Concrete Voids with Jack Warne / Gaunt

There has been a lot of experimentation in the studio using augmented reality to influence a virtual sculptural object within the Concrete Voids performance by Jack Warne AKA GAUNT.

I've been working with Jack Warne over the last year to develop a set of techniques where our art practices can intersect. Jack has been using augmented reality in his own artwork for some time - his paintings come alive through a mobile phone. The ambition in this work is that Jack’s painting and his video work become a musical instrument. We have been working on a coded artwork that enables the rotation and position of his painting within the camera to drive video effects and send MIDI data to affect live music.

Concrete Voids is a performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the Southbank Centre London (see link below) where Jack Warne will perform music as GAUNT, the performance will be influenced by live augmented reality controlled by Jack on stage. I have been working on methods of putting generative physical glass like objects onto real paintings, through the camera. The objects behave in wavelike patterns that change as the angle of the camera or painting changes. The work is strongly influenced by my sculptural investigations with scientists and their analogues of the early universe using wave machines (see link to An Early Universe, an installation that opens 4 days after the performance).

This work shows a highly digital side of my practice, but the influences between my physical work and digital experimentation are always there. The video below shows current experimentation with a website that tracks an image and uses its spacial coordinates to influence the shape of the water/glass like waves. The website also generates MIDI data which enables the position of the camera operator and their relation to the image to become a musical instrument.