Number of messages sent or received in 2011 consisting of the word “meow”
33
placekitten.com, a website by Mark James, was recently created to generate arbitrarily-sized placeholder images… of kittens. To make it available to a wider audience I created the Kittenate! bookmarklet, a small script that replaces the images of virtually any website you’re viewing with images of kittens at the click of a button. Kittenate! <– Drag [...]
I was recently featured on Berlin Reboot FM discussing some of my sound work, the episode is embedded above for listening. The episode’s page is here.
From my interest in data sonification and feedback systems, I constructed an environment to create music from the movement of ants. As they move about, some custom software tracks their positions through a camera and creates audio waveforms which are then transmitted into the sand substrate through a speaker coil. The audio vibrations cause shifts [...]
I couldn’t resist.
An experimental photo process to hopefully record images on glass and copper
I think one of the least-appreciated features of the new generation of smartphones is the voice recorder. We’re all taking more photos than ever, yet forgetting to capture a significant part of our everyday experience: sound. Lately I’ve made it a point to record interesting sounds I encounter as I go about my day. Interestingly, [...]
Three popular methods for making Printed Circuit Boards at home are compared.
Over the last couple months I’ve had the chance to develop a series of “paintings” for the fiberoptic tapestry, a new display system developed by artists Ligorano/Reese. It is essentially a hand-woven canvas of optic fibers, each illuminated by an electronically-controlled LED. The result is incredibly beautiful and expressive, producing a painterly effect. I was [...]
How Puredata can be used to translate sound to a restricted sequence of discrete notes.
It’s that time of year again. Christmas is coming, snow is falling outside my window, and the wind is whistling. Maybe it’s late, or my mind is playing tricks on me, but the wind seems a bit more coherent than usual… Musical, even. Creepy. This is how I’d like to imagine the first Christmas–even the [...]
After a weekend workshop (thanks to Hans-Christoph Steiner and Eyebeam) on Pure Data, I’ve been tinkering with it quite a bit lately and geeking out on old signal processing stuff I haven’t touched since college. Over the years I’ve played with a number of tools for audio processing: Matlab, jMusic, a Java library for algorithmic composition, Nyquist, [...]
An experiment with tangible interfaces allowing on-screen drawing using assorted physical objects, each of which have a specific function.
How to measure your heart rate with a webcam and some Processing code.
An interactive piece translating 2D forms to sound.
An experimental, interactive audio synthesizer in which independent generators combine to create an ambient soundscape as they try to reach a state of equilibrium.
An animation visualizing four groups discussing a variety of topics over the course of the evening.
I’m researching methods to render text along a path, like you can easily do in Illustrator. Unfortunately, it’s not so simple in Processing (unless someone knows of a library that does this). You can find a demo and the source here. Click four times to set the curve points and handles. Move the mouse left [...]
In order to visualize multiple variables in a single time series, a stacked area (sometimes called a “stream”) chart is often useful. I am currently doing research for an upcoming visualization that will trace the development of ideas through a conversation. Unable to find processing code to create an area chart, I decided to write [...]
When you find old van Gogh images on your computer, what could be more logical than to shatter them into a thousand abstract pieces and rearrange? This image was the first experimenting with this process. Pretty ugly. I don’t know what I was going for. It was late. The second in the series came from [...]
Over the last few weeks I’ve been exploring language and words and how to deal with them algorithmically. Lately I’ve been thinking about ways to visualize various aspects of language, and one of the first that came to mind was the idea of representing the sound of words with color. I am using the Carnegie [...]
I have become increasingly interested in tools to perform natural language processing. So much of how we approach and see problems is tied up in the words we find to describe them. I am currently exploring ways to use language to help define and understand problems as well as get out of creative blocks. Below [...]
Everyone has one of those days at times—you reach the end and wonder where all your time went. Worse, you realize you haven’t done anything productive at all. And worse still, some of us can look back not just to days, but months or longer periods. With increasing regularity I have heard the following message [...]
Photography has been one of my favorite creative outlets since my dad bought me my first digital camera when I turned 18. In this album are a few of my favorites from over the years. Click on any of the images to go to my flickr site, where yet more photos eagerly await you.
My first love has always been music. On and off since the age of fourteen or so, I’ve been writing and recording small musical sketches. As I have time to pull things out of my archive I’ll post them here. Clarinet Jam Recorded over the 2007 Christmas break shortly after impulsively buying an old French-made [...]
A drawing representing respiration patterns.
How is it that we find ourselves continually buying things we don’t really need? A look at the irrational behavior of decision making sheds light on the recent time-wasting use of some software with a very cool feature.
I created this logo for a friend’s new software company, which was named after single-speed bicycles, elegant machines with only one cog in the rear. The main idea came almost immediately: rotate the letter S three times to create a cog. Ultimately, the typeface Mercury was used due to its sharp serifs which looked more [...]
A series of generative drawings using simple hatching within a curvilinear scaffold to create a variety of sensual, rhythmic textures.
While reading the book Rapt by Winifred Gallagher (or more accurately, listening to in the car on a long road trip), I found chapter 8, “Decisions — focusing illusions,” partuclarly interesting. The main thesis of the book is that we shape our lives by what we choose to focus on, or not focus on. Furthermore, [...]
The following logo was designed for a new coffee shop in Oklahoma. The color scheme is based on the color of Oklahoma’s red clay, while the two parallel lines represent strata of the earth. The curve could be seen to mimic the shape of a saucer and the baroque direction was selected for its positive [...]
The gateway to the much-discussed and envied enchanted forrest discovered one fateful evening.
An interactive music visualization requiring the performer to consider musical and aesthetic outcomes simultaneously.
A series of generative images using semi-transparent, stacked blocks.
In this portrait triptych, a continuous thread winds its way throughout the face. The delicate structure progressively becomes unraveled leaving a series of chaotic, disconnected points.
A conceptual structure that appears to have grown into its place among the trees surrounding it.
It was said that my grandfather spent more money on film than virtually anything else but perhaps his children’s education. Recording the memories of his family for generations to come was a great priority, as evidenced by the use of costly 16mm film, elaborate lighting setups, and obsessive care and organization of the film archives. [...]
