hello DEAR Nippers,

I just returned from my performance at Isaac’s academie/residence in Stuttgart.
Had to perform on the yearly expo /summerfestival overthere.
It went realy great. nice audience and a Isaac ”’dancing”’. haha
I took some realy old German Turntable testing records from 70’s with me and sampled those live, I also used the ‘usual’ rest of my setup. went nice!!! And filmed!!
I notice more and more often how important my concentration and state of mind is for my performance.
That is kind of obvious but sometimes it is hard to find this concentration or for some reason the best spark isnt there. Although you do try to concentrate and spark.
This can make or break my performance everytime.
I know this is also a good conclusion because it indicates the liveness and fragility of my performance. Wich I like a lot. But it is not nice to present a less performance to the audience.
(If you kind of get what I mean!??!)haha
Luckily Stuttgart went great but that is no garantee that next time is good too.

Soo, I suggest NIP yoga lessons!!!!
I’ve got some nasty oldschool yoga Zen records. With free aerobic instructions.
We should get some NIP stretchy cat suites (with sensores!!??) and do a group performance!!
Who is in for it??!! (haha, sorry I let my fantasy go wild there for a moment) (would be cool though!!haha).
I made this performance once with other classmates some years ago.
We were al dressed up realy stretchy/nasty. I made an aerobic record skip this one groof.
Soo after you heard the intro and cosy adrenaline pumping speach of the presentor SALLY the record kept on repeating:”lift your left leg… lift your left leg… lift your left leg… lift your left leg… lift your left leg… lift your left leg… lift your left leg…”.
So thats what we did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!GOOD!

I thought Andre G’s performance at Steim was also very Zen. Been thinking about it.
The contrast between the innocense of a balloon and hardware is very nice.
I am currious what would happen when you’d run that ballon through an Andre G Max patch.
sound and video. for an even greater contrast. Im sure you/Andre G thought about this already for a 1000 times yourself but I just have been thinking thinking about it.
But it’s also NICE the way it is now!! Dont get me wrong Andre!!haha
Nice piece.

Greetings,
Toktek Tom

Hey Nippers! Just wanted to say hello and thank you for all the good times in Amsterdam. I think a lot of foundations are being laid for really interesting work (ensemble anyone?? :-)). Anyways I’ll try post regularly. First I will try to share some conversations I had with Jorgen. My biggest problem with the current airstick design is related to the angle the beam of most infrared rangers. I doesn’t have a straight line beam but more of a cone, where every obstacle in the way will be detected. Of course sometimes this angle is not desirable. You can take a look at the sharp infrared rangers specification here:

http://www.acroname.com/robotics/info/articles/sharp/sharp.html

The workaround could be to make a little tube that would be placed at the end of the emitter lens and make the infrared beam narrower (maybe a straw cylinder, fused with a conic end). This would make the pulses bounce inside the tube.

Another issue is that I noticed some people needed an introduction to the basic electronics of building physical interfaces. There is tons of material on the web but a more comprehensive cookbook would be better to start with. Thus I recommend Dan O’ Sullivan’s resources. It’s an excellent book that pretty much touches all the initial subjects in a light approach:

http://www.physicalcomputing.com/

See ya!
Ivan

Lead by Zach Lieberman

This post relates to the practice of interactive visual works based on computer vision interfaces related to the body augmentation.

Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, how to start programming and infra-red lights will be the topics of this post based on Zach’s workshop.

Zach is a great tutor. I start by this because it’s very important to have the skill to communicate in a simple way complex techniques such those of algorithms involving computer graphics collision detection and animation, based on real-time computer vision techniques. He also gave an amazing flash presentation of the history of creative code programming and how computer works in 10 minutes!

He had this ability, by the examples he addressed but also by having a very good notion of understanding the group’s learning curve and being flexible by adapting his “lessons” to the needs of both group and individual participants.

And also, something that I deeply admire, he had no problem saying were to buy or what kind of equipment he uses for his performances and software practice. I say this because generally speaking, people don’t have time, or like to facilitate their personal techniques and it very hard to find out there the “how to” when you are starting.

Greetings from Lisbon. Working with at the mighty fine Restart and checking out the spaces in preparation for the NIP Sept workshops.

Other highlights include

Fish, fish, fish
Custard cakes
Tram 28
New Order in your ears, while writin’ applications
Vino Verde !
Zen Barrio Alto flats

Thanks to André Gonçalves, André Sier, Ivan Franco, Vitor Joaquim, Manuel da Costa Cabral, Lúcia Marques and João Silvério for taking time, making links and discussing ideas.

Hi all form Porto, Portugal!

The first 3 days in Bristol look like a week! For me this is the most beautiful impression that I have in mind. Because was such an intensive learning and sharing experience of ideas and practices between the group, powered with amazing performances and places that we had the opportunity to be involved in.

Both professionally and socially it was an inspiring environment. A “paradisiacal” context for a young artist working with new interfaces for performance, because the NIP’s long term format of “workshop series” and diversity of mediums and practices, was both well thought and planed by PolarProduce.

My aim with this Blog is to share some of the contents we have learned and discussed, together with the very best memories I had about it.

Isaac, I read you use I-cube sensors. Are those I-cube sensors also solderable on a junxion/joystick board?
Im looking for a cheep, simple tilt sensor. There should be wireless joysticks with a tilt sensor build in but I cant find them.
Would it work when i solder a I-cube tilt sensor on a joystick print?

Does anyone else have an other sugestion for TILT-stuFF?

I want to make my painting tilt-able. Would be cool!!!!!!

Greetingzzz,
Toktek Tommmmm

Cool thing, Isaac managed to get me a gig on his artschool in Stuttgart.
On 6 and/or 7 Juli. (ROCK!!)
Thanks Isaac!!!!

First leg (BRISTOL) N.I.P. Impressions.

The first N.I.P. at Bristol was an inspiring experience not only made possible a platform where artist of different backgrounds could meet with a common goal also give me the possibility to see all this artist use their methods in a very personal way, showing that there is an infinite possibilities in the realm of new interface creation.
Undoubtedly and enriching was the contribution of Zach Lieberman not only as a person but also a creator and mentor, presenting us with is outstanding performance as well sheering with us precious information during the 3 days that only served to extend my knowledge and understanding on open source software and new gesture based interfaces for live interaction, also its application on socioartistic projects clearly visible on his diverse projects involving educational market.

I did enjoy the full tree days and found it extremely well planed By Teresa.
In a way that allows us to deal with such nerdy matters and still keep focus.
First day although demanding on its program it went smoothly.
With short introduction of every participant in with in the group fallowed with a relaxing exercise of creating a bridge made to of spaghetti. Useful to create a relaxing atmosphere in the group, which did work perfectly.

The afternoon was crucial to get hold on what everyone was doing in a form of public presentations and to realize the diversity of background and interest of each one with a small incident of fire alarm getting of whish allow visitors to explore the other side of the fabulous facilities of Watershed by using the fire exits, venue where most of our activities where concentrated.

Day two was shorter but extremely concentrated where allot happen on the level programming using open source software and motion tracking throw surveillance cameras.

In the evening lives performance by Tom verbruggen, Zachary Lieberman, Torsten Lauschman and André Sier.
An evening where the Dark Studio of Arnolfini was light up by outstanding performance from of all performers that night.

In the evening a short incursion to bars of Bristol that only help to improve the total atmosphere of the group in an even more informal setting in front of a drink and music and some sporadic dance moves.

Day tree last of Bristol, further developments of coding, hacking,
In the afternoon some results, I mast say that the Portuguese crow was the most advance on that area, cheers “compatriotas” !!!!!!
It was a pleasure to see them working.
I am more familiar on physical interface design and hardware, although the tree days at Bristol where not an easy catches for me it was great experience to take part at this first leg of N.I.P. in Bristol with a certainty that Amsterdam will be an interesting complement for this fist leg.
For my work It help me to find some short cuts concerning interface designing, by learning new methods of using sensors and the importance of finding balance between software and hardware use.

Once more I want to thank all sponsors and people involved on the organization of N.I.P. in particular Teresa that has shown extreme evolvement in all what every participant is doing and for her professionalism and dedication in making sure that the all N.I.P.project can remain as a burning flame beyond the tree days in each location in a Blog format.

Isaac
.

Hello all,
I’m posting some photos from Bristol!
can’t wait for Amsterdam!
best
a

Hallo nippers! Here I am****
I have been traveling a lot recently, and going happily mad on my new project!

Here some shots:

Working title: Don’t feel. You are alone.
Media and networked performance in private and public spaces.

How we redefine our sense of personal continuity and uniqueness from other people?
To what extent are women victims of the structures and conditioning imposed on them?
And to what extent could love be the only thing that makes things real?
This project is meant to explore concepts such as power, identity, body and sexuality.
So, I continue to focus on how technologies can increasingly mediate the experience
of our existence, but I’m taking the risk to do something I’ve never done before: I will
perform as a female/automaton, capable of acting automatically without emotive forces.
As the android is unaware of the condition of being ‘intimate’, the work causes
experiences in the participants of non-intimacy and non-control. This is a new approach
for me: the creation of a map of behavior that is not ‘human’.

I’m in the phase ‘research’: a lot of things are fascinating me…

Technologically: still in process.
Some of the topics: eye tracking, speech recognition, environmental audio recording,
electric field sensing, muscle sensors, camera based motion capture, wearable and
environmental sensors, gestural input, kinetic responses, real-time video/audio outputs,
networked communication…

Very appealing to me is “VeriChip”, an implantable, radio frequency identification biochip
slightly larger than the size of a grain of rice, which can be scanned to give a unique
ID number.

I have kind of clear how people will communicate with me in public and private spaces.
My concern is more about how to construct the memory of the android: she has a
memory/hardisk which will collect all the information referring to the interaction she has
with people. All these information (visual, sound and generically sensorial) are collected
and “played-back” using an unique pattern of montaje…

interaction in private space/intimate

The body is always interrogative-always a question, an ambivalence about what is
experienced in the body and how the body is represented and constructed in the social,
cultural and physical worlds that it inhabits and paricipate in. Is the body ‘connected’ and
if so to what? Is the body ‘disconnected’?-and if so how?

I see you soon in A’dam!