archive

I am currently participating at the ‘Better Than Reality, Augmented Reality Residency’ at V2 in Rotterdam.

Because of changing my hosting server I changed from .org to .net. It sounds unnecessary, but it was the easiest way for me. So my brand new site can now be found under: pixelsix.net From the outside not much is changed, but now it is completely build with wordpress.

From June 2nd till 4th I will be teaching an Augmented Reality workshop at Mediamatic together with Julian Oliver and Klaas Kuitenbrouwer. It will be a 3 day intensive workshop in which the participants will design and construct a prototype of an Augmented Reality Game using the ARToolkit (with OAGART) Basic 3d modelling will be done with Blender. For more information have a look at www.mediamatic.net/artefact-36632-en.html

This Weekend Sterling Roth [mexicoxican] started a challenge over at Blender Artists: what can you make with just 10 cuboid shapes?The rules are: use only cuboid shapes, you can scale them to long sticks, or squash them to flat boards, just keep them rectangular(or square) . use 10 or less cubes. the ground plane is free you can rotate them any way you’d like, but they cannot intersect each other. default grey materials only. keep the lighting generic, AO and soft lights are fine.

Today I started experimenting with different methods of 3D scanning. The first tool I used was Friedrich Kirschners Mikscanner. It is a simple and genius way to scan objects by putting them in bucket with milk. What you need is a webcam, a Lego rig (or something else to attach the camera), a plastic bucket, a spoon, milk and the software. To scan you put the object in the bucket, put some milk in it and make a picture and so on. In the end the software generates an greyscale image with height information. The image you can use as a displacement map in Moviesandbox or in any other 3D APP. To see my result in Blender, download my Blend-file (to view it in the GameEngine press P to start). To see the Milkscanner in action have a look at the Milkscanner Intro.

Kinetic Life / MyBot will be exhibit at ARTEFACT festival 2008 –> 12 - 17 February 2008 –> STUK kunstencentrum Leuven, Belgium The installation will be part of Warom2.0 from Stefaan Decostere (CARGO) at the ARTEFACT festival in Belgium. In my installation, a robotic hand plays the computer game Second Life. By pressing keys of a computer keyboard, the hand moves a virtual Avatar on the screen. The movement of the hand’s fingers is an automated ongoing routine. The routine will be interrupted, when a person stands close to the hand. But after a short while the hand, and with it the virtual avatar, will go back to their monotonous routine. The installation can be seen as a physical and virtual kinetic performance. In Second Life the avatar walks through a collage of photographs and interview fragments by Daniel Demoustier about war victims. ...

MyBot 2.1 is project I am currently working on. The basic idea is to have a robotic hand, that will play Second Life and creates an automated virtual and physical performance. The piece will be part of a bigger installation Warum 2.0 by CARGO. It will be exhibit in Februari 08 in Belgium (more info later on). For the Robotic hand I used an existing toy (The Pianist) and put my own servos in. the Servos will be controlled by an Arduino board or the Parallax USB Controller. The Parallax Controller is very easy to use, programming simple routines over time for the servos is quiet easy. But using sensors to influence the routines, is not possible. In order to also use a PIR sensor to sense movement, I will probably go for the Arduino board. ...

Today starts the Machinima Festival Europe 2007 in Leicester, UK. I was honoured to be part of review panel. You can get an overview of all nominees at the nominees festival page. If you are a registered in Second Life have a look at: SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Innenstadt/186/208/25 SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Pixel%20Expo%20II/2/45/51 and HatHead Incubators, a highly creative virtual experiences company, specializing in immersive environments and digital communities SLURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/HatHead%20II/250/161/313

In September CollecTic was played at the Come Out & Play Festival 2007 in Amsterdam. The Festival was part of PICNIC'07 and was a great platform to present my game and meet people who love to play. Mission of Come Out & Play: The Come Out & Play Festival seeks to provide a forum for new types of public games and play. We want to bring together a public eager to rediscover the world around them through play with designers interested in producing innovative new games and experiences. Oh yeah, and we want to have city-size fun. ...

Picture and link collection of this year Ars Electronica, “Goodbey Privacy” event: Second City, collection of art works based on Second Life and other online worlds.