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.
?
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.