In order to create participatory and responsive art works, we design and implement systems for digital video play out. Included functionalities are realtime editing as well as realtime compositing of full motion video (single- and/or multi-channelled) - control mechanisms are interfaced by sensorial data, computer vision or other input.
During four years of production, Performing Pictures have developed methodologies for catering public spaces with responsive video experiences. What we deliver is a set of tools, conceptual as well as technical, for the production and distribution of responsive/reactive works. Several years of touring has resulted in crash testing of software and hardware solutions as well as an accumulated pool of competence in the field of "what works" and best practice. Travelling and transgressing different spatial and social boundaries by the display of our work, has been part of a successful iterative development process with clearly defined feedback cycles. We are ready to sell solutions that have "worked for us" along the years.
Performing Pictures development defined according to four different areas of expertise:
1. RESPONSIVE INTERFACES
(or what we call “Extended Interfaces for Public Displays”) are additional layers of input for existing infrastructures of digital video play out. A set-up of analogue/digital sensor communicating with micro-controllers that dock into player units.
Keywords are: modular, add-on, flexible, rugged, sustainable.
2. VOS PLAYER
(short for Video-On-Surface Player) is an editor/player that allows for the display of parallel video streams. A customised scripting language facilitates constructs of several layers of video played side-by-side – seamlessly stitched into larger video frames.
Keywords are: game-like, larger-than-frame video, navigation, PC-based
3. A SET OF DIRECTSHOW-BASED PLAYERS
using a multitude of video sources, including live video sources, realtime processing such as time-delaying, filtering and realtime compositing with pre-recorded media.
Keywords are: stage work, presentation, choreography, surveillance cameras
4. GAZE-CONTROLLED VIDEO PLAY OUT
supported by face tracking solutions for large rooms and/or pupil tracking with lesser resolution.
Keywords are: attention grabbing, spatial layout of video displays, commercials
Parallel with our artistic expressions, research within the area of media and cultural studies is carried out as part of our work at The Interactive Institute. For the last three years, a major focus for Performing Pictures artistic activities has been public spaces and the image-spectator encounter.
Responsive video accounts for a new form of interaction between space and spectator. How should we understand these new forms of public spectating? What impact do they have on public space, or on the media’s role as a public sphere? More than a decade ago David Rokeby argued that digital aesthetics is about creating relationships rather than finished art works; more recently Nicholas Bourriaud has talked about this in terms of ‘relational aesthetics’, where the aim of the work of art is not the construction of an object or image, but of social relationships. Social relationships of whatever kind are not natural – they need to be learned, nurtured and practised. New forms of public interaction which involve sharing and negotiation between individual and collective agency can play a vital role in challenging the dominance of public space by spectacular ‘brandscapes’ or its pacification by surveillance
The outcome of our artistic practice, works as well as projects, are subject for cultural field studies. In the project Cinésense we have explored urban artwork in two relationships, first interacting with the place of display and second in interaction with its public. Through the art works, behaviours and movement patterns with inherent communicative significance are developed. Cinésense is a three-year artistic research project has been conducted in collaboration with professor Karin Becker, Stockholm and Linköping University and with support from the Swedish Science Council. As the research part of the project GRIG (Guild for Reality Integrators and Generators) – an EU Culture 2000-funded project into mixed reality arts – we are collaborating with prof. Andrew Morrisson, Intermedia, Oslo University. We also collaborate with other groups within the institute, such as The Digital Cultural Heritage Centre of Expertise.
Another area for research is the interplay of film production and new technologies. New forms of expression are emerging at the intersection of traditional film making, computer games and installation art. The evolving medium is founded in cinematic visual language, but interactive modalities and heterogeneous exhibition formats make it possible to produce films that abandon linear time and respond to the physical presence of the viewer. Producing image content that meets the demands of all these features proves to present a new dimension of problems to traditional film production.
PAPERS:
Andersson, G H & Brecevic, R. (2006), “Playing with responsiveness in movies”, paper presented at The Mindplay Conference, London Metropolitan University.
Becker, K. (2007) “Performing Art in Urban Space” paper presented at European Cultural Studies Conference in Sweden, 11-13 June 2007.
Morrison A., Andersson G:H, Brecevic R. & Skjulstad S. (2008) “Disquiet in the Plasma” (forthcoming paper)
MASTER THESIS:
Engström, A. (2006) "Producing cinematic image content for responsive video installation on multiple screens", Master’s Thesis in Media Technology, KTH. >> download pdf
BOOKS:
Andersson, G H., Brecevic, R. , Gottlieb, H. & Nilsson, D. (2007) "Electro Bacchanalia – a peep box and an interpretive tool for Old Masters’ paintings", EPOCH know-how book series ISBN: 978-91-85960-01-9 >> order a free copy here!
