Poppy
The first few slides depict stills from a live drawing program, entitled “Poppy”, that I wrote using the open-source programming software, Processing. The drawings are inspired by poppy flowers, which are both a symbol of remembrance of those fallen in war and of delusion. As the drawings are generated with code, they can be created at any scale, projected large or printed digitally. Thousands of delicate lines radiate out from the origin and maintain their resolution and integrity at any scale. The drawing interface and process is designed to be quite fluid and intuitive. The user controls the density and position of the lines based on the movement of the mouse and the color is selected with the number keys: 1-5. I am intrigued by how the seemingly dry process of computer programming can produce evocative images and a rich, interactive experience for the viewer.
Here is a sample of my code:
if (tool == 1) {
stroke (255,255,255);//white
strokeWeight (.02);
for (float x = 40; x < 800; x = (x + 10) * 1.2) {
++++++
The remaining slides are video stills from an experimental dance performance/architectural installation that I created at EMPAC in Troy, New York in August of 2010. I am drawing with my "Poppy" program and the live drawing is subsequently projected from above, down onto two dancers and three vertical screens. The two dancers are responding to the changing architectural space that the projected light creates upon them and the three moving vertical screens. The movable screens are choreographed to expand and contract to create three separate spaces and thus movements for the unfolding performance. As I envisioned the piece as an installation, the viewer may encounter the work from multiple vantage points.
