Macro-micro structures is an installation that visualizes elements of a lateral city model translated into 3D electronic space. Two different pressure pads in front of a projection space allow participants to either grow the city larger or visit locations in the structure. The piece explores the tension between macro- and micro- structures in urban environments; the micro scale, symbolized by privacy and individuality, is captured by analogue photography of urban apartment block interiors and community garden plots, documenting individual spaces which arrange and cluster within the cellular urban structure. The macro is represented by digital algorithms which create a complex achitectural struture within which the photographs are embedded. Code and user interaction are responsible for a self-organizing emergent structure. At a certain level of growth the structure reaches a critical threshold at the ‘edge of chaos’, echoing the urban core reaching a critical mass of architectural entities. Consequently the domestic entities start to reposition within the clusters, whilst simultaneously cells start to sprawl outward.

More details on Clarissa’s site here…

Macro View

Micro View

In human speech the basic acoustic unit is called a phoneme. The visual equivalent is called a “viseme”, a basic speech unit in the visual domain, in other words a facial expression that can be used to describe a particular sound. Using this analogy, I have written a piece of software which describes sound using basic visual units to represent recorded frequencies.

My inspiration for a basic visual unit came to me while staring at a wall where I had hung up three Japanese fabrics covered with repeating iconic motifs. Here was an already established set of visual patterns comprised of small repeating elements.

These textile motifs seem appropriate for use in a computer artwork as they are already tiled in a networked, matrix fashion and their morphology resembles miniaturized automata. Woven textiles form part of computing history, through Joseph Marie Jacquard’s automated patterned textile weaving machine in 1804 which led to punch cards in computing devices.