mountains

Re:Cycle III is an extension of my previous generative video art piece Re:Cycle (exhibited at ELO 2012). The current version is part of an ongoing exploration into the combined poetics of image, sequence, motion, computation, and meaning. The Re:Cycle system includes a database of video clips, a second database of video transitions, and a computational engine to select and present the video clips in an unending stream. The computational selection process is driven by a set of metadata tags associated with the content of each video clip. The system can incorporate video clips of any content or visual form. It is currently based on nature scenery: mountains, rivers, ice, snow, waterfalls, trees. (Future versions will incorporate urban and human imagery.) The original version was completely committed to the aesthetic of ambient experience. Like Brian Eno's "ambient music", it was not intended to capture or hold your attention. However, it was required to give visual pleasure whenever you did choose to gaze at it. As the system is evolving, this commitment to ambience is gradually giving way to a more engaged and prolonged experience. The change is driven by the incorporation of increased semantic and visual coherence. The original version relied completely on random shot selection and sequencing. An early modification introduced a low level of semantic coherence based on simple metadata tags. The current version has taken this commitment to semantic coherence further. First, the shots are getting more varied, and the tagging system is getting more complex. This increase in the variety of the metadata textual tags is amplified by the application of more complicated algorithmic sequencing processes. The old system could present a series of short sequences made up of clips with shared visual content (e.g. -­‐ "trees", or "waterfalls"). The new system will incorporate that short-­‐term sequencing logic, but will nest it within a set of larger segments. The larger segments will be based on more sophisticated concepts of progression, arc, time and closure. The system is based on text at its most fundamental level. The decision making relies on the tags -­‐ descriptors of video clip content. The system reads, selects and sequences using these tags. The driver is text, the experience is visual. At a higher level, the work is evolving towards a more complicated sequencing logic that will combine a heightened sense of flow and progression with an increased commitment to meaning. One can see it as a visual poetry machine, one that has advanced from doggerel to a more expressive semantic and visual output. (Source: Author's Abstract)

"Winterscape" is an Ambient Video meditation on the changing faces of the Canadian Rockies in winter. The piece is a visual essay that takes the viewer deep into the mountain environment, and in the process expands the limits of cinematic time and space in the context of the recombinant moving image. Ambient Video artworks are "video paintings" that hang on the walls of our homes and offices. They present a considerable aesthetic challenge for the artist. They must give visual pleasure in any given moment, but can not require our attention at any time. Since they live in our homes, they must also support repeated viewing, yet still offer fresh insights each time. Winterscape exemplifies the three techniques I rely on to meet these aesthetic challenges: striking visual composition, manipulation of cinematic time, and the use of visual layers and transitions. Because ambient video works must be slow-paced, the pressure on the original composition is considerable. This piece is based on strong subject imagery with an emphasis on visual impact, simplicity of composition, and the subtle play of light, color and motion. The cinematic time base has been manipulated extensively in these shots. Clouds are sped up to maximize visual interest but still retain an innate sense of grace. Water is slowed down to reveal the complex relationships of motion, time, momentum, and resistance as it plays within the constraints of landscape and gravity. Even more striking is the manipulation of visual layers and transitions. This piece is a radical departure from the more than one hundred years of cinematic tradition—there are no hard cuts in "Winterscape." Instead, it uses a series of multiple layers and complex transitions to support constant but subtle change from image to image. This is a major shift in the fundamentals of film and video construction, which almost exclusively relies on the use of the discrete shot as the basic building block of visual sequencing. In this work, each shot has been fragmented into visual zones, and the transition from one image to the next unfolds in stages determined by the graphic and motion components of each composition. The result is a constant state of transition, as pictorial components layer, wipe, and fade in an unending series of changes. At any given time, the image on the screen is a seamless shifting collage, consisting of parts of two or more camera shots. The effect is one of visual flow, metamorphosis, and an overall sense of recombinant "magic realism".  

Rockface II revisions the classic landscapes of the Canadian Rockies, using transition to systematically deconstruct and recombine the mountain scenery. In the process, the work explores concepts of pictorialism, scale, time and metamorphosis. At the same time, it examines liminality of narrative through the introduction of subtly embedded human imagery.

Re:Cycle is a generative ambient video art piece based on nature imagery captured in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.  Ambient video is designed to play in the background of our lives.  It is a moving image form that is consistent with the ubiquitous distribution of ever-larger video screens. The visual aesthetic supports a viewing stance alternative to mainstream media - one that is quieter and more contemplative - an aesthetic of calmness rather than enforced immersion.  An ambient video work is therefore difficult to create - it can never require our attention, but must always rewards viewer attention when offered.  A central aesthetic challenge for this form is that it must also support repeated viewing.  Re:Cycle relies on a generative recombinant strategy for ongoing variability, and therefore a higher measure of re-playability.  It does so through the use of two random-access databases: one database of video clips, and another of video transition effects.  The piece will run indefinitely, joining clips and transitions from the two databases in randomly varied combinations.

Creative input to the system derives in large part with the selection of shots that the artist uses.  I've been fortunate to collaborate with a brilliant cinematographer - Glen Crawford from Canmore, Alberta.  Re:Cycle's landscape images include a range of elements such as snow, trees, ice, clouds and water - reflecting a deep respect for the natural environment.  These images also produce the ‘ambient’ quality I am seeking.   They are engaging when viewed directly, but also move easily to the background when not.  Another artist might choose very different images, and the resulting work could be completely different.  While I enjoy the complete control offered with traditional linear video art, I am intrigued by the different set of artistic decisions this simple generative platform can support.

The current version of the generative engine for Re:Cycle also incorporates a deeper level of artistic intervention through the integration of metadata into the dynamics of the system.  Each video clip is given one or more metadata tags - reflecting the content of the individual shot. I have used the tags to nuance the random operation of the engine, and group and present images in sequences that share a common content element (such as "snow" or "water").  The resulting generative video work presents a stronger sense of visual flow, and the sequencing begins to exhibit a degree of semantic continuity.

The overall design of the piece incorporates a series of decisions (number of shots, quality of shots, transition selection, algorithmic process) that strike a balance between replayability/variation on the one hand, and aesthetic control on the other.