Media Installation Research Articles

Wishes, Lies, Dreams

I wish..., I hope..., I’m angry..., I’m afraid..., I’m sad..., I’m happy..., Come with me.....
 Wishes, Lies, Dreams (an ongoing three-dimensional mixed media installation) focuses on the mechanisms of perception and dreams, the private world between fantasy and unconsciousness, nature and the extra-ordinary, memory and immediacy: the conditions underlying the system by which mind and spirit operate.
 The (in)-visibility of this structure aims to ignite confusion as the viewer perceives the work and the space where it is placed. There is an intimacy here, but the story is unclear, cannot be clarified. Unlocking a mysterious force at the border of the truth and lie, Wishes, Lies, Dreams creates unexpected angles of approach, which in turn forces the viewer to take up a new position in the observation of the surrounding world. What can we learn, see, know, remember, feel between patterns of tranquillity and the disquieting? Entering the landscape of another’s dreams, provoked is an ambiguous relationship between the viewer, the object, its function and its appearance.
 Sarawut Chutiwongpeti graduated from the Department of Fine and Applied Arts at Chulalongkorn University in 1996. Winner of several awards, he has applied his artistic and research practice at the Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), ImaginAsia Project, Smithsonian Institution (The Freer Gallery of Art and The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, United State of America), ZKM Project, (Institute for Visual Media, Germany), Designskolen (Denmark), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum; Waseda University; Kobe University of Design (Japan), Central European University (Hungary), International Cultural Centre Jeunesses Musicales Croatia Groznjan (Croatia), The Nordland Kunst 0g Filmskole; The Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre; The Kunstakademiet Trondheim (Norway), Luleå Winter Biennial; The Beeoff/Splintermind; The Ricklundgården and The Royal University College of Fine Arts (Sweden); MAAP-Multimedia Art Asia Pacific, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), Designing Your Future, Berlinale Talent Campus 2005, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Germany) and Biennale Bibliotheca Alexandrina 2005, Arts Center, Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Egypt).
 For more information visit: http://www.chutiwongpeti.info

A model to conceptualize interactivity

This paper presents a model to conceptualize interactivity to help people involved in interaction design. Previous studies on interactivity prototyping focus on tools to implement interactivity concepts. Little is found on models for conceptualizing interactivity. Our objective is to suggest an analytic model to explore the whole user experience by examining the degree of interactivity of a product. This is achieved by interpreting the notion of interactivity as conversation. A conceptualization model, named MCI (model for conceptualizing interactivity), was developed to measure the degree of interactivity. The model can be used to measure and compare the level of user engagement, which in many situations is used as an indication of positive user experience. We illustrate how the model can be used to analyze interactivity in three audio recorder design projects. The proposed model is expected to lead to an interactivity prototyping tool for various product categories including interactive media installations, tangible media, and other intelligent digital products in a ubiquitous computing environment.

Performance Analysis of BPPM and M-ary PPM Optical Communication Systems in Atmospheric Turbulence

In last few years, the demand for bandwidth has been increasing exponentially. Installation of high bandwidth media like optical fiber has, of course, provided a good backbone, but still the projects like fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) find the bottleneck problem at the user ends. Free-space optical (FSO) communication can be a potential solution to this problem. FSO has received considerable attention in the recent few years. Although FSO has the capability to provide extremely high speed communication, but it also has some problems associated with it. In this paper, performance of FSO system, working under weak and strong turbulence scenarios, has been compared in terms of their bit error rates (BERs). The modulation schemes considered are binary pulse position modulation (BPPM) and M-ary pulse position modulation (M-ary PPM). The photodetector used is an avalanche photodiode (APD). The comparison of performance in weak and strong turbulence for either system clearly brings the requirement of additional signal photons as the turbulence level increases. The results obtained in the paper also show the suitability of BPPM over M-ary PPM in strong turbulent environment. Further, optimum gain of APD to achieve minimum probability of error in the turbulent environment is given.

Recent Art of Sakarin Krue-On: An Interview

The art of Sakarin Krue-On involves a variety of approaches, from highly planned terraces based on traditional farming techniques to digital media installations. A key figure in establishing the media department at Silpakorn University, Thailand's premier training ground for artists and art historians, Krue-On was one of the seven representatives selected for the first-ever Thai Pavilion at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003), and he was the first Thai artist to participate in Documenta (2007). His Terraced Rice Field and Nang Fa (Angel), both site-specific installations at the 2007 Kassel exhibition, exemplify his interests in process art as well as traditional Thai painting. Similarly, Circle of Hope (2003), a single-screen video projection that depicts multiple images of a traditional Thai goddess in a rotating, pulsating circle of blue, pink, green, and purple concentric circles against a black background, is a compelling mix of technological imagery, somatic effect, and traditional Thai motifs.

Still Supplementation: Stan Douglas's Cuba Photographs

Focusing closely on the incorporation of photographs into Stan Douglas's media installations, this essay argues that the relationship between photography and film in his work is more complex than critics have acknowledged. Drawing on Jacques Derrida's concept of the ‘supplement’ as a necessary addition, both inside and outside specific forms, it contends that Douglas's use of photography is an integral part of his film works and installations and functions to foreground stillness as a theme. In doing so, the Cuba Photos undermine the seeming finality of still images and ironically reveal the end of faith in historical progress. While scholarship on circulation, following John Tagg's pioneering research, has emphasised Michel Foucault's concern with the historical construction of ideological meaning, the supplement in Douglas's work invites us to interrogate the very category of history by foregrounding the notion of re‐construction. Approaching the relationship between photography and film in terms of the supplement offers a provocative way of understanding the significance of photographic circulation.

Be Here (and There) Now: The Spatial Dynamics of Screen-Reliant Installation Art

“A screen is a barrier,” wrote the philosopher Stanley Cavell in 1971. “What does the silver screen screen? It screens me from the world it holds—that is, screens its existence from me.”1 Cavell was writing of the cinema, but his words are historically piquant for art criticism. Indeed, many critics have pointed to a “filmic turn” in recent artistic production, some going so far as to portray this as a crisis for art criticism and history. Such was the symptomatic claim of a roundtable discussion published in October magazine in Spring 2003, whose participants warned: “We are now witnessing an intense relativization of the field of the art institution, the art critics, and the art historian by film history, cinema history, film theory.”2 At the same time, film history and theory have proven inadequate to understanding media installations. These gallery-based works are not so much a wholesale defection from the concerns and institutions specific to visual art as they are a provocative fusion of filmic-cinematic and sculptural concerns.

Intelligent Instruments for Situated Media Performance

The development of computer-based tools for use in theatrical production is in large measure linked to changes in the conceptual and technological frame-work of media performance. Composers and sound designers work increasingly in situations where the boundaries between theatre, media installation and sited performance are blurred or arbitrary. As a result, media tools are finding their way into theatre, and sound designers are developing strategies to integrate media into performance and to create systems that are responsive to site.

Simultaneous Nitrification/Denitrification in a Single Reactor using Ciliated Columns Packed with Granular Sulfur

Abstract This study was conducted to assess the possibility of simultaneous nitrification and denitrification in an activated sludge using a cilia media packed with granular sulfur in a single reactor. For the granular sulfur column adopted, the total nitrogen removal was up to 67%. This facilitated the simultaneous decomposition of autotrophic and heterotrophic denitrifiers present at a 5:2 ratio. On the other hand, the control incubation test employing glass beads achieved only 18% denitrification. Regardless of the NH4-N loadings, the use of ciliated granular sulfur columns, made denitrification 1.5 times faster than when cilia was not used. The size of the granular sulfur columns directly contributed to the extent of denitrification, which was correlated to the void sphere of anoxic zones through the columns. Dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations lower than 4.0 mg/L did not influence the level of denitrification. However, when higher than 4.0 mg/L, the DO began to negatively impact the denitrification rate. The study found that the simple installation of a cilia media packed with granular sulfur in an existing activated sludge could simultaneously achieve an efficient nitrification/denitrification in a single reactor.

THE MANAGEMENT OF DISPLAY EQUIPMENT IN TIME-BASED MEDIA INSTALLATIONS

Time-based media installations are works of art that incorporate audio, film, video, 35 mm slides or computer-based elements. This paper aims to develop a practical policy for the care and management of the display equipment that forms part of these works and explores how to identify time-based media installations most at risk from equipment obsolescence. Several questions underlie this analysis. How does the conservator balance the ideas of the artist and of the museum about what it is important to preserve for the future? What does a conservator do when faced with the total loss of a significant component? How can conservation training and attendant concepts of integrity and authenticity contribute to the development of a good response or decision?

Women, Patronage, and Self Representation in Islamic Societies edited by D. Fairchild Ruggles (review)

114ARTHURIANA The book begins with a brief essay titled 'The "Arthurian" West,' which is a measured statement on what evidence we have for British society in the Arthurian' period, the fifth and sixth centuries ad. The reader is introduced to the scraps of physical and written evidence for the period, as well as to topics like tyrants and the fall ofRoman Britain, theSaxonAdvent, and the importanceoflong-distance trade and hillforts to the Britons. The next four chapters examine four high status sites— South Cadbury, Tintagel, Glastonbury, and Castle Dore—where excavations over the last fifty years have revealed fascinating glimpses into the historical origins of the Arthurian legends. Each ofthese chapters discusses the archaeological evidence in laymen's terms, accompanied by maps, photos, and site plans. Lastly, a new eight-page bibliography includes recent works and material available on the web. There is, it should be noted, no evidence of extensive revision here. Radford's original interpretation ofTintagel as a 'Celtic' monastic settlement is kept intact, despite scholarly opinion now favoring the theoryofa seasonallyoccupied emporium controlled by a resident king. (The labels 'Dark Age' and 'Celtic Church' are holdovers used uncritically throughout the revised edition.) Similarly, the chapter on Castle Dore remains because Radford interpreted the posthole evidence there as representing an early medieval hall, though subsequent examination ofthe dating evidence has called this into question. Revisions should surely have included discussion of such things as the Arthnou Stone, excavations at Tintagel Parish Churchyard, and the South Cadbury Environs Project. Only the bibliographyshows signs ofsubstantial updating, now including important monographs by Ken Dark, Charles Thomas, and others. For those who want detailed discussion of the excavations at Tintagel and South Cadbury, you are better served by the recent publications of Thomas and Leslie Alcock. But as a general introduction to 'Arthurian' archaeology for lay readers, this revised booklet still makes a serviceable guide, and Swantonand UniversityofExeter Press should be commended for keeping it in print. CHRISTOPHER A. SNYDER Marymount University D. fairchild ruggles, ed., Women, Patronage, and SelfRepresentation in Ishmic Societies. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. Pp. xii, 243. isbn: 0— 7914-4470-8 (pbk). $20.95. The essays in this timely collection examine the representations ofwomen from the Safavid dynasty of the sixteenth century, through the centuries of the Ottoman Empire, into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including the contributions ofqueens, those of courtesans, and those of modern artists. This volume's editor, D. Fairchild Ruggles, thus seeks to remedy the gap in an area overlooked in most books about life in Islamic countries, that is, the very real contributions ofwomen to the look of their cities by becoming patrons for architectural structures such as mosques, or for charitable structures such as Sufi refuges for women, and for the varieties of styles of giving in Buddhist, Jain, and Mughal cities. This is a wide swath, both in time and class, and the essays carry out their assignments by REVIEWS115 meticulously situating their discussions within the frames they have set themselves. The analyses encompass the production of Sufi hagiographies in pre-Ottoman Anatolia to a critique oforientalist representation in the mixed media installations of HouriaNiati. Such variety is sure to interest readers with little knowledge ofthis subject. It will come as no surprise that the authors have, in each essay, found ways to discuss power and representation through kinship ties, especially that ofmother to son. If she is a queen, a woman might exercise power during her son's minority, on the death of the sultan. This social standing in itself allowed a woman to become a donor for an architectural structure such as a mosque or a Sufi refuge for women. The Introduction, 'Vision and Power,' by the book's editor, is sharply focused on the books themes. To be sure, 'Self-Representation' ofthe title is the main theme and seems more suited to the work ofthe artist Houria Niati. Ruggles explores the question: How have women in Islam represented themselves through a variety of mediaand means?The answeris 'as patrons ofarchitecture, as consumers ofclothing, as participants in the mass print revolution, as artists in their own right' (p.3). To represent oneselfthrough architecture is a...

Mobile Identities and the Socio-spatial Relations of Air Travel

This paper results from the field research investigating border conditions and their socio-spatial implications at the Frankfurt Main Airport. The field research was done at Frankfurt Main Airport, and it is largely based on interviews with border control officials (BGS and ZOLL), Fraport AG, Lufthansa and Caritas employees. The results of the research were the point of departure for the creation of maps of the diverse transit conditions of air travellers and served as the basis for production of a video devoted to the subject "Data Record of Mobile Identities" media installation. The project was initiated in co-operation with Bauhaus Dessau Foundation in Germany and it is a collaboration with Bettina Boknecht.

Properties and applications of novel acoustical foams

This paper describes the unique properties of a new line of novel acoustical materials that has been developed for sound and vibration management. The materials are macrocellular thermoplastic foams made from polyolefin resin blends. Fire retardant grades have been developed to meet a variety of building and construction fire codes. The foams have several advantages over incumbent materials, including structural integrity, moisture resistance, ease of fabrication/installation and recyclability. This paper also reviews a case study involving the use of the new foams to significantly dampen the sound level of a noisy industrial facility. The sound pressure levels and reverberation decay times were measured in the target area with an integrating, real time 1/3-oct spectrum analyzer. Architectural acoustical analysis was performed using ray diagrams and Sabine calculations for determining the amount and optimal placement of the absorptive media to reduce the reverberant noise fields and sound reinforcing reflections. The thickness of the acoustic media was determined by matching the peak absorption frequencies of the foam to the peak noise frequencies of the source. After installation of the absorptive media as per specifications, the reduction in noise level was measured to validate the acoustical design.

Intersecting the Virtual and the Real: Space in Interactive Media Installations

Intersecting the Virtual and the Real: Space in Interactive Media Installations

Performance of fixed film media integrated in activated sludge reactors to enhance nitrogen removal

Nitrification and denitrification were evaluated in multiple CSTR continuous flow fixed film systems at 12°C. Three systems were operated with three types of media installations and a fourth as a control without media. The media configurations evaluated included: (i) frame mounted fine pore sponge media supported on wires; (ii) free floating fine pore sponge media; and (iii) fixed location frame mounted rope media (ringlace). The pore size for sponge media was 14 pores per centimeter. Each system included a two-cell anaerobic zone with 17 percent of total volume, two-cell anoxic zone with 17 percent of total volume, and a three-cell aerobic zone with 64 percent of total volume. The multi-cell configuration was used to maximize kinetics of removal with suspended growth biomass and evaluate improvements in nitrogen removal beyond the levels achieved with suspended growth. At the optimum location (aerobic cells 1 and 2), the nitrification in cells containing free-floating sponges was 143 percent of the control at aerobic MCRTs of 3.1 and 3.4 days, with 35 percent media volume to cell volume. The nitrification with rope media was 136 percent of the control in middle third of the aerobic zone. Removals with ringlace were poorer in the first aerobic cell operating at higher COD levels, and in the third aerobic cell which did not contain sufficient biofilm growth at low levels of COD. Nitrification was 14 percent higher in Systems 1 and 2 with fixed and free floating sponges, respectively, and 8 percent higher in System 3 (ringlace) when all systems were spiked with 20 mg/L additional ammonium over a 24 hour period. Optimizing location of the media, with higher density of media at locations where adequate COD and ammonium-N are available for biofilm growth increase nitrification on media. Studies in full scale systems show that COD and ammonium-N concentrations at downstream locations in the activated sludge basin increase during peak flows and with step feed of wastewater. This helps increase biofilm growth and improve nitrification on the media downstream locations. Denitrification observed in the aerobic cells of the fixed film systems was in excess of the control. All aerobic cells were operated at D.O. levels in excess of 6.0 mg/L. The fraction of total denitrification under aerobic conditions was 0.0 in the control as compared to 0.14 to 0.24 with ringlace media and fixed sponge media, respectively, at an aerobic MCRT 3.1 days. Fraction aerobic denitrification in all systems increased with an increase in MCRT of suspended growth - to 0.21 in the control and 0.35 and 0.39 with ringlace and sponges, respectively, at aerobic MCRTs of 3.4 to 7.7 days.

Communication and Martial Law

When military officers take control of governments they frequently seize and hold by force the key media installations. The complicated and unstable relation between communication and martial law that ensues is the subject of this collection of articles. Originally presented and discussed at the 1987 Canadian Communication Association meetings in Montreal, these papers present the dynamics of the unstable relationship between communication and martial law in four countries: Poland, India, Chile and Bangladesh. We have also invited commentary from a number of other scholars, who describe the experience of South Africa, Israel, Korea, and Sri Lanka.