GMU:Breaking the Timeline/projects/Reconstructing the truth: Difference between revisions

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==Description==
==Description==
[[Image:Reconstructing the Truth.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Reconstructing the Truth]]
[[Image:Reconstructing the Truth.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Reconstructing the Truth]]
In modern times reality is a highly constructed body made up of many different ideas, desires and influences. The biggest reality producing machine, the media with all its different distribution channels, confronts us with a huge moving colourful mass made of countless pictures and sounds. The question about whether what we see is real or not is neither asked nor encouraged. The catchphrase of modernity is see it and believe it, a critical discourse is never held. While in ancient times, following Platon's ideas, reality to some is the dancing of shadows on a cave wall, for us it is the play of many differently coloured pixels on flat surfaces. Screens are our viewfinders to the world. Our perception is created by artificial interfaces. The connection between reality and man is created by copper wires and silicium plates. A very fragile umbilical cord highly dependent on those who feed it thus holding the ultimate control.
In modern times reality is a highly constructed body made up of many different ideas, desires and influences. The biggest reality producing machine, the media with all its different distribution channels, confronts us with a huge moving colourful mass made of countless pictures and sounds. The question about whether what we see is real or not is neither asked nor encouraged. The catchphrase of modernity is see it and believe it, a critical discourse is never held. While in ancient times, following Plato's ideas, reality to some is the dancing of shadows on a cave wall, for us it is the play of many differently coloured pixels on flat surfaces. Screens are our viewfinders to the world. Our perception is created by artificial interfaces. The connection between reality and man is created by copper wires and silicon plates. A very fragile umbilical cord highly dependent on those who feed it thus holding the ultimate control.


Two movies dealing about the question of what is real, [[wikipedia:The Matrix|''The Matrix'']] (1999) by the Wachowski brothers and [[wikipedia:Welt am Draht|''World on Wires'']] (1973, orig. title ''Welt am Draht'') by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, are left to the electronic brain of a computer to create, with its countless circuits instructed by a programmer, a reality partly constructed partly real to explore reality and its constructed nature. The outcome is a formal critique of (mass-)media's reality.
Two movies dealing about the question of what is real, [[wikipedia:The Matrix|''The Matrix'']] (1999) by the Wachowski brothers and [[wikipedia:Welt am Draht|''World on Wires'']] (1973, orig. title ''Welt am Draht'') by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, are left to the electronic brain of a computer to create, with its countless circuits instructed by a programmer, a reality partly constructed partly real to explore reality and its constructed nature. The outcome is a formal critique of (mass-)media's reality.
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==How it works==
==How it works==
[[File:Reconstructing_the_thruth_mechanism|thumb|right|250px|Shematic function view]]
[[File:Reconstructing the thruth mechanism|thumb|250px|Schematic function view]]
The piece utilizes a mechanism that compares frames of both sources. The first source dictates with its linearity the rhythm and flow of the second sources but at the same times breaking up its former linearity, creating a literally broken timeline that becomes the linear flow of the final piece.
The piece utilizes a mechanism that compares frames of both sources. The first source dictates with its linearity the rhythm and flow of the second sources but at the same times breaking up its former linearity, creating a literally broken time line that becomes the linear flow of the final piece.


The technique used to achieve this is called optical flow, a mechanism to track the motion from one frame to the next. The analysis returns multiple vectors that indicate motion in the contents of these images. Motion hereby can be moving objects and persons but also movement of the camera's perspective. By finding images with the same motion vectors in a different source creates a completely new narration is based on the input source but exhibiting properties of the compared source.
The technique used to achieve this is called optical flow, a mechanism to track the motion from one frame to the next. The analysis returns multiple vectors that indicate motion in the contents of these images. Motion hereby can be moving objects and persons but also movement of the camera's perspective. By finding images with the same motion vectors in a different source creates a completely new narration is based on the input source but exhibiting properties of the compared source.
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==Links==
==Links==
*[http://vimeo.com/user3599886 Videos of prototypes and tests]
*[http://vimeo.com/user3599886 Videos of prototypes and tests]
==References==
==References==
* Bernhard Hopfengärtner: [[GMU:Works#Bernhard Hopfengärtner: TANZMASCHINE|Tanzmaschine]]
* Bernhard Hopfengärtner: [[GMU:Works#Bernhard Hopfengärtner: TANZMASCHINE|Tanzmaschine]]

Revision as of 12:45, 28 January 2011

Description

Reconstructing the Truth

In modern times reality is a highly constructed body made up of many different ideas, desires and influences. The biggest reality producing machine, the media with all its different distribution channels, confronts us with a huge moving colourful mass made of countless pictures and sounds. The question about whether what we see is real or not is neither asked nor encouraged. The catchphrase of modernity is see it and believe it, a critical discourse is never held. While in ancient times, following Plato's ideas, reality to some is the dancing of shadows on a cave wall, for us it is the play of many differently coloured pixels on flat surfaces. Screens are our viewfinders to the world. Our perception is created by artificial interfaces. The connection between reality and man is created by copper wires and silicon plates. A very fragile umbilical cord highly dependent on those who feed it thus holding the ultimate control.

Two movies dealing about the question of what is real, The Matrix (1999) by the Wachowski brothers and World on Wires (1973, orig. title Welt am Draht) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, are left to the electronic brain of a computer to create, with its countless circuits instructed by a programmer, a reality partly constructed partly real to explore reality and its constructed nature. The outcome is a formal critique of (mass-)media's reality.

Final Result

<videoflash type=vimeo>16170658|600|490</videoflash> The final result (21 minutes).

How it works

The piece utilizes a mechanism that compares frames of both sources. The first source dictates with its linearity the rhythm and flow of the second sources but at the same times breaking up its former linearity, creating a literally broken time line that becomes the linear flow of the final piece.

The technique used to achieve this is called optical flow, a mechanism to track the motion from one frame to the next. The analysis returns multiple vectors that indicate motion in the contents of these images. Motion hereby can be moving objects and persons but also movement of the camera's perspective. By finding images with the same motion vectors in a different source creates a completely new narration is based on the input source but exhibiting properties of the compared source.

Links

References