Emerging Media Technology- Beneath and Beyond

Upon researching projects which utilize emerging media technology, I found this piece "Beneath and Beyond", by the scottish artist Stephen Hurrel. This is an ever changing live piece that uses the internet to constantly monitor one hundred seismic stations around the world, therefore making very effective use of communication technology. By doing this, the piece collects vibrations, which are converted into raw data and speeded up so that they are audible to the human ear. As the work is constantly scanning, it is new sounds that are heard all the time in real time. To enhance the piece there are visuals which represent what is being heard which show seismic graph lines and wave forms. The environment that the installation is shown in is important to. It is situated in a very dark space where only the visuals and the speakers can be seen. There are 6 red speakers aligned across the width of the visual display, so both the sound and visuals are given equal prominence.
The artist of "Beneath And Beyond" intended to explore how computer software, developed for the internet could bring real life environmental "events" into the gallery. Hurrel states "I have created meeting points between nature, culture and technology. His inspiration of the piece is the west coast of scotland and he talks about how the deep lochs became the ideal site to house nuclear submarines."These symbols of efficient, total destruction were in direct contrast to the ancient landscape; shaped by the slow forces of the ice age and massive tectonic shifts." Added to this the artist was interested in the greatness in nature and wanted to explore how the tools of the 21st century could "be used to posit a more symbiotic relationship between nature and technology."

Overall, I think this is a very effective piece. The artist successfully uses the internet to bring real life examples of the environment to the installation. Also, the fact that it is in real time enhances this effect and everything that it plays is new, increasing the interest in it. I also think the performance environment is crucial to its success as it is just the visuals and the sound that you hear in a blackened room so this increases the relationship between the installation and the audience.

http://www.hurrelvisualarts.com/docs/?p=44

Subtle Chaos- evaluation

On Wednesday the 19th of May we had the performance technology day where people were able to view and interact with my installation "Subtle Chaos". Here are the notes that I made for the piece

Subtle Chaos

This piece attempts to portray the relationship between sound and colour. Harmonization between the two is achieved by the complimentary pattern that each one produces on the other. When using the piece, the user can simply watch as the colours and sounds gradually change with endless linking possibilities, conveying the nature of colour and sound. Alternatively, the user can scroll the mouse over the smart board and experience the dramatic effect this has on the piece. The piece is ambiguous in nature. Whether meaning can be derived is left to the individual.



On the whole the day was a big success. One aspect I noticed about it was that the piece was interesting enough for people to watch it/ interact with it for several minutes each. There were some people that spent maybe 5-10 minutes moving their hand across the screen. This was highly beneficial when you have a fair number of people in the room as even when someone was interacting with the piece, everyone else found it interesting enough just to watch hence providing the audience. I feel the range of possibilities on offer was the reason for this. For example, although the image morphing film and the sound file were both looped, you would have to wait for a considerable time before this was realized. The piece, even when no one was touching the screen, provided much interest. As the colours gradually changed on the film, the sound change was much more subtle if the mouse was just left at a single point and so no one touching the screen. This way, the user noticed a dramatic difference when the screen was touched, as the mouse was going between different colours quickly and so this greatly affected the sound.
In my notes for the piece I stated that it was "ambiguous in nature". When different people spoke to me they expressed differing ideas about it. One person was speaking along the lines of the effectiveness of electronic music. Ann, the Drama lecturer spoke about how it would be good to use it for her special needs class. What was also an effective part of the installation was having the room more or less empty with the lights off. This created the ideal environment for the piece to be shown in and added to the effectiveness. The only drawback was that the audience could not read my notes that were to the side of the smart-board, but they may have read the other copy on the door. Perhaps more of an audience would have been better but I felt there was a reasonable number there and the room not being too crowded meant that everyone could see and experience the piece fully.