The way we revere nature separates us from it.

Fireflies in Okayama, Japan.
These images were shot this past summer by and amateur phototgrapher in the south of Japan. They spread virally and have become somewhat famous, being featured in magazines like Figaro. They are open shutter shots of fire flies in an evening meadow.
To me these images really capture what it is like to encounter light phenomena in the outdoors. I am very interested in the impression these moments make on us, the memory of it and how we reflect on it. I am always looking for ways that moments like this can me created within the city, we stumble on something, its dazzling, we remember it in a distinct way possibly. I also like how this light experience is just a manifestation of routine activity in the meadow, it happens every night at a given time of year, there like the rain, we dont question it. We often place this kind of scene in opposition to how we think about the city, as a place that ‘ not nature’. Most civic beautification projects work from this premise, a nostalgic view of ‘nature’ & ‘natural elements’ transplanted into the civic setting, the design process often a kind of harnessing (stylizing) of these elements, think Versailles. The ‘natural’ experiences I like most are where I feel the ‘wild’ in ‘wilderness’, and how to use the urban setting itself to inspire this feeling, without the escapism of conventional lanscape design & civic beautification. The piece Lightmodal is definitely a step in that direction.

Lightmodal is live

This is one of North Americas few ‘zero energy’ fully solar powered public art installations –  existing in a very rainy part of the world.

Entitled ‘Lightmodal’ this lighting installation responds to the chorus of unnoticeable activity occurring at a significant entry point into the City of Surrey, Canada, where several modes of transportation converge. Inspired by natural light phenomena, e. g.  Aurora Borealis and bioluminescence, it generates elaborate lighting patterns in response to the activity in the immediate area of the installation. This piece is intended to be an urban version of these naturally occurring light phenomena, based on civic infrastructure and attempting to create a sense of the wilderness within the city.

This was a group effort between myself,  my partner in Urbanvisuals, Nathan Whitford, and Organelle Design (Alex & Courtney, the instigators for the project) who brought their great physical problem solving and drawing skills to the equation. We had a very interesting time doing this collaborative piece; it was both a challenge and a pleasure to work with the Sky Train engineering team (MMM Design) and the City of Surrey public art department.

As one nears the installation, the individual fixtures become more noticeable and their specific light patterns become more apparent and eye catching. The visible patterns of illumination are the result of changes picked up by the sensing systems of each fixture. Each fixture contains 100 individual lights (nodes) and has three independent sensors (proximity, vibration, sound) that react to what is happening in the immediate environment of the light fixture. Each type of sensor is assigned a predetermined colour and these separate colours mix together in additive fashion to create the final light patterns that appear on the nodes of each fixture (andconsequently across the entire artwork). If the sensors do not pick up any activity, the fixtures will display a preprogrammed less bright animating pattern; during daylight hours all the fixtures will switch off and operate in charging mode, using solar panel technology.

What I intend to do at School

Here is one statement outlining what I would do if admitted to the MAADM program at Westminster University. Below is the long version

My interest in seeking admission into the Masters in Architecture & Digital Media program stems from a desire to further explore the changing role of digital media design within the field of architecture.  In the last five years my work has drawn me into using digital design platforms to create responsive environments in architectural spaces. As a media artist and former VJ, I have been very adventurous, yet rigorous with how I use digital design tools to develop an approach to my work. I feel that further training within a program like MAADM would allow me to integrate my work into the built environment much more fully. After looking more closely at the program and taking a tour (thanks to Jeremy Till and Richard Difford), I felt a familiarity with how the program blends theory with practical skills development. I want to continue to work with architects, interior designers, and urban planners to help them harness the power of digital media and lighting; for this I will need thorough knowledge of how the design process in built environment works and what software platforms are used. Participating in the program will give me exposure to digital design tools for architecture, work methodologies, and a point of view on design that I find vital and stimulating. From working with architects such as Neil Denari, I know these elements are vital to the process.

As an undergraduate, I read Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s  Phenomenology of Perception and was struck by his theories on ‘association’ and ‘projection of memories’ – as well as his criticism of Descartes. I was also curious about what Walter Benjamin wrote regarding the role of cinema in the formation of public consciousness and I became fascinated by the relationship between images and ‘real’ experiences. After graduating in 1993 with a BFA in painting from the University of Victoria, I put down the paintbrush and picked up the image projector. I took inspiration from a multitude of mediums used by popular culture and pop art mainly working collaboratively across many disciplines in visual art and music. This lead me to work as a VJ in nightclubs, music venues, and large public events often working in London, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Tokyo and New York.
 I differed from other VJ’s in that I was more interested in creating image landscapes that audiences could inhabit. What is noteworthy is that I worked directly from images, using the messaging and composition of the images to dictate the layout of the installations. From the arena of live events, and temporary installations, and with very little alteration to my work methods, I moved into television set design.

By using digital projectors to create image landscapes I could incorporate any form of digital media, especially the web, into the set itself, which gave the perceived on-screen  ‘environment’  a whole new relevance in the realm of host driven television. In a project for MTV in New York I derived the entire set environment from a single MTV motion graphic animation. The process worked, and in 2003 I was nominated for a Gemini Award in the category of visual effects and production design, and in 2004 our show garnered an advanced interactive Emmy nomination.
 Around the same time I became very interested in “cross pollination” of visual style between contemporary architecture and motion graphics. I recall reading Frederich St. Florian’s essay,  “Imaginary Architecture Revisited,” where he writes about a desire to produce architectural elements non-physical in nature, and that we lived in a world of multiple realities that could be signified by architectural form. Thus I saw the potential of adding a dynamic element to the ‘frozen’ design of architecture by the use of intelligent lighting and projection. As the hand drawn image can come to life through animation, so could the contemporary building I thought. Consequently, my work since then has been a pursuit of this potential, an ongoing attempt to show its significance.

Crowd responsive facade illumination

I would like to learn about new design tools and technology that architects are using, and about the way they are being incorporated in an architect’s design process. I would also like to study and report on the cost and benefit of several other digital technologies that have made their way into the built environment, from large digital displays, LED screens, and lighting to building information modeling and control and data acquisition. I plan to apply much of what I learn to small experimental installations covering topics such as building entryway ‘response’ lighting, intelligent street furniture, and visualizing the data of building control/monitoring systems. Further, I hope to develop a program of work related to exploring the potential of bespoke lighting and digital media combinations. I see the potential of these combinations yielding a new medium onto itself, one that makes it possible for buildings to appear kinetic, and to communicate their status visually to the cityscape; I like to think of it as “Building Mood Expression”. As our entire built environment is occupied by feeling, seeing and sensing human beings, it follows that the very structures we inhabit should communicate something about our collective experiences within them. 
 In closing, I would like to say that visual media and technology in the built environment will progress with or without the architects’ participation, actual collaboration across disciplines is essential, and “cross pollination” at the learning level is a great way to start. There is much for me to gain from an in-depth period of academic and experimental work, and there is also much for me to contribute to whatever program I am able to join. I can bring a point of view gained from practical experience that I am certain will add colour to the program and my portfolio attests to the innovation, pragmatism and rigor in my approach.

Control Crowd – crowd responsive animations at Summer Live in Vancouver.

the site

projected shapes animated by density of crowd

This installation had many aims, to be entertaining, and to create the feeling of being in an experience. Behind the scenes there was another aim; to see if animations based on crowd movement could create something that in some way would appear to have a life of its own. In recent installations of this type that I have created with my company Urban Visuals, we use a generative software platform (usually processing) to create an app that in turn creates these animations. The occasion was the 125th anniversary party for the city of Vancouver staged in the remarkably beautiful Stanley Park. What interests me most is the passive nature of the piece, and its meaning which comes mainly from contemplation once you are aware of how it works. 

patterns in the haze

There is also a component to this installation that is very immediate and visceral, its scale, its presence and movement. The scripting consists really of  a set of constraints such as boundaries, edges, voids and other forms are mixed with variables generated by sense input from the immediate environment, in this case, a large festival crowd. Together the fixed and the variable create a self perpetuating animation in real time that is generated, in effect, by its immediate surroundings. The scene above I can only describe as the most ‘west coast’ feeling moment we have ever created live.

white blocks illuminate foliage

timber motif 1

Near the end of the three day event we played the timber motif (balls) and at this point in the installation the experience became something unto itself. The falling balls signified timber, and began to fall and collect in areas wehere there was more crowd movement. Standing back and looking at the scene from a sloping grassy knoll one felt completely immersed in the experience, where space, event and audience merged into one kinetic impression.

Here is a quote from a colleague: “Hey Konstantinos, So last night I went to go see Dan Mangan at the “Summer Live 125” festivities, and saw you working the booth (as well as the “Urban Visuals” logo on the grass), and I just had to let you know that you guys did a FANTASTIC JOB. We had a great view cause we were sitting on the hill facing the trees, and were constantly blown away by what you guys were doing, as were the people around us. Everyone around us was talking about it the whole time and just loved it.I could ramble on, but I’ll keep it short.. You took an already-awesome event and just took it to a whole new level, it became an “experience”. So thank you for that. Please pass the praise and thanks onto your team as well, I’m sure it took a lot of work.”

Media Enslaves Architecture : Illuminate Yaletown 2011

Recently we mounted the Ficiton Facades installation; it won second place at the Illuminate Yaletown lighting festival in Vancouver, Canada. It consists of a facade projection set up, and writing processing scripts to generate animations that react to building features and generate sound. When the projection is set up and the installation is ‘launched’ a coordinate map that corresponds to the windows is made. As soon as the window map is saved, animated objects appear and move on random trajectories bouncing off the buildings features. The association of sound and visual animation create the impression that the animation is making music off features of the building.

Architecture is Frozen Music

I want to start this posting with a quote by the philosopher Friedrich Schelling; ” Architecture is frozen music”. He was speaking to what he found to be the solidity of architecture and the intangibility of music. I like this articulation; it parallels the relationship between static architectural form and the fluidity it may infer. I want to see architectural form liberated.

Why not take this frozen music, and bring it to life by an interaction with light. This interplay is like another chorus(?) for a new set of instruments, that of digital light, projections, and image displays. The use of lighting animates architectural from where images emerge. Consider the ‘frame’ of moving images as non-existent; instead, the images grow out of the architectural form, animated by it.

Pictured here is Toyo Ito’s ‘ Tower of the Winds’ it was built in the 1980′s in Yokohama, Japan. It visualized the activity of the wind in its immediate surroundings by translating wind velocities into coloured light. The outside structure was made of perforated steel, and would appear solid from a distance until the lighting within would illuminate its inner structure. I read it as a piece of deconstruction. Since 2007 it has really inspired me in that it gives an urban object, like a tower, a new relevance in the city scape, I think many components of our skyline can do this.

“Raster Plaster” – Narrative Facade & Responsive Canopy Lighting

Raster plaster as part of the GO Gallery is voted one of the best art sites of the 2010 Brightlights exhibition. Below are some images of the end result as well as the preliminary sketches and description of what the piece was intended to do.

 

the facade is 'painted' by pixels

Illuminated patterns in the umbrellas, projection (aka ‘raster plaster’) travels onto umbrellas. Mapped projections create a digital plaster that at times would reveal fictional contents, or recreate old paint jobs that the building may have had.

In its dormant mode the building face will slowly appear to dissolve through past “stucco” surfaces it may have had or will have in the future. These ‘stucco’ animations will appear as colour and patterns in a slow dissolving animation. Once the building detects movement near its base it the “raster stucco” will ripple and reveal a continuing series of textures, patterns and images that relate to the history of both the Yue Shan Society, Chinatown, and Vancouver. At times this installation will allow individuals to see their own shadow captured and traveling upward along the buildings face and dissolving into the ambient colour rhythms of the umbrellas above.

It also allows for an individual to feel their presence expand in scale and become part of both the event and the context of the site, which in effect could be similar to the crossing of a “Brechtian fourth wall” (the active/passive barrier known to exist for spectators of theatre, films and concerts).

This type of installation is part of a series I call ‘event conduits’ uniting spectator, event, moment and narratives. To passers by, the animated light rhythms visible in the umbrellas from the street view will draw them in to discover that ornament and decor can reveal something they were not expecting

Blurring the boundary between lighting and digital display

The student project  below really echoes my passion for approaching lighting as digital display. It is an interesting way to turn a static ‘site’ into a responsive ‘place’. Our public sites and buildings need the ability to respond to the behaviour of the environment surrounding them at any given instant.

When designing  landscape lighting, building facade lighting, decorative lighting, think of the lights as ‘pixels’ this has the potential to create expressive zones around a building or public space.

http://labcast.media.mit.edu/?p=47

When watching the video below I can’t  help but thinking about the Parco Department store in Shibuya Tokyo, it has had a similar lighting installation on its facade since the late 1980′s. It will play set patterns depending upon the date and time of day, I encountered it working on a project with Parco Space Systems in 2005.

Now in 2011 we are seeing much more in the way of these kinds of possibilities, on bridges, facades and pathways. I think we should start to think of all the lights in the city as pixels. It is my dream one day to look at the city scape and it could tell me something, like what is the best way to get home, or where the party is. We could look in the direction of a bridge and the lights could tell us about the volume of traffic on it. I am already starting to propose these projects to potential clients and stake holders, but in Western Canada, its slow going here where clients are just now starting to understand the significance of controllable lighting on a more basic level.

Architecture enslaves media: Samsung mapped projection.

Here are some stills of a recent project by Urbanvisuals that we did for a Samsung event for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic games

a sports scene conforms to a building

We created one sequence in Maya that matched the building panels, due to the lack of contrast caused by ambient light conditions, full 3D illusion was difficult

3d animation maps to building

This is an example where, (tongue firmly in cheek), architecture goes too far and enslaves media. However, the end result creates a sea of possibilities around a visual dialogue between motion graphics and static architectural form. Digital media animation has the ability to respond to these forms endlessly in a fluid way. The expressive potential is even greater when this situation allows the building to effectively react in real-time to specific events, thus changing its relationship to the site and its temporal quality. I am very interested in what possibilites this blend of motion graphics and static architectural form means for the future functionality of architecture and the urban landscape.

Translation of Motion Graphic Sequence to Immersive TV set

starting with a motion graphic sequence

I have also created several set designs for Television with a process that grew out of ‘Phenomenology to Photoshop’ (previous post) In this example I show a design for a TV set that grows out of an animation piece. The end result is a dynamic TV set that affords several camera angles, and is capable of constant change. Again the artwork on the set is arranged in a compositional hierarchy that emulates the original 2D version.

motion graphics create a motion set

A process begins where I derive the design from the inspiration, below we can see how all the elements inspire an kind of hierarchy that preserves the original compositional qualities in the set. The red rectangle refers to what the cameras would potentially frame.

And then finally a set design begins to emerge, again, not so much as a set design as a composition of screens and membranes that can accommodate projected media and displays. This arrangement creates a space on screen; it has an inferred structure and form that then presents the graphics in a hierarchy that emulates the original 2D piece.

Below is an off-camera shot of the final result, this set was designed to convey stories about several of MTV’s reality shows at once; it allowed for several set or topic changes in one session. We shot 18 segments in 3 hours, something a conventional TV set could never accommodate. What I found very interesting about this design process was that the original 2D compositional framework (hierarchy) is still there and available to be modified and augmented with new material.

There is most definitely a relationship between the structure of the set, and the media that it hosts… the two are inter- dependent.