Early Thesis Experiments
"...here at our facility there is security in replication and containment...": experiment #4
This experiment incorporated the use of the Basic Stamp which allowed sensors triggered by walking on the floor to control action within the monitor. The viewer's movement triggered a panoramic mirror of the physical space behind the viewer. As in LimboBound (documented below) there were characters in this environment, but here their appearance was controlled by the computer, not discovered by the viewer while moving through the panorama. The monitor was wound with a clear plastic tubing that extended to and was draping from the walls from surgical tape as though the walls were the skin of a creature that was it's own laboratory, or that was what I intended, anyway. The voices of the characters emanated from a speaker placed high in the back of the space, while ambient sounds were fed from a speaker near the entrance, just outside the space. Room dimensions: 6'x10'; Computer: Mac 8100, System 7.6.3; Software: Director 6.0; Monitor: 13" Screen, on a 3'6" high base. Basic Stamp II Microcontroller, programmed in DOS.
LimboBound: experiment #3
Here, I roped off a space at eye level and re-created that same, roped off space within a bound computer monitor, attached to a Macintosh IIfx, which I configured for the occasion. The viewer needed to stoop into the space to see and explore the piece. As the viewer surveyed the panoramic representation of the space physically behind them, videotaped personifications would suddenly be spotted. If caught, they could be watched and heard. I was intending to create for the viewer an experience of seeking, surveying, and feeling contained within the space. Along the back wall, beneath the line of rope, was a line of text, a trace left by the personifications within the virtual space. The text says, "wandering with habits for territory and sight lines of holding ground and looking out and walking off habits for attention for territory and sight lines to maintain familiar obstructions or unintentional meandering for contancy for action from the strong suggestion to fit in and know our place for territory and sight lines out of habit out of humor we stammer and we wander...with habits for territory", etc. over and over, both expressing and confining the personifications and the visitors, as they walk along the back wall, just like their virtual counterparts. The piece was intended to create a reflection of our computer controlled environments and selves, and to call attention to the lurking parts of ourselves that exist nevertheless, despite the controls. Room dimensions: 10'x10'; Computer: Mac IIfx, System 7.6.1; Software: Director 6.0; Monitor: 13" Screen, mounted 5' high.
breakthroughs: experiment #2
		This experiment involved a doll modelled after Indonesian shadow puppets, which have physicality, yet tell their stories behind screens, beyond empirical knowledge. My intention was to bring the shadow puppet into relationship with the dolls within the screen, that they might converse according to the viewer's level of interactivity. Computer: Mac 8100, System 7.6.3; Software: Director 6.0; Monitor: 13" Screen. Puppet: 13"h x 19"armspan.
beliefs: experiment #1
		The doll for this first experiment is modelled after Indian pathway icons, guardians who typically stand alongside roads to ensure the safety of travellers or of a town. I placed this icon before a full-screen digital video of the creation of a sand mandala, which is an often re-created and re-enacted virtual environment. I had intended to speak the monologue of the icon and address issues of physical marks and digital impermanence, but, although the metaphor was apt, the object itself was not as intriguing as I had hoped. Computer: Mac 8100, System 7.6.3; Software: Director 6.0; Monitor: 13" Screen. Icon: 5 3/4"h x 4"w x 1/2" thick.
by debrah malater School of Visual Arts Graduate Computer Art Class of 1998 Carolee Schneemann, Thesis Advisor Ken Feingold, Thesis Group Leader