April 20, 2022

b.o.b. (black orbiting b.o.b.)

Thesis Statement

This work consists of two spaces experienced one at a time in sequence: the first in the form of an ephemeral light painting, and the second is the mechanism by which the light painting was made. In creating this work [sculpture] in an iterative and open-ended way, I explored the relationship between experience and interpretation, learned more about the relationship between the spaces I created, and asked questions about subjectivity and the value of experience.

Visualization of installation before entering.

Visualization of installation showing the projection room on the left and the pendulum room on the right.

Abstract

Through b.o.b., I am examining how meaning is assigned to experiential art. With little information before entering, the viewer fully immerses themselves in the environment, and thus the experience relies on your subjectivity: assumptions, definitions, conclusions, and meanings.

The installation begins with two doors; which door you enter is your choice, but the choice dictates your experience and understanding of the installation. Although you don’t have information about the door you choose, the choice is yours and the experience. The meaning is yours alone, based on your unique perspective.

Regardless of your choice, this installation uses light and the abstraction of time to facilitate an understanding of experience, apparent choice, and meaning-making. The installation is not complete without you.

I created b.o.b by building a 22” x 13” pendulum and suspending the pendulum in a dark room. The pendulum’s weight amplifies the movements of the gantry, which draws more attention to the rhythm and pattern. The adjacent room is just as dark and consists of a projector that reveals the pendulum’s movement, thereby creating the ephemeral light painting for the viewer to discover. Both spaces are dark with focused light in specific areas to highlight and draw attention to the focal point, either the pendulum or the light painting.

While reading through the comments, anecdotes, and testimonies of those who experienced b.o.b, I found that every person’s experience of the installation was unique. My goal was to create this work for people to enter with limited guidance and information and tune into their curiosity and discovery processes for finding meaning in an experience

Research/Context

This project started as a way to understand the kinetic energy of a moving object. Light traced a path and, when recorded, gave insight into the history of its movement. The artifacts produced from this process had so much depth and character that I couldn’t stop coming back to them. I started to think of how I could change or interact with the object to inform the artifact. I then looked at conceptual artists and how they invited users to experience their art/installations. I looked to a few artists for inspiration: James Turrell, Robert Irwin, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Mary Corse, and Bruce Nauman.

James Turell said it best, “My desire is to set up a situation to which I take you and let you see. It becomes your experience”

Irwin writes, “When you walk into a room, you assess it instantaneously, habitually, before becoming aware of it. You make sure there’s not a hole you’re going to fall into, but mostly you’re not even aware of what you’re thinking.”

For the physical construction of this installation, I had to balance strength, weight, cost, and durability. Each component had to work as a system, so cross-compatibility was critical. I also needed a way to stream live media from a camera to another computer running Touchdesigner; a Raspberry PI is used for the camera component and the streaming platform. Those four factors ultimately led to the choice of the specific x/y gantry and 3D printing of the “massive bob” from ABS.

Technical Details

I used an x/y gantry, a Raspberry Pi, a Raspberry Pi high-quality camera, a 4-inch midrange speaker, a 50-watt amp, an Arduino Nano Every, an RGB LED, 3/4 inch plywood, Stratasys Fortus 450 for 3D printing python, Touchdesigner, Rhino 7, Solidworks 2021, LightBurn, OpenBuilds Cam control, VNC.

Feedback is always good(?)

I spoke with three alumni during the Alumni Feedback event, overall I would say this was helpful if for no other reason than to get use to talking about the project to people who are unfamiliar with it. I would say I was very pleased with the interest and feedback of two of the alumni, however, the alumni I was most excited to talk with was uninspiring and gave little useful feedback.

Here, listed as combined list, is the feedback I received:

How can I get concise as to what iteration number entails?
Could the people in the projection room also have interaction with the pendulum?
Look into the nature of code to create different pendulum movements.
Looking into using heat sensors.
Basic blob detection could be useful in gathering data about what is happening in the room.
Incorporate threshold for different sensors i.e.: once a specific sensor reaches a threshold change to a different sensor.
Possibly look into cell phone signals as a way to gauge people in the room.
Amplify the sound of the motors instead of creating a sound.
Increase connection between pendulum room and projection room.
Sync the movements of the pendulum to an individual person.
Look into using IR instead of visible light so the pendulum does not cast colored light onto the floor.

I think everything that was said was very relevant, however, for the first iteration I won’t be able to research or include many of the suggestions. I was able to incorporate the idea of amplifying the motor sound instead of creating a sound for this installation on April 2nd.

As of now I have everything working. I’m still tweaking a few parts of the touch designer sketch and need to finish fabrication of the pendulum and the base for the gantry. But both of those are well on their way to being finished.

March 6, 2022

A little bit of progress

Update 2/4-3/4

Its been a while since I could look at…ok I’ll stop with the ridiculous Stained reference. But I have made significate progress all around.

MASSIVE BOB

Massive bob is in production. All hardware and parts have been received. In order to decide the final form of the massive bob I used an Instagram poll to see what the community thought. I ultimately used the form the community picked with a few teaks to refine the overall shape. (insert poll photo and final form photo, light study video)

Image of the seven forms proposed for the massive bob.

Final form for the massive bob, I used #4 from the previous image with a few minor tweaks to refine it.

Section view of the massive bob showing the internal structure and mounting for the speaker and pcbs.

Light test for the seven versions of the massive bob, I used this to determine if all seven options would be put forth in the poll.

XY GANTRY

Gantry is assembled and works as expected. Currently I’m running the gcode through openbuild’s grbl interface. I’m trying to install the software on a RaspberryPi so that I can have a tidy package to install on grid structure where this will be installed. I will then VNC into the RPi for control of the software.

Short test of paths.

Another short test of the paths.

Interactions: Tangible

The interactions have been a major point of struggle. After a lengthy conversation with Sarah, I came to the conclusion that I don’t need to sort out the interactions at this point in time. I know that may sound counter intuitive, however, the truth is this installation needs to be user tested and prototyped at full scale. For the upcoming installation I will have a few types of paths preprogramed into the system, after a viewer interacts with the installation I will ask them to answer a few questions about the experience. I currently have a four test paths that last a few hours each. I’m also planning to include the ability for me to use a joystick to make random movements as well.

Continuous curved line test path.

Spiraled array test path.

Randomly generated overlapping circles test path.

Randomly generated overlapping squares test path.

PROJECTION

I am able to stream video from an RaspberryPi over the web and cast it to Touchdesigner. I have implemented a few ways to bring the video into TouchDesigner but I haven’t found the best option as of yet. I still need to work on the Touchdesigner flow, it works in some instances and not others, I also need to reverse the drawing order of the cached pixels, right now the new pixels are drawn behind the previous. Some of this will need to be tweak during initial installation to take into account the environmental factors.

Five different iterations of the Touchdesigner flow.

February 5, 2022

the long and winding road…

Updates 1/26/22-2/4/22

Projection

Should projection be 1 image and 1 image each subsequent minute till the end of the day culminating with 1440 images being projected all at one time. Not overlapping, the image grid grows as more images are added. OR should the projection be a real-time video with a 1 minute “trail window” basically showing the trail or path of the movement in a sliding 1 minute window. I think I can accomplish this using touchdesigner.

The below video shows a test of long-exposure images layered in a video with a 20 second overlap. Each still was displayed for 30 seconds, at the 10 second mark the image opacity starts to decrease from 100% to 0% over the next 20 seconds.

Massive Bob

Modular design allowing either speaker/LED combo or just LED. This will make prototyping easier.

Installation: Before entering

Wall text: Take time to relish in the present, do not move quickly through the space as the longer you view the more is revealed. Entrance to space is

XY Gantry

I looked into four different pre-made solutions for the gantry they vary a great deal in cost from $600-$8k (haha). I also looked at repurposing an inexpensive laser cutter system, however, these systems aren’t much less than a gantry system that has more flexibility. The laser system costs about $500, so for another $100 I would have something that is expandable and more versatile. The other up side to the gantry I’m looking at is the support community. I have already had some great guidance on how to make the system communicate with sensor to create the movements. The XY gantry I think I have decided on is made by OPENBUILDS. I haven’t decided 100% on this gantry but I will make a decision by 2/7/22. Gantry link https://openbuildspartstore.com/openbuilds-acro-55-20-x-20/

Call with mentor: Owen Foster

Meeting with Owen I spoke to friend/mentor/colleague/professor Owen Foster about the interactions and overall idea behind the project. I explained and visualized a walk-through of the space and what the viewer would see. I asked him three questions:

How would you want to interact with the space and/or the pendulum?
What would you want to see as a projection? (three options)
What would you want told to you before entering the space?

Feedback from Owen:

Maybe use a heat sensor as one of the inputs, as more people enter the room the temp will rise showing the effect that community has a path or journey
Instead of velvet rope barriers could something on the floor be used? Suggested ash or sand piled in a circle.
Have only ten artifacts, stacked with decreasing opacity ie: top image has 100% opacity and uses “screen” layer style so that all black becomes transparent, second image has 90% opacity again with “screen” layer style, and so on till the last image on the stack has 10% opacity.
The lowest image on the stack drops off when a new one is added. The attributes of the image are tied to the place in the stack so as each image drops in the stack it takes on those attributes.
His question to me after saying that my thesis question is “Is your experience enough?”, “Are You, You?”
Possibly put quotes on the wall before entrance to evoke a thought
Sound could be a metronome type ticking sound to make viewers think about time.
Further expanding the installation could include a “feel panel” for low visibility guests.

After speaking with Owen, I thought a lot about the interactions. And I started to think about how the interactions are tied to the output and if those interactions need to be explicit the viewer in order for the pendulum to draw a connection to the artifact being projected in the next room. By changing the projection from every image captured to only ten and stacking them the evidence of your personal contribution to an image is much much less important. Furthermore I’m also looking into having the projection be a one minute sliding window of the movement, this way the viewers in the projection room are seeing what is happening in real-time.

Installation Space

I have requested space in the media commons room on the second floor of 370 Jay ST, I’m still waiting on confirmation.

Code: how to use the data

I’ve been looking into how to take the raw data from the sensors and pass it into movement. I found some good information on the github for grbl, there are a few tricky things to work out but I am scheduling office hours with Tom and Danny Rozin this week to tackle those issues. Link to the github https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Grbl-v1.1-Interface

Past ITP Thesis Projects

https://itp.nyu.edu/thesis2019/#LucasKuenKule’aChung

https://itp.nyu.edu/thesis2021/?student=nicole-cabalquinto

https://itp.nyu.edu/thesis2016/project/koen-holtkamp

November 29, 2021

A Little Bit of Flow

This installation is divided into two explicit halves. The first half is the view of a pendulum moving in a dark space with a single point of light emitting form the bottom side of the “massive bob”. Subtle intangible interactions effect the movements of the pendulum. The second half and therefore second room of the installation is all about the memory of the previous room. Each minute the path of the pendulum is recorded and then subsequently projected in this room. Each imprint (image) exists for some time between 1 and 1440 minutes. The first image of the duration lasts the longest and the last image of the day lasts only one minute, for at the end of the day the literally computer memory is wiped clean and starts a new the next minute. Much the same can be said of life, the memories we carry with us end when we die regardless of how old the memory was. In this second half there is a change in perspective, in the room prior to this the movement of the pendulum can be described as moving towards and away from the viewer, however, in this room the projections is of an image captured directly below the swinging pendulum. This is an illusion to the how we experience life, standing throughput until on e day we are laid to rest looking up at the show before us.

Below is a series of images showing the experience as it stands currently.

Bird’s eye view of the two rooms. A light proof door keeps the light of the projection from effecting the long exposure image of the pendulum. Viewers enter from the left of the left room and can wonder through the room looking at the movement of the pendulum and interacting with the environment to change the movement of the pendulum until finding their way to the door at the far side of the room. After exiting the labyrinth door they are meet with the projection of the movement of the pendulum from the previous room. Viewers will then exit through the door to the right.

Section view of the installation showing the two rooms of the experience.

Entering into the first room reveling the moving pendulum at the center of the room.

Navigating around the circumference of the room to view the pendulum from different angles.

Moving into the next room through the labyrinth door reveling the first projection of the day.

https://www.philcaridi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ThesisV1.37.png

Full view of the projection.

View of the wall label purposely put a the end of the experience.

November 22, 2021

The Long Slow Burn

Block…This week felt long.

Felt blocked to make something representative of my ideas.

Felt uninspired to make anything…

But I did some research haha.

But I did push through and make something. My research is ever winding like a string around a ball. The path goes in many directions, as does life, but there is always the constant of moving towards an end. Memories along the way serve as reminders of the life we lived, those who were touched by our movements through life remember us. Until one day all those who had memories of us are gone as well. The String and this image are both representative of life. In the beginning we are born of darkness, we come into the light and eventually cast out own light, along the way we fade into nothing more than memory until darkness is all that is left. So say a void appears in the space you once occupied, however, the space has always been there, it is you that has come and gone. Was the void made by you or is it in spite of you?

There are a lot of examples of light painting to be found. There are even many examples of light paint with different types of pendulums, there is however, one major difference between these works and my one. That being the what effects the movement of the pendulum. The works I have found fall into two major categories human body movement and fixed ration pendulums. Human body movement can be very organized and produce intended specific patterns and shapes or forms but it can also be sporadic. Fixed ratio pendulums can be deigned to move in harmonic patterns or have a bit of chaos thrown into the mix, however the chaos that is produced is very specific to the construction. Usually mounted vertically and allows gravity to be exerted on a compound rigid pendulum. The movement will always have aspects that are concentric and only moves around two pivot points. Once the movement starts it is left up to physics to decide the path. To date I have not found any example attached to an infinitely variable mounting point and have the movement of the point dictated by intangible interactions of the viewers in the room where it is installed.

I’ve always thought about this as installation in two rooms one the pendulum itself and the other a series of projections of the movements made by the pendulum. I guess anyone who finds themselves in a gallery or museum would be my audience. This installation would need to viewed in a controlled environment base on how particular parts of it work, specifically the need for the pendulum to be housed in a dark room.

I’m pretty far along with the “story” behind this installation. It is an abstraction of time. It speaks to how we move through life, the chaos and forces that influence it, and the permanence of death through the chaotic movement of the pendulum and the record (memory) of the movement. The record on lasts a single day, once the day closes the memory, the physical computer memory, is erased.

A brief description of the installation and the technology that needs to be used follows. Two rooms adjoined with a single door between them, the door needs to be light tight so it will be something like the type of door found in darkrooms. The first room houses the pendulum it will be fairly dark in the room to allow for a camera placed directly under the movement area of the pendulum can capture the movement. The movement of the pendulum will be evidenced by a single RGB LED located at the bottom of the pendulum. The color of the LED is based on the position the pendulums attachment point. The pendulum is attached to a carriage that is on an X/Y gantry. The limits of the gantry will most likely be 8 inches on both X and Y axis. The distance on each axis and the speed at which the carriage travels along the axis are determent by intangible interactions of the viewers. I have figured out which interactions or sensor I will be using for this part. The camera takes a one minute exposure, after the exposure is finished it is sent to a device (most likely a raspberry pi) which is hooked up to a project. The image of the previous image will be added to the project in the next room. The project changes over time, at the start of the day the projection is black for one minute. Each minute there after the previous minute’s image is added to the projection. Each time an image is added the grid expands, if it needs to, to accommodate the new image. For example at the start of minute six there will be five images which will no longer fit in the previous 2×2 grid so the grid expands to 4×4. The grid always expands to keep it square. At the end of the day there will be a grid of 1440 images one image for each minute of the day. At the end of the day the images are deleted and lost forever.

I need to figure out the camera, the gantry, the sensors, the wireless communication, and the project for this to come together. There are a few places along this journey that could be intermediate stopping points, however, I think that it is possible to finish by the end of next semester.

I’m pretty far along with the “story” behind this installation. It is an abstraction of time. It speaks to how we move through life, the chaos and forces that influence life, and the permanence of death through the c

November 13, 2021

RE:Search, Research

My thesis looks at life through a lens of the fleetingness of time and the relationship it has with death and the permanence associated with it, and how memory bridges the gap between life and death. Chaos and discovery are two constants I associate with life and ultimately the pursuit of death. It my seem odd to talk about life as the pursuit of death, but in the end that’s what we have been chasing the whole time. The unknown release of what death brings, questions about what comes after, questions about how we will be remembered – if we will be remembered. There have many other works before this and there will be many other works after this that deal with the topic of death but I envision this as a unique interactive installation that abstracts time, life, death and memory into two discrete experiences that together make the viewer think of the path of their life in a new light.

Find my Research Journal here: https://www.notion.so/Research-Journal-d5981c2cb2cb4f949a85587f19425ed8

Nothing to Something

The theme behind my thesis has been pretty well defined for some time now, “The permanence of Death and the Fleetingness of Time”, how do we relate to both life and death? what part does memory and experience play in how we move through time. Why is death a taboo subject especially when it is quite literally the only truth to life? Why is there such a large percentage of the population that fears death? The way we connect events from or life with meaning can be convoluted at best, I want to show how experience does not necessarily translate to memory. What part, if any does memory play in death? Is death the beginning of a loop() or id it the end()?

November 4, 2021

Phil-The beginning of the beginning

A few thought to start the process…

Death, how do we as a culture view and deal with death? How does my thought of death differ from those around me, from those that come form different cultures. The topic of death comes up in my work often. Time is also a theme that I think about constantly. How do we experience time? Why does it pass differently for different people? Why does it pass differently depending on the situation? In my thesis I want to explore both time and death, and how we relate to these concepts. Specifically the fleetingness of time and the permanence of death.
The idea of Pendulight started in Energy (class) as a way to create an artifact from the kinetic energy of a moving pendulum. The original project had a compound leaver arm attached to the drive shaft of a stepper motor. the viewer/user had control of the speed and direction of the stepper through discrete controls. The change in direction and speed would cause chaos in the movement of the pendulum. Its this chaos in the movement that made me start thinking about this as an illusion to life, how life changes direction without notice, how the energy of life is in a constant ebb and flow, how one day the movement of life will stop.
There are a number of technical aspects of this piece that need to figured out to expand the original concept. I can see how many of those details can be solved but the biggest are of concern is in regard to the interactions of the viewer/user. Some feedback I’ve been given is to change the interactions from discrete to intangible. This makes sense to me, however, I want to make the interactions so they can be discovered and have meaning to the overall piece and subject of the installation. the suggestion was made to use sensors to control the variables that influence the behavior of the pendulum.

A letter to myself

Phil,

When you started this journey you were 40 years old, how does death resonate with you now that another 40 year have passed? Is death still a cold silent darkness or have you lived enough that the cyclical nature of life is more please to your psyche? I learned innumerable things along the way to the point in my life and I wonder what other pieces have fallen into place since writing this. Did the world crumble around us? Did we find a way to save this earth or did the damage take over? Are you even reading this right now or was this sent into the void never to be unearthed by my future self?

The hope for this project was to make people understand how time moves on without regard for anything around it. To make us think about the present and how the future for all of us is the same, death comes for us all, and weather you believe in reincarnation, heaven or hell, or an afterlife of some sort we must realize that it will not be the same as it now. The memories of this lifetime will not influence nor come to light in the infinite time of death. I’ve said it before, this thought of death, how we relate to it, and how it will inevitably come to fruition is not morbid; its real. Even for Methuselah’s children death descended upon them, we as a society must strive to normalize death in a way that makes us unafraid of what is to come. I think that’s why I look at death so much, I am not at peace with death. This piece is therapy in a way, forcing me to understand fear of the unknown, forcing me to sit with uncomfortable thoughts. There are very few constants in life, in fact I can really on think of one and that is death. For whatever lives must die, must return to stardust, must continue the cycle of entropy to afford the ever-present expansion and eventual contraction to the cosmos.

Phil, I hope meaning found its way to you. I hope that you feel as though you have accomplished what you were put here to do, I don’t yet know what that is and I probably won’t for years to come.

With all the love possible,

phil at year 40

Research will be compiled in the following are.na channel.

https://www.are.na/phil-caridi/thesis-research-ne1iwvgdfoy

If you want to see my work over the past year or so head to:

https://www.philcaridi.com

Thesis PT 1