dirty news

DirtyProject | Spatial experiments in the dirty borderlands of media – a publication of projects that were developed during a conceptual collaboration between the faculty of architecture and the faculty of computer scienceat the Dresden University of Technology.

DIRTY PROJECT
Spatial experiments in the dirty borderlands of media.

Candy Lenk / Grit Koalick (Hrsg.)
TU Dresden 2012
english / german
ISBN: 978-3-86780-258-1

armer poet

Linda Kutzbach | Felix Schönfeld

Concept |  The aim of this project is the combination of reality and virtuality. People and their movement are tracked with a Microsoft Kinect camera. The recorded movement is transformed into silhouettes and projected as shadows on a wall. 

The miniature projection of the viewer appears in a window in Carl Spitzweg’s painting »Der arme Poet«. Existing reality is removed from its actual atmosphere and placed into a new spatial context. This new atmosphere (the painting) can actively be influenced. Two separate existing realities (the viewer's and the painting's) are directly connected through a virtual component (the projection), thereby influencing and changing each other.

Implementation |  The Microsoft Kinect camera combines an ordinary camera with a depth sensor. The camera generates a grayscale image with additional depth information per pixel. The gray values are dependent upon the measured distance. A specific recording area 30-200 cm in front of the camera can be defined.

The software vvvv generates and manipulates video, graphics and data streams in real time. It was used to process the Kinect camera signal for this project. Using the software the grayscale image within the desired recording area is filtered to display only the silhouette of the person without disturbing objects in the background. The algorithm converts the grayscale image into a pure black silhouette and reduces the scale to generate the effect of a miniature. 

scheuche 2.0

Beatrice Moltkau / Sander Herminghaus

Concept | SCHEUCHE 2.0 (scarecrow) is an interactive installation. It is a spatial object which defines a virtual space around itself. If this space is disturbed by someone approaching the object it responds by impulsively shielding itself to keep the viewer at a distance. Our object consists of several components which can be implemented separately. The result is a machine that registers movement in its surrounding area and translates it into a (counter) reaction by the machine. 

Implementation | A motion sensor detects a movement at ground level within an approx. four meter radius. The sensor then relays the signal to a connected micro-controller. The mirco-controller works with a program that instructs it to then send a signal to the connected external power strip. When the power strip receives the signal it turns on and activates the attached drill. A centric slider-crank mounted to the drill head alternatingly opens and closes two umbrellas.

In order to control our project without the use of a computer we used a »Arduino« micro-controller. It is a kind of mini-computer that can implement small programs. The Arduino development environment provides the software to write the programs that should run on the controller. The mix of hardware and software used by Arduino is called »physical computing«.

blue banana

Elisabeth Heinz / Martin Mundt

Concept | The installation examines the range of different reality and virtuality levels using the example of the banana and combines them in the context of an exhibition. The levels are considered in terms of perception, bastardization and contextual interpretation. We have analyzed the different aspects of a banana and reconstructed it as a 3D object. We split a banana in the smallest self-similar segments and modularized it. We made a banana glow under black light. We turned a banana into text and film and ate it.

Implementation | Each individual analysis was shown on a television screen during the exhibition, giving the distinct medias a »body« and at the same time allowing the group of studies be read as a collage.

peter pan's shadow

Margaret Schlenkrich / Dagmar Oertel

Concept | The concept of »space« was regarded from different vantage points to verify its virtual components. From the analysis of digital media and its impact on three dimensional space we developed the installation of »Peter Pan’s shadow.« In this installation the viewer is surpassed by his own shadow. Just like Peter Pan, the viewer's shadow is separated from his body. The shadow precedes the body and appears as likeness of the future, thereby manipulating familiar time structures.

Location | Staircases force the visitor into a certain rhythm of movement that is only interrupted by the landing where the ascendant changes to the next flight of stairs. When he turns on the landing to get to the next set of stairs he can see his shadow already walking down the stairs.

Implementation | The installation uses the Microsoft Kinect camera intended for Xbox computer games. This camera detects spatial depth and allows for the isolation and processing of separate layers of space. By hacking the camera, C # programs can be used to access and control the data. The motion detection can be significantly improved using the NUI Skeleton Tracking of the official SDK (Software Development Kit) for the Kinect.

By hacking the camera, C # programs can be used to access and control the data. The motion detection can be significantly improved using the NUI Skeleton Tracking of the official SDK (Software Development Kit) for the Kinect.

infinity project

Lilli Gast / Tobias Guenther

Concept | The investigation of the virtual component of the actual space has led us through a variety of spatial experiments to a project that deals with the perspective view of space and its manipulation. The idea was to use a »reverse perspective illusion« to expand an existing space. 

The »reverse perspective illusion« uses the similarity of the shape of a particular object – in our case the truncated pyramid – and a linear perspective projection of a space – in this case an elongated interior space. Because the viewer does not perceive the installation as a object, but rather as a space or the perspective illustration of a space, the object seems to move in an unusual way.

Implementation | The spatial object consists of interlocked cardboard elements. For the surfaces an original photo was manipulated so that the lighting conditions fit the representation of space. The individual cardboard side pieces were distorted, covered with the manipulated image and assembled in order to construct the desired illusion.

optical speedup

Sarah Hausmann / Clara Schuster

Concept | This project attempts to connect a person's movement in space to the gestalt of the spatial surfaces. In the moire effect we found a way to covert movement directly into surface properties.

The result is an object that is something between a spatial body and a surface and that generates different overlay patterns depending upon the position of the observer. A moving observer can see light and dark waves washing over the surface.  

Implementation | The Moiré effect appears when fine regular grids were superimposed. The grids either have to have the same size and be overlaid at an angle or have slightly differing sizes. When observed while in motion, two superimposed fixed grid levels generate a dynamic overlay pattern.

lux 2

Ronald Graupner / Jan Nordsieck

Concept | We designed a machine that has the ability to react sensitively to people. This ability should give the machine something intrinsic despite of its technical form. An intrinsic nature is necessary to get a reaction back from people and in the end to create a place of interaction between man and machine. After many deliberations about the gestalt and type of reaction, a very fine, transparent, breathing machine was chosen. It can respond to people by inflating or deflating and collapsing.

Realization | The machine is based electronically on the simple circuit used in computer cooling systems, except in this analog circuit the thermistor (temperature sensor) is replaced by a photoresistor (light sensor). The light sensor data is transferred analog to a PC fan. The fan speeds up or slows down to the same degree that people affect the amount of incoming light. The light sensor controls two fans that inflate or deflate a transparent membrane.