We’re delighted to announce that two Squidsoup projects will be shown at Scopitone this year, in Nantes (Brittany, France) from 12-16 October 2011: Scapes and Glowing Pathfinder Bugs. We are also doing a talk. Scapes was last shown in February in London in our solo show at Tenderpixel gallery. The piece uses the Ocean of Light 3D LED grid to create evanescent landscapes that occupy physical space and are generated using real-time sound analysis as source material. Dynamic volumetric sculptures and environments made from light.

We are planning to show a new version of Glowing Pathfinder Bugs that uses the Microsoft Kinect controller to analyse the surface of the sandpit, allowing the bugs to be acutely aware of the topography of the sand around them. This new version of Bugs has been developed using openFrameworks and their open source ofxKinect library. Respect to all involved at oF for such a great initiative, and also to Chris O’Shea for his help in the early stages of development.

Scapes is on show at TENDERPIXEL GALLERY, 10 CECIL COURT, LEICESTER SQUARE, LONDON until 5 MARCH 2011 – please do go and see it. Details and opening times HERE

Scapes is a dynamic and responsive light sculpture in five movements by digital arts group Squidsoup. Each movement is a different take on the combination of realtime sound analysis with volumetric visualisations – creating visuals that occupy physical 3D space purely out of sound. Slow moving dynamic light sculptures evolve from Alexander Rishaug‘s mesmerising ambient soundscapes to evoke an abstract world where time has no meaning.

Promo video here: vimeo.com/15400810 Documentary video coming soon.

More information here: www.tenderpixel.com/squidsoup.html

Selected coverage:
Design Week ::  GlobalNewsBox ::  WhatWhereWhen ::  Aesthetica

We’re very pleased to announce an upcoming solo exhibition for a new project running on the Ocean of Light 3d LED grid called Scapes.

From the press release:
Scapes conjures into being three-dimensional cities, landscapes and abstract architectures purely from sound, software and light. Chimaera-like visions of ephemeral spaces are created and destroyed in real time. They occupy physical space, but only fleetingly. They leave nothing behind when they, and the sounds that spawned them, vanish.

Scapes is a new project part commissioned by Tenderpixel Gallery (London). Tuned software and specifically designed sounds are used to generate a series of abstract landscapes visualised on a bespoke room-sized 3D grid of lights controlled in real time. As the sounds are played through speakers and picked up with microphones, the visual process can be interacted with – intercepted, corrupted and altered by visitors making their own sounds to interfere with the original audiovisual designs.

Scapes is will be show at Tenderpixel Gallery, 10 Cecil Court, London WC2N 4HE, (nearest tube Leicester Square) 10 February – 5 March 2011.

OSLO LUX is a one day seminar with associated artworks taking place next January 21st in Oslo, Norway. It aims to explore the intersections between light, space and interaction, bringing together an interesting and dynamic mix of practitioners. We’re involved (Anthony Rowe is one of the organisers): Ocean of Light will be there, and we’re doing a talk. Also present will be UVA, AntiVJ and a host of other great people – it promises to be an interesting day!

From the site:
OSLO LUX is bringing together leading practitioners and researchers using technology and light in new and dynamic ways. It aims to map out the leading edge in visualisation and immersive techniques using light in physical space.

The event consists of two parts. A public exhibition showing several light-based pieces by local and internationally renowned artists, designers and architects. These will be shown indoors and out, in and around the Oslo School of Architecture and Design.

The second part is a seminar, also held at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. Talks will be held again by an international roster of acclaimed practitioners, including United Visual Artists (UVA) AntiVJ, Timo Arnall, Squidsoup, HC Gilje, Marius Watz and Adam Pruden (a researcher at MIT Senseable Lab, involved with the extraordinary Flyfire project).

www.oslolux.no

This year’s Ars Electronica festival took place in a massive old tobacco factory, much of it with an art deco feel, and all of it with the strong smells of tobacco still lingering in the air. It made for an interesting event. The enormous available floor area meant that each project and event on show could live and breathe in its own space; projects were generally unencumbered by anything else nearby. This, combined with the labyrinthine structure of the layout and warehouses meant that the overall experience was more like a treasure hunt – you wander around, usually hopelessly lost, down long corridors and empty spaces and then suddenly come across an unexpected gleaming treasure of media art. And then, of course, the challenge of trying to understand what it is you are looking at…

Images of some of the projects on show HERE
More images of Ocean of Light HERE

Ocean of Light moves to the main gallery at the Ars Electronica Centre itself in the next week, where it will be on show until 9th January 2010.

We will be heading out to Linz, Austria, soon to set up Ocean of Light for this year’s Ars Electronica Festival. After the festival, the project will be moved to the Ars Electronica Centre, where it will be shown in the main gallery until the new year. More info here.

Ars Electronica Festival (2-7 September)
Ars Electronica Centre (16 September to January 9th 2011)

Additionally, we are showing Glowing Pathfinder Bugs in Paris at Le Cube (22 September – 3 October), and in New Zealand at New Dowse Gallery, Wellington (6 Nov 2010 – 30 Jan 2011) – more details here.

Ocean of Light received an Honorary Mention at this year’s PRIX FILE LUX, held in Sao Paolo, Brazil. Many many thanks to them, we are delighted by the recognition, especially as so many highly respected and better known projects were in the short list.

Thanks also to all of you who voted for us in the popular vote (though we didn’t quite get that one).

We’re very excited that Ocean of Light has been nominated for Brazil’s FILE PRIX LUX for Interactive Art. It’s an impressive list, with many high profile and excellent projects from across the globe. We would love your support! If you can, please vote for us.

Go here, select PAGE 4, then choose Ocean of Light and follow the instructions.

Kinetica has been good to us.  In addition to the coverage on the BBC and Telegraph mentioned below, we were featured in numerous publications including DigiMag, UK Features, and this from BigShinyThing.

Thanks to James Lane for putting the video together.

ALSO, Glowing Pathfinder Bugs is still finding its way through customs to us, having spent a joyous week or so in Montreal, as part of Technofolies at the Montreal Science Museum. And Bugs is also being shown at Grizedale Forest (Cumbria) as part of Abandon Normal Devices. And we think that yet more outings for the Bugs will be announced soon.