TOUCH THE PRAIRIE
COMMISSIONED BY THE BEACH MUSEUM OF ART, MANHATTAN, KS. 2017.
Touch the Prairie is an interactive digital experience that connects research into the natural and cultural history of the prairie with art works in the collection of the Marianne Kistler Beach Museum of Art in Manhattan, KS. Rick Valentin and I created this project in 2017, commissioned by the Beach Museum.
DRYER LINT 2013: NORMAL FAMILY OF FOUR, 2013.
with Rick Valentin. Displayed at University Galleries, Jan 21 – Feb 16, 2014. Data visualization of a year’s worth of hand-felted dryer lint. Featured in Information Aesthetics Blog, Feb 21, 2014 (http://bit.ly/1lcZueb). Pantagraph article in print. (original article available upon request).
I HATE AND I LOVE
2010. Visual Interpretations for “I Hate and I Love” by Dominick Argento. I created a series of visual interpretations of the lyrics and these were synchronized with the choral performance led by Dr. Karyl Carlson at the Center for Performing Arts, Illinois State University. Artworks archived at http://vimeo.com/10092522.
A list of some other projects (more info upon request)
INTERACTIVE TIBETAN MANDALA
2010. 3D Interactive Tibetan Mandala, (created with a team from Miami of Ohio) presented to The Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet in a ceremony at Miami University of Ohio (October 2010).
AGENTS OF CHANGE
2009. Agents of Change / Julian Bond. Hosted by the Department of African American Studies, University of Illinois, Champaign. I created a gesture-driven interactive installation for this event attended by 600 students and community members.
CANVAS
2005-2007. Collaborative Advanced Navigation Virtual Art Studio (CANVAS) at the Krannert Art Museum of the University of Illinois at Urbana. CANVAS is a 3-screened, back-projectioned portable virtual-reality open-lab for research and teaching projects by faculty in the fine and applied arts and the University. Informed by the concepts of collaboration, advanced navigation, and virtual art, CANVAS is a space for creating and presenting computer-assisted multi-dimensional projects. I was in charge of administering, obtaining projects, writing tools, assisting faculty use, and programming applications for this space. See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIlFUq_PpLo.
CANVAS and I were featured in the Sun Jan 8th 2006 New York Times article “In Love With Reality Truly, Madly, Virtually” by Michael Rush.
A HISTORY OF NEW
2007. Curated exhibit at the CANVAS Gallery of Krannert Art Museum which examines artists’ use of new technologies. Exhibit contains small experimental VR Worlds written in KAMScript for the CANVAS CAVE and a web2.0 format timeline of art and inventions at http://www.kam.uiuc.edu/projects/historyOfNew – entries broadcast live on wall of gallery.
TOOLS FOR ARTISTS – KAMSCRIPT
2005-2007. I was supervising development of software tools that enabled non-programming artists to easily create 3D artwork in a CAVE setting. KAMScript allows artists to place jpegs and mp3s in a 3D environment using a regular text file and a normal cartesian (X, Y, Z) coordinate system. This software was used at the CANVAS and was available for free download at http://www.canvas.uiuc.edu. (Paper presented at EVA2007, Florence, Italy.)
MIXTAPESTRY
2006. MIX TAPEStry was an interdisciplinary collaboration involving the Pratt School of Engineering and the Music Department at Duke and the Krannert Art Museum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. MIX TAPEStry was an interactive, networked performance of music and graphics triggered by people moving under web cameras in the CIEMAS Studio and in the Krannert Art Museum at UIUC. The music is an adaptation of a hip hop track called “Lemonade” by Duke Adjunct Faculty member, Robi Roberts (a.k.a. J. Bully). J. Bully performed his song while music and graphics by UIUC faculty member John Jennings were generated simultaneously at both locations.
LANDSPEEDER
2002-5. My first virtual reality work at the University of Illinois. Working under Urban Planning Professor Varkki George Pallathucheril, I developed a 4-D data visualization of a large dataset for a 3-D Virtual Reality CAVE environment. I began building this project in VRML, then ported it to Macromedia Director (3D Lingo), then to C++ and OpenGL for use in a CAVE environment.
VISUAL THINKING STRATEGIES
1999-2008. I created Museum art education software for Visual Understanding in Education, Inc. (VUE), servicing the Metropolitan and Brooklyn Museums, New York City, as well as many US grade schools.
IN THE GARDEN OF ANTIQUITIES
2004. I did all of the programming and most of the design for this museum education website for a joint exhibition by the Indianapolis Museum of Art and Freer Sackler Gallery.
DESIGN+DIGITAL REHEARSAL STUDIO
1999-2004. For the University of Illinois. During the 3 years I was Visiting Project Coordinator in the Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning Departments, I headed, programmed, or acted as technical advisor, for more than 30 interdisciplinary Arts and Technologies projects across the University. Highlights include “Leda And The Swan, An Immersive Mythological Event” – a digital video set to a 30-piece live orchestral ensemble with live dance, “A Walk Along the Yamuna” CD-ROM study of a project to redesign the landscape around the Taj Mahal… (I also designed and programmed this website in flash, html, ASP). (more projects on website)
CHICAGO INITIATIVE PROJECT CD-ROM
2004. Interdisciplinary collaborative study of Chicago Technology for the University of Illinois and City Of Chicago Mayor’s Council. In this class we studied several hi-tech/creative class friendly cities, ran focus groups, visited and conducted interviews to research what was needed in order to market Chicago as a New Tech Industry city. The final output of our semester was a booklet, CD-ROM and website. (In addition to researching, conducting focus groups and interviews, I also programmed and designed the CD-ROM/Website. CD available upon request – contains internal research information.)
“JUNIOR CITIZEN” FLOPPY DISK INTERACTIVE PRESS KIT
1995. For Sire Records. This floppy disk sampler played upon the idea that TV and remote-control channel switching was still more exciting than most current interactive design. American Center for Design “Annual 100 Show” winner.
RTFM, ENHANCED CD-ROM
1997. For Reprise Records. First of many Enhanced-CDs that I created, this one employs 3D modeling + real life with multi-node Quicktime VR movie as a navigational metaphor for an E-CD database filled with games, tutorials, and band information.
MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE – ODE TO RMARSHA@ILSTU.EDU, 2004-2005
2008. Bookshelf in the museum with the Amazon.com wishlist of the previous owner of my University email address, all books and CDs are lent from various libraries within the iShare program of the state of Illinois. Faculty Art Show, University Galleries, Normal, IL.
HERE, THERE, AND POINTS IN-BETWEEN (ROSE IS…)
2008. Make controller, pbwiki, mixed-media.Real-time commute tracker installed in a gallery. Faculty Art Show, University Galleries, Normal, IL.
N 40.505919, W 88.990803 – UN-OFFICIAL GEOCACHE GC1D007
2008. Faculty Art Show, University Galleries, Normal, IL.
A HISTORY OF NEW TIMELINE
2007. Gesture-controlled, real-time crowd-sourced timeline visible on gallery wall, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL.
THE ECONOMICS ROOM
2006. With Richard Powers, Nicholas Duchnowski, Abby Watt and Erin Miller. Pages 85-88 of Plowing The Dark describe an immersive CAVE environment. With Richard Powers’ help, we have taken this passage and animated it according to real-time world economics activity. Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL.
ROADSIDE CONVERSATIONS
2006. With Richard Valentin and Steve Kostell. Created a travelling video/audio recording and playback station to travel on the 50th Anniversary commemoration of the Eisenhower Interstate System. Travelled across the country on I-80 recording visitors’ narratives about the interstate. (iDOT Grant $50,000).
TICKETS TO THE SUNSET
2005. I convinced Ticketmaster’s web outlet, Ticketweb to give me a promoter’s account and allow me to post a tour of Sunset dates and times, as if the sun was going on tour. Tickets were available for purchase at Ticketweb.com. Audio field recording of the sunset by famed recording engineer Steve Albini was available on iTunes, Real, Napster, etc. Posters by Jay Ryan.
EGGPASS.ORG
2004-. Social network trace project, homage to Stanley Milgram with machine-tracking. 12 eggs were created with Sculpey clay, inscribed with a website and a number and handed out in class. Recipients are told to visit website and input their egg # and location, then pass egg to a friend. This project co-created with partner Rick Valentin. http://www.eggpass.org
WINDGARDEN 2D AND 3D
2001-5. Digital representation of a “wind garden” – Champaign, Il airspeed is retrieved via random weather server and displayed as movement. Cursor movement also affects display of garden. Try hitting “g” and see what happens. This and the following pieces are studies of the concept of nature mediated by machine. 3D version exhibited on horizontal immersadesk at iDMAA, Orlando, 2005.
TORNADO LANDSPEEDER
2005. An application for a 3D virtual reality CAVE environment (shown here on CANVAS), this is a data visualization of 200M of tornado data using texture maps from the landscape where the data was generated. Exhibited at iDMAA, Orlando, 2005.
PART III: NEWS READER
2004. Richard Valentin, Jakob Meltzer and I collaborated on a project for the Beckman CUBE at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. It is a newsreader which builds a building for each thread, the larger the thread, the larger the building, and the redder the building, the more flames (offensive language) the thread contained.