Here's a short clip of the latest project I've been developing. Essentially its a particle field that reacts to your webcam in order to sketch out these cool drawings. It pulls its opacity/direction directly from the webcam pixels. I put some more screen-shots on my documentation blog.


Swoon from Alex Wolfe on Vimeo.

Finished Wind Interaction Projects

Here are the photos of the finished turbine. This is the final result for my obstruction project from before. "Computer Art" without a computer, something that collects mundane data a represents it visually. The LED's brightness directly relates to the speed of the wind! It makes a beautiful dimming, brightening, dimming, sort of breathing pattern when in use. I originally wanted to make a bigger more extravagant diffuser than the little bird, but it was so cute, and it works very well.

Upcycled Wind Generator

Here are some shots of the wind generators I'm working on to power an installation. Made from an old case fan, PVC, scrap wood, and some steel tubing

Uuuuuggggh :: Artisitic Obstructions

Bleh, so I just presented by entire body of work to my Concept Studio class, and the assignment was that they had to come up with an obstruction that would destroy my ordinary work flow and force me to create something different? better?

That is yet to be determined.

Anyway, it was decided that my next piece has to be
a.) Collaborative
b.) Instinctive/Reactive to real world events
c.) Not involve computers

They were having a hard time cracking down on just one technique I typically employ. I'm just extraordinarily grateful they aren't making me do performance art ( my undeniable weakness!). On the other hand I'm extremely frustrated that they banned me from using computers. Its a relatively new addition to my traditional arsenal, and I was looking forward to doing more digital work : ( I feel like they just really wanted me to do something they could easily understand, without long winded logic/explanations, but I also feel like those are completely unnecessary to enjoy my last few works, they just receive them since they ask for them : P

I might call on you again to collaborate, I really want to try my hand at architecture or building SOMETHING. I'm not as satisfied purely by 2D work. I agree that typically I'm super uncomfortable involving anyone else in what I do, but I wonder if it still counts if the collaborator is someone I know really well?

Mmmm and I've really only recently made this shift to heavily relying on my vast computer knowledge since they pushed me so hard to do so during Sophomore Review. Now I don't want to go back! Ha!

gaaaaaah must think of something!

Face Synth

faceSynth. Second part of the visual score project, we were assigned someone else's project to make sound/visuals from. I had Gabe's; essentially he had 67 or so images of faces and directions for a percussive piece involving them. I had no intention on doing that, so instead I created this app that takes the RGB values of each pixel in  the face and translates it to visuals/sound.

Eventually I want to rig it up so the audience can take their picture in a booth set up with the appropriate lighting, and their face gets sent to the app in real time, so they can hear their own faces throughout the performance.

Press spacebar to see the face image being parsed, and click to skip to the next one. The sound is still a little wonky/creepy, but I'm okay with it

http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/akwolfe/apps/faceSymphOsc/index.html

waves

And here are some from the waves app

This sketch builds off my last one, extending into 3 dimensional space. Its pretty processor hefty so I have two versions

(hmm so i just discovered that this thing runs at blinding speed if your computer isn't worthless like mine. I'll get around to fixing it, promise : /  )

click here to see waves if you have a decrepit laptop clinging to life like me
or
here if you have a beast of a machine that lets you physically travel through ssh tunnels and bend the internet with your mind.

Flow

Alright so here are some screens from the flow visualizer.

This one was just a practice sketch, based off the processing noise() example, found here. The noise() function works off the algorithm by Ken Perlin to generate a " more natural ordered, harmonic succession of numbers". It was used in a lot of the early movie special effects to generate terrain.

Here, I'm use it to make a sort of pseudo "sine" wave like those generated by music. I took their sample, switched out the lines for points, repeated it on the x, y plane and changed the movement from being dependent on the mouse to an animation. Part of a body of work to connect sound to a physical form for concept studio.

I am a god of visualizers!

Here's the hard links to the apps I've been working on for concept studio. Essentially we had to create a visual score that represents some sort of music, and then we traded and had to create sound out of someone elses. Formal documentation later.


Here are my scores
flow
waves


Reactive sound
This one gets kind of loud, I'm working on dynamically creating sound based on the color values of the pixels, but the results get kind of unpredictable. Press space bar to see the face that its currently parsing.
faceSymp

Digitally Fabricated Armor Jewelry

So the intentions of this piece were to explore having a duality of form, and pushing the boundaries of what is socially acceptable. What is the line that separates the girl who wears her Lord of the Rings cloak to every class, and Alanna Zimmer stomping down the Alexander McQueen Fall 2010 runway wearing essentially an intricate breastplate? The goal was to construct a sleeve of armor that can be taken apart the separate pieces worn as jewelry.


Here's the finished chain mail concept jewelry, I'm still modeling the armor part, I made one but it was too delicate so some of the plastic melted off in the acid bath. When you 3D print objects, the printer surrounds them with support material you can dissolve in acid in order to achieve your exact shape. Unfortunately if your lines are too thin, it happens to your model too.

Here's the model and failed part one

Here is the final version, I made the lines in the model a little thicker, they lost a little of the grace and ethereal qualities of the first, but it is also significantly more stable, so there must be some trade offs. I constructed the straps out of a soft suede shammy, laser cut and braided. Each bangle comes in an increasingly larger size, so they can be stacked as armored plates down the arm, or worn individually.

Wolf Ring II

Sorry, I'm just going to revert to the classic template until I have time to write a new one. Ugh finals.

Also I stained one of the rings I made with india ink. You can see the details significantly more clearly. And I printed the first piece of armor! I'll post of a picture of it later after it comes out of the acid bath

 

Here's a picture of the original white version.

Our 3d printer is additive, so it prints out objects by stacking thin layers of plastic into the form you want.  However, if your form isn't stable enough to balance on its own during this process, it also prints out support material to keep it in place that you dissolve later in acid.

I'm also making a couple that I'm painting with my beautiful NARS vampire nail polish. Yum

Grim

So here's the "sublime" painting I need to finish before finals.  I translated sublime to epic, beautiful, and terrifying. I'm reinventing psycopomps, this one is supposed to be the Grim Reaper. I wanted to continue my reign of terrifying, beautiful, and fashionable mythical ladies, ala Valkyrie and Medusa, so here is Grim. Oil on the back of the door to my closet (Couldn't afford a canvas this time round, hopefully the wood grain texture will give some amazing effects)

Original concept sketches. Clothes based off of the Anne Demeulemeester Spring 2010 show. I have a love hate relationship for painting "assignments". On one hand, well crafted ones give you a definite sense of direction and motivation, (Sadly, during the school year I don't have too much time to pursue my own projects unless they are assigned) but in this case, it was kind of stifling : /

I'm not terribly thrilled with the result, the darkness seems way too forced, and the scythe is overbearing. However I loved painting the fabric of the skirt. It was so much fun, and I think that part at least came out beautifully

Finished

I've poisoned you darling, its what snakes do.

So rather than just posting the finished product, I'm going to update the process work for my newest medusa painting. Its not done yet, and due tomorrow...so tired

My pallet for the project. Its messy but the colors are nice!

Wolf Ring!!

So hours of labored SolidWorks slaving, produced this!
(Ignore the all of the grey and pink junk, those are just planes from the workspace)

Hopefully I'll be able to print it on the 3D printer sometime tomorrow. The printer melts plastic and prints the shape layer by layer. This one is pretty complicated so it will probably take a while. But the end result should be wearable and pretty easy to sand down.

I based this ring off of this famous ring by Cartier for a spoof.



The assignment was to create a second object to be used by a "cult" of your devising. As cult leader, I decided I needed some serious signature bling to inspire fear into my minions.

Yo just did this in drawing as a concept sketch for a style I want to use for my final. Even though its a lame wolf drawing, I kind of like it. Pencil, scotch tape over that, gouache, pen, and gelly roller.