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.

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.

I am just finishing up a tutorial post on using spherical coordinates. It should be up on the blog sometime over the weekend - I need to go over it with my editor's comb one more time, and insert some links here and there.

While I was uploading the sample files to my server, I stumbled on an old Processing project that I had completely forgotten about. In Freeze Tag, a group of Tagger particles chase a group of targets. When they catch the targets, they freeze them. Targets can be unfrozen by their friends, but they risk becoming frozen themselves in doing so.  It's a fairly stable system, for a while, and it's fun to watch.

Check it out here. I would like to revisit this and maybe combine it with some newer projects that I am working on. I'll add it to my list! As always, comments or questions are appreciated. 

Umbrella Storm on White from blprnt on Vimeo.

Check out the stills rendered in full res here. 

Variance was born out of a year-long exploration into genetic algorithms and evolutionary computing, and their possible applications within the creative process. 

It can be argued that the traditional design process is not too far removed from the classical evolutionary process. Individuals (our designs) are introduced into a competitive environment (our brains, or perhaps, our clients' brains). The ones that survive are deemed to be the best. This fits nicely into the low level 'survival of the fittest' model of evolution but it doesn't consider some of the other key elements - namely mutation and hybridization.

Variance is an attempt to provide a creative tool for designers that can leverage some of the power of evolution. Using Variance, designers can harness genetic algorithms to brainstorm or refine compositional ideas. The classical design process becomes the Evolutionary Design Process.

I would consider this version of Variance to be pre-alpha - it is more of a proof of concept than it is a working application. Still, it show some promise. Here, I'll use the application to design a logo for Variance itself.

The first step is to select colours, compositional elements, and typefaces. We do this from the 'controls' panel: