Hi all, My name is Dennis Rosenfeld, and I’ve been working for a while for a project called GLOCAL at the Surrey Art Gallery Techlab (in Surrey, BC,Canada). The project is pretty broad and open ended, involving various initiatives involving open source software & hardware, youth, the internet, and alternative approaches to digital image making and photography. For the most part, I’ve been writing these image making apps, which attempt to replicate some historical approaches to photography (Edward Muybridge, Étienne-Jules Marey, Louis Daguerre so far) and translate them in to a contemporary context using a webcam or videocam and a computer. They function both as image making tools and teaching aids.
All three apps were originally written in processing, but i found the limited speed and poor windows compatibility (winvdig) to be a problem so we made the move to Open Frameworks. Working in C++ can be a pain in the ass, but it does have a lot more power.
The first app is called the Motion Sequence Application. It takes the frames of a video source (webcam or prerecorded video from a file) and writes them to the screen as a grid. We can select from a number of grid sizes (10x10,5x5, etc.) and have a few extra modes as well lomo actionsampler and spiral modes, for example. Hit the space bar to save images to .png file.
Video Demo Here: http://www.vimeo.com/1814254
The second app is called the Multiple Exposure Application. By hitting a key users can capture an image from the webcam and make a multiple exposure composite image. The images are merged together using Blend Modes (Screen, Transparency, Overlay for now). Individual layers can be turned on and off and adjusted separately.
The third one is called the Long Exposure Application. (affectionately called ghostmaker by some.) By up-sampling the individual frames of a video feed and merging them together, It can depict motion over time, within a simple frame. (this should work just like long exposure film photography, assuming your processor can keep up and not drop frames). For a while we had it set up in the gallery hallway, where it would remove or distort moving people, while keeping a sharp image of the static objects in the room (walls, furniture,etc.).
We are also currently working on a interactive table using openCV libraries, and also a bunch of Arduino based camera controllers.
Information about the glocal project is here:
Each application download should contain a complied version for windows and macintosh, as well as a (not so comprehensive) set of instructions, and the source code.
http://www.glocal.ca/downloads/GLOCAL%20MotionSequence-v2.zip
http://www.glocal.ca/downloads/GLOCAL%20MultipleExposure-v2.zip
http://www.glocal.ca/downloads/GLOCAL%20LongExposure-v2.zip
Would love for you guys to try some of this stuff out and leave some feedback.
Thanks!
