Andrew Benson

New Video Tests

Andrew — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:58:04 +0000

In June I’ll be performing with Joshua Churchill at Southern Exposure for the Extended Play series. In preparation for that I’ve carved out some time to rework my video performance system. The underlying architecture is pretty much the same as all the stuff I’ve done in the last year (optical-flow distortion feedback), but I’ve improved some aspects of the signal processing chain that make it possible to do some really amazing things with it besides the “live datamoshing” thing that I put together. The general idea for my performance is that I have a camera, a flashlight, and a controller, and I make video do different things by pointing it in my face and waving objects in front of it, moving the light around, while adjusting the controls of the processing system. Here’s a couple of test videos:

Another screen test, this time with 3D color LUT for realtime color-grading instead of the 1D LUT used before.

More live video tests. 1D color lookup table on the output.

More live video tests. Flash lights, knob-twisting, feedback.

Anaglyph

Andrew — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:32:14 +0000

Recently I was tapped to work on 3D tour visuals for a well-known House DJ. When I got the call, I had never worked with stereoscopic video before, and had to quickly research what was required. Since it’s a fairly high-profile gig, I didn’t want to pass it up due to lack of knowledge, and also didn’t want to commit to something I would fail at. They were persistent, having seen other visuals work I had done. So I took it on, and spent the next month deep in development of 3D rendering rigs using MaxMSP/Jitter, After Effects, different 3D modelling software. Within a week or so I was able to come up with a basic OpenGL based pipeline based on the research I had done. I chose to work with anaglyph 3D since the glasses are readily available and cheap and it doesn’t require any special playback equipment.

Reinventing the Wheel as a Sphere
Once I had the mechanics down, the next big hurdle was figuring out how to really utilize the depth effect. Until this point, all of my work was very 2D, abstract, and focussed on pixel-manipulation rather than 3D effects. I had avoided doing 3D rendering for years, but as a fan of Lefebvre, I always considered space to be an important part of my creative interests and how I thought of projects. The challenge was to take all of this 2D work I have been doing and figure out how it would occupy a 3D space. It seemed I would need to make use of a lot of objects zooming forward or spinning in front, and the feedback effects, distortions, and such that define much of my video work would have to take place in 3D.

To solve this, it became necessary to revisit the canonical video effects in my repertoire and reinvent them in different ways. For example, by mapping a slitscan video onto different 3D surfaces, with varying amounts of transparency, I was able to create a swirling vortex, supernovas, laser beams, and other such effects that I might have used regular video feedback for in a 2D project. As part of the aesthetic research for the project, I was watching a lot of old Science Fiction films, and also processing clips of that to use in the videos. One of the great aspects of early sci-fi is the resourceful creation of different effects, sets, characters, using simple means at their disposal. I also spent a lot of time researching things like 2001: A Space Oddysey and how they developed the sequences. I began to view my anaglyph visuals process as something very similar. I created about 40 different little modules that could be dropped into a scene to create different combinations.

Into the Vortex
I tried to avoid watching any 3D movies during this project, because I wanted to feel this whole stereoscopy thing through in an experimental and personal way. I still have yet to experience Avatar, even though everyone I know thinks I need to. I’ve spent hours upon hours staring into the 3D vortex with abstract distorting graphics flying at me..

One of the things that I found that is vital to effective anaglyphs is layering. The more depth layers you can create using distinct objects, the better. Judicious use of alpha channels to create cutouts is also extremely effective to intensify the effect. Placing a single 3D model on a black background will give you some sense of depth, but putting layers of cutouts behind it will make it really pop out at you. My sense about this is that the depth effect really relies on edges. This would make sense given the way that the human eye and brain work. Amorphous 3D blobs will only really work if there are other objects in the scene to differentiate the depth layers. Trust me, I tried.

Another turning point in this process was my reluctant acceptance of photorealistic rendering techniques like lighting and bumpmapping of 3D forms. I was stubborn about this, being a product of the modernist art-educational program of anti-illusionism and neo-materialist discourse. However, flat colors and pure geometry make for lame anaglyph depth effects, and a little realism goes a long way in this case. Besides, I found many instances where I could subvert the process and show the seams of the whole thing, which quelled my need to fight the illusionism of 3D rendering. So, in addition to flying down the rabbit-hole of anaglyph rendering, I soon found myself creating a for-real 3D rendering setup complete with shaders for lighting and bump-mapping effects, and spending time doing simple 3D modelling inside of Blender and Wings3D. This is not to say that I’ve gone all CG on you. I’m not really capable of that, and I can’t help but make weird and spastic experimental videos.

Pushing Pixels

Andrew — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:26:51 +0000

Back in March, 2009 I released some GLSL shaders for Jitter that allow you to perform distortions of an image based on Optical Flow. I sort of came up with it on accident while trying to do something else, and getting distracted during my research. At the time I attached them to a forum thread on Cycling74.com and a lot of people downloaded it, and then they were ported to work in Quartz Composer by Anton Marini, and then people got them to work elsewhere. Since then I have extensively altered the algorithms and tuned the feedback processes for my specific work, but I offer the original patches and shaders here in case it helps anyone else to make something cool. If you do, drop me a line.

Download It!

Until Every Shape Has Found Its City

Andrew — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:01:17 +0000

For the show “Disintegrations” at Johansson Projects (a two-person show with Sebastien Lapointe), I created “Until Every Shape Has Found Its City”, a 3-projector site-specific, interactive video installation based on my “slorp” video-processing software instrument.

Arduino SensorBox Firmware

Andrew — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:31:13 +0000

SensorBox

While I’m a sort of reluctant Arduino user, I often use them for classes and workshops that I teach because they’re pretty easy to get started with and cheap. Lately, I’ve been a bit disillusioned though with the firmware examples available for using the Arduino with MaxMSP, and wanted to remedy that. I found that most of my students just wanted an easy way to connect sensors and switches to an Arduino and have that show up in Max. While the Firmata firmware is very well designed and offers a lot of features, I have been frustrated too many times by not being able to fix bugs in the code myself. Also, the reliance on the “arduino” abstraction has led to all sorts of problems with students who haven’t learned about file dependencies and search paths in Max.
My solution was to write a very simple and relatively efficient firmware called SensorBox that just gets the input from all the pins on the Arduino and sends it over serial to a Max patch. The communication protocol is hardly innovative, but it should give a good example of ways to efficiently transmit data over serial. The goal was to make everything simple and readable, and to avoid any voodoo, so that others can alter and fix the code as they please.
Also, since many real-world projects require more than 6 analog inputs, I wrote an alternate version of the SensorBox firmware called SensorBoxMux that allows you to configure any analog pin(s) for multiplexed input with an inexpensive 4051 8×1 IC. This offers the potential for up to 96 analog inputs on Arduino!

Download SensorBox firmware and Max 5 patches.

of stones, moss, and other miscellaneous objects.

Andrew — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:48:52 +0000

(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)

This video was debuted as a looping video installation included in the Uncharted show at Hayes Valley Market, May 2008.

sample accurate

Andrew — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 05:53:26 +0000

When working on various signal-based sequencing and playback projects, I have found that there are a couple of tasks that required objects that aren’t available in the standard distribution of MSP objects. I have put together a small collection of MaxMSP objects that perform some basic tasks that I find useful for doing signal-driven sample playback of different kinds:

wait~ – outputs a stored value at the end of a ramp – sort of like a really special sah~. helps to prevent clicking when randomizing or changing parameters of your sampler or granular voice
shot~ – signal-triggered, uninterruptible ramp output. Length in milliseconds. busy output helps when trying to manage polyphonic setups.
cshot~ – signal-triggered, uninterruptible sample counter with synchronous ramp output. Length in samples. I’ve always wanted a signal-triggered sample-counter.

Download Mac UB Objects

This small collection is still a work in progress, so any feedback or complaints are welcome.

Jitter Night School

Andrew — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 19:01:54 +0000

My Contact Info
email: andrewb [at] cycling74 [dot] com
AIM screen-name: cloudmachine99

Course Outline:::
Jitter Night School 2007
Instructor: Andrew Benson

Course Outline:::

Day 1 :: Intro to Jitter, the Matrix, and Interaction
- Intro to Jitter features
- What is a matrix?
- Using the Jitter documentation (html ref-pages, help files, etc.)
- Jitter data flow
- Matrix as data container
- Audio/Max interaction with Jitter
- Brief intro to Quicktime

Day 2 :: Focus on Video
- Quicktime in Jitter
- Playing QT movies
- Real-time editing in Jitter
- Grabbing input from external video devices
- Recording to disk
- Compression
- Compositing/Blending
- Crossfades
- Keying/Alpha-channels
- jit.op for mathematical blends (additive,subtractive,difference, etc.)
- Filtering, Blurring, and Feedback
- temporal vs. spatial filters
- creating bit maps from images
- convolution
- intro to feedback (named matrices, jit.wake, etc.)

Day 3 :: OpenGL, Slabs, and other advanced topics
- OpenGL lesson
- Deconstructing an OpenGL patch
- the OpenGL matrix format
- applying textures
- blending, layering, and depthbuffering
- Using Slabs for Optimized Video Processing
- What is a slab? What is a shader?
- Optimized transfer of video using UYVY color
- Intro to the provided shaders
- Quick look at a shader program?
- Performance and Live-video concerns
- Using a second display (projector)
- Preloading, RAM vs. Disk-access
- Basic Optimization strategies

Class Patches:::
Day 1 patches
Day 2 patches
Day 3 patches
Jitter Demo Patches

Jitter Recipes:::
Jitter Recipes-Book1
Jitter Recipes-Book2
Jitter Recipes-Book3

Third-Party CV externals:::
Jean-Marc Pelletier’s CV.JIT
David Rokeby’s SoftVNS
Wesley Smith’s Misc. Jitter Externals

Other Awesome Jitter Users:::
Anton Marini – AKA vade.
Joshua Goldberg
Randy Jones
Sue Costabile

Video Downloads:::
Video-Tracking Test Footage
Archive.org- Ephemeral Films,Open-source Video,etc.
VJ Forums Content Finding Forum- Browse the threads here for links to all sorts of short clips in every theme.

—-Not Jitter-specific, but some useful info and inspirations:—-

Contemporary Animations:
J. Walt Adamczyk: http://www.johnadamczyk.com/filmvideo.html xvid
Bill Alves: http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/
Bret Battey: http://www.mti.dmu.ac.uk/~bbattey/
Michael Betancourt: http://www.michaelbetancourt.com/art/telemetry/
Liubo Borissov: http://www.music.columbia.edu/~liubo/bohor05/index2.html
Peter Bosch & Simone Simmons: http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/at/vida/paginas/v6/eaguas.html
Chris Casady: http://www.naptime.com/flash/artexercises/
Robert Darroll: http://www.iotacenter.org/visualmusic/profiles/darrollrobertfolder/statements
Jeffers Egan: http://www.jeffersegan.com/
Jim Ellis: http://emsh.calarts.edu/~jim/
Robin Fox: http://www.synrecords.com/label.html
Francesco Gaffuri: http://www.francescogaffuri.com/
Andrew Garton: http://www.toysatellite.org/agarton/2004/01/floating_point.html
AndrÃ© GonÃ§alves: http://www.ctrl.tk/
Robert Hodgin: http://www.flight404.com/blog/
Rumi Humphrey: http://refresh.vu/primera.htm
Samantha Krukowski: http://www.cm.aces.utexas.edu/faculty/skrukowski/
Stefanie Ku: http://www.dioskouroi.org
Anne-Sarah LeMeur: http://aslemeur.free.fr/
JosÃ© Lopez-Montes: http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/user_page.pl?url=lopezmontes
Andrew Lyons: http://www.users.bigpond.com/tstex/
Stephanie Maxwell: http://www.rit.edu/~sampph/Works.html
Dennis Miller: http://www.dennismiller.neu.edu/
BÃ¤rbel Neubauer: http://www.spiralsmorphs.de/
Scott Nyerges: http://www.nyerges.com/
Richard Reeves: http://www.awn.com/qas/profiles/richard.htm
Joost Rekveld: http://www.lumen.nu/rekveld/wp/index.php
Aaron Ross: http://www.dr-yo.com/
JÃ¸ran Rudi: http://www.notam02.no/~joranru/wtca/index.html
Michael Scroggins: http://emsh.calarts.edu/~aka/papers/Absolute_Animation_and_Immersive_VR.html
Robert Seidel: http://www.2minds.de/
Semiconductor: http://www.semiconductorfilms.com/root/soundfilms.htm
John Stehura: http://cyberanimation.tripod.com/index.htm
David Stout: http://nfold.csf.edu/
Rob Switzer: http://www.archive.org/details/Study_One
Ying Tan: http://www.uoregon.edu/~tanying/index.html
Telcosystems: http://www.telcosystems.net/
Shawn Towne: http://web.mac.com/towne/iWeb/shawn/towne.html
Edward Zajec: http://www.dam.org/zajec/

Contemporary Installations/Performances:
Actop: http://www.actop.net/
Richard Bailey: http://www.imagesavant.com/
Benton-C Bainbridge: http://www.benton-c.com/
Steve Beck: http://www.stevebeck.tv/
Coldcut: http://www.coldcut.net/coldcut/
Dienststelle: http://www.dienststelle.de/
D-Fuse: http://www.dfuse.com/
Scott Draves: http://draves.org/
Granular Synthesis: http://www.granularsynthesis.info/
Peter Greenaway: http://petergreenaway.co.uk/
Edwin van der Heide: http://www.evdh.net/
Kurt Hentschlager: http://www.hentschlager.info/
Chika Iijima – Zach Layton: http://www.imagima.com/
Hfr-Lab: http://www.hfr-lab.com/
Speedy J: http://www.speedyj.com/newsite/index.html
Randy Jones: http://2uptech.com/
Skoltz Kolgen: http://www.skoltzkolgen.com/
Ryoichi Kurokawa: http://www.ryoichikurokawa.com/
Ulf Langheinrich: http://www.epidemic.net/geogb/art/gs/ulf/indexgb.html
Golan Levin: http://www.flong.com/
The Light Surgeons: http://www.thelightsurgeons.co.uk/
Jarryd Lowder: http://jarrydlowder.com/
Glenn McKay: http://www.glennmckay.to/
MELA Foundation: http://melafoundation.org/main.htm
Finn & Robin McNicholas: http://ultre.co.uk/
Nokami: http://www.nokami.com/htm_en/01_0.htm
Alva Noto: http://www.alvanoto.com/
otolab: http://www.otolab.net/
Jack Ox: http://www.bway.net/~jackox/
Scott Pagano: http://www.neither-field.com/index.php?page=bio
Power Graphixx: http://www.power-graphixx.com/
Reactable: http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/
Curtis Roads: http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/~clang/
Ben Sheppee: http://www.eoptica.com/sheppee/
George Stadnik: http://www.photonlightguitars.com/index.html
Jennifer Steinkamp: http://jsteinkamp.com/
UVA: http://www.uva.co.uk/
The Vasulkas Inc.: http://www.vasulka.org/
Leo Villareal: http://www.villareal.net/

Resources:
Center for Visual Music: http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/
The iotaCenter: http://www.iotacenter.org/

Other Links:
arika: http://www.arika.org.uk/
Ars Electronica: http://www.aec.at/en/index.asp
Center for Brain and Cognition: http://psy.ucsd.edu/chip/CBC2.html
Ernest Chladni: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Chladni
Experimental Television Center: http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/
Fred Collopy: http://rhythmiclight.com/
Color organ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_organ
Richard Cytowic: http://cytowic.net/
Dissonanze: http://www.dissonanze.it/home/home.php
EMAF: http://www.emaf.de/
The Fischinger Archive: http://www.oskarfischinger.org/
International Congress Synaesthesia, Science & art: http://www.sinestesia2007.info/
Lumia manuscripts: http://mssa.library.yale.edu/madid/showthumb.php?id=mss&msrg=1375&msrgext=0&pg=1
Nederlands Instituut voor Mediakunst, Montevideo/Time Based Arts: http://www.montevideo.nl/en/index.html
The New York Digital Salon – Abstract Visual Music: http://www.nydigitalsalon.org/11/index.htm
NOT STILL ART Festival: http://www.improvart.com/nsa/
NOTV: http://www.notv.com/
Optronica: http://www.optronica.org/
Piano Optofonique: http://optophoniqueeng.heatherodonnell.info/
Prometheus Institute: http://prometheus.kai.ru/
Oliver Sacks: http://www.oliversacks.com/
Sonar: http://www.sonar.es/portal/eng/home.cfm
Sons & LumiÃ¨res: http://www.centrepompidou.fr/Pompidou/Manifs.nsf/AllExpositions/E4B6AD56B6DA4B2FC1256DD600561C77?OpenDocument
Transmediale: http://www.transmediale.de/site/
V2-Institute for the Unstable Media: http://www.v2.nl/
Video Synthesizers: http://www.audiovisualizers.com/toolshak/vsynths.htm
Visual music: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_music
Visual Music: http://www.hirshhorn.si.edu/visualmusic/
Visual Music Marathon: http://www.music.neu.edu/vmm/
What Sound Does a Color Make?: http://www.ici-exhibitions.org/exhibitions/whatsound/what_sound.htm
White Noise: http://www.acmi.net.au/wn_white_noise.jsp

Books:
Expanded Cinema, Youngblood, P. Dutton & Co., 1970, http://www.ubu.com/historical/youngblood/expanded_cinema.pdf
Experimental Animation, Russett – Starr, Da Capo Press, 1976, ISBN 0-306-80314-2
The Sound of Painting, von Maur, Prestel, 1999, ISBN 3-7913-2082-3

Sons & LumiÃ¨res, von Maur – Rousseau – Cooper – Levin – Lista – Kahn – Duplaix – Kihm – Szendy, Ã‰ditions du Centre Pompidou, 2004, ISBN 2-84426-244-9
Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900, Brougher – Strick – Wiseman – Zilczer, Thames and Hudson, 2005, ISBN 0-500-51217-5
audio-visual art + vj culture, Faulkner/D-FUSE, Laurence King Publishing Ltd., 2006, ISBN 1-85669-490-9

“excavations” at johansson projects

Andrew — Tue, 15 May 2007 19:58:59 +0000

I will be in a show called “Excavations” at Johansson Projects Gallery in Oakland,CA. The show opens May 12th, with a reception that evening and also another one on June 1st during the Oakland Art Murmur, 6-9pm. The gallery will also be open Thurs.-Saturday, noon-6pm, during the rest of the show. This is the first show at the new gallery, and will include work by eight other artists in various media. My contribution to the show is 16 paintings, 9 video pieces, and one felt and thread landscape installation. For more info, check out the gallery website.

Joystick Hacking

Andrew — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:18:06 +0000

Today I posted an article over at Cycling74.com about using joysticks with MaxMSP. Toward the end of the article, I discuss ways to alter the electronics of a USB joystick for custom controllers.
I had been meaning to write this piece for a long time, and I was assigned the task of writing an article for the website, so I figured this would be a good solution.