Re: Brickyard media systems architecture; notes for Thursday BY checkin



On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 10:51 AM, Katie Jung <katiejung1@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi All,
I will beam in online.
See you then!


On Thu, Jun 26, 2014 at 11:48 AM, Peter Weisman <peter.weisman@asu.edu> wrote:
> Yes. Lets all meet at Brickyard.
>
> Pete
>
>
> Sent from my Galaxy S®III
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Garrett Laroy Johnson
> Date:06/26/2014 8:41 AM (GMT-07:00)
> To: Tain Barzso
> Cc: Peter Weisman , Sha Xin Wei , Katie Jung , Julian Stein , "Byron Lahey
> (Student)" , Assegid Kidane , Garrett Laroy Johnson , Kevin Klawinski ,
> "Matthew Briggs (Student)" , Xin Wei Sha , post@synthesis.posthaven.com
> Subject: Re: Brickyard media systems architecture; notes for Thursday BY
> checkin
>
> 2.30 is good for me too. Meet at BY?
>
>
> Garrett
>
>
> On Jun 26, 2014, at 8:34 AM, Tain Barzso <Tain.Barzso@asu.edu> wrote:
>
> 2:30 works for me, as well.
>
> From: Peter Weisman <peter.weisman@asu.edu>
> Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 21:07:34 -0700
> To: Sha Xin Wei <shaxinwei@gmail.com>, Peter Weisman
> <peter.weisman@asu.edu>, Katie Jung <katiejung1@gmail.com>, Julian Stein
> <julian.stein@gmail.com>, "Byron Lahey (Student)" <Byron.Lahey@asu.edu>,
> Assegid Kidane <Assegid.Kidane@asu.edu>, Tain Barzso <Tain.Barzso@asu.edu>,
> Garrett Laroy Johnson <gljohns6@asu.edu>, Kevin Klawinski
> <kklawins@asu.edu>, "Matthew Briggs (Student)" <Matthew.Briggs@asu.edu>
> Cc: Xin Wei Sha <Xinwei.Sha@asu.edu>, "post@synthesis.posthaven.com"
> <post@synthesis.posthaven.com>
> Subject: RE: Brickyard media systems architecture; notes for Thursday BY
> checkin
>
> I am free at 2:30pm AZ time on Thursday.  Can we all meet then?
>
> Pete
>
>
> Sent from my Galaxy S®III
>
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Sha Xin Wei
> Date:06/25/2014 8:14 PM (GMT-07:00)
> To: Peter Weisman , Katie Jung , Julian Stein , "Byron Lahey (Student)" ,
> Assegid Kidane , Tain Barzso , Garrett Laroy Johnson , Kevin Klawinski ,
> "Matthew Briggs (Student)"
> Cc: Xin Wei Sha , post@synthesis.posthaven.com
> Subject: Brickyard media systems architecture; notes for Thursday BY checkin
>
> Hi Everyone,
>
> This note is primarily about media systems, but should connect with the
> physical interior design, furniture and lighting etc.
>
> Thanks Pete for the proposed media systems architecture summary.  I started
> to edit the doc but then bogged down because the architecture was
> computer-centric, and it’s clearer as a diagram.
>
> Instead of designing around the 2 Mac Minis and the Mac Pro computers I’d
> like to design the architecture around relatively autonomous i/o devices :
>
> Effectively a network of:
> Lamps (for now addressed via DMX dimmers), floor and desk lamps as needed to
> provide comfortable lighting
> 5 Wifi GoPro audio-video cameras (3 in BY, 1 Stauffer, 1 iStage)
> xOSC-connected sensors and stepper motors,  ask Byron
> 1 black Mac Pro on internet switch
> processing video streams, e.g. extracting video feature emitted in OSC
> 1 Mac Minis on internet switch
> running lighting master control Max patch, ozone media state engine (later)
> 1 Mac Mini on internet switch
> processing audio, e.g. extracting audio features emitted in OSC
> 1 iPad running Ozone control panel under Mira
> 1 Internet switch in Synthesis incubator room for drop-in laptop processing
> 8 x transducers (or Genelecs — distinct from use in lab or iStage, I prefer
> not to have “visible” speaker boxes or projectors in BY — perhaps flown in
> corners or inserted inside Kevin’s boxes, but not on tables or the floor )
>
> The designer-inhabitants should be able to physically move the lamps and
> GoPros and stepper motor’ed objects around the room, replugging into few
> cabled interface devices (dimmer boxes) as necessary.
>
> Do the GoPro’s have audio in?   Can we run contact or boundary or air mic
> into one ?
>
> We could run ethernet from our 3 computers to the nearest wall ethernet
> port?
>
> Drop-in researchers should be able to receive via OSC whatever sensor data
> streams (e.g. video and audio feature streams cooked by the fixed black
> MacPro and audio Mini)
> and also emit audio / video / control OSC into this BY network.
>
> DITTO iStage.
>
> Can we organize an architecture session Thursday sometime ?
> I’m sorry since I have to get my mother into post-accident care here in
> Washington DC I don’t know when I’ll be free.
>
> Perhaps Thursday sometime between 2 and 5 PM Phoenix?  I will make myself
> available for this because I’d like to take up a more active role now thanks
> to your smart work.
>
> Looking forward to it!
> Xin Wei
>
>
> PS. Please let’s email our design-build to post@synthesis.posthaven.com  so
> we can capture the design process and build on accumulated knowledge in
> http://synthesis.posthaven.com
>
> __________________________________________________________________________________
> Sha Xin Wei
> Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering • Herberger
> Institute for Design and the Arts / Director • Synthesis / ASU
> Founding Director, Topological Media Lab / topologicalmedialab.net/  /
> skype: shaxinwei / +1-650-815-9962
> __________________________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
>
>
>



--
***
Katie Jung
(514) 502 0205

Brickyard media systems architecture; notes for Thursday BY checkin

Hi Everyone,

This note is primarily about media systems, but should connect with the physical interior design, furniture and lighting etc.

Thanks Pete for the proposed media systems architecture summary.  I started to edit the doc but then bogged down because the architecture was computer-centric, and it’s clearer as a diagram.   
 
Instead of designing around the 2 Mac Minis and the Mac Pro computers I’d like to design the architecture around relatively autonomous i/o devices :

Effectively a network of:
Lamps (for now addressed via DMX dimmers), floor and desk lamps as needed to provide comfortable lighting 
5 Wifi GoPro audio-video cameras (3 in BY, 1 Stauffer, 1 iStage)
xOSC-connected sensors and stepper motors,  ask Byron 
1 black Mac Pro on internet switch
processing video streams, e.g. extracting video feature emitted in OSC
1 Mac Minis on internet switch
running lighting master control Max patch, ozone media state engine (later)
1 Mac Mini on internet switch
processing audio, e.g. extracting audio features emitted in OSC
1 iPad running Ozone control panel under Mira
1 Internet switch in Synthesis incubator room for drop-in laptop processing
8 x transducers (or Genelecs — distinct from use in lab or iStage, I prefer not to have “visible” speaker boxes or projectors in BY — perhaps flown in corners or inserted inside Kevin’s boxes, but not on tables or the floor )

The designer-inhabitants should be able to physically move the lamps and GoPros and stepper motor’ed objects around the room, replugging into few cabled interface devices (dimmer boxes) as necessary.

Do the GoPro’s have audio in?   Can we run contact or boundary or air mic into one ?

We could run ethernet from our 3 computers to the nearest wall ethernet port?

Drop-in researchers should be able to receive via OSC whatever sensor data streams (e.g. video and audio feature streams cooked by the fixed black MacPro and audio Mini)
and also emit audio / video / control OSC into this BY network. 

DITTO iStage.

Can we organize an architecture session Thursday sometime ?  
I’m sorry since I have to get my mother into post-accident care here in Washington DC I don’t know when I’ll be free.

Perhaps Thursday sometime between 2 and 5 PM Phoenix?  I will make myself available for this because I’d like to take up a more active role now thanks to your smart work.

Looking forward to it!
Xin Wei


PS. Please let’s email our design-build to post@synthesis.posthaven.com  so we can capture the design process and build on accumulated knowledge in http://synthesis.posthaven.com 

__________________________________________________________________________________
Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering • Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts / Director • Synthesis / ASU
Founding Director, Topological Media Lab / topologicalmedialab.net/  /  skype: shaxinwei / +1-650-815-9962
__________________________________________________________________________________




MIRA TouchOSC, lighting in BY

Hi all, 
   Xin Wei + Tech team, I shall carry on here the discussion re: touchOSC vs. Mira, as this relates to the lighting thread.

Matt and I have discussed taking on on everyday lighting starting now but carrying on through the Fall.  

A la TML/iStage, I wanted to set up a Mira controller for the conference/lunch area with various presets: conference/lunch/partymode/moodlighting/dynamic. I had Mira in mind for its smooth user interface abilities, but I hadn't thought about using touchOSC (or OSC control, which is what I have found for free. Touch OSC appears to cost some $4.99). Either is ideal for scaling up. Using Julian's tml.dmx_op (+ or -), we can have multiple controllers going into the same DMX universe without discrepancy. 

Here are some links to some encouraging models, some of them more theatrical or black box space-y, but all using conventional, everyday lighting apparatuses:

 


I'm not familiar with Riemannian's work, but Leibniz monads do seem to resonate with this kind of work. The monad as a unit of a kind of proto-systems theory provides an interesting model for assemblages of lighting, clusters and pairings of energies. I've seen the monad used, as Leibniz himself did, as a mode of viewing Western musical structures. However, most interesting are attempts to account for not only structure, but also for those timbral sonic parameters neglected by Western musical notation. 

A parallel in lighting could perhaps be found as a starting point. musical structure might be akin to the spatial placement (topological or geometrical) of each light bulb. How they're structured, how they're bound to one another, how (if) they hang, what kind of bulb are we using, wattage, these are all important timbral considerations which define how each monad functions within the larger ecology. 

This is also defined by movement/rhythm, a seemingly critical aspect to identifying relationships between monads (lights). This sort of work has also been done at TML-- my hope is that we can build on this together as we go forth over the next few months. 

Matthew has done some great research into proper thread cables and light bulbs for the space, and has spec'd what promises to make the environment here a much warmer space. He has, with Luke, ordered supplies to create 20-30 lights. We should have them in ~7 business days and we can start throwing lights up. Ideal will be to pair this with the grid beam/ desks. 

Other lighting possibilities are non traditional; Katie purchases an old-school overhead projector from Surplus, which I've hooked up to DMX. Interesting with this might be to find some materials (tissue paper?) which provide an interesting degree of translucence. Perhaps they could (Byron?) be manipulated by some servos. Robotic shadow puppets could also be an interesting endeavor. Byron also mentioned sand...

I would also like to continue to work with RGB LEDs, although there is a general fear of disco @ BY :-) Although the testing with LEDs has been admittedly "disko-orientiert," it would be nice to build them into window boxes. Using a simple pixel selector (thanks Julian), we can use incoming video feeds to detect sky hue and reproduce it in artificial windows (rectangular, oval, asymmetrical, as we please) which do not have to be on walls. 

All best,
Garrett 


On Sun, Jun 22, 2014 at 9:24 AM, Sha Xin Wei<shaxinwei@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi, 

I’d like to propose a research sub-thread on lighting design for the Brickyard commons this Fall
inspired and guided by specific practical and aesthetic intents.

For foveal work, when someone is at a work site 
Lighting either work zones or ceilings with floor lamps
BUT research goal is NOT to beam light onto objects or work surfaces  a la electric era lighting design,
but to emulate and learn from skylight and shafts of sunbeams(preferably natural light*) directed by agencies 
summing both the individual as well as the ambient
(e.g. outdoor sky colour temp => colour temp of interior washes, 
amount of activity in other parts of floor => … 
sound timbre => …. )
Criteria: enlivening, and can serve 
either focus foveal work,or support reverie depending on
the inhabitant’s phenomenological disposition, which can flicker.

For night and default empty (when people leave the commons) lighting 
use cloud of bulbs in amorphous, bunched constellations
soften by animation (ramped brighten / darken) and by slightly intermingling  clusters.

Clusters can brighten over the heads of people where they gather. 
(Use  motion to initiate, presence to stay on…)

Message and actual: even empty of people, the room is still working, 
research is still happening with non-human agencies. 

Below I include a snip from the Fountain to give a sense of volumetric density
and constant shifting of perspective that we can perhaps induce as people move through the space.
This has direct, poetic connection with the conceptual work referencing
Deleuze & Guattari, Leibniz’s monadology, 
Riemannian geometric approaches to design (special volume being prepared).


But I’d like to clearly distinguish this from the iStage blackbox atmosphere, but we can use
theatrical technologies with non-blackbox results.

Of course this will connect with everyone’s work in the BY, 
but who will be responsible for the research direction and push the aesthetic-technical work with me?
Who can own this as a focus?

Cheers,
Xin Wei

* It seems ethico-aesthetically ugly to use electrical light when we have so much sunlight to draw from.  S
It takes careful thought to see how to respond to this subject to our practical time+budget constraints.



-- 
Garrett L. Johnson
Music History TA 
Arizona State University 
School of Music

[Synthesis][TML]: table-portal test (Was: [Portal research stream] opening up the audio-video portals between Synthesis Brickyard and TML studios )

Hi,

This is a good example of the sort of poetic portal behaviours and forms we might explore in a great variety over a brief period of time.

Bravo Evan! :)

Portal = porthole experiment

What I’d like to see us experiment with as well are
multiple pairs of small (20cm) disk portals  with similar wipe => reveal behaviours
set up on 24x7 live streams.  Use cameras and / or sub-regions of video streams that yield restricted views
of only a small field of view.

Then we can explore invention of social protocols for tailoring the topology of gaze / portal via physically angling the cameras and pico-projectors on the spot in live, in situ tests.  
Let’s unbolt projectors and cameras from fixed locations and fixed perspectives!

The point: Deleuze & Guattari’s rhizomes are not simply networks of identical nodes as is commonly understood in mechanical interpretation, but manifolds of perspectival monads that continuously vary, continuously.   And ethico-aesthetic reflexivity demands that we ought to permit us inhabitants to tailor the topological gaze identification ourselves.   This is not for the programmer-engineer-designer to over-think and "solve" ahead of the dwelling.   I’ll relay Luke’s comments as well in subsequent email.

Xin Wei

__________________________________________________________________________________
Professor and Director • School of Arts, Media and Engineering • Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts / Director • Synthesis / ASU
Founding Director, Topological Media Lab / topologicalmedialab.net/  /  skype: shaxinwei / +1-650-815-9962
__________________________________________________________________________________


Begin forwarded message:

From: Michael Montanaro <michael.montanaro@concordia.ca>
Subject: Test table
Date: June 21, 2014 at 12:20:39 PM PDT
To: Xin Wei Sha <Xinwei.Sha@asu.edu>, Sha Xin Wei <shaxinwei@gmail.com>, "Evan Montpellier" <evan.montpellier@gmail.com>

Have a look. Will test live portal tomorrow with Niko in Greece. 



take care
m


Michael Montanaro, Chair
Department of Contemporary Dance
Concordia University
Artist/Researcher /  HEXAGRAM 
Centre for Research-Creation in Media Arts and Technologies

Prologue to the book, Ambient Commons: Attention in the Age of Embodied Information, by Malcolm McCullough

I just read this prologue to a book that may be relevant to my dissertation, and possibly of interest to some of the Synthesis Center researchers. (Keep in mind that I've only read to the end of the prologue at this point, so I'm not extending any critical perspective on the book as a whole at this point.)

McCullough describes of a moment of attention, in which screens and displays become something more (and less) than simple "portals into other spaces".

-Byron


McCullough, Malcolm. (2013). Ambient Commons : Attention in the Age of Embodied Information. MIT Press. Retrieved 18 June 2014, from <http://www.myilibrary.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu?ID=475570>

Prologue:

“Out on the street, a cool night rain blurs the lights of the city, and water slowly drips off the signs. You step into a doorway to look at your phone. Kept dry there, up under the canvas awning, a speaker showers you with tinny tunes. Yet you no more notice these than the video display in the window, or the messages on your phone for that matter, for a splash from the sidewalk has soaked your shoes, and in this moment of disorientation, something just feels very good. Maybe the water streaming over every surface helped, but, for a second, the world seemed of a piece, not just made of so many competing links, but somehow more immediate, with order and measure, a patchwork that for a moment you felt as one coherent space. In this sidewalk epiphany, the usual chaos of so many shallow short messages momentarily gave way to a presence that felt whole, of much higher resolution, in a word: replete. 1 What felt good was seeing more where you looked, instead of quickly wanting to look away. The rain brought out colors in the stone. The world became inexhaustibly detailed and present, in ways that a flickering picture is not. And, for a moment, maybe because you saw them streaked by the rain, even the glowing rectangles of your phone and the video display felt like features of this one, immediate, urban space, rather than simply portals onto other spaces, with furnished perspectives, all at no particular distance. For a moment, it seemed as if the sphere of information was embodied persistently in a physical commons. The sights and sounds of the city, the noisy, numbing vitality that leaves city dwellers experiencing daily life in a state of distraction, well, it all felt different for a second. Here was kind of attention that you could perhaps re-create, maintain, and manage, as if it would affect whatever else you notice. For one replete moment, you could understand the workings of attention, and how it might be worth knowing them better in an age of overload. When you perceive the whole environment more and its individual signals less, when at least some of the information superabundance assumes embodied, inhabitable form, when your attention isn’t being stolen, when you feel renewed sensibility to your surroundings you might try calling this ambient.”

Meeting notes June 2014

Attendees: Xin Wei, Garrett, Julian, Cooper, Byron, Ozzie, Mitchell, Kevin, Matthew, Ed Finn, Katie, Kristi

 

Goal:  

Goals for June (and summer) is to reset the Brickyard space and replace the previous office with a new topology conducive to the various work we want todo. This open concept office, reconfigurable atelier space, will be the site for the Synthesis everyday research.  This continuously running apparatus for research @ brickyard will be the foundational platform for projects (ie  portal project) as well as the over all enchanting of the space.  


Targeted completion date: August 19, 2014

 

WHO: To do this we have a core student team (Byron, Garrett, Cooper, Matt, Kevin) each with project roles. Synthesis staff (Katie and Kristi) and AME staff that will help facilitate work (Ozzie, Pete, Tain) as well as our neighbours from CSI (Joey, Chelsea, Nina and Ed).


TALKING POINTS:

 

General topology of space; to be applicable in a variety of situations


Portal project, Now that we have connectivity how do we make portals more interesting

 Xin Wei: think about the social protocols… social translucency issues, privacy issues

 Projection into and onto 3D space (Ceiling, table, floor) 

 Camera (fisheye) from the ceiling à project on wall (abstracted –reduced)

Camera and projectors on snake mounts à project from table

Trackable Cardboard (fiducial markers, etc.)

Pico Projector (robotic motion/small localized uses)

Computer-controlled fans

Robotic “spider”

Portals (audio, visual, tangible)

Paper project

Lighting systems

Furniture


Julian, Garrett and Byron talked about their projects (sensors, floating "air" mics, video; Byron's "spider" sensor (currently run off audio, but it could be run off of anything); virtual physics. Byron's other project (computer controlled fans) could be for Place and Atmosphere. (Side note: Xin Wei is working on the “paper project” in Copenhagen: taking sounds made by manipulating paper)


 Garrett: projection on wall (shadows, silhouettes) - slight time delay i.e. two videos in an office can be combined/layered. Transient shadows are more ghostly; more static images, more sharp

Ozzie: 4 streams – video process from two cameras (Room 390)

“Glass Wall” – Combining what’s coming from the TML with what’s here in the Brickyard, Xin Wei’s office, iStage (via portals) – all will be integrated in the system (i.e. motion detection, sound detection)

  Again: --Xin Wei: think about the social protocols; social translucency issues, privacy issues

Kevin: Interested in furniture (i.e. bleachers that are stackable and can become tables, modular, flexible)

Matthew: Interested in the potential of the open space; modify/build tiles in ceiling to utilize space – make automated tiles to create natural light using an automated mirror to bounce light. He’s also interested in thin panels of water, different viscosities of water.

Xin Wei: bring in light through diffusers to illuminate the room – build a skylight network (Q: add this to list of projects?)

 Cooper: Whiteboard map of the space

Tables: modular (i.e. make a circle of tables for meetings, different configurations for different purposes

Xin Wei: think of the materiality of it (tools, fabrication)

 Ed: have maybe a third of a circle instead of a semi-circle – the space is an active research space, but maybe it can also be a community space (i.e. 50 people could come in to watch something)/create a bean-bag lounge area (maybe in the front… ?)

  Katie: remember that whatever is done in the Brickyard is not permanent – everything should be movable from one kind of space to another (community space, quiet space, etc.). If we have a library, make it movable (make the front area a lounge waiting area)

 PORTAL – Room 386: Cooper – space designs for festivals – who is using what space? How many people are using what spaces? (screens and mics)

 Garrett and Julian: Images on screens projected onto others; layer the effects of the projected images

  Byron: make it modular…

  Ed: enchanted objects…

  (Xin Wei is working with a cinematographer. in Copenhagen)

 Julian: Shortest path video/audio rhythm…

  Xin Wei: rhythms in the street and office interaction – everyday activities – transient image and sound

(John MacCallum in Berkely could come for a workshop)

  Xin Wei: We need a Jitter programmer (recruit a local expert)

 (Xin Wei mentions the San Jose Public Library designs:

desks slowly coming apart in the pattern of the continental drift

lamps slowly moving to mimic the movements of the sun)

Synthesis: An atelier for sustained experiments in rich environments and experiences

Problem Statement

The world we have built has become full of “wicked problems” - problems that cannot be solved by divide-and-conquer techniques, problems whose solutions are other problems, problems whose very definition is problematic, and problems in which we are part of the problem. 

We live at a time in which there is a great deal of technological innovation with the potential of supporting deep meaning making and reflection but instead seems to have largely made our lives more complex, fragmented and passive. Part of the reason for this state of affairs is that there are significant rifts between those creating the technology, those asking questions about the meaning of such developments, and those exploring the creative possibilities of using the technology to elevate our experiences. Simply put, what is lacking is a true synthesis of thought that could be brought to bear on such questions. In particular, a blending that does not reduce to lowest common factors but also opens a space for rich difference.

Mission Overview
The Synthesis Center at Arizona State University is focused on the central question: How can we make worlds that are richer but not more complicated?  Our approach to this question is radically transdisciplinary: Humanities can help us make environments meaningful. Engineering can help us make environments that are effective and resilient. Arts can help us make environments worth living in. The Synthesis Center’s mission is to create a space in which all three may come together to answer our fundamental question.


Our method is to carefully curate multiple research clusters at the same time in a physical space, investing technology to enrich the already unboundedly rich social and conceptual interaction of teams working on their own projects but in a common space at a common time.  Each cluster comprises at least two faculty PI’s with grad students and consultant(s) — focused on a proposition or project.  A key feature is that these clusters will live in common physical space modelled after an atelier / studio / lab structure  housed at Concordia University in Montréal.

An example of our method in action: Under the theme of Place and Atmosphere, Synthesis is co-ordinating a place-based art + business initiative with Concordia University’s David O’Brien Center for Sustainable Enterprise in public spaces in Quebec and Greece.