Precedence Studies

Concept/Design Approach:

http://www.wefeelfine.org/

Hey, they even have a book now! http://wefeelfine.org/book/

Jonathan Harris' work inspired me and open up my mind to the beauty of collective data. The visual representation of the data are simply beautiful and smooth. I really like the concept and the style of WeFeelFine:

From the application, they introduce a few methodology to view the data. For example, murmurs, madness, montage, metric etc. Each different category shows different approach of conveying the data.

Another project by Jonathan Harris that caught my eyes is I Want You To Want Me:

http://iwantyoutowantme.org/

This time they used touch screen which allows the user to navigate the information. Same as the previous project, he used different methodologies to show different data and representations. I think both are amazing and effectively translate the story and details with impressive visual.

Other than that, his another work, The Whale Hunt. I like the way he tell the story by using the technology. He recorded his heart beats and take every photos for 5mins. If he gets excited and the heart beats faster, it will take more pictures. All the photos are compile with the data and visualize in a very stunning interface. Is like a non-linear movie telling story. As usual, he provided few modes for user to choose to view the information. Creatively awesome.

The Whale Hunt.

Technical:

This is the project that trigger me to use my Arduino to create a physical interface that affects by the virtual world (web). The creator said that:" .. every time somebody visits my website, a LED light blinks once in my room, and i get a warm feeling of a visitor :)" I would like to create a physical environment/ art piece that affects by the web-based information.

http://hacknmod.com/hack/website-visitor-blinker/

Other than that, some of the similar methods are use for different approach and i think is interesting to research on too:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/tweetawatt_our_entry_for_the_core77.html

http://subzonepen.blogspot.com/2009/01/arduino-webcam-servo-project.html

This is the approach that i trying to achieve, visually but i would like to use colors to represent different time, space:

This is how the virtual world affects the physical environment:

or another different approach of the physical feedback:

Selected Proposal.

Topic

Wormhole and Heartbeats

Background

Scientist have been looking for wormholes, a theoretical tunnel that connecting two different paradigm of points in spaceworld. The 'ingredients' to create the wormhole sounds impossible from our current technology but maybe wormhole already exist, in our very own - cyberspace.

"Cyberspace is the realm of no space: it is a type of wormholes which instantaneously connects realms otherwise geographically distant" (quote from a guy which i forgot the address of the website).

I use the Internet metaphoric as a wormhole, a hypothetical tunnel bridges the web worlds and the real world connecting human a hearbeat away from each other.

Instead of connecting the individual in terms of their geographical locations, my installation will connect the user in the context of their heartbeats.

Just like the internet, a platform like wormhole connecting two different world, bending the time and space of human in cyberworld, a world that full with the richness of information, culturally grounded, dynamically experienced and constructed with data, what makes it workable is because of the journey, the route of millions data that transfer around the Internet, from bits to bytes. Just like the veins in human heart.

Is the space between the human feelings that i want to explore in, the invisible space between two different people that most of us been ignoring.

Wormhole = Internet, Data = Heartbeats

Problem Identification

In this technology driven era, we take advantage of the technology and neglect the basic human to human communication ways. People nowadays are indifference or lack of emotion and feeling towards each other, this phenomenon can be associate with computer. Why? We are like a computer now, we just accept and deliver information, avoid error and hassle. Always looking for the best connectivity with the internet and not the connection between human.

Project Title

Wormhole Communication: Bits to Heartbeats

Ideation & Concept

For my project, i want to create an installation that allows user to input their heatbeats rate and form as an art piece.

Aim & Objectives

- To connect human-human feelings with each other with technology.

- To provoke the emotion of space and time between people.

- To experimental with Benjamin Walter's The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction theories.

Motivation

I always love to explore on the Internet and human emotion kind of thing. So by doing this installation i think it will strengthen my understanding towards the topic. Besides that, experimenting with the technical part is quite challenging and interesting too. I hope to learn a lot and growth as a digital artist. And the best part is just to have fun in my FYP by doing something i love to do.

I hope to tell my version of the story to the world. :D

"I believe in technology, but I think we need to make it more human. I believe that the internet is becoming a planetary meta-organism, but that it is up to us to guide its evolution, and to shape it into a space we actually want to inhabit—one that can understand and honour both the individual human and the human collective, just like real life does." By Jonathan Harris

Refined Proposal. Part 2

Research & Analysis

After much research and thinking, here are some of the technical aspects that I am going to look into for my installation:

Backend (Data Collection/Analysis):

MySQL

I think i will use MySQL for data collection, management and storing purposes. It is a database management system. Besides that, the software is Open Source which means anyone is able to use and modify the software.

PERL

Not sure do i need this, but from the precedence study one of the artist did use this to collect data too. I think i will have a look at Perl cause it seems have an user-friendly interface. Perl is a general-purpose programming language.

Other than that, i think PHP and Java are important for the backend part too.

Frontend (Visual):

As for the visual part, I think that i can explore 3 possible softwares:

Processing

This is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation and interactions. (Quote from the site) Slower than C++ but able to run on the web.

Open Frameworks

This is an open source simplified version of C++ for creative coding. Faster Java but does not work on the web.

Some example of what OpenFramework capable of:

made with openFrameworks from openFrameworks on Vimeo.

Adobe Flash

And of course, Flash. Which i am more familiar with.

Physical Computing/Presentation:

Arduino

An open source electronic prototyping platform, very flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. I choose Arduino because of its capability to receive input from variety of sensors and able to affects its surrounding.

I think i going to use this in the physical interface part of my installation. I did some experiment with Khairul Anwar about the basic tutorial using my Arduino Duemilanove:

We did the basic tutorial and that little board amazed us. Definitely worth to explore more.

Since Khairul Anwar's post about Arduino experiment have more insight and ebooks about Arduino, i shall cut it short here. Check it out.