts helpful and I like to return the favour. Look for some video and photo gallery action soon. I am also re-theming and updating my Live More Lightly site, so lots of WordPress development right now. IMHO a great content management system with huge potential. I plan to fill out the About page soon so you can find out who is typing these gems of wisdom. Everything seems to be functional so far . . .

Tech Notes:

This is a WordPress install hosted on Dreamhost, installed with their script. They provide a number of themes and I have chosen

Pixeled 1.9.2 by sam

to start with. I have a few issues and might change yet as there are some great free WordPress themes out there now. I have installed Akismet plug-in and a few others that I will talk about as I use them. The facebook post and SEO pack are two favourites.

Share on Facebook