Rolf Sachs

Last week I was working on 4 pieces by Rolf Sachs.
These pieces are transparent Amber color polyurethane resin sledges.
They were sent straight to sweden to St. Moritz.
Obviously not to actually go down any slopes but to be awarded to the winners of a winter championship.
This job was completed at MDM props in London.

A preview of jbvidigal.com's new face!

I am currently working on the new jbvidigal.com website interface!
Hope you enjoy it!
Comments and suggestions are more than welcome!

Some more images

After a long absence...

Having been away for several different reasons, I am back writing about a new project.
This time I am taking a very deep look at a WACOM BAMBOO tablet. Along with it a Korg nanoPad.
My new project aims at creating an instrument based on the WACOM tablet.
To make it I am using several different softwares: Pure Data, OSCulator, Logic and Flash.
Here are some pages of study for this project.

Final Show

The final show is ready.
I have two rooms for my work. One light room, with two windows facing west, and the other one is a dome with no windows - a dark room.
The rooms are one on above the other.
On the light room, I'm showing 3 pieces: one print, one bronze and one arrangement of 9 digital drawing prints.
The dome has 2 pieces: one video and one interactive video installation that responds to that video.
The five pieces are part of the continuous process taken along the year.
Based on the video Dance 01, all the pieces intend to be different perspectives on a dance. Taking an everyday life situation and trying to see it with different eyes, trying to visualize the data contents of a dance in distinct ways.

After two months away

After being away from writing in the blog for time unavailability, here I am posting the updates of my practice.

The critical research paper took lots of time and I had to remake it almost from scratch. I was writing about the idea of "transformation as a failure of transformation" but it wasn't working out. The issue was that there was actually no research question beneath my paper and that had to be done!
In an essay tutorial with John Cussans, this issue of not having a research question came up and was discussed as a main issue. Once my concerns are related with technological advance and what new technology adds to the way of seeing things, specially the new acquainted Arduino, my essay's research question became: How can Arduino help revealing the hidden details of everyday life?

So I've been working with Arduino a lot.
The projects I started working with were as much parallel projects to the path I've been taking as introductions to the use of Arduino.

The ON/OFF box was the start.


What happens in this piece is the translation of the words ON and OFF to binary code and their audio reproduction.
The point is to see in a switch more than a function. It is to think about it in other terms, undermining the function and underpinning the word by which it's called.
A function that is not understood is as if there was no function. Understanding a function implies calling names to it's components. Not understanding it's components is not understanding the function as well. ON/OFF box gives new meaning to the components and consequently new meaning to the function.

The next step was the Doorbell installation.

What happens when you ring a doorbell? Who is on the other side? Is it who you expect to be and in the circumstances you expect to be?
The cinematic experience of a doorbell ringing scene is here transposed to an installation where the viewer is made part of that scene. He is invited to decide whether or not to press the doorbell button and then to see what happens if he does.
The interaction of the audience is key to underline the thrills of the cinematic experience.

Meanwhile I was getting experience and understanding how Arduino works and can be used, I was also working around the whole Dance project.
The issue now was the integration of Arduino in this project. The reasons I have for this integration have nothing to do with adding technological gadgetry to my work. It has to do with the properties of Arduino and the interests I input in my work.
Interaction resumes it all. I interact with people in my practice using viewers' feedback to rearrange my work and Arduino allows interactivity processes for creation. It's the perfect tool to continue my research and practice.
This time, for my final show at CCAD, I am re-using the samples I have from the responses of my artist colleagues to the Dance video.
The aim is to create an interactive video installation where several different questions are going to raise.
Here is a "behind the curtain" video of this installation.

Insomnia

During the insomnia I'm having in Berlin, a question about my work has been constantly popping up.
I've been studying, amongst lots of other things, the observation of a body dancing in space. This has a particular and specific view. The space observes the body. From that conclusions are drawn of the body occupation in space.
The question I've been thinking about is the reversal of this preposition, trying to figure out what does the body see o the space sorrounding it? What is the relationship the body creates with space by opposition of the relation of the space with the body.
I am now thinking about a way of connecting several cameras in body key points as it performs a dance.
What does the body see?
What's the body's point of view?

Bronze comming up!

The dance piece is now being made in bronze.
The status of this stage of the whole process is the bronze is made just needing finishing. Tomorrow is a grinding and sanding day.

New things comming to light! (part III)

The second one is the one I've been more committed to make in the last month.
A door, a doorbell button, a door viewer.
My intentions with this work is to make an interactive piece, that makes the viewer think about his position in space and his relation to cinema situations.
For this I put up the items I announced before, asking the viewer to ring the bell and look through the spyglass.
To complete this I created a Pure Data patch with an Arduino input and a video and audio output.
The video output goes to a 3,5in LCD display on the other side of the door viewer. The sound comes out of a couple of speakers placed in the same area as the LCD.
This patch responds to the door bell. Whenever someone presses the button a random clip plays (from a selection of 50). These clips are taken from movies and all of them are of someone ringing a bell and the triggered situation that follows.
This way I intend to make the viewer see himself as the one that triggers that situation instead of simply being presented with the situation in the passive comfort zone of the theater seat.

Soundwave sculpture

James Clar soundwave sculpture in Rolex Tower (Dubai)

"An art sculpture in the business entrance of the Rolex Tower in Dubai. For this sculpture James recorded himself saying "Rolex Tower" into a computer program. Once the soundwave was recorded it was transferred to a 3D modeling program. The waveform was then rotated to create a physical sculpture whose dimensions were recreated using stainless steel. The final measurements of the sculpture represent the sound of someone saying "Rolex Tower" after .05 seconds. This large sculpture hovers 2.5m above visitors as they walk around the lobby."

James Clar