This is a photo-drawing combination piece I recently made similar to the ones I was making at Artomatic. Instead of rushing it, however, this one took several days and was my first real attempt at making a “finished” piece using this technique.

The portrait is of Amanda Fucking Palmer (of Dresden Dolls fame) and the photo I used was one I took of her in Los Angeles at a secret show she had for 30-50 twitter followers the day before Coachella this year.  She twitters links to “art of the day”about her or the Dolls every day and I was hoping she’s tweet this one out – which she did! (stoked!).

The photo was projected on paper hanging on the wall. I used a variety of pastels, paints, markers, and some charcoal in the drawing.  I like how her hair glints from the gold metal paint, and I used some white paint to cover up more serious “oopses”.  I’m not entirely happy with it – it feels a bit forced to me – but it’s a good start. I’ll definitely be doing more.

In keeping with the zombie theme I keep bumping up against (in fact, as I write this I’m on my way to dragon*con in Atlanta where I will – you guessed it – dress up as a zombie), Paivi and I attended a staged “zombie” raid in DC a few weeks ago – this time as photographers.  There weren’t as many zombies as we had hoped, but the effect couldn’t have been better. The zombies: Scared a woman back into an elevator, scared Starbucks patrons by clawing windows, broke a metro escalator by riding down at the same time, converted innocent bystanders on the metro train to zombies, mixed and mingled with Scientology Protesters in costume, and finally ended up at the MTV Real World DC House where they convinced one of the cast members to put on some makeup and a zombi-fied tshirt.

For the raid, my goal was actually to create an 80’s style fim strip of the raid (to be projected)using a cheap half frame 35mm camera.  I did get some great shots, but I had the camera 90 degrees the wrong way the whole time (horizontally positioning the camera resulted in….vertically framed shots. ugh).

I’ll try and figure out a fix for that later, but for now I wanted to post some of my digital shots from the raid. I think they’d some of the best shits I’ve gotten in awhile. In keeping with the theme, though, I did break one of my rules and really played with the colorization of the shots to make them feel more apocalypse-movie than they did by themselves. Let me know how you like the results?

(Shots at bottom of post)

Last I left this blog, I had plans to head out to Eastern State Penitentiary to do a model shoot with my wife and a group of DC Strobist photogs. We did end up going and the results were fabulous.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with ESP, it:

is considered one of America’s most historic former prisons…Its revolutionary system of incarceration was the first to establish the policy of solitary confinement, emphasizing principles of reform rather than punishment. Notorious criminals such as bank robber Willie Sutton and Al Capone were held inside its unique wagon wheel design. When the building was erected it was the largest and most expensive public structure ever constructed, quickly becoming a model for more than 300 prisons worldwide.

When we went, we were escorted into areas of the peniteniary normally closed to the public. It was dark, dank, and – more than anything else – dusty. There is still moldy, rotted toilet paper in some of the cells left over from when the facility was closed down in 1971.  Walls were collapsing, old equipment rusted through, and you could fell the mold clawing at you.  Usually, this is the kind of thing you only see on movie sets.  I’ve been walking through thousand-year-old temples in Cambodia, but despite how “recent” its history is, all of the human detrius laying around still helped ESP give off much more of a creepy, immediately visceral vibe than the temples.

Regarding the shoot itself, I still felt a little out of place around the Strobist crew because I don’t use off-camera lighting. I still feel like I’d like to concentrate on working the camera until I know it was well as I breathe. Then, I’ll work on using lights to enhance the shots and increase the number of options I have. If I do it before Im totally comfortable with the camera, I think I’ll use the lighting as a crutch and that, psychologically, they’ll limit my creativity.

Working the shots was also interesting. The models themselves wonderful and many of them were willing to sacrifice both comfort and clean clothes to help get the shot. On the other hand, I really don’t feel like – in these group situations – I get to develop the kind of photographer:model relationship that I think would lead to some good shots.  In my installation art, I always need to get a feel for the relationship between the space, the viewer, and myself before I really make good art.  In model photography, I feel like I’d like to work the models into the space and into the kind of shots I want. Instead, we get a few minutes at a time and pass them off to someone else (or there are many people directing at once).

Still, I managed to get some images that I’m very, very happy with. In particular, Lacy (one of the models) put on a nightgown and went stumbling down one of the darker, wetter hallways in the penitentiary looking quite zombie-like.  You can find the whole set below.

Enjoy.

More later, but I just wanted to announce that the current version of the Quartz Composer background I’m using for my Artomatic Installation is available now for free download. It’s for Mac Users only, unfortunately, but thats the nature of Quartz.

I’ll do a more detailed write-up of it after tonight…like instructions, hints at things to try, etc.

In the mean time, for now, download it here:

http://jackwhitsitt.com/Artomatic09-final-whitsitt.zip

Click here to see it (sortof) in the background of my live art demonstration:

http://vimeo.com/5045791

This is obviously a terrible example, so Ill have better video up soon.

You can find out more about the project described in this post by going here:

http://jackwhitsitt.com/installation-and-concept-art/#num1

Repost from artdc.org:

I finished yesterday. For once – despite last minute technicaal glitches – I wasn’t there until the last minute of the last day. Just the last day.

The space is clean, cables hung (although, its still pretty ugly…maybe ill cover it with a box friday at noon), the laptop is DUCT TAPED to the projector for lack of a better solution (it is in the cage bag, so if it comes undone, it wont break), and the projection is mostly in-line with the drawings and frames.

I’m still not sure if it will (and this is important) a) turn on when the show starts or (less important) b) play music. I made a last minute decision to use internet radio instead of mp3’s to avoid broadcast rights issues, but there are some technical hangups with that that I wont get into.

This also means I’m typing this from a $300  tiny Eee PC laptop which will be my only personal home computer until AOM is done.

I do count myself lucky, though. Poor idiolect (rebound design’s bf) lost his HD -the last day of install-. It crashed. He weathered through it gracefully and put an “out of order” sign up. Hopefully the AOM gods will let him come in to fix it off-hours – he did everything right and it’s just pure bad luck that the drive crashed.

It’s been lovely getting to know my fellow AOM-ers (mostly, heh) and I regret being so focused on getting my own shit working that I havent been as chatty or social as Id have liked. Trust me, it’s me not you. I think many people have stepped up this year and I really enjoyed walking around and looking at the art yesterday.

I can’t wait for opening night, meet the artists night, and zombie prom and being more focused on having fun and lss narrow mindedly self-centered about gottagetthisdonegottasgetthisdonegottagetthisdone.

I also adore how my wife’s wall came out. I know Im her husband and all, but Im truly a fan of the pictures  she put up from Vietnam and Cambodia. She is two core walls over from my space, so please check her stuff out.
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Finally, this year I’ve felt like Ive really been able to come into this and use past artomatic and art outlet experience, take a broad vision, execute it, deal with and change my plan as it starts to flesh out into reality, and still come out of it with a piece that im happy with, still has roots in the original vision, and remains a satisfactory  progression of the rest of my art this past year.

I want to make special thanks to: Lexi, Sherill, Sean, Stephanie, Paivi, Barry, Caitlin, Justin, and Tom – all of whom made specific, repeated, concrete contributions to my art, my sanity, and my ability to get it done this year.

(edit: added lexi…she’s been super helpful. i knew i forgot someone important.)

Pics:

It’s been a long week for me (ive actually had to wake up before noon to go to a risk management class…5 hrs is the most sleep ive gotten since last week) and I dont think I’ve been at AOM once.  But! I’ve completed a couple of important steps and now have a concrete plan: I’m going to create a piece that combines my programming, video, theatrical, photographic, and drawing proclivities into a single piece. Alllll of it at once. There will probably even be curtains again for the third year in a row (although this year they serve a specific, utilitarian purpose…see below). Hopefully the overall effect of so much at once will be (as sagworks said elsewhere) mesmerizing (or did she say hypnotic? something like that).

Summary:

I’m going to be creating a homemade projection screen out of black out cloth and something called “Screen Goo”. Screen Goo is supposed to be much better than regular paint for projecting things onto and, considering there is a lot of ambient light during the day, I need the best available.  The screen will be roughly 50 sq feet and will -probably- be framed by molding purchased from Home Depot. On either side and above the screen/frame will be black drapery. This is to darken the area around the screen and focus the eye. I could paint, but I really dont want to (I may have to paint beneath it, though).

Onto the screen will be three framed charcoal drawings (possibly with glass).  Those drawings will have been done from photos I’ve taken (right now I think it’ll be three girls from the Landon House Civil War shoot)….and will be slightly different moods than the original photos….but still proportionally accurate in key areas.

The original photos will be projected onto the framed drawings to make it look like they’re glowing, and to provide a conflicting perception of what mood the girls in the pictures are actually in.  Behind the framed drawings, a moving vividly colors abstract projection will provide the background.  The content of the abstraction will be generated by (via Quartz Composer) a webcam pointed at the audience looking at the piece.  The movement, size, speed, and color of the abstraction will be generated in real time based on whatever music is playing on my laptop at the time (youll be able to hear it).

The reason for the Civil war era-looking dress, b&w vs color, and calm expressions in the pictures Im choosing is that they’re intended to contrast so sharply with the ludicrously noisy background that they’ll somehow form a complement.

The neat thing will be that the framed pictures will look like theyre actually in front of the projection, when they’re not really. They effect is striking when done right.

(For those of you keeping score, this is a combination of plans B and C with some extra decisions on how to handle the area not being projected on)

Where am I in this?

1. I finished the moving (some would say seizure-inducing) abstract webcam/audio visualizer background last night. Some of you have seen this projected, but I wasn’t happy with the effect or it’s ability to keep time with the music.  I’ve since dramatically improved the look, feel, and performance of this and I’m happier with it than Ive been in weeks. The two biggest changes were to swap a rotating cube with 2 2D squares which move around the screen, big bigger and smaller, and rotate on the Z axis. This resulted in significant performance and aesthetic improvements
2. I ordered the Screen Goo. I just got a UPS notification that it was on its way 5 minutes ago. When that arrives, I’ll go to Walmart and pick up a huge blackout drape.  I’ll probably paint the drape with the goo (on the rubbery side) in the street near Artomatic after I move this weekend.
3. I’ve also settled on three black and white photos that I’m going use as the framed  focal points / anchors.  I chose the B&W to contrast with the crazy colors in the projection.  Once I move this weekend, I’ll make the drawings of them in the new apartment. Ill use projections of the photos as the stencils for them since they need to be pretty much 100% proportionally accurate.  Each will take about 3 hours to do.
4. I probably still have the same black drapes I used last year (and I actually still have 1 from 2007), but Ill need to check that next week. I also need to go buy the frames and the molding.  If I have to paint under the projection screen, ill probably use someones leftover paint since it’s not a huge area.
5. I still have to set up and test the “recover nicely from the power being cycled every night”
6. Put the projector on its mount, lock it in place, and get measurements.  If I do the drawings after this, Ill do them AT Artomatic…might be interesting.

So….pineapple.

All in all, Im pretty happy with where I am, but there’s still a lot to do.

Sweet. Paivi and I went through Artomatic site selection this year successfully! While I’ve participated in the past 2 AOM’s as well, for various reasons this is the first year that I’ve been able to pick my own space.  We really (Paivi in particular) wanted to be on the 7th floor with some of our friends, the main bar, but the process involved Artomatic only opening 2 floors at a time (this year, the floors are 1-9).

Our slot was 1:30pm Saturday and floors 2,3,8, and 9 had been opened. We decided to take advantage of the fact that spaces could be picked -after- your time slot, but not before and so we waited all day Saturday to see if floor 7 would be open. It never did open Saturday, so we had to come back this (Sunday) morning at 9am.  We ended up getting core walls on 7. Everyone was crazy helpful, nice, cheery, and definitely helped get this kicked off on an exciting gear.

The space I picked is just to the left of the elevators on the side opposite of the bar on the 7th floor. You’ll be able to tell what it is quickly and easily because I’ll be using a projector mounted on Sherill Gross and Stephanie Bonifant ’s partition (thank you!!!!) to display art on the wall. It should be easily seen from the elevators.

Other cool kids up there include the wonderful: Caitlin Phillips from Rebound Designs, Sean Welker the Secretworm, and Justin Cameron

The wait Saturday wasn’t a waste of productivity, either! Paivi and I put in a lease application at The Onyx on First. It’s an apartment building just over a block from Artomatic and 2 blocks from the Nationals stadium in the Capital Waterfront district. If all goes well, we’ll be moved in before Artomatic even opens! Here come the after parties and extra volunteer hours! Woot.

More on my art later. It’s going to be moving, projected, dada-esque, sarcastic, and inspired by comments from Paivi Salonen, Barry Schmetter, Jesse Cohen, and others.

Everyone, if you’re in DC any time between May 29 and July 5, come on out and check it out! You’ll have a blast with the Art, the performances, the music, the people, da beer and wine.  Artomatic is just above the Navy Yard Green Line Metro station and if you’re coming to/from a Nats game by Metro, you can’t miss it.

Histogram of major words in the US Stimulus Bill. Big Grey blob in the second "mountain peak" from the left represents "Health" in the Bill. You can see it takes a disproportionate place in everything.

The Stimulus Mountains

Originally uploaded by sintixerr

This is a follow-up to a previous post and is philosophically related to this post.

On the subject of these “data visualizations as art”, I’ve been trying to better articulate why I think they’re art and how I’m trying to evolve my process.

What it comes down to is that there seems to be two pieces to developing the visualizations:

1. Choosing the right structure and things to measure about the text or data…what makes sense to compare to what. How do you reduce the noise and non-dependent variables? Each type of text you’re measuring and each circumstance has different relationships. There is a lot of science to this part, but it’s not completely predicatable. There is art.
2. How do you visually best enhance and needle out the important details, contrast between points, etc so that they can be “seen” in the noise that doesnt matter? This is all art. Understanding how color, shape, contrast, etc all work together and how to use all of those to present a dense amount of information without being overwhelming is tricky and depends on the skill of the one creating it…

It’s my belief that playing to what we understand as people’s abilities to process and comprehend aesthetics in art involves exactly the same techniques and takes advantage of the same aspects of peoples brains/senses as good visual data analysis. So, if you’re doing data analysis, you start out figuring out #1, and then move to #2 based on #1.

What I was trying to do with these stimulus images – and the last of my security visualizations – was start out with concepts of what I’d like for #2 (how they would “feel”) and then figure out what I needed to do in #1 (massage the data) to get there…while still remaining true to the underlying information.

Next up (and once I learn more Objective C), I’m going to try and read in the stimulus bill to Quartz Composer and combine my recent interactive/music visualizations with the Bill. We’ll see if that goes anywhere interesting.

Also, Artomatic returns to DC this year. I very well may be displaying this stuff there when it comes around. This or the music/webcam visualizations.