17 July: leon the historian
Halogi - Halloy: “Little forest” first mentioned in 850ad, but existing since the times of the celts (BC) * roman foundations found around the place, including a roman oven with goddess diana burried in the ashes
one of the first registered wars was the '1 cow war that lasted 12 years'
for centuries the castle was the summer residence of the prince of Liege
Omalius
the geologist and his discovery of the 'cretatious' stratum ( the period between the last large dinosaurs and the beginning of flowering plants)
the local broadminded scientist being religious, but also a supporter of the beginning theories of evolution
as a polititian reformed the school system and included girls education up to 12 years
as a doctor, he founded preventive medicine in the region (vaccination against pox)
as a scholar set up a massive library in the castle
died as an old savant (92 yrs old) in brussels studying local geological strata (can his age be attributed to drinking excellent local beer?)
after he died and his daughter married, her children fought over the division of the property and over 2 centuries brought the castle to a near ruin. some of these descendents were named 'socialist barons' for their policies in the 1920ies when the regions was politically progressive left.
in the 2nd WW, Margareta from Ieper (born of a secret love between a Flemish woman and a Brittish officer during the 1st WW), working for the Belgian secret service (resistance) was parachuted and dropped over a grass field close to the chateau to seek a noble man who turned out to be prince Charles of Belgium, with whom she spent several weeks having romantic walks in the forest
Leon's presentation was interesting to discover a certain (true/false) history that has changed the group's perception of the site
17-20 July: Movies that we watched in the off hours:
17 july: the drifts (psychogeographic walks)
looking for absurd stuff
contrast nature/human built structures (based on control)
light and darkness
schrijvertjes (surfing community of bugs on water) - interesting patterns of movement
bridge over the water
spiky plant
ferns growing out of a wall
tar smeared over plants to stop them growing through the road
iron wire through the branches
mushrooms as a dwarf village
contrast between dead and alive, idillic landscape with cows + barbed wire
a shadow play of branches on a canoe
experiences of near death (a dying fish in the pond)
human built objects embedded in nature
riven-line environment
electrical lines
moist wall inside tunnels
plants growing from a cracked wall
a sole branch as a separate entity floating in space
strange plant movements
“scanning” the environment in a limited way, looking at them as close-up surfaces, without figurative reference points
mediaeval feel of neglected garden furniture
overgrown paths
trees joined up with iron cables, with ivy drying up in contact with them
pointless bridges over dried up creek
strange formations of stones around the place
spider-webs with properties of a glass surface
waiting in vain for the dwarves around mushrooms
natural corridors made out of trees
organic shapes with rigid geometric structures (leaves)
branches growing on/in the water
long paths, corridors and tunnels through the forest
geometric patterns in fallen branches, forming beams with an abstract and complex structure
strange sized holes in the ground
vampire nails in beam structure of the barbecue place
flies everywhere (on cows, horses, people, plants and dead things (mouse, mushrooms)
waiting for the inhabitants living in human scale dwarf houses
can beer cans be contemporary mobile homes for dwarves?
dallas everywhere!
undulating lines through a wheat field, with mushrooms as landing platforms for dwarves or aliens
exercises in being a tripod
death everywhere (dead field mouse with green flies grazing on it)
miniature gothic church brown by trees
cows behind fences
ancient and massive chestnut trees
discovery of the dwarves wearing stars
forest ends in fences
private property warnings
a seductive dance of leaf-shadows and a neighbouring tree-trunk
a tree that dreams of being a fence
DD (designer dwarf) mushroom houses
fences
bridge leading to a fence
abstract signs in a forgotten language
plants growing through cracks of human built environments
'prince charles frog'
17 July: participant's presentations
Pablo, Eric, Sara, Tom, Flip and Marta have talked about their expectations and wishes for the workshop, have shown previous work and described their working processes
18 july: things to take into consideration in the design:
borders and fences
frontiers and limits
human control of nature (and vice versa)
flies, insects, mushrooms and death
green is the colour of death?
green flies and surfing mosquitoes
are things dead or alive depends on the scale
structure of spider webs resembling nests/miniature houses
mushrooms can be seen as drawf dwellings or holes for insects
geometric patterns as abstractions of the environment:
grassy fields
a branch hanging in the air
structures of trees, branches and leaves:
casting shadows on the world around them
encapsulating a path to form an infinite, intricate tunnel
a straight, noisy, infinite train-line
insects (ticks, flies, water-walkers)
different viewpoints on the world: snails, insect swarms, growing plant
18 july: workshop leader presentations
19-20 july: blender
21 july: audacity, gimp, nebula
22 july concept development
what is the emotional temperature of the world?
what is the scale of the world? - can you see its limits?
no photorealistic modelling
using movement, behaviour of objects and light from the physical world to animate transparent shapes and surfaces
morphing between realistic/non realistic
garden as a minefield of truths
coming with an expectation, gathering information bits based on that expectation
a gallery of images that one can choose from
limiting the experience of the physical space
finding out what is interesting to experience in the virtual world
a world with constantly changing positions (as leon showed us, history is a relative phenomenon
travelling through the space as travelling through the archives of historical information. the path becomes the re-interpretation of different elements that are constantly rearranging themselves
an alive archive in which everyone passing through the chateau (both physical and virtual should place a new media element in the world, generating a large amount of paths through the 'truths'
movement as a journey through different strata (metaphor for history); the movement needs the space to be manipulated (requires a large amount of energy)
an archive (database) of memories in different media come to life in animated bitmaps
every stratum is one person's experience, a three dimensional cube surrounded by other strata (needs an immersive projection system with at least 2 faces
a dense space, filled with particles, moving from empty to full
simplicity: a claustrofobic world made up from a swarm of particles
when you stand still, the world shrinks and sticks to your skin (like a swarm of fireflies)
when you move and increase the energy in the system, the world becomes sparser, lighter and more comfortable
discovering things, being drawn to details, in an otherwise not too exciting surrounding. elements of wonder inside normalised reality
the discovered objects are passages, new realities that you can discover through interaction
light inside a tunnel can suck you into another space
feeling of surprise and enchantment, seduced by the richness of the world underneath, behind…
creating a fantastic world within the everyday reality, in a constant morph between reality and fiction
a tunnel: environment in which i'm limited, i can only see inaccessible realities that are not immediately evident, a tunnel is constructed from the density of the forest that i can't go through
feeling the navigation of insects under the floor - recognising the action only through its effects on the environment
inviting, inaccessible realities
the tunnel is created by different creatures passing through it. if the movement stops, the tunnel closes. the forest is continuously trying to take back its posession of the tunnel
tunnel: an eco-system of invisible beings
emotion: frustration, imagination
finding your own scale in different dimensions, a cozy situation in an otherwise threatening environment
coherence of infinite tunnels through a diversity of media
no physical boundaries (walls)
limits are changing atmosphere: border, connection
walls as particle systems, movables, changing direction, becoming ceilings, floors, walls again
changes remain until the next intervention
21 july: final consensus (full blown concept)
a dense, infinite tunnel built out of tiny elements (particles). every particle of the tunnel is alive
when the player scales the particles s/he can discover:
bits of historical sediment
flying insects
visual and sonic seeds
fully grown flora
when the train passes in the physical world (should be detected by its sound), the world is temporarily washed away:
the player looses control over the interaction with the world, the colours and objects disappear
the space vibrates and its physical properties temporarily change
the player can be teleported to another region of the tunnel
the world responds differently depending on the amount of time spent in it. It moves from being unfriendly to friendly, or from interested to ignoring. the world is a forgetful place, so that after some time, it will treat a familiar player as a novice again
21 july: sensor systems and interaction with accelerometers
introduction to accelerometers, cerfs, OSC and OZ (foam's sensor data transmission and analysis system (in max))
real and pseudo sensors possible to use in the design:
raw data (x,y or xyz)
smoothed data/bias
average over time
leaky accumulator
peak detection
zero crossing
delta/threshold
energy levels (x,y,z)
correlation
21 july: reality check: possible interactive output in fijuuu:
mixing between forms
manipulating textures
changing the size of a form
non-linear scaling
rotating forms
growing forms
appearing and disappearing
minimalising light position and light colour
moving forms
concluded with an introduction to tlc scripting in nebula
21-24 july: final compromise (minimal visualisation of the world)
in fijuuu: a cave (one thick part of the tunnel) with:
1 interactive object in it (swarm of fireflies)
3 animated objects (historic sediment, visual seed, branch)
rich texture visualising the idea of the tunnel being constructed out of media particles
interaction consists of: (1) looking around the cave by rotating around 2 different axis of the accelerometer and (2) shattering the swarm of fireflies by using the 'leaky accumulator' (accumulating data across 3 axis with a small 'leakage')
in blender: a richer visualisation of the tunnel, with lots more textured objects, moving lights and camera + an intro sequence of a dynamic map of the region of halloy
in max: a passing train detector, to be treated as a sensor in fijuuu
in after effects: compositing of the blender tunnel with a swarm of butterflies
in the physical world: a semi-transparent screen placed in front of a tunnel, creating an illusion of depth, projection on different surfaces to create an additional texture (walls, stairs, grass, trees, corners, people…)
22 july
23 july
programming the interaction
alternative visualisation in blender, max and after effects
feasibility check and evaluation of the process
24 july
finishing touches
physical displays
public experiment
blow-ball tournament
25 july