Nov 24, 2009

Sound & Visual Boundaries (synop.)


David Hockney, Pearblossom Hwy, 1986

Concept :

Display 4 different scenes in one screen, but the sound from each scene controls the boundaries. The louder sound is, then the bigger a scene becomes. The boundaries are not drawn in straight lines but in curves to get some kind of "organic boundaries" looking image.

Motivations of this idea were from the works of Urs Fischer and David Hockney. They made montage images using different pictures from different angle and perspective. So those images can show us different aspects of a space existing at a certain moment. My idea is to convert these concepts into a video work.

BUT, that would be just stealing someone else's idea using slightly different media. So why don't we let the sound from each scene control the whole image?


Method :


URS FISCHER, A Shovel and a Hole, 2004
http://www.gavinbrown.biz/artists/view/urs-fischer


Well, actually there is not much I can say about method. I'm just considering to use Max Msp or Quartz Composer which I'm not good at. If they can combine 4 different scenes into one image and create the boundaries reacting to the sound, well then...that's it! We must have 4 cameras and mics connected to computer so those programs can control the whole image. Each camera and mic has to be located in different places to have 4 different sources(one camera and one mic make a unit).

Here's the diagram. You don't laugh at my diagram.


A diagram including a picture of my friends...

I'm not sure about displaying screen either. We can just use one projector toward a big screen, or we can connect 24(!!) mini-LCDs with the main computer. But as you know, we are not sure about dividing an image into 24 pieces using just one computer...let's think about that.

Nov 22, 2009

Horror and Media

The first project of this semester was about "the modification of an environment ( or situation ) in a very immediate way". I tried to modify few situations in my house without knowing what I was trying to do.


Then I realized that one of my videos from last semester was related with this project in some way. It was about distorting time, but I guess somehow it also distorted environment.




And this image reminded me of the video game called "The 7th Guest" which was released in 1993. It was a horror adventure game that trying to solve the mysteries inside a huge mansion. And accidentally by the time I was on this project, I was playing the video game called "Bio Hazard" which was also a horror adventure zombie killing game inside a mansion.



1. The 7th Guest, Virgin Games, 1993
2. Bio Hazard, Capcom, 1996


These video games had great amount of tensions that player can feel inside mansion, so they were all about "interior horror". Of course monsters come out occasionally, but player spends most of the time alone in the domestic environment. So with these two games reminded, my works on the project became horror.

The loading screen of Bio Hazard was the best part of the game. When player opens the door or goes downstairs, you can only hear the footsteps or a creaking sound from the door. And it changes it's point of view into first person's. So I tried to imitate that.


loading screen of Bio Hazard



I made couple more videos trying to express static fear inside house. And finally, with an intension to express the suicidal tendency, I threw my camcorder from 23rd floor...just to fail to revive that video tape.



After these "fear inside" things, project was changed and I brought camera out to the streets. I shooted the original source in the construction area where I could get a great depth of space. I admit that I was obsessed with video filters and effects regarding these street videos. But a few filters were good for expressing bizarre illusions and they reminded me of environments from Marilyn Manson's music videos. Well, it's just my opinion. It doesn't really matter what you think!


Sapphire Edge Detect Double + black screen matte


Marilyn Manson - The long hard road out of hell (1997)


Sapphire Psykoblobs


Marilyn Manson - The dope hat (1994)

Ok...I'm starting to confuse...where was I ??
In trying to make portraits, I couldn't make 3-4 different videos. I just made one simple video which I wanted to express distorted time, body modification, sound reacting horror video. Looking toward an eye very closely is often used to give some tensions. The movie "Requiem for a dream" used it, the title screen of Bio Hazard used it also. Why not me?


1. Requiem for a Dream, 2000
2. Bio Hazard, 1996
3. Bio Hazard 2, 1998




This is what I did during this semester. I couldn't finish my works for the project "Interior Horror" yet, and there is an upcoming project named "Crowd Multiplier". I can't guess what kind of works I'm going to do, but the keywords as now will be

1. HORROR!!
2. static fear
3. interior
4. the depth of space
5. time distortion
6. sound

So I have to find the way how I can put these altogether in couple of videos regarding "Interior Horror" and "Crowd Multiplier". And since I just bought brand new camera called EOS 7D (haha), I'll see what I can do with it...

Nov 19, 2009

Circuit Bending & Visuallization


2009.11.06.
@Yonsei open theater
Photo by Jinmi Kim



This project was about visuallizing sound. Not just songs or sound that we normally hear from daily life, but some kind of sounds we can controll and distort. So, here comes the "Speak & Spell".



It was not this model that I used, but I forgot to take a picture of it before I destroy it, and I couldn't find the image of right one. It's shape was a craB.

Anyway, I took off craB's shell and tried to modify it's circuit. I had to find which part of the circuit is right for connecting resistance to controll the sound, and I had to test almost every parts of it! It really took a long time, 7 different resistances were tested and two craBs were sacrificed.


1. It looks very peaceful now, but there was a time that I wanted to destroy this.
2. 100k resistance.


There was another problem. I couldn't controll the sound. Of course the sound was distorted with the resistance, but I could not change the speed and pitch with resistance. Yes, this project was about visuallizing sound but also I should be able to controll it and I failed. However, we were supposed to use any kind of sound programs also, so I kindly let computer deal with this problem.



1. ableton live
2. patches I used (metallic, laundry, warning, swirling)


I connected my circuit with the program Ableton Live and it resulted great sound for me(Sorry, but I don't know how to record the sound from ableton so I cannot upload it here...you can follow the screen shot if you want). Tried many different patches and those four were chosen. With these patches, I could controll the sound by turning on / off the circuit.

So the sound part was pretty much done. In visuallizing it, I decided to use Quartz Composer.


original source screen
http://www.quartzcompositions.com/phpBB2/upload/details.php?file=60
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/


I have to make a confession here, that I used one of the open sources for quartz composer from web. The excuses are :

1. I didn't know how to use Quartz Composer.
2. I don't know how to use Quartz Composer yet. My brain doesn't react to these kind of processing programs.
3. I was in a boundless ocean.
4. ......

So I downloaded one of the sources and those are screen shots of it. Of course I didn't use this patch as it is. I tried to modify it as possible to fit it into the circuit's distorted sound.
Here are few tryouts.




I was able to change the number of lines, color, saturation, and mirror effect. I also removed the grid from background and adjusted the level of increasement / decreasement. The biggest change was happened in the motion. While the original shape of object was 2D expanding circle panel (and camera was moving around to make this patch 3D), changed object was able to twist iteself in 3D. When the sound is louder, I could get more twisted and expanded object image.



1. original patch & parameter
2. changed patch & parameter


With increasing / decreasing scales modified, I could get just clear black screen without any objects when there was no sound. And also object reacted more sensitivly to the sound resulting a very dynamic image on the screen.



And finally, we had our performance at Yonsei open theater. We had two projectors so we could have mirror image. It was freezing outside.



God damn it, that was a long brief...

Digilog 2009




2009.05.
@ Seoul Arts Center




Feedback Video_Girls : Digilog 2009 edited

Nov 16, 2009

In the closet



Ah...stupid finalcut pro...

slow motion tests





with 7D. 50% speed.

Nov 10, 2009

6:00



Song : Dream Theater - 6:00

Great acting from my topless brother...

Montage



Song : The Prodigy - Smack my bitch up

One of my very early works...in fact, this is my very first video.
Great actings from ddcar and fukka.
It's funny that I'm still in love with this one.

Nov 9, 2009

Self Portrait



I don't really know what happened but there were some technical problems so I just could export video with that black border...Damn it...Fu** Final Cut...

Anyway, this is my self portrait video. Some sense of "time distorting" thing that I did last semester, tried to do some "body modification look like" stuff (I don't know if it worked well or not), and of course, horror. Nothing related with fetish hit my brain though...

Created sound using ableton live with IPOD classic.