http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Tina Gonsalves, Chameleon Project, Prototype 08 - Lighthouse Residency August 2009 Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:32:52 +0000 a-n rss generator a-n The Artists Information Company and contributors edit@a-n.co.uk technical@a-n.co.uk http://www.a-n.co.uk/img/logo.gif http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Artist talk, Lighthouse, 3pm Saturday, 1st of August. The Lighthouse residency for prototype 08 is about to begin. The Chameleon project is built over ten prototypes (2008-2010) with a cross disciplinary group of myself, social neuroscientist Chris Frith, emotion neuroscientist Hugo Critchley, Bruno Averbeck affective computer scientists Ros Picard and Rana El Kaliouby from the MIT medial Lab with help from Youssef Kashef, Abdelrahmen Mahmoud and Marwa Mahmoud from the American University Cairo,  human computer interaction scientists  Nadia Berthouze and her students Matt Iacobini, Kimberly Byers  from the Human Computer Interaction Center, UCL and  curator, Helen Sloan from SCAN. The project investigates the scientific foundations of emotional contagion, drawing attention to how we innately and continuously synchronize with the facial expressions, voices and postures of others by unconsciously infecting each other with our emotions.  It both follows and critiques the scientific methodology, creating scientific and artistic research, as well as new models to be used in scientific experiments, and new ways to experience art. The Chameleon project interacts with its audience by displaying videos of emotional expression portraits, shot over the world by the artist. She asked volunteers to be filmed expressing emotions elicitng emotional states using varied psycho analytical techniques. The Audience’s emotions are monitored by facial emotion reading technology developed by the MIT media lab, driving a subtle interactivity of the work. The video engine, embedded with an emotional algorithm developed by neurocientists, pushes the work to empathize with the audience. Over time, it develops mood and temperament.  For audiences, empathy becomes a powerful form of agency, becoming increasingly aware of and sensitive to the consequences of their interactions, becoming implicated into an emotional drama. The Chameleon Project is funded by the Wellcome Trust Large Art Award, Arts Council England, Australia Arts Council, Lighthouse, in kind support from the Liminal Screen Co-Production at the Banff New Media Institute, Synapse Residency from the Australian Network for Art and Technology, Institute of Neurology at UCL, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, MIT media lab, Dana Center, SCAN and Lighthouse. At Lighthouse we are investigating prototype 08 which explores a more sculptural iteration of the work. I am working with Natacha Roussel, Michael Roy, (Experientiae-Electricae). They will assist the development of a more sculptural experimentation for prototype 08 by reworking EE's pixy screen to work with the Chameleon Project.  I am also working with Gordon Brand for the Solent University Rapid prototyping lab, Southampton, testing different projection srufaces, projectors and shapes. Over the Lighthouse residency I will also be shooting more portraits, extending the video database of the Chameleon Project. We will be holding evaluation sessions with the human computer interaction team.        ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 We have a talk scheduled today at 3 pm. Natacha Roussel should have arrived from France, Nadia Berthouze is meeting me at 2pm, so is Hugo Critchley. Gordon Brand just cancelled - he is sick. We are talking for an hour or so, I will talk about building the project - Hugo will talk about emotional contagion, nadia will talk about the evaluation sessions and natacha will talk about the pixy screen. This is my fourth talk at Lighthouse this year. I am about to carry all the equipment down to Lighthouse. I am carrying 5 computers, 2 video cameras, 2 cameras tripod, all cords. Its two very heavy back backs and all cabs seem to be booked out.    ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 EVALUATION SET UP. TINA GONSALVES Monday morning at Lighthouse. Kim Byers is here from the human computer interaction center at UCL to start an initial evaluation. We have set up studio one as a testing lab. There is a projector - with the portraits projected large on the wall. There are some speakers for sound and also the camera which monitors the facial emotion expression which drives the interaction. Its been hard to organise placement of camera with the screen so large. The bigger the screen, the more one needs to sit back from it. Meaning, where do you place the camera? We need the face to be rather close to the camera at the moment which makes the face hard to read. The face reader also likes lightness - not darkness. I have bought a very expensive set of infra-red lights - but this morning, I couldn't really notice a difference. Anyway, its all set up now, and the first of the evaluation sessions has begun. We placed a couch in the middle of the room. Then a chair in front of the couch that holds the camera. We tested the light, and so far , the camera seems to work. Its strange the i don't see much difference using the infra red.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 ARTIST TALK AUGUST 1st : TINA GONSALVES We had an artist talk on Saturday. We had Hugo Critchley speaking about emotional contagion. Nadia Berthouse about the Human Computer Interaction and Natacha Roussel about the Pixy screen that is being built at Lighthouse. I talked about the building of the project. A few interesting comments - but the talk went for too long, leaving not enough time for discussion. I find the most interesting part of talks is the discussion part - so it was ashame to have run over time. Its always an interesting process holding a talk - especially with this ever-growing project. The challenge is keeping it focused on one dimension of the project rather than the many - I think on Saturday there were too many dimensions - but the feedback about the talk was good.    ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Its 5pm - busy day - we had some young helpers in all day - glueing the screens, painting wood, helping set up a shoot. Kim spent the day in the evaluation room - will be interesting to see the results. While she wasn't in there I tried to set up for tonight's shoot. Natacha got pretty far with the screen. She thinks it might be up tomorrow. That would be fantastic. The earlier we have it running the better. Getting the position right has taken a lot of dialogue. The screen like a big space - the more the distance, the more the image reveals itself. We are building four times as many pixels into the screen than we did at le cube. Natacha seems to have it all under control. A lot of work to build it - its beautiful. The screen is very hand made - very craft like. its so nice to see technology like this. Felt, handled. I am thinking I may need to shoot specifically for the screen. The screen likes gesture. I would like to shoot from the waste up. Someone who likes to move. I have a two people in for a shoot tonight. The first at 7pm and the second at 8.30pm. A late night. We only have one light, and I am shooting against a black backdrop. The one light is hard to deal with - because the side lighting causes some not nice shadows. I need a filler light, but we don't have one. I have had to position the light further to the back of the room with a diffuser. The light is a bit harsh, especially for the people in front of the camera. Its definitely not sounds proof so we will have a few sound issues. I talked to Gordon Brand from Solent University who is developing screens - we are going to have a day together here on Thursday - trying different projections - different techniques. It will be interesting to see what we come up with. We are hoping to embed cameras into the sort of frame - who knows if we can. Potentially this screen could be used for amsterdam. I might try out another projector? I am testing the smaller portable ones bu am yet to find one that suits. I tried to download the new version of the mind reading technology that is working a bit better with happiness. Still in the midst of it. I am working on pc's because the mindreader works on xp, but its really foreign to me - so I find myself getting stuck on the simplest of tasks. it is frustrating    ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 was at Lighthouse till 10 pm last night - two shoots - one with a man who is 86 and another - a third shoot for a woman who was 61. It was an interesting night. The man, who initially seemed reticent to be involved, enjoyed it in the end. We conversed a lot - just to get to know each other and relaxed. It was interesting - he said he didn't really like to display emotions. Emotions were something felt, but not displayed. emotions where something he thought about later - long after the emotional stimulus. Again, anger was something felt mostly between family and friends, sadness involved death and family. Happiness involved early family memories. A beautiful simple memory of holding his father's hand. his father's hand strong and big. It was a great hour and a half. i will look at the footage today. As he mentioned, the hour and a half felt like a privilege. A rare experience, where he got to talk, I got to listen and ask questions and with the camera in front of me, I got to ask questions that probed deeper than what I would usually ask.  I then started on the third shoot with a participant. It was amazing to see her face in front of the camera again. After hours of editing her face, i felt like I knew her well. But she was tired- we started the shoot at 8.30 at night - We tried to get the lighting right - to match the last shoot. We tired to get a hair right for continuity, but the month in between her hair had grown an inch or two. she had been in london for the day. She had also spent half an hour waiting outside the building of Lighthouse. It was amazing to look through the lense and see her face again. She looked tired, and the tiredness revealed a completely different face. Or, it could have been that it was our third shoot, and the familiarity revealed a different face. It was incredibly interesting to see. I will look at the footage today to see if it can be used, but I felt like I was shooting a completely different person. Amazing how the time of the day affects the reading of the face, the display of the face. We have a team of people in at Lighthouse this morning - Hayley and Connor - young students who are helping Natacha and Michael build the screen. We have Andy, a graduate of photography and media studies, and we have Karl, from informatics and Brighton and sussex, whose background is anthropology. They are all huddled around at table building the screen. Michael has arrived from paris with more suitcases of gear and got charged a fortune on Ryan air for extra luggage.        ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 the hammers have started. lots of banging, lots of people. lots of noise. we have been told to quieten down. I have a feeling the screen will be hanging tomorrow. I am starting to digitize last nights shoot. I have installed the new Pixy patch to work with the Chameleon Project. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 A very interesting energy, buzzing, chatting and the odd "bang bang" ... infact as I type the bang bang has become BANG BANG..   Tina Gonsalves - The screen is starting to take shape now - hayley and connor have left for the day - Karl has gone back to London. I have set up the studio next door for tonights shoot. I am getting a bit tired but also know its rare that you have access to such space, help and technology - I need to make the most use of it we can. Gen and Jamie from Lighthouse have been great as always. - helpful. nothing is a problem. Natacha and Michael have been given keys to Lighthouse now - I have a feeling Michael will be here all night - working away - he seems a bit panicked - he is building the 'guts' behind the pixy screen - he is an amazing artist/thinker/technologist who makes pretty hi-tech stuff with lo-tech.  We had some great talks today - about space - as in gaps, about stillness, about interventions, about connectedness, sharing. karl's back ground as an anthropologist is incredibly interesting. He discussed a lot of books and philosophers. Its been great to have him about. I discussed a few future ideas I am trying to get off the ground. Jane has an interest in 'Liminal spaces' - she is doing her MA at Brighton and is here to help out for a few weeks. She wants to know more about the project/process and is thinking about writing about it for her dissertation. Natacha talked about a project natacha talked about an artist working with hexagram that embeds the screen into the mirror.  These thoughts are interesting - Michael mentioned a french company that makes video screens that are mirrors. Then  It would be nice to explore all of this further. Gordon Brand is here on Thursday, so it will be interesting to discuss things further. I want to see this project shift into something beautiful - more aesthetic, more seductive. More realized than past iterations of the work. Natacha has found my process of work interesting. She says that the way that I work is very built into the concept of Chameleon. She says I should discuss it more - but its hard to be objective about it when you are in it, and its part of your everyday. I have asked everyone who is taking part in the next two weeks to write about their experience, and hopefully post it to this blog. I hope they do. I want to know what they get out of it. Natacha calls it an iterative process. I am not sure what I call it.      ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Jane McGrath - MA DIGITAL MEDIA ARTS Arrived today feeling a little unsure of what to expect, came down the stairs turned the corner and arrived.... a room full of activity, a large green tarpaulin laid out on the floor, painted white diagonal stripes from a previous incarnation. Now a collection of  fresh  batons lay horizontally and three people sit and work.  Connor and Hayley make up two thirds of this team. Both are working as part of a placement scheme for a project called "Loops" that aims to give young people interested in working in the arts some hands on experience. They seemed very capable - as they utilise the glue gun, coiled plastic and batons with great ease. They were really involved in building a project that seems so complex but as with anything in life - small simple steps make up the most complicated of designs.. . Natasha is at the other end applying some small plastic looking squares (which I am sure are actually more than this) to even more batons....Michael is setting up a series of what he calls 'pixy boards' which are like to my inexperienced eye a collection of more complicated multi storey mother boards. It looks like a miniature suburban office building structure  - prior to the cladding being put on. Tina runs in and starts getting things organised to set up the screens and computers for the software. She needs to digitise and transcibe and its all hands on deck. How do I feel? Nervous, a little shy ..but welcomed, also a little unsure of how to make my self useful. Carl, who is also assisting helps me to relax as we chat about his current project relating to shyness. I think as i write that maybe this blog will be more helpful if its subjective rather than simply reporting what happens . Im an MA student and my back ground is fashion public relations, working for 5 years for Jean Paul Gaultier, teaching at London College of Fashion and film-making... I say this to qualify the following... i came to the course  with a bare minimum of technical skills outside of film making and event organising and have been grasping and flailing around trying to catch up with my peers ever since. But in my defence I can now program.. So its an understanding of the technical that fascinates me about this project as well as an exploration of liminal spaces . I guess then that this blog will be an account of what I see, learn and think, which may be as surprising to me as it is to readers of this blog..... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Tina Gonsalves -   I digitized all of last nights footage. I edited helen's in and out points - making them longer. I feel I am going to have ot deal with it another way - meaning - less talking - longer edit points.  - edits driven by changes in emotional expression and not edit points...? The problem is is that if we don't have key in and out points - it could just corrupt everything. As in - sort of become quite flippant.  I need Jeff to start working on the next version of this. jeff Mann is building the video engine. He is still in Berlin, but I have a feeling things will be able to work with out him being here. Kim Byers, from UCL interaction Center who was doing todays evaluation mentioned that the 'best ' response were the portraits that didn't talk much at all. the ambiguity gave a lot more room for interpretation. Editing, shooting wise, obviously someone who doesn't talk is easier to deal with. Again, more space, more quietness, potentially more reflectiveness.  On the other hand, to elicit different emotional states, I often begin by talking to each of the participants. They mostly talk a lot - its amazing where the conversations lead to. Its such an interesting process. Kim noticed that the characters got moody. She said by the end of the day - they were unresponsive. This was interesting, as I hadn't quite told her about how the coding of the work has memory and overtime a mood and temperament for each character would build. I need to get the mood /temperament figures for kim to guide her evaluation. I also need to spend some time playing with them myself. I am not sure how to access them, but have asked jeff how we go about it.       ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Its morning - and have just got in. Connor, the student - he is here again - now helping natacha build parts of the pixy screen. I think he is enjoying himself. I feel tired this morning. My baby has a cold and was having trouble breathing last night. He has croup again. It made for a night of not much sleep and a bit of worry. I think I have now caught his cold. I feel so tired this morning, but my baby is happy this morning, I got a lot of kisses. I think his cold will be over tonight. We move a lot as a family due to my work...and last night I was laying in bed thinking - what if something goes wrong, what if he stops breathing - who do you call? where is the doctors in Brighton, where is an ambulance? how do you call one. What if you need something like this in a hurry? Its rare that we are in Australia anymore, but these thoughts about the everyday things - how to find doctors, hospitals, etc, if anything goes wrong - how do you cope when you travel so much and each destination is so new.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   I shot last night till about 10.30 pm or so - Sereena first and then Amy. I had shot them the last time I was in brighton - so last night was my third shoot with them - but just wanted to spend some more time with them. I had re-looked at the footage I had, and felt there was some more areas to expand on. More silence, and a little bot more speaking. Each shoot went for about an hour and a half. It was a great shoot - Each one I am beginning to know  a lot better - a lot is shared and i am feeling more comfortable directing them. We talked about the stories they last shared - what had happened in between. A lot had happened in six weeks. Both were a lot more comfortable and really happy. It was hard to find any sadness last night. It must have been summer, because the feeling was up-beat - much more up-beat than it was in June. They are understanding the process better as well. With Amy, for sadness - I left the room for about five minutes. It felt like that might have been easier for her and she mentioned it was. It will be interesting to digitize the footage today. Interestingly, Amy - who was really still last time, had a lot more movement - naturally as she spoke - she began speaking with her arms and really direct body movements. She didn't do that in the last shoot. It was amazing to see a different side of her revealed. She actually moves really well - but she had no idea she was moving. We laughed a lot last night. At one stage with sereena  found myself talking a lot more than her. Just stories of past - it was really enjoyable. At one point we thought she should have been on the other side of the camera. It such an interesting process. Exhaustive, but incredible to be able to spend time with these people and get to know them. Having the freedom to ask questions and the space to listen. To really listen. Its rare. Ron told me the other night that he had shared more over an hour an half than he had done with anyone for a long while. It was a privilege. The stories of these peoples lives are amazing. So many different ways to live, so many stories, so much hurt, death, scares, dramas, happiness. Its wonderful. Sadness was hard to find last night. I wonder why... Sereena was so vibrant - its like she is bursting with an intense interest in life. Amy was a lot happier.    ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   I asked sereena to extend the shoot - as i am thinking for the pixy screen we need to concentrate a bit more on gesture. She looked relieved - I asked her to move as she spoke, feel free to move her arms and use the space around her. She said that it felt more natural - she doesn't like stillness. It was strange to direct the shoot with more space - and not just concentrate on the face - we only shot this for half an hour - its just an experimentation - we will see if we can extend it - if it works. We are hoping we can start seeing video today...will be interesting - maybe we can flip between closeness and distance? I will look at all the edit points. I need to shoot one more person with distance and gesture - I am not sure who but will think about it today. I have another shoot tonight, so maybe we can extend it there. The first screen is up. Not working, but its hanging. It feels exciting.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Jane McGrath  5th August  2009So I had a good think on the train down from London, trying to locate what it is about Tina’s work that fascinates me and how I see this as potentially relevant to both my practice and my MA dissertation. The question I am currently thinking about is;"What kinds of liminal spaces have been developed by recent developments in digital technology, and how might they be used by artists exploring concepts of power and powerlessness? How can these sites create a dynamic shift from powerlessness to ‘power to’ for those who inhabit or pass through them?"I was at first a  little surprised  and disappointed  that Tina did not consider her self to be a  “bio digital artist” , well in truth she said that she hadn’t actually thought about it and that she sees her self more as a “physio-psychological ‘  or ‘psycho- physiological’  artist. ( oops - I cant remember which way round!) In retrospect however,  I  think it was only since recently attending the ‘Biodigital Lives’ Conference at Sussex University and listening to the discussions that the word jumped into my own vocabulary -  I had simply presumed that the term ‘bio digital’ was in wide use ie  artists working with (bio  - study of life) and digital would thus be considered bio-digital. It seems to be a term that is not used much.  So I am now asking my self  - what is bio-digital - how would I define it – does it have a definite set of boundaries and conditions… these questions I clearly need to explore. What artists might consider them selves bio digital?... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Jane McGrath 5th August 2009 So in light of my dissertation question I have naturally been thinking about  spaces of liminality within the Chameleon project. This was proving difficult at home as I had seeemingly  lost the memory of the experience of taking part. It was only coming down on the train today that  for some reason it all came flooding back - I was very glad that I took the time to take part in the filming  process during Tina’s March residency as being able to relate to the experience of the user is important.To begin I think that when actively involved in research, an artist  is often  existing in a liminal state . During this residency Tina is both participating in the process of  research  by way of  collecting data and by way of the process of collaborative construction, she is at the same time observing the process. She is, I think both artist , researcher , collaborator and project manager and exists in a space of constant flux moving between thresholds whilst existing in the spaces inbetween. In these roles the artist  can consider her self both in relation to others as well as to her positioning in relation to the research material.  I am wondering whether it is by way of the unique ( quiet/still ?) space of just being that exists between all of these roles and functions, the space when she does not function in any mediated role -  when there is a kind of temporal disruption - the pregnant pause before  - where new  and unimagined ideas, perspectives and solutions are born? What really fascinates me about liminal spaces is the potential for unimagined change,  the potential to disrupt power relations, change perspective.“Betwixt and Between,  the “realm of pure possibility” and structural invisibility. " (Victor Turner on Liminality)So I am excited by learning how to construct spaces that are experiential, emotionally and intellectually  - exploring emotions that have the potential to  make you think. Those moments when pennies drop, the “oh I see’ ‘ the  internal wow” Moments that empower and potentially change your life – you may come out changed.Constructing Empowerment.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Jane McGrath 6th August 2009 Today was very interesting for me as Gordon Brand was here and working very closely with Tina to develop the other screens that will be used. I was interested in understanding the research that Tina has already done in relation to what size head participants more easily relate to, where they stand in relation to the size of the projected head and how the face reading technology works and its limitations. This concept of space between the work and the partcipant and the technology  is it seems fundamental  ito the work, and for me the space bewteen technology, particpant and the object is something I want to explore with chairs. Today Gordon and Tina  were also looking at the space between layers.  Using layers had a really amazing effect on the image and how it was perceived, the face of the person seemed to be partially hidden under a steamy gauze as if the emotions were repressed and fighting to get through  - and it took the work into another dimension that was exciting to see develop. It was also interesting to experience trying to read the emotions through the layers which I think is how we have to read emotions of people around us.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Its been a really busy time - today is Friday, the 6th Day of the residency. I have a fantastic time yesterday with Gordon - working through ideas, playing, experimenting. Gordon is a great person to discuss ideas with and work through how to make things happen. He is informative, inventive and also passionate about what he is doing. I wish I had more time to spend at the Rapid prototyping lab. The possibilities are exciting.  The results are exciting - simple but seductive - feels perfect for the portraits, they reveal themselves and blur war - they look like they are peering in from a misty window. . We hope to move to the second sage of the rapid prototyping on Tuesday - maybe hanging the work next week and bringing the HCI guys in to test it out. Jane, Gordon and I spent quite a few hours discussing size, placement of camera, lighting, shape, projection placement, and creating a more, sculptural screen. The results felt good - like these portraits were revealing themselves and hiding themselves. It really suited the thematics of the work. We talked about introducing touch to the screen - but how to go about it - I am at a stage where I need to simplify this project, not introduce more elements into it. But the way we were grabbing the screen - Reaching forward with two hands to touch it - in that action of intention - there was something really beautiful - I will discuss it further today with Jeff Mann who is building the video engine. I am also discussing with Jeff the option of using two screens running from one machine. It would really cut the tech costs of the project. Hopefully we can start doing tests by next week.   Jeff has written a patch so the work talks to the pixy project. He has done a great job of it.  Michael Roy, from EE was here all night last night trying to get the pixy screen to work. We are running about two days behind schedule. Its been difficult - first was hung and then with the worng view point - to view it you needed to be in the other room. Then getting it to work properly has taken a lot of dedication from Micheal and natacha. However, now its running it looks good - we are just about to connect it to the Chameleon video engine. I hope it works OK.  Michael has been tired - he seems and a little stressed about it all, but now its running, he seems to have relaxed. He is laughing now, smiling.  We have had a lot going on, and making sure everyone feels included in the process has been at the forefront of my mind. We are hear to experiment and play, and keeping the 'environment' happy is crucial to people feeling like they can explore and share ideas.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   Trying to get the timings worked out for this residency has been consuming...when will things be finished by? Natacha and Michael don't really know. I am trying to push things back, but still trying to push things ahead. Now that the first screen is working we can take a breath - but everyone has been working hard. Really hard. I didn't realise the screen ran with 240 volts of electricity running through it - if you touch it your zapped. It feels dangerous with my little son running around! For some reason Natacha and Michael haven't bought the plastic tubes that were used when I saw the screen built in Canada. This poses a huge health and safety issue - and I don't want to show it until its worked out. Natacha and Michael agree. I hope today we can work through it, - Natacha has bought plastic sheeting to wrap around it. I imagine that this will need to cut and wrapped around the length of pixels I was hoping the screen may have been released from its plywood backing, and you may have been able to walk through the screen - but this is not possible for this screen. However, the screen has much more resolution to it.  I have created a lot of video to test on it - have done one shoot for the screen  and then spent some time in aftereffects playing with different scales - a video more focused jut on the eyes and mouth, a video focused on head and shoulder, and then a video shot from the waste up. I have chosen the portraits that talk a bit - to get a secondary channel working.  I am now thinking it would be great to have the Pixy project run from one screen. Jeff's email mentioned the one computer runnig two cameras. This is exciting.  So, all is good ,really. Things are running. It feels like a big step forward. We are seeing the potential of something beautiful. more seductive.      ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 We have the pixy screen working and my first thought is that is looks great. This is exciting. Karl has arrived. We are putting a black background up. I am going to look at the ratios of the video.  Re - look at edit points.   then placement of cameras.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   In the afternoon we had a session discussion about the next screen. Its all running behind schedule - but now we get to see what does and doesn't work with the screen. I like the volumetric part of the screen and the image - the face feels holographic in some way - like its some sort of ghost image or something. Natacha doesn't think it works that well. I discussed ways that it could escape from its ply-wood background. we talked about hanging it, with leads. We talked about creating a 'curtain' like screen that you could walk through. I think touching and walking though the screen would be fantastic. Natacha has asked me not to call it a screen, but call it a pixy. And I guess its this - the more sculptural elements that would be great to explore. how the work views from all angles. The pixy wants you to touch it walk through it. It would be nice to explore it - but the current iteractivity demands that you stay near to the camera that assess your facial expression - here there is a disconnect - and one that we can't work out over this residency.  We talked about hanging it from a sort of wire, weighting it with leads, finding a rubber tubing. Creating more of a curtain. Its the time to test these things - so that seems great. It would be great to further extend - in a direction that suits natacha and michael. Micheal seems excited by the curtain idea and natacha felt it would work better for the image. I think it would be good to explore. They both say that it will be easier to install - which would definitely be great.    ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   I talked to Jeff Mann today in regards to the screens we are building with Gordon Brand. Jeff is based in Berlin. He is an artist who developed a lot of work around machines, society, technology - more sculptural machines. He is also a great maestro on max msp/jitter and he has built  a pretty dependable patch that creates the video engine  for the Chameleon project - from prototype 07 onwards.  Today, I discussed whether we can have the one mac-mini running two screens. This is mainly to cater towards the tech budgets limits of the project. For example, I'd like to have 12 projections, but not need to have 12 computers. I might be able to run two copies of the Max patch, with low-resolution video. If that works, is it possible to run two separate copies of the face reader, each with its own camera? Or, can you make one face reader able to accept connections from two clients, and just send the same emotion data to each client? We could have two screens for one machine? It would save a lot of time (installing preparing machines), money, freight, instal. I am shooting High Definition for all footage - and an aim has been to show the project HD. We have managed to get a mac mini triggering real time HD footage (at this stage 1440 x 900) with the emotion face reading technology (the emotion reading technology is quite processor heavy, but  Rana El Kaliouby from MIT Media Lab and Youssef kashef from the American University in Cairo have managed to really lower the CPU, meaning we can still trigger HD footage. ... but getting hold of enough  HD video projectors isn't easy, or cheap. Few galleries have HD projectors. I have two HD monitors to test upon in the studio- but an aim of prototype 08 is to try to break beyond screens and move into more sculptural dimensions. So - can we bring the resolution down ? - between 480 x 360 or 720 x 576 pixels - will we see the break down, will this effect the way we read the image? will it be distracting?. Can the balance of the  bluring of the screen balance with the slight pixelation? I have asked Jeff to render two sizes out and see how the processing power is. We then need to get it working with the face tech. By Tuesday. ;).     ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   Over the Lighthouse Residency, an aim is to work on two more sculptural versions of Chameleon Prototype 08. We are also working with Kim Byers and Nadia Berthouze from the HCI lab at UCL to test how people are responding 'empathically' to the different screens. Gordon Brand was at Lighthouse for the day yesterday - and we tested different shapes to project upon. We were in the secondary studio at Lighthouse - the same studio that I have been using to shoot new digital portraits. Gordon thinks that by Tuesday afternoon he might be able to have three secondary prototypes worked out. By the end of yesterday, we discussed having a screen with three layers. A back transparent layer with a slight concave shape. That feeds into a transluscent white flat surface. This meets a concave white surface that meets th flat surface in the middle.  I need to send Gordon some video to project on the experiments. I need to do this tomorrow. I am hoping that Gordon can deliver the screens on Tuesday afternoon.   I am having trouble with the cameras of the face tech reading technology... My firewire cameras don't work with it. uSB cameras do work - but they don't like dark light. I have bought a huge range of infrared lights but so far, other than putting them directly in front of the face - I can't see a difference. I was hoping for more of a 'flood' of infra-red light. So far. not working. at all. Gordon Brand has bought some pencil cam to test, and we are hoping to embed these in the screen. The placement of the cameras is difficult. Ultimately, the cameras want to be right in front of the face which ofcourse, doesn't work conceptually at all. Both distracting, can't see image, and more and more. don't know how we will ever work through this. We need a zoom camera. More resolution. manual zoom, USB camera that copes well in dark light. I have gone through about seven cameras now.  I am not sure where or if the type of camera I want exists.     ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 spent the day editing video of the shoots this week. Trying to take my voice out of the sound track, and then impprting it into after effects to get the size, the levels. It taken ages, but i have done two shoots now - and tomorrow will begin an the edit points - lists of in and out points. Beautiful day in Brighton. Sun was shining- the beach was packed. My son loved it. We took him to the park in the beach and he played in the paddle pool. Michael and Natacha came to dinner. Matt cooked Moroccan Lamb. We didn't talk about work at all. That was lovely. it was great just to hang out and not think about it.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 JANE MCGRATH Today I’m back at The Lighthouse and it was really interesting to see the Pixy up and running. It is quite startling to see how much the human mind can read and interpret from a limited number of pixels.  This makes me think a great deal about inference and suggestion.  I am planning to design, build and programme  a series of ‘bio digital ‘chairs, and the power of suggestion , contamination and transference is key. I am now encouraged to explore the notion that less can certainly be more or at least 'as much as'... Some faces worked better, some glided across the screen with 'intense' detail and others seemed to sit back and get lost. A mans back could be read in 3- 6 pixels! The notion of spaces inbetween and inbetween spaces is cropping up – in the physical sense of this work, ie the spaces between the pixels the spaces between the batons, the spaces between the viewer and the screen.  The experience of walking into the pixy screen  is also interesting. For me the experience of  being inside the screen was ‘live’ when I was face onto the pixels (with my back to the audience. ) When I turn forward I see only the back of the batons and I am disappointed  -  I am left wanting to see the pixels all around  - Now I have this strange urge to run in a forest of pixels,  knocking into them and seeing faces and figures every where I turn. May be a I have a weird deep seated  urge to be inside  a machine??We had an interesting chat about the space between the action on screen and the reaction of the user and how the software reacts  to the users face.  About the moments when we are left waiting.  I love the idea of working with that (un)comfortable waiting, those odd frozen moments. Tina explained the timings of the  video reactions and how these are programmed and what work is ongoing  at MIT re further development.  Its fascinating.I want to use my practical work to dig deeper into those ‘moments’ – those spaces of ‘pure potentiality’ – moments when  there is a temporal suspension.  When magic happens –or maybe doesn’t.    When we must wait and see.After a very interesting lecture by Jonathan Gilhooly  at Brighton Uni we were talking about film (the old fashioned stuff)  and the spaces between the frames, we wondered when watching a film actually how many blank spaces of a film strip we actually see (even if the brain did not register them – they still exist .)   I’m sure it’s a very high percentage of blank spaces that we filter out … I would like to explore those spaces – who knows what films they could hide.. also what happens in the digital realm, the spaces between the pixels, the Pixy is a great place to explore and I’m really excited to see it up and running.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Its been a busy day. Trying to set up the cameras, getting the right footage shown - it seems the screen likes to show men (they sort of sway which suit the screen, where as women seem to nod, which doesn't suit the screen). This screen likes movement - but movement of a horizontal nature. This isolates me to two male tracks (I have shot about 35 portraits now). Lately I have just been working with what is around me - shooting with one light on a black background. The pixy display doesn't like the shadows this causes. So, there is not a great database to choose from. We had the work open at Lighthouse today,  from 3-5pm. We had a few people through. Discussed the work. It was interesting to see everyone playing with the technology. Things worked - things didn't - people seemed to enjoy it though - it will be interesting to see the feedback of the evaluation that starts on Wednesday. Jamie Wyld spent a lot of time in front of the camera. Interestingly the camera interprets him as sad, and everyone else was happy. I think in the end Jamie and the computer both got happy but it took a while. The pixy likes faces, semi -close up with sideways movement. How do you direct for that? ;). Who knows - but we have footage to work with. It will be nice to see the second screen up and running. See more group interaction or contagion. Jane and Karl were in again today - its been great having them about to discuss ideas with. Jane has been posting to the blog as well.  Michael from Fabrica gallery came in - we discussed the work -= how to move ahead. It will be a busy week of testing, further building and getting a balance that suits Natacha and Michael and myself. We had the work crash three times today. Not a good start. It seems to be something with the mind reading technology and the Pixy screen. I have sent it on to Jeff to hve a look at.  Jeff has send back the secondary screen option - so we can run two screens from the one computer. I will install it tomorrow. I haven't heard from Gordon, but i am hoping we will have two screens to look at tomorrow. Had a discussion with Natacha and Michael - about what they want out of this collaboration - about how they see things extending the screen.  Camera placement is still an issue. Its like you should walk around with it. And maybe this is something that could work, but it can't... We need the lighting to follow you around as well. In my search for more naturalistic and fluid interaction I seem to have reached a few problems.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Michael from Fabrica has taken the camera away, to try and strip away the infra-red filter. This would be lovely if it worked. I bought a huge set of infra-red lights that I hadn't budgeted for, and so far have not seen a noticable difference. The camera sees the lights, but not to the intensity I would have hoped for. We think the infra-red filter may still be blocking a lot. So today, it will be interesting if we get a ruined camera or a unblocked camera. Either way, these are the things we have to work through this week. I dreamt about work all night last night and jumped out of bed anxious - I need to still look at a lot more video tracks. I need to reflect a bit more about what we are understanding about the video that is there. We need to think about ways of displaying pixy that best suits the video content. At the moment, with its wood backing, its not easy to move things around. I am hoping today we can get a bit more sit and look time. I need to edit in the last footage I have shot. Get the timings and pacings right. For some of my shoot now, they are about two hours long - which leaves for an incredibly diverse database to grap from. However - these don't work so well on Pixy - but I still want to play with scales, maybe it we just concentrate on the eyes, for example. Each time I do a render, it takes about 4 hours for the small screen - about 13 hours for a bigger file. The file sizes are crazy.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 For this blog, I am asking different people who have been involved to add to the blog. Karl has been invaluable over the last week, to discuss ideas, and help build the work. He is interested in the exploration of emotional contagion and interaction in the Chameleon Project.  I have had to cut this blog into four parts, the a-n blog allows a post of 500 words at a time  Dr Karl Broome Is currently a research fellow in the sociology department working on the project 'Supporting Shy Users in Pervasive Computing', an EPSRC funded research project on the WINES programme, undertaken by the departments of Informatics and Sociology at the University of Sussex   KARL BROOME: PART ONE   For Walter Benjamin, the term mimesis refers to the compulsion to'become and behave like something else'. When I sit and look at the Pixyscreen I think and feel about the 'emotional contagion' that is to bebrought about through my 'interaction' with the screen in front of me.Strictly speaking, it is not straightforwardly the screen in front of mewith which I am interacting with but more the small camera, which is'reading' and 'responding' to my facial expressions, or rather, it isinteracting with me. But that said, sometimes it is kind of like lookingat the reflection of your own face in the ripples of water, except it isnot a reflection of your own face that you are partially seeing, but aresponse to what is perceived as your emotional state, embodied in theexpression of another human being.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   For this blog, I am asking different people who have been involved to add to the blog. Karl has been invaluable over the last week, to discuss ideas, and help build the work. He is interested in the exploration of emotional contagion and interaction in the Chameleon Project.  I have had to cut this blog into four parts, the a-n blog allows a post of 500 words at a time  Dr Karl Broome Is currently a research fellow in the sociology department working on the project 'Supporting Shy Users in Pervasive Computing', an EPSRC funded research project on the WINES programme, undertaken by the departments of Informatics and Sociology at the University of Sussex KARL BROOME PART TWOThe low-resolution Pixy screen aims to provide a sense of 'immersion'but with minimal detail. When choosing which 'emoting' characters filmedas part of the Chameleon project are to be shown on the Pixy screen,details such as the profile of the shoot- is the person filmed side onor face on- are taken into consideration as this affects to what extenta face can be seen when interacting with Chameleon, and arguably to whatextent one can identify the emotional response of the character on thescreen. But after sitting and watching the screen for some time, I kindof feel that emotional contagion is achieved whether or not the face isidentifiable – 'emotional' immersion is still achieved... To borrow fromBrian Massumi , what 'objectively speaking' we see when we look at thePixy screen is squares of green light (pixels) in vertical lines, butwhat we 'feel' we see is the faces of a man or  a woman crying, orlaughing hysterically. I still have the compulsion to feel like the fewpixels on the Pixy screen, even when they no longer ‘objectively’resemble a face. But how does one ‘feel’ like pixels on the screen ifthey only appear as nothing more than movement?.. perhaps it is theresult of my prior understanding or experience of the screen when theface was more clearly identifiable, partially the product of memory, butI am not so sure...  I have a sense that the Pixy screen can potentiallyexpress emotions without the need of a face being discernible in thepixels. Am experiencing a compulsion to become and behave like somethingelse?  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   For this blog - I am asking different people who have been involved to add to the blog. Karl has been invaluable over the last week, to discuss ideas, and help build the work. I have had to cut this blog into four parts, as with the a-n blog you are only allowed to write 500 words at a time Dr Karl Broome Is currently a research fellow in the sociology department working on the project 'Supporting Shy Users in Pervasive Computing', an EPSRC funded research project on the WINES programme, undertaken by the departments of Informatics and Sociology at the University of Sussex KARL BROOME: PART 3 Working within the space as the team construct and fine-tune the'exhibit' one cannot but help occasionally quiver with the affectiveenergy that reconfigures what is simply a rectangular white walledbasement room into a socio-sensual space of affective intensity. Theroom exhibits an intense expressivity even before the lights go off andChameleon, Prototype 8 is in full operation. Throughout the day we hearthe repetition of certain ‘emotive’ phrases as the Chameleon films areplaying in the background as we work– emotionality is fore groundedwithin the space across both audio and visual registers... "Fuck..Fuck", I can hear sound of the emotional expletives being made bya man crying as I walk around the computer monitor, this makes me feelfor lack of a better word ‘uncomfortable’. Tina explains "he has justlost his wife, poor man" ... when I hear that the man crying on thescreen has genuinely experienced the traumatic loss of a loved one, Iinstantly feel sadness in the pit of my stomach...` in retrospect thefeeling I experienced must have been a strong sense of sympathy,empathy.. I suppose I felt his loss. Or rather, what started out as anuncomfortable feeling was translated into a painful sense of loss whenaccompanied with Tina’s account.  Initially it was just the sound of theman's voice making me feel that way...Tina’s account intensified thefeeling, provided it with meaning, gave it shape, made it semioticallyordered.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 For this blog - I am asking different people who have been involved to add to the blog. Karl has been invaluable over the last week, to discuss ideas, and help build the work. I have had to cut this blog into three parts, as with the a-n blog you are only allowed to write 500 words at a time Dr Karl Broome Is currently a research fellow in the sociology department working on the project 'Supporting Shy Users in Pervasive Computing', an EPSRC funded research project on the WINES programme, undertaken by the departments of Informatics and Sociology at the University of Sussex KARL BROOME - PART 4 Today Chameleon, Prototype 8 was open to the public.  Time was spentaltering the position of the camera used to ‘read’ the facialexpressions/emotional states of interactants, and in testing out theoverall running of the software on the Pixy screen. Before we knew it,3pm had arrived and a group of around six young adults descended intothe space to experience what prototype 8 was all about.  Tina, Michael,and Natacha all contributed to explaining the different aspects andworkings of prototype 8. When watching the group of visitors interactwith Prototype 8, it seemed that the experience of the emotionalcontagion in this context is socially negotiated. Although the emotionalexpressions of the film on the pixy screen is the outcome of how thesoftware responds to the ‘emotional data’ provided by the individualface captured by the camera, the ‘meaning’ - and arguably the emotionalexperience - of this interaction in this situation seems to aconsiderable degree to be socially shaped. For example, if prototype 8responds to an individual’s facial expression with anger or sadness, theindividual’s response is not necessarily angry or sad, but rather itappeared to be significantly dependent upon how his or her companionsalso responded to the sounds and images produced through the interaction– that is, the individual’s emotional contagion appeared to be affectedby collective response. That said there were a number distractions inthe form of a few 'teething problems' that may have impacted uponvisitors experiences. Nevertheless, when reflecting upon my ownexperiences and observations within the space, it would appear at firstglance that the social context in which Prototype 8 is experienced makesa significant impact upon levels of emotional contagion and mimicry. Itwill therefore be very interesting to observe over the next few dayswhether or not individuals appear to experience more emotional contagionwhen interacting with Prototype 8 on their own.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Posted by Lighthouse, Digiville. Tina Gonsalves: CHAMELEON - prototype 810 - 15 August 09 - exhibition open: 3 - 5pmTina Gonsalves' residency is now in its second week, and there are some spectacular experiments appearing in the Lighthouse basement spaces... Working with two types of screens, Tina is playing with space and bodily relationship to her video work, recognising the importance of the body's place in emotional experience. Both the work with Experientae Electricae and with the Solent Rapid Prototyping Lab have created opportunities to site Chameleon's interactive videos in relation to bodily space. They have also produced some exciting and captivating images, drawing in the viewer not only bodily but visually and aurally, using a multi-sensory allure, that is possessing and ultimately emotional on a base physical level. The PIXY screens are especially alluring, appearing like hundreds of fireflies in an intelligent mass attempting to communicate with humans with a deep visceral pulse. The space will be open between 3 and 5pm for people to come and view and interact with the video pieces. Tina and the creative team are here, and will be around to talk to about the work. There will be a closing residency talk by Gonsalves and the creative team on Saturday 15th August at 3pm, where the team will discuss the progress they have made and the lessons learnt in developing, programming and using the screens. There will also be an opportunity to interact with Chameleon and the PIXY and rapid prototyped screens. Lighthouse, 28 Kensington St, Brighton BN1 3BD. http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions.htm... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   I shot Julie last week in the studio. We spent about an hour and a half together. I asked Julie to write about how she felt in the studio. Again, the post is cut into two sections.   Julie  08/08/09 Contagion Experience for Tina Gonsalves Lighthouse Brighton part one. When I volunteered for Tina I didn’t know what to expect.  I knew she was working within science and the arts about facial expressions, and emotions, and I also knew that she worked with film.  So I wasn’t sure if she was going to put weird suction cups onto my face and hook me up to some machine, or if it was going to be more film work.  I volunteered because the subject interests me, and because I am feeling a bit emotionally raw I thought I’d be a good subject – plus at 42  I’m a bit older than most people who probably volunteer.  The artist made me feel very comfortable and relaxed.  I enjoyed the conversation throughout the experience. The experience was odd in a number of ways.  It’s a bit egocentric being in front of the camera with a close head shot. I enjoyed that because it made me feel like a film star or something.  I felt like: ‘wow!  I hope she chooses to use me for her work, I’m going to really try to please her!  I’ll be really good and do exactly what she says.’ This says so much about me actually... So when Tina asked me to do ‘happy’ I am a master of happy – I am so happy – man o man am I happy – oh yes I can do warmth and ooze happy I am so good at happy and sharing happy and loving happy love vibes throughout the room and thinking about little JoJo and Gabe as babies gurgling away and smiling up at me oh how sweet yes happy and also I remember Santa Fe along the Pecos River sun swimming free peaceful friends freedom youth happy sooo happy And then I was back in the room and I was getting a little tired of happy that suddenly I felt like that Barbie doll in the film Toy Story smiling, waving goodbye and then saying ‘Are they gone yet?  My cheeks are killing me!’    ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 I shot Julie Watson last week in the studio. We spent about an hour and a half together. I asked Julie to write about how she felt in the studio. Again, the post is cut into two sections. Julie Watson 08/08/09 Contagion Experience for Tina Gonsalves Lighthouse Brighton part two.   Tina said, ‘Okay we’re going to do sad next,’ and before I had the chance to turn around from the camera, the sadness came.  It came so quickly and from such a deep space I felt as though I filled the room with this overwhelming deep grief and sadness.  I felt messy and really really sorry for myself and very very lonely which made me feel even sorrier for myself.  Rejection, mid-life crisis, fed up stressed out pissed off.  Half of me felt the need to explain which I sort-of did, but then Tina left me to it.  So I just carried on but I was still a good girl and tried to keep looking in the camera (maybe if it’s good she’ll use me and so they’ll all see I’m sad – I’ll be famous for sad!)  Then as quickly as it came, it left.  And I felt so much better. Tina returned to the room and I felt like she had been my therapist and that I owed her £50 for the session.  I also felt bad because I really invaded the space with all this personal stuff and I felt like Tina is so open I didn’t want to contaminate her with all this stuff!  After a powder room break we carried on. I barely remember the other emotions.  Surprise was like slapstick, I couldn’t think of how I display surprise – although there’s fast surprise (what was that noise?) and slow surprise (did I really win the lottery?  Are you serious?!) Anger wasn’t fun because I just felt like I looked like my Father who used to fill the room with anger and clenched teeth. Yuk. Disgust was also difficult – Tina was guiding me through and we were thinking about shit like in the film ‘Slum dog Millionaire’, but for some reason shit wasn’t doing it for me and I relied more on my (very dormant) acting skills. Afterwards I walked back through town in a trance.  I kept bumping into people I knew (Cue happy face!).  There was 1 person I saw who I knew I could talk to about the experience and he was really understanding which was nice, and by the time I rode my bike to my friend’s  Birthday party on the beach, the experience was still with me, but I felt grounded and peaceful and confident. The experience has since stayed with me, and I still feel bad for the artist having to deal with my meltdown and was worried that she might think I’m completely nuts! She has since reassured me she doesn’t..  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 I shot Ron Hassell in he studio last week. Ron is 86. We spent about an hour and a half together. Below he writes about his experience in the studio, of being asked to express 'emotions' in front of the camera. Earlier in the week he wrote to me about an article in the guardian - "Extract from an article in today's Guardian, (no, not the Independent), about an exhibition at the British Museum. Thought you might be interested".  Tina Gonsalves - the ariticle writes about the exhibition at the Natural History Museum, which these project is currently part of. "After Darwin: Contemporary Expressions"   Ron Hassell.   "Scientists also saw the benefits of photography and there are grimly fascinating portraits of the French neurologist, Guillaume Duchenne de Boulogne using electrical stimulation to activate individual facial muscles and forcing his patient to look happy or angry".      Ron Hassell : Recollecting incidents    Recollecting incidents in one’s past that gave rise at the time to feelings, and often expressions of, sadness anger, etc., does not necessarily mean that these earlier reactions will repeat themselves. This does not imply that these reactions were in any way ‘wrong’ or ‘false’, merely that life has moved on and that whilst these memories remain important they no longer evoke the same physical responses. There arises then the situation that should one be asked to recall some of these earlier incidents, in order to portray various emotions, one feels obliged to simulate or act them. This does not imply duplicity in any way. But the ‘director’ may feel the need to encourage, or illustrate to, the ‘interviewee’ a little, as did Tina, if the acting abilities of the subject are limited. It is a very fine point as to whether these expressions are true or accurate or genuine.        ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 I shot Sereena in the studio last week. Sereena is 24 years of age and  going into her second year of University studying Music Visual Art and performance. She is of mixed heritage of Iranian/Jamaican decent and was born and brought up in London. Her Father is Iranian and came to Britain at the age of 23years old just before the Iranian revolution in 1979.   Sereena "I do not really know where to say I'm from, I was born in London raised there and in greater London with both parants till the age of 6years then with my Mother." "I used to sing in a Trip Hop Blues band which I absolutley loved. Before starting this course I probably saw myself more as a singer, but now I think of myself as more of as a performance artist. I love traveling like the majority of people that seem to live in Brghton. I Love food, cooking it, eating it! I like swimming as I'm a bit of a water baby! I love socialising and bringing a smile to friends and strangers faces".   Sereena :   The whole process from entering the darken studio, to being confronted with a camera that stood only half a metre away from my face, I instantly thought would promote a perhaps less sincere and maybe uncomfortable response; but I was amazed to find how easily my recalling of these particular emotionally significant events unraveled, and how moments of embarrassment were soon ousted. The process in a strange way behaved as a form of therapy - as how your emotion pour out when you go to see a counselor. In previous years I had always just pushed my emotions to aside without really acknowleging them, but as I've got older I've learnt that all that does is turn into an unhealthy repression which subsequently, only damages myself.   ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 I shot Helen  in the studio last week. It was our third shoot together. By the time she entered the studio last week, I felt like I knew her - as I had spent a lot of time in the studio editing her. Below Helen writes about her experience of being infront of the camera, asked to express different emotional states. Helen : This intimate relationship with a camera lens was a new experience for me and I found its scrutiny a great challenge.  I learned that while it becomes possible to represent a range of emotions, the sudden and immediate proximity of some, particularly sadness and fear, was potent and very real.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 I shot Amy in the studio last week. It was our third shoot together. Its been great to get to know her a little bit more. Its interesting to look at the footage, as the more we got to know each other, the more at ease her face and body became. In the end, she revealed a lot of body movement, with out particularly realizing it. It looked like she could have been a dancer in another life.   Amy:  I’d never been in front of a camera before so I had to ajust fairly quicky to talking to someone and thinking about things whist looking down a very close lense and being lit by a spot light. I did managed to feel the emotions I was asked to recall a little as I spoke, but being in such an unfarmilier environment it was hard to remove myself from it, athough by the second day things where somewhat easier.  How easy the emotion was to act out depended for me on how recently the incident I was talking about had occured, the event i talked about for “sad” was only days old and very fresh in my mind, but for “disgusted” and perticually for “angry” they were years old, so although they were both very strong instances of those emotions i felt more as if i was distantly remembering how i felt rather than truely recalling it.One peculiar thing was although I produce some artwork myself which I have always wanted to be quite personal (I am currently doing an art foundation at the age of 24) I found recalling emotions when asked very hard. I do have a wealth of exeriances to draw from emotionally, but, (possibly because of having only done so under therapy conditions), I am incredebly guarded about talking and perticually about recalling such things.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 In June when I was in Brighton working with Fabrica about how we might approach the autumn exhibition, I shot Alice-Gale. She wasn't available for a third shoot, which was ashame. Below Alice writes about the experience of being in front of the camera and being asked to express different emotional states. Alice-Gale: For me it was a real eye opener; to become aware of the unsaid emotions and feelings that have been pushed to the back of my mind after the years of new experiences and new memories. The project was very prominent in my mind for the two days of my involvement,and I am still currently thinking about my responses, what I could have said etc. What i found most consuming was the thoughts about my emotions or lack of emotions and what this meant about me as a person.During the shoot,  I felt i sometimes tried to convince myself of sadness or happiness as my mind almost went blank in front of the camera (an unnatural setting to expose yourself) I then became aware that I had not felt real strong emotion for a long time , or thought I hadn't; in the attempt to recreate the emotion, the feelings flooded back. I felt quite moved both during and after as it bought up for me feelings about friends, relatives that i had forgotten or moved on from in the business of my mind and life. Sometimes i felt regret about thoughts and feelings..I feel I've learn t about the necessity of holding back on having to vocalize feelings when it could trigger a consequential negative response in myself.I was surprised that i found it difficult, but equally surprised how liberating it was; I am more inspired to be honest with myself about emotions from now on.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 So far - the face reader seems to be crashing. I am still to work out whether this happens only when the pixy screen is added. So far - when I simulate the face reader I get no crash. When I have the face reader running with the pixy screen we get a 'timeout'. when I run the video engine without the pixy screen - so far no crash. There are so many different parts to this project - the face reader - the algorithms - now pixy - the video engine - its hard to know how to get to the bottom of it all.  I am hoping Gordon comes in today with more screens...its looking unlikely so far... not a great start. However, past 1pm I will start setting up next door - Jeff sent the new video engine that runs two screens.    ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 KARL BROOME   Chameleon sets out to explore the scientific foundations of emotionalcontagion. Utilising the six key emotions of disgust, happiness, anger,neutrality, sadness and surprise originally identified by Paul Ekman,the ‘face reading’ software attempts to identify the emotionalexpressions of the participant. As the individual emotes, both theirfacial expression, and potentially their ‘mind’ are ‘read’. How shouldwe understand these emotions in the context of the ‘emotional dialogue’that Prototype 8 affords: where do they sit on the explanatory continuumwith biological explanations on one end and social on the other? Sociological debates concerning emotions have been characterised withthe conceptualisations of emotions varying across a continuum with‘organismic’ approaches on one end, ‘social-constructionist’ accounts onthe other, and ‘social-interactionist’ accounts somewhere in the middle.At the ‘organismic’ end, we would find the likes of Charles Darwin, andPaul Ekman, emphasising the innate, biological and ‘pre-cultural’ basisof emotion and their expression - causes of emotion are wired in thebrain for instinct and survival. At the other end of the continuum wefind the ‘social constructionist’ accounts of emotion that have stressedthe  ‘social’ nature of human emotions, understanding the emergence ofemotions in terms of their social, cultural, and historical variability,meaning and experience, with the biological being understood as largelyirrelevant. For Social interactionists, emotions are recognised ashaving biological substrates, but socially shaped and subject tohierarchical manipulation. In contradistinction to constructionistaccounts, Interactionists recognise the importance of biologicalprocess, and recognise the ‘embodied nature’ of emotions.  Thinkingabout ‘visitors’ experiences of interacting with the Chameleon projectprovides an interesting opportunity to revisit some of these polaritiesin sociological theorising.  The social ecology of the space in whichworks such as Chameleon are exhibited significantly impacts uponaffective experience of the work. Mundane material, physical and spatialelements, and their affordances in terms of movement, interaction,proximity, distance and visibility all play their part in terms ofinteraction with the work, and the various forms of social interactiontaking place.  Observing and interacting with people visiting theexhibit today I became aware of people's reluctance to stand in front ofthe face -reading camera for any extensive period.  Visitors appeared tobe much more comfortable in entering the dark room where the only sourceof illumination was the relatively small amount of light produced by thePixy 'screen' - they appeared to be much more comfortable and interestedin watching Pixy from inside the room.  I heard various people commentupon how they felt Pixy to be the most interesting part of the work,although not quite understanding how it worked. I feel that at thistesting/evaluation stage it takes a bit of active engagement and time toreally experience what it is that makes Chameleon so special- at themoment visitors seem somewhat distracted by the presence of the computermonitor and the face reading camera. Undoubtedly, with a few more tweaksvisitors will experience a collaborative work of an exceptional intensity.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 its hitting 9pm - still working. Gordon couldn't deliver the screens so I have mocked up some ones so when they come tomorrow it won't take long to install. The open exhibition period came and went pretty quickly. We have the computer running two screens. This is great, as the guy at the mac store told me that this wasn't possible - the graphics card wouldn't be able to handle it. The resolution is OK - I still haven't worked out how this is working with the camera, but anyway, a great progression. I don't like the fact that the pixy asks you to be outside of the room to interact with it - or to find its viewing spot. At the same time, I hate the way my computer is sitting in front of the screen - people become so aware of it and then forget about the screen. Tomorrow we will fine tune it again - get the systems outside of the room - so we can still control it - but don't have everyone looking at it. This will be a good step forward. For the current version of the Chameleon Project the work demands that you  stand infront of the mind reader for it to work - I don't think this works with Pixy - I am wondering if a small change of narrative can happen. for example - the character stays walking back and forth until you engage with it - and then the face comes clearer - this allows people to walk around the room more. I will ask jeff about it tonight. I haven't heard from Rana, Youssef or Abdehlrahmen about the crashes, Jeff Mann who has developed the video engine has said its not on his end. Tomorrow I will test it with the old version of the face reader and see what happens.  Kim from the UCL interaction lab arrived today. I have been trying to gather participants for the evaluation. Today we gathered another three or four. It make take longer. Thank god we didn't start it yesterday. Michael Roy seems to have the better luminosity sorted out now. Natacha has been spending the day getting the next pixy display together. This one is going to be hung as a curtain. I was hoping it may have been hung as a curve, but this can't happen which is ashame. Anyway, the next one should be up tomorrow. I have asked jeff to make the pixy be driven by the one computer. We need some more computers now - but it takes time to set them up and I sort of need Jeff to do that. We are using a new camera that seems to respond better to the infra-red - but doesn't seem to latch onto your face as easy as the other one. The logitech one didn't work anymore. Michael from fabrica tried pulling out the infra-red sheild - and it didn't work. strange.           ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Conner - 16 years old, spent last week work on the project   Saturday 1st August: Today there was an artist talk at the Lighthouse Arts Gallery in the Digital Lounge. The talk lasted for around 1hr 20mins and consisted of the artist,Tina Gonsalves, talking about the  history of Chameleon Project and where it is today. Tina was joined by some 'Specialists', one of whom was Natacha who is from the Experimente Electricae Programme in France.   Monday 3rd - Wednesday 5th August: During this time, I washelping Natacha from Experimente Electricae build her 3D 'PIXY' screen that the Chameleon Project is being shown on. This ment that I was doing all sorts of different things from glueing the pixels onto wood so that they could be hung from the ceiling and and also wiring the pixels together to be placed on the wood. I even made a pixel line near enough from scratch which allowed me to see how the pixels are put together.   Michael, from Experimente Electricae, was at Lighthouse on the Tuesday and Wednesday and he was the person who built the circuit board that will allow the 'PIXY SCREEN' to work. I also done an Hours worth of transcribing for Tina but only managed to get through 3 minutes of the tape. All in all, for my first experience, working with digital artist was interesting and fun as everyone was kind and I'd like to thank them all for allowing me to help out, so THANKYOU everyone, especially Gen, who was the experience host and the Head Co-ordinator at Lighthouse. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Dr Karl Broome Is currently a research fellow in the sociology department working on the project 'Supporting Shy Users in Pervasive Computing'. He has been at Lighthouse over the last ten days - helping, writing notes -  “Oh, oh. Is it on? I am not being filmed am I?” The man seems to beconcerned with whether or not his face, and more importantly his facial expressions are being recorded. Our core five facial muscles work throughout the day expressing emotions; concurrently others are constantly reading our facial expressions.  Numerous people have come forward to allow Tina to film them expressing a broad range of emotions in front of the camera. As Tina has commented, this is literally an intensively ‘emotional’ experience with the process often resulting in those being filmed breaking down in tears. A very intimate and moving process for all involved, and Tina is aware of her privilege in going through these very personal journeys with her participants, who she has acknowledged have revealed very personal and precious information to her. Visitors to the Chameleon exhibit have frequently asked if it is their own face displayed on Pixy. Despite not being able to recognise whether or not it is actually their face,  discovering whether it is in fact their face seems to make a considerable difference to how they experience the ‘image’, and perhaps more importantly how they think others may experience the image. Maybe the experience of being 'read', and thus presented back through Chameleon, inaugurates a new moment in the experience of 'myself as other' (see Celia Lury’s ‘Prosthetic Culture’). In some sense, the concern exhibited by visitors maybe the thought that Chameleon has potentially taken something profoundly personal and defining of the individual: their emotional self and made it ‘public’. Where as a photo image, or a film can be taken to retain the 'visible' surface expressions of ‘self’, Chameleon through reading these expression probes even more deeper, and understood as revealing more deeper thoughts and feelings. Is there a fear that the 'mind reader' technology has the power to reveal the 'truth' of who we are – how we feel 'inside'?  Thus make publicly available our neuroses, reveal our 'inner demons', warts and all? Or maybe still, make public that which we are unaware, something like our 'unconscious' selves. In a sense, the emotional dialogue afforded by Chameleon shows “look what my emotions and feelings do to other people”. The video in front of us becomes a reverberation of ourselves, we feel 'I am responsible for this' – ‘I am driving this’. If we choose to 'interact' with Chameleon, we have little scope for strategically controlling the reception of our mediated self-presentation, and its subsequent reverberations.  According to Baudrillard, we now exist in culture where we live as if we have a video recorder in our heads:  we are always transforming ourselves in anticipation of what we might look like as an image (Lury 1998:78). Perhaps it is this heightened self-awareness, and anticipation of ourselves, or of visual emotional response attributed to our ‘selves’ being made a ‘image’ that makes people feel more comfortable in interacting with the Pixy than interacting directly with the face reading software for any length of time.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   I haven’t written over the last couple of days because my time has been so stretched, and my thoughts are so embedded and confused that I haven’t been able to talk about approach, nothing seems too clear right now.  Its been busy, bus, busy over this residency – and now I need time out to reflect -  more in reflecting than doing. My thoughts are scattered, trying to reflect - and the reflection is at a space that I still haven’t been able to translate into words. But now, I guess I will try. Start thinking about what has happened over the last ten days. I have shot 5 different portraits, each a really amazing journey of attempting to read people, give and take. I have enjoyed the journey, the people have given and shared and often exposed a lot. I then have sat and analyzed and categorized that footage – more as looking at narrative and science of what an emotion is.  This process has felt harsh – as if I am fragmenting a lovely relationship, objectifying it, making it into a production. Over the Lighthouse Residency I have been developing new ways of looking a displaying video, both with the pixy project and experiential electricae with the rapid prototyping group at Solent Universiy. Over the last couple of days I have tried to understand pixy and how it reveals and image, and what images may break through the challenges of the pixy display. Last week I tried shooting for Pixy, concentrating on voice and movement. Much of that didn’t work at all. We worked out the screen liked closeness of the face, really cropped in – it liked a sort of swaying movement in order to capture glimpses of a face. I created many different video tracks to put through – few worked. Pixy likes great lighting and my recent video portraits have been shot in a studio with one light – I decided to be more adaptable and respond to content and not be so focused on the technicalities of lighting. In the end we were down to two men – one called Kevin and the other Simon. Not particularly long portraits – they repeat themselves pretty quickly. I have a bout 35 portraits now. Some of these are a few hours long.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Experential Electricae’s Pixy display is gorgeous in the dark. We enter a nearly black room. We get stuck looking at fluttering pixels, at a part of the room they make sense reading a face, on the other side of the room, we just see flickering pixels. It feels like a digital forest. I love seeing people’s faces when the image reveals itself to them – and they ‘get it’. However, the contagion aspect I was hoping to explore seems to not work. When we look at Pixy, we are more ‘perplexed’ than any thing else. We are trying to work out what is going on - I was hoping the screen may reveal and more visceral bodily response. When I look at it 'i feel in my head' more than my body. The sound track gives us more information about emotion, but there is a disconnect. I wonder with pixy if you need more ambient sound? People think Pixy is a sound spectrograph or something.  Some people sit in front of it for ages and don’t see anything. Their face reveals more confusion than anything else. Again, confusion is not something I am exploring for this project. For Chameleon we introduced a lot more pixels for legibility of image with in Pixy. But other than that, we didn’t experiment much with the hanging of the screen. Maybe we needed four weeks and not two? A lot of building was done, leaving little time to try and work out what else we could do with Pixy to suit the Chameleon content? I know Michael loves to see the faces on Pixy, I sense natacha has enjoyed it too, but there is still a disconnect. I think we needed to shape the display to the project look at the display from all sides. Also, the current interaction of Chameleon demands that you drive it - This definitely doesn't work for Pixy - in my ultimate pixy we would walk through it, as if entering the body of emotions, and they would be fluttering around it. We see it from all angles. On Wednesday Helen Sloan came in, as well as Matthew Miller and Micahel Maydon from Fabrica. We look at both iterations of the work. Helen walks into the room with the screens we have built with Gordon from Solent University - she loves they way they have revealed and shown faces - that you can see one side clear and the over more ambiguous. She then walks into pixy and she sees a completely different rendering of the same project. But this one is more  I need to arrive at a decision of how to progress with these iterations. ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   I first met Experential Electricae at the Liminal Screens residency at the banff new media institute in Canada. They had built Pixy in the constraints of a basement in banff. The problems of finding space and hanging in banff lead the screen to be more volumetric. Natacha, presented Pixy as "conceived for both it's own use and collaboration with other video artists who would create other content for the object or even live performance". This intrigued me. A lot of artist and technologists are creating 'tools' for other artists to then appropriate. Does this really work? I was both interested in the screen and also interested in this nature of collaboration. In April I  first contacted Experential Electricae about becoming involved with the chameleon Project. We then met briefly in Vienna where I was delivering a talk about the Chameleon Project. While trying to understand where we have come to with Pixy, I have looked back on the dialogue we have had together about Chameleon and Pixy coming together. This is an extract of the first email ever sent to Natacha regarding Pixy, and how it may work with the Chameleon Project. I looked at the screen yesterday and thought about how it had developed for the Chameleon Project. “Interestingly I don't think the low resolution would affect the emotional reading of the piece. Neuroscientific research has done tests on how much information you can take from an image of a face, and still read the emotional tone of the face. Its amazing how much tonal range you can take away.   I proposed  to create a screen that hangs from the middle of the room. You can see four different faces - one to the north. south, east, west. Their is mind reading technology that interacts with the viewer. The face in the video responds to the emotional expression of the viewer and tries to begin a dialogue with them. If you walk through the screens (into the mind of the work), the screen will react as well. Maybe getting annoyed or something.  A lot of what i am trying to say in this work is about the delicate nature of our inner and outer world, and how we are constantly adjusting to what is around us. I like the delicate nature of your screens- and the fact that you don't know where the sort of begin and end. They are not 'contained', much like our emotions - always a bit leaky and prone to infection. The lovely messy bits that make us human, and that technology loves to deny.  It would be a great collaboration, and interesting for the space. It would probably require a grant to be written to develop the screen a bit more to work in four dimensions and to install it. Who is developing this work? Is it Michel or you? I remember you mentioning you were working with another artist as well.  what do you think? I think it would be great'.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 I came to a conclusion yesterday that we shouldn't progress with Pixy with the Chameleon Project. It wasn't a light decision, I hardly slept at all. Primarily, I think I was anxious about the nature of the collaboration, and about how much we could adapt Pixy to work with Chameleon. I was anxious about delivering the project on time.  I was anxious about having very limited video to work with, I was concerned about too much complication, and how Pixy brings  a very different reading of the work. If we hung Pixy as a display for Chameleon, I would have wanted it to investigate emotional contagion, and Natacha told me that she didn't think it was about emotional contagion anymore. I guess alarm bells went off, and I started to retreat away from the development of Pixy and Chameleon. I wanted it to be the meeting of two great projects, and I wonder if it ended up competing more than anything else? Pixy bought a very different reading of Chameleon, and maybe one that I felt might have been to confusing. I was also aware that both Pixy and Chameleon are quite innovative in their nature, and wondered if audiences would ever see past this. My work, although I use technology is about humanity, about visceral responses, about relationships, trust and intimacy. I don't want it to concentrate on Technology. I realised part of the reason that I wanted to explore Pixy was also so Pixy could be seen more by people. Bringing Pixy to Fabrica would have been a great opportunity for Experientiae Electricae. Anyway, I am sure they will get other opportunities in the UK after the Lighthouse residency. Pixy is beautiful. I talked the decision through with Fabrica, whose main concern is really about what I want to show, as well as what works in the space. The opening at Fabrica is October 2nd, and I always had told Fabrica I would give them a decision by the 12th of August. I sit here now, still feeling confused. Fabrica is a big space with a personality of it own. I talked it through with Natacha and Michael and they understood. They could see the disconnects that were never truly resolved. We discussed the type of imagery that Natacha might explore with Pixy. Interestingly she wants to explore video's of  'atom bombs'. How very different to my own approach to Pixy. I feel sad about the potentials that were developing between Pixy and Chameleon - that were never truly resolved.  When I thought about Pixy coming into Chameleon, it took effort - we needed to find somewhere to host a residency, I needed to discuss it with the collaborators, I needed to work out timings, we wrote 3 grants applications and were successful with one Arts council England application. 100's of emails and discussions later. Both Natacha's and my own family up-routed to Brighton... Sleepless nights and hardwork from everyone.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   And the now we are nearing the end of a residency.  I feel sad that this is the end of something, but also aware that I need a lot of time to reflect about it all.  Now how to go ahead with Fabrica. We are either talking about a two screen option or six screens.  Micheal and Matthew from Fabrica are heading toward the six screen and Helen is heading toward a two screen version. We are all aware that it opens in six weeks. For a six to eight screen version to work I need a lot of projectors. I need to work on the interaction. I need to finish the screens with Gordon. Its a major install. I can see Michael is apprehensive of the hang. I am worried that Fabrica is so big it would completely over shadow the work.  Helen believes the use of the two larger screens rather than several smaller screens will facilitate a more sustained immersive experience for the viewer for several reasons:   The aim will be to have two large screens/projections facing each other across the gallery with the visitor driving the emotional dialogue between the two. During the residency at Lighthouse we have discovered that the camera and other technology necessary for operating ‘mind reader’  have frequently been a source of distraction for visitors, thus preventing a prolonged and immersive experience with Chameleon. The use of two larger screens will demand more sustained attention, and will lead to visitors focusing upon the two screens/film projections for a longer period of time, and therefore enabling a more qualitatively rich experience of emotional contagion.  Importantly allowing visitors greater opportunity to register their own affects upon the exhibit and the overall affective quality of the gallery space. This latter point is of key significance as the exhibit sets  out to foreground emotional contagion for the visitor not only through their interactions with Chameleon, but also through the overall production of a profoundly affective gallery space.  The size of the screens/projections and their capacity to display film at such a scale will be another of way of producing and communicating the affective intensity of the exhibit –the sheer volume of their presence will be emotionally ‘demanding’ and hopefully overwhelming to the extent that in this context the technology itself takes second stage.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 JANE MCGRATH  MA DIGITAL MEDIA ARTS My experience has been very exciting, there is something wonderful about the meeting of many creative minds in one space, the ability to move from room to room and engage in or simply listen in on very exciting convestations. At moments  these are practcal, relating to producing screens, sizes, cameras and tracking  onto deeper matters of engagement  and interaction ....then back  to the process of rapid prototyping - in its self something that sends my mind into a spin! Move on and Micahel is sitting in the corner working dilligently on his pixy boards as a scientist who is visiting the work is discussing his theory on how the electrronics are working with his friend .. Carl is discussing the context of the engagement process to The Shyness Project..Tina is introducing new arrivals to the work. People are engaging both with the work and with each other. There is a dynamic contagious energy that circulates within the space ... just like the  movement  across the Pixy... or  the movement of emotions between screen, software and the viewer -it bursts forward and retracts depending on who is where ...you can almost touch it and feel it... this residency seems to me to be a constant process of becomming - of pushing forward, of change. Not only is the work it self  pushing forward but it is pushing outwards and affecting the visitors.. all of this played out to a sound track of the works pre recorded emotions...laughter and whooping, crying and long bitter accusations. Its a very  emotive space. So for me the 'experience' starts as soon as you reach the bottom of the stairs and will not end until you  close the main door on the way out.  The emotions are so strong that they can not fail to affect you, your mood can not fail to be changed. There is definately a move from emotion A to emotion B - I feel that there is a very hoilistic kind of contagion going on. Whether this comes from interaction with the work or interaction with the people or the process  seems somehow irrelevant. I believe that if you stand back and take a longer perspective on the residency at Lighthouse as a live installation, a piece of work in it self  -  it has the fingerprints of real time emotional contagion all over it. A case of process immitating art?      ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 JANE MCGRATH MA DIGITAL MEDIA ARTS I am participating in the Chameleon project as part of larger research for my MA dissertation. I can see so much potential material in the project, when you explore it on a micro level it’s so  deep  - such a rich area of knowledge embedded in one place. As I am typing away I’m thinking more and more of just how much learning will come out of the project for me.  I am becoming more and more convinced that using just this one  project as a basis for my dissertation question will be enough to write a PHD let alone an MA.  I wasnt expecting that.Firstly there is the excitement of a live Arts / Science Collaboration – just quickly running through the people whose work I have seen, whom I have personally met or simply heard talk on the project  - Tina,  MIT,  UCL,  Gordon from Solent Rapid Prototyping Lab, neuroscientists,  Carl a sociologist, Helen Soane, Experientae Electricae not forgetting Lighthouse, Fabrica and Incubator. No wonder Im so excited - its like a term of study crammed into two weeks.Also in view of my personal research I have been involved and so can be subjective as well as objective which is a great.  But I need to keep asking my self  - how does it relate to me question about using new technology  to construct liminal spaces? And where does my question of powerlessness/emowerment  come in, in fact I  keep asking my self  -  does it?After a really helpful  chat with Carl on the train home, I need to define for me what exactly a liminal space is –I need to (re)read Victor Turner and Van Gennep, I do love the Betwixt and Between notion and the notion of pure potentiality. I find that betwixt and between situated in Tinas work – in human emotion, in technology. The potentiality is an area of further research and Natasha from EE  was explaining to me the Deleuzian concept of potentiality. Very valuable and  helpful.Carl had a very important question when he asked me how constructing an experience where I wanted to control the outcome of an experience – ie powerlessness – to empowerment could create a liminal space because there was no option for pure potentiality because the outcome was predefined. Thinking aout loud  I had said that althouh  the destination would be set – ie point A – B  each person would have a different potential subjective experience, a different journey where emotionally and intellectually anything could happen.  That the emotional end point could be a very different experience for the user.Carl has some excellent advice that was that it would be beneficial to take the meaning of liminality back to its original meaning (Turner, Van Gennep) and use this as the structure on which to base the ‘liminal’ . So much could be seen  as liminal and the question would always be are they ‘truly liminal’ spaces or just thresholds.... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 its 1.30 pm, and all is quiet in the basement of Lighthouse.  Ofcourse, Micheal Roy from experentia Electricia hasn't slept - he spent the night here working away. I am not sure how many nights he hasn't slept for. He tells me not to worry about it. We saw the first bits of light to go through the second display - still no video yet. Jeff Mann sent another patch so we can run the two screens from the one display. I still haven't tested it yet as I am waiting for the second display. I can't wait to see it as the first time we saw it - it looked fantastic - brighter and more tones. Interestingly, it hung more as a curtain, which sort of soften it - I feel for Pixy to have worked with Chameleon we would have needed some diffusion - it felt to 'pixel' which is what natacha loves - but for Chameleon, it didn't quite work. Looking back, we needed much more time to come to a better solution for how the projects met/integrated. We got the software integration, but that was about it.  Its been interesting to collaborate - but the problem was that the collaboration came in from two projects at different stages with different needs. Maybe we just never got that meeting point right for those reasons.  Phillip Carr from Fabrica came in today to interview me for a small film to run on the TV at Fabrica. Its hard to contain something into 3 minutes. We tried. Harry Witchell and Carina Westling came over last night for a bit of a chat. Harry Witchel is research the science of the body and its language. I am hoping Harry might come to the talk today so I can get him into a discussion about body language and mimicry. Carina does some interesting work in performance When I was last in Brighton the HCI group interviewed Carina and her response to one of the protraits. "I was just feeling the shape of that person and how they are to be near, and whether is a soft or hard surface. Whether its one way or two way, whether they are coming out towards me, or whether there is an interface or give and take. And that’s kinda the empathy bit. And I think with the ‘actory two’ its sort of a shiny sort of surface. It doesn’t allow any sort of pushing in. With the other one (susan) there is more a sense of a soft/open ended territory between the two people, me being one of them. It feels like there a sort of tentative listening. Which I guess is the empathy".    ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179   I have written up todays talk, but I am trying to keep it short - and mostly concentrate on the process of our residency here at Lighthouse. There are lots of pics in this presentation, more like a big scrap book. I have tried to keep pretty aware of documenting the process of this residency. Just so when I have more time, I can go back and reflect on what worked , what didn't, what took the most time, what was easy, what were we talking about, what were we thinking about? It really informs my practice. This residency was 2 weeks, but the amount of work that was pushed through was much more.  Its been a pretty intense time but really wonderful as well. The basement of Lighthouse has become a big contagion soup. Many ideas, emotions floating about infecting each other to a video soundtrack of people emoting. It been dark in here, while sunny outside. The screens are running heaps of electricity through them making it all more intense. Its been hard and also fun for everyone. But we all tired now... Natacha heads back to Paris in the morning - 6am from stansted.. not fun.. she heads back to her family... michael is going to deal with the pack up of Pixy. My husband Matthew is packing up the house we have been staying at (thankyou david and rachael!), getting my son pablo few toys, cots, and all together. And then later tonight we will head up to London. Its been fantastic to have Jane McGrath in - I think she has found the time valuable. Karl was great - great insight, great chats. I am sure we will all be glad when we start packing up tonight.  I am trying to structure todays talk so we can concentrate on discussion - 40 minutes talk or less - 30 minutes discussion. Phil fro Lighthouse is going to video tape it. I wish I had some automatic transcriber.  ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 The talk went well on Saturday - more time dedicated to discussion than anything else. We ended up at the pub afterwards for a few hours. We then made our way back to london. We were carrying all baby stuff, 5 computers, 10 cameras, all cords, keyboards, all clothes. We had to get a cab from Victoria.  So, Monday morning and we are back in our flat in London. Yesterday was spent sleeping, reading papers, going to Coram's field park with Pablo. He could have spent the whole day on the swing if he had his way. Matthew, my husband, cooked an incredible dinner and desert which left us asleep on the couch pretty early. Oh my god, I can't explain how good dinner was after a quite a few nights last week eating what ever was about to fill me up. Pablo sort of shifted back into his normal routine - big night sleep, morning sleep and day sleep. He seems happy to be back in London.  A lovely chill out day after two weeks of intense activity. Its always a funny feeling leaving a residency. You have intense times where your work foregrounds everything. Ofcourse, its not enough time, so things are sort of panicked. Over the two weeks, i tried not to think about any other projects, any other administration that was needed. Matthew was looking after Pablo and every other part of my life. I just thought about Chameleon. and now you re-adjust into normal life. Its a bit strange to get your head around. I still need a lot more time to think about everything, and make a list of all the points that were working for me, and all of the things to leave behind. Natacha was supposed to come to London and stay for the night, but she found a bus to Stansted. She rang to thank me for the experience. It was both great and challenging for everyone. Its not an easy thing to get up and leave your family for two weeks like Natacha just did. I find I am still at a place with Pablo that I can't leave him over night - but i will start to soon. Its a bit crazy dragging your family everywhere, but in some ways it makes it easier. I can just relax and work instead of thinking that all I want to do is go home and see how pablo is. Matt and Pablo are still enjoying it. When we all find it too difficult - it will stop.         ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Natacha Roussel/experientiae electricae.While Pixy was a large part of the residency, I had no time to write on this blog,since I was up to now caught by all the manual work that is implied by so called "physical computing", ie building and testing Pixy has caught a large amount of my time at Lighthouse.However I feel I should at least upload a closure comment.Building Pixy for Chameleon was quite a challenge, the aim was to get as much possible from Tina's footage, all those expressions she has documented. At scratch Pixy is about percetion and deconstructing the image keeping only the necessary information to allow recognition, most of the time this occurs when movement happens, the in between is the trigger.For chameleon, the aim was to allow identification and communicate emotions that normally happen through slights tranformations of faces.Pursuing that goal I spent a large part of the residency putting up one pixel after the other of the double sized pixy that we all thought was needed to get as much possible from Tina's footage. As Tina and Lighthouse had gathered a great team, we managed to do a quite fine and precise job.In the basement of lighthouse, We got to enjoy an the most sculptural and detailled Pixy ever built. It gave rise to some amzing images of faces deconstructed in space. However as conflicts clearly emerged between the aims of the two projects both technologically and content wise, I still think this residency was a unique occasion to experiement with such a great team.-- ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 Its the 24th, August. The ending of the Lighthouse Residency was nearly ten days ago - and it feels like a life time ago. Incredibly busy time, which lead to the next stage of the work - implementing prototype 08. The week in London was spent in meetings. I spent a day down at Southampton with the Rapid Prototyping lab - moving closer in on a more final iteration of the screens. I flew up to Edinburgh on Wednesday to look at In space for a potential show next year. I have started to prepare for the amsterdam show at ACII which is in 20 days. I have decided not to go to ISEA. I am preparing for the show at Fabrica - re-looking at all footage - edit points - trying to get the interaction worked out - trying to get the video engine ready. We need to buy four more computers - they need to be prepared. I spent a day trying to organise all travel for the states/Uk/ and all the australian exhibitions/meetings.  Anyway, i will come back to this when I have had a bit more time to reflect and take a  breath.      ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179 JANE MCGRATH MA DIGITAL MEDIA ARTS After a few weeks away I am trying to connect back with the project, its interesting to be so deeply emotionally and intellectually engaged and focused then experience a sudden rupture and complete shift of perspective.  I am about to start writing the introduction to my dissertation and I suppose it  feels llke its the beginning of a  Harvest Festival, the collection of the fruits of my labour and a proud introduction of all that I have learnt. But what have I learnt and what do I know now that I did not know before the summer, before the residency with Tina? I know that I am not very good at articulating my research question, that I stumble and fall about over my words. I know that the most exciting conversations I have had about my research question have been focused on the tiny observations, on pauses and moments, conversations that have dissected the unique moments involved in the experience of interaction with the project. It is clear that the things that work and the things that don't are as deep and rewarding for research purposes  - with a  rich mine of information located in both areas. I am really excited that potentially the project offers a great wealth of knowledge and research for me to get my teeth into - it is a unique opportunity. But I need to keep things simple and focused and Im not there yet, this Bank Holiday is set aside for major writing session - dawn - dusk, for pulling in, harvesting. When I am clear structurally about how The Chameleon Project will support my question I will prepare a series of further research questions to ask Tina. I will also no doubt need to ask permission to dig deeper with  others who were  researching and developing alongside.  Crucially I want to make sure that my questions are the right ones in context of my own research area and that as a result my dissertation adds value to the project not just duplicates and regurgitates. But I'm frightened sometimes and panicked that my research might all fall through my fingers, that my question is weak and irrelevant to the project. I have mad moments when I think how did I get here and why am I asking that? Why am I fascinated with powerlessness and empowerment and liminal spaces?  But when I consider my younger life and time spent in a women's refuge and in courts fighting to be free from living in fear my inspirartion is evident. So other days I am bold, confident and excited - look  I'm doing an MA - me!! I have a unique opportunity to do some fascinating work and to explore empowerment as an artist. So, now is the time to start bringing it all together  - I have butterflies...but I know what  a precious thing it is to feel so alive, so free and so empowered.        ... Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/552179