Only recently has the west coast of the United States, particularly California, especially southern California received the credit it deserves for the long history of abstract and experimental film work that has gone on here. The Iota Center is a non profit organization that among other things preserves, archives and provides information about that history. Among some of the more known film artists it has in it's collection are John and James Whitney, Pat O'Neil (one of my personal favorite experimental film makers), Kenneth Anger, Ernie Pintoff, Patricia Marx, Sara Petty, Chris Casady, John Adamczyk, Richard Baily and Larry Cuba to name a few.

Fellow board member of the Iota Center, Pamela Turner Chair of the Department of Kinetic Imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University, has done a lot to help Iota in its mission. Her latest endeavor was to put out a DVD on Adam Beckett, an artist who died young, at the age of 29 in 1978. She was greatly assisted by Iota staff member, Paul Shepherd, and Larry Cuba founder of Iota.

Adam Beckett worked prior to the digital revolution, a maverick who using optical printing, the animation stand and hand drawn animation left an indelible legacy. He is dearly beloved by many of his fellow classmates at CalArts and many in the film community here in Los Angeles and elsewhere. Who should go into the records of art/film history is always an interesting subject up for debate. Pamela Turner and the Iota Center with the release of a new DVD of Adam Beckett's work is making a strong case for his inclusion.

Below is my interview with Pamela Turner

What attracted you to Beckett as an artist?

Like many people, I had never heard of Adam Beckett so when two of my friends, Larry Cuba and Chris Casady, said how wonderful his work was and what a shame that it was included in the Kinetica screenings that The iotaCenter did, I was curious. Larry had a few prints of Beckett’s work and I asked to see them. I was immediately mesmerized. His animations were not like anything I had seen from that time period, the 1970s. I couldn’t figure out how they were created. I recognized a grammar of light and abstraction that referenced synthesized video imagery and computer graphics and wondered if he could have had access to those technologies that early. So, there was a technical curiosity but more so the imagery was just incredibly compelling.

What made you decide to create a DVD on his work?

Making the DVD seemed to be the logical outcome of the project. The iotaCenter, with the Academy Film Archive, had restored his primary films, thanks to a grant from the NFP, and these were then shown at the National Gallery of Art, REDCAT and a few other venues. I was constantly interviewing people who had known Adam and investigating his life and work, looking at the huge amount of his art that his family had archived. When I presented his work I would include his drawings and unreleased segments of animations to try to give an accurate picture of Adam as an artist. The response that his work received made it clear to me that his work needed to be more readily available to the public.

What do you think his major contributions have been to the world of experimental and commercial film?

There are the technical contributions of the additive animation cycle where he creates a simple cycle and draws more each time the cycle continues and the intensive, orchestration of the optical printer that he did to completely transform the image. But ultimately it is the visual energy of the work itself. He had a unique vision and an ability to innovate and marry the technical to the visual. He was committed to discovery, to create imagery that had not been seen before. I see this especially in “Heavy-Light”. It’s made from a few drawings but it is his process – his acting on the drawings – that evoke the ethereal light show that we see. He could not have known 100% what these images would look like. He experimented. So, it’s that innovative spirit, the pursuit of new, compelling, mysteriously concocted images that continues to inspire artists both in animation and visual effects.

How has he influenced other artists?

Again, I think it’s his innovative spirit and the idea of making so much from the basis of a few drawings. His commitment to abstraction in order to express a cosmic or psychedelic experience, while retaining a sense of humor, is compelling. His work is a wonderful example of what Gene Youngblood called “synaesthetic cinema” in his book “Expanded Cinema”. Adam’s work is a visualization of forces and energy, the phenomena of experiencing the kinetic journey.

What are your personal favorites of his work, and why?

My personal favorites change from week to week! For now I would say “Flesh Flows” because it’s a beautiful film and it also illustrates Adam’s diverse expertise. There is wonderful, playful drawing, and exquisite work on the optical printer. It also carries us, as Adam said in his description for this film, from the carnal to the cosmic. It really speaks to the time it was created, and has a sense of humor that moves into the ethereal. The sound is also a departure and shows Adam’s talent for creating interesting soundtracks that are not necessarily ‘musical’.

Something about your background especially as it led you to Beckett?

My academic background is in art history and in electronic media. I have a studio practice in animation media and I have the curiosity of a reporter or art historian. Adam’s work grabbed my attention because it included animation with references to video synthesis and early computer graphics. I felt there was something there to be found out. It turns out all of his work was hand drawn, but I was not surprised, although thrilled, to learn that he did have a class with Nam June Paik when he first got to CalArts. So Adam was familiar with the images from the video camera and the Paik/Abe synthesizer. His work is a marker at a crossroads of technology.

The making of the DVD…

Making the DVD was truly a labor of love that involved many people. It contains a significant amount of material beyond the six primary films. Paul Shepard, Larry Cuba and I collaborated in the actual building of the DVD. Paul did a lot of the legwork, getting permissions and working out the transfers, and getting the work to where it needed to be. I selected the work to be on the DVD and with Larry’s assistance, came up with the organization of the material. I designed the menus and wrote the text for the cover and insert and provided some of the material. Larry tirelessly checked, proof-read, and reviewed the text and disc. I hesitate to list the other many people who made this possible for fear of leaving someone out!

Mark Toscano is the archivist at the Academy Film Archive who restored the Beckett films and has always been dedicated to Adam’s work. Pat O’Neill generously did digital scans of Adam’s loops, and Rhythm and Hues digitally scanned the 35mm “Life in the Atom” and segments of “Knotte Grosse”. Wade Ivy and Elder Sun contributed an interview they filmed of Jules Engel remembering Adam. There is a touching homage to Adam by David Berry that shows Adam in the early days at CalArts, at his home, romping on the beach and at a young ILM studio.

“Every Other” by Adam Beckett and Kathy Rose is on the DVD, and is sort of an exquisite corpse collaboration that had never been animated. I found the drawings amongst Adam’s many artworks and, with Kathy’s permission, shot them on the animation stand. There were also two sequences of drawings that seem related to his unfinished “Life in the Atom” that I found and animated. Once I had animated them I realized that although they were numbered as two distinct segments, they flowed one into the other as one piece.

Another collaborative piece is “The Letter” by James Gore and Adam. Because of Gore’s influence on Adam, and many other artists, we thought it would be appropriate to include Gore’s other surviving animation, “Dream of the Sphinx”. The Academy Archive restored it and it is a delight to see!

Adam drew obsessively and his family has a large collection of his work, which I have been attempting to digitally archive. His drawings express so much about his life and his talent I decided a sampling of these belonged on the DVD too.

So, this DVD is very comprehensive and reflects the work of many people. I must say when I first held the finished shrink-wrapped product in my hand I was thrilled! Adam’s work is now available to a much wider audience, a new generation of fans.

Anything else you would like to mention?

Carl Stone made a soundtrack for "Life in the Atom", which allowed him in a way to collaborate with Adam again.

Who is Pamela Turner?

Pamela Taylor Turner is a media artist and writer whose studio work encompasses photography, video, film, and digital media.  She graduated with a B.F.A. in Art History/Studio (1984) and a M.F.A. in Visual Communication/Electronic Media (1988).  She is Chair of the Department of Kinetic Imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University, teaching animation and new media with an emphasis on mixing media and exploring the possibilities of expression through created moving images and sound composition.

Interview with Russ Haines of Eye Vapor

Russ Haines is at the forefront of interactive technologies and is also one of the principals at Eye Vapor. Besides being extremely talented and personable, Russ Haines is very generous about sharing his knowledge.

1. Russ, please tell me a bit about your background. What are your involvements with the 2 companies, Touch and Eye Vapor?

Jeff Smith and I started Eye Vapor a few years back when Derivative's Touch Designer got cool enough to use without going mad. Derivative liked some of my work and hired me to make a series of video tutorials.

2. How did you first become involved with Touch Designer, and how did that lead to the opening up of your company, Eye Vapor(if it did)?

Jeff told me about Touch a decade ago. I tried it out, but graphics cards weren't fast enough to pull off a lot of the cool tricks, and the learning curve to get started was steeper than my interest in banging my head against it.

That changed with the current version of Touch Designer FTE 077, when Jeff showed me some of the cool things he was doing with it. With a bit of my standing over his shoulder to learn things, and a lot of phone calls, I got far enough up the learning curve to get a pretty good view of what's possible.

3.  What do you feel are the main strengths of and uses for Touch Designer?

The main strength is that Touch is a visual programming language. It's not really an app, in that it does nothing out of the box. It is also highly optimized to process live data in real time. Often that live data is used to make and manipulate pretty pictures, but it doesn't have to be. One time, in about fifteen minutes using snippets of Touch files on the user forum, I built an automatic cat door that only opens when it sees the right cat. Another time I projection mapped my office so that it had cool ultraviolet ground effects that throbbed to the music. Then there's the time I created "Guitar Anti-Hero" so you can play a real guitar and the notes go backwards INTO the game to win. I so totally don't have the patience or attention span to ever do things like this using traditional coding or apps.

4.  What programming language is Touch built on? What are the principles, and logic behind it? Is the architecture easily accessible to a programmer, a non programmer?

Near as I can tell, Touch Designer is written in Touch Designer; in that every part of it is deconstructible further into Touch elements. Basically, it's "turtles all the way down." When things get really nasty, you can add C++ and OpenGL to it.

Historically, Touch Designer is the real time offspring of  Houdini.  Houdini is a procedural graphics program popular in the feature film industry. Greg Hermanovic, the creator of Houdini and Touch Designer, originally started with PRISMS by Side Effects Software in 1987, which I'm told was the progenitor of the entire concept of graphical programming where you see a node box and connect it with wires to other nodes.

I'm very much a non-programmer. And I've always been frustrated that I just don't care enough about learning to code to successfully create my ideas. Touch allows me to pull off stuff I really have no right to be able to do. Luckily, so far not enough people know enough about Touch to put me out of work.

5.  I believe you said that Eye Vapor builds on Touch Designer. What have you augmented Touch to do that it does not do out of the box?

Touch does almost nothing out of the box. You can see in my beginners' tutorial videos that in less than five minutes you can create a realtime complexly warped NURBS smiley face. In the next five minute tutorial, I make the smiley animate and move in real time via an iPod. Five minutes more and I create an infinite 3D space filled with realtime smiley face spheres reacting in real time. The power to do whatever your little heart desires, without having to code it line by line? That's pretty cool.  And then there's the things that Eye Vapor gets paid to do. Same basic principle: brainstorm something amazing and whacky, figure it out later.

How have you done that?
That's a secret!
6. What are some of your plans for eye Vapor in the future from an artistic, technical and business perspective?

We're awfully pleased to be working with the Jabbawockeez since they started their Las Vegas career. We're proud to be working with Vortex Immersion to create a 2500 square foot, real time, immersive media dome for this year's Superbowl. Every client we work with wants us to stretch the boundaries of what's possible, and that's pretty fun. We've got some cool art/technology that we're saving for the right project(s). And we're always brainstorming.

7. I notice that Touch is node based and the interface has a lot in common with interfaces for various node based compositors. Touch seems too do real time compositing very swiftly, what about other real time functions, modeling, animating a character, particle effectsand dynamics.. There is such an array of VJ programs on the market currently, how is Touch different or the same as the other programs?

Touch is entirely about real time. And I'm told Derivative's Greg Hermanovic is the guy who originated node based programming.  Touch imports complex geometry and rigged models for full motion output in real time. Character animation and key framing are pretty well developed in Touch, but it gets really fun when you perform the character in real time.

Touch Designer is not a VJ program. It *can* be used to create awesome visual art that works well with music, but it can just as easily to do projection mapping, or digital puppetry, or FNMRI modeling of the brain in real time. The full name of Touch is "Touch Designer Free Thinking Environment". That "FTE" bit is a good clue.

8. To effectively run Touch, how much power is needed?

120 volts is sufficient*. GPU-wise you'll always be wanting the fastest, best test card so you can do that one thing more in a scene. But pretty much all current laptops and computers with nVidia chipsets should be fine. And Touch is free, so it costs you nothing to find out.[*"volts" is funnier than "watts"]

9.  Any thoughts on the future of immersive and interactive media?
This year immersive and real time interactive media is still novel enough that it's a big deal at a concert or corporate event. The audience is still surprised when an animated character maintains eye contact and talks with you. Or when an entire building sways, dances and moves to the music. It won't take long for people to expect reality to be augmented, and I can't wait to make up whatever's next.

Why do I feel it’s important to make this assertion and distinction? With the advent of so many devices, and screens, we’ve seen come to market over the past decade, the real trick has been how do the end users access their content? We’ve seen a ton of ‘big-names’ over recent years snatch up various content providers; or secure content ‘deals’. Critical and key content for consumers is largely: Games, Movies-TV-Video, Music/Music-Video, EBooks, and so on. In the Movie Industry for instance we’re seeing broadly endorsed options such as the DECE’s – Ultraviolet (Allowing one to view their movies across their devices screens). In the Games Industry we have leaders such as Valve’s Steam moving towards more cross-device functionality where in some instances you buy the game once and their service allows it to play on your PC or Mac. There are tons of other examples to draw from. The cool thing though is we’re seeing more and more of these types of services than ever before.

Where does it take us? Is this the tip of iceberg for more cross-device functionality in our devices? I sure hope so. This does tie in well with the “buy the content once plays anywhere” type of scheme. Some other strategy nomenclature that’s been used to describe this are terms such as: “3 Screens, Compute Continuum, Any Screen” and so on. The impacts will be interesting to watch. I’d contend that ‘Proprietary’ business models or those that are more restrictive could be a recipe for disaster. If for any reason, I know that I as an end user, don’t want to buy additional special devices to watch proprietary content on. (e.g. Imagine if you had to purchase 3 'specialized' TVs - to watch 3 programs from different providers!) The device/s most likely to win, are those that allow me to connect to a Cloud-Services-Platform that can deliver my content to me, anywhere, anytime; across the array of devices/screens that I own.

I’m curious to get your take on my assertion. Feel free to comment.
Thank you
Matt

Paul Young exhibits in his gallery what is commonly called ,”video art” and “other media based art”, perhaps for lack of a better way of categorizing it. In one conversation Paul said he liked the term they used in the 90's, “time-based art”

What you will find is that most of the work in the galleries is projected either onto, through something or shown on a video screen. Video mapping is often employed. Sometimes the work will be projected through things such as sculptures and onto other surfaces. Sometimes mirrors are used to bounce a projection from place to place. A lot of the work he shows is digitally created.

In one of his recent shows an artist, Robert Seidel had created beautiful paper sculptures onto and through which the video was projected. I must admit it gave me ideas for projections I would like to use with a dance company.

In one of the 2 current shows, “Mechanical Bride” there is an interactive piece that would also go nicely with dance. It is a piece by John Carpenter, “Fields” in which a field of beautiful reeds moves as if the wind was blowing through them in response to your body motion. I found myself (when no one was looking) dancing in front of the piece.

Ignas Krunglevivius of Norway did another piece I found very intriguing, a police interrogation of a woman who had murdered her pastor husband. Paul Young had created a separate room for the piece which was projected onto 3 of the 4 walls.   The interview answers and questions were projected consecutively as in the interview. Besides the type there were color changes and flashes at appropriate moments. The whole effect made me feel like I was inside the mind of the 2 people, the interrogator and the woman. It was very powerful.

I always appreciate the appeal of the sensory, especially the visual and the work of Kurk Ralske was not only theoretically interesting, but beautiful to behold as well. Work that appealed to my mind and heart.  Kurk Ralske based his work on the recently uncovered Futurist films of Eugen Schufftan from the 1920's. To quote from the Young Projects gallery website, “To Ralske's surprise, Schuffan's experiments turned out to be the closet representation of Cubism ever committed to film, with multiple points of view being presented simultaneously.”

With the exception of several pieces in the 2 shows I found all of the work to be on a range from engaging to brilliant. All of it thought provoking and presented in a way that enhanced the meaning of the work. The shows run through November 11, 2011 at the Young Projects Gallery, Pacific Design Center, and West Hollywood, California. They are well worth going to.

Before I go to the interview with Paul Young I should mention how I found out about the gallery. Paul actively goes out and seeks the artists and works he wants to exhibit. So I was very happy and surprised several years ago when he found one of my works on the internet and contacted me about showing it. I have since shown several times at his gallery and have gained a great respect for the care, thought, and work that goes into each show he puts up. He strives to create museum quality shows. With Paul the cliché, “it is a labor of love” certainly applies.

Below are a few questions I asked Paul and his answers to them.

Conversation with Paul Young

Question: Paul you are on the forefront of exhibiting cutting edge work. As such you are shaping what is considered to be art and perhaps the critical history of art. How did you find and choose some of the work in the current shows? What kind of criteria do you use in the selection of the work?

Answer: I don’t have a set method for choosing work, other than listening to what connects with me. Sometimes I start with a general idea, such as I did with Mods & Hackers, which was designed to explore the current state of post-simulation works, avatars and internet works. When I explore an idea like that, I’m doing it because I feel that it’s central to our age and our way of communicating, and stands at the forefront of art making practices. Other shows, such as Savage Transparence start with one or two works, in this case, works by Daniel von Sturmer from New Zeeland and Ann Lislegaard from Copenhagen. I found a similar approach to their works and both of them made me think of Wallace Stevens in their singular, minimal approach. So that led to me finding more works that I thought would work in concert with them… that’s no different than how any curator works, or course. And then there are simply artists who I’m dying to work with, so I’m trying to work as many of them as I can. And when I do, I try to do my best to give them the best space that I can, with the best equipment that I can get, and help them realize their vision. But in terms of ‘how do I find work,’ people always ask me that. I hear that all the time, and it seems to be the first question on their lips. Maybe that’s because they walk into my gallery and they always see great work and yet they have this perception that ‘video art’ is terrible or boring or whatever. Yet there is so much great work out there it’s ridiculous. All you have to do is look on line, look at gallery websites, read art reviews, go to art fairs, talk to other artists and look at any of the dozen or so websites that feature video work on a regular basis. It’s all there. all you have to do is look.

Question: Why do you consider the current work up in your gallery to be important work that should be exhibited?

Answer: I consider all the shows I put together to be important for the simple fact that they always seem to open people’s eyes. Whether it’s average gallery goers or artists, people always seem blown away by the work. And occasionally, it really connects with someone and they’re deeply moved. I’ve seen that happen time, and time again, and that’s why I keep doing what I’m doing. I had an eighty year old man walk in one day and he couldn’t even get past the first screen. He was so blown away by what he was seeing. He kept saying, “This is it! This is the future! This is the future of painting! It’s here!” Reactions like that make it all worth it, all the time, all the energy, all the money. More importantly, I want to inspire other artists and create a dialogue between them and artists working in other countries. Occasionally, I’ll present a work that uses a different method or approach, and artists come in and get so excited by it that they go out and try something different. And that’s how history gets made. That’s how great art moves forward. All the great experimental film movements for example, worked that way, whether it was 1920s Paris or 1960s New York. In each of those periods artists fed on each other’s work and pushed each other, and that’s particularly important for this medium since it really needs to be seen in a proper space and properly projected. YouTube may expose a lot of works to people, but if you don’t feel it’s impact, it won’t inspire you, no matter how innovative it is. In Savage Transparence for example, I have a work by an Irish artist who uses words to convey a narrative. Just words, tones, and light. Yet when installed correctly, as it is in my space, it produces a very dramatic, powerful experience, which has in fact, inspired a few local artists. But as far as historical relevance goes, I believe that some of the work in Mechanical Bride has particular relevance. Kurt Ralske, a professor at RISD, has moved cinematic collage forward by creating his own software that can present entire films at once, yet in a highly space and painterly manner. We might see Ozu’s Early Summer for example, all at once. The film plays in its entirety, but his program selects certain moments to highlight, so it ebbs and flows in a very unique way. So unlike the film collage from previous years, which always existed over time, from shot to shot, this work presents itself in the same way as a painting or photograph. And yet it moves. People may not make that leap when they see it in person. But in terms of history, it really means something. Ralske has also found a kind of cinematic cubism through the work of Eugen Schufftan, who was Murnau’s cinematographer, which is unlike any filmic cubism that I’ve ever seen before. It’s truly extraordinary. It’s actually a masterpiece if you ask me. I had a woman in the other day who was a painter and she was so moved by it that she couldn’t get up out of her chair. She kept saying how she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. (She also kept raving about how sexy and sensuous it was!) So I see Ralske’s practice as an important step forward as well. And then there’s the interactive work of John Carpenter, a young artist based in LA. His work uses cameras to read the room and change accordingly. Yet rather than using montage, he presents ever shifting shadows, often of natural forms. So for me, it reminds me of Calder in its simplicity and elegance, yet it’s at the cutting edge of what this medium can do. So I think the work will be regarded as historical important because there will come a time when “canned” video experiences will be a thing of the past. We may very well see a time when all of this kind of work will be interactive. And when it does, people will look back at John’s work, and all the artists working in that manner, like Camille Utterback and others, as being essential.

Question: I know you might not want to answer this, but are there one or 2 pieces in your show that speak to you personally more than the other works and if so why?

Answer: All the work I just mentioned speaks to me personally, whether that’s because of my film background or because I’ve always been excited by things I’ve never seen before, by the unknown, by anything that breaks barriers, breaks with convention and does something to you physically and mentally. But I’m also fond of the works that I can participate in as a curator, where I can bring out something in the work by the way I display it or present it. Edith DeKynt’s work for example, came on a dvd, and I could have easily screen them on a wall. But that would have diminished their impact greatly. So instead I built simple sculptural forms, or simple wooden boxes, added a screen surface to one side, placed them on the floor and projected onto them. That gave the image a physical presence that brings out that sculptural quality that was already within Edith’s work. (Her images are of simple gestures that seem to defy natural physics, like a piece of string that seems to flat in the air much longer than it should. So it’s partly gestural, partly magical, and very physical) So by building this space I believe that the work has a much greater physical presence, at least that’s what everyone tells me!

In any case thank you for asking. I’m happy that you were able to see the show.

Who Is Paul Young ?

Paul Young  besides owning and curating the Young Projects Gallery is a journalist and curator based in Los Angeles. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Playboy, Elle, Variety, Angeleno, Dwell, Surface, Artnews, Art & Auction and many more. His weekly column, “Untitled,” which covered contemporary art issues, ran in the Los Angeles Times for two years, and his “City Art” column ran in Angeleno for nearly five. He is also the author of Art Cinema (Taschen), which explores ways in which art practices converge with moving imagery, and he curates video programs and exhibitions worldwide. Recent exhibitions include VideoRoam at Honor Fraser Gallery (A series on one person shows with Guy Ben-Ner, Fabien Giraud, Tobias Yves Zintel, Driessens & Verstappen and more); Cineloop at ARCO, Madrid (2010); Portugal Arte ‘10 (Lisbon's first biennial) and an upcoming show at the Parpallo Museum, Valencia Spain. He is also the director of Young Projects, a contemporary art gallery devoted to contemporary video art and film. Recent shows include Breathless with Jennifer Levonian and Sari Carel; Supervention: Exploring extreme Body Performance Work of the 1980s; and Surface/Ground with Gary Hill, Michael Snow, Ori Gersht and William Lamson

I'm sure most of us have heard or read the news. I'm sure there are likely a million blogs or more talking about Steve Jobs passing. However; I'd like to add to them and make it just one more. Even if I am number 1,000,001.

My first ever hands on with a personal computer was the Apple IIe my dad purchased back in the early 80's. While that period of Junior High and High School was a relatively bleak chapter in my life; the Mac did provide an outlet and glimpse of opportunity on the other side. What I didn't realize back then was how much my life would be transformed by that early exposure and experience. Little did I know just how important technology would become in the economy and world we live in today; or that it would end up being my career path.

We really do have people like Jobs to thank for where the PC/Macs, Smart/iPhones, & iPad/Slates are today that we enjoy. While I realize he wasn't acting alone in a vacuum, he definitely was a leader in the early years of personal computing devices; and he's almost been continually at the forefront of that charge ever since. The competition-bar, and pace he set in this space has been very VERY good for consumers. PCs/Macs were critical in paving the way for putting technologies we enjoy today like the Internet, and SmartPhones into the hands of we the consumers. Thank you for accelerating and empowering us Jobs!

If you've never heard Jobs' Standfor Univ., commencement speech, I highly recommend watching this.

You will be missed and thank you for being an inspiration.
Godspeed and rest in peace Steve.

You may or may not have heard of me before. Or maybe you saw me in the most recent Intel Visual Adrenaline Magazine or in the official Intel App. I’ve been a part of dozens of tradeshows, events and festivals around the world for Intel showcasing new music technology on stages, booths, video and radio interviews as well as magazines and intel case studies over the years. It’s been a wonderful ride! I was even asked to be a Judge for the Intel Visual Life Competition this year and am often asked to give advice to many great people at Intel. It has been an honor to be a part of the groundbreaking things that Intel announces on a regular basis, and I get to play with all the cool new gadgets and toys and ask the engineers and hardworking developers’ questions along the way. The Intel software network has shown to be a strong supportive group who have helped me find solutions and answers when I get stuck.

Justin Lassen near Mayan Temple (2008)

Sony Netbook running FL Studio (2011)

The first time I witnessed software sequencing and samples running great on a Netbook was in 2009 at NAMM, by Gary Garritan himself, maker of fine instrument sample libraries for composers. He has Cubase running the Aria Engine on a tiny Netbook perfectly! A fully realized orchestral composition at that! This intrigued me back then, and inspired me to dive into testing out the potential of these Atom processors.

MeeGo Tablet running Energy XT (Linux) Sequencer!

MeeGo Tablet running Ardour DAW at GDC 2011

The Becoming Trailer (Conceptual) by Justin Lassen

Justin Lassen in the official Intel App! (IDF 2011)

Below are 2 pieces concepted and completed with just a Netbook!

This track was part of my brand new 9-track Album called "The Attack of Lord Retro" as recorded with an Atom Netbook. Being a primarily audio driven session, the Atom processor handled it superbly.
This track was part of 12 tracks that were created for the my new iOS game "Herbert: The Misanthropical Fly", a fun shooter with fun music. Enjoy the Atom at large!

So it was a real treat to attend an inspiring event, one full of attendees and speakers that were intent on using the arts to promote and do good things. I attended one panel discussion populated with people who were successful in doing just that. The event was, “State of the Arts:producing Change” put on by the Center for Conscious Creativity and co sponsored by The Producers Guild of America and the Millennium Project.   Kate McCallum the Co founder of C3:Vision Lab played a big part in organizing the event. I have known Kate for a number of years and I am always impressed with the strength of her vision and her ability to pull people and finances together to create an organization that puts on successful, inspiring seminars and conferences. On the C3 website this conference is described as, "very special event that explores the world of E-lanthropy -- a place where art, storytelling, philanthropy, technology, science, social networking and more come together in new and exciting ways to make the world a better place. Learn from some of the most influential people in the industry".

The first person to speak on the panel I attended was Jerome Glenn, the Executive Director of the Millennium Project a global futurist think tank. It is an impressive non profit organization of futurists, scholars, business planners and policy makers. Besides outlining the challenges facing mankind Jerome Glenn wanted everyone to know that there was hope, that in many areas of trouble mankind was winning. For example he said there are less wars now than any other time in recent history. He emphasized that we must remain vigilant because there were still many ways in which mankind could be derailed.

 Marc Levy, Creator and Producer of “Circle Up Now”,  was a particularly impressive speaker showing a series of aerial photography shots from all over the globe of crowds of people in formations creating art images.

Recent images include people forming a portrait of Martin Luther King with the words, keep the dream alive. 1200 people showed up in Santiago Chile to create a human whale. The formation of these human images creates a spirit of activism in the participants and well as serving to publicize a cause. Art is thus mixed with activism and education. Industry specialists figure out the best ways to promote these causes and images across a wide spectrum of platforms. A number of wonderful human images can be found on their website.

Another speaker who talked about using multiple platforms now available to us for activism and raising funds for good causes was, Tim Kring the creator of the Heroes TV series. He talked of building libraries and creating scholarships with multi platform story telling. His latest project was “ Conspiracy for Good”. He described it as creating a narrative using the archetypes of good and evil that people could insert themselves into in a variety of ways. It was an “augmented reality drama” game funded and technologically- enabled by Nokia. It involved over 100 people in production teams in 5 different countries. It culminated with 4 weeks of live events and game play in the streets of London.

Other panelists were Richard Cummings Jr., Kathy Eldon and Elizabeth Huttinger all also doing amazing things with the arts for social good and change.

The venue was held at the Center Studios downtown Los Angeles. Afterward Ed Lantz, owner of Vortex Immersion Studios and one of the participants in the event hosted a music and art showing in his  Vortex Dome on a roof patio at the Center Studios. On a regular basis Ed has been providing his dome to artists hoping to create a creative community of artist and musicians inspired by immersive environments such as the Vortex domes. This is a real service to the artistic community. Mary Duda, CEO and president of Virtue Play a company that produces positive games for people also provided the opportunity for people to try out a new interactive game that involved navigating around the surface of the moon.

COMING EVENTS

I will be participating in an event "Migrations" at the Vortex Dome in the Center Studios on Nov. 6, 2011.  I will be creating the art projected onto the dome while composers, singers and musicians perform. For more information go to where you can find out about the event.

Let’s deconstruct this for a moment. What does Post-PC really mean? When you dig into the origins of the phrase the premise is that what we call a PC, the ‘box’ we use to describe it that is, (Laptops/Desktops) effectively take a back-seat to other devices such as SmartPhones, Tablets/Slate/iPads, SmartTV’s, whatever, etc. No one is saying that the PC is ‘dead’ per se. However; the long and short of the saying implies that PC’s, as we know them, become marginalized or used less over time. I can agree with some of this premise but believe it completely misses the bigger picture.

Allow me to explain why I disagree there’s going to be a “Post-PC Era” and instead an upcoming PC Renaissance. There are really two major viewpoints or lenses with which to look at this from. First would be the Consumers viewpoint. They have a wider choice of devices and form factors to choose from that do what we have come to know and love as PC like functions. Second would be the Industries viewpoint. I define this as those in the industry that supply either the hardware ‘guts & brains’, or the software ‘intelligence’. It’s the latter lens that I’ll base the rest of this discussion on.

First off what exactly is a Personal Computer? Does it truly have to be tied to a particular form factor? I for one believe that the form factor is nearly irrelevant. You can build a PC inside a couch, make it look like a flower pot, integrate it into your car or whatever you can nearly imagine. Digging deeper, and with the lens (not rose colored mind you) of being in the industry just what are the guts in a typical Personal Computer comprised of? There is typically some type of processor, memory, hard drive capacity, a motherboard of some kind and so forth. Along with an Operating system which allows for other software applications that can make your PC smarter, enhanced, more communicative, etc.

When we view it from this lens-perspective just what are the guts and brains inside the following devices and form factors?

• SmartPhones?
• iPads/Slates/Tablets?
• SmartTVs?
• Consoles?
• SOC (System on a Chip) devices.  Most of these even seem to be getting smarter

We all know the answers. Almost all of these form factors have the basic building blocks of a PC inside. They might be ‘marketed’ or ‘promoted’ as being something new, different, revolutionary, pioneering, etc; in an effort to sell them. Some of these devices are of course more personal in nature than others.

As I’ve pointed out in previous blog sessions I do in fact view my iPhone 4 for example as another expression of a Personal Computer. As a matter of fact it might even be the most ‘Personal’ of PC’s I’ve ever owned. I carry the thing around with me practically everywhere. From a ‘Guts and Brains’ perspective it’s also more powerful than the first desktop PC I purchased back in the late 90’s. I also realize that some camps won’t buy into the notion that everything as I describe it above is effectively a PC; and that a PC is about “open-platform-innovation”. I agree largely with this statement too, but have to point out that there are varying degrees of ‘openness’ in these platforms. What we see over time is that the more open a platform is allowing for innovation to happen, then the more those platform or form factors are set up for success. If an iPhone 4, or other SmartPhone can do what it does today what will they be capable of in just the next 3 to 5 years? Does it mean my PC is dead? That my SmartPhone replaces that device? Perhaps; however, by my lens it implies that this futuristic SmartPhone is merely an evolutionary stage of how I interact with my Personal Computers.

This leads to the next most important point. The key word here is ‘Personal’. At the end of the day this is what a PC is all about. The form factor evolutions notwithstanding, PC’s have become more personal, and smarter over time. Dare I say even more ‘intimate’? The form factors will definitely look different over time. PC’s are definitely becoming smarter and more of an input-output device than ever before. However; this doesn’t mean that there’s any sort of a Post-PC era going on in my books. PC-hangover perhaps but not a Post-PC era. I say ‘hangover’ tongue in cheek due to the headache of everyone trying to wrap their heads, and business models around all the various evolutions taking place all at the same time. There seem to be as many evolutions occurring in the Personal Computer space as there are dog breeds. However; just because there are more breeds doesn’t mean that at the core they aren’t dogs. Dogs aren’t going to turn into Cats anytime soon. (Poor analogy but it’s the best I could come up with)

In summary here are some proposed thoughts and ideas to leave you all with. IF there’s going to be a post anything I believe it’ll be the end of Post-dumb consumer devices. So Post-TV, Post-Console (Even they are evolving into PCs), Post-Public Post Office and so on. You get the point. The Slates/Tablets and SmartTVs of the future are not a revolution by any stretch in my books either. Those devices are evolving or growing up, they are maturing. The ‘Personal Computing’ Age welcomes them into the fold. It likely won’t be until we have our own talking and walking PC-Androids/Robots that we have something we can truly call “revolutionary”. That time is likely going to happen sooner than we think but let’s not digress. In the meantime a PC is a PC is a PC. The only other thing that I can think of that would truly bring about a ‘Post-PC’ era would be something along the order of a ‘Post-Apocalyptic’ era. Hopefully that never happens. I’m not a fan of EMP! 

I’d love to hear what you all think on this matter? Are we really in a Post-PC era by your definition? Should we change that phrase? Is there a more accurate way of talking about PC evolutions? Please chime in and let me know!

The short yet rapidly innovative history of the film industry is full of stories about how many directors first explored film-making. They used their parent's home movie cameras and cheap effects that clearly showed the strings, but the point was that they were telling you a story. Those storytellers saw beyond the limits of what they could use to express themselves. What a concept?! Apply that to today's version of the next George Lucas. What are those filmmakers tinkering with to push their vision?

The innovation with real-time computing technology and affordable performance PCs now makes the barriers to a vision through computer graphics and 3D animation an option for storytellers with the prerequisite that you have a story, a PC and an affinity to learn a couple of new tricks. In fact, today's citizen director needs only the desire to tell their story and if animation or a digital media experience is part of that story, there's countless options for learning through video and tutorials and mostly for free. Yes, indeed; those masters of film you so admire, they envy you. What's a, 'rack shot?' Google. Where can I learn about video editing? Google. See? Today's filmmakers and storytellers have the best of both worlds; 1) The web will teach you anything 2) Your Computer can likely do anything. Storytellers have the digital advantage, if they so choose to exercise.

One great example and partly what inspired today's post is a film created by PEISKERFilm, an iClone filmmaker. Peisker re-envisions Star Wars through CG created with iClone 4, optimized with Intel graphics performance enhancement tools. Peisker's one-man film in contrast with George Lucas' early film challenges for producing visual effects show a fascinating leap in how new filmmakers are able to visually present their imagination. The secret is that the tools and technology are designed for the vision-holder. Sure, a technical artist will feel right at home, but today's innovations are about the rest of us, the Citizen Directors.

[Note to admin: Please help to embed if these do not work]

George Lucas on creating ILM

Peisker's Film: One of today's citizen directors

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Power-up Cradle

Power-up in 3DS Max

Power-up modeled (no textures)

Power-up on cradle

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Download Link - High Quality MP4 Video File (Large)

Community News:
1. OpenCL SDK beta is now live on the Visual Computing community. You can download it here
2. We have published part 2 of dynamics and particle effects by Audri Phillips herself. Check it out, I am sure Audri will appreciate your feedback.

Questions :
1. Tell us about yourself, you are very involved in this industry, what are you working on?
2. You have been in this industry for a long time, how has the use of the computer by artists changed?
3. The area of visual computing is changing drastically, what new immersive technologies are most exciting to you? And why?
4. You have written articles on particle effects on the Intel community, what are some of the challenges in this area? Does the advent of multi core systems with immense computing power, help?
5. Realistic hair and fur is also another big challenge facing computer graphics artists and programmers. How can game developers / artists create realistic looking hair?
6. Typically it is thought that once an artist always an artist, do you think the skills learnt in this area can be transferred to other industries?

I am always looking for community feedback and questions. You can email them to visualizethis@intel.com or provide on twiter @artigupta

You can watch Visualize This! live alternate Tuesdays at noon Pacific on Intel Software Network TV, our new 24/7 interactive video channel. Come chat with us, or browse the On Demand section to see past episodes of our shows.

1. Multi Media for Dance Performance

This is the first time I have worked with a dance company, Louise Reichlin and Dancers. I am doing animations to be projected behind and around them while they dance. The choreography and dancing is exciting, an eclectic mix of modern, tap and some historic dance pieces. I am finding it to be something I would like to do more of not only for dance companies but other staged events as well. I have ideas for the future about mapping projected images onto dancers bodies, just as you see mapping done on buildings. The performance is on, May 20-22 at Miles Memorial Playhouse 1130 Lincoln Blvd. Santa Monica , CA. 90403 for reservations- 213-385.1171

2. Shows at Young Projects Gallery

I will be showing a piece in the show, Mods and Hackers at the Young Projects Gallery at the Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, California. To quote the website, "The show will feature many interactive videos by artists who are looking into video game modification, hacking, patching and other code -based practices as the most appropriate reflection of these new times."  The show opens Thursday May 26,2011 and runs through August 30. Paul Young the owner and curator has been doing some ground breaking work with the time based work he has been showing.  A lot of it has been digital. Currently he is showing the work of Robert Seidel, Black Mirror: Video Sculptures and Moving Paintings. I highly recommend the show. It is well laid out and the digitally created organic formations are beautiful to behold. After seeing the projections going through delicate sculptural forms I have been inspired to try creating sculptures and projecting through them, perhaps on stage, perhaps as part of a dance performance. As Paul Young has several gallery spaces in the Pacific Design Center he is able to keep this one up as well until August 22. I hope in the future to interview Paul Young for this blog.

Paul Young has asked that the piece I show in the Mods and Hackers show be created for the Allioscopy screen. The screen shows 3d stereoscopic work without requiring glasses.This new technology is called autostereoscopic. This led me to meet Ken Maffei,Ph.D. and is wife Pia Maffei who is the Chief Operating Officer of Allioscopy in the United States. Talking with Ken I found that through his company Applied-Ideas he is developing some very interesting capabilities for the screen, creating software that can be used to create and edit templates for 3d autostereoscopic screens. Ken feels this will be particularly useful for digital signage and educators. I as an artist also find the idea that I can create a template for a stereoscopic environment that I can easily edit, intriguing. Ken has said that interactive controls of the environment using a keyboard are also down the pipeline.

Thinking that this might be especially interesting to other software developers I asked Ken if he would kindly answer a few questions.

Interview with Ken Maffei, Ph.D.

1. Ken,  What is UGC-3D?

UGC stands for User Generated Content. Currently, creating computer generated 3D environments and animations is a difficult task that takes expensive software, specialized training, and practiced art skills. There is an enormous opportunity in providing a mechanism by which people could easily create and edit 3D art. We wanted to empower the mass market with a means to build up 3D scenes in a way that was non-intimidating. This notion is something we've believed in for a very long time. Call it 3D for the masses, or democratizing 3D, the idea is that everyone should be able to create and modifiy 3D content.

UGC-3D is based on templates. Generally, a user will load a pre-designed template and edit it for customization. They can add their own text, texture objects with provided textures or images of their own, and even texture objects with 2D videos.

2. Why did you think this was a good opportunity?

Aside from how much fun it is to do, there are markets where such a system has enormous potential. For example, we are working to develop solutions for the retail digital signage market. People pushing content out to hundreds or thousands of screens need a way to modify that content quickly and at a low cost. There are plenty of 2D editors available for them to do this, but nothing for 3D. UGC-3D fills the gap.

3. What led you to develop UGC-3D software for the Alioscopy screen?

Glass-free 3D is an emerging market. I believe that this year you will begin to see many more auto-stereoscopic monitors in public locations. The idea of glasses-free 3D viewing is really taking hold. As difficult as it is to create 3D, that process is compounded when creating 3D for an auto-stereoscopic display. The display puts additional constraints on what you can do. UGC has been adapted to work with auto-stereoscopic displays in such a way that the user does not have to worry about these additional complications. They can create and modify content that will automatically work on the screen, and even edit their work in real-time on the display. Since we believe the autostereoscopic market is poised to grow, we felt that adapting UGC-3D to support it was a great opportunity.

4. What have been the challenges in creating this application?

The key to the power of the UGC-3D system is in abstracting the difficult creation and editing tasks into base 3D elements (such as an object or figure, an animation or a background) and sets of parameters. These parameters allow the users, through simple interfaces, to change the characteristics of the 3D element without needing to understand or master the underlying 3D concepts. This means users can reshape existing objects by moving sliders or by choosing colors or textures. Using simple drag and drop techniques they will combine these objects to form complete scenes.

The challenge is figuring out what exactly to expose to the user and how to expose it. What level of control do you provide and how do you expose it in in the interface? What things are done automatically behind the scenes? Exposing more options means presenting a more complex interface to the user, so finding that balance is key.

5. What improvements do you envision making?

Like any software product, the list of features planned for later versions is fluid. While I cannot discuss specific features that will be added, generally users will see extensions to the way objects can be modified. We also listen carefully to our customers to help drive the design of the user experience and interface.

6. Any other thoughts on immersive technology in general?

Consumer 3D technology is experiencing a period of growing pains. A lot of money was spent on developing consumer 3D TVs, and now it is questionable as to how successful that market will be. Lack of content and the fact that people really don't want to wear those glasses is translating into sluggish sales. So now we are seeing everyone embracing the notion of 3D without glasses. Many consumers are saying they'll just wait until it's available. There is an awful lot of R&D happening in both the hardware and software end of autosterescopic technology. However, there is no viable consumer solution for it yet, and no front runners, so the jury is still out. I think though, that we will start to see glasses-free technology in our our stores, malls and other public places as currently it is most suited for those venues.

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Writer becomes Animator. Real-time innovation, prime suspect!

While such an endeavor is possible, it's still quite ambitious to leap from a written storyteller to animator. There's so much to learn just to dip your toe in the animation waters. You've got to have content, right? You need models. Do you model? Ok, there's a book for that and tutorials or you could go to school to get that part down... What about the nuclear-powered PC you'll need and that render farm?!? Eee-aye-ohhhhmfg. The animation aspirational has a lot to consider, but you wanted to just tell a story, right?

The wheels of innovation are turning for animators; pro & aspirational. Real-time is flattening the learning curve between those institutionally skilled and newcomers, like a garage-band animation movement flowing into the fray. Just like Tom, you can put away your boots and put the idea of needing a render farm out to pasture too. Tom Weston has been writing short stories and books for a number of years and was interested in bringing his stories to the screen. "The story came first, but as soon as I had written it, I knew that it would be the first animation to come out of the company and I knew that iClone was still the only software we could seriously consider." Tom's film, "There be Monsters!," is one of the early stories behind this movement. Tom utilized Reallusion's iClone to bring his fairy-tale to life and all the way to the film festival circuit.

Tom's experience is chronicled on Reallusion's blog with details on his journey through the writing and animation process.

A quote from Tom that really speaks to the innovation commitment from Reallusion and Intel, "I don’t know how iClone works its magic, but the real-time rendering is amazing. To be able to create a scene - and it may be a 30 second scene - but to do that in real time, to run the animation, make a change in lighting, run it again, make a change to the camera, move a character, add a prop, change a costume, whatever – to do all that in real time and then be able to say ‘OK that’s a wrap, print it’ – and to do all that in a fraction of the time it takes the competition to render a single frame – I’m impressed."
There Be Monsters! clip

Award winning writer, Tom Weston, moves into the director’s chair for the animated adaptation of his short story, There be Monsters! Tom’s previous work includes the screenplay, fission, which was selected as a finalist at the 2008 London Independent Film Festival, and which is scheduled to be published as a novel in early 2011. Tom’s other works include the Urban Fantasy novels, First Night and The Elf of Luxembourg, collectively known as The Alex and Jackie Adventures. Currently, Tom is writing the third book in the series, titled, Feathered: being a fairy tale. For more information, visit Tom at his web site, http://www.tom-weston.com.

View full interview with Tom Weston

Well, we have all been working hard to get this new game out. Here are a couple of the 3D models that I built and rendered. I find it to be an easier process to model everything first, cover it with default materials and then after I get the 3D mesh the way I like, I come back in and add the texture, normal, bump, and other maps to the objects.

So keep in mind that these are prototype renders of objects that will be used to make the sprites of the game. They are not rendered at high quality since that take 10X + the amount of time. Unless you have a rack-mounted render farm using "bucketed" network rendering you have to conserve your time. So these are low quality renders. Hope you enjoy.

Another organic item for the game. This is an egg / power-up cradle.

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