UPDATE: I finished a working version of image selection/manipulation system described below. Working on creating a video of it and writing a post about it in the  next day or two.

Awhile ago, a friend said something on twitter to the effect of:

“I dreamed about making art last night, does that count?”

His question got me thinking: I thought I saw for sale a headset (called “Mindset” from a company called “Neurosky”) that claimed to read your brainwaves (alpha, beta, theta, gamma, etc) and allow you to use them to play video games.

I wonder if I can record my brainwaves to make art while I sleep with that?

A few months later, and after a lot of custom code was written,

I have the first proof of concept done that says yes, I can!

This video clip wasn’t generated while I was asleep – that will be later – but it was generated in part from my brainwaves. My mind influenced 6 sets of x,y,z coordinates, 6 sets of colors, and a few other attributes. The music playing in the background influenced line count, line length, and rotations/speed.

In some very real sense, listening to and watching the visualization as I was making then went on to influence the next few seconds of the recording by the patterns watching it generated in my brain. Remember, this is just a proof of concept/demo, but enjoy. I think it’s cool *make sure you turn your sound on too*:

Brainwave Music Visualization #1 from Jack Whitsitt on Vimeo.

Next up, for the actual “art” instead of just “proof of concept”, I’m working on being able to manipulating paintings, photos, and other images over time with brain waves. This would be the “make are while dreaming” piece.

The other project Im building simultaneously is an add-on to a paintbrush for photoshop or gimp (or some drawing program) that changes the brush properties according to your neural activity…..so if you were, say, drawing with a pen tablet, the actual output would be a cross between what you consciously intended to draw….and the influence of those brain waves.

Artomatic is happening again this year (05/29-07/05)! Art by everyone for everyone. Last year, there were 1,000 visual and performing artists and approximately 50,000 visitors. Get involved as an artist, volunteer, visitor, or all three! Artomatic 2009 registration opens Friday, March 27.

For registration questions, e-mail register@artomatic.org. To volunteer, e-mail volunteer@artomatic.org.

You can also visit the forums (which I help moderate) at: http://artdc.org/forum/index.php?board=37.0

I participated as an artist in both 2007:

• http://sintixerr.wordpress.com/2007/04/27/new-artomatic-in-second-life-event-schedule/
• http://sintixerr.wordpress.com/2007/04/04/artomatic-second-life-splattered-paint-oh-my/

and 2008:

• http://sintixerr.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/python-photography-digital-art-artomatic/

Both times were phenomenal experiences as an artist and as a visitor. The art was fun, good, bad, amusing, awful, and totally worth seeing. More than that,  being part of such a huge volunteer-run event outside of the uptight art snootery and commodities market you normally encounter is totally worth it.

The official press release can be found here:

—

Artomatic 2009 to be held in D.C.’s Capitol Riverfront neighborhood

In celebration of its 10th anniversary, Artomatic will be bringing its trademark one-of-a-kind
multimedia arts event to Half Street’s 55 M Street, S.E., in Washington, D.C.’s Capitol
Riverfront neighborhood in summer 2009, the arts organization announced today.

In conjunction with the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District (BID) and Monument
Realty, Artomatic will be presenting more than five weeks of art, music, theater, workshops
and more — all of it free for visitors. Located between the U.S. Capitol Building and the
Anacostia River and between Barracks Row Main Street and South Capitol Street, the Capitol
Riverfront is a vibrant new business center, urban neighborhood, entertainment district and
waterfront destination.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with Artomatic on this unique arts event. With both Artomatic
and Major League Baseball within blocks of one another, the Capitol Riverfront will be the goto
location for summertime entertainment in 2009,” said Michael Stevens, executive director
of the Capitol Riverfront BID. “Artomatic sets the stage for the type of future festivals and
entertainment that you will see in the Capitol Riverfront at the three new parks — Diamond
Teague, The Yards Park and Canal Park — which begin opening spring 2009 through 2011.”
Artomatic 2009 will be held at 55 M Street, S.E., a new 275,000 square feet LEED Silver Class
A office building developed by Monument Realty. The building, currently under construction, is
located atop the Navy Yard Metro stop and within a block of Nationals Park, home to the
Nationals baseball team.

“We are pleased to be hosting Artomatic at 55 M Street for its 10th anniversary,” said Michael
Darby, principal of Monument Realty. “It is not only a great opportunity to promote the
neighborhood and attract new visitors but also to bring some very talented artists to the
Capitol Riverfront.”

Held regularly since 1999, Artomatic transforms an unfinished indoor space into an exciting
and diverse arts event that is free and open to the public. In addition to displays by hundreds
of artists, the event features free films, educational presentations and children’s activities, as
well as musical, dance, poetry, theater and other performances. Artomatic 2008, held in D.C.’s
NoMa neighborhood, attracted a record-breaking 52,500 visitors and 1,540 participating
artists.

The 2009 Artomatic event promises to be an equally appealing destination for D.C. area arts
fans as well as those looking for summer entertainment, said Artomatic President Veronica
Szalus.

“The D.C. area has a vibrant, energetic arts scene and we are excited to be able to showcase
that talent and share it with the community,” Szalus said.

Artomatic 2009 will be held May 29 to July 5. The event will be open Wednesdays and
Thursdays from noon to 10 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 1 a.m., and Sundays
from noon to 10 p.m. Artomatic will be closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Admission to Artomatic
is always free for visitors.

Registration for participation in Artomatic will open in March and will be open to all artists —
including painters, photographers, sculptors, graphic designers, musicians, poets, actors and
dancers. Artomatic is an unjuried event, so all artists are welcome, from professionals to
beginners. Registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis and will end once space is
filled. To be notified of the date when registration will open or to stay up on other Artomatic
news, sign up to receive ArtoNews, the Artomatic newsletter, on the Artomatic Web site.
Artomatic is run entirely by participating volunteers, and new participants are sought yearround.
To volunteer and help make plans for Artomatic 2009, e-mail volunteer@artomatic.org.
“Artomatic 2009 will fulfill 10 years of commitment to the growth of our cultural community
and help fuel our creative economy,” said Artomatic Chair George C. Koch.

More details on the event will be available on the Artomatic Web site, www.artomatic.org, in
coming weeks.

###

About Artomatic: Artomatic is a creative community that collaborates to produce and
present a free arts spectacular. Participation is open to all, from recognized artists to
undiscovered talents, who work in a variety of arts forms. In partnership with the
development community, Artomatic transforms unused building space into a playground for
expression, serves as a catalyst for community growth in up-and-coming neighborhoods, and
helps to grow the creative economy. The nonprofit Artomatic organization is headed by a
volunteer Board of Directors and is funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and
Humanities, an agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. For more
information, visit www.artomatic.org

About the Capitol Riverfront BID: The Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District
(BID) is dedicated to making the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood clean, safe, friendly and
vibrant; to creating the best quality of life in the neighborhood; and to attracting office
tenants, residents, retailers and visitors. For more information, visit www.capitolriverfront.org
About Monument Realty: Monument Realty is an award-winning full service real estate firm.
The firm’s diverse portfolio includes mixed use, office, residential and hotel properties.
Monument Realty has developed more than 5 million square feet of office space, nearly 5,000
residential units and three hotels valued at more than $5 billion. For more information, visit
www.monumentrealty.com.

Image Artists (top left to bottom right):
Video Installation by Angela Kleis, Paivi Salonen and Jack Whitsitt,
Mixed Media Sculpture by Gabriel Kulka,
Gelatin Silver Print by Vickie Fruehauf.

Come party Day of the Dead style, with art, workshops, altars, music, spoken word, dancing, marigolds and the souls of the departed when the Art Outlet presents “Ofrenda: Art for the Dead” from 3 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, October 13.

Bring an offering to our two artist-designed altars. Come dressed Day of the Dead style, design a sugar skull, and enjoy the art and music.

Artists:
Zulma Aguiar, Michael Auger, Joshua Barlow, Jennifer Beinhacker, Alison Christ, Andrea Collins, Rosemary Feit Covey, Jared Davis, Roni Freeman, Jenny Freestone, Vickie Fruehauf, Susan Gardiner, Angela Kleis, Gabriel Kulka, Emily Liddle, Rob Lindsay, Bono Mitchell, Thomas Paradis, Marina Reiter, Paivi Salonen, Marina Starkova, Henrik Sundqvist, Jack Whitsitt

Schedule:
Day of the Dead Workshop: Sugar Skulls 3 – 5 p.m.
Mariachi Band 5 – 6 p.m.
Film Screening by Zulma Aguiar 6:15 – 6:30 p.m.
(Humanitarian Water – a short film about US/Mexican border issues.)
Mud Pie 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Flo Anito 8 – 9 p.m.
Special Guest Appearance by Inspyra 10:30 pm
(Founder of Capital Fire Arts)
Yoko K. 10 p.m. – Midnight
Location:
2925 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 22201
(Right next Mexicali Blues Restaurant & Bar)

Directions:
By Metro: Take the orange line and exit at the Clarendon Metro stop. Walk down 1 1/2
blocks on Wilson Boulevard. “Ofrenda – Art for the Dead” will be on your left.
By Car: Park in the garage at the corner of Highland Street and Wilson Boulevard. It’s free on weekends.

Wake Not Wake 2Originally uploaded by sintixerr

Art Outlet will be putting on a show Saturday, October 13 in Arlington, VA celebrating Day of the Dead (Dia De Los Muertos) through art, music, and other events. I wasn’t sure if I was going to enter, but since Angela Kleis, my wife Paivi, and myself have been spending so much time together talking about and engaging in photography (and since Im on Art Outlet’s board of directors), we decided to do a collaborative piece together.How to do that, though? We didnt really have enough space to show related pieces from each of us – and that really wouldn’t be interesting as a collaboration.

Luckily, a lightbulb went off as I was looking through an unrelated series of photos I had taken of the Washington Monument in DC. The three of us has been sitting in relatively the same place for a couple of hours and I had at least 30 shots of the monument taken from the same perspective – only the people and lighting really changed. I threw them together into the Pinnacle video editing suite and ended up with a pretty neat looking movie/animation of those 30 pictures. There wasn’t a plot or time progression involved, but rather a jumpy twitchy averaged version of a place. Neat. What if the three of us take pictures of the same themed scene and weave them together in a video later to similar effect?

All we needed was a subject and theme. For this, I pulled from 2 80′s songs (Concrete Blonde’s Mexican Moon and Sisters of Mercy’s Nine While Nine) and a scene I’d shot for an english project illustrating Camus’ The Stranger” in High School. We basically gathered a bunch of friends together to create a “Wake” scene in black and white. A body (Jelena, a friend of mine from Journalism class) was laid out on a table in Rock Creek Park. and covered with fabric. Under the table, we put lights to give the table more of a floating-altar feel. Around the table we sat 4 friends (although we’d hoped for more) in identical white seats in a semi-circle. We left 1 darker sear empty to highlight the missing individual. Just before dusk, the three of us went to town shooting as many interesting shots as we could in the course of an hour. I used a Digital Rebel XT with a 50mm lens and another Wide Angle. Paivi used her Cannon 40D with a 28-70 L series sense. Angela used a Minolta and a Cannon with various filters – including a silky filter and a lens baby.

We ended up with a ton of shots and Sunday we’ll be sequencing these together into an animation.

At Ofrenda, we’ll be projecting this animation onto a custom frame Im having built. Basically, there will be framed glass with a layer of white tissue paper behind it. The tissue paper will be mounted on spacers to keep it against the glass while leaving about 1/4″ of space between it and the backing.

By projecting the animation into this frame, any excess light from the projector will pass through the tissue paper, hit the backing, and radiate back outward into the room. This will give the imagery an actual diffuse “glow” that will add to the surreal, dreamy feeling of the piece.

We will be hiding the projector in a sculpture of box and will be adding actual ofrendas in, on, and around the piece. We want the photo animation to be the centerpiece, but the ofrenda’s should provide some place, context, and grounding that the images might lack by themselves.

More information about the show can be found about the show HERE. Hope everyone can make it!

More sample images that we took can be found in THIS thread on ArtDC

Just a quick note to say that that was the best goddamn concert I’ve been to in my fucking life. Thank you, Cure   It’s been 11 years and a lifetime since the first time I saw them and they’ve done nothing but gotten better (and Robert looks the best he’s looked in more than  a decade, I think). We also met a few cool people at the show (much nicer than the avg US gig). See the next paragraph you all:

Paivi will be posting her pics soon and I’ll have video up in a week or two (I cant edit the clips here in Hong Kong and I have Virgin Festival to hit pretty much right after we get back in town – so it’ll have to be after that).  I’ll make a note here when those things happen.

Art Notes:

I did a couple of sketches on the plane to Hong Kong I’ll post later. If I had done them anywhere else, I wouldnt bother – theyre not that cool. But when you realize that I’m 6’5+ and did them in that cramped seat on a bumpy flight, you might go “ah cool” like I did. Or not – they’re just sketches.

I also have some silly posts to make here later about pretentious art bars.

Also, I’ll be doing a writeup of my own Wall Mountables Exhibit (vs the review of the whole thing).

All that and I need to catch up with my travbuddy blog which has been a casualty of our pace of life the past few days.

Off to sleep so I can actually make it to Macau tomorrow

April 28: I’ll be broadcasting an ArtDC.org member’s band “American Sinner” from Artomatic into the gallery from 9:00-10:00pm Saturday night.
May 4: We’ll be broadcasting a number of artists from Artomatic’s Electric Stage into Second Life, including:

• Keyote and DJ Tru at 7:30pm EST
• Alpha Betts at 8:30pm EST
• Ephemeral Sun at 10:30pm EST

(We’ll also try to project the gallery on a wall of the Electric Stage (instead of the digi room), but Im still waiting on permission for that)

May 2:  At 7:30pm in the Lapis Auditorium at Artomatic, Im going to be doing a live hands-on presentation focusing specifically on Second Life and Art, but also on the theoretical role of virtual worlds in art (SL is just the most well developed at this point). 

The overall talk is geared towards explaining more thouroughly what I’ve only talked about in short clips to people (ie, make it more coherent) and advocating the use of a vastly underutilized and underappreciated art medium and tool in a digital age.

In a larger sense, the art world is ridiculously behind the technological world and needs to catch up soonish now

The (related) points Ill be covering are:

• “How to be there when you’re not” – Second Life as a live event presentation and extension mechanism
• “How to let people walk through your dreams with you” – Second Life as an art medium in its own right and how it can help explore ideas before creating them in real life. Here Ill be referencing some of Rebecca Gordon’s work (directly) and Tim Tate’s (indirectly) as examples (Tim’s dorkbot talk was great and I meant to do this then)
• “Remembering your friends” – Second Life’s impact and role in presenting art and observations on the role of socialization in art
• “Who cares and why?” – Perspectives on how to market your virtual world presence and use it to your advantage using examples of things that worked, didn’t work, and could have been done or done differently

May 5: I’ll be giving tours of the gallery and any AOM art submitted to me for Second Life Display from 7:30 – 8:30pm EST

May 12: (time TBD) Artists and observers will take part in a live group Art Critique of works from Artomatic Artists as well as artists as a part of a special session of Eshi Otawa’s weekly Open Art Critique session held every Sunday night in her gallery, the Luxor. If you’d like to participate as an artist, please send me a jpg of a piece you’d like discussed and plan on attending in Second Life or at Artomatic Saturday Evening.  If you’d just like to talk about art but don’t have any to show, please come by as well! Your input is valued

May 18: On the 18th, we have a follk artist from Atlanta performing in Second Life and being displayed in the Digit room. The backdrop to her performance would be art submitted by AOm artists previously. (More detail here coming)

May 19: Sculpture Contest with Voting and live Artomatic bands. This will be a well -advertised and attended event.  We’d love to have ppl in the Digiroom participating and voting on the sculptures. We’re giving away almost $100 in prizes to the virtual artists this night. Again, AOM art submitted to me would be the backdrop for this event. (More detail coming)

Too much to do. I cant really keep track of it and my head is all over the place, so this post will be a mess. The room is coming along well. Pictures are all up except one data viz pic I sent to Chrome this morning to get printed. Ill frame that tomorrow and bring it in Wed! I also ordered a ton of business cards for the SintixErr Gallery in Second Life.

Im trying to work out the Digital Arts room, but it’s still unpainted and doesn’t have furniture. I don’t know whats happening with that part of it, but we’ll see. I know that Ill be broadcasting live into Second Life from Artomatic at least on opening night. Ill invite all my friends to artist night May 4 so I dont have to have conflicted priorities. Free alchohol that night anyway. I think Ive decided to broadcast “The Mesmers” from 7:30pm EST – 8:30pm EST on opening day (April 13) and a girl whos giving a workshop on an invented language April 14th! Everyone should come in person or join in Second Life!

I just not figured out what’s stressing me: A lot of what I need to do now depends on knowing when Ill be at Artomatic and what Ill be broadcasting and I just dont know…like sending out event ads or telling the Second Life people!

In other news, Tammy Vitale is doing interviews on her blog with Artomatic artists and mine just went up. Check it out HERE

Anyway, here’s a snap of me demoing live video broadcasting in Second Life to Enniv Zarf…by pointing the webcam at a stuffed panda. Above the panda is a picture of my Artomatic space as it is:

Where have I been?!!? Such old news here on this site! Well, I’ve been getting ready for Artomatic – the semi-somewhat-annual DC universalist, almost immersive art festival. Artomatic opens April 13 and runs through May 20 at 2121 Crystal Drive in Arlington, VA just off of the Crystal City Metro Redline stop. The event is taking over two floors of an office building undergoing rennovations and will feature over 400 artists.

 What’s my involvement?

I have a space on the 6th floor, Section A, Room 44 (Room 6a44). I will be featuring three different groups of art on my wall: Individual framed traditional work (my portraits), a collection of photo prints of every drawing Ive done in the past 15 years arranged in chronological order (like a visual diary or self portrait!), and I will also have a section of digital photo frames, prints, and a canvas print of my data visualization and Second Life work.

HOWEVER! The coolest thing is that I will also, through Dorkbot DC’s courtesy, be projecting my Second Life 3D world SintixErr Gallery for DC Artists into the digital arts room! Not only that, but since they have WiFI, I’ve been working with Claudia Vess (in charge of the digital room) to broadcast various live (music, poetry reading, etc.) events into the Second Life gallery as an extension of Artomatic into the virtual world! That’s pretty cool

This is all very last minute. After having heard of Artomatic in the background for ages (I wasn’t around for the last one), it really didn’t make my radar for a long time. Everyone else, though, was really excited and the enthusiasm spread eventually! I ultimately registered and got a space, thanks to Angela Kleis who volunteered to grab me an area on my assigned day while I was out of town seeing the Cure. (Yes, Paivi and I went to see them play – I was the first one past the gate at Ultra and was front and center the whole time – saw Porl play for the first time! – at the Ultra dance music festival in Miami..I might write a post about that later). 

So far, Ive been at the building every night this week, and a few last week, volunteering or setting up my space. It’s a deep red with off-white molding (you know, opulant victorian). It’s a very powerful color and is the only one that’s NOT in any of my framed work. Im in the process of framing the wall itself with black curtains, covering the ugly blue carpet with gold material, getting pillows, etc, etc, etc. It should be gorgeous – or at least tacky (Im often a bit over the top). My only gripe is that Ive absolutely destroyed my last good pair of pants (long story) – Im a really messy painter.

All of the set-up, though, has also given me the opportunity to spend some time with and get to know better a number of people I like and don’t normally get to see often (or just met) – Angela, Mr ArtDC himself (Jesse), Sean, Michael, Rebecca (although she still hasnt met me for coffee yet, pshaw!). 

 Angela also interviewed me a few weeks back about my Second Life work and you can find the link HERE.

During all this, we’ve also introduced two new artists to the SintixErr Gallery in Second Life and worked out the arrangement with Small World galleries (affiliated with a real life NYC gallery). I sent over the works of a number of the artists at the SintixErr and the Small World people are doing an outstanding job with them – 5 of the artists I sent over have sold work there  – and they’re not even open yet! Amazing, Im thrilled!

 Luckily for me, Artomatic had provided a good break from Second Life, but Ill be back in-world extensively later this week prepping the area for the next month’s artomatic stuff!