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Organic Cinema v1.1

What if we can see and hear what plants and microorganisms “talk about” ? what if we can pick up their whispers – signals generated as the response to stimuli coming from the environment and make them audio – visual? By using latest sensory technologies, we explore how local flora and fauna reacts to various outputs from their immediate environment and through visuals generated from real time data of their reactions we will give them a voice!

 

The world is a place full of beautiful nature, quite often that nature goes amiss in the urban environments. But everywhere there is myriad of colors and scents of trees, flowers, bushes and various creatures which live in the water – all are an eye candy and almost a total sensory experience. However what we also would like to know and show is what is going on the nano-level in those beautiful living entities? Or in another world we would like to add to the outer beauty of a city nature and make visible that, which is normally invisible, and thus make the experience of nature even deeper. Plants, bacteria and millions of other living entities surrounds us all the time and are vital to our well being. However they exist in such a mode of being that not only many of their behaviour escape human perception, but their presence all together.
“Organic Cinema” tackles the latest scientific findings on intelligence of plants and real time environmental data manifestation. The installation consist of a physical wetlab setup with bespoked electronics (action potential amplifiers, microscope etc) giving a source of the audio-visual projections, where viewers can experience invisible vital signals rendered and enlarged of by these electronics.

 

“Organic Cinema v 1.1” is a very first attempt to look deeper into invisible whisper of what nature can tell us and about an attempt to translate that to something which we can interpret, understand and hopefully to which we can respond. It is a beginning of research and creative journey by WorldWilderLab – a collaboration of three artists: Ivan Henriques, Kasia Molga and Erik Overmeire.

 

In May 2013 Organic Cinema v1.1 was presented at Pixelache Festival in Helsinki, Finland

Entropy

ENTROPY v2.0

 

Conceptualised by Kasia Molga & Bram Snijders, produced by Kasia Molga and Erik Overmeire

 

“ENTROPY” is a participatory interactive space and object-based installation, where what is normally perceived as “digital” and “virtual” entity is transferred to the “real” and “analogue” so that viewers can play with real time data visualisation at the same time influencing that data.

 

“ENTROPY” corresponds to the concept of production, emission and consumption of heat (and thus energy) in “ordered” and “un-ordered” manner (corresponding to the definition of the entropy phenomena). Through that the installation questions issues of production and consumption of energy and its emission and transmission and the human relation to a concept of energy on global and very intimate level. It involves real time data visualisations aimed to provide in such a way so that viewers can have an intimate, tangible and tactile relation/interaction with something as abstract as data. As such it also explores data (as real time feeds) as an independent force making the artwork alive. It also plays with mixing “digital” and “virtual” making it tangible in “analogue” and “real” space.

 

Audience enters the embedded within the exhibition setting. The interaction is natural and unexpected, and the main agent between data visualisation and a viewer is a simple everyday object mostly associated with energy – a light bulb. By interacting with it – moving closer or touching it with a hand, the energy in a form of on-body projection mapping is transmitted onto a viewer – so that a data is “placed”on a viewer making her/him a carrier/transmitter of it. The “energy” then can be transmitted between one person and another as well as spilled in the environment.

 

The real time data feeds is from a number of hacked data sources (for “global energy”) and from the arduino sensors placed within the exhibition space. Through the choice of technology live feeds come to “live” being picked up, spread/transmitted around by viewers, making them partially responsible for that data and thus their own experience.
“ENTROPY” takes the act of interaction with that data and motion based mapping – which not only happens on moving objects, but can be transferred from one object to the other – so that new interpretations, meanings can be created and perception of the world can be transformed.

 

Additional links:

kasiamolga.net

Photoartaker

Photographer Frans van Viegen commisioned me to write a piece of software for him which allowed him to present his work with in an interactive setting.
The software was written with openframeworks and uses a xbox kinect depth camera as image sensor.

 

During the developement of this project I needed to read metadata from image files, but I could not find any openframeworks addon which could do that. So i made one based on the exiv2 library
https://github.com/lifthoofd/ofxExiv2

cambrian explosion

In this installation two computers are involved in an intricate evolutionary debate, creating a dynamic, ever-evolving collage of sound an image.

The piece consists of a beamer, a screen, two computers and audio speakers. The two computers communicate to each other using sound based on the visuals they create. One computer receives the sound of the other and creates a three dimensional entity based on this sound. The 3d image is then translated to sound again by the computers specific algorithm. This new sound is then send to the other computer which repeats the same process. Each iteration builds upon another, creating an ever evolving play of shape and sound.

Cambrian Explosion is a collaboration with Dennis de Bel and has been shown at the TESTnula Festival in Zagreb, Croatia and at the Counter Culture Festival in Holland

baltantracker

Artist Geert Mul and programmer Erik Overmeire developed the Baltan Tracker, a hardware / software combination for motion tracking of persons in a space. Normally this kind of motion tracking is being done using normal or near-infrared cameras. This is can be problematic due to the fact that any form of incoming light or any kind of object might be mistaken for a ‘person’. The Baltan Tracker uses a thermographic camera, which prevents a lot of these light related misinterpretations because the camera is heat-sensitive. In fact it does not see ‘light’ at all, only infrared radiation (heat).

The BaltanTrackerwas commisioned by Baltan Laboratories.

Erik Overmeire has lead a workshop on 21-10-2010 at BKKC in Tilburg, using the Baltan Tracker as a starting point to explore the use and possibilities of motion tracking for artists.
Erik will explain the basic components of any motion tracker and the max/msp library the participants will be using, and then invite the participants to make a simple work using the motion tracking tools and knowledge they have gained in the workshop.