Vision Machines

8 Sep 11 - 22 Oct 11
Keywords: Low Tech, Wearable, Assemblage, Photography, Remeditation

Vision Machines is all about tools that force people to look at art. In my current research on using robots to look at art, I question how people look at art. Is it possible to force someone to really see a work of art? Must a viewer be open to a subject to be critical and enjoy a painting? Such questions arise from the current debate on whether a work of art can only be meaningful for people who want to delve into it. The artworks I made for the MX7 Gallery influence the space located between the observer and the art object. The process of looking at art, and perception itself, are questioned through a series of objects and photo documentation. They reveal the viewer’s own way of seeing and provide an alternative gateway to the viewing process.
The wearable assemblies consist of recycled objects - including the world of photography - constructed with wire frames of brass and silver solder. The 3d works hang in the gallery at eye level as if they are worn by unseen visitors. Also exhibited are pictures of models that demonstrate the work. On the right a video-loop of the piece Shutter realised with Geert Sinke. I shot the fotos below on location in Antwerp at FoMu with the work of photographer Elke Andreas Boon and media artist Frederik De Wilde in the MX7 Gallery. Models: Annelie Ansingh, Lotte Hoogzand, Margot Hierholz, Geert Sinke.

Pretty Smart Textiles 2011

Apr 11 - May 11
Keywords: Exhibition Design, Museum Interface, Fashion, Electronic Textiles, Wearable Technology

This year I made the design for Pretty Smart Textiles, a traveling exhibition that showcases the latest developments in the world of electronic textiles, a new medium at the intersections of fashion, art and technology, where innovative materials and electronics are integrated in textiles. The exhibition is an interactive experience leading the viewer through a multi-sensory discovery of new possibilities for garments and interior architecture. The exhibition shows the works of Dutch artists and designers in this emerging field, who through their contemplative aesthetical designs are distinguishing themselves on the world stage.
These pictures and video by David Joosten show the exhibition during the Future Textiles conference in Herning Denmark in May 2011. On the first pictures in the slideshow below you can see that transparent fabric was used to separate the exhibition from the conference room in the middle. The video tour on the right shows the interactive samples we developed with the participating artists to enable the visitor to touch and experience the interactive pieces. More pictures are to be found on the following Flickr-set. A brochure that contains a selection of the works shown at the Pretty Smart Textiles exhibition can be downloaded here. More information can be found on the project website prettysmarttextiles.com.

Introspection

Apr 11 - ongoing
Keywords: Brain Imaging, AR Projection, Neurocinema, Neurosculpture

Introspection is a self-portrait of the invisible internal processes. Different techniques from neuroscientific research register an artistic process in my brain, which ultimately will result in real-time neurosculptures based on the anatomy of the brain.
Introspection is a collaboration with Dr. Sarah Rijcke, a specialist in the field of neuroscience. The final chapter of her dissertation paper Regarding The Brain, on objectivity in cerebral imaging, serves as an inspiration for the work.
These pictures show my first work combining a 3D-print of my head, an MRI-scan, AR projection and projection mapping. For this project I have been experimenting with Dr. Gerwin De Haan from the Virtual Reality Lab at the Technical University of Delft with his software for 3D tracking and 3D projection.

Public Window

Dec 10 - ongoing
Keywords: Public Window Foundation, Teleoperation, Social Media

Public Window is a project I initiated with Jacqueline Petit to promote interactive art in public spaces. Artists get the opportunity to develop interactive work for the audience on the street and the internet user at a distance. The viewer can change form, movement and / or lighting of the works through the use of touch-screens fitted to the window, movement or an online interface. For the pilot in Leiden the artists Thomas Wildner and Guido Winkler developed interactive works in two shop windows. These first two windows Public Window 001 and Public Window 002 were located at Aalmarkt 12 and Stille Rijn 9 in Leiden and linked through an online network.
Public Window is a reaction to social networks, which only connect virtual spaces through a digital interface. The Public Window network goes further and employs teleoperation techniques to physically change real world spaces, making interactive artworks accessible both locally and in the rest of the world. For more information check the project website.

ObserverObject

Sep 10 - ongoing
Keywords: Self-Image, Self-Portrait, Perception, Face-Tracking, Game Controller

ObserverObject is the first in a series of self-portraits of Joachim Rotteveel. The work is part of an artistic research about self-portraits in contemporary media. ObserverObject is a replica of Joachim Rotteveel’s head, equipped with touch/pressure sensors and LED’s behind a flexible silicone skin. Cameras are mounted in the eye sockets with a tracking system that tries to identify and track the face of the observer. When an individual is seen by the head he can manipulate his own image in a 3D environment by moving his head. Pushing on the highlighted spots on the face changes the projected self-image.
In this interactive self-portrait you look through the eyes of the artist -the eyes of the artwork- at yourself. Through an activity involving both touching and looking you become involved in something not unsimilar to drawing. Touching and operating an artificial head gives a very different – and perhaps more intimate – experience of an electronic interface than you generally would expect from electronic devices. In most cases, an apparatus is an extension of the human body, in this design the human form is an extension of the apparatus. With this work Joachim tries to make people aware of how the process of seeing and being seen works. Seeing is a feedback loop in which the observer is involved in the artwork. The installation ObserverObject is both an object and an observer who is changed by the act of seeing. The object and the observer are one. ObserverObject was made in collaboration with V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media during the Summer Sessions Residencies 2010.

Laterna Magica

16 Nov 09 - 28 Nov 09
Keywords: State of the AR, Laterna Magica, Machine Mediated Vision, Head Mounted Display

This cube constructed out of black and white boxes simultaneously holds the past and future of vision machines. The boxes on the outside form a 2D-bar-code pattern which trigger a huge virtual artwork when viewed by a visitor wearing special virtual reality goggles. On the inside of the box a red world full of priceless old pre-cinematic devices are giving visitors a glance into the way people saw the world 200 years ago. Magic Lantern Museum in Scheveningen provided their collection for this installation. The realization of this installation was in close cooperation with Henk Boelmans Kranenburg, Bas de Boer, Melissa Coleman and Ferenc Molnár.

Spectator 1.0

16 Nov 09 - 28 Nov 09
Keywords: State of the AR, KABK, AR Lab, TU-Delft, Augmented Reality, Robotic Vision

This automated visitor is a mannequin transformed into a robot. The dummy is wearing goggles with which 3D-images can be seen as projections over the real world. A camera in the headset captures the black and white paintings and a computer program translates these to 3D-images which are projected on a wall behind him. This way one can witness both the real world and the virtual combined as if one is looking through the eyes of a robot. This installation was realized in collaboration with the AR Lab, Bio-Robotics Lab - TU-Delft 3ME, Xavier Amoros, Yutaro Takahashi and Wim van Eck. The visual-code-paintings where executed by fine artists Erik van de Belt and Halbe Nicolai.

RFID Timeline

16 Nov 09 - 28 Nov 09
Keywords: State of the AR, AR Lab, RFID, FabLab

The interactive time line is a new way of retrieving and showing activities of the last three years of the AR Lab. This system allows one to physically interact with digital documentation. The RFID-tags (wireless identifying chips) give visitors a handle into a digital database. Each event is reduced to a moment in time and a number. Only when the visitor gives the archive event his attention does the richness of that past moment erupt when the machine speaks its story and beams its visions. This installation was realized in cooperation with Marcel Kerkmans, Melissa Coleman, Wim van Eck, Diederik Voortman and CabFabLab.

3D Pop-Up Book

24 Oct 08 - 4 Jan 09
Keywords: Sgraffito in 3D, Augmented Reality, AR-Toolkit

The 3D Pop-Up Book is an elegantly printed, large format book of poetry complementing the iconography of the sgraffito protagonists with writings and music of its time. When held before a web cam the book becomes the interface for medieval soundscapes and animations of the 2D carvings moving out of, then back into, its dish in 3D. Curator Historic Design Drs. Alexandra Gaba-Van Dongen and medieval music expert Margot Kalse chose the texts and music on the basis of their research into the iconography in the context of the Sgraffito in 3D project. The 3D-animations were realized in collaboration with Mit Koevoets.

Reconstruction Lab

24 Oct 08 - 4 Jan 09
Keywords: Sgraffito in 3D, Augmented Reality, 3D-printing, Rapid Manufacturing, AR-Toolkit

What if archaeological objects could tell you about their history? Imagine holding a 3D-printed shard of pottery in front of a web cam, which then reveals to you how it was once whole, that it got broken and then later was reconstructed. In Reconstruction Lab the archaeological pottery tells visitors about its history. By holding a 3D-printed shard of pottery in front of a web cam it reveals to you its missing pieces. The 3D-printed shard acts as an interface for the virtual object: when you move the shard in your hand you move both the physical and virtual object simultaneously as if it were one object. This installation was realized in collaboration with Frank Berg and Wim van Eck of the AR Lab.

3D Archive

24 Oct 08 - 4 Jan 09
Keywords: Sgraffito in 3D, Serious Gaming, Unity3D

What would a virtual 3D-archive of digitalized cultural heritage look like? The archive, its design based on the kind of pits in which many archaeological discoveries are made, collects virtual objects which can be summoned from the depths. The objects can be virtually manipulated, broken, put back together and can be downloaded online for one’s own purposes, such as 3D-printing, study of the object or as a part of one’s own 3D-artwork or archive. A simplified version of the Unity3D program was exported to the web at sgraffito-in-3d.com.

Protagonist-Antagonist

24 Oct 08 - 4 Jan 09
Keywords: Sgraffito in 3D, Rapid Prototyping, Rapid Manufacturing, 3D Printing

Seven protagonists of the sgraffito earthenware collection of van Beuningen-de Vriese were copied through the process of 3D-scanning and 3D-printing. These clones, the antagonists, were placed in front of the archaeological objects. In a break with tradition, visitors could take these objects in their hands and with their fingers follow the traces drawn half a millennium ago while looking through the glass of the vitrine at the real untouchable object. The 3D-printed clones thus mediate the archaeological objects through tactile feedback.

CT Scan Video

24 Oct 08 - 4 Jan 09
Keywords: Sgraffito in 3D, Computed Tomography, Medical Imaging, Digital Heritage

Twenty-two objects from the sgraffito earthenware collection of van Beuningen-de Vriese were scanned with a CT-scanner. The CT-Scan video is an artistic interpretation of this process. The visitor follows the path of the CT-scanner as its X-rays move through the object without destroying it and allows the visitor to see an object on the inside through the eye of a machine.

Sgraffito in 3D: Late medieval earthenware as viewed by Joachim Rotteveel

24 Oct 08 - 4 Jan 09
Keywords: Cultural Heritage, Computed Tomography, Rapid Manufacturing, Augmented Reality

The exhibition ‘Sgraffito in 3D’ at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen registers the process of 3D-reconstruction of medieval sgraffito-ceramics (period 1450-1550) of the former private collection Van Beuningen-de Vriese. Seven important archaeological pieces of the collection were made digitally accessible with innovative visualization techniques used in the medical world and the industry. The exhibition has been made possible by the Erasmus Medical Centre (Radiology department), TNO Science and Industry (Rapid Manufacturing Demo Centre), the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (AR+RFID Lab), the Erasmus Foundation and SenterNovem. Documentation is to be found on the project website and the press release on the museum website.

Sgraffit-o-matic

Mar 08 - Apr 08
Keywords: 3D Milling, Sgraffito, .ekwc

A 3D-milling machine is programmed to draw a design in a wet clay tablet using the sgraffito technique. Sgraffito (also known as slip carving) is a traditional decoration technique -used to decorate ceramics- in which a top layer (engobe) has designs scratched into it, revealing the layer of red clay beneath. This technique was used in Holland in the late middle ages (1450 to 1550). In drawing, the machine reveals a logic of its own, which is alien to the way a human would.

‘Oorsprong’

Mar 08 - Apr 08
Keywords: Interactive Installation, Artist in Residency, .ekwc

‘Oorsprong’ is an interactive installation commenting on the relationship between the model and the serial object. A mass-produced object becomes an artwork in the process of personalization. In the context of the Sgraffit-o-rama project for Museum Boijmans van Beuningen I have had a residency at European Ceramic Work Center (.ekwc) in Den Bosch, The Netherlands. Although I did some sculpting at the art academy I had never worked with clay before. The .ekwc gave me the opportunity to learn all about ceramics, moulding and casting techniques. The slides below show the making process.

Sliced Vision

Jul 07
Keywords: Computed Tomography

A 15th century cooking pot from the private collection of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen was ct-scanned at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). The video leads the viewer through the material of the object.

Céramique Électronique

Jun 07
Keywords: Robotic Ceramics

‘Céramique Électronique is the working title of a proposal for Robotic Ceramics. The concept concerns the transformation of archeological objects into robots as a way to show the ceramic collection in a cultural historical perspective. A fully automated reconstruction-technique is suggested by applying electronmechanical technology to an archeological object. Parasite Archéologique: A hydrolical spider transforms shreds into a vase. This proces is initiated when a visitor is in the vicinity of the object. The ceramic robot reacts as a living creature. As if it were an insect quickly trying to hide.