For my masters thesis, I used techniques from computational art to develop custom software that outputs an infinite number of card designs, ready to be printed individually. Through a series of game prototypes, I explored the interactions and play mechanics that emerge from this new design approach, as well as the value of uniqueness in affordable, mass produced goods.

As it’s a work in progress, this documentation is temporary. Feel free to get in touch for more info, or watch the presentation here.

The previous images are from the first prototype of the first card game. The next print iteration will feature more diversity, like you can see on the following designs.

The content of the installation is dynamic and different every time it runs: three artists create it live, by drawing on an iPad that scales their sketches to the unexpected magnitude of the giant screen. The narrative is guided through the dialog between performers and the system itself, which evolves and transforms the drawings over time.

more photos on Flickr

The installation is composed of four custom applications running at the same time to control every step of the process. The app on the iPads is built in OpenFrameworks. It reads the drawings and sends TCP messages to a central laptop over a local wireless network.

A control panel application built in Processing acts as a middleman between the wireless and the ethernet networks. It runs on a laptop, monitoring the iPads and forwarding their messages to the server that controls the screens. It also enables some extra features, like recording and playing back the performances.

The MPE Server runs on one of the three Mac towers that control the screens. It’s part of the Most Pixels Ever library by Daniel Shiffman and it’s used to synchronize the three parts of the screen. One instance of another OF application –the main one– runs on each of these machines, reading messages from the server and turning them in real time into high resolution graphics for the video wall. In the end, the project has a global resolution of 11520 x 580 pixels, distributed along 568 LED screens.

Special thanks to everyone who participated in the project at some point:

Sound design: Phan Visutyothapibal, Tony Lim
Drawing: Sonia Li, Jiyoung Jung, Thitiphong Luangaroonlerd, Lisa Park
Documentation: Marta Augé, Mónica Bate, Luisa Pereira
Technical help: Dan Shiffman, James George

It’s the final research project for James Bridle’s class Waving at the Machines at ITP, as well as the thinking that eventually led to the Polaroid Cacher. It’s also a nice compilation of projects dealing with cameras, so I  thought I would share the resource.

Fullscreen or reading it on Scribd recommended.

It has been created at ITP by Adrià Navarro and DI Shin, with the collaboration of Ananya Mukherjee in the concept phase and Marta Augé in the documentation.

Concept

We believe that our daily online activity –conversations, discoveries, games– is as meaningful as our activity in the physical world and, as such, should be preserved the same way we try to capture every important moment in our life. Especially because most of this experiences will be soon forgotten, lost under layers of information, databases and outdated services.

Given the powerful association of instant photography with memories, people and nostalgia –rather than with photographic quality– we designed our camera as a fictional Polaroid product. One that captures digital media in a traditional analog format, as means to create tangible, durable mementos of our digital life.

To find out more about our background research, feel free to browse my presentation on repurposed cameras.

Design

The camera is composed of two interfaces. The “lens” is a browser plugin that waits for your input. The moment you want to take a picture, it overlays a viewfinder that allows you to frame an area and shoot a picture of it.

The physical interface is an ambient device that requires no interaction from the user. After taking the snapshot, it will “develop” the picture and wirelessly print it, framed like a traditional instant photo. It was built by combining a vintage Polaroid Land Camera and a custom laser cut enclosure, in order to represent the same convergence of analog and digital media that the project is based on.

Other methods have been considered as the input for taking the picture. Using a native application to solve the browser limitation, analyzing the smile from the user to passively decide when to capture the screen, or making the camera a shared object. The possibilities are endless.

Technology

On this first prototype, the browser component is a Chrome extension built in Javascript and CSS, and based on the open source google screen capture.

The extension saves an image file in a specific folder with an associated folder action, which triggers an Applescript based on this code by the great Brendan Dawes.

The script sends the image file via Bluetooth to the Pogo GL10 photo printer inside the case, that finally prints 3×4″ ZINK pictures.

I’m reluctant to call it Daily Whatever, or Make Something Amazing Everyday, because that’s probably not going to happen. So don’t expect more than an irregularly updated journal of visual thingies drawn manually, digitally or by code.

Access 14

The motivation behind this project is to poetically address the politics of light, and specifically side effects of light pollution in urban settings. By using the streetlight as the source for the star map, the project challenges the visitor to reconnect with the larger planetary scale, the stars that enshroud us.

The project has been exhibited in Brooklyn Bridge Park for the Dumbo Arts Festival 2012, and is currently looking for a longer term exhibition location. 

Design Team: Engin Ayaz, Esther Cheung, Rozit Arditi
Structural Consultants: Zak Kostura (Arup) and Robert K. Otani (Thornton Tomasetti)
Fabricator: Timbur Studios

Celluloid is an an exploration on shifting our relationship with 16mm film. An interactive installation that invites its audience to discover the nuances of a format that we don’t normally have contact with, by having them move the light rather than sitting back and watch the footage spin.

It’s concieved as an experiment on using both film and the user as projection surfaces. As a convergence of analog and digital media, a new usage for a material on the verge of obsolescence.

The installation, created with Luisa Pereira, uses projection mapping to illuminate individual film strips, as the user shines an infrared flashlight to them. The IR signal is detected by a PS Eye camera and processed by a custom OpenFrameworks application, that translates it from camera to projection space. ofxOpenCV and ofxUI are the main addons used for computer vision and callibration, respectively.

All discarded footage was provided by NYU film department.

In collaboration with Lisa Park, and hopefully with more people in the future, we create stickers that encapsulate specific stories taken from Craigslist. We combine parts of the original text with graphical elements that resonate with it. We use a common, universal style derived from public signage, as well as shapes and colors that imply the digital origin of the story. Once the images are created, they are placed at the exact location where that missed connection happened, and documented on the website.

Find more pictures and information at iwishisaidhello.org, or follow us on twitter @iwishisaidhello !

Even though touchscreens still lack important elements of interaction, like tactile feedback or the ability to detect different levels of pressure, there’s room for using them in more expressive ways than only point-and-click apps.

My ongoing research attempts to find new contexts for tablets and capacitive screens, as well as new methods of interacting with them.

Through the exploration of design, materials and algorithms –shape recognition, computer graphics- I’m trying to develop prototypes that embrace the physicality of our gestures and take more advantage of the technological potential that lies in devices like the iPad. I’m also interested in the tablet as a platform for other interactive objects.

prototype 1: Illusions

Toys are a good medium to explore new interactions. My initial experiments play with see-through mirrors, and try to make them interactive in order to provoke curiosity and surprise. The first protype developed is a mysterious box that only reveals its content when placed on top of the iPad, and does it in the form of a (false) 3D hologram.

prototype 2: Mast Brothers Chocolate app

As a spin-off of my research on the iPad interaction, I wanted to use food as the interactive object by doing something people won’t usually expect: serving it on top of a screen.

Our collaboration with Mast Brothers Chocolate was a perfect oportunity for it: they are so determined to communicate their perception of chocolate that I decided I had to enhance this communication, but using the presentation of the food instead of its taste.

My final proposal was an experimental app that detects when the guest picks a specific bombon and displays information about its origin, making the act of eating more engaging and fun.

The first one, Wishing Well, was created in 2007 using 3DS Max with the FinalToon plugin. The original idea was to complement the story with some new scenery and context, but it was sadly left unfinished due to hardware problems.

The second one, 5 years later, is a stop-motion adaptation of Deal with the Devil. It’s made with clay, wire armatures, Dragonframe and a lot of love.