Recently exhibited at the Kinetica Art Fair 2010

View all Engine Paintings from the Art Fair here

WHAT IT IS:

Engine is an ongoing project with the digital painting medium. It has been developed as a collaborative tool that allows the combination of pattern, structure, colour, context and process to produce 'versioned' art works. The software is written to allow for the gestural manipulation of live video and the output of a 'painted' moment in time.

Much of the contemporary art world has become commercialized and mechanized ‐ in some cases the hand of the artist is almost completely removed from the art works production. Engine is a system designed to streamline the art production into one fluid process. But unlike mainstream art production, Engine uses its viewer's presence and the gallery setting, as its subject matter and creator.

download the quicktime here

Prints on show:

download jpg's here

ABOUT THE INSTALLATION

Engine is a site specific installation. It comprises of a projection 'painting' surface, a camera, generative Engine software and a printing station. The space looks like a large blank canvas until viewers begin interacting with the piece. Once activated, each movement will trigger a fluid and explosive combination of colour, geometry, pattern and form to emerge. Participants will gesturally 'paint' using their own movement or interactions with others to reveal a series of brush strokes that alternate with every move.

Each artwork lasts for a set period of time before it is saved, archived and a new blank canvas is revealed. These works are then stored in a database and displayed on a screen at the printing station. For the duration of the exhibition viewers can look through the archive of unique images created. Images can then be selected and printed live during the exhibition.

Engine reveals the entire process from creation to consumption and engages the viewer in a physical and contextual dance to create each piece. Over time, a body of work will be created, produced and sold.

HOW IT WORKS

• Engine uses a live camera feed as a palette of colours
• Movement generates various particle systems that are attracted to the centers of the detected movements
• These particles become the brush strokes, rendering themselves based on the colour palette of the live video stream
• Every few minutes, the current image is saved in vector format, allowing extremely high resolution print outs, and the canvas returns to white.
• All the data is stored and saved as versions.
• Viewers will be able to review all the generated painting from the exhibition
• If a viewer is interested, they can purchase a print from the printing station
• Each print can only be printed ONCE. (An edition of 1) and is intended to be very affordable.

PHYSICAL LAYOUT

In the image Figure 1 ‐ Plan View, the proposed space layout is made clear. This is the proposed layout ‐ however the installation layout is quite flexible. It can be altered depending on the requirements of the curators and the constraints of the space. The proposed layout makes use of a camera in front of a rear projection screen with a short throw projector sitting behind it. The viewer will stand in front of the camera and the resulting images will be displayed on the projector. See Figure 2 ‐ Audience Point of View.

Printing Station: Figure 3 ‐ Printing Station . The printing station is an area dedicated to reviewing all the paintings created during the exhibition and choosing to print them out. This portion of the installation consists of a computer and medium to large format printer attached.