#makingvisibletheinvisible

[mbalutshi]

[y4nyi-blog]

Seeing Sound

“I am... I like... I want to...” Assignment 2017

The artwork revolves around making visible an invisible medium. In doing so, it aims to enable the viewer to see beyond the immediate physical environment. Bringing it a step further from the 2-dimensional to the 3-dimensional realm introduces the potential to uncover other possible ways of understanding and making sense of our perception of the space that surrounds us. The gif starts from a 2D view of the map of Singapore, before transitioning to a layered, 3D view. This allows one to realise that the perception of our physical environment can get so much richer if we stop - and listen - to the sounds around us. 

[y4nyi-blog]

it’s almost done.....i am i like i want to

Creation Process

After surfing the net and looking at various artworks for inspiration, I decided to begin curating my own work. I started off by figuring the scale of my work - precedent works that I came across mostly employed a personal or human scale (read:immaterial wifi network), yet I wanted to experiment on a different scale to see if there were any difference in the outcomes, or in terms of the ability to portray the main idea of mapping the invisible.

So I decided to go big (or go home), and chose to work on a city scale.

I thought of the ways to “deconstruct” the city into general and easily perceivable levels, and eventually decided to portray the city as a system of layers, differentiating them according to the programmatic differences due to the difference in noise levels generated. I ending up with this product:

This was done through cadding the lines on Autodesk Autocad, and editing the image on Adobe Photoshop.

Rather than show the relative differences in noise levels (e.g. to say major roads have higher noise levels than minor roads), I decided to just stick to the stratification of different programs. This is because I lack the information to prove the exact differences in noise levels, say between a building and a neighbouring expressway, and the above mapping only intends to show that the noise levels between a building and an expressway IS different. 

But I wasn’t satisfied with this just yet....it seemed to be lacking spatially, and didn’t seem to evoke much imagination about space. I decided to further develop it in a 3D Modelling software called Rhinoceros 3D. By extracting the different layers and changing their respective z-values, I was able to attain something that was more spatially-rich. 

The gif was created using Adobe Photoshop.

The bottom left corner shows the changing x, y and z coordinates with respect to the 3D model. I was happier with this result, yet I felt that it can be tweaked a liiiiittttllleeee more to better show my concept. Will show the final product in the following post!

[y4nyi-blog]

invisibility (I am.. I like.. I want to..)

Wen-Ying Tsai Umbrella 1971 © Tsai Art and Science Foundation / Tate Photography, Tate 2016

I came across this installation while visiting the Tate Modern last October, while my brain had already been saturated by the vast display of artworks offered by the museum. Yet, this installation had left a deep impression in me...because it worsened my headache. Just kidding. The installation piqued my curiosity as to how sound affects our perception of spaces.

Umbrella 1971 is a device made of vibrating rods which were lit by high-frequency strobes. It responds to sound by means of microphones, causing audio feedback devices to vary the frequency of the strobe-flashes. Any noise above a whisper makes Umbrella ’s metal structure appear to quiver before resuming its normal rhythmical undulating movement. 

Everyone was crazily clapping in the room, hoping to get some feedback from the device. And boy did it respond well - the lights were flickering so quickly in the tiny room which housed it - till I had trouble locating the exit.

That said, it was interesting to see how the audio input had led to such an interesting visual outcome. By translating the invisible medium (sound) into something visible (light), we were able to better “see” our surroundings. Inspired by this, I hope to further explore how the usage of sound as a medium affects and impacts our understanding in negotiating the relationships between different spaces.

Btw, check out the video of the installation! Starts at 1:00 and lasts for a few seconds. Beware of possible headache.

https://youtu.be/doUcjTbNQZU?t=1m

[y4nyi-blog]

THE MAKING OF - I am I like I want to

Previously, I did an art critique of Immaterials: Light Painting WiFi by Timo Arnall, Einar Sneve Martinussen, and Jørn Knutsen (2011). The main reason that I was drawn to their artwork was not because of their final output (in the form of a 2D light painting), but rather, it was the thought processes and motivations behind the project.

I have always been interested in the abstraction of forms to represent ideas that I want to portray. The light painting by Timo and his group represented the abstraction of an invisible, yet omnipresent stream of networks to portray the interdependence between humans and the digital realm in in this technological age. 

An example of an abstraction I did a couple of years back:

The mapping was done with an intention to give the viewer a better sense of the space and site, through highlighting the relevance of a less-noticed subject (in this case, it involved the colour of building facades). Although superficial at first glance, it served a great historical purpose in aiding in way-finding and signposting.

For the upcoming task, I would like to further explore the means of aiding the visualisation of space through concretising the invisible mediums. In Immaterials, Timo and his team stopped at producing 2D images to showcase their idea. I’m hoping to emulate this and possibly bring in another dimension to my visualisation process, in which i will further elaborate in the following posts.