ARTISTS TALKING

# 6 [4 August 2009]

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.

# 5 [3 August 2009]

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

# 4 [3 August 2009]

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.

# 3 [3 August 2009]

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.

# 2 [1 August 2009]

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.

# 1 [1 August 2009]

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.