Closing AC Institute exhibition

Thank you for coming to my solo exhibition, “Takafumi Ide / Life is fleeting; therefore, life is beautiful,” at AC Institute. 

I was able to meet a lot of people who are not only art professionals, but also general audiences during the exhibition. As an emerging artist, it is important for me to talk to these visitors right now. Even only one comment on my work helps my next steps. Sometimes I get puzzled by a criticism, but still I think it helps my process to make art.

generate, reverberate, escalate
image by iPhone with Instagram

Once an exhibition is closed, the art works need to be deinstalled.
I will update the process of deinstalling this exhibition next.

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last day at AC Institute

I am going to be in the gallery, AC Institute, today Saturday January 22nd between 4ish pm and 6pm or until close.  YES, it is the last day of the exhibition.

Hope to see you there!

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will be around

I am going to be in the gallery, AC Institute, tomorrow Thursday January 20th between 4ish pm and 6pm or until close.  Hope to see you there!

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last week AC Institute exhibition

This week is the last week of my solo exhibition at AC Institute.  I was excited to have a solo exhibition in Chelsea after I got an email from the gallery curator, Joe DiPonio, in spring 2010.  Now it will end.  Thinking about myself…  “I could have done better than this somehow…,” that’s the feeling I always have after an event.  It probably becomes my motivation for next project.

Thank you for coming to my artist talk on January 13th.

I wondered how many people came to my talk.  Actually, there were not many, only a few people came on time.  AC Institute is a good venue and has a lot of friends and audiences, but I am an unknown artist and the inclement weather, so I expected this happened.  I remember when I had an artist talk in the Castle Gallery at College of New Rochelle, the original talk day was postponed due to the snow storm, and I gave my talk after the gallery decided to extend the exhibition.., it was February 2010.

After I finished almost one-to-one talk at AC Institute, people from other opening receptions came to the gallery. It was actually good, way better than I expected.  I gave some group Q&A talks. The audiences seemed like my work.  The gallery finally closed around 9 p.m. instead of 8 p.m.  Yes, it was good.

artist talk 1/13 at AC Institute
artist talk 1/13 at AC Institute
artist talk 1/13 at AC Institute

artist talk 1/13 at AC Institute

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reopened and solved

It’s already on January 10th, 2011, time is fast.
happy new year — あけましておめでとうございます。—

Here are some reports after the gallery reopened on January 6th, 2011.

propagate:
Yes, I figured out what the problem was. It was simple: the way of assigned the sound interfaces in Logic. This time, I use one virtual device using “Aggregate Device Editor” in “Audio MIDI Setup” in the “Utilities” folder in “Application” folder. I use two M-Audio sound interfaces; Profire 610 and Firewire 410 instead of using one MOTU Traveler with extra analogue interface like I did in the past exhibitions. Logic can’t read two M-Audio devices as two devices with daisy chain. Therefore, I have to create a virtual device with the utilities. To setup the utilities is easy. I daisy-chained the two devices with firewire cables, and Logic recognizes it without any problem.

I need to use 16 channel analogue outputs in order to run propagate. Both Profire 610 and Firewire 410 have 10 signal outputs each. It sounds like enough outputs, but actually, I need to have 16 “analogue” outputs for propagate. The total number of both analogue sound I/O is 16. Each device has 1-8 as analogue output and 9-10 as S/PDIF. This was the problem I had. I spent only few hours to set up propagate this time. I was able to figure out this analogue interface issues, but I didn’t clearly understand how I supposed to assign in the sound I/O with my sequence in Logic in short time. Now it is solved, and you will see nice blinking of LEDs from the beginning to the end.

escalate:
The problem I had was an error from Sharp Infrared ranging module GP2Y0A710K. I wanted to activate only when audience comes under the structure and stays few second. Because of nature of sensor, it gets a peak error every several readings. Therefore, I had to use some kind of filter to avoid this kind of errors. This time, I used “Median filter” in the new sketch for Arduino Uno in escalate. It worked, then I thought it was solved. But I found another problem in the gallery. Somehow, the sensor always pick up some noises and keeps error after 4:30 p.m. It sounds like somebody in the building turns on something that makes some noises for the Infrared led sensor… but how? Since I have to ask other people in the building in order to investigate the noise, I will let it goes AS-IS this time. The good part is that audience seems to be fine with current condition, even some of them kindly told me, “I don’t care the problem because it works for me.”

I enjoy figuring out new things, so I often forget what I should think first. The most important part in this project is that how escalate talks to audience, but technology.

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after opened

Thank you for coming to the opening reception on December 16th, 2010. I am glad to see many people were able to show up. In the meantime, I wondered who could notice the fact that some of my works were not 100% functioned. I hope nobody…

opening_at_ACInstitute Front: generate Back: propagate

propagate:
Whenever I install propagate, I need to adjust the 16 speakers’ sound levels with a sound meter. This time, I set up the maximum white noise setting as 53.5dB A, which is good level with other sound pieces. The sound volume controls the brightness of LEDs. Therefore, once I finish the setting, it is not easy to gain the volume for a temporary event like an opening reception. Some people have told me that I should separate the volume control for sound and light, for instance, with MAX/MSP or PureData. Yes, it is possible. But I have refused the way to solve the problem digitally and separately. I edit one 16-channel surround sound file with Logic Pro and send the signals to sound i/o to convert to analog signals. The analog signal is its main source =”birth.” The “birth” is a keyword for propagate when I started to create it. The analog sound waves/signals propagate the messages. That’s the main idea of my technical aspect for propagate. I don’t know if this makes sense to other people though…
Anyway, what I mention here “function” is not about the volume or sound level, but four LEDs in the circular shape.  The LEDs are dimmer than other twelve LEDs.  You might have noticed it in the beginning and ending of sound event. I changed the cables but it didn’t solve the problem. It may be cause of contact between connectors. I don’t know…

opening_at_ACInstitute Left: reverberate Back: escalate

escalate:
A new work for this exhibition which is hanging 13 light tubes from ceiling. It supposed to activate when visitors stand under the structure; the LEDs blinks like “breathing” only when it is activated.  It was fine before the opening reception, but somehow the sensor got noise from something, so that it was always activated during the reception.  Even though I like the way came out, I want to fix it.
The other problem was the sound from a parametric speaker, which was soft in the circumstance. Well… I should not say “problem,” since this is not the first time to deal with noise from “an opening reception.” I want to ask people to come back in January 2011 when the gallery is quiet.  You will hear what I am singing, especially for people who really know Japanese old folk song. Please find out what the original song is.

I am going to fix these problems during the gallery holidays. The gallery will be opened at 1 p.m. on January 6th, 2011.  I have already rewritten the program for Arduino Uno that I am using this time. I use “Median” and “Mean” filters in order to get rid of the electric noise.  You will see once you come back. Or may not see any difference since the change will be subtle.

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Parametric speaker

I received this parametric speaker kit from Japan a couple of days ago. Parametric speaker, which uses ultrasonic wave, can send a sound to narrower limited area than normal cone speaker. I want to use it in order to imply some intimate feelings with sound in escalate.

I bought it at Akizukidenshi.com that is one of the best sellers of educational electronic kits in Tokyo area.

Although the kit was easy to make, I took 4 hours to assemble all of them. I had a lot of distractions in the holiday weekend… FYI: the kit is developed by Tristate in Japan.

In the diagram, it says the speaker delivers sound signals within 20 degrees.

To assemble and to develop a new system are so fan. I enjoy the process even I have no enough time to make it. I know escalate at AC Institute will be the first version. It will be upgraded once I figure out more things in the future. Whenever I upgrade the system/technology in a work, I name like oxoxox, 2008-2010. I may never stop to upgrade my work until the work leaves from me.

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prep for AC Institute

Finally, I am in the Thanksgiving Day break and will be able to focus on my project at the AC Institute. I am going to show propagate, reverberate, generate and new work… I am going to call it escalate. Actually, it was a tentative name when I submitted the draft to the gallery, but somehow the name was printed on to the press release. I thought it was not accident, but, destiny. So, I let it go.

I often accept an incident as “destiny,” even one drop of sumi ink on a plain white paper. I try to find a meaning in it. I can’t find the reason sometimes, but I believe there is a reason.

In the press release, it explains “Ide symbolizes the pathway to death.” with escalate. I wrote its outline, so it is not mistake, but, as one of my audience in general, I wonder “how?”

My idea of escalate is not something that I have imagined for a long time. It will be based on what I envisioned when I visited the gallery space at the AC Institute and imagined how I create my environment with other works in the space with my personal experience.

I stop here. It is too early to talk about escalate since I just start to create…

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