HOUSE. Forces of Invisible Agency 2007

Exhibition

• In “House” the private interior has been made public.
• The private house is monitored to capture the agency of the house
• House is a live embodiment of change and renewal.
• House is revealed as a flowing space through time.
• All houses can be connected in this way.
• An artwork about a house visualising the live data stream

“House” by Stanza, is a dynamic public artwork viewable over the internet. House describes the space, a real Victorian terraced house, in this case, that the artist lives in.

Sensor data unfolds and discloses the inherent properties of the space, creating an online artwork.  Data collected through the house represents the living changing flow of the space. The air, light, heat of the physical property is monitored and the data is used for the online real time visualization. The changing sounds of the space are triggered by specially created software into a dynamic generative soundscape. You are allowed into my private space through the uses of new technologies. A special hardware system has been custom installed and custom software created to allow the visualization on the internet.

This work included converging raw data streams to facilitate a new connectedness in online networked virtual space. This was achieved by extending the artist's previous research into real-time information and collected data streams to allow further interpretations on the way data is built, used, and designed. These aims were facilitated by using the newly developed tools and by using the author's newly created online platforms to experience and represent these spaces online that also provide the artistic context. Furthermore this media artwork demonstrate this context by making the affirmation that our bodies and our actions are at all times part of this bigger system which is referred to here as the data space. This was achieved by investigating how these particular spaces can extend the experience of the environment, illustrate temporality, and create a direct connection to our hidden agency in the wider world.

===============================================

Concept

House involves gathering the material, ie, real time pure data from sensors. House is monitored as an environment and made real by the changing data over time.

The form itself is represented by live sensor data from a wireless sensor network.  I have set up ten node wireless mote network. (Motes sensor boards Mica 2 with sounder , noise, thermister sensors)

The house itself is made more alive by the objects that move inside and make noise, people for example. But this is not the particapatory or performative element in house, this is embedded in the artwork by default. The sensors themselves are controlling this. The house is made interactive by this element of control.

When we are out of the house the building itself has behavior and so does the surrounding environment. On a smaller micro level things change constantly in "House". Taps leak, networks or connection from inside to outside changes.  All these processes reflect the entity that is house. House is not as a bank of memories recast like Whiteread’s house or Michael Landy’s. House becomes a rigid structure that represents its dynamic presence.

An online interface allows participants to mix across and view and interact with the resulting data streams.

Interface Nodes have sounds attached via the sensors. Click to engage.

The interface represents the data coming from various sensors coming across the network.

Keywords
 
House is a network, net art , networked, generative. Sensor, installation and database.
House is also a real time audio and visualization of an environment.

network: (1) a system or group of interconnected elements; (2) a set of nodes, points, or locations connected by means of data, voice, and video communications for the purpose of exchange.

net art: art projects for which the (Internet) is both a sufficient and necessary condition of viewing/expressing/participating.

networked art: (1) works in which nodes, objects, and people connect via computer networks, including the Internet, Local Area Networks, and mobile networks; (2) works that invite (inter)action and/or participation.

generative. evolving continuous system of data.

(1) bridge multiple realities while maintaining autonomy;
The project gathers assets from the real house and represents this data across networks as an online system a generative experience of a a real architecture.
(2) engage the user as a participant;
The user participates in the online system by mixing and controlling the assets and the data. An interface will be created to  enable this
(3) include the dynamics of both one-to-one and one-to-many communication within the work;
A multi- node wireless sensor network ie a rhizomatic network gathers the assets (data) and feeds it online for interpretation my end users.
(4) require collaboration between artists, programmers, scientists, and others; and,(5) encourage dialogue.

Technology:

A network of live wireless sensors is deployed and this collects the data. A wireless sensor network with ten motes and multiple sensors on each data maps the environment. Using Tiny OS and open source software the motes  are programmed so that they communicate over the air. Once OATP is established the data is collected and extracted via a router as xml. A unique system for live XML broadcast has to be developed which archives and relays the data to the online systems and interface.

A java and PHP system is needed to relay the live data ie a mote reader. The motereader software developed allows the real time reading of sensors across networks .

Two version of this projects that look the same. One is uses recorded data from the sensors at specific times. The other version uses real time data over the networks and is online when the sensors are connected.

House by Stanza. Concept, sounds, design, visualisation, images, copyright Stanza. Thanks for support from Eamonn Martin and Adam Hoyle. This project was supported by AHRC creative fellowship programme.

ENTER ONLINE ARTWORK (YOU NEED FLASH INSTALLED)

KEYWORDS: network, net art , networked, generative, sensor, installation and database, real time audio, visualization, environment.