JPG Degradation
After having very successful results destroying the quality of a video by uploading/downloading it to Youtube almost 100 times, I wanted to see if I could achieve a similar effect with a JPG. There were two different processes that I tried.
First I opened the JPG in photoshop and created a duplicate with Save As. I repeated this tedious process 300 times. The degradation occurred slowly, but after 300 rounds there was some extremely obvious data loss through the process. This made me start thinking about the security of our files and data. We depend on our computers to maintain high fidelity copies of our information, and hardly ever do we consider the fact that it could slowly be destroying what it saves.
The next test involved resizing an image in photoshop. I started by decreasing the size of the image by 1 pixel, and then sizing it back up to its original size. I then repeated this process 300 times. The result was astounding. The image distortion was so unexpected an unlike anything I had ever seen. A pattern emerged over the image, that looked like the circuit board of a computer or a complex maze. I then repeated this process and varied the initial amount that I resized the image. I tested it at 10, 17, and 100 pixels.
For me this experiment speaks themes of memory that I have been exploring in all my prototypes. Although this particular iteration comments on the loss of quality and data over time, I feel it correlates with my ideas of the fading of memory over time. I want to continue prototyping these concepts. I also feel that the process has been just as important as the product. Perhaps I should begin documenting my screen as I edit images hundreds and hundreds of times.
Silhouetting the Past Test
I am really enjoying working with Max MSP in developing interactive motion based experiences, so I wanted to continue working on my previous “Video Trail” prototype. This time I was interested in looking at the relationship between the past and the present. Instead of just projecting movement in front of the camera, I wanted to use that visual input as a mask for a delayed “live” video feed. In a sense, one can see the movement of the past, through the movement of the present.
There are lots of ideas I have about how something like this could work in a public space context. It would be great if the video being played was delayed several hours, so that what you were seeing was less of an immediate past, and more about who was in the space long before you. I am also interested in working with pre-recorded video.
Bellow is a screen shot of the patch, along with a video test:
Video Degradation :: Round 2
Based on the feedback from my previous presentation, I attempted to bring a more personal aspect to my video prototype. I wanted to be able to show some of myself in the video, so it didn’t read simply as a video that was loosing quality. By narrating parts of the video, I felt like I was able to infuse my voice. I felt that it made the content of the video more important, and it instantly makes the viewer aware that the content is not arbitrary, but rather extremely personal.
The feedback from the class was that there was too much content. They found It was difficult to read the long sentences, and watch the video at the same time. There were also comments that the degrading quality of the video didn’t quite read in the context that I had intended in combination with the text. Perhaps I should just make a version without text.
Video Degradation
Over the past several weeks, I have been in the process of digitizing all of my home videos. I felt that this was a perfect example of an artifact that carries very specific memories for me. The majority of the videos are from the early 80s, so I have almost no recollection of any of this happening. Through these tapes I am able to “recreate” memories. This raised several questions that I was interested in exploring: “Do I actually remember, or am I remembering the media?” “What is the correlation between watching and remembering?” “How is the degradation process of my memory similar to the degradation process of digital media?” “What is the essence of these memories?”
I don’t think that these digital representations of events from the past can constitute as my actual memories. However, I do believe that they assist me in remembering the past. What I find interesting is the idea that memory slowly degrades as time goes on, and essentially no longer exists as a specific event but more as an overall feeling. For example: I don’t specifically remember what I was doing in my grandparents’ backyard when I was 2 or 3 years old. What I do remember is the feelings of excitement and joy, the giant blue swimming pool, the green grass. The memory becomes a wash of emotions and landmarks.
I decided to look online to see if there had been any projects similar to this. Patrick Liddell, took this same feat upon himself, and uploaded/downloaded a video of himself to YouTube 1,000 times. It took him one year. His interests in doing this were to see how he could “eliminate all human qualities [that his] speech and image might have.” 2 Although our intentions are quite different, I decided to begin doing exactly as Liddell had done. I was more interested in emulating the vagueness of my memories, than voiding them of any human quality. By continuously uploading, downloading, and re-uploading the same video, I wondered if I would find the “essence” of the video. Would this “essence” be similar to that of my memories?
The process itself is extremely tedious. Even as I am writing this I am continuing to upload and download. I have been doing it for the past 3 days, and am currently at version 57. The quality of the video certainly degrades, but at very small intervals. When looking at two sequential versions, it is almost impossible to see any change. When looking at version 1 and version 57, the change is very obvious. The images begin to become more amorphous, resembling human figures and objects, but the details are completely lost. Even the audio becomes distorted. It is clear that we are hearing people talking and singing, but much like the images, it is unclear exactly what they are saying. It becomes more of a soundscape than dialogue. Much like my memories, I am left with a feeling of the experience rather than an accurate account of what was recorded.
Photocopied Photocopies
During this process of degradation, I began thinking about different artifacts that I could apply this process to. Photographs instantly came to mind. They are quick reminders of the past. How could I simulate the process of uploading/downloading with these tangibles objects? I decided that I would photocopy the originals and then photocopy the photocopy. I did two separate iterations with this specific prototype: one using color and one using black and white.
For the color iteration, I placed a variety of old photographs onto my copier, creating a collage of images from the past. As I expected the images became washed out with each copy, loosing their color and detail. However, a very interesting thing occurred with each version. The images at the bottom of the photocopy started to disappear and the images at the top moved down. The 14th photocopy left me with a blank white piece of paper. I found the results to be poetic, subtly commenting on the idea that our mind slowly forgets what it has once remembered.
The black and white iteration gave me results that I had been expecting. Overtime the image lost all detail and became shapes of black of ink. Although towards the last few copies, the black started to take on a purplish blue hue, which I found to be very interesting. I love that my results from these two iterations are tangible, just like the photographs that I started with.
iChats A-Br :: 2005-Present
Since 2005, I have been saving a log of all of my iChat and gChat conversations. These logs save automatically into a folder on my hard drive, and I have never really given them much consideration. I always know they are there, but they have served no purpose for me. In looking at my initial brainstorming map, I wondered how I could visualize this data. Essentially these conversations, that span over 6 years, document my history. It isn’t until I actually read them, that my memories are ignited.
Zach Gage created a project entitled Selt-Portrait Bot, which was an auto chat bot comprised of several years of logged chat conversations. I felt that this was a fantastic precedence, as he used the exact type of content that I am looking at visualizing. However, I was interested in creating something more textural and transparent. Where Gage only shows you small snippets of these chats through a specific interaction of “talking”, I wanted to display these records more candidly. This led me to wondering: What do all of these chat logs look like when they are presented together? What does it mean to have all of my conversations displayed for everyone to read?
I decided that I was interested in printing these conversations in their entirety. I began by exporting all of the chats out into one single text document, which included the chat names of the people involved, the date and time stamp, and the conversation itself. I knew that the length of all of these chats was going to be quite long, so I decided to print it on the largest paper size available on the plotter printers. 42 inches by 120 inches, or 3.5 feet by 10 feet. That is a very large piece of paper.
Using inDesign, I started experimenting with the most logical way to lay out these chats. It was a process of trial and error, as I needed to keep decreasing the font size to be able to incorporate more of the text. What I came up with was a row of 240 columns, each a half an inch wide and 3.5 feet long. In each column are the chat conversations printed at 4 points. Once I was able to fill those 240 columns with my chats, alphabetized by the name of the person I was chatting with, I realized I had only gone from A-Br. I didn’t go so far as laying out all my conversations yet, but if 10 feet only gets me to Br, how long is it going to need to be to get me to Z?
By printing out these conversations at such a small point size, the actual text becomes abstracted. With even a foots distance from your eyes, it becomes illegible. It is only when you are right up to the piece of paper that you are able to read what is printed on it. I find this metaphor to be quite poignant. There is something extremely intimate about exposing these logs of conversations. They are personal and private to me and the person I had them with. I am interested in sharing these with others, but I am asking them to get up close and interact with the conversations in a very different way than I initially intended. This interaction, of literally having to stick you nose to the paper in order to read what is written on it, I find extremely interesting. It raises such questions as “What are the physical boundaries of personal space?” and “How close am I willing to let people get to me?”
After it was printed, it was amazing how intrigued people were when they saw me carrying it around all rolled up. Nobody beilieved me when I told them it was a collection of my instant message coversations. And then when they took a minute to squint and see the fine printed, they realized I wasn’t lying and were very drawn to the magnitude of all of the information. After my presentation in class this week, there was a similar response. As soon as I rolled the 10ft long piece of paper out onto the table, the whole class jump up out of their seats to look at it. There was something exciting about being allowed to read this intimate collections of conversations.
Video Trail
After exploring the idea of documenting movement from a sequential perspective, I created a prototype that explored this more interactively. Using Max MSP, I repurposed an existing patch that uses motion tracking to display movement. When ever there is movement in front of the camera, those specific pixels are displayed. In order to create a more recursive effect with the projected image, I pointed the recording camera at the projection itself. This results in the patch projecting the patch, kind of what happens when you point a a mirror at a mirror. This helps to create a trail of movement, quickly displaying in a slightly delayed manner, a series of projections.
Below is a screen shot of the max patch followed by me improvising with the tool:
The feedback I recieved in class regarding this specific prototype was positive. It was suggested that I potentially consider developing a whole tool kit of interactive resources for performers to use in the creation of their work. I think that this is a very interesting idea, and would love to develop a whole series of tools in the open source spirit.
Strings of Photos
After I presented my summer projects, one of the pieces of feedback that really stood out to me was choreographing in a way that I was unfamiliar with. I decided that one of the first prototypes that I wanted to make, was to take this feedback and think about ways in which I can choreograph the technology. Using the 1,000 images that I used to create the photograph composites from my summer project, I strung them together to make movement sequences. I decided to not alter the sequence or timing of the images, solely for the purpose of seeing how all the photographs fit together.
From this initial sequence, I began to craft and shape the photographs more intentionally. The idea here is to choreograph a dance using the series of photographs I took. I am able to zoom in and craft the “dance” frame by frame. I began to go in and alter the timing of each photograph and play with the repetition and sequences of shots.
I am pretty happy with the direction of this and would love to continue working on “choreographing” a piece in this manner. After presenting today in class, I was given some good feedback, as well as some interesting questions that I need to ask myself:
• What is the difference between choreographing and editing? How does my decision making process differ?
• What are the affordances to still images versus film?
• What is the equivalent of a still image in dance?
In addition it was recommended that I watch “Playtime” and “Stranger Than Fiction”. I have ordered them on my netflix, and will write about them with my reaction as soon as they come.
