I took a bunch of pictures and then pasted them together with

convert $(ls *JPG | sort -n -r) $(ls *JPG | sort -n) -layers OptimizePlus paper.gif

convert is a tool from the free ImageMagick package. The sort command organizes the files into numerical order (great for those file names that cameras tend to import). The -r flag reverses the set in the first sequences and then I remove it for the second sequence so it loops nicely. Again, you may have to click on the picture and let it load a second before you get a nicely looping image.

This is an animated GIF. Click on it to watch the animation.

I am on a Residency with Jordan Tate in Banff to work on my visual competency and I am teaching Jordan about programming and digital media.
Jordan’s first assignment is to make 10 animated gifs in response to other work. Here is part one. This is called 4’33". I recently saw Rauschenberg’s "White Paintings" at SFMOMA and I was really taken. I love minimalism. I found out through some reading that Cage didn’t really go for the full 4’33" until he saw these. I like black so I made a black animated gif with various degrees of black. I did this because Cage discovered that you can’t ever experience silence, there is always some noise and jitter.

// TITLE: 4'33"
// Adam Tindale 2010
// http://www.emvergeoning.com/?p=1095

import gifAnimation.*;

GifMaker gifExport;
PImage mygif;

color[] c = new color [3];
int i = 0;

void setup(){ 
 gifExport = new GifMaker(this, "export.gif");
 gifExport.setRepeat(0);
 
 c[0] =  color(0);
 c[1] =  color(3);
 c[2] =  color(5); 
}

void draw(){
 background(c[i]);

 gifExport.setDelay(1);
 gifExport.addFrame();
 
 if (i == 2){
  gifExport.finish(); 
  exit();
 }
  i = ++i % 3;
}

View this code on GitHub

In preparing for mono.mono//stereo I searched for something that would make images that I wanted. I started with Processing but once I started adding some effects it got way too slow so I found Quartz Composer. I ended up using that for the piece. That introduced a lot of communication problems. OSC is not implemented well and there are a lot of resets and bogus reports. The same data sent to any other program looks just fine. I am looking to leave Quartz and move to another language. What I can’t find is a good language for drawing in 3D with a list of arbitrary coordinates.

So, I have been thinking about going back to Processing or checking out Field. Field has a lot of nice bridges to Max/MSP and some incredible hybrid code/gui functions. It also binds with python nicely so I could integrate marsyas and some other systems pretty easily. Could this be the glue I am looking for?

I am still searching. I have some time coming up and I think I will play with it a bit and report back.

I am reclaiming my blog from Zara. I will put up work in progress and my ongoing thoughts about making work.