Im a fine Artist in need of help!

[st.james]

email me email me!

Hello i am currently studying Fine Art at St.martins college of art in central London. My recent work deals with ideas of interactivity between veiwer and artwork.

I am hoping to connect a sensor or switch to a mac within a gallery space in order to effect a flash movie presented on a plazma screen.

How do i do it?

Imagine a still life thats rots when you move away from it! Or a landscape that is affected by the amount of moisture in a room!

If you can help me with these technical issues, i will consider having your babies. Please email me.

Thankyou for your time. I'm off to cut off my ear and confess my undying love for a one legged prostitute.
Lots of love james and his pickled

[gasbag15]

(I don't like email so I'll just post here)
I don't know if Flash is capable of something that advanced. It may very well be but then again it would pay to invest more of your time in how the sensors are interfaced with the computer.

If, for instance, when the motion sensor was triggered or when the moisture level sensor is reading at a particular level if that was to send a message to the computer that maybe a key has been pressed -- so..
sensor 1 = A (66)
sensor 2 = B (67)
sensor 3 = C (68)
etc..
(those numbers are the ascii values for those letters and flash needs them in place of the letter. I used this page as a reference: http://www.greaterthings.com/Word-Number/ASCII_code.htm)
Then flash could respond to it with something like:
if(Key.isDown(KEY.66){
gotoAndPlay(rotLevelOne);
}
I'm aware that this code would not work because it would play the 1st rot level everytime the sensor is set off so it would just keep restarting everytime the sensor was set off.

This is just a basic idea and would need to be worked on in more detail.

[mal pacino]

You mean as you walk towards the screen, an animation plays of say rotting veg but if you stop, the animation stops? wow sensational idea.

You wont be having my babies alas, because I'm as thick as pig****e but wish I could help.

Mal,

Fellow fine artist, University of central lancashire - printmaking.

[st.james]

Thanks for your help! That bit of coding will come in very handy and i may have to get back to you if i have other difficulties.

I gotta get this project off the ground properly before January, for then deadlines loom!

Get back to me with any more ideas that spring your way!

Thanks again!

[mal pacino]

saint james

In my original question, was I correct?

I know a lot of people in the industry and can ask around if you like?

[Arent0261]

Flash is totally not the program for this. You need to be looking elsewhere and need to talk to some programmers because you'll probably have to have them do something specifically for this.

[robbmcaulay]

Originally posted by Arent0261
Flash is totally not the program for this.

That is a ridiculous thing to say... as long as you can pass the variables to Flash, you'll be fine...

[robbmcaulay]

Just had a thought... can you not use Flash's webcam support?

Find a script which analyzes movement in the footage and passes on variables?

Much like the playstation Eyetoy, except the footage would not be SHOWN on analyzed...

Sounds hard, just a though...

[robbmcaulay]

Also, I read an article once about how to construct your very own arcade controls and it show a small curcuit board on which were screws that represented a key on the keyboard, you simply wired a switch, or sensor (which returned an on or off value as the keys can only be pressed or depressed) This then passed they values to the pc via USB.

I am thinking you could find a motion sensor that returns 1/0 values, wire it up to say... the A key on the curcuit board, so when someone walks by, it would essentially be pressing the A key on a keyboard, then simply tell flash to play for as long as A is depressed?

Finding a compatible sensor is the only real problem here...

Robb

(IF you want more info, i'll look out that magazine)

[Arent0261]

Originally posted by robbmcaulay
That is a ridiculous thing to say... as long as you can pass the variables to Flash, you'll be fine...

And how do you propose to do that?

Flash is not made for complex stuff like that. Maybe it's possible in some rudimentary form, but it won't be the full vision. And it's certainly not the best way.

There are better ways to be doing this and it involves programming your own software in a better and more complex language than Flash's actionscripting.

This is akin to going to Toys R Us and asking for a bunch of Legos to build a house when you really need to be going to a hardware store to buy some wood. Sure you can build a house out of legos, but it's not the practical thing to do and it won't come out exactly how you wanted.

[robbmcaulay]

Originally posted by Arent0261
Flash is not made for complex stuff like that.

As long as Flash gets the values from the sensor, it will work.

I accept that Flash isn't capable of controlling any sensor, I assume any PC compatible sensor comes with software to output variables in a form that applications can pick them up.

[tayjax]

if you worked out how to dismantle a cordless mouse and attach it to a shoe you could just use the track mouse function in flash to play the animation forwards or backwards depending on which way you moved


....maybe

[st.james]

Thanks for the idea. However the piece is intended for multiple viewers to interact with. A shoe attachment would limit this..but...you have in fact opened a new area of thinking. Flash aided, live performance art. It could work. Mabe. And to think the performance artists of yesteryear, would smear themselves in paint and the such and writhe around on a canvas. Savages. But yes there is something to think about. A predesigned art peice that physicaly responds to its creator's movements. Jesus, i think we might have something here. His master and his dog. But which is the dog?

Keep up the good work. I'm off to sleep in the airing cupbard to collect my thoughts, and displace my mind from thoughts of my chaotic artistic visions.

ciao

[st.james]

Mal Pachino you were mostly correct. I shall email you...but i cant because you aint got one listed? Porco dio!