Interactive Window Concept made for the module Advanced Interface Design
at Hyper Island hosted by North Kingdom.
[This video is now 'debranded' due to the fact that the company don't want to be associated with it]
Client: WeSC – North Kingdom’s brief (Daniel Ilic) At:Hyper
Island Role: Research, Idea Generation, Concept, Design and
Production. Who: Lucas Lima, Gustaf Engström, Marcus Wallander, Juliana
Silva and Bea Areilza. Concept: Worldwide Conspiracy Coach: Thomas Larsson @ B-reel Music: Bonobo – Kiara
Particles is an illumination installation of seemingly floating lights that create a
fantastic afterimage, this work centers around an organically
spiral-shaped rail construction on which a number of balls with
built-in LEDs are rolling while blinking in different time intervals,
resulting in spatial drawings of light particles in all kinds of
shapes. The illumination's three-dimensional design, achieved through a
fusion of the rail construct's characteristic features and
communication control technology, takes on various appearances
depending on the viewer's position.
Making Katy Perry extraterrestrial, the work of CuteCircuit. Photo by KatyPix.com
Digital visual effects need not be limited to projection. CuteCircuit have been one of a select handful of designers pushing the envelope with wearables. Here, Katy Perry becomes their celebrity canvas, in what I expect will be one of the only-ever appearances of American Idol on CDM.
The actual costume design, though, is fantastic. Thousands of interactive LEDs are a digital mirror to the countless sparkling Swarovski crystals that festoon the garment, with UK-based sculptor Yasemen Hussein adding her striking Baroque extraterrestrial forms. (She’s not a digital artist, but check out her work.)
I’m struck in a way that there isn’t more of this sort of work – perhaps because the challenges of interactive circuitry atop the challenges of conventional fashion design weed out the pack. The enabling factor may be the growth of LED light sources, which, against all technical odds, humanity is betting can replace incandescent and fluorescent sources in the coming years. Better LED tech can only mean better LED garments, if innovative manufacturers can pull it off.
CuteCircuit have certainly been at the forefront of this nascent field. The co-founders themselves lie at the intersections of disciplines – Francesca Rosella came from fashion design and the likes of Valentino and Esprit; Ryan Genz was a designer, musician, and, yes, “anthropologist.” Together, they formed the smart textile fashion firm in London.
But what’s significant here is that the interactive quality of the garments make them more than just sparkly effect. They become dynamic, controllable canvases for live visual performers. Just as projection mapping (really, just more creative projection) has expanded the palette of the VJ and visualist, so, too, can garments that themselves become interactive visual surfaces. Watch that result with Katy Perry, and other garments below:
Safura’s Dress, powered with 5400 LEDs, displays real-time video at Eurovision finals
The Kinetic Dress drives the EL wire based on movement, making the person moving in the garment the performer.
And for sheer quantity of LEDs, here’s CuteCircuit’s GalaxyDress at MSI – some 24,000 LEDs.
With enough LEDs, video can absolutely become practical. In the video above, Hussein Chalayan’s dresses become video surfaces, as seen in the studio of Moritz Waldemeyer.
Not CuteCircuit-specific, but here’s a feature on wearable tech from 2009:
I made a visit down to the QSU, Q-Bert’s Online Scratch University, last weekend, to play around a little bit and explore the possibility of playing a show together. We practiced for about an hour, improvising and cutting it up in a much more relaxed setting than our last rendezvous here at DJTT headquarters. The guys hit record on a camera and the clip above is one of the improv gems that emerged from our session. The drumming in the background is from our resident drum teacher Ryan, who covered timing techniques for us a few months back. Continue reading for photos, one more clip and more info on my controllers in the video.
QSU is hosted at the “Octagon”, Q-Bert’s resident lair perched high on a hill just outside of San Francisco. Ted, QSU’s main man, told us that the Octagon was actually built by Q-bert’s father who is now nearly 85! All that family love certainly pervades the Thud Rumble crew and Q-Bert’s house. He is always very welcoming and super fun to jam with. I only hope to be as respected and experienced as he is in 15 years!
Q was working on a scratch routine over the instrumental for “Look at me now” by Chris brown when I walked in, so he tossed me the mp3, I dropped a few cue points and we cut up the beat a bit.
Thud Rumble also recently uploaded this clip from our first jam out. It’s a cool look at the other material we didn’t originally publish on the blog.
Again, I do want to re-iterate that this was after 3 months of no practice and no prep. It has proved quite challenging to run a international business with 11 employees and somehow find time to continue my personal creative development. The good news is that Dj TT has been running much more smoothly and I am getting back to what made us great in the first place- developing killer new ideas! and on that note…
NEW MIDI FIGHTER?
Astute viewers will no doubt notice some strange looking midi-fighters in the video. These are two of four new models we will be announcing in the next week. They are replacing our “custom” midi-fighters with four dedicated layouts we have found to be the most popular. Designed to be high performance instruments, all are paired with mappings for specific controllerism use cases and built in robust metal cases that can survive weekly tours and serious abuse.
More info will be forthcoming, but if you want to get the scoop directly, please sign up on ourMidi-Fighter mailing list for the latest info, special deals and new firmware updates.
Technologist magician Marco Tempest is back with another effort fusing traditional techniques and new gizmos. And I like how Marco celebrates Easter: not by painting eggs, but by filming them in motion on high-speed cameras.
This time, he calls our attention to George Karger, a pioneer in high-speed photography and amateur magic – a pre-digital forerunner to Mr. Tempest’s own practice.
A tribute to George Karger, a professional photographer (regularly contributed to Life magazine) he was the photographic illustrator for many magic books including the Stars of Magic series. But more importantly, he was the first magician ever to experiment with high-speed photography. Here’s to you, Mr. Karger, and to exploring the fourth dimension. (George Karger Died September 27, 1973)
The clip itself is Creative Commons-licensed, so if you want to work this into your next VJ set, you can.
But here’s where things get exciting: Marco is working with Swiss maker AOS Technologies to develop a low-cost high-speed camera that could spread the use of this kind of photography. Marco has already been doing some beautiful work with the prototype model, seen below; we also have a gallery of the camera itself. Rest assured, we’ll be following development here.
Next step: thinking of more things to shoot, which could in turn be offered up as more CC clips. Open to suggestions, let us know ideas in comments — and stay tuned for more on working with this camera.
