ARTISTIC CONCEPTS.
Live Data Facade.
This work started with my first sensor network in 2004 as a result of a Nesta Fellowship and has developed over the last six years as a result of AHRC funding in the UK
The facade is a live dynamic interface, an artwork that changes its behavior as a result of the changing condition in the environment (not static media). This is enabled by sensing the city and the environment to make art. The results become representations of the real time spaces and environment of the city. Environmental data is collected across the city to make the artwork; using custom made sensors in the building and around the city. (30 custom environmental sensors units measure, light, noise, sound, humidity, and temperature). This data is turned into a online real time visualization of the space. The sensors interpret the micro-data of the responsive real time city. The output from the sensors display the real time environmental and emotional state of the city (poetic data) online in real time and the information will be used on the façade and online interface to control it. My environmental sensors are scattered all over the building and city; this means I am literally painting with live data.
This work opens up a discourse about networks and surveillance technologies. The ownership and interrogation of public domain space is opened out where anyone can view all the data in these networks. This is used by me to make artworks but it is of equal interest to urban designers, city planners, and architects. The main point is to question the social political fabric of the landscape around us. This work aim to reclaim the city which is remade as a real time virtualised space belonging to all.
The work is interactive, real time and responsive; it can also be made online so uses can control interface ie the facade of the building available online.
Technology.
I have already developed (from 2004 - 2009) a 40 mote multi sensor network that will be scattered thoughout the the building. The nodes can be placed up to 10 -300 meters apart over the space. Once switched on they gather the data. I have made two versions of the interface software and custom built software for real time data over networks. Mote proxy is a java middle-ware environment for connecting up sensor motes to get access to the data outside moteview and directly off the motes. It allows access to the two networks of twenty motes in real time from which PHP and XML pages are served up. Mote proxy version two allows real time polling of data online from any sensor network that is connected and switched on, the data is then formatting in PHP and XML to enable anyone to make a visualization or interpretation of the data with it.
The changing data is what affects what you see and experience. Live XML feeds are coming from the real time sensors. The sensors monitor temperature, sounds, noise, light, vibration, humidity, and gps. The sensor network takes a constant stream of data which is published onto an online environment where each different interface makes representations of the XML.
Testing.
I have done remote location field testing and city wide, most recently Sensity (2006 - 2009) has been deployed and tested at the V&A museum (2009)for three months where sensors are currently on show at V & A as part of "Decode" show (2009) and have been deployed in the building and across the city demonstating the technology and concepts.
Data as sounds.
The sound of the building are also created using sensors in my project Sonicity. see. www.stanza.co.uk/sonicity/index.html
Using the XML live feeds the data can be also be turned into music. A custom made MAX/MSP motereader and sound synthesis engine in Max MSP (software) has now been written that make sounds based on the changing environment. This allows one to hear the sounds of space, ie an aural experience of the surrounding space. Additional mixers in the software allows all the sensors to be mixed and cross mashed, literally making music or pictures with the stuff that changes in the city.
Summary.
The facade becomes a live dynamic interface, an artwork which changes its behaviour in real time as a result of the changing conditions in the city. The results are beautiful shapes and patterns which are created by the changes over time in the space and this is what is used on the facade.
Support links for this concept and previous research in this area to demonstrate provenance of the artist concept. Since 2004 I have made 12 artworks using sensor networks and real time data.
http://www.stanza.co.uk/
http://www.stanza.co.uk/sensity/index.html
http://www.stanza.co.uk/possibilities/index.html
CCTV FEEDS
I also plan to use live CCTV images in the facade from real time CCTV live camera feeds. Most buildings have CCTV and they use it to observe the people inside the space, ie the public. By using the real time analogue and digital CCTV feeds my aim is to reclaim the data space from private to public domain. This artwork questions who owns the data and who is watching us in these spaces but goes a stage further by using the resulting CCTV feeds which are projected or incorporated into the face of the building over the building creating new narratives from what is happening inside. The outside of the building becomes a huge display system.
The objective is to make the building transparent and open up the architecture and the networked space. In essence the outside of the building represents the inside of the building. The space and the physical body is represented as a huge display. In essence an aesthetic experience is made from uses of surveillance technology The project creates a randomized narrative, the images are grabbed and mixed in by unique and custom built software surveillance suite. This is incorporated into the architecture.
The artwork sees the building and the city from a multi point perspective unfolding in real time where everyone in the network (the building or the city) is part of the system. The patterns, movement, and exchanges of data in the real space, can be measured and interpreted as an emergent social space and used to make new artworks. By using CCTV tracking systems will monitor the space, track public interactions. I use CCTV camera networks to re-imagine real time spaces. Cameras used will be ones already deployed in the building, if these are not available, I can put my own in pace. I am expert in uses of CCTV and have made numerous art projects using CCTV over the last fifteen years.
Support links for this concept and previous research in this area to demonstrate provenance of artist concept which I have been working towards for the last seven years. Related links by the artist.
Earlier research into this
http://www.stanza.co.uk/ideasrus/index.html
http://www.stanza.co.uk/publicity/index.html
http://www.stanza.co.uk/publicdomain/index.html
Essentially what I do here is use technology to gather the data and then make software to represent it. For the output the display (the facade) the results can be shown and presented in different ways. See other pages for visualised examples .
If one has the money and desire we can use the whole system to be kinetic and responsive.
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