Behind the scenes photos

Here are some pictures I took when I went to document the installation:

The Screen

Here's how it was tied down

But unfortunately it just wasn't taunt enough.

Behind the screen
Two computers and two projectors

The sensor

The Rationale

Inspirit Rationale

Inspirit derived from a fascination with ancient cultures and mysticism. Visions of druids conducting rituals within megalithic sites lead me to ponder their true purpose. By definition a megalith is a large stone that has been used as part of a structure or monument either alone or with other stones. This may imply they have an architectural purpose and some may even find a sculptural appreciation for them. It has been suggested that some megaliths were used to determine important astronomical events such as the solstice and equinox dates, though I’ve speculated that the role of some megaliths was to act as gigantic interactive installations. In other words at a certain point in human cognitive evolution these great hulking stones were perceived equivalently to modern installations, though their significance was integrated into the culture and spirituality of those who interacted with them. Psychological and technological advancements have changed the function and modern human’s relationship to installations so now they are viewed for art sake.

Inspirit’s megalith acts a conduit which transfers the observer’s kinesic energy to the tree, however if the observer stops moving the tree begins to “ungrow”. The more foliage the tree has the more movement is required to maintain it, which stands to reason because the more physical matter present the more energy needed to sustain it.

I selected “Inspirit” as the title of the installation because it means “to infuse spirit or life into; enliven” which is the very essence of what it depicts – the return of life to something that was once living.

The Rationale

Inspirit Rationale

Inspirit derived from a fascination with ancient cultures and mysticism. Visions of druids conducting rituals within megalithic sites lead me to ponder their true purpose. By definition a megalith is a large stone that has been used as part of a structure or monument either alone or with other stones. This may imply they have an architectural purpose and some may even find a sculptural appreciation for them. It has been suggested that some megaliths were used to determine important astronomical events such as the solstice and equinox dates, though I’ve speculated that the role of some megaliths was to act as gigantic interactive installations. In other words at a certain point in human cognitive evolution these great hulking stones were perceived equivalently to modern installations, though their significance was integrated into the culture and spirituality of those who interacted with them. Psychological and technological advancements have changed the function and modern human’s relationship to installations so now they are viewed for art sake.

Inspirit’s megalith acts a conduit which transfers the observer’s kinesic energy to the tree, however if the observer stops moving the tree begins to “ungrow”. The more foliage the tree has the more movement is required to maintain it, which stands to reason because the more physical matter present the more energy needed to sustain it.

I selected “Inspirit” as the title of the installation because it means “to infuse spirit or life into; enliven” which is the very essence of what it depicts – the return of life to something that was once living.

Acknowledgments

With assessment underway what better to do some sucking up? Too bad this entry is written after the submission date and cannot be included for assessment...


First and forthmost I must offer my sincerest gratitude to Bill Hart for his guidence, tutition and generous availability to do so. Without his assistance the outcome of my project would be significantly less and I'd probably have produce a rather tacky short film without it.

Next I must offer special thanks to Leigh Hobba for taking the time to look at my work and provide feedback even though I'm no longer one of his students.

Guy Dishington, Hugh Thomas Reid, John Farrow and Sam Rollands have been wonderful assistants who've helped me setup the projection screen and test the Flash component of the installation. Without them my task would have been significantly more arduous possibility leading to further insanity.

My mother was saviour with a sewing machine because there was no way I'd have the dexterity to create a screen that size by myself. Aaron Horsely has been a wonderful and knowlegable IT technican whose resourcefulness has been most appreciated in those critical times of need.

Thanks are also extended to Matt Warren, Raef Sawford and the combined classes of E-Media and Electronic Installation for their feedback during the critiques.


And an honerable mention shall also be given to Bill Hammond for tearing himself away from his cigarette breaks to show me how to use the video studio.

The Installation For Assessment

What a tumultuous day!

It kicked off in the early hours when the hard disk I've been storing all my work on decided to fail, but fortunately I managed to get the necessary files burnt to CD and DVD. Unfortunately it took longer than I anticipated and I didn't get to bed until 7AM which meant I didn't take up till 12PM. Ideally I would have liked an early start because there was still much to do.

When I arrived at university Bill and Aaron were nowhere in sight and I still needed to get the computers and projectors to use for my installation. Since I couldn't remain idle I decided to photocopy my Rationale to A3 size so I went to the library only to discover I hadn't printed it out, so the obvious remedy was to be print another copy. I soon discovered that I'd saved over the Rationale with another text from another document leaving me no choice but to rewrite the Rationale. I rewrote it in the E-Media lab thinking I could use the printer to print an A3 sized sheet of paper by creating in Illustrator. Of course the E-Media printer wasn't working as usual so I had to take the file to the library. Typically the library has an older version of Illustrator which misintepreted extended characters and didn't allow text hightlighting when I opened my Illustrator CS2 file. So back round to the E-Media lab I went to transfer the information from the Illustrator file to a text file which I took to the library then transferred to Word and successfully printed. Then I spent about 10 minutes and many trial runs before I finally got the photocopier to enlarge the A4 page to A3 size and stay within the margins.

Thew! Then it was back round to the E-Media lab to get the hardware.

Fortunately Bill and Aaron were both present this time so I loaded a trolley with everything I needed and carted it around to Art Theory Room 1.8. Problems soon arose when I couldn't log into the Art Theory computer as I needed the administrator's user name and password, but I was promptly rescued by Ona who logged me in. The same problem arose again when I attempted to change the Power Save Settings, Bill was able to give me adminstrator privileges for the E-Media computer but neither he nor Ona could do anything to help. Its quite annoying because after 15 minutes the monitor powers down and the projector loses its signal.

The next problem I encountered was the E-Media computer had no signs of Flash installed which meant I'd have to install it from across the network. A stroke of luck enabled me to connect a network cable and log in, but there was no Flash 8 on the E-Media sever which meant I'd have to download it. I couldn't download it because Safari kept asking for my user name and password and Firefox didn't work. The problem was resolved when Aaron copied a Flash 8 to my account from a computer in the E-Media lab and finally things were underway.

With the assistance of Mr Rolly I began testing the best interaction for the tree animation and began tweaking the Action Script to suit the space. Things were finally going according to plan and I even managed to iron out a bug in the Action Script programming. After Mr Rolly left I made a few final adjustments to the projection screen and locked down the projectors and E-Media computer.

When I was satisfied everything was to my liking I dashed downstairs and grabbed John so he could be my final test subject. It was a good thing too because John suggested I should turn off the projectors before leaving to preserve their bulbs which I wouldn't have thought of by myself. John was thoroughly impressed as was Hugh Thomas when he saw an earlier version so that's a reassuring sign.

If a certain Bill is impressed during the assessment that'll make everything worthwhile...

The final version of the tree animation

This is the final version of the tree animation which I shall be using for the submission of the installation.

The action script

Here is a sample of the ActionScript which drives the Flash animation. Its not finalised yet and will be fine tune once the hardware has been installed.


var snd = new Sound();
snd.attachSound("mysound");

mouse.hide();
stop();

------------------------------------------------

onClipEvent (load) {
mouse.hide();
stop();
}


on (release) {

_root.snd.start(0, 10); // Play sound

if (_this._currentframe > (_this._totalframes-1)) {
gotoAndStop(_totalframes-1)
stop();
}
else
{

// _root.snd.start(0, 10); // Play sound
//_root.snd.setVolume(25);

rewind = false;
foward = true;
play();
}
}

on (press)
{
//_root.snd.stop(); // Stop sound effect

stop();
rewind = true;
reduce = 0;
}

onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
if (framecount > 300) // Changed this
{
framecount = 0;
forward = false;
}

x = (this._currentframe / 4)

if ((forward == true) && (framecount < 300 - x))
{

_root.snd.setVolume(volumeValue); // Fade Sound In
_root.snd.start(0, 10); // Play sound

if (volumeValue < 25){ // Fade Counter
volumeValue++;
}

nextFrame(); // Move to next frame
framecount++;

}

if (rewind==true){

volumeValue = (25 - reduce); // Fade Out Volume
_root.snd.setVolume(volumeValue); // Change Volume
_root.snd.start(0, 10); // Play sound

if (reduce < 25){ // Fade Counter
reduce++;
reduce++;
}

y = (this._currentframe / 100)

if (_currentframe > 0){


gotoAndPlay(this._currentframe - 4);
// prevFrame();
}
}
}




on (keyPress "") {
mouse.hide();
}