This photo shows 3 of 4 projections panels in the VAG cupola. Note that the image on the right has not been fully mapped to the panel shape (yet).

I have been working since January on The Glocal Project, a large-scale contributive art project being run out of the Surrey Art Gallery's TechLab. The  team as a whole has been developing a series of simple software applications designed to act as creative and pedagogical tools for both individuals and educators.

A couple of weeks back, we had the chance to bring some of our work out of the lab and into the Vancouver Art Gallery, where we presented a large four-screen projection in the Gallery's rotunda cupola.

A grid of images from a single camera feed mapped onto the cupola panels

Technically, this presented a challenge. Not only did we want to have four linked screens in which images could overlap - we also wanted the projections to be 'mapped' to the four curved panels of the cupola. All four panels together would be shown in 'flat' form on four plasma screens. To add to the confusion, we would be running four live camera feeds into the system - three webcams and one wireless DV camera. 4 cameras. 6 computers. 8 screens. As has been the case for much of the Glocal project, we turned to Processing for a solution.

Thanks to everyone who attended my session at FB08 - I will get my lecture notes and demo files up here over the next few days.

I am still basking in the warm afterglow of a really outstanding conference. Dave Schroeder and his crew deserves a full basket of kudos for continuing the tradition of awesomeness at this now-famous event.

Since I spoke first thing in the morning on Monday, I managed to watch more presentations than I usually do during these events. Though there were too many to list in full, here are a few selected highlights:

• Phil Van Allen's Tuesday morning talk on New Ecology of Things. Phil is a researcher at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. It was great to hear someone speak so succinctly about the issues surrounding tangible computing and pervasive technology.
• Julian Dolce's talk on... physical computing! It was good to get an all around review of the available options, and some code demos of integrating tech with Flash.
• I think pretty much everyone left André Michelle's talk feeling inadequate. His work with Hobnox is nothing short of awe-inspiring. the man may quite possibly be a machine.
• Robert Hodgin's closing keynote. Though I had seen most of that was shown before, it was good to get some insight into Robert's process. Did you know that he owns 10,000 dice, and hates ants? It's true.

One of my only regrets is that I missed Mario Klingemann's presentation on Tuesday morning (did I mention I finished on Monday?). Luckily I'll have a chance to make amends in a few months at Flash on the Beach.

Rather than continuing to blanket this blog with videos from my current project-in-progress, I've set up a Vimeo channel which those of you who are interested can subscribe to. I'll be posting a lot of videos there as changes are made, to document the process and to gather feedback where I can.

Here's the URL: http://www.vimeo.com/coloureconomy

There are a couple of new videos up there already - please drop by and have a look.

What if pixels were free? What if they could trade their computer-given red, green, and blue values in pursuit of a profit?

The Colour Economy imagines an artificial economy of pixels, in which individual 'traders' exchange colour. In this pixel performance, the seed image creates a region in the bottom right which is wealthier than the regions surrounding it:

As the economy develops, this wealthy population separates itself physically from the traders with little colour capital.

Here are three video renders of the system unfolding:

The Colour Economy: The Gap Between the Rich and the Poor from blprnt on Vimeo.

The Colour Economy: In the end, we will have more important things to worry about from blprnt on Vimeo.

Market conditions fluctuate in each run of the simulation, so though some general things remain constant with each seed image, the performance happens differently every time.

There is a nice little feature on Apple.com about French artist Jean-Pierre Hébert. Hébert is perhaps best known as a member of the Algorists, a group that includes other algorithm-based artists such as Roman Verostko and Manfred Mohr.

Though the article contains the expected amount of Apple propaganda, it also gives some interesting information about Hébert and his practice. Since 2003, Hébert has been artist in residence at the Kavil Institute for Theoretical Physics at UCSB. This provides an unusual opportunity to collaborate directly with scientists, and this influence certainly shows in his work. 

According to the article, Hébert is currently working to set up a new conference for people interested in the crossover between art and physics. The conference for Physics, Art, Dance, Music and Education will be something to watch out for (and might be the winner of the Dorkiest Acronym Ever Award).

Flashbelt 2008 is looking to (once again) raise the bar for creative web technology conferences. I've said this again and again over the past five years - if you are going to choose one conference to go over the year, make it Flashbelt. The speakers' list this year is perhaps the best ever - here's a little taste:

• Robert Hodgin (Flight404.com)
• Jared Tarbell (complexification.net)
• Mario Klingemann (quasimondo.com)
• Seb Lee-Delisle (sebleedelisle.com)
• André Micheller (andre-michelle.com)

And there's more. Check out the conference site for the full list, and to get a taste of what each presenter will be talking about.

The theme of my talk this year is emergence. It's a concept that has been central to my work from the start and over the last year or so I have been thinking a lot about the role that emergence plays in the creative process. Here's my official session description:

"Emergence refers to the way that complex systems and patterns arise out of relatively simple interactions. In this session we'll look into some of the ideas behind emergence, and will explore in detail the role it plays in the creative process. We'll talk about the role that emergence plays in a variety of diverse areas, including AI, economics, and philosophy. Along the way, I'll show a variety of new generative works which tread into emergent territories, and will unravel some of the underlying code that brings these projects to life."