He started from a contrarian response to the basic characteristics of the computer. Instead of being logical, he wanted to be intuitive. He wanted things to be bodily engaged. The experience should be intimate.
\nPut the computer out into physical space. Eneter into a space with the computer.
\nHe did a piece called Reflexions<\/i> in 1983. He made an 8×8 pixel digital camera, had 30 fps, which was quite good for the time.
\nHe made a piece that required very jerky movement. The computer could understand those movements and he made algorythms based on them. This was not accessible to other people. He internalised the computer’s requirements.
\nIn 1987 he made a piece called Very Nervous System<\/i>. He found it easier to work with amateur dancers because they don’t have a pre-defined agenda of how they want to move. This lets them find a middle space between them and the computer.
\nThe dancer dances to the sound, and the system responds to the sound. This creates a feedback loop. The real delay is not just the framerate, but the speed of the mind. It reenforces the particular aspects of the person within the system.
\nThe system seemed to anticipate his movements. Because consciousness lags movement by 100 milliseconds. We mentally float behind our actions.
\nThis made him feel like time was sculptable.
\nHe did a piece called Measure<\/i> in 1991. The only sound source was ticking clock, but it was transformed based on user movement near the clock and the shape of the gallery space. He felt he was literally working with space and time.
\nHe began to think of analysing the camera data as if it were a sound signal. Time domain anaylises could extract interesting information. Responsive sound behaviours could respond to different parts of the movement spectrum. Fast movements were high frequency and applied to one instrument. Mid speed was midrange. Slow was low freq.
\nWith just very blocky 8×8 pixels, he’s got more responsiveness than a kinect seems to have now. Of course, this is on the computer’s terms rather than tracking each finger, etc.
\nThere is no haptic response. This means that if you throw yourself at a virtual drum, your body has to provide counterforce, using isometric muscular tension. The virtual casts a real shadow into the interacting body.
\nProprioception: How the body imagines its place within a virtual context.
\nThis sense changes in response to an interface. Virtual spaces create an artificial state of being.
\nHe did a piece called Dark Matter<\/i> in 2010 using several cameras to track a large space, defining several “interactive zones.” He used his iphone to map a virtual scultpure that people could sonically activate by touching the virtual sculpture. He ran it in pitch dark using IR cameras to track people.
\nAfter spending time in the installation, he began to feel a physical imbalance. It felt like he was moving heavy things, but he wasn’t. It can look like having a neurological disorder to an outside observer. The performer performs to the interface, navigating an impenetrable internal space. The audience can see it as an esoteric ritual.
\nthis was a lot like building mirrors. He got kind of tired of doing this.
\nTo what degree should an interface be legible? If people understand that something is interactive, they spend a bunch of time trying to figure out how it works. If they can’t see the interaction, they can more directly engage the work.
\nThe audience has expectations around traditional instruments. New interfaces create problems by removing the context in which performers and audiences communicate.
\nDoes the audience need to know a work is interactive?
\nInteractivity can bring a performer to a new place, even if the audience doesn’t see the interaction. He gave an example of a threatre company using this for a sound track.
\nHe did a piece from 1993-2000 called Silicon Remembers Carbon<\/i>. Cameras looking at IR shadows of people. Video is projected onto sand. Sometimes pre-recorded shadows accompanied people. And people walking across the space shadowed the video.
\nIf you project a convincing fake shadow, people will think it’s their shadow, and will follow it if it moves subtly.
\nHe did a piece called Taken<\/i> in 2002. It shows video of all the people that have been there before. And a camera locks on to a person’s head and shows a projection of just the head, right in the middle.
\nDesigning interfaces now will profoundly effect future quality of life, he concludes.<\/p>\nQuestions<\/h4>\n
External feedback loops can make the invisible visible. It helps us see ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He started from a contrarian response to the basic characteristics of the computer. Instead of being logical, he wanted to be intuitive. He wanted things to be bodily engaged. The experience should be intimate. Put the computer out into physical space. Eneter into a space with the computer. He did a piece called Reflexions in … Continue reading Live blogging NIME keynote: Adventures in Phy-gital Space (David Rokeby)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[54,134,55],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-live-blog","tag-live-blogging","tag-nime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2408,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208\/revisions\/2408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}