Marc Tuters

I have to start with the admission that I am a still a little considering designs for the final thesis. At this point all I know for sure is that it will use bio-data (specifically EEG and EKG), will involve some type of generative visualization, and will probably have a sculptural component as well. I am seriously looking at the BioMuse hardware for acquiring our psyche data, and TouchDesigner by Derivative Inc. for creating the visualizations, but I'm also playing with Jitter, Processing, and Quartz Composer. The reason TouchDesigner appeals to me is that I am more familiar with the 3D modeling environment than I am with java-style or object oriented coding, and since it's based on Houdini, learning it may have the side benefit of making me fluent in the workflow a high-end FX environment. I have given myself a few more weeks to finally settle on the platform, so, feedback is very much welcome here.

If this sounds awfully vague for the 4th week of a thesis, the good news is that the whole process of prototyping is being accelerated by the fact that I have a show on October 10th in the form of an installation in the lobby of the Standard Hotel in Hollywood (a collaboration with Kyle Ng). The piece take place in the lobby's vitrine in which a live model sits for hours every night. It uses the model's heart rate to dim and brighten a sculpture of a heart and arteries embedded with strings of lights. Given the context and the nature of the collaboration, we are treating this as more a design piece than interactive art per se. We have settled on a basic technical and creative plan for the installation, and last week I purchased some hardware for dimming the lights, the PWM8x, Programmable 8-Channel Pulse Width Modulation Controller. Initially the thought was to use AC Christmas lights, but after having settled on this, Kyle and I saw a nice display of EL wire programming at Nextfest, which has me looking into feasibility of programming EL wire that this week, so, feedback is welcome here too.

In terms of project management, last week I asked Luke Moloney to be my outside advisor, to complement Perry Hoberman and Julian Bleecker. Luke has had a strong track record managing game development projects, we share similar interests in interactive art, and we have a good working relationship. From, having worked together in the past in the Fetemobile project, Luke knows my tendency to loose turn projects into moving targets, as such I believe Luke he is uniquely equipped to take an active role in helping steer this project on the right course in a timely manner. In addition to which Luke has a strong technical background as do my other two advisors. Additionally I am auditing two animation classes, one with Eric Hanson on advanced visual effects (Creative Workflow in Visual Effects), that focuses on spherical panoramic photography and mother 3-D digital environment techniques, and a class with Mike Patterson in Experimental Animation (CTAN 495), both of which I hope to use to create work the thesis. In terms of collaboration, as mentioned I am working with the sculptor and designer Kyle Ng and have a commitment from the animator Debrah Isaac, as well as my peer John Brennan, who wants to work with the psyche data.

Since I have a relatively solid project-plan under my belt for the Standard (apart form the EL wire question), I feel it frees me up to be a bit more flexible in terms of committing to a vision for the final thesis. Regarding the latter, on of the main issues that I'm trying to figure out at the moment is how I can integrate the HDRI panorama work form Eric's class into the final thesis. In the meantime I'm experimenting with generative animation platforms doing programming tutorials with the Arduino, considering the feasibility of programming EL wire for Standard piece and drawing up the schematic for communication between the Arduino and the dimmer.