Blog.LitStudios.com

Gallery of recent interactive work

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:27:05 -0400

I haven't posted to this blog in quite awhile as I've been busy working on new projects. I promise to share all my HCI learnings, as well as some DIY tricks very soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy a little gallery of the latest works done with Interference Inc, along with some travel flicks. Honorable mentions go to Sam Ewen, Seth Sandler, and Steve Varga... They all contributed to getting these projects done, the installation photos wouldn't exist without them being so damn good at their roles. Thanks guys.

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Interactive Christmas Tree using Twitter

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 06:40:38 -0500

Summary: An interactive Christmas tree with ornaments that react to mentions of specific keywords on Twitter. A Twistmas Tree if you will.
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A trio of Multitouch Tables

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:35:00 -0500

Summary: Three multitouch tables built using a hybrid touch sensing method to deal with a challenging environment. Additional discussion regarding manual iris control, Point Grey Firefly camera driver advantages, an operator driving users' experience via gesture, and sound domes.
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GE Healthcare's Realtime Twitter Windows

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:14:06 -0500

Summary: Realtime, real world data visualization of Twitter updates as an art installation for GE Healthcare. We used the Arduino & Processing for the task.

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free-ish Multitouch workshop NYC

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:46:03 -0500

This is my open letter of invitation to the NYCResistor group. I invite anyone to make contact if you're interested in coming over. Workshops are fun, multitouch and HCI is fun. if you like coffee and carbs, then you're in for a triplewammy!

Read On...

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BMX handlebars as a wireless controller

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:47:30 -0500

Summary: Using a set of real BMX handlebars as a wireless controller for a custom videogame using both opensource hardware and software including the Arduino and Blender3D. It was used to promote medication at a tradeshow for sufferers of Hemophilia.

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A call to lazy street projectionists!

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:40:33 -0400

Street Projections - Peroni2008 from Alpay Kasal on Vimeo.

Recently, I've been running into more outdoor projections and noticing that the operators are doing everything wrong. A complete fail on so many levels.

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Need to cut, weld, code, hack around NYC?

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:12:11 -0400

Once upon a time I had my own workshop. I loved my workshop. It was a block away from Prospect Park in beautiful Brooklyn, New York and I could make all the noise I wanted there. Recently though, I had hardly been there, I paid a few rents in a row while barely stepping foot in the space - my work has recently been more about sitting at my laptop in a new office in Soho. Good news, i'm still busy and it's nice to be white-collar for awhile. Bad news, I still occasionally need to create a working prototype for something like a multitouch table, or other somesuch geek-magic.

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Music video shoot with Felili Rincon

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:54:10 -0400

I had the honor of being invited to shoot a music video for a very talented songstress named Felili.

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Lessons in usability in an environment with stimulus overload

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:53:12 -0400

Ok, first off, this has got to be the funniest thing I've ever experienced... this girl patiently waited in line, a decently long time, a line meant for USE of the interactive mirror. She was next, got her turn, and commenced to use the mirror - AS A MIRROR! She had every intention to "interface" with the mirror, but not in the way I would have guessed. She did her hair and make-up for a solid 10-15 minutes. Bravo. Lesson? When trying to present users with unexpected interfaces, expect unexpected uses. It was a priceless moment for me.

Please continue reading article and see attached photos...

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Video Art installation curated by David Bowie

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:36:00 -0500

About 2 years ago, I received a phone call about doing an art installation that would coincide with a music festival in NY called the Highline Festival. I'm always excited when an opportunity finds me in which I get to flex my tech and conceptual muscles as a video artist. Imagine my excitement level when I learned it was to be curated by none other than David Bowie. Mr. Bowie chose to pay homage to the surrealist photographer Claude Cahun. I was not familiar with her work but quickly understood it’s context as I delved into her commentary on sexuality, gender, role reversal, and notions of beauty – all topics that deserve her commentary today. I found it interesting that her message is still very much relevant almost 100 years later. I invite you to do your own research on Claude Cahun, some of her work is obvious in its representation, some hard to touch with descriptions or art theory labels.

Continue Reading article and see attached photos...

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Interactive Mirror

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:59:33 -0400

In an effort to dive deeper into HCI (Human Computer Interaction) by hacking together parts easily acquired, I set out to build something especially "non-computery" - introducing the Interactive Mirror. On paper, this construction looked like it'd be novel and fun. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was way more fun than expected once I fired it up.
The cognitive machine that is your brain automatically deals with things like size and distance and perspective, a job it hopefully does fairly well, you don't have to give a mirror's reflection much thought. However, interacting with buttons and animation layered on your reflection and the world behind you is unlike any other touchscreen experience. This unexpectedness, to me, is precisely the allure of HCI and all things touch-capable.
I thought to build this version of the Interactive Mirror after I saw some dielectric glass mirrors with LCD panels built into them. They're meant to be the bathroom of the future, complete with news and weather to accompany your toothpaste in the morning. Sounds nifty, but it looked completely un-fun. It lacked a human touch. I brainstormed with friend Sam Ewen and soon started cutting aluminum t-slot.
There are some tricks built into this installation: like internal mirror bounces for greater projection throw (wide angle lenses are expensive) and a projection running at an aspect ratio of 9:16 rather than 16:9. I'm also using mouse emulation, which is key in my opinion. Much like the Lasergames set up, I'm able to repurpose some of my previously created flash work or set up any game on the installation for instant action, making it a very dynamic system.

Watch in HD on Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/1867956
Watch in HQ on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAI9mF_cBu0
Thanks to Gosia, Nick, and Howie for getting on camera.

Contact me or Sam at InterferenceInc.com if interested.

Street Projections for the Franklin Institute

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:54:25 -0400

Executed on the streets of Philadelphia to promote "Curious?" at the Franklin Institute. Used was a 15k lumens projector (that's right I said 15,000, we were battling a ton of street light), and an Asus laptop with custom software for cornerpinning via midi controller. This video was made for the client, Franklin Institute, to view after the 3 consecutive weekend promotion was over. InterferenceInc was my client

I've done outdoor projections a number of times... It started with street bombing (art/graf projected onto impossible spots for all to say wow). I wanted to do it commercially but knew that the skewed perspective of projecting from weird angles wouldn't work... To conquer the parallelogram and beat math at it's own game I created some software to handle what I call "Cornerpinning". It's a method of distorting the video stream via midi controller. The midi controller is intended for musicians, it's got a bunch of sliders on it, I set it up so that I can pull/push each of the four corners of video with these sliders in real-time. That provides me a method of making video fit on a surface from even the most challenging of angles, the end product is the type of viewer experience you'd expect from a movie theater - except i'm pumping a 15k video out of a car window

On tour with CocoRosie

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:07:00 -0400

A great opportunity came my way this year… A band called CocoRosie asked me to go on tour as their staging designer. I knew of CocoRosie and knew they catered to the art set, I was psyched. I quickly learned that they are the kind of band that has a seriously loyal fan base. Most fans don’t just like Cocorosie, they adore Cocorosie. I had a tough task ahead of me. I had to work with what I owned or could borrow, basically - not a huge budget. I had access to a bunch of 2000 lumen projectors. Some dumb lights. And a laptop. I threw out the idea of traditional lighting completely - I used 6 video projectors, set them up on the floor with small hinged front-surface mirrors (used for laser show bounces), pointing at key positions on the stage to project video onto the artists. I believe the pictures below speak for themselves. It was pretty otherworldly. Animation and images projected onto the band coincided with the visuals projected on to a large screen behind the stage. What was a highlight of the tours for me? I had my own table for laptop/midi/mixer/etc set-up on stage in full view. I even played hype-man before the encores. Fun.

Times Square Time Lapse

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:42:00 -0400

GE was doing a PR stunt in Times Square, I was hired to create a timelapse video of the overnight set-up process. It was pretty cool, we rented two scissorlifts (usually used for construction), one was to hold the camera and tripod along with a gas powered generator, the other scissorlift was for me to use to get to the camera whenever necessary, basically an outdoor elevator. I used a Nikon DLSR with a 14mm wide angle lens, and got a shot every 8 seconds. I had a laptop set upu on the street as GE needed the compiled video for an event happening in Las Vegas. I used After Effects with no cpu-intensive frame blending to quickly get the video done and sent up to my FTP server. I then took my time creating a higher quality version for use on GE's website. It was quite an experience to be 30 feet above traffic in the heart of Times Square, I was higher up than the buses! Fun fun fun.

Timelapse video of World Trade Center Tribute

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:00:00 -0400

I shot a few hours of video for my own collection during the tribute last night. I packed my HD camera and headed for Dumbo with my homey Marisa who is a fantastical still photogragher (www.MarisaGross.com). Here is the result, with a little added pan/zoom. I do love me some timelapse.

Special thanks to Jeroen for his nifty free flv player. http://jeroenwijering.com

Here's some embed code if you want this on your webpage or blog:

LaserGames

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 06:59:00 -0400

the YouTube link to the LaserGames vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJgzwW2C6DQ&fmt=18

LaserGames is a means of controlling games and applications on any scale using a laser pointer. I'm sure you've seen laser controlled bits of coolness in one form or another but I'd like to think I just raised the bar a bit - mouse emulation means you can play whatever you want to throw at it (versus using a dedicated app made in mxp or vvvv or whatevs). In this clip you see a 2000 lumens projector, and the laser pointer is of the typical 5mw red diode keychain variety. When I have some time, I'm going to get set up outdoors and let people on the street have some fun with it. I just got it working with simultaneous red and green pointers so we got multi-player action coming up.

This is patent pending, developed by Alpay Kasal of Lit Studios for use by Interference Inc.

I believe in democratizing DIY knowledge via the blogosphoid, I'm also supplying embed code here because youtube doesn't automatically offer up embeds for the HQ playback, which we all love, this code will give you the goods without requiring a click on the "watch high quality" button.

Welcome!

nospam@example.com (Alpay Kasal) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:36:20 -0400

Welcome! My name is Alpay Kasal. Inventor. h4X0r. modder. tweaker. Video Artist. My projects sometimes involve very tech concepts, sometimes very... not. I'm also somewhat of a creative, a designer & video artist who does installation work and staging, utilizing hacker/modder skills when possible. I plan to showcase some such efforts right here.

Why'd I start the blog? My website has been a work in progress forever. seriously, forever. I seem to blaze through client projects well enough but, as some creative types might tell you, your own identity can be a tough one to deliver. Maybe the website is always a work in progress because we ourselves are always works in progress, how cerebral. The blog though, it's a form of publishing that is meant to be "unfinished", always fluxing forward. I like that. so here we go, word up.

oh, and a quick addendum: you will see embed codes and associated links whenever applicable. I am big on using the arpanet for it's intended purpose - the spread, warehousing, and redundancy of information, time to get your link on. In the language of buzzwords, we're democratizing content.

www.LitStudios.com