Below you can see a short video of our experiment and  the grant application I did, trying to get money to make the Proportional Pressure Controller accessible. Click on full screen to be able to properly view it:

At first I was after simulating the collapse of the wave function based on QBist (quantum bayesianis) theory, where through the subjective act of measurement one instance of the many probable locations of collapse is experienced. This was the conceptual basis of project derived from recent fascination with quantum theories revolving the collapse which has far reaching grip on our understanding of time and space (both micro & macro).

In order to do this I was trying to create an illusion where a participant in the installation, through the act of looking anywhere in the space in front of him/ her, would make a drop of water appear and suspend exactly in that location (as long as he/ she kept the gaze). Technically it would be possible through a series of linear actuators spread throughout space that precisely release x drops of water per second where the viewer is looking (location in space determined through eye-ball tracking). Furthermore the placement of drop in space needs to be tracked so whenever it passed at the same y location where the spectator is looking, the strobe would flash and freeze that frame after frame creating the illusion of suspension (stroboscope technique) and therefore making it seem as if the act of perceiving literally manifests into a material reality, challenging our conception of how physics of our everyday reality works. I am still perusing this idea, but due to complexity of installation and also amounts of nodes (actuators) need to release drops in space, it became obvious that it needs to evolve gradually.

now the actual installation is the first step exploration into that direction...

Instead of tackling the simulation of the collapse i decided to take a step back and focus on relativity. Main focus then became the construction of time, concept of now vs. the actual slice of time in space (never fixed and the same, constantly shifting positions in past and future based on velocity and position in space). Meaning there is no shared moment in time. What we in the moment perceive as now is actually 85ms behind and the further the object is from our location the further it resides in the past. Various relationships as such is visualized in the poster above.

Given 4 channels of control through the dimmer pack i decided to control the frequency and brightness of a series of lights fixed in space. The challenge was to develop a program that would take into consideration Einstein's theory of special relativity and through tracking of movement in space animate these four light according to speed and position of the viewer in space and their relative positions to each node. In a very straightforward way i programmed these relations based on relativity so that the closest node reacted the fastest with the most brightness, and consequently the further away the more delay in time and dimmer the light.

In the video below there are 4 variations of the program. Total of 3 angles that i shot the installation. For every shot i go through 4 variations, each separated by a white flash in the video. Here are the four variations in order:

1. fade:
   the closest you are to a node the brighter it is, others are adjusted according to your distance between them and will fade faster or slower based on velocity.
   
   
2. flash fade:
   same thing as above except the lights blink all the same time based on how fast you are moving. The faster one moves the more their time slows down, so the blink simulates that.
   
   
3. relative flash + reverse ramp fade:
   closest node blinks more instantaneously and further the node the more delay in response and longer the second. I reversed the fade based on how in the experience walking towards the 'now' moment made more sense, rather than the now projected above, where it couldn't be seen.
   
   
4. oscillating relative flash + reverse ramp fade & feedback:
   same as the above but added some noise by reducing threshold in tracking and also created a feedback loop where the presence of the light itself was taken into account, meaning the light emitted from each node would increase and decrease the delay others (feeding back to itself in a loop).
   

Please look at the videos of the main patch and tracking to see it working in real-time.

Tracking patch:

Main max patch (3rd variation):

Setup:

Interactivity does not have a singular, defining meaning. The term has many implications and is broadly used across various disciplines such as biology, design, new media, communications, computer science and much more. Interactive systems and networks can be biological, virtual, perceptual, and in general are defined in many forms. In fact most things throughout our everyday life can be described as interactive. However there are some fundamental characteristics that make up the most basic description of the term. Interactive by definition means “the pattern of active”, rooting back to mid 19th century. The common thread that makes anything interactive is when messages (patterns) are “related to a number of previous messages [patterns] and to the relationship between them” (Rafaeli 1988). To achieve this there need to be sources that by communication will affect each other and simultaneously transform. ‘Interactivity’ dates back to 1995 and first showed up in Parsons research, which used the suffix ‘ity’ as the “quality or condition of interaction” (Parsons 2010). What this research signifies is that while a mobile app, an art installation, a video game, cellular structures are all interactive; it is the quality and condition of interaction, the interactivity, which distinguishes one form of interaction from another. The main question is the way which something triggers reaction, triggers behavior. Behaviors or actions are required on both sides of the equation and the quality and conditions of messages mediated, defines its interactivity. Therefore a very simple interface such as a website and a very complicated tele-communication system can both be interactive, but the quality, quantity and conditions of messages that go back and forth create extremely different sets of actions and reactions.

 What Massumi points to is that the dynamics and shifts in perception are always there. The line between what is ‘real’ or physical versus ‘virtual’ or abstract behavior is of no importance. Neither is the question is this interactive? Assuming everything is interactive, it is the interactiv (ity) of a work that plays with the quality and conditions of present dynamics, may it be perceptual, physical or virtual in order to create a feedback.

Arjen Mulder and Joke Brouwer in the book Interact or Die. They define interaction as ‘formation of forms’. We and other organisms interact to survive. Our existence comes from a complex network of actions and reactions bouncing of each other.

In the next two sections we are going over some examples of interactive/ responsive body of works revolving around just two branches of interactive works ranging from works involving or inspired by natural processes, paying attention to constant shifting natural environmental factors such as atmospheric physics, geology, astronomy and fluid motion, to a series of exemplary works blending the division between performer and spectator, where the works offer dynamic playful, flexible ways of perceiving the art object that is not static, prescriptive, and therefore is in constant flux.

From Cultivating Alternatives.com (link)
On Vibrant Matter, A Political Ecology of Things by Jane Bennet
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"My ‘own’ body is material, and yet this vital materiality is not fully or exclusively human.  My flesh is populated and constituted by different swarms of foreigners… the bacteria in the human microbiome collectively possess at least 100 times as many genes as the mere 20,000 or so in the human genome… we are, rather, an array of bodies, many different kinds of them in a nested set of microbiomes."  (Bennet, 112-13)

"If human culture is inextricably enmeshed with vibrant, nonhuman agencies, and if human intentionality can be agentic only if accompanied by a vast entourage of nonhumans, then it seems that the appropriate unit of analysis for democratic theory is neither the individual human nor an exclusively human collective but the (ontologically heterogeneous) ‘public’ coalescing around a problem” (Bennet, 108).

This timeline of evolution of life represents the current scientific theory outlining the major events during the development of life on planet Earth. In biology, evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organization, from kingdoms to species, and individual organisms and molecules, such as DNA and proteins. The similarities between all present day organisms indicate the presence of a common ancestor from which all known species, living and extinct, have diverged through the process of evolution. More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described.

Spiral Jetty is an earthwork sculpture constructed in April 1970 that is considered to be the central work of American sculptor Robert Smithson. Smithson documented the construction of the sculpture in a 32-minute color film also titled Spiral Jetty. Built on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake near Rozel Point in Utah entirely of mud, salt crystals, basalt rocks and water, Spiral Jetty forms a 1,500-foot-long (460 m), 15-foot-wide (4.6 m) counterclockwise coil jutting from the shore of the lake. The water level of the lake varies with precipitation in the mountains surrounding the area, revealing the jetty in times of drought and submerging it during times of normal precipitation. Originally black basalt rock against ruddy water, Spiral Jetty is now largely white against pink due to salt encrustation. Since the initial construction of Spiral Jetty, those interested in its fate have dealt with questions of proposed changes in land use in the area surrounding the sculpture and of the proper amount of preservation, if any.

The confluence of science and art has fascinated me throughout my career. For the last twenty years, I have developed a body of work inspired by atmospheric physics, geology, astronomy and fluid motion. I strive to create artworks that enable viewers to observe and interact with natural processes. I am less interested in creating an alternative reality than I am in capturing, through my art, the mysteriousness of the world around us.
My artworks frequently incorporate flowing water, fog, sand and light to create complex and continually changing systems. Many of these works can be seen as “observatories” in that they frame and enhance our perception of natural phenomena. I am intrigued with the way patterns can emerge when things flow. These patterns are not static objects, they are patterns of behavior – recurring themes in nature.

The studio's design methods combine the durable crafts of heavy machining and building with advanced digital visualization, industrial design, digital prototyping, and mechatronics engineering. Sculptural work in the past three decades has focused on immersive textile environments, landscape installations and intricate geometric structures. The most recent generations of these works feature interactive lighting systems and kinetic mechanisms that use dense arrays of microprocessors and sensors. Chemical protocell metabolisms are in the early stages of development within many of these environments. These works contemplate the ability of an environment to be near-living, to stimulate intimate evocations of compassion with viewers through artificial intelligence and mechanical empathy. The conceptual roots of this work lie in 'hylozoism', the ancient belief that all matter has life.

From Rhizome (link)
Performance, All Over the Map: Chris Salter's "Entangled"
By Maria Chatzichristodoulou [aka Maria X]

"...performance in a way that challenges our understanding of what performance is, but also demonstrates the profound connections between diverse sets of interdisciplinary practices that have not, up to now, been approached, considered or articulated as either interconnected or performative...

“everything has become performative” (p. xxi)... a shift in the zeitgeist that occurred at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, when the euphoria of the virtual was replaced with a reconsideration and re-foregrounding of the physical body and, with it, “embodiment, situatedness, presence, and materiality.”

As a result, claims Salter, “performance as practice, method, and worldview is becoming one of the major paradigms of the twenty-first century, not only in the arts but also the sciences.”... what performance suggests as a worldview is that 'reality' is not pregiven (and thus cannot be represented), but rather “the world is enacted or actively performed anew.” (p. xxvi) Thus, approaching the world as 'performative', is approaching the world as a 'reality' that “emerges over time” and is “continually transformed through our history of interactions with it.” (Salter, p. xxvii)

In the main hall of the museum, soap bubbles are churned into the air by simple, easily purchasable machines. An installation of ethereal beauty, En el aire (In the Air, 2003) turns on us with shocking vengeance when we learn that the water in these soap bubbles comes from the morgue and has been used to clean the dead bodies prior to autopsy.

Ilinx is a performative environment for the general public provoking an intense bodily experience that blurs the senses of sight, sound and touch. In the environment, a group of four visitors at a time wear specially designed garments. These wearables are outfitted with various sensing and actuating devices that enable visitors to interface with the performance space. During the event, a ritualistic progression which lasts approximately twenty minutes, the natural continuum between sound and vibration, vision and feeling becomes increasingly blurred, extending and stretching the body’ boundaries beyond the realm of everyday experience. The project is inspired by work in the area of what is called sensory substitution – the replacement of one sensory input (vision, hearing, touch, taste or smell) by another, while preserving some of the key functions of the original sense. The term ilinx (Greek for whirlpool) comes from the French sociologist Roger Caillois and describes play that creates a temporary but profound disruption of perception as is common in experiences of vertigo, dizziness, or disorienting changes of speed, direction or the body’s sense in space. “…An attempt to momentarily destroy the stability of perception and inflict a kind of voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind. (Salter, ilinx)

Sandbox is a large-scale interactive installation created originally for Glow Santa Monica. The piece consists of two small sandboxes where one can see tiny projections of people who are at the beach. As participants reach out to touch these small ghosts, a camera detects their hands and relays them live to two of the world's brightest projectors, which hang from a boom lift and which project the hands over 8,000 square feet of beach. In this way people share three scales: the tiny sandbox images, the real human scale and the monstrous scale of special effects. The project uses ominous infrared surveillance equipment not unlike what might be found at the US-Mexico border to track illegal immigrants, or at a shopping mall to track teenagers. These images are amplified by digital cinema projectors which create an animated topology over the beach, making tangible the power asymmetry inherent in technologies of amplification.

Einstein’s Dream is an environment in which visitors encounter performers in responsive fields of video, light, and spatialized sound, in a set of tableaus. Each tableau is inspired by a vignette from Alan Lightman’s novel, Einstein’s Dreams, set in Berne Switzerland, in 1904, the year that Albert Einstein received the Nobel prize. Or rather, a set of parallel 1904’s, each of which is a different kind of time. In one, time slows to a halt as you approach a particular place; in another there is no future; in third, time sticks and slips; in a fourth age reverses and what is rotten becomes fresh as time passes.

In one version of this project, a large theatrical space (24m x 20m x 8m) will contain multiple tableaux, each accommodating 6-12 people in a pool of light and sound modulating in concert with activity. Visitors and performers can move from tableau to tableau. The performers’ actions, together with the textures and rhythms of lighting, sound and visitors’ expectations, create different kinds of time poetically related to the novel’s vignettes. As a performer walks from place to place she may drag a pool of conditioning light and sound. The pool mutates or merges into another pool with a different type of time.

x-OSC Board (source)

x-OSC is a wireless I/O board that provides just about any software with access to 32 high-performance analogue/digital channels and on-board sensors (gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer) via OSC messages over WiFi. There is no user programmable firmware and no software or drivers to install making x-OSC immediately compatible with any WiFi-enabled platform. All internal settings can be adjusted using any web browser.

I/O channels:

• 16× analogue/digital inputs
• 16× digital/PWM outputs (up to 50 mA per channel)
• 13-bit ADC with 400 Hz update rate per channel
• Up to 16-bit PWM resolution for 5 Hz to 250 kHz
• Control up to 400 RGB LEDs (NeoPixel)
• 4× serial communication channels
  
  

On-board sensors:

• Gyroscope (±2000°/s), accelerometer (±16 g) and magnetometer
• 400 Hz update rate
  
  

Networking:

• High-performance WiFi (802.11b/g, 54 Mbps)
• Supports ad-hoc and infrastructure networks
• Fully configurable by web browser
  
  

Other features:

• Regulated 3.3 V output
• Battery level monitor
• Size: 45 × 32 × 10 mm

OSC Open Sound Control (source)

Open Sound Control (OSC) is a protocol for communication among computers, sound synthesizers, and other multimedia devices that is optimized for modern networking technology. Bringing the benefits of modern networking technology to the world of electronic musical instruments, OSC's advantages include interoperability, accuracy, flexibility, and enhanced organization and documentation.

This simple yet powerful protocol provides everything needed for real-time control of sound and other media processing while remaining flexible and easy to implement.

Features:

• Open-ended, dynamic, URL-style symbolic naming scheme
• Symbolic and high-resolution numeric argument data
• Pattern matching language to specify multiple recipients of a single message
• High resolution time tags
• "Bundles" of messages whose effects must occur simultaneously
• Query system to dynamically find out the capabilities of an OSC server and get documentation
  
  

There are dozens of implementations of OSC, including real-time sound and media processing environments, web interactivity tools, software synthesizers, a large variety programming languages, and hardware devices for sensor measurement. OSC has achieved wide use in fields including computer-based new interfaces for musical expression, wide-area and local-area networked distributed music systems, inter-process communication, and even within a single application.

What is a gyroscope?
A gyroscope is a device that uses Earth’s gravity to help determine orientation. Its design consists of a freely-rotating disk called a rotor, mounted onto a spinning axis in the center of a larger and more stable wheel. As the axis turns, the rotor remains stationary to indicate the central gravitational pull, and thus which way is “down.”


What is an accelerometer?
An accelerometer is a compact device designed to measure non-gravitational acceleration. When the object it’s integrated into goes from a standstill to any velocity, the accelerometer is designed to respond to the vibrations associated with such movement. It uses microscopic crystals that go under stress when vibrations occur, and from that stress a voltage is generated to create a reading on any acceleration. Accelerometers are important components to devices that track fitness and other measurements in the quantified self movement.

Uses of a gyroscope or accelerometer
The main difference between the two devices is simple: one can sense rotation, whereas the other cannot. In a way, the accelerometer can gauge the orientation of a stationary item with relation to Earth’s surface. When accelerating in a particular direction, the accelerometer is unable to distinguish between that and the acceleration provided through Earth’s gravitational pull. If you were to consider this handicap when used in an aircraft, the accelerometer quickly loses much of its appeal.

The gyroscope maintains its level of effectiveness by being able to measure the rate of rotation around a particular axis. When gauging the rate of rotation around the roll axis of an aircraft, it identifies an actual value until the object stabilizes out. Using the key principles of angular momentum, the gyroscope helps indicate orientation. In comparison, the accelerometer measures linear acceleration based on vibration.

The typical two-axis accelerometer gives users a direction of gravity in an aircraft, smartphone, car or other device. In comparison, a gyroscope is intended to determine an angular position based on the principle of rigidity of space. The applications of each device vary quite drastically despite their similar purpose. A gyroscope, for example, is used in navigation on unmanned aerial vehicles, compasses and large boats, ultimately assisting with stability in navigation. Accelerometers are equally widespread in use and can be found in engineering, machinery, hardware monitoring, building and structural monitoring, navigation, transport and even consumer electronics.

The appearance of the accelerometer in the consumer electronics market, with the introduction of such widespread devices like the iPhone using it for the built-in compass app, has facilitated its overall popularity in all avenues of software. Determining screen orientation, acting as a compass and undoing actions by simply shaking the smartphone are a few basic functions that rely on the presence of an accelerometer. In recent years, its application among consumer electronics extends now to personal laptops.

Sensors in use
Real-world usage best illustrates the differences between these sensors. Accelerometers are used to determine acceleration, though a three-axis accelerometer could identify the orientation of a platform relative to the Earth’s surface. However, once that platform begins moving, its readings become more complicated to interpret. For example, in a free fall, the accelerometer would show zero acceleration. In an aircraft performing a 60-degree angle of bank for a turn, a three-axis accelerometer would register a 2-G vertical acceleration, ignoring the tilt entirely. Ultimately, an accelerometer cannot be used alone to assist in keeping aircrafts properly oriented.

Accelerometers instead find use in a variety of consumer electronic items. For example, among the first smartphones to make use of it was Apple’s iPhone 3GS with the introduction of such features as the compass app and shake to undo.

A gyroscope would be used in an aircraft to help in indicating the rate of rotation around the aircraft roll axis. As an aircraft rolls, the gyroscope will measure non-zero values until the platform levels out, whereupon it would read a zero value to indicate the direction of “down.” The best example of reading a gyroscope is that of the altitude indicator on typical aircrafts. It is represented by a circular display with the screen divided in half, the top half being blue in color to indicate sky, and the bottom being red to indicate ground. As an aircraft banks for a turn, the orientation of the display will shift with the bank to account for the actual direction of the ground.

The intended use of each device ultimately influences their practicality in each platform used. Many devices benefit from the presence of both sensors, though many rely on the use of but one. Depending on the type of information you need to collect — acceleration or orientation — each device will provide different results.

material properties

• physical:
  liquid form (paint) water-based, nontoxic. can use hardener to adjust density. standard acrylic or water-based paints can even be used alongside Electric Paint to act as insulation or to create multi-layer circuitry!
  
  
• electrical:
  electrically conductive! can be used as controller or potentiometer. works with low voltage dc power
  
  
• structural:
  can paint wires onto things like models, clothes, furniture, walls, almost anything you can think of.
  
  
• perceptual and aesthetics:
  by itself it doesn't offer much, it drips, it dries but where and how or the method of painting & what it can be painted onto can is an open field for perceptual and aesthetic experimentation
  
  
• production/supply/ cost:
  here or here... no production or supply problems, can be found and ordered online or bought at Spikenzie/ Abra etc.
  $25 for 50ml at spark fun (link), or you can make your self for a couple dollars
  
  
• environmental impact and safety:
  the water-based version although costly if store bought is pretty safe, pretty much if there's no led in there you'll be fine
  
  
• types of manipulation and processing:
  can play with density based on use, can be processed using glue, water-based liquids generally and texture can be changed through blending paint with flour or something neutral
  

As mentioned above, paint can be applied to anything to either demand a reaction, output, get some data out of it or used as potentiometer up to 5 sensor capacity (this i with the silver paint). Ideas involve painting surface based on some sort of labyrinth pattern and passerby will actuate sound light or something all in the interest of manipulation and accentuation of some spatial perceptual qualities of space. Alternatively conductive thread can be used to achieve something similar.