Forms is an ongoing collaboration between visuals artists Memo Akten and Quayola, a series of studies on human motion, and its reverberations through space and time.

 
It is inspired by the works of Eadweard Muybridge, Harold Edgerton, Étienne-Jules Marey as well as similarly inspired modernist cubist works such as Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase No.2″. Rather than focusing on observable trajectories, it explores techniques of extrapolation to sculpt abstract forms, visualizing unseen relationships – power, balance, grace and conflict – between the body and its surroundings.

The project investigates athletes; pushing their bodies to their extreme capabilities, their movements shaped by an evolutionary process targeting a winning performance. Traditionally a form of entertainment in todays society with an overpowering competitive edge, the disciplines are deconstructed and interrogated from an exclusively mechanical and aesthetic point of view; concentrating on the invisible forces generated by and influencing the movement.

The source for the study is footage from the Commonwealth Games. The process of transformation from live footage to abstract forms is exposed as part of the interactive multi-screen artwork, to provide insight into the evolution of the specially crafted world in which the athletes were placed.

The video installation is currently being exhibited at the National Media Museums ’In The Blink of an Eye’ Exhibition, 9th March – 2nd September, 2012, alongside classic images by photographers as diverse Harold Edgerton, Eadweard Muybridge, Roger Fenton, Richard Billingham and Oscar Rejlander as well as historic items of equipment, films and interactive displays.

See video and more information on The Creators Project site.

Quayola and Memo Akten – Artists
Nexus Interactive Arts – Production Company
Beccy McCray – Producer
Jo Bierton – Production Manager
Matthias Kispert – Sound design
Maxime Causeret – Houdini Developer
Raffael F J Ziegler (AKA Moco) – 3D Animator
Katie Parnell – 3D Tracker
Eoin Coughlan – 3D Tracker
Mark Davies – 3D Tracking Supervisor

Commissioned by the National Media Museum for the ‘In The Blink of an Eye‘ Exhibition 2012; with the support of imove, part of the Cultural Olympiad programme.

With thanks to BBC Motion Gallery and Commonwealth Games Federation

memo.tv
quayola.com
nexusinteractivearts.com
nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/
london2012.com/cultural-olympiad

Frame by frame stop motion and time lapse techniques, fluid dynamics and magnetism are transformed into majestic explosions and seething storms.

Shot with Nikon D90, macro lens & custom built timer / trigger
Edited in Adobe Premiere
Scored in Ableton Live

portfolio.kimpimmel.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/kpimmel
 

 
Compressed 03 Process

I find analog things appealing – whether it’s vinyl or photographic film, there’s a certain richness and magic that’s difficult to replicate with digital means. The Compressed series showcases analog visual effect techniques, so everything in the films is made by hand, with physical materials and tools in my studio. For each of the Compressed films I try to develop and master a set of analog techniques with which I can craft a narrative.

For the effects in Compressed 03, I was drawn to the dynamic interactions between liquids. I spent about a month playing mad scientist to see what gave the most interesting results. I raided the kitchen for common stuff like milk, oil, and molasses. I stopped at the drug store and buy random things such as witch hazel, nail polish, and bubble blowing mix. I ordered exotic stuff like ferrofluid online. Some liquids repelled each other, some caused coagulation, and some created intricate patterns.

I settled on ferrofluid as my primary liquid, since it yielded some nice interactions with other liquids and could be manipulated using magnetism. All of the black or brown seen in the film is ferrofluid – needless to say it was a very messy few months!

The whole film is shot with a Nikon D90 DSLR, frame by frame, and animated using stop motion and time lapse techniques. This allowed me to control the effects by manipulating various parameters by hand – for example I could blow air onto the scene with a straw to adjust flow direction, or add liquid outside the shot to accelerate an effect. I also hacked a flatbed scanner so I could control it from my computer – and by physically connecting the scanner carriage to other equipment I could adjust parameters of the scene very precisely.

To control the camera for the frame by frame animation, I used a custom timer that I had built for a previous project.

Except for the opening title sequence, everything was shot with a macro lens. While the scale of the scenes in the film may seem grand, they actually range from the size of a post-it, to the size of a playing card. To work at that small scale I used syringes to dispense minuscule amounts of liquids, as well as a whole assortment of tiny magnets to control the ferrofluid. As anyone who has worked with macro can tell you, it’s a pain to work with, but it opened up a whole world of visual opportunities for the project.

Once shooting was wrapped, I edited the film with Premiere, while concurrently writing the soundtrack in Ableton Live.

Since I’m kept pretty busy during the day designing software for Adobe, the film was made during my evenings and weekends over the span of about 4 months.

by Kim Pimmel

Something abstract existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence. Visual geometry containing the non-explicit description of sexual organs or activity. Arising in the mind it intends to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.

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GeometricPorn is a project by Luciano Foglia, a multidisciplinary visual artist. He has been working in the design industry for over ten years focusing on interactive design, code based animations and music. His personal time is spent exploring new ways of expression in music and art, working from his studio in London, Hackney Wick.

by Luciano Foglia

Once upon a time,
a tiny story with great soul.

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Created by:
sebasandclim.com
Music by:
aimar-molero.com