the unbearable likeness of ...

daily log abstract In an increasingly digital age, the work of art as an engaging artifact in it's own right is slowly drifting past. Most contemporary digital art/design is focused around some sort of software medium. The number of arresting artifacts seem to be far less. The notion of the object as commodity has slowly been replaced by the object as always digitally available spectacle. "the unbearable likeness of" is a series of paintings that explore the relationships between artist, work of art and patron. Historically when a work of art is sold by an artist, it leaves the flock and heads off to establish it own lonely existence on some unknown wall. And the artist must move on as her/his authorship over the piece ends at that moment. But what if the artist had even the most simple of avenues to keep working with the piece? What about the patron? Do they have the right to work with the piece as well? And what of the pieces that were a part of the same "series" or "family"? How can they continue to remain connected both in an aesthetic sense and a digital sense? Can this type of work remain aesthetically arresting?

context Design and build a networked system that facilitates communication between humans (or other animals) over a network through means other than the standard keyboard- mouse-screen interaction model. Design and build both the physical input and output devices. What happens across the network should be clear to all parties using the system, so that the whole experience serves their needs or interests. Your system should involve two-way communication between at least three physical devices over one or more networks. There may be one or multiple servers involved as well, as you need. You may expand on either of the earlier projects for your final, or you may begin a new project. You can work alone or in groups. You should start by asking what the intended participant is to do, and how and where she is to do it. Consider all the factors affecting her participation: physical, social, economic, environmental, and other constraints. Think about the actions she'll take and the objects and surfaces that she manipulates. Consider also the connectivity between the elements of your system, and plan the network transactions thoroughly. There are a number of milestones in your final project which you'll be expected to document and present in class. They are as follows: System Diagram and interaction scheme - this is a general layout of the components of your system, including the devices and protocols involved. In the early stages it will be fairly general, but at the end, it should specify every major component and the protocols linking the components. The interaction scheme should be either a state diagram describing what happens, or a narrative description of the interaction, or both. Interface Mock-up - this is a physical mockup of what the devices will look and feel like. You can use fome-core, cardboard, or other simple materials, and the mockups don't have to be functional, but they should give us a clear idea of the physical relationship between our bodies and the system. For large-scale systems, use scale models. Technical Research report - This is a "how-to" report, particularly on those components of your system that have not been covered in class, or in other classes. For example if you use a sensor or actuator that no one in class has used, or develop a technique that is new ot ITP but beneficial to others, document it and be prepared to explain it to the class. Final Summary - what worked, what didn't, what surprised you, what you'd do differently in the next iteration.

status / issues 4.30.05 well the presentation seemed to go ok. i was able to salvage it by showing process as opposed to "product". however, i'm still working hard towards a really niced finished group of work for the spring show. i think that the concept has gone through a huge transition. the decision to simplify both the materials used, the circuit, and the infrastructure was smart. the incandescent lights work really well with all the wood and wax. it creates a really nice warm experience. the simplified system i think will work better in the end as well. it creates a clearer reference to what i'm trying to get across. which is good cause i'm never very interested in sitting there and explaining things 20 times. the next iterations will most likely be a simple step in scale. the existing works are typically 6-8" x 10-15". i think the next step this summer will be to step that up to 2-3' X 4-5'. this poses power challenges due to the fact that those pieces would require considerably more lights etc. but i think they could scale well, and might actually work better at a larger scale. i don't know though. i am really fond of the small scale right now. 4.25.05 well a few days ago i had the basics working with the circuit. but now i am dead in the water. i think at 1:00AM it is time to call the debugging quits and start working on the final presentation and salvaging that. lesson learned: NEVER NEVER touch a circuit board that is working well. especially don't touch it the night before a presentation. see the problem is that all of a sudden i am not getting power to the board. and it was really working and just stopped for no apparent reason. well i am off to get some sleep and deal with this after the final presentation. i have to get it all ready for the spring show now that the series has been accepted... 4.22.05 below are some grabs of digital images i am using in some of the wax scrim sections of the paintings: 4.12.05 System Technical Spec 4.2.05 ARTIST WEB INTERFACE here are the final sketch ideas for the first work: 2D layout sketch 3D figure... 3.22.05 some inspiration that started this whole project: a "sketch" my son did on his etch-o-sketch magnetic thing. i really liked the immediacy of it... some figurative paintings i did back in 1994. these are oil, sculpting wax, and found items on canvas. they are about 3' x 5' in size... 3.22.05 excerpt from dialogue with igoe: the latest is i am currently fleshing out sketches for ideas on the 3 works. i'm looking back to some of my pre-itp stuff i had done and will most likely make them portraits. my thinking is as a first experiment that subject might lend itself better to the final assignment structure. with regard to what physically happens at each location. i am interested in tying the pieces together based on the viewer experiencing each work. so i am currently thinking about reading this activity with some sensors (motion / distance). i also have some ideas to incorporate numbered buttons on each piece that would effect the other pieces. the reactions of the pieces is a bit up in the air. seeing as they are paintings, i think that using light in some way that is very relevant (and trying to shy away from the LED pcomp kinda thing - or at least disguise it in such a way that you would not know it is an LED) and poses some really interesting visual possibilities. i'd like to avoid the "servo motor moving parts of the painting" thing as that gets away from what i am interested in. i also have some Palm displays i am making progress on using as parts of the paintings, and a LCD screen from a busted handycam that pending being able to get that working (finding schematics for it) will be used hopefully. someone mentioned looking at EL paint/fabric - but i hear that is pricey s tuff. i have more sketches that i'll be getting up online before the class tomorrow as well. and some portrait studies using video capturing in java that i have been working on for this as well... sketches mentioned: the latest version. this one has 4 components, but the final will only have 3: the far right pane's grid will be based off of some software i wrote about 3 years ago called gridPortrait. below are some output from the software: here is a detail of the second module from the left in the above sketch: the bars in the above sketch will be based off of some java software i wrote about 3 years ago, at the same time as gridPortrait above, called timeLapse. below are some samples from the output of the software: 3.19.05 well as of 1:00AM i'm still a bit empty handed on finding specs for this: i guess if i can't find anything by tomorrow, i'll just start tinkering. i have a few laying around and am hoping to salvage at least 2 for the work. 3.18.05 started work on the java server that will most likely drive to communication between the 3 devices. will get that online soon. also, here is the latest sketch of the piece: each section will be detachable, but all 3 will be exhibited together as shown in the sketch. 3.10.05 the abstract is complete. a bit half done to my taste but there in any case. i will most likely change it a few times before the project is complete.