Texthören.

The original page and documentation can be found here :

http://www.alexismorin.com/demos/texthoren

http://alexismorin.com/demos/jailtext/

What I want to do for DB 4 is an extension of my Jailtext (DB 3.3) response. As like any art form, the creative process is the one thing that has the potential to never stop. This is why I wish to continue on a project that had me drooling everywhere. The previous project’s code will not be used. I am rewriting the entire music to animation code, as well as the code to retrieve the ID3 data tage associated to the music files.

DB 3 has inspired me to a point where associating text, animation and music together has become an addiction. This new piece will focus on the complete metadata contained within a music file, might include an interface through which users will be able to upload their own music.

Different animation presents will be mixed together in order to create a completely text-based music visualisation engine. Blurring, scaling, masking, moving, bouncing will be some of the effects that will be achieved word by word and letter by letter within my animation engine.

The animations will run off different parameters such as the actual waveform of the music, the genre of the music will trigger different animation presets.

The way it goes

Processing is great. Does pretty things. Java is sooo high-level and unoptimized, that the NextText engine slows down FAST. That’s why I’m not per-se tranlating NextText to ActionScript 3. I’m inspiring myself from the algorithmic structure of NextText in order to make something that can actually run, be efficient and not have the designer wondering when his piece is going to slow down.

Important to note that this is the first time I will be making a complete application in AS3. I have never touched this language other that skimming the surface on blogs and tutorial videos.

3.1

Excuse my translations in the following comment. My Spanish is a tad rusty.

This is a video clip from the band “El Cuarto de Nos“, “The four of us”. The song is called “Ya no sé hacer conmigo”, “I still don’t know what to do with myself”. The conceptually, as much as what is being shown is very eye-pleasing, what is done with the type has been overdone. The reason I think this clip is set slightly apart is because of the vectorized video footage playing over the fonts.

The text in this video is actually following the story being told by the lyrics. So the show is not being run by the text as it were. Another element that piqued my interest is the extra attention that is payed to the sound of the voice. Where the notes are prolonged, the letterforms get deformed accordingly to the phoneme being pronounced at that very moment.

The words at times, see to integrate with the scenery of the band playing. Which introduces the notion of text as the environment and as a collective memory. Because what is memory? Is it the recollection of stimuli? Images, scents, textures? Or can it also be a a factual recollection of events neatly arranged in point form. In the latter case, the heavy integration of text documentation in our society can very well bring back the idea of text as a memory.

Supporting this idea of the memory, the sequence of “eeetico” ranging from 0:29 to 0:34 plays on the notion of rhyme. It must be remembered that during the oral tradition of the aboriginal Amerindians, it was easier to remember a story if it was sung because the sonority of the tale would act as a mnemonic engine.

3.2

The whole “interactive arts” scene can be restrictive sometimes, as materials, equipment or even technical knowledge can be very hard to acquire. Many pieces in the field are pioneering a technique as they are quite often experimental.

One of the problematics that artists can face is that of implementing interaction. The artist must make a choice on how to multiply the components, the programming, the interface and the response. These choices must transcend electricity and the technical aspect of the piece in order to make the intention of the artist show through. Obviously, this does not work at its best at all occasions.

Interstices - Amplified Intimacies, the exposition at the Oboro art gallery has some pieces that went through this process of choosing. The question that must be asked is the following : How effective are the modes of interaction at supporting / amplifying / augmenting the other components of the work.

I will not name the particular pieces of the exhibition but will describe them.

The “bar” piece, with illuminated drinks completely fails to amaze. The modes of interaction as it were are apparently too complex for anyone to operate at any time. 10 / 10 for effort, minus several million for good thinking. This piece should be advertised as a performance because of its temporal nature. It did not capture anyones’ attention by not being there. If a piece is in an art gallery, it should be in it. But enough on the ranting and raving.

The “International Dance Party” starts off good with a catchy name. The piece if far off in a small little room, rigged with electronics. As soon as one starts walking around the machine to look at it, it fires up. This is a type of interaction I truly admire for it’s ubiquitousness. While remaining direct interactivity, I would call this sub-type : “Do what you normally do, I’ll just stand here and watch. Then I’ll react to what you are doing.”. This type of interaction completely brings positive attention to the piece as viewers are intrigued more and more trying to find out how and why the machine is capturing their movement, sound position, heat, etc. Furthermore this type of interaction is accessible. While becoming less and less of a problem as society becomes increasingly technology literate, it is comforting to know that the older generations can still have access to newer art. Great success for this piece on augmenting its components.

The “Cell Phone” piece outside the gallery takes the cake. First of all, it is open to the public, like the streets are. It just IS there. It may not be accessible to all, but in another sense, it is accessible to everywhere. It is not location dependant. Of course, to see the result, you must be in front of the TV screen, but the idea is there. The event can be triggered from anywhere a cell phone can be used. This type of “hacking” interactivity definitely turns the tables. The components are no longer only the artist’s components. This one for example uses any cell phone to be activated.

So it all depends on how far you intend to go with the “components”. Components can range from non-existing to “it has been in your pocket the whole day”.

2.1

The opening animation for “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” struck me as visually pleasing at first. It uses a more traditional visual style reminiscent of the sixties.

The font that was chosen is a sans serif all caps font. Usually using a font in all caps makes me angry. In this case, not so much. The graphics that go along with the visuals are so captivating that in order to receive any attention, all caps is required.

Another major point about this sequence is that the animations from the title tell a part of the story to come. Not so much that it will ruin the movie, but just enough to please the person who has seen it and can recognize the different scenes only by watching the titles.

2.2

The film title that I find does not reflect successfully the movie it precedes is “eXistenZ”. For having seen the movie, I think that the speed and feel of the titles almost go against what is represented in the film.

The titles sequence is predominated with stains of a brownish tint and a boring slightly serifed font. After a while, the stains become fully fledged brown background with images that are not at all relevant. (i.e. A fish skeleton).

This movie is a sci-fi action movie. The boring brown background and font are not welcome. Should be shown : allusions to the eXistenZ game, concept art of the multiple places or strange objects depicted in the movie. But I’ll get to that in 2.3.

2.3

2.4

The movie title I chose that I found visually pleasing, but that did not fit so well with the movie is for Equilibrium. It has a fast paced and 2D animation style. Link after the break.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=5XuAIe9bX18

This movie which I found excellent deals of serious subject matter within a society that has gone over the edge in seriouseness. Though it is vibrant in its two-tone animation style, the overly emphatic graphics break the overall feel of the movie if one has already seen it. And sets the wrong mood for any newcomer to the picture. I believe this title should be more calm than it currently is. Set the mood in a very solemn and posed manner rather than show it as an action movie with its posing gunmen.

2.5

The title sequence I worked on is not for a particular piece of media. It is actually for a band, namely Born of Osiris.
I wanted to convey the multiple layers of instrumentation in their music. I therefore chose to use a technique of 3D layering to represent this. The progresive, organic and evolving of their sound is represented by the evolution/spastic fade-in of the logo.

The animation is here.

More details will be added in the description on the real site.

The end of print.

What to say about this piece of lit. Hard to read, but amazingly revealing on the lifespan of an artform/artmedia.

it shows how art starts as a medium, becomes free, then beCOMEs a medium of the corporate machine afterwards. I did’t catch some parts. That’s ok.

Precedents & Narrative

The second reading capitalises on movie introduction sequences. Quite profound on covering a long span of time. Many of the plaques were non-readable due to the photocopy, but some are very advanced title animations considering the period of time when they were originally created.

My favorite for having seen it : ALIEN

About the fragmentation of everything. Modernism. The first part of the 1st text describing the creative methods of Mallarmé is just great in the extent of the creativity. All the thought that went into the creative process is original ,well thought out and deep, the second part of the text saddens me.

The second part of the text is about the modernist craze to simplify and deconstruct everything. On one hand, some believe that universal truths can be uncovered by a fragmentation so abusive of art that only its quintessential components remain. That accross cultures, languages, and hell…worlds, these concepts could be grasped, as they constituted the basic building blocs of the chosen art piece.

The second attempt of modernism was to build an art piece that was not representative, that was not a copy of something else. But instead to produce something that was. Something that was a new concept, a new idea, that had meaning regardless of exterior influence. Which in all practical terms is impossible. In terms of material, it is we as humans are limited to the building blocks available on this planet and maleable by humans, as it were.

The third category is for anyone else. Anyone who attemps to actually and truly defy the rules fits into this box.

Wow. Really? So now we understand art? All a piece of rubbish. I refuse to think that art has been so neatly stacked into boxes for philosophers to understand.

Remain creative my friends.

_{Exercise done with Faiq Hussein and Matthieu Tremblay}

Here are some fonts my team and I found on the Internet and in our troubled youths.

Click the image for a bigger view and in-depth description.

_{Exercise done with Faiq Hussein and Matthieu Tremblay}

The first montage if purely for esthetics. The layout of the pages simply point out the repetitiveness of the poem in its stanzas. The variation of the ending empahizes the dramatic effect of the text.

Poem 1

The second montage is about the strictness of poetry, reffering to the coldness of the man in the poem. The structure is extrapolated from the structure of the French sonets. 4-4-3-3 and the rhyme structure ABAB-ABAB-CCD-EED.

Poem 2

The third poem is about mechanicality of the man from the poems and focuses on the programming nature of building poems. It loops the repetitions.

Poem 3

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