In curating the showcase for the ODI we wanted to select a range of works that would not just reflect different data sources, but that would challenge our understanding of what data is, and how it may affect and reflect our lives. [...] The works range from geomagnetic data visualisations, to wall painted cellular automata, to tabloid newspapers of search term trend graphs – all tangible interventions into the mass accretion of data around us.

Quote from Julie Freeman and Sophie McDonald. Full text.

The works can be viewed by contacting info@theodi.org.

Limited edition catalogues are available for sale.

ECHOLOGY brings together Australia’s leading artists and urban developers to create data-driven public artworks that engage with serious issues in evocative and playful ways. Come along to the seminar and networking event nearest you to find out how you can be a part of this exciting opportunity and to meet some of the best international artists working in the field: Julie FREEMAN (UK), Usman HAQUE (UK), Joyce HINTERDING (AU),Geo HOMSY (US), Natalie JEREMIJENKO (AU/US) and DV ROGERS (NZ/AU).

MELBOURNE  | 3pm – 6 pm | Monday 26 March 2012 | Conference Centre, State Library of Victoria
BRISBANE | 5pm – 8pm | Wednesday 28 March 2012 | The Edge, State Library of Queensland
SYDNEY | 2pm – 5pm | Thursday 29 March 2012 | Lecture Theatre EG02, College of Fine Arts, UNSW

Writings: http://filter.org.au/category/issue-79/

Winners: http://www.anat.org.au/echology/ 

Lepidopteral is a multi-object computer-controlled kinetic artwork that responds to environmental data fluctuations. The work questions whether biological behaviour can be simulated by a minimal activation of moth-like objects. The motion here aims to expose changes in a data feed by placing value on the fluctuation of data rather than its actual values. The environment being sensed is the agent that interfaces with the work.

The artwork is inspired by a piece of video footage shot at Lago di Fiastra in Le Marché region of Italy in 2005. Here, butterflies had clustered all around the lakeside, looking at first glance like small crocus-like flowers. On closer inspection it was easy to see they were all butterflies engaged in reproduction or egg-laying. As a congregation they sat gently raising and lowering their wings, sometimes synchronised, sometimes completely still. It struck me that when we think of moths and butterflies we tend to think of them in flight rather than at rest.

Lepidopteral aims to explore subtlety and gentleness within an auto-motive work, to represent some calmer elements in nature, such as the butterflies described above, but without direct interference to, or use of, biological materials. The work seeks to simulate ‘liveness’ and natural motion – abstracted nature, perhaps – through mechanical and electronic means.

To create a work with minimal mechanics, and one that is silent, Lepidopteral uses muscle wire to control the flap of small nylon wings on an array of objects. Muscle wire (known as Nitinol or Flexinol) is a ‘shape memory’ alloy that contracts when a current is passed through it, the current that each of the objects receives is determined by the fluctuation in data received from local sensors, or from external feeds through the internet site, Cosm. The work comes to life, gently and gradually as the data received changes.

The first version of Lepidopteral was phototaxic – responding to light levels from sensors in Berlin.

Ototoxic – A short story

I don’t find it pleasant to revisit that fateful day, but my recollection is crisp. It is, unfortunately, one of the few memories that has resisted fading…

~~~~~~~~~~

It is the 6th of January 1982. Professor Ragged is delivering his annual lecture to a robust audience which had gathered due to the unspoken yet clearly heard expectation that all faculty staff should be in attendance. I am excited yet distracted; my own work over the past couple of months has been immensely fruitful, and I have become somewhat bewitched by my findings. Truth be told to the point of utter disinterest in anything else, I’m sure my husband will ratify that.

[“…and Gentlemen I am over-joyed to be sharing with you a remarkable piece of research from one of our most promising doctoral students…”]

As usual Ragged was gibbering on about a student’s work, he had ceased pontificating about his own, mostly because his mental faculties had started to erode. Here he was boosting his faculties using the faculty. I chuckled at my own joke and switched my internal attention back to last weeks remarkable lab results, I really do think this could be the breakthrough we’ve been searching for.

[“Thank you Professor. I am delighted to be here to share with you all our latest findings from the lab. We believe that our work in the field of otologicalpsychology will change the way that…”]

Otologicalpsychology? Why is this post-grad talking about my research area?

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

A subtle ringing in my ears. I looked around for signs that it was coming from the room, but no-one else reacts. It passed. I tuned back into the lecture.

[“… so the early results of this are showing that there is a correlation between the…”]

She seems to be talking about… No, it’s impossible, I only just finished the analysis. No-one can possibly know yet.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Ouch. That was painful. Why wasn’t I consulted on this lecture.

ssssssssssSSSHHhhhhhhcccccccchhhh.

What on earth is that noise? My ears have started playing up, ringing and now a weird hissing. He could have asked me before shoving a student on the platform. That man has never forgiven my public denouncement of his department’s spurious claims that they’d isolated the Crupskan gene. Even though it was nearly 30 years ago now.

Anyway, what is she talking about? I’m finding it hard to decipher her words, maybe the air-conditioning has kicked in. It’s typical that now I actually want to listen she’s started to mumble.

[“… it is likely that the cure for this chronic and widespread affliction is in the palm of our hands. Substantial peer review feedback has enabled us to finally confirm that we have successfully isolated…”]

wwwhhhhhhHHHHHHhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

The whooshing and cracking in my ears is amplifying,

SSHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhHHCCCCCCCCChhhhhhJJJJJ

Again, Christ,

[ “…Thank you Sandwich for that splendid summary of…”]

WWWWWWWhHHHHHHHHHHSSSSSSSSSSHHH
EEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
VVVVVRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrr

My head feels like it’s expanding, I can’t hear a damn word he is saying, sounds like he’s wrapped in foam…

[“…Professor Pearce’s work. We are overjoyed that she has managed to join us today, and I ask you all to congratulate her on a truly world changing breakthrough. Professor as you are here, perhaps you would like to join me to accept…” ]

He’s probably fawning over some hackneyed Professor who’s overdue for retirement, he is such an irritant. My nose has started running, and I push a handkerchief to my face. It was blood, pouring from my right nostril. Gah. I’ve had enough of this infernal racket, on top of some young woman stealing my work. I’m leaving. I stand up and turn to leave –the bulk of the audience seem to be peering at me. Good grief, a little blood and everyone freaks out. “I’m fine, nothing to worry about.” I mumble as I rush out through the fire exit.

[Applause.]

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
WWWWWWWHHHHHAAAAAHHSSSSSSSSSSHHH.

~~~~~~~~~

So that was it. The event that triggered the spiral into an inescapable torment that sucks the joy from every facet of my waking life. It’s a common misconception that deafness equates to silence.

Heather Pearce, Professor Emeritus, Institute of Psychology, Kings College, University of London, June 1984

With thanks to Grantby.

Bird & The Moon from translating nature on Vimeo.

A seasonal affective disorder (SAD) light, effectively an array of white LEDs, has been hacked so the brightness of the light responds to data from a remote site – in this instance a light sensor at the University of the Arts (UdK) in Berlin. Access to the real-time data is provided by Pachube*.

The bird has also been hacked so that it’s head can move. As the light (The Moon) rises the bird looks toward it.

For demonstration purposes a local sensor enables the bird to respond to changes in ambient light level at its own location.

The work explores the re-presentation of environmental data by incorporating nature back into the loop, to make the live data feed back into a system that aesthetically links us directly back to the natural world.

While the moon is at its brightest, the bird is mesmerised.

Made for CruftFest2011, as part of the QMUL Media and Arts Technology PhD, by Julie Freeman, using a Nanode, an Arduino, Processing, a taxidermy specimen of a bird, and a light.

* From pachube.com: “Pachube (“patch-bay”) connects people to devices, applications, and the Internet of Things. As a web-based service built to manage the world’s real-time data, Pachube gives people the power to share, collaborate, and make use of information generated from the world around them.” Now called COSM.COM

My work spans visual, audio and digital art forms and explores how science and technology changes our relationship to nature. Often working collaboratively, I experiment in transforming complex processes and data sets into sound compositions, objects and animations. For the past 15 years I’ve focused on questioning the use of electronic technologies to ‘translate nature’ – whether it is through the sound of torrential rain dripping on a giant rhubarb leaf; a pair of mobile concrete speakers who lurk in galleries spewing sonic samples, by providing an interactive platform from which to view the flap, twitch and prick of dogs’ ears; or using scientific techniques to misguide an audience to manipulate their senses. My ‘pioneering’ work The Lake, used hydrophones, custom software and advanced technology to track electronically tagged fish and translate their movement into an audio-visual experience.

I am or have been:

• A Senior TED Fellow. current
• Research Fellow Seed Media Group‘s Phyllotaxis Lab, NY. Summer 2012
• PhD candidate in Media & Arts Technology, Queen Mary, University of London. 2011-present
• Member and co-founder of Market Project, researching and sharing new methods or opportunities for artistic professional and economic development. 2010-present
• Co-founder of Signal Arts Group, a low-cost artist studio provider in South London. 2010-present
• A board member of MzTek, a nonprofit collective with the aim of encouraging women artists to pick up technical skills in the fields of new media, computer arts, and technology. 2009-present
• Associate researcher at Goldsmiths Digital Studio. 2009-2010
• Cohort member of Method, exploring artist practitioners leadership through the Arts Council’s Cultural Leadership Programme for artist as leaders. 2009
• Artist-in-residence at Microsystems and Nanotechnology Centre, Cranfield University, supported by a Wellcome Trust Arts Award. 2007-2009
• A NESTA Fellow. Awarded a two year fellowship through an anonymous nomination system enabling time to develop software and hardware systems that expose natural systems, bringing them closer to people. 2003 onwards
• Steering group member of FreqOUT! an innovative London based community education programme for young people. It seeks to explore the artistic and educational potential of wireless technology in order to engage socially excluded young people living in the 20% most deprived areas of the UK. 2006-2010
• Co-founder and Director of Studio Fish Ltd, one of the first artist-led organisations set-up solely to use digital media in creative and innovative ways. 1994-2001
• Graduate of the MA Digital Arts at the Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts, Middlesex University, London. 1997
• A trainee taxidermist

Contacts :: email julie |at| translatingnature |dot| org :: call +44 78 6660 9912 :: skype jozfreeman :: twitter @misslake

A dynamic gaggle of unfilled vessels flock to tea-rich lands for a nourishing brew.

Social tea rituals fulfill global migration and are hacked into local cultures. Gathering for coffee, shoaling for cake, flocking for tea…

Tea Flock infuses migrating rituals and represents emerging patterns through the group behaviour of objects, using data from migratory birds to-and-from tea-growing countries and the UK.

Displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum, as part of the Digital Design weekend, July 2011. Commissioned and curated by Mztek.

The Lake. A site-specific work housed in a nine meter cylindrical tower, The Lake used hydrophones, custom software and advanced technology to track bio-acoustically tagged fish and translate their movement into an audio-visual experience. Developed during my NESTA fellowship.

Digital Wave was an interactive digital artwork 3m high and 15m long. The work was commissioned by Gestetner to launch an initiative highlighting the use of digital technology in creative practice and its impact on society.

Specious Dialogue consists of a pair of movable, sculptural concrete forms that house wireless audio playback systems. Mounted on swivel castors the forms are designed to be played with in the exhibition space. Commissioned by Cybersonica.

B) Nanotextures (2007) A nanotechnology inspired animated visual score, created for an improvisation concert held at The Sage Gateshead.

In Particular A series of 16 text pairs and graphic poster images, completed at the Nanotechnology Centre, Cranfield University, in collaboration with Professor Jeremy Ramsden.

Dogs’ Ears (2008) An on-line video chat platform, with crowd-sourcing style patronage system. A comment on the value of digital art, it was accompanied by a panel discussion Patronise Me!
Please use this free login to chat to dogs-    User: ears Passwd: woof

Link to Artist as Influencer case study/interview by the UK’s Cultural Leadership Program.