So why the fascination in the last few posts with light diodes, transmission / emission of information, connected devices, uni-directional networks? It all relates to some collaborative work I’ve been finishing recently which has been occupying my mind and so is a build up to (probably) the most involved (duration / work / collaboration etc.) work I have done to date.

The intention for this weblog has always been research for me on networks, hopefully towards and then to ultimately document a largely practice based Phd. Its function is as a thinking / testing / documenting ground for me, that is my priority, however I am glad that people seem to find it useful for their research / practice (or other reasons), this all fits with the topic of networks and allows me to network with other artists / researchers.

The weblog has been running for over a year now and has accumulated 157 posts to date on networks. I do sometimes have a wide definition of what defines a network (for a reason), but it looks as if I am nowhere close to slowing down in terms of finding content to write about. Now its about time to move on from this initial phase, what could be classified as field research, to start feeding the research into the work I am doing (which I have been doing all along really but I need to make that more visible here), directing the research a little more to the areas that particularly interest me (this is where the category usage page and its visible trends will become useful) and feeding back on both development and outcomes through the weblog.

So from here on in the weblog will start to do these and continue to do field research. This is not a change in form as such more of a development which will recurse back and forth between what I am thinking (as to date) and what I am making. So here goes…

Strictly speaking I have posted about one work of mine before here, RE:soundings which was performed as part of Open Ear’s Snd:arc- (Sound and Architecture), however that was an unexpected development – artistic opportunism. Video Networks and Video Networks #1: Dialogues is the first planned work which was heavily informed by Network Research.

Video Networks is a research project consisting of the development of an electronic interface system for enabling the creation of networked or connected video based art works and the works produced with this system. It’s purpose is to explore the potential of creating works which are cinematic in nature yet break away from fixed linear narratives to explore concepts such as montage, collage, mixing, rhythm, looping, non-linearity in combination with simple interactivity in real time.

The research was to investigate future directions for cinema and by doing so explore it as a non-linear artistic form. By pairing what are commonly associated as opposing concepts from traditional and new media’s, linear media with networked media, analogue hardware with digital software, structured narrative with database retrieval, audience theory with interaction models it becomes possible to develop ways and means that these (often opposing) forms can be integrated and used together successfully to demonstrate core principles of both and the progression of connected ideas and concepts.

Rather than create a single work which juxtaposed these issues for a set of particular reasons, e.g. fracturing a narrative, it was decided to create a working system, platform or framework, independent of the content it will show allowing the exhibition of a multitude of open ended cinematic works. This system employs custom software and hardware and by allowing digital to pass through analogue and back to digital the possibility of introducing noise (the potential for more variability) into the system arises. Employing devices with common principle technologies (e.g. light / infra-red emission and reception) in combination with light sensors essentially allows each part of the works created with the system to in effect see each other.

Dialogues (image above, video of the installation below) is a collaborative two channel video installation created by Frédérique Santune and myself as the first work / example as part of Video Networks. It explores ideas of place, mapping and translation. Each artist conceived of an exploratory video of the locality of the other. Two separate video works based on ideas of place, appropriation, exploration, walking, performance, rhythm and opposites (or binary); male and female, Irish and French, night and day etc., were to be created in isolation to be juxtaposed and controlled by each other in the installation.

For more information please see the website documenting all of the research and outcomes.