Animata Open Source Real-time Animation

In my efforts to explore the use of technology in art and social change. Looking at few ideas in creating new media installation art. Following my friend Prayas's advice I first looked at Animata developed by Budapest Kitchen.

The software is not currently in active development. Though I was able to compile it on Ubuntu gnu/Linux machine using the latest code. They were some stability issues.

Here are the instructions to compile and run Animata on Ubuntu LTS.

# Download Animata from https://code.google.com/archive/p/animata/source/default/source

 $ wget https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-archive-source/v2/code.google.com/animata/source-archive.zip

# Uncompress the archive

 $ unzip source-archive.zip

# Change direction into animata source directory

 $ cd animata/trunk

# Install the dependencies

 $ sudo apt-get install scons
 $ sudo apt-get install libfltk1.1*

# Build

 $ scons

# Run the build

 $ ./build/animata

That's all folks. Please let me know your experiences with Animata.

Eco City: Projection Mapping For Social Impact

Japanese artist Hidetaka Nakamura uses animation to bring about awareness about social issues in Cambodia. In this post, I talk about his Eco City project, he makes large screen projections of animations drawn by children on the wall of underground sewage plant. The children visit this underground sewage plant along the river front of Phnom Penh, they participate in pop quiz about environmental issues. The animated characters teach the children about recycling and garbage disposal.

This the second edition of the Eco city project in Cambodia. I'll be working with Hidetaka on the next projection mapping to bring real time animation of the drawings and immersive interaction of projection mapping next year. Stay tuned.

Capturing Time-lapse with Sony RX100 II Camera

Few people asked for information about the time-lapse photography in my last blog post about 3D printing hamster castle. In this blog post, I'll share how to do time-lapse photography with Sony RX100 II camera.

The setup

1. Sony RX100 MKII camera
2. Android device Timelapse app
3. Tripod
4. Two power chargers with mini-USB cables

The Sony RX100 MKII doesn't have a built-in intervalometer. So we'll use an Android device with Timelapse app to take photographs at regular intervals. Also we'll power the the camera and the Android device with a wall charger so that they don't run out of battery during the long time-lapse recording. The Sony RX100 MKII can be charged directly using a standard mini-USB power adapter. That means I don't have to replace the batteries during the long time-lapse.

First, let's turn off the power saving mode on the camera. This prevents the camera from going into sleep mode. To control the camera using a Android device, navigate to your cameras 'Control with Smartphone' menu option. Once selected, the screen will display camera's Wi-Fi SSID and password (Read the Sony documentation about Wi-Fi Direct here). Now go the WiFi settings on your Android device and connect to 'Direct-XXXXX' WiFi access point with the password displayed on your camera. Once connected, Open 'Timelapse' app and select 'RX100 mk2' from the camera model drop down menu. Next you can select the interval for your time-lapse (I used 10 secs for this time-lapse) and start your recording. Please make sure that the Android device is near to the camera to avoid losing the WiFi connection. The camera takes the pictures and saves them to SDCard. What's next? You can now use a video program of your choice to turn this time-lapse photographs into a video on your computer.

Please don't forget to share your experiences doing time-lapse photography.

Chinese teacher helps blind find confidence in art

Inside a brightly-lit room in a lighting store, painting teacher Zeng Bailiang and his group of volunteers are patiently teaching a group of blind students the basics of Chinese painting.

The students in the classes in Nanning, the provincial capital of China's southern Guangxi province, spend hours practising brushstrokes on a special paper, feeling with their fingers the different wet and dry areas to guide them on their painting.

Eventually they get to the point where they can dip a brush, similar to the ones used for Chinese calligraphy, into black ink and draw things such as mountains or bamboo trees with long strokes. Short strokes can create flowers or birds.

Zeng, 55, is a self-taught artist who has been conducting classes for the blind for the past several decades. He says the classes fuel his passion for art with a sense of satisfaction that comes from helping the students - many of whom were orphans who came to him wanting something new and fun to do.
Read More

My First Radio Play

This week I start a new role as an actor, Professor Arky the affable explorer who discovered a new species of monkeys called 'Marky' in Malaika Islands. It is part of radio shows series for Malaika case study at IISE. Marky was name of Martian from last years Asian talent show, it seems to have stuck a chord with the audience (arky from mars = marky). Prof.Marky's Indian accent is quite popular around here, it does add humour to otherwise serious case study.
You can listen to first show in the series right here or download it from archive.org.

Listen To Malaika Radio Show

Swathi Sangeethotsavam 2010

The thunderstorm lasted all night, it was raining all sunday afternoon. The lake water is rising again, I resist the idea of going for a swim. First I need to finish the discussion about cultural diversity. We wrap up at 5:30 pm and its getting dark fast. I decide to head to town for evening of music and cultural at Swathi Sangeethotsavamn instead. The music festival is held every year in the magnificent courtyard of Kuthira Malika palace in Thiruvananthapuram.We spent the evening listening to carnatic vocal concert by Mavelikara P. Subramaniam. Sitting in the courtyard of the ancient palace, listening to the music from stage glittering with oil lamps, the sweet smell of flowers and the cold rain laded wind added magic to the evening.

PS: Reminds me of a musical concert yet another rainy day.

Kalarippayattu Video

I lived in Kerala for over an year now. Never had a chance of watching Kalarippayattu, the oldest fighting system in existence. Last evening I visited Thapovan to watch a demostration of Kalari.

Protospace Bangalore, A creative space for artists

Some creative endeavors start in the most unlikely places. For me it was waiting for my turn to bat. With my thick glasses and diminutive size I was the lowest in batting order of our gully cricket team. I would spend most of time perched on the moss covered walls along the boundary line. It wasn't that bad. I turned my creative prowess to covering the walls in chalk graffiti. Primitive cricket scoreboards, insults and expletives addressed to no-one in particular and in the height of my creative fervor I produced a simian that looked like a classmate of mine. The later did landed me in great deal of trouble. The boys mother stormed my house in such fury which is quite uncommon in mid summer. My good-for-nothing uncle number three came to my rescue, for which I am still grateful. I often buy him a bottle sometimes when visit home.

Though my nascent career in mural arts was snipped at bud on that fateful evening. I kept on scribbling through math classes in high school. In college, it helped me pull through dreadful lectures on supply and demand. It seemed my interest to be always in short supply. The only consolation in this unproductive part of my life, I lived life my way. From hazy dorm rooms and to my own digs in the city, Art was everywhere in the chaos of my lodgings. The spatter of ketchup (or was that curry) on the far side of the wall was inspired by Jackson Pollock. And the CD's spread on the floor among the books was straight out of Salvador Dali's 'La persistencia de la memoria'.

Looking back now, I feel a loss of those personal creative spaces and collaborations that started with rolling of a joint. Visiting Protospace filled me with some hope, perhaps all is not lost. Good luck and thank you for having me protospace team!.

Hacker T-shirt Idea

One look at this Wordle word cloud visualization of Bruce Sterling's book The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. I knew it would make a great hacker t-shirt!

Take a quick peek (picture above) how it will look when done.

Shivkumar Sharma Santoor Concert

Theo and me braved the thunderstorm to attend the opening day of 24th National Convention of SPIC MACAY here in Thiruvananthapuram. The evening started with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma Santoor concert, it brought back so many memories. It was pure delight to hear the maestro play raag megh to the sound of the rain outside. Certainly, it is an experience that I would cherish for a long time to come.

Ubunchu! The worlds first Ubuntu romantic school comedy

ShadowMax76 reported on Ubuntu news list that we now have worlds first ubuntu manga comic. "Ubunchu!" tells the story of three school students in a sys-admin club who dive into Ubuntu Linux. Not before a huge fight that features deadly weapons like broomstick and compat disk Shuriken :).

You can download the Japanese Version or the one in English here. And don't forget to read doctormo blog post :).

Laurie Baker Remembered

1 April 2009: Yesterday was the second death anniversary of Laurie Baker British-born Indian architect. COSTFORD(Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development) organized this event in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala.

Before I visit Vidarbha :: Art Installation

After blogging about the Suma Josson's documentary I Want My Father Back yesterday. Perhaps I should mention Prayas's interactive installation titled Before I Visit Vidarbha . This sound installation "sonically interprets the farmer suicide cases reported in the English media". Sounds Interesting !!

Read more about this sound installation here in this Before I Visit Vidarbha blog post.

National Theatre Festival 2009 Kerala, India

Photos from the National Theatre Festival which is was held from March 1-11, 2009 in Thiruvananthapuram.

Opening Cermony at Tagore Theatre

Jyothish 's Macbeth

Habib Tanvir's Charandas Chor

Fight Quest Kalarippayattu

Discovery's Fight Quest travels to India this week, to learn the 9th Century martial art Kalarippayattu. This art form survives to this day in the south Indian state of Kerala, various variants of this art form can also be found in other south Indian states. It is also known as 'marman' or 'marma kala'. This ancient art form was patronized by Nairs sect and aft quoted as the source of martial arts like kung fu.

This art form has almost mythical status in Indian culture on par with magic, this is reflected in popular Indian cinema. I remember watching a black and white Malayalam film on national television 15 years ago. The film tells the folk tale of a kalarippayattu master. I was instantly stuck by the grace and beauty of this martial art. The 'flexible sword' which is the weapon of choice of the hero is fatal to his foes, it is however the musket bullet that kills him. Just like the hero of the film the art form itself suffered greatly after the colonization of India. It is now in revival and subject this week's Fight Quest episode. Don't miss it!

The IT Man

I spent sometime on Friday evening exploring Hyderabad Central University campus, I spotted this in a corner of the art department's studio.

Le Grand Content

Le Grand Content examines the omnipresent Powerpoint-culture in search for its philosophical potential. Intersections and diagrams are assembled to form a grand 'association-chain-massacre'. which challenges itself to answer all questions of the universe and some more. Of course, it totally fails this assignment, but in its failure it still manages to produce some magical nuance and shades between the great topics death, cable tv, emotions and hamsters.

Go Watch it now