When Someone Beats You To It

Back in June I walked in on David Rokeby's exhibition at fact. I saw the screens showing a city square, with people leaving trails, and felt at once amazed and gutted. This thing I was imagining in my head was infront of me. Someone else did it first. At least in look. I put it out of my mind until now and decided to re-investigate Rokeby's videos. In many ways they deal in similar areas - people's movement through space and time in an urban environment. It suggests ideas of energy, and certainly looked like how i thought the Huge Entity would look - a surreal colourful quality. But I encountered Rokeby's work in an exhibition space, and not in the public space that his work represents.

Early Sketches pt 1

I went back through some old sketchbooks to find the origins of this idea. I found traces of it everywhere.

002.01 - 002.09: Video Delays and Freezing

My main approach to try and represent this openess of time and trails of enrgy is to try and use video delays. There are two main problems though: 1) the more delays you have, the slower it runs. 2) The picture becomes increasingly muddy. This in itself may not be a problem if we accept that things are inherently muddy anyway. On the other hand it looks a mess and will reduce that feeling that we can interact with the 'mud'.

I'm trying to find a balance between showing the Square and hiding it. I thought that the 'freeze' function in Isadora might be able to isolate it but i've gone about it the wrong way. But again i get some nice snail trails of energy. The contrast helps to define people. Cleaning up the picture might be the most important factor. Progressive fading (002.09) gives impression of past movement.



002.02 - Video delay with contrast

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002.04 - incorporating the 'freeze' function to isolate frames.

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002.09 - Adding multiple 'freeze' trails - progressive fading

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Tests 001.01 - 001.08

I have simply applied a basic video blend (difference) to a series of video delays of people wandering through Clayton Square. I dislike video 'effects', and i am trying to push the way they are used in this piece so they do not simply look like an effect.

Immediate observations are the trails of people working well, but also the 'ether' that appears with the layering of video. This can be tuned out with the threshold of the filter but it is important at this stage to see that it is there. In some 'trails' we get flashes of colour that might be developed.


001.01 - Basic Source Footage - no filters

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001.02 - Basic Difference filter

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001.04 - 3 layers of Video - delay and difference filter

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001.07 - 12 layers of video delays and Difference filters plus mouse watcher on threshold

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001.08 - 24 layers of video delays and difference

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Making the First Mark

The first mark was actually made four years ago. It began as a series of sketches and then developed into a flash animation of people wandering round the city centre. Since then the idea has bubbled away quietly in the subconscious and it has been a great effort to face it again.

I have begun working in Isadora (an interactive video software developed by TroikaTronix) having used this software in a workshop. And within 20 minutes, i have come to a finish - a false finish. I have made a thing vaguely resembling the image in my head. I knew this would happen. It is an anti climax. Like setting off on a great journey only to stop in the pub at the end of the road. I feel a bit naive and scared to fail if i go further. I've already failed if i stay here though.