Solidifying

To further firm and develop this dialogue between myself and and the embryonic idea, here is a formal pitch:

Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be developing a generative cinema piece – a branch of new-media art that I feel is an evolution and expansion of traditional cinematic narrative. This project will in part use my existing skills in video production, but will also introduce me to new ideas and experiments in developing systems work and expressive aesthetics. Specifically, I will become acquainted with Processing to develop the relationship between image and data, and familiarize with effects tools provided in After Effects to create an expressive landscape. Additionally, the genre of generative cinema leads to interesting and relevant ideas in new media work – this project is a vehicle to become more familiar with interactivity, data visualization, synthesis, computing, system aesthetics, and expressiveness in digital work.

...as I sink deeper into the creative process, the ocean of reference work becomes more dense. Contrary to my initial discussion, this piece uses a piece of traditional cinema to guide an abstract sequence of computer animations...

"Silica-Esc" 2010, Vladimir Todorovic

...looking beyond the literal appearance, channeling symbols and processes...

What Are Other Artists Doing?

From my initial aesthetic research, it seems that many generative cinema installations are both interactive, abstract, and use sound at the forefront of their experience. Here is what I'm chewing on right now...

"Memoria" 2006, Springer/Parker

"Generating Live 2" 2001, Geert Mul

"Probe" 2008, Boris Debackere (and others)

Article about Boris Debackere

"Soil" 2005, Ulf Langheinrich

Great quote by the artist, Geert Mul: "...I'm not too interested in the great static narrative. But my films should bear no trace of the other extreme: arbitrariness. So I look for as much coherence as is necessary to envoke an atmosphere or a theme without it immediately becoming a story."

"Memoria" gives me some nice ideas on how to approach the construction of a piece like this. I like how the artists collect images, sounds, and etches from real locations, then process the content into expressive materials. Maintaining and/or respecting the aura, geist, and integrity of materials and processes in my work is something I wish to explore and practice.

It has Begun - Starting Thoughts...

The process will start with the idea of generative cinema - a responsive cinema experience that is expressive of external, real-time data. There is a tendency to look into a type "click" cinema, where a user is choosing different paths and guiding a narrative, but this too closely resembles the video-game. In fact, I would like to steer clear of explicit interaction with human users, and only interact with data collected from organic or social forces - a cinematic experience being led by weather, socio-economics, crime, peace, etc.

Over the course of the next week, I will determine my aesthetic and technologic starting points. Questions like: What type of imagery will be used? What types of data will guide my piece? How will I access and express this data? Real-time or Static? Installation, Web-based, Auditorium? What other artists have created generative cinema, and how are my ideas different? What new tools do I need to learn?

The movie plays different everytime, because the world is different at every moment.