Michael Rodemer: Not You, Not Here
Artist(s):
Collaborators:
- Chris Peck
-
- University of Michigan
Title:
- Not You, Not Here
Exhibition:
Creation Year:
- 2000
Medium:
- Interactive telepresence installation
Category:
Artist Statement:
“Not you, Not Here” connects the present locus of the viewer with a remote, simultaneously co-existing place, enabling various modes of experiencing its otherness.
In the present instantiation of the artwork, the SIGGRAPH gallery and an outdoor location in Ann Arbor, Michigan are linked via the Internet, providing a video, audio, and data connection that makes some aspects of the faraway place present to viewers.
In addition to the computers which communicate live moving images and sound, others link to an EZ I/O interface board to read environmental sensors (for wind, rain, temperature, light) and transfer that information to the SIGGRAPH site, where it drives kinetic sculptures and a computer-orchestrated natural sound environment. The sculptures and sound translate aspects of the remote space into subjective correlatives that can be experienced directly, while projected numbers display a quantification of the changing features of the remote place.
The sonic aspect of “Not You, Not Here” consists of several independent layers controlled by MAX. Synthesized sounds representing the wind in Michigan are generated by an algorithm that takes actual wind data from Ann Arbor via the Internet as one of its parameters. A recorded reading of a short poem by Rodemer is played back with the turning of the camera control disc in Los Angeles. As the wheel is turned, MAX receives data through an EZ-I/O interface board and scrubs through the digital recording using Max Signal Processing, while also panning the sound so that its movement in the stereo field corresponds to the eye projection and the servo-camera in Michigan. If the control wheel is turned slowly from right to left, the entire poem is heard.
Contributors:
Sound Design
Chris Peck
Other Information:
Visitors to the piece standing in front of a rear-projected live video image of the remote space. (top)
Visitors turn a control disc onto which an eye is projected, thus controlling the position of the camera in the remote location. The eye looks left or right to provide visual feedback on that position, while the image on the large screen in front also changes. (bottom)
