KICK THE FRACTAL

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WHAT IT IS

KICK THE FRACTAL is a demonstration of an interactive dance space for the improvised performance of multimedia.

KICK THE FRACTAL is an interactive multimedia installation by Olaf Meyer. A breathing self aware environment that responds to the behaviour of the viewer. Sit in a fluffy day-glow chair and wave your arms, walk at 45 degree angles or kick through the air or dance to stimulate it.

The laser-light based motion tracking system used by KICK THE FRACTAL has been adapted to respond to specific movements. By selectivley responding to kicking, dancing or other wild behaviour within the space, KICK THE FRACTAL self choreographs the public's movement, aiming to break down the preconceived ideas about interactive art and the behaviour inside art galleries.

KICK THE FRACTAL is part of the NextWave Festival 2002. Sponsored by Film Victoria. Assisted by Andrew Baxter, Chris Lange, Brendan Shelper, Shaun Keynt.

Place: George Paton Gallery. 2nd Floor Union House, University of Melbourne.

Opening: Wed 22 May 2002

Dates: Wed 22 May - Fri 31 May 2002

Hours: 11:00 - 17:00

Produced with the assistance of Film Victoria's Digital Media Fund - The Digital Media Fund is funded by Multimedia Victoria as part of the Victorian Government's Connecting Victoria policy, which aims to bring the benefits of technology to all Victorians.

OLAF MEYER profile:

Technical Operation

Real-Time Magazine Review - by Lease Hall

More pictures:

• Laser Grid
• Fluro Fluffy Chair
• Kick The Fractal exhibition photos
• Gallery Web Site

CONCEPT

Kick the fractal is a project exploring:

1. The improvised performance of multimedia with physical human-computer interaction.
2. The behaviour in Gallery Spaces
3. Becoming part of a system
4. Interactivity as a focus for art
5. Fractals and Chaos
6. The sounds

1 The improvised performance of multimedia with physical human-computer interaction.

When designing interactive multimedia for performance Olaf aims to move away from the scripted approach to a more behaviour based approach. This allows individual elements in an audio/visual composition to be accessed by specific actions at user specific times.

This installation demonstrates an adaptive physical interface that makes it possible for a performer to improvise audio/visual content whilst still being able to maintain full freedom of movement in the way he/she performs.

Your movement in the space creates an audio visual composition similar to the live video shows that Olaf have designed and performed at over the years. Video and sound can be selectively and instantly played by you and your physical physical behaviour.

2 The behaviour in Gallery Spaces

The live video shows I have designed and performed over the years could be best described as unstable media, a term coined by a dutch experimental media institute 'V2'. The shows are transcendent - once only. Live and never again. Performed on new instruments. Reactive to audience and situation.

Unstable media's definition is probably best discussed by Johan Huizinga in the book Homo Ludens. Unstable media - media created from a sense of play, for a mass audience. Comparing it to 'stable media', stable media being created with a much more conceptually thought out plan, made for individual contemplation.

"To really get the most out of a "stable" painting, photograph or etching you (the audience) must really get to the heart of it, you have to enter into a one on one relationship with it, what does this work mean to me and me alone? To understand the work means to develop an utterly personal understanding of it, and to let it unlock your inner world. If the work appeals to you, you may want to find out more about why the work was made and who made it and to compare your reaction to other peoples reactions that the work invoked in them. All of the works admirers remaining unique individuals with individual reactions.

Unstable media is totally the opposite in that it is targeted at a crowd. You can see this difference between the audience in a museum opposed to the audience at a concert, a performance or at a public speech. These are real mass media events. All the audience members are connected by the same energy source - the action occurring on stage. No matter how big or small the crowd, each member is effected as they all face or move in the same direction. This moment is what unstable media aims for, the moment where all viewers lose there sense of individuality, where they too contribute to the event, just as what is typical of festivities; merry excitement where the performing artist provides fuel but not content."

- Book for The Electronic Arts - V2

The traditional setting for stable media is inside a gallery. KICK THE FRACTAL will also be in a gallery. Yet KICK THE FRACTAL will demand more than just contemplation, like the crowd at a concert or a performance, the installation KICK THE FRACTAL is there with you. It stimulates you, you stimulates it, it stimulates itself.

On a more physical level, galleries are usually quiet places, places for contemplation, our movement is usually reduced to a slow stroll parallel with the wall. This is where this installation manipulates the viewer into behaving differently whilst in the gallery space. The interaction KICK THE FRACTAL demands are kicks or walking at 45 degree angles. If you fall into the trap of walking the usual way, (along the walls of the gallery) the installation will just ignore you.

The images and sounds will aim to distract the viewer from the cold white walled space that is the gallery and provoke a more relaxed attitude to their unnatural behaviour.

3 Becoming part of a system

Kick the fractal is an interactive system that relies upon your behaviour to be complete.

Entering the space and walking diagonally and kicking causes the video balloon to throb with fractals, light to strobe and sound to hum. The effect creates the illusion of kicking fractals onto the balloon.

KICK THE FRACTAL knows if you there, sitting on the Fluro Fluffy Chair and waving your left arm over the armrest will cause the installation to become excited and breath faster.

When nobody is in the chair the installation returns to a slow breathing.

4 Interactivity as a focus for art

"In a lot of electronic art the interactivity in pressing a button has, to an extent, become more important than the image itself. Suggesting that we are starting to leave the idea of the image as the as the central focus point behind in our exploration of interactive art.

What has become important in interactive installations is that ones actions affect the image. Representation within the image is left behind as the process behind the interactivity comes more into our focus. The focus in interactivity is becoming more about the system in which you find yourself in, how you are a part of the work, how you can change the image, rather than focusing solely on the narrative, the concept or the representation.

When an artist exhibits only technology and the audience has to operate machines to call the art into existence the concept of technology suddenly becomes an issue. Why would a technological exhibition be art? This technology art is not about beautifully designed devices; it is about the ideas and the culture that create and come to accept the technology which moves us aesthetically. You literally only see technology, until you overcome your differences and step in, join in and play along, then another realm of experience will open up to you."

- Book for The Electronic Arts - V2

5 Fractals and Chaos

Fractals are computer-generated shapes that have detail at every scale. Whether examined up close of from a distance, the detail of the fractal image remains self-similar. Because they are self-similar, fractals have the ability to imitate natural forms such as trees, clouds, and mountains, which also have self-similar detail. For example, a tree begins with the trunk then branches out with smaller and smaller limbs and twigs that mimic the shape, color, and texture of the log base.

Using computers, fractal shapes can be generated from mathematical equations that are iterated many times by using the result of one equation as input to the next, resulting in self-similar detail. Fractal equations come from a relatively new mathematical discipline called fractal geometry, sometimes referred to as the geometry of nature. The theory of fractal geometry was conceived in the late 19th century by a group of mathematicians that questioned the idealistic notion that the universe could be described by the perfect forms of standard geometry and the dynamics of Newton.

After many years of experimentation, the theory was proven by Dr. Benoit B. Mandelbrot, a French genius who was the first to use high-speed computers to generate images of natural shapes using fractal equations. Because of their dynamic complexity the formula that generates a fractal has been described as the 'Chaos Formula' leading to theory and philosophy that points out that within chaos lies order of infinite beauty.

THE CHAOS FORMULA

Unstable media allows for the introduction of chaos and for the idea that each persons interpretation of a work, however unique is part of the desired reaction, as all reactions are relative. Furthermore, chaos itself in the 20th century has been reduced to a mere mathematical formula, where it has been used to define and clarify many ideas and concepts.

Mandelbrot demonstrated that the contour of a shape can never be absolutely determined, since it depends on the distance between the measurer and the object to be measured. From the moon the contour of Australia appears to be a certain length, from the ground it appears much larger and on a molecular level it is almost infinite. The closer you observer a circle the straighter it becomes.

Edward Lorenz demonstrated with his handful of relative mathematical formulas that even within the total instability of weather patterns there was a stable structure of infinite complexity.

Until the late 80s a rather apocalyptic mood was defining 20th century consciousness. The circumstances in which we found ourselves in had started to shed a grim light on our existence into the next century, the degradation of the environment, acid rain, the arms race, nuclear fallout, meltdowns of nuclear power plants, the increase of cancer and the aids epidemic seemed to point in the direction of total entropy. As the wider acceptance of the chaos theory in the later part of this century prevailed, a more relaxed world view was adopted with the realisation that within chaos lies order.

With the uncovered irregularities of anything from stock market prices to the formation of clouds. With machines that synthesize images conjured up through mere process and by not thinking people seemed to relax their anxieties of what the next century hold. Now that we are well and truly in the 21st century we can concentrate on our strong creative force and celebrate uncertainty while hopefully preventing ourselves from becoming complacent.

5 The sounds triggered with the images throughout the space are based on a Japanese Tenor scale

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TECHNICAL OPERATION

KICK THE FRACTAL monitors the brightness of the image it creates and uses the value of the brightness to determine the volume of the sound it creates.

The illusion of breathing is created using a low frequency oscillator (LFO). The LFO's rate is interactively set by MIDI data sent by the Fluro Fluffy Chair.

KICK THE FRACTAL uses a matrix of laser beams (the laser grid) to determine your position and movement. Audio/ Video events are triggered when you past through a grid point.

The LPT port is used to detect voltage difference over 13 voltage lines. When two Voltage lines change within a few hundred mili seconds (defining a grid point) an event is called with the software 'VS '. VS sends a midi note to a synthesizer which plays a sound that passes through a real-time audio effects unit. The audio effects unit is controlled by the right arm of the Fluro Fluffy Chair.

The event created by the grid point intersection also loads a video clip into a video player, the video then passes through a number of real-time video effects units which are used to create additional movement and rhythm. The video is then projected onto a weather balloon.

Interface research. See:

• Laser Grid
• Fluro Fluffy Chair
• Experimental interfaces

PHOTOS OF THE EXHIBITION - IMAGES, ENVIRONMENT & PEOPLES BEHAVIOUR.

photos of install

ARTIST PROFILE

Text file

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