In case you didn't know, pixelpusher (evan.raskob) is a live video performance artist, or "pixelist" based in London, UK. Click the Info button above for hiring and contact info.
I’m pleased to say that my performance piece, ICE_SNAKE==NOISE will be adapted into an interactive audio-visual installation for Unleashed Devices at Watermans Gallery from 1 September to 22 October 2010.
After a few years of adding visual flair to the sonic cacephony of countless (nearly) NOISE==NOISE nights across London, I finally jumped into the thick of it and created my own audio-visual performance piece.
ICE SNAKE==NOISE slithered up out of a dark period of my life. Literally, it was dark: the dead cold of winter in England, depressing December, where sunny days are a far off memory chewed up and spat out by a biting, inescapable cold. I had a clear goal – to take the frustration and cold anger of a winter away from loved ones and bring that energy into a dramatic performance, at once sonically powerful but also textured and ever-changing, wriggling, like a true snake.
Ryan Jordan, the maestro of audiovisual vertigo who organizes NOISE==NOISE, asked me to perform in Ipswitch, and as I wasn’t going anywhere for the December holidays I agreed. With little time to prepare, I hashed together bits of pieces I was working on using 3D drawing of wormlike, slithering shapes in Fluxus, and lashed them to a soundtrack of chaotic distortion using SuperCollider (for the first time). For the texture of the snake, I used photos of these lattice-like networks of ice, frozen to the roof of our Dalston studio overnight before the winter sun’s moderate warmth blunted their edges, into shapeless, gray slugs.
I’m very pleased with the result – performing it is like taming a wild beast, you don’t control it as much as ride it through until you both tire out and surrender.
For this installation, I invite others to experience the piece by performing it themselves. Put on the headphones and imagine yourself in the dead of winter in the ancient countryside, the howling wind slashing at your skin, piercing spikes of cold penetrating your bare flesh under your clothes, the swirling snow dizzying your mind until all grows numb and silent.
Here is a live recording of myself playing it back in December:
by pixelpusher on Tuesday 23 February 2010
[Blog, Visuals, video]
A visualization of each individual word used in twitter status updates overnight from 6PM GMT on Feb 22 2010 until 10AM GMT on Feb 23. Movement is caused by the list of words growing, as the program sees more individual words. Words used more often are larger and brighter (they grow logarithmically). There were a few points where the feed was lost, and it recounted the same status update over and over (you can tell where because the same words grow larger) but I decided to post this version anyway, because I still think it is interesting in this state. I have collected more data, such as word ordering, and will work on another version. done in Processing – source code is here (you need to add your twitter username and password)
The video above is a bit fuzzy – here’s a better image:
A visualization of words used in twitter posts over a single night
Playing with a circular particle system based on a water simulation, done using Fluxus (http://pawfal.org/fluxus). Energy is tranferred between adjacent toads, so after time they start to bounce back and forth chaotically.
Code:
; a simple script that looks like it could be made into a
; water simulation of some kind
(clear)
(require fluxus-016/shapes)
(hint-ignore-depth)
; dimensions of the circles
(define elems 20)
; angle between each element
(define elem-angle (/ 3.14156 elems))
; simulation constants
(define max-dist 10)
(define max-dist-sq (* max-dist max-dist))
(define min-dist 4)
(define min-dist-sq (* min-dist min-dist))
(define max-vel-mag 0.1)
; stops the simulation going out of control
(define max-vel (vmul (vector (cos elem-angle) (sin elem-angle) 0) max-vel-mag))
(define max-vel-sq (vdist-sq max-vel (vector 0 0 0)))
(define trans 0.008) ; the amount the energy transmitted to
; the neighboring vertex
; feedback velocity per frame
(define feedback 0.1)
; complexity of initial positions (sin peaks, basically)
(define complexity 4)
; make a list of points in a circle
(define circle-points (build-circle-points elems 1))
(define tex (load-texture "/Users/evan/cvs/newflx/fluxus/textures/whitetoady.png"))
(define s (build-particles elems))
(with-primitive s
(pdata-add "vel" "v")
(pdata-add "v0" "v")
(pdata-add "p0" "v")
(pdata-index-map!
(lambda (i p)
(list-ref circle-points i))
"p")
; copy default pos at radius 1
(pdata-copy "p" "p0")
; scale circle radius
(pdata-index-map!
(lambda (i p)
; (vmul p (+ (* (* 0.5 (+ 1 (sin (* 3.4156 (/ i elems)))))
; (- max-dist min-dist)) min-dist)))
(vmul p (* (* 0.5 (+ 1 (sin (* complexity (* 3.4156 (/ i elems)))))) max-dist)))
"p")
; start off the simulation with random point distances
; (pdata-index-map!
; (lambda (i p)
; (vadd p (vmul p (* (* max-dist 0.4) (crndf)) )))
; "p")
(pdata-index-map!
(lambda (i vel p)
(vmul p (/ max-dist 10)))
"vel" "p")
; store initial velocity
(pdata-copy "vel" "v0")
; start off the simulation with random colours
(pdata-map!
(lambda (c)
(rndvec))
"c")
; start off the simulation with random colours
(pdata-map!
(lambda (s)
(vector 2 2 0.6))
"s")
)
(define (simulate n)
(cond [(< n 0) 0]
[else
(let* [(result (pdata-get "vel" n))
(p (pdata-get "p" n))
(p-sq (vdist-sq p (vector 0 0 0)))]
(cond [(> p-sq max-dist-sq)
; (display "max")(newline)
; we are above "sea level" head down
(pdata-set "vel" n (vmul (pdata-ref "vel" n) -0.9))
; (pdata-set "vel" n (vmul (pdata-ref "v0" n) -1))
(pdata-set "p" n (vmul (pdata-ref "p0" n) max-dist))
]
[(< p-sq min-dist-sq)
; (display "mIN")(newline)
; we are below "sea level" head up
; (pdata-set "vel" n (pdata-ref "v0" n))
(pdata-set "vel" n (vmul (pdata-ref "vel" n) -0.9))
(pdata-set "p" n (vmul (pdata-ref "p0" n) min-dist))
]
[else
(let [(pv (* (vdist (pdata-get "vel" (- n 1)) (vector 0 0 0)) trans))
(nv (* (vdist (pdata-get "vel" (+ n 1)) (vector 0 0 0)) trans))]
; mix in the surrounding verts to transmit energy around
(set! result (vadd result
(vmul result pv)))
(set! result (vadd result
(vmul result nv)))
; add the result to the existing velocity
(pdata-set "vel" n (vadd (pdata-get "vel" n) (vmul result feedback)))
;(pdata-set "vel" n (vadd (pdata-get "vel" n) result))
)
]
)
(let* [
(v (pdata-get "vel" n))
(v0 (pdata-get "v0" n))
(vmax (vmul v0 max-vel-mag))
(v-sq (vdist-sq v (vector 0 0 0)))]
; clamp the velocity - this stops the
; simulation going too fast and blowing up
(cond [(> v-sq max-vel-sq)
; divide by mag to get sign, mult by max-vel
(pdata-set "vel" n (vmul (vmul v (/ 1 (vmag v))) max-vel-mag))
]
)
)
)
(simulate (- n 1))
]
)
)
(define (render)
(set! feedback (* 0.4 0.5 (+ 1 (sin (* 0.3 (time))))))
(with-primitive s
(rotate (vector 0 0 2))
(texture tex)
(simulate (pdata-size))
(pdata-op "+" "p" "vel")
; (recalc-normals 1)
)
)
(every-frame (render))
ZAN LYONS (Live AV set)
JULIEN OTTAIVI aka THE NOISE (Area 10)
ZERO POINT ENERGY (Noise=Noise)
KONSTRUCT
FZV (A.I / Pitchless Industries)
CODEX EUROPA (Level X)
PATRICIDE
