Carl-Johan Rosén
The mix presented here is a selection of works dating back to 2006. Some are collaborations with other artists, some are solo works.
Works
→ #021 (.cpp på papper)
→ #020 No translation given, in Written Images
→ #019 Looking for bird overlooking depth
→ #018 (Statistics)
→ #017 Wood Process
→ #016 Om tolkning
→ #015 Det klarnar / Emerging
→ #014 Direktsändning från simbassängen
→ #013 Who are you looking at - who's looking at you
→ #012 Partners In Crime
→ #009 Jeans View 1.0
→ #008 Ambient Licks
→ #006 Who are you looking at - who's looking at you
→ #003 F.T.L.
→ #002 Predator?
Other
→ #011 OpenFrameworks Pachube code
→ #010 OpenFrameworks Syjunta
→ #007 True Romance
→ #005 Think
→ #004 Source.Code
→ #001 Cell Noise and Processing
Shows
Contact
#020
No translation given
in Written Images
Created in collaboration with more than 70 media artists and developers from across the world, Written Images is the first of its kind. A ‘programmed book’, continuously regenerated for the digital printing process, offering each reader a unique experience. – Written Images
The subconscious of the other. Organic or digital. The patterns in memory are inaccessible to the one who has no translation. One might interpret noise, while the other sees the emerging structure. In this case the image tells the story of its creator.
Computers and other apparatuses belong to the group of subjects called digital beings. A digital being is something loosely defined in the area of robot/software/machine/toy, but with the distinct property of not being fully understood in its relation to human beings or organic life in general. The question approached here is what it means to communicate with this digital being and how the meeting changes both our horizons. What amount of respect do I owe this digital other before, after and during the process of interpretation of its experiences of its surroundings? I search for common grounds between a being who see the world through a keyboard, a wind-sensor or a button, and a being who sees the world through eyes, arms and the Swedish language.
The public announcement of our project was met with great international enthusiasm. We received 180 applications from more than 18 countries. A total of 70 generative software programs were contributed, out of which 42 were selected for print by a jury of distinguished curators, gallerists, and designers. – Written Images
Links
→ Image rendered during development. → Code. → Project main page: writtenimages.net. → Press pack PDF (7.5Mb).
Shows
→ LEAP, Berlin. July 2011. → First publication. August 2011. → Alpha-ville, London. September 2011.
#009
Jeans View 1.0
Jeans View 1.0 is a mind-boggling experience which turns your body backside up front. The feeling can best be described as an x-ray shield which de-orientates your body. As viewer your presumptions of the bodily constitution are questioned, while obviously there is something wrong with the body you see, it looks totally valid. This is an indescribably weird experience!
The installation is constructed from a (perfectly) blue colored office-space separation screen. A live video of one side of the screen is flipped and projected back on the other side while leaving the upper body of the user visible above the screen. JeansView 1.0 was created together with Claes Ericson.
Video
#019
Looking for bird
overlooking depth
A noise, a perceptual sensation of an unknown might be a thrill. It might be pain. Both are results of the uncertainty of what we are experiencing. The limbo of not being certain, of being in fantasy, of having space enough to reflect on what is between our expectations and what our bodies tell us about the world. Having a brand new sensory ability is bound to be dramatic. The world we know will change drastically, permanently.
The gap between experience and reality, between what you imagine the world to be like and what it is actually like, is permanent, but in continuous transformation. Widening, narrowing. But the gap will always be there. Never closing.
The glitch is a name for an accidental misinterpretation when parsing incoming information. When data arrive in wrong order, or is suddenly swapped for other data, the handler acts unexpectedly, creatively. Doing what we did not imagine possible. Surprisingly.
The gap/glitch/crack/hack/explosion is present here. Deep in the city nervous system midnight explosions are undermining the ground on which we rest. People say parts of the earth surface have already been drawn down by gravity. But from where we can go the abyss is nowhere to be seen. Blocked from our senses. All moves south.
The space between the city and the depth is narrowing. But the city is numb. It is constantly moving. Moving out of range. Hiding (it). And we can do nothing else. We maintain the position of uncertainty, the imaginative space, still undecided on what to feel when the ground falls. Hoping for this great unknown, for the sudden appearance of a language. Allowing pain and thrill intertwined.uncertainty, the imaginative space, still undecided on what to feel when the ground falls.
Video
→ Full version at valeveil.se.
Shows
→ Tomma rum, Malmberget. August 2011. → Insensitive, valeveil.se. September 2011.
#006
Who are you looking at
Who's looking at you
Who... is an ongoing study of social implications of surveillance in public space. Since the start of this project, late 2007, one of the results is this performance/vj set where cameras around a public space (a dance floor in a club, a street or a building) capture movement of people at that time and place. Footage is returned to the audience after beeing fed through the authoritarian power of the CCTV system and the performer. As performer I can seek individuals and place them in or out of control of their virtual representations on screen.
The goal of Who... is to highlight two things mainly: 1. The audience's lack of control of their footprints or traces left behind in a surveilled space, and 2. The non-personality of a CCTV system and the problem of relating to a covert power of this sort. Additionally, the wonderful esthetics of surveillance camera videos, and of body and crowd motion are qualities that amplify the experience.
The live video feeds are read by custom software built with openFrameworks which gives the performer full control over time and space.
Shows
→ Essential Existence Gallery, Leipzig. September 2009. → Pre PPP, Stockholm. September 2009. → OSC09/Färgfabriken, Stockholm. August 2009. → The Interactive Institute 10 år, Stockholm. December 2008. → The Office, Stockholm. December 2008. → Sweat, Linköping. September 2008. → New Media Meeting, Norrköping. September 2008. → Klubb Republik, Norrköping. April 2008. → Norrköpings Konsthall, Norrköping. April 2008. → New Media Meeting pre-event, Norrköping. January 2008.
Video
→ Essential Existence Gallery, Leipzig. → Pre PPP, Stockholm. → OSC09/Färgfabriken, Stockholm. → The Office, Stockholm. → Sweat, Linköping. → Klubb Republik, Norrköping. → Norrköpings Konsthall, Norrköping.
#017
Wood Process 1.0
This generative wood sculpture was created at over four days in collaboration with Johan Ekenberg, Evelia Hartwig and a computer software. The software generated blueprints like the one above, which we imitated to our best knowing. When we considered ourselfs satisfied, the software compared blueprint and actual result throug a camera. The difference between the blueprint and wooden structure affected the design of the next generation blueprint.
We believe this method of design gives new perspectives on construction, impossible for us to land at without the strict method of kaos and structure. By following through with the software for the whole period of time, we came to understand the material better as well as the language of the machine. A symbiosis of man, wood and software rewarded with an Honorary Mention at the Bergen International Wood Festival.
Project Web
Shows
→ Bergen International Wood Festival, Bergen. May 2010.
#015
Det klarnar / Emerging
Det klarnar / Emerging is part of a larger research effort to investigate how sensory composition of a being, digital or biological, determine the awareness, the memory and the self. This materialization of theoretical reasoning exemplifies three digital beings with each a different means of acting in the world, and a sense to register its own actions. Through acting and sensing in a recursive feedback loop the electronic constructions create a fleeing memory of their being in a specific space at a certain time.
The digital beings are design to not give room for mystification or imitation of biological life, but to reveal its simple construction of wood and electronic components. They are nothing but machines. Still their emerging behavior are too complex to be deconstructed solely through observation. The behaviors are a memory pattern unique to the placement and the design of the digital being as well as to the environment. Might this uniqueness constitute moral grounds for not pulling the power to these machines?
Shows
→ ECAP, Munich. October 2010. → Konstfack, Stockholm. March 2010.
Text
→ Om Digitala Varelser. December 2009. → On Digital Beings. September 2010.
Video
→ Stockholm. September 2010. → Konstfack, Stockholm. March 2010.
#014
Direktsändning från simbassängen
Direktsändning från simbassängen (Live from the swimming pool) was created to capture the atmosphere of the local community bath Aspuddsbadet, as a contribution to the debate against its closing down. The bath house has been occupied since its official close down in the summer of 2009. The exhibition was planned to take place in the swimming pool of the bath, but due to police breaking the occupation the exhibition moved to a nearby gallery. The work was shown the day before the bath was sadly torn down, as part of a group exhibition with seven works all relating to the bathhouse, both as architecture and as a place for meeting.
Together with Loui Kuhlau, we created a live video screening of a miniature swimming pool in two parts. The first part in the gallery space is two monitors showing a cut of a swimming pool. The second part is the water filled miniature pool, located in a nearby room, where visitors can take their hand for a swim to the delight of the visitors in the gallery space.
Video
→ Konstfack, Stockholm. December 2009.
Photos
#018 (Statistics)
By pushing evaluations of selected facts/memories of my life through a custom algorithm I was able to predict the future until the year 2016. In this case a selection of 36 facts (like hope, professional relations, faith, longing, naivity) was evaluated. The method was the following. 1, plot data by year back to the year of my birth of the selected fact. 2, map the data to the range [0-100] and pass them to the algoritm. 3, the algorithm finds a mathematical sine-power-based equation describing the curve of the past using the mean squared error method. 4, extrapolate the curve over the comming six years up to 2016.
Between the equations grew a wider picture of the future. By comparing the equations I was able to find correlations wich struck me as surprising, but still believable. From the raw data, the 36 equations, I was able to analyse these correlations through different forms of representations, in order to find interesting points-of-view on the data set.
The analysis was presented in two parts. On screen running replays of the equation finding algorithm, showing the equation finding its place close to the data. And as prints showing the full set of equations plotted alongside three different representations of the equations put together.
Shows
→ Konstfack, Stockholm. February 2011.
#016
Om tolkning
Through others' voices overlaying live video of another artwork, I'm explaining what it means to perceive the world. The filters through which we see the world are as complex as what we try to see.
Shows
→ Visualiseringscenter C, Norrköping. May 2010.
#013
Who are you looking at
Who's looking at you
As an expansion of the performance Who..., this is a participant-driven installation on the same topic. The installation allows the participant to engage in a more exploring way. The project still touches the same key issues, but targets a new audience in this form, and also allows for more reflective thought while interacting.
In this form, the authoritarian power has undergone a shift from performer to participant. The power is based on the participant but granted by an absent power. By removing the performer, the installation leaves the participant in a more vulnerable position, since she can't observe the source of control but is forced to look for it in herself.
Shows
→ Trädgården, Stockholm. August 2010. → Essential Existence Gallery, Leipzig. September-November 2009. → Mejan Labs, Stockholm. May 2010.
Video
#010
OpenFrameworks Syjunta
The oF Syjunta is (was) a monthly meeting in Stockholm, where we chat, share experiences and coding tricks. We are using the OpenFrameworks coding kit, which is designed for artists and other people who wish to use code as a tool in their creative practice. We usually meet at different places at around 6pm on a weekday and hang out for a couple of hours. We'll post on our website when there is a new event coming up, so stay tuned!
#011
ofxPachube
I've been working a bit with the Pachube data sharing tool by Usman Haque and found it a useful platform for several projects. In the process I've created an openFrameworks Pachube addon, which is now on version 0.02. It's threaded and supports the Pachube API as per 2009-03-30.
Download
#008
Ambient Licks
Ambient Licks is a fourty-two hour statistical recording of a public space. We wanted to create an alternate portrait of the space (the New Media Meeting festival) and the people passing through. We can compare the results with a time-lapse video, where a picture is taken at regular intervals, only in Ambient Licks the picture is a set of sensor measurements. During the festival we measured light level, humidity, temperature, alcohol amount in the air and counted number of persons in the space. The portrait was created and presented live as shown in video.
The installation was created together with Chris Leung from the Pachube/PachuBox project. We used OpenFrameworks, Pachube and the PachuBox to capture and present the data.
Video
#012
Partners In Crime
Partners In Crime is a dance performance on the borders between the physical and the digital, between the stage and audience, between criminal and law-abiding. The project is concerned with the general preemptive criminalization of people through surveillance, and creates a space where the participant's every move might be a criminal act and every judgement might be wrong.
Partners In Crime is a collaborative project with Diggapony, a choreography group who love to provoce and question given rules. The project is supported by Riksteatern, Interactive Institute and New Media Meeting and first shown in May 2009.
Shows
→ New Media Meeting, Norrköping. May 2009.
Video
#002
Predator?
Predator? is a minimal game/installation where the audience interact with an abstract predator. The users are represented as white squares and the predator as a black square. The predator is bound by a leach and the audience can enter the installation to fool or be eaten by the predator. Predator? is study in virtual reality immersion, exploring the minimal connection between real life and the virtual. The minimal design of the participant representations in the virtual world and the physical representation of the virtual in the real world (by two lines on the floor), shows how little is needed to create this immersion in virtual space.
This project has also been a starting point for me to explore behavior animation and artificial intelligence design, which i have continued to work with in my master thesis (see Source.Code).
Predator? was created by Henrik Wrangel and me at the Interactivos? 2006 workshop in Madrid. Zachary Lieberman, co-initiator of the OpenFrameworks, introduced us to basically all the tools we used for this project and was also teaching the workshop.
Shows
→ New Media Meeting, Norrköping. December 2006. → Ars Electronica Festival, Linz. September 2006. → Tekniska Museet, Malmö. June-August 2006. → Media Lab Madrid, Madrid. May 2006.
#003
F.T.L.
F.T.L. (Färg Till Ljud) is a visual sound composer. It's constructed as a rotating scanner which visually reads the surface of the table. Colored blocks of different shapes and sizes can be combined to create a unique sonic landscape. Each color represents a sound sample. The radial position changes the pitch and the size of the block controls the volume of the sound. The speed of the rotating reader is controlled by tactile slider on the side of the sound controller.
The installation, or instrument, was created to allow people who prefer a visual approach to create sounds and music. It has proven a successful and playful approach to both young and old people. Since the interface is entirely analogue, people tend to have a lower threshold before deciding to use it. Especially people with little or almost no computer experience easily start creating digital music.
F.T.L. was created in collaboration with Markus Appelbäck.
Shows
→ Norrköpings Konsthall, Norrköping. September 2007. → New Media Meeting, Norrköping. December 2006. → Tekniska Museet, Malmö. June-August 2006.