Hey Guys,
This is a post mostly for school purposes – but if you’re interested in that – read along!

My Public Space Project in 6 Keywords.

In our last classes of Public Space, we got some theory and broad philosophy classes. Some important key concepts were touched upon. I’ll try to explain how i think my personal Project fits in these different contexts.

Knowledge Building, Alternative methods of Design Research
I used some of the design research methods that where proposed in class (Photo-research, drawing up mind-maps and the likes). But i think the most valuable research for me was the fact that I had to take the train from Antwerp Central Station to Hasselt Central twice a week. During the course I tried to transform these long trips into research as much as possible: always try to analyse how I, and other people behaved in both train stations. I even hung around in the two train stations just to stroll around for an hour and try to find out the particular unique traits of the place. Trying to absorb the atmosphere. You could say that this way of working is related to the notion of “Le Flaneur” as it was launched by Baudrillard.

So: most valuable metbod of research – living your subject matter. If I was an antropologist that would mean: go live in the jungle for 3 years. Thank god this course was not about Jungle tribes. No internet!

Open Source (Architecture)
The Open Source idea implemented on buildings. The ability to re-engineer the tools you work with (or in this case: the building or space you live in). Other important keyword here: learning trough transparency. You learn to work with something because you understand how it works – and you can change how it works.

If I place my work into this methaphor – there is one clear link: my projection-on-the-facade idea had one big aim: to make the building transparent, to radiate the “soul” of – or information contained within – the trainstation outward.

The (utopic) projection infrastructure can be seen as Open Source too: if it ever gets build it should be usable for other developers of any kind. Somebody else should also be able to display his “rendering” of the station neighbourhoud on the walls of the building. Or maybe it could be used as a giant VJ-Set Canvas. Party time.

Also Open Source: the tools (Processing) AND expertise (Processing Discourse Forum) used.

Identity Quesions
As said before – I like how my Slitscan displays people and trains in very different ways. Trains get drawn out clearly, people just get smashed together in little specks of image-information. Barely recognizable – ghosts. This, at least for me, is an accurate display of what happens at a train station: trains are important, people just pass – without leaving a trace.

Immersion
I actually try to reach the opposite of immersivity here. Instead of trying to convince the viewer of the “realness” of my image – i confront them with a transformed image of the space behind the building. I do this to make people think about that space. Maybe similar to theatre as seen by Bertold Brecht: the 4th wall has to be broken, to confront people with, and make them think about the subject matter of the piece. The “Verfremdungseffekt“.

Participation
The big idea here is (as explained in earlier posts) to give the Hasselt Trainstation a unique, recognizable “face” – by projecting alternative view(s) of the trainstation onto the the facade of the building.
I wanted to create something that would turn the train station into “Our Trainstation” for the people of Hasselt. For somebody who passes everyday – it’s just another space. But for the regulars who learn themselves to read the image – it becomes a place with a recognizable face.
Also – if you find out how the slitscan (or another “visualization”) works – you could have some fun manipulating the system. Find where that camera is and stretch your face 70 feet wide on the facade of a building. I know I would.

Memory
This was one of my main fascinations with the train station: how time is very important, but keeps repeating itself in cycles and how lots of people move around, but leave no traces. The difference between the function of trains in the building and people. One of the first ideas was to work with some sort of paint – and see how traces would form over time. Like stairs that become smooth after millions of people have walked over them – and disappeared. Another idea involved a way to write digital grafitti on train carriage walls. All these ideas had a common ground: people and how they move and leave (or not leave) traces in the train station.
In the end – i think all of these memory-time-related ideas i had came together pretty nice in the slitscan. I think this imaging technique has a very interesting effect in a train station: to me it enlarges the way time works in this space.

And that’s that.

Jim Out.

Update:
I found this while studying for my public space exam. It was in the powerpoint transcripts of one of the lectures and fits in really close with the see-trough aspect of Facade.

Architecture is becoming simply a support for computer-generated images.
The virtual space created by these images replaces the physical space of architecture.
In other words, the image terminates the space. Architecture is reduced to a shelter for the image, not unlike a TV set, a billboard, a movie theater, turned inside out.
As ARCH+ put it in 1991: “The facade becomes a screen.”

Also interesting: The concept for Michael Jantzen’s Malibu Video BeachHouse

Hey Guys,

So – an update about my public space project @ C-MD.

Presentation & Further Reading
I gave a presentation about this project in school. If you’re interested, you can take a look at it here. Be warned however: this thing is not designed to work online – so give it some time to load all the images and so forth. You can navigate using the arrow buttons on your keyboard.

I read up on other work done using slitscan techniques, and somebody on the Processing Forum directed me to this webpage containing a wealth of information on the subject.

The most interesting piece of information was the work and words of Romy Achituv. They are really close to the ideas and execution that i’m doing here.

With each consecutive video frame, the image advances one pixel to the right, leaving behind a trace of the previous recorded segment. This simple capture technique creates images in which the conventions of representing Motion and Stasis are reversed. Whereas motionless elements will appear as a series of streaks across the screen, moving images – crossing the camera’s visual scope – are reconstructed as a “scanned?? imprint, appearing as discrete and discernable objects. Representational space in these images is nullified and replaced by Time, mapped onto a spatial axis. Moving the camera at varying speeds creates images with various densities of space.

Further Concept Toughts
On one level, it’s a way to radiate the character of the train station to the outside of the building. In this way, we establish a true “train station neighbourhood” that was not present before. I already outlined this idea in my previous post.

On another level, this installation can be seen as a way to educate people about the space they are in. This slitscan image shows the space behind the trainstation remapped on an axis of time. You can, however, learn to read this image, and find out what is happening at the train station just by looking at it.

If this would ever turn into a real implementation at the train station – i would like to change the visualisation of of that same space after a certain amount of time.

Instead of remapping time on a space axis, experiment with deformation of video image based on the vibration of the station floor (train arriving, people walking) or a visualisation of cellphone or wifi usage in the area.

So always showing the same space but putting emphasis on the different layers that compose it.


Implementation
In an utopian version I would like to guerilla-project the slitscan on the facade of the Train Station – not only giving it a new face on a conceptual, but also on an almost megalomanic visual level. See the mockup at the beginning of this post.

The real implementation, however, will consist out of the live-feed of a slitscan of a miniature train in one room – with the actual train, explanation of a concept and an mockup of the utopian installation in another. Thereby enabling the idea of “learning” people to read an abstract illustration of an actual space in an exhibition room.

X
Jim

Hey Fellow Students,

So, an overview of my ideas an toughts about our course on Public Space and what to do with the Hasselt Central Station.

Research Run 01
Me and a buddy (Olmo – Just finished his master C-MD last year – so he’s the ideal companion) took a field trip to Hasselt to take a closer look at my work area.  Pictures where later printed in my personal notebook.
Observation one: it’s quite a challenge to build something for a neighbourhood that will only be constructed in five years. Right now most of it ist just an idea or a large building pit.
(The half-underground parking, however, is quite far along it’s construction).
Observation two: altough our project is supposed to be about the station neighbourhood - there’s not much of the station to be seen outside the station building. The rails and other infrastructure are hidden behind it, and, unlike the Central Station of Antwerp,the does not have enough style or history behind it to infuse the neighbourhood with it’s character.

Research Run 02
With this information to think about – a brainstorm began. During the following weeks, i tried to capture and jot down as much of my personal toughts as possible. I also went on a short late-night photo trip to the previously mentioned Central Station of Antwerp, and wandered around looking for inspiration. Most of it went down in my notebook. The main idea i got was still the previous one – how to bring the character from the trainstation out to the street.

Olmo and me looked at some other work in public space – the most interesting one in this context was the Troika Cloud.

As soon as people hear this sound, they feel like they’re allready traveling

It’s a digital sculpture installed in Heathrow Airport, London. The thing I like is that it frames the old display technology that was used in airports before leds ruled the planet in a new context – simultaneously creating an artwork and setting a recognizable travel atmosphere in a new unexpected way.

The Concept
While thinking about about a way to express the nature of a train station (think about things like movement of people on the platform, trains arriving and leaving and the time when this all happens) we first arrived at the idea of a sound installation transmitting sounds from a train line to the street in front of the station. When a train arrived, that specific sound effect would be reflected to the other side.

When thinking more about the specifics of a train station (linear movement of trains, circular movement of time) we suddenly ended up with the idea of a Slitscan. Our Slitscan was created in the Processing language – and basically takes one vertical line of pixels from a webcam image, places them next to the series of previous vertical lines – when it reaches the end of the screen, it start over from the beginning (of the screen). This creates very abstract images. Jeremy Wood (we saw his GPS Drawings in this course)  also used this technique in his Pentagram work. Kubrick also used it in his movie 2001: a Space Oddysee.

When nothing passes along the camera – the screen displays a series of stretched color lines.

When a person passes (or most importantly – a train) it gets drawn on the screen.

So this is the basic idea: the screen (= station) is an abstract images (= has no meaning) until a train arrives (= the reason for a train station to exist) and an image gets drawn on the screen. I want this image projected on the streetside of the Central Station. Thereby expressing the specific character of the trainstation to the outside world.

Research Run 03
I hope the general idea got across in the previous paragraphs. The last factor in this story was an actual early test. It was made yesterday – you can check it out below – don’t forget to watch it full screen for the best effect, give yourself some time to get used to the flow of these images. Also – don’t forget to read up on what Olmo has to say about this if it intrests you.
Don’t forget to leave comments, they’re appreciated.

Planned Improvements
Make the image flow right – instead of the line we have now – it’s a more logical way for the image to update & find a way to also transport the sound outside, improving recognition of the abstract images .

XXX
Jim