MultipleSub-Projects

Public News Network

Digital Sampling to Create a Hybrid Media Feed

Re-presentSub-Project

INTRODUCTION TO PNN

• Create an Application that uses principles of sampling to produce an Aesthetic Response

• Create a Framework for Art Production

OBJECTIVE

FOUNDATION

'What is an artist, basically? He's a collector who wants to establish a collection of his own, making the pictures himself that he likes by other people. That's how I begin, and then it turns into something else.'

and…

"To copy others is necessary, but to copy oneself is pathetic.”

-Pablo Picasso

Music

• Classical Composers - versions of the same symphony

• Musique Concrete - music from “found sound”– Stockhausen, Cage, Reich

• HipHop– Sugar Hill Gang - WuTang Clan

Visual Art

• Sculpture of David– Donatello, Verrocchio, Michelangelo, Bernini

• Cubism– Braque, Picasso

• Dada and Surrealism– Ernst, Duchamp

• Contemporary - appropriation– Levine, Kruger, Prince

• In the visual arts, one of the fundamental changes is the transition to the digital sampling of imagery. Now the sources of appropriation can be replicated and redistributed without degradation. The distribution of imagery is not limited to “one off” art objects.

Transition to Digital

PREVIOUS WORK

• Art Tools - functional

• Artworks - non-functional

Art Tools: Max/MSP+Jitter

• Cycling74

• When combined with Jitter, becomes a sampling visual art production tool

• Can create standalone artworks

Art Tools: Auto-Illustrator

• Signwave UK

• Automatic, generative graphic tools

• Interface and tool design idiosyncratic to the programmer.

Artworks: Web Stalker

• Artist - I/O/D• 1997

• Considered the first stand-alone Internet art application

• Alternative Browser

Artworks: Shredder

• Artist - Mark Napier

• 1998

• Alternative browser

• Reformats existing web pages

• Reliant on traditional web browser

Artworks: Netomat

• Artist - Maciej Wisniewski

• 1999

• Alternative Browser

• True standalone application

• Netomatic (XML) files

Artworks: combinFormation

• Artist - Andruid Kerne• 2000

• Recombinant Information Space

• Dynamism

Artwork: EARTH

• Artist - John Klima• 2001

• Visualization of Internet derived information

• Macro to micro point of view

• Gives form to data

Concepts

• Simulation

• Sampling

• Dynamism

• Cognition

• Digital Rights

Working Process

Working Process

Simulation

• Oliver Grau - Virtual Reality: From Illusion to Immersion– Roman frescoes 60 B.C

• Lev Manovich - Language of New Media– History of the Screen

• Classical• Dynamic• Real-time• Virtual

Simulation - PNN

• Focus– Environment stripped of superfluous stimuli– Minimize noise

• Situationist International– Détournment– Dérive

Sampling

• Well established history in visual arts– Braque, Picasso, Eisenstein

• Semiotics– Sign composed of Signifier and Signified– Signifier not essentially related to Signified– Meaning is a construct of our culture

– Re-contextualized imagery creates new meaning

Sampling - PNN

• PNN will work with these ideas to create an environment that extracts cultural content and provides the viewer the opportunity to manipulate meaning effects.

Dynamism

• Content that takes advantage of “instant” connectivity of the Internet

• Combined with navigable space, it becomes a media type unique to new media

Cognition

• Object-Oriented Models of Cognitive Processing– Dynamic process versus procedural

• Story Elaboration– Many people “complete” stories independent of

facts relayed by the news broadcast itself– Meaning created by newsbyte

Digital Rights

• Originated in England– Means of censorship granted to publishing

industry, printing press owners

– Rewritten in 1710 as “anti-censorship” law so authors could claim their own work

– Rewritten to “encourage public learning”

• U.S. - An Act for the Encouragement of Learning”– Expedite the integration of innovation into the

public domain

– Never intended to control free speech nor contributions to daily dialog of culture

Digital Rights - PNN

• Place the responsibility for DRM in the hands of the individual as opposed to the programmer or corporations

API

• Java• JOGL - Java for OpenGL• QuickTime for Java

Hardware

• Development - Apple G5 Dual 2Ghz - OSX

• Server - Apple G4 Dual 800 - OSX

Hardware

• Video Capture - Sony DSR-20 Digital Video Recorder

Hardware

• Boca Labs TextGrabber GP500 Closed Caption Decoder

Scope

• Project divided into three major components– Client Application– Server Application– Website

• M.S. Thesis implements Client application, PhD work integrates Client/Server/Distribution - case study of immersive aesthetic experience

Client Application

• Initialization

• Main Window

• Mouse Navigation

• Episode Information and Transcripts

• Episode Video

• Video Search

• Settings and Preferences

• SCREENSHOTS

Server Application

• Video

• Transcripts

• Models

Re-presentSub-Project

Server Application - Schematic

Server Application - Transcripts

Re-present

• A research project that functions as an independent hypertext artwork, yet exercises ideas and implements methods initiated in the development of PNN.

• Hyper-textual visualization that searches television news broadcast transcripts, and “Re-presents” the data in a way that affords the viewer the opportunity to come to a “new” understanding.

Re-present Schematic

Indexer

CaptionatorRe-present

Client

CC Decoder

PNN Server

Re-presentServer

Indexer

Captionator

Captionator - Transcripts

• Decode transcripts and save to server.– Integrate time-code to match text with video

– Serial connection to CC Decoder and DV Recorder

Indexer - Reverse Index

• Create searchable index of terms to reside on server- Using Jakarta Lucene

Re-present Client

• Fullscreen Java application

• Uses Jakarta XML-RPC for remote procedure execution

PNN Server

Re-presentServer

Re-presentClient

• Interfaces with Lucene• Uses Jakarta XML-RPC• CLI daemon

Re-present Server

Re-presentClient

PNN Server

Re-presentServer

Re-present ClientFunctionality

• Displays Broadcasts, Date and Time

Re-present ClientFunctionality

• displays temporal location of search term results

Re-present ClientFunctionality

• Displays broadcast title and number

• Height of broadcast is related to term frequency within the transcript

Re-present ClientFunctionality

• Height of broadcast node is related to term position within the document– shorter to front, longer towards rear

Re-present ClientFunctionality

• Mousing over the broadcast node displays the phrases containing the search term.

Re-present Demo

EVALUATION

• Art is subjective - individual response dependent on experience of observer

• Function is objective– Performance– Bugs

FUTURE WORK

• Integrate WordNet to enable word interpretation, and expansion of “meanings”

• Implement “stretch text” on phrases• Implement word expansion, link following

• Improve “visualization” perhaps with animated node responses

• Develop community - setup open source repository. Members could develop their own visualizations of PNN data.

• Develop tactile response

CONCLUSION

• Satisfies Client application goals

• Successfully presents the opportunity for the manipulation of meaning in the context of an aesthetic experience

• Provides framework for art production

Public News NetworkRe-present Subproject

Digital Sampling to Create a Hybrid Media Feed