ALT DigitalMedia

<ALT> Introduction \|\| <ALT> Form\|\| <ALT> Texts \|\| <ALT> Culture \|\| <ALT> Special Projects \|\| Events
<ALT> Form American Museum of the Moving Image The software-based works in this section suggest an alternate aesthetic to the computer-generated moving images so prevalent in videogames, film, and television. They are distinguished by their spareness and simplicity, and their movement away from photo-realism or the emulation of existing visual styles. The work concerns itself with systems of relationships --involving form, space, and time -- that have long been the subject of artistic inquiry. They represent these systems not as fixed artifacts, but as dynamic, infinitely variable, and always in the process of being created. Works in <ALT> Form: Floccus by Golan Levin Ocean byDan Torop PuppetTool and PuppetZoo, LeCielEstBleu sodaconstructor by Soda Creative, Ltd. Works Previously in <ALT> Form: Fluid by gameLab InOut by Fabrica	Floccus by Golan Levin

Floccus, 1999 Golan Levin C++, OpenGL Floccus is the result of Golan Levin's investigations into the means by which dynamic graphical lines are able to convey a plausible sense of physicality. In Floccus (the name is Latin for "hairball"), ductile filaments drawn by the user swirl around a shifting, imaginary drain centered at the user's cursor. These filaments-torn by conflicting impulses to simultaneously preserve their length while also moving toward or away from the cursor-find an equilibrium by forming tangled masses. The audio in Floccus is created, in real-time, by a custom software granular synthesizer whose sound-particles react, in their pitch, duration, amplitude, and timbre to the physics of the underlying simulation. Related Links: www.flong.com	Floccus by Golan Levin

PuppetTool and PuppetZoo, 2001-2003 LeCielEstBleu: Frédéric Durieu, Kristine Madlen, Jean-Jacques Birgé Macromedia Director PuppetTool is a software application for animating human, animal and plant models as if they were puppets in the physical world. Frédéric Durieu, founder of LeCielEstBleu, says, "The goal here is to produce wonderment, like that of a child on discovering a new toy. It's not realism and exactness that [we're] looking for, but the offset quality of things, possibly akin to the expression of a universe in two-and-a-half dimensions." The PuppetZoo contains LeCielEstBleu's own experiments using the PuppetTool. PuppetTool was a finalist in the Software category at Transmediale 2003 in Berlin. Related Links: www.LeCielEstBleu.com	PuppetTool by LeCielEstBleu

sodaconstructor, 2000-2002 Soda Creative, Ltd. Java, Internet Sodaconstructor is an online construction kit that allows users to build interactive creations from a framework of limbs and muscles. By altering physical properties like gravity, friction, and speed, anthropomorphic models can be made to walk, climb, wriggle, jiggle, or collapse into a writhing heap. In 2000, sodaconstructor exploded across the Internet through emails and web postings. Since then, people around the world have been building their own creations which now populate the "sodazoo." Recently Soda Creative instituted "sodaraces," online races in which people pit their sodaconstructions against each other. Related Links: www.sodaplay.com	sodaconstructor by Soda Creative, Ltd.

Ocean, 2000-2002 Dan Torop Linux, C, Assembly Ocean emerged out of landscape photographer Dan Torop's fascination with patterns of light reflecting off ocean waves. His studies led him to discover that the ocean's beauty could, in fact, be predicted by the laws of physics. He wrote a computer program using 19th Century theories of the motion of incompressible fluids to render his observations. Ocean incorporates interaction, enabling viewers to alter certain parameters, like color, surface winds, and time of day. Each viewer encounters Ocean in the state in which it was left by the prior viewer.	Ocean by Dan Torop

Fluid, 2001* gameLab (Code: Ranjit Bhatnager; Game Design: Frank Lantz, Eric Zimmerman; Graphics: Frank Lantz, Peter Lee; Process: Eric Zimmerman; Audio: Michael Sweet, AudioBrain) Computer and Touchscreen Embedded in Industrial Waste Container, Macromedia Director Commissioned by The Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue Fluid is based on a system of rules defining the behavior, over time, of entities occupying cells in a grid. These entities, known as cellular automata, were first described by Cambridge and Princeton University mathematician John H. Conway in the late 1960s. Today some mathematicians propose cellular automata as the basis of a multitude of complex natural phenomenon, including the universe itself. Equal parts toy and game, the goal of Fluid is to undo the disturbance caused by the player's initial entrance into the system. Related Links: www.gmlb.com Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue *FLUID IS NO LONGER ON VIEW IN THE FOX GALLERY.	Fluid by gameLab

InOut, 2002* Fabrica Macromedia Director InOut is a set of "digital toys" software developed by Fabrica, an international group of 15 young designers, musicians, and programmers supervised by Andy Cameron and financed by Benetton. InOut is divided into eight exercises that either explore novel methods of image manipulation through sound input or, inversely, create sound output through interactive design interfaces. Related Links: www.fabrica.it *INOUT IS NO LONGER ON VIEW IN THE FOX GALLERY.	InOut by Fabrica
<ALT> Introduction \|\| <ALT> Form \|\| <ALT> Texts \|\| <ALT> Culture \|\| <ALT> Special Projects \|\| Events © 2003 American Museum of the Moving Image. All rights reserved.