Ever since I installed this new Recent Shared Items plugin, I have become very aware of how little I post on here.  It makes it seem like all I do is browse my Google Reader.  But I have been very busy!  So here is a little update.  I finished my epic 4-year long fellowship at Eyebeam Art & Technology Center, so it has been a period of adjustment for me.  I’ve done some freelance work with some very interesting people, and I hope to keep that going.

The Rockwell Group

Starting in  November, I worked for 6 weeks with the Interaction Lab at the Rockwell Group.  It was loads of fun, and great to work with such smart guys.  I went to Portugal and Bristol, UK to install a project for Timberland, and worked on a recently launched installation for Cosmopolitan Hotel.  I was kind of a hired gun on both of these projects, brought in at the end to help them meet their deadline, but I’m glad I got a chance to work with them and I hope to work with them in the future.

Flightphase

Back in July, I did some work with Karolina Sobecka (who I met at my Minneapolis Art on Wheels residency) and Jim George for Infinity.  Like Rockwell, I was just a kind of hired gun, but the project turned out really well, I think.  I mostly worked on hacking OpenTSPS (not-so-coincidentally developed by the Rockwell Lab), optimizing the people tracking to make the interaction smoother.  The project was built in openFrameworks.  Another group who I hope to work with again very soon.

The project was commissioned by Hush Studios.  There are some additional photos on Flickr.

Listings Project

Listings Project is a free weekly email of living and workspace for rent, sublet, swap, and sale focused around our arts community.

I signed up for the list a few years ago when I was looking for a place to live, and recently I was put in touch with Stephanie Diamond, who runs the list.  This was one of those situations where a little work on my part could save Stephanie a ton of work, so it just kind of made sense.  I have made the submission process database-driven, and we will continue to work on more improvements in the coming months.

Globes iPhone app

Marshall and Nora , aka Ligorano/Reese, are two great artists who I met while at Eyebeam. One of their projects is a set of snow globes that feature a single word, including all of the seven deadly sins, and a special “Fuck” globe.  I am working on making an iPhone version of the globes using openFrameworks, the Bullet physics engine, and a OBJ loader made by Bill Dudney.  It’s been a bit of a struggle, seeing as how I am still slightly above n00b level with OpenGL and I have never worked with loading OBJ files before — much less with the restrictions of OpenGLES — but I’ve just about got the flakes flying around like real snow inside the globe.  Stay tuned!  

FlyingLotus
Almost a year ago, I started working on computer vision project for the musician Flying Lotus.  Originally, I was writing a server-side demon for matching submitted images.  In fact, it’s the same daemon that I used for the POP Magazine app.  But recently, I discovered some pretty amazing work by in-spirit.  Eugene used the Alchemy Project to compile a SURF algorithm into ActionScript, and the Apparat framework to optimize it, resulting in a totally real-time matching algorithm in ActionScript, ASSURF.  Using ASSURF, I was able to write a little Flash app wherein users could hold up albums, cds, and printed artwork, and “lock in” the matches at different angles. When you get the right combination, it triggers a download of a secret track or other special feature. It was supposed to launch in November, but it still hasn’t launched for some reason, so until then, here is a demo that I made for the Warp guys:

[See post to watch Flash video]