Bring To Light workshops // New York City 26/27 – 09

Bring to Light- Madmapper v5
Boris and I have been invited to New York to do a presentation and workshop as part of the week of activities leading up to the Bring To Light festival.

Monday, September 26th – 7pm (FREE)
An hour-long lecture about GarageCUBE software, and MadMapper will take place at 113 E. 2nd Street between First Avenue and Avenue A, downstairs entrance. See you there!

1 Modul8 and Mapping – September 27th, 4-7pm ($80)
The first workshop will give an overview of the Modul8 software, delving into how to use this industry-standard non-linear presentation tool, as well as the basics of MadMapper. If you’re familiar with Modul8, you will have an opportunity to push your skills; if you’re just starting out, you’ll get expert advice from the people that wrote the industry-standard of non-linear compositing and editing effect software. In addition, the projection mapping software that runs parallel to Modul8, MadMapper, will be introduced.

Requirements
- Mac OS X based computer running 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or greater
- VGA adapter that you can use with your computer

Participants are encouraged to download the software before the workshop, and we ask that participants have prior experience in video instalation and/or video performance. This will make it a lot easier to focus on the mapping aspect of the software during the workshop rather than technical assistance.

2 Mapping with MadMapper – September 27th, 8-11pm ($80)
The second workshop will present the MadMapper tool, allowing participants to map on numerous challenging surfaces. Mapping isn’t just for squares any more; GarageCube will be presenting their multi-map and bezier functions in the upcoming MadMapper release. Participants are encouraged to download the software before the workshop*, and have some prior experience using a VJ software. This workshop will tackle advanced mapping concepts, including multiple maps, the Spacial Scanner, and the cross-application framework, Syphon. Presented by Boris and Ilan from GarageCUBE.

Requirements
- Mac OS X based computer running 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or greater
- VGA adapter that you can use with your computer

Participants are encouraged to download the software before the workshop, and we ask that participants have prior experience in video instalation and/or video performance. This will make it a lot easier to focus on the mapping aspect of the software during the workshop rather than technical assistance.

If you are interested in attending, e-mail workshops@bringtolightnyc.org, include the following information:
- First and last name
- Which workshop(s) you would like to participate in (1 and/or 2)
- Occupation
- Samples of your work (vimeo/youtube links and jpegs – under 500k)
- A picture of your cat, dog or pet fish

* When you have successfully registered for either workshop, you will receive a promotional code for a special discount of MadMapper and Modul8.

Sign up today, space is limited.

If you Facebook you are more then welcome to join up with the associated event page.

posted by modul8.us @ 21 September, 2011 2 comments »

Video Art

Everything we see has a precedent, and this especially true of the visuals world. Sometimes the preceding work can actually can be more portent because of its pioneering processes. Before I got involved with video I spent some time programming. This craft lead me to a brief period at a company that, amongst its usual printers and servers had a small sound studio with a rack of equipment that looked a bit out of place, notably for using wood, nameless silver knobs and patch chords. I was informed that this strange rack was actually used for mixing.

Matthew Schlanger was the co-owner of this company where I was working and also the person who built and made art with this video mixing rack. Several years later, the company occupied a larger space and adorning the walls were paintings made from his video generated imagery.

Fast forward to a few days ago and I receive a message from Matthew. He is coming to Berlin because a gallery is showing his work and he is a huge fan of Modul8!

The show is tomorrow and you can connect to the facebook event here.

Last night Matthew showed me an experiment he had done with Modul8. Right on the first frame I knew right away that this was not a logical render. His immediate response was ‘yeah, I am all analog. I had this running through…’ and he proceeded to explain the processes and devices that he used to enhance this image. He apologized for the thin white, dotted line on the far right edge and I demanded that he not do so for the very fact validates that this is ‘real’ analog signal.

Due to the magic of the internet and YouTube Matthew has posted many of his works prior to the digital video revolution. Take a break and have a look.

*** Brief update ***
At the request of twitter follower Matthew has added information about how he processes the signal that we see in the above video.

posted by modul8.us @ 7 April, 2011 2 comments »

Come Play with Fire!

Come and PLAY WITH FIRE Festival
As of November 1st I will be visiting my old home town of New York City for the entire month. Most of my colleagues here in Europe say ‘nice’ and it is. But it is no vacation. I have arranged for several events to take place. The most relevant one to Modul8 users will be a two hour presentation of Modul8 on November 15th at Harvestworks as part of the Play With Fire Festival that has been most efficiently curated by Kristen Trethewey.

Two hours is not a lot to get very deep into Modul8. Its simplicity is deceptive. I did a two day workshop in Barcelona last year and besides feeling a bit exhausted I felt that I was able to cover almost everything beyond getting entangled in Python scripting, something I have yet grapple enough with to be able to conduct a workshop on.

I will take a consensus of the attendees level of experience with Modul8. If the majority says ‘we have no idea what this about’ then it will be fairly basic. However as we are nearing the release of Modul8 2.6 I will pepper in some of the new features we have and how to use them. In particular Sound Analysis, a brief demonstration of DMX control from within Modul8 featuring the mighty ENTTEC DMX USB Pro interface and as I always did prior to WACOM support, some live drawing using the Paint module. Even if you are a well seasoned user, you might want to show up just to say hi or give me that promo DVD you never got around to sending us via post.

As for the performances and discussions, some notable Mapping Festival participants from previous editions will be present. In particular the inspiring and heart warming Artist and Professor Raphael Di Luzio and the renegade film maker and audio visual performer Rafaël.
There are also some close friends from my SHARE days such as Paris Treantafeles, Mary Ann Benedetto and Adam Kendall. There are also quite a few names on the bill that are either vaguely familiar or completely foreign to me. Whoever they are I look forward to meeting them.

Do have a look at the Play With Fire site for further, in depth details about the performances, workshops and talks.

Look forward to meeting you there on November 15th!

posted by admin @ 31 October, 2009 0 comments »

Andy Graydon’s “Scaffold”

Artist and modul8 user Andy Graydon brought to my attention an installation he created last year for LMAKprojects in New York City. ‘Scaffold’ was part of group show by the name of ‘A fold in the fabric’. Beyond the esthetic beauty and simplicity of this piece Andy illuminated for me the process he used in creating this installation in which modul8 played a significant role. Andy generously provided m8.us with a description of this process:

“Modul8 was perfect for manipulating, layering, and moving simple line graphics to create “Scaffold”, a spatially mapped projected light installation. The piece was created by setting the video projector in place and locking it down, aimed into a corner of the gallery space. With my laptop connected to both the projector and to a DV camera, I took a simple .tif line graphic and shifted its x,y, and z axes until they mapped tightly against the seams between walls, wall and ceiling, and other architectural details. Modul8 kept this simple and relatively intuitive, allowing me to essentially paint the piece up onto the walls without rendering or keyframing. I was then able to use Automove and Autoscale to create slow repeating movements in the lines. When these movements were gradual they created a subtle destabilizing effect in the empty room. When they were more dynamic, the lines moved over large areas of wall, revealing new shadow areas and highlighting textural details of the surfaces — repaintings, spackle, pitted concrete, etc. — which made a nice reply to the purely platonic form of the light sculpture when still.”

To see the final results have a look at the video documentation.

posted by admin @ 4 March, 2007 0 comments »