work in progress

| bio | exhibitions | images | contact |

moebius display

expressive hardware & software development

project to be developed with an antorchas foundation grant

los angeles 2004

| description |

description

“The existence of an infinite "strip" of 1s and 0s in the physical universe is a bit problematic. Couldn't one use some sort of Hilbert curve to pack an infinite line into a two dimensional space and read off the digits approximately?
Answer: Just make the strip a "Moebius Stripe".” http://mathforum.org/discuss/sci.math/a/m/120090/120192

During my last months of research at UCLA I've been studying different authors working in media arts and different approaches to art from science or technology. Most of these works end up in outputs standard like a printed paper, a computer’s screen or a data projector. System inputs for these projects are either simple interfases (like a mouse or a keyboard) or complex developments of sensors (tactile, motion, audition or even vision). In some way they are always acting as a switch: They produce a different kind of answer when they are on or off.
David Rockeby, one of the most interesting new media artists, states that this first moment of experimentation will be surpassed in a not very distant future, in which the artists will work developing their own expressive interfases (outputs). Following his words I'll begin a deeper description of my new output interfase project.
This interfase is a simple LED (light emitting diode) screen that has a spatial and conceptual modification.

Instead of being flat as the majority of screens, it will be moebius stripe shaped, a three-dimensional representation of the infinite.

Why building a screen as an artist? First, because I believe as McLuhan said, the medium is an important factor of the message. I feel that many “new media” artists are not thinking much in the technical and symbolic qualities of their final output -the screen/projector- that is becoming a commodity for this kind of art. A painter or a sculptor know the qualities of the materials with which they work. I believe that a new media artist also should get involved with the operation and the consequences of the technology that he uses for his projects.

Using “sealed boxes” like industrial softwares or hardwares, this type of art is losing connection and capacity of reflection on its materials. In my own experience, building handcrafted slide projectors for some of my installations has been a very interesting twist to my work.

In second term, I want to create this new space for expression because I think this representation of a non-Euclidean space as an output for a computer, will bring to surface many questions about visual and spatial representations. The idea of looking at an image or a word moving in a one sided three dimensional object can bring to my work many new ways for expressing ambiguity, of viewing at the same time two contradictory ideas, two poles sharing the same space.
In the piece “Together” showed for the first time in the 2002, I started working in the spatial relations between two opposite concepts.

The idea I'm following is to build the two sided led matrix and control circuits over a stripe of a flexible material, and then to twist it and join the extremes to form the moebius stripe.
To build this piece of hardware, I'll use 64 LED dot matrices (7x5) -each of these pieces is able to generate a character-, circuits and the wiring -that will work like a skeleton for the piece- necessary for the information to flow between the matrices.

For the development of this piece I'm also planning the adaptation of a software (controller) existing in the market. In order to study the physical characteristics of this work I built a prototype out of rigid cardboard squares with the same dimensions of the LED dot matrices linked by a material with a flexibility similar to the flat wires I'm willing to use for the project.

Although the device is going to have a power cable, the idea is that it can be manipulated by the spectators. I'm now starting my research on the subject looking for similar developments, companies or people who can help me in this project. If you know something in this area, please feel free to contact and tell me. The next steps in the development of this project include the final design of the circuits and the purchase of the components.

to know more about works in progress please contact me at: martin@martinbonadeo.com.ar

español