Bob’s vision class week #1
This week we met Bob, our new vision teacher. We had the usual introductory session and he showed us some of his cool work he does.
He then introduced the idea of video feedback.
Wikipedia’s definition of ‘Video Feedback’:
Video feedback is the process that starts and continues when a video camera is pointed at its playback video monitor. The loop delay from camera to display back to camera is at least one video frame time, due to the input and output scanning processes; it can be more if there is more processing in the loop.
We then installed Max 7 onto our computers and Bob showed us how we could sort of simulate the effect on there. We only had access to our built in webcams but obviously if you had an external one, you can actually do it properly.
I’ve never used Max before so it was a little daunting going in and using it straight off the bat, but it has heaps of help sections and tutorials which made it a bit easier. Some of the effects you can put on your live feed are pretty sick, and combining them makes for some.... interesting combinations. It was a lot of fun and a good way to introduce the idea to us.
Next class we had with Bob, we had a super long (45min) creative session, where we bounced around a heap of ideas that you could do with vision, such as projection mapping onto dogs.... or creating simulation glasses or just a simulated game world with zombies ect. There were so many strange ideas we all came up with , it was interesting to hear everyones thought processes.
We then sorted ourselves off into groups and chose an idea for our assignment. The group I am part of (with Candy and Jake), we are creating a giant Etch-A-Sketch, using a projector, Max 7 and some other bits and pieces.
After that we did some OSC work on Max 7. OSC stands for Open Sound Control.
Here’s a nice definition I found:
“Open Sound Control (OSC) is a protocol for communication among computers, sound synthesizers, and other multimedia devices that is optimised for modern networking technology. Bringing the benefits of modern networking technology to the world of electronic musical instruments, OSC's advantages include interoperability, accuracy, flexibility, and enhanced organisation and documentation.
This simple yet powerful protocol provides everything needed for real-time control of sound and other media processing while remaining flexible and easy to implement.”
I don’t really know much about this kind of thing so I was a little confused to start with, but slowly picked it up along the way with a bit of help.
So during the lesson, we managed to connect our computers via OSC and Max and we could send each other messages and affect images and stuff we had set up on Max, which was pretty snazzy. That was a whole lot of fun and a cool way to see how you can connect your computers together to create things, such as installation works, with one doing the graphics and stuff whilst the other controls what is being sent out. Cool stuff. Thanks Bob!
