7electrons

[7electrons]

Stumbled upon an National Geographic article and this photo just blew me away.  “Dressed for Mars, space engineer Pablo de Leon tests a prototype space suit at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where fine soil and fans simulate conditions on the red planet.”  Image by:  Phillip Toledano

[7electrons]

Thank you AskAudio Magazine for Synth Stories!! On my last post, I shared a creative collaboration video from our pro audio company Meris and the talented electronic artist Makeup and Vanity Set. Ask Audio Magazine interviews MVS and discusses his love for synths and hardware including Meris gear.  Here’s a SoundCloud rare interview. He gives major props to our Mercury7 R‬everb. "It's a device that has an extreme musical quality and is something very different....Immediately sounds like it is adding to rather than just being a utility." Here he breaks down our creative project and talks about an exclusive Meris soundtrack using our gear. 

Music by: Makeup and Vanity Set Directed by: Joey Ciccoline

http://bit.ly/SS_MVS_Meris

[7electrons]

Huge apologies to our loyal 7E followers for not posting for a while.  Terry and I have been flooded with new responsibilities as fresh parents.  All the while, we’ve been building our new pro audio company, Meris from the ground up.  However, we just released a collaborative video with an artist we truly admire and love - Makeup and Vanity Set. Directed by the talented filmmaker Joey Ciccoline. If you’re a fan of electronic music, synths and pro audio gear, check it out.  Get haunted.

[7electrons]

7E Guest Artist - Beeple (Mike Winkelmann)

Mike Winkelmann aka Beeple is a Graphic Designer and Motion Graphic Artist based in Wisconsin, USA. His vimeo include animations with a variety of sci-fi machinery and abstract design.  His short films have screened at onedotzero, Prix Ars Electronica, the Sydney Biennale, Ann Arbor Film Festival and many others. He has also released a series of Creative Commons live visuals that have been used by electronic acts such as deadmau5, Taio Cruz, Tiësto, Amon Tobin, Wolfgang Gartner, Flying Lotus and many others. He currently releases work on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint.  His impressive daily sketches utilizing 3-D and design and can be seen on his twitter.  Beeple seems by far the most modest artist we have come across.  Self described as making “a variety of art crap across a variety of media. Some of it is ok, but a lot of it kind of blows ass.” We beg to differ.  In fact, we think his work is incredible.  

[7electrons]

Low End Theory Festival 2015

What an incredible lineup with L.A.’s best. Who’s going? 

[7electrons]

7E Guest Artist Stefanie Posavec

Stefanie Posavec is an London-based data artist with an MA in Communication Design (Central Saint Martins).  With a background in book design and text visualisation, she works as a designer with a focus on data-related design, with work ranging from data visualization and information design. She is commissioned for data art and data illustration for a variety of clients. Her personal work focuses on the visual representation of language, literature, or numbers and has been exhibited internationally.

Check out her site. We love her book art.  

-7E

[7electrons]

Sofia Spring Playlist

We’re about to embark on something wonderful.  Two major announcements are going to take place very soon.  1. I’m days away from having my 1st child Sofia (I share this intimate photo to you.). 2. Our company Meris will be releasing our highly anticipated pro audio 500 series bit crusher, Ottobit.  

I created a playlist called Sofia Spring Mix - 7E and dedicate this to our 7E baby. Marriage of Art and Engineering.  Hope you enjoy.

-JInna

Top Image:  Nosaj Thing - my ultimate favorite electronic artist.  I adore him.  

[7electrons]

In the News - LACMA/Hyundai supports Art + Technology

LACMA and Hyundai Motor Company just announced The Hyundai Project - a brand new 10 year partnership in creating a Art + Technology and Korean Art Scholarships. Hyundai will be sponsoring exhibitions that address the intersection of Art + Technology and “champion technology-based artist projects through grants and in-kind support from leading technology companies.”

“For Korean art scholarships, The Hyundai Project will support three exhibitions and multiple publications planned over the next decade, ranging from historic, traditional art forms to new works created by contemporary Korean artists. The Korean Art Scholarship Initiative creates a new platform and model for research in these areas—key aspects of Korean art that have never before been explored on this scale in either exhibitions or books published outside Korea. The exhibitions, currently planned for 2018, 2022, and 2024, will each include international symposia, online scholarly publications, and exhibition catalogues.”

This partnership/support resonates with us as our blog is all about Art + Engineering plus I’m Korean American!  This is a great way for Korean artists to step up and engage in this opportunity.  

-Jinna

Photo: Robert Irwin, Miracle Mile 2013 LACMA.

[7electrons]

7E Guest Artist - Yann Seznec

Our engineering/art blog started summer of 2013 that focused on our passion and profession; art, music, technology and electronics.  What started out as intimate projects that revealed our relationship/marriage has now flourished to wide variety of guest artists from all over the world.

Yann Seznec is an artist, musician and founder of Lucky Frame based in Edinburgh, Scotland. His work focuses on sound, music, physical interaction, games, and instruments.

His recent work top to bottom:

Currents is a project that is both installation and performance.  It consists of 172 computerized fans of varying sizes.  The fans access weather data from 6 varying global locations and recreates wind patterns for the visitor.  

Spores is an installation that shines laser underneath mushrooms to clearly highlight thousands of glistening spores. 

Cigar box MiDI Controller is a playful project that includes 6 potentiometers, 6 buttons, 3 toggle switches, a Gametrak string controller, and a breakout board for five capacitive touch note switches.

Thank you Yann for joining 7E!

[7electrons]

7E Studio Guest - Kimchee and Chips

Kimchee and Chips, is a collaborative art studio based in Seoul founded by Elliot Woods (UK) and Mimi Son (S. Korea). Their works combines technical media and/or primitive materials to create interactive exhibits.  They use disciplines of visual technology such as projectors, cameras, graphical computation as well as utilizing code with traditional art materials.  

“Light Barrier” (2014) is a light installation consisting of convex mirrors and light to create projection of floating graphical/animating objects.

“Line Segments Space” (2013) is a spectacular light and sound installation using projection, nylon string and code. It very much resonates with works from our past 7E featured artist Jeongmoon Choi.

“Lunar Surface” (2014) is a projection image created by a vertical flag of fabric moving in wind, displaced by curves of air pressure, swinging back and forth. “As it sweeps, it extrudes a trail of light which draws a moon floating in space. The flag renders this moon from another reality, the silk surface acts as a boundary between 2 realities, intermediating the laws of the 2 realms.”

Photos do not do justice.  Be sure to watch the videos.  I’m loving the wordplay on their name. Sounds pretty tasty actually.  

[7electrons]

Do you like 8 and 16 bit sounds? Watch as our company Meris achieves this with pro audio 500 series. Transform any track into video game console sounds.

[7electrons]

7E Guest Artist - Julien Leonard

Julien Leonard is a generative artist and software programmer trained in computer science and artificial intelligence.  His work consists of pre-defined patterns of adjacent dots or bubbles created from code.  Similar to the Pointillism technique developed during the Impressionism era in the late 1800s, his work consists of dots that form an image created from computer script. His work reflect patterns of nature like that of sea creatures or underwater plants.  

For those who may be slightly trypophobic as I am, don't worry.  HIs intricate work only produces a sense of awe.  Be sure to check out his interactive work on his site.  

-Jinna

[7electrons]

7E Interview with Digital Artist Mark Dorf

We talked to digital media artist Mark Dorf, a Brooklyn NY based photographer/sculptor.  Dorf explores the relationships between the natural and digital worlds. His series //_PATH uses early 3D scanning technology to create geometric forms within the plane of a landscape.  We discuss his process in //_Path and his earlier works.  Check out our interview:

7E:  Where are the various locations that were photographed?  Specifically //_Path, Axiom & Simulation, Environmental Occupation,and Host.  Also, do you hire a photographer or are you working solo?  

MD:  //_PATH was shot in a plethora of different places: predominantly in the Redwoods of Northern California, but also in the Rockies of Colorado as well as a few images in Upstate New York. Axiom & Simulation was shot in both upstate New York and Iceland. Environmental Occupations was all shot on the coast of South Carolina and the northern coast of Georgia. Host was shot again on the coast of South Carolina, the northern coast of Georgia and additionally in the Rockies of Colorado and the Gulf Coast of Texas. As for shooting the images themselves, I work solo -- all of my imagery and compositions are shot and made by me -- nothing is outsourced or bought.

7E:  What is the list of computer applications used?  Also are all topographic triangulations projected in a 3d program?  Are any hand drafted?

MD:  I use quite a cocktail of computer applications including:

Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Processing, Blender, Cinema 4D, Google Sketchup and RGBD Toolkit

As for the topographic meshes that you see -- in the series Axiom & Simulation, I had yet to teach myself anything about 3D rendering so those were all hand drafted. With that in mind though, some were freehand and others I would actually set markers out in the landscape in an exact grid form, photograph them for reference, then remove the markers and photograph the scene again. Later I would then overlay the two images and more or less "connect the dots" in order to get an accurate representation of the topographic information in the landscape.

The 3D meshes that you see in //_PATH are actually created using primitive 3D scanning technology using an Infrared Sensor/transmitter and using RGBD to process the information. The meshes in these images are scans of elements, such as plants, rocks, and piles of dirt, that were found in the landscape that they are collaged on top. Here I was interested in examining language: I see the landscape as the most ancient of languages. At one point it could be considered almost binary in that a life for sees one element, realizes that it is good for them and will help sustain life, and see another and know that it will hurt them. In contrast here I have included a contemporary technological eye that examines and quantifies surroundings in a highly organized manner. The scans become highly abstracted due to the fact that they are all un-manipulated raw data -- a pure version of the technological eye that was used to create the scans. Typically a 3D scan is much more than just one single scan -- usually it is 4+ scans composited together with finishing techniques to render a fully realized model. Here it is but the subject as seen by the technology itself.

7E:  What is your process in creating a single image?  Do you start with a natural environment first and formulate a synthetic art form within that composition?

MD:  My processes has of course changed over the years after tackling many different subject matters and means of creating imagery. In my earlier works, like Environmental Occupations and Axiom & Simulation, I would actually draw out each composition by hand on paper before taking a single image. I knew exactly what I was looking for before I ever left the studio. Not only would I draw all of the elements that are to be created in the scene but also the landscape itself that I was looking for. If there was a compositional element that I needed that was not present in the landscape that I was in, I would move on and not even take the photo. It was a real labor of love, but one that I think results in something that is far more satisfying -- why settle when you can find exactly what you want. The idea is not to create fictitious landscapes and illusion -- the actual visual un-manipulated description of the landscape is very important to me.

As for later works like //_PATH -- In those images, I knew what I wanted to place in the scene and the techniques that I wanted to include in the series, such as 3D composites, 3D scans and other visual geometric and digital techniques, but when shooting I did not know which one would fall in what scene. I was however aware after a few tests that I wanted central compositions and a certain quality of light -- so I was searching for those compositional and photographic elements when shooting.

Emergence was different for many reasons. This was the first project that I really dove into the world of science. All of this series was made in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado while I was an artist in residence at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (a field research lab in a remote region of the Rockies). While there I was working side by side with ecologists and biologists in the field every single day living the life of the scientist and field researcher. Their process of data collection and analysis is what really influenced that work -- for the most part it is exactly that: an exploration of data collection, analysis, and transformation. In light of that, I treated my photographs like my "collected data". I would go out and do my "field research" (my photographing and exploring) and return to my studio and "analyze" the information (the photographs) that I had collected. The composited elements are all derivative of different means of data visualization or data transformation. Again I had an idea of the different processing techniques that I wanted to use, but when shooting it was not apparent to me, nor important to me as this was merely my "collected data", which would go where-- that process was very much based after the images were taken and re-examined.

7E:  Where did your interest of nature and geography stem from?  And is it a spiritual journey to find these landscapes in what seems very desolate areas.  

MD:  My interest in nature has been a life-long interest. Ever since I was little, I was always the kid that wanted to be outside playing and climbing trees -- not watching TV and playing video games (though I was totally fascinated by computers). I liked to explore and go on adventures -- this has stuck with me my entire life. The landscape is where I find my mind is the most clear and at ease.

As for my interest in geography and science in my creative process, I think that influence has come quite a lot form my family. My grandfather and grandmother were both photographers in the 40's in New York City (the photographic and perhaps the technology element of my process), my aunt and uncle are both marine biologists and my father works in medicine (the science element of my process), and now I tend to mix all of the above into a single conversation. There is without a doubt a meditative and spiritual quality to my travels -- like I said, the landscape is the place that I feel most at ease. I don't mean this in a "we should return to the earth" kind of way, but rather I enjoy the solitude and perceived lack of human presence (this is of course a misconception of the landscape but a perception nonetheless). I enjoy traveling to the places where fewer feet have tread. I thoroughly enjoy the escape.

[7electrons]

7E Guest Artist - Eric Carl

Eric Carl is a Los Angeles based Art Director/Graphic Design Instructor at Gnomon School of Visual Effects. His work covers UI design and musical tools. In his spare time, he creates electronic music.  

We first discovered Eric because he's a fan of our pro audio company Meris! Reciprocally, we immediately became fans of him as well.  We were blown away by his beautiful graphic aesthetic that resonated with us.  His passion for music gear, electronics, technology and design stroke a loud chord.  We love his work and we're excited to someday meet another talented Angeleno!

[7electrons]

Our Art and Engineering Teaser. Meet Ottobit.  No quarters needed.  Crush bits, de-rez and sonic destroy.  

[7electrons]

Early Christmas Gift

Opened an early Christmas gift from our business partner Angelo.  It's a mini Nostromo jumpsuit for my future girl growing inside me.  For those who know what this is, this gift left me speechless.  Touched my heart to the core.  Fantastic.  

Like a samurai's rite of passage, I will await the day she can fit in it.  

-Jinna

[7electrons]

7E Guest Artist - Ian Brill

Ian Brill's work focuses on creating interactive installations with multi-sensory experiences. The piece "Transmission" initially caught my eye because of the integration of synthesis and generative light matrices. It uses a combination of Max/Msp and Arduino to drive the LED panels and synthesize the audio.

"I am fascinated by the idea of using technology to create an immersive agent for positive change- as a form of education, communication, meditation, contemplation, etc, in response to my experience in a culture where I feel that many people (myself including) are more familiar with taking a passive approach to their position/relationship of being immersed in technology."

Be sure to watch the video below:

TRANSMISSION II: Vignettes from ian brill on Vimeo.

Thanks for joining us on 7E Ian!

-terry