Present through the Rearview Mirror Ali Miharbi (Nov. 2, 2010)
Summary: “Present through the Rearview Mirror” will be a live animation depicting a crowd flowing through a specific public space, based on previously gathered data such as crowd movement directions, crowd density, clothing colors which are used to predict the dynamics of the current day.
Description This project will be a live animation depicting a crowd flowing through a specific public space with cartoony characters moving on a photographic view of the space.
For several weeks, data such as crowd movement directions, crowd density, clothing colors will be gathered in relation to time of the day and day of the week. This can also be extended to the weather forecast of the day, e.g. in different weather conditions people wear different types of clothes which can change the dominant clothing colors or in a rainy day crowd density could decrease or increase based on the location. According to the information gathered and the patterns that emerge, a live simulation, or a “predicted present” is displayed on a projector.
Inspired by Marshall McLuhan quote “We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.” as well as Dan Graham's “Yesterday/Today” (1975) where the daily routines happening in the same space, the visual and delayed audio could appear to coincide in the piece, “Present through the Rearview Mirror” comments on a possible dystopian future where a large portion of the social behavior and trends can be perfectly formulated and predicted. It also reflects on the now obsolete dialectics of the real vs. fictional, virtual or simulation and attempts to be a post-web approach on how the Internet and the new technologies developed with it changed our basic perception of physical reality; how we live, program and are being programmed in it – in a world where data and real space have become one and neither the map nor the territory is preceded any more. Schedule March: Investigating sites, prototype of software, starting data collection on site. April: Data collection, testing & finalizing software. May: Data collection continued, ready to present/exhibit. Resources 1. A fixed camera in a public space where the crowd can be recorded 24/7 from a top view, in order to gather the data for the project. 2. A computer connected to Internet (or a web server) that can be used to run a script to collect dta that is complimentary to the crowd behavior, such as weather data.
Present through the Rearview Mirror Ali Miharbi (Nov. 2, 2010)
Summary: “Present through the Rearview Mirror” will be a live animation depicting a crowd flowing through a specific public space, based on previously gathered data such as crowd movement directions, crowd density, clothing colors which are used to predict the dynamics of the current day.
Description This project will be a live animation depicting a crowd flowing through a specific public space with cartoony characters moving on a photographic view of the space.
For several weeks, data such as crowd movement directions, crowd density, clothing colors will be gathered in relation to time of the day and day of the week. This can also be extended to the weather forecast of the day, e.g. in different weather conditions people wear different types of clothes which can change the dominant clothing colors or in a rainy day crowd density could decrease or increase based on the location. According to the information gathered and the patterns that emerge, a live simulation, or a “predicted present” is displayed on a projector.
Inspired by Marshall McLuhan quote “We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.” as well as Dan Graham's “Yesterday/Today” (1975) where the daily routines happening in the same space, the visual and delayed audio could appear to coincide in the piece, “Present through the Rearview Mirror” comments on a possible dystopian future where a large portion of the social behavior and trends can be perfectly formulated and predicted. It also reflects on the now obsolete dialectics of the real vs. fictional, virtual or simulation and attempts to be a post-web approach on how the Internet and the new technologies developed with it changed our basic perception of physical reality; how we live, program and are being programmed in it – in a world where data and real space have become one and neither the map nor the territory is preceded any more. Schedule March: Investigating sites, prototype of software, starting data collection on site. April: Data collection, testing & finalizing software. May: Data collection continued, ready to present/exhibit. Resources 1. A fixed camera in a public space where the crowd can be recorded 24/7 from a top view, in order to gather the data for the project. 2. A computer connected to Internet (or a web server) that can be used to run a script to collect dta that is complimentary to the crowd behavior, such as weather data.