First Sketches

My colleague at Viesueel Geweld did research for her graduation in visuals beyond the projection screen. She eventually came up with an installation called the miXperience where screens and several objects move around two projectors and cross their beams.

Other friends of mine from WERC just finished a project at V2_ during the Test_lab:Summer Sessions in 2011. During these Summer Sessions they researched the possibilities of moving projection mapping where they tried to synchronize both physical and digital world through mapped projections on a moving sculpture. This sculpture the Beamer_Control2 can be rotated by the audience and the projection will follow this rotation.

With these projects in my mind I gave myself some time to think about a form for a sculpture which could be generative. But what exactly is generative art? I came across this definition from Philip Galanter

“any art practice where the artist creates a process, such as a set of natural language rules, a computer program, a machine, or other mechanism, which is then set to motion with some degree of autonomy contributing to or resulting in a complete work of art.” (Philip Galanter) 

I gave myself some time to think about a form for a sculpture which could be generative and where I have no control on the physical and visual output. This means I will need a moveable, moldable or flexible projection surface.
I know there's a flexible textile, it I've seen it being used as decoration material for big events. Most of the time these textiles are used in a static way in combination with lights and occasionally as a projection screen, but still static.

Lets start by making a construction where I can change the shape of these textiles and have control over it through a little program.

Sketch and material list for the prototype sculpture (in Dutch).

The goal for now is to make a cube where servo's control the shape of the projection surface. When I attach two motors to each corner of the surface I should be able to move it into more unpredictable shapes, instead of just stretching it.

An Arduino will be used to control the servo's. I've got some experience with those and there's an extension for MaxMSP called maxuino which talks firmata with the Arduino. This means that I can load a firmata sketch to the Arduino and do all the programming within Max.

Sketch of the column and Data Flow of the sculpture.

To get the prototype up and running as soon as possible I will use a triangular shape to do my experiments with. It reduces complexity controlling all servos and it keeps the costs low.

Starting Point - a book and the urge to create generative

Most of the time I start from a new technique or software/hardware where I haven't had any experience with but what I would like to get familiar with and to implement with my own (future)works.

This project's starting point was a book written by Matt Pearson. Generative Art, a practical guide using processing

I don't have any experience with Processing. I've written some code in the past for controlling an Arduino, but I avoid coding the 'hard' way, plus I'm really fond of programming in a more graphic way like Quartz Composer, Isadora or MaxMSP.
I've been using Max for a year now and I really like the flexibility that this software has through all it's externals, it gave me a lot of freedom.

But now I would like to set some new boundaries for myself.
I want to make some sort of a sculpture which appears to be alive somehow. A generative sculpture which is constantly moving, changing it's shape, color and would never produce the same sort of outcome.

I decided to post my project and process in the public domain and thereby get in touch with people who are interested or like to share their ideas about my approach, research, code and outcome.