gcraighobbs /210 /Example
Existing Approaches
http://incubator.quasimondo.com/flash/flickeur.php
Flickeur randomly retrieves images from Flickr.com and creates an infinite film with a style that can vary between stream-of-consciousness, documentary or video clip. This random movie generator written by Mario Klingemann is the closest parallel technically and visually to what I hope to achieve with narrative synthesis. The resulting image sequence is fluid and stylized, generating compelling juxtapositions of content and meaning.
Flickeur encourages randomness and appropriation. It represents an efficient means to generating a vast amount of content utilizing existing resources as a form of remixing and recontextualization. Although its random nature precludes the sequencing of narrative intensity, it is an excellent prototyping model for the possibilities and challenges inherent to narrative synthesis.
For more information on Flickeur, click here.
According to Lev Manovich’s website for this project, “Soft Cinema project mines the creative possibilities at the intersection of software culture, cinema, and architecture.”
“At the heart of the project is custom software and media databases. The software edits movies in real time by choosing the elements from the database using the systems of rules defined by the authors.”
I have not explored the Soft Cinema DVD although It sounds like a fantastic art project consisting of randomly generated menu selections and generative narrative experiences. However, this exploration is limited to DVD output, and the software application and tools of its creation are not revealed. As such, I am lead to believe the efforts are short-term, or otherwise complete.
http://liquidnarrative.csc.ncsu.edu/
From the website, “The Liquid Narrative research group at North Carolina State University's Computer Science Department works in the area of procedural content generation -- the creation of content for interactive games and other virtual environments -- that uses models of narrative to build stories and tell them automatically.”
A computer science approach to narrative synthesis, this NCSU research group uses techniques from Artificial Intelligence, Computer Gaming, Human-Computer Interaction, Virtual Reality and Cognitive Psychology.
Compelling research indeed, but with no tangible results from the perspective of an artist.
http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=184
Database video art, Performance Video, Live Cinema + Vjing
This art blog, from a year ago, addresses basic themes which I am interested in exploring with my project. As a working VJ and filmmaker my alliance tend towards artistic practice as opposed to strictly research-oriented approaches to the generative process of narrative articulation.
By reducing the process to art-making, the essential element are distilled down by an order of magnitude to workable elements of – space, light, time, audio, and video. The technology is implied, and the means to manipulate that technology toward a functional piece is my “work”.
The blog also briefly addresses Lev Manovich’s research efforts in algorithmic cinema, macro-cinema, multimedia cinema, and database cinema. Manovich’s interest appears theoretical.