Title: "Gallery". Artwork Stanza 2008

Exhibition. The gallery as an artwork.

“Gallery” by Stanza, is a dynamic public sculpture viewable over the internet. Gallery describes the space, in this case the upper gallery in Plymouth Arts Centre, England. Made during an artist in residency project in situ in the gallery space during feb 2008.

The gallery interior has been made virtual and placed online. "Gallery", is part of a series of process led experiments in data visualization within the context on an art gallery. This is an experimental engagement with data in the art gallery using sensors and CCTV. Stanza asks , "what happens during the process of visiting the gallery as a dataspace"; ie what happens to the gallery and what do the visitor do? The sensors are used as real time recording devices to gather information about the sensory behaviour of the real space.

The gallery becomes the artwork formed by the emergent real time data in the space. The gallery laid bare as a work of art. Gallery proposes that the data is art. The art is a real time flow of the things around us that allow our senses to invoke understanding. The gallery space becomes the art described by the shifts in light, temperature and noises in the space over time.

What is "Gallery."

Gallery involves gathering the material, ie, real time pure data from sensors and using  the data as assets, to make an audio visualization of the real gallery. Gallery is monitored as an environment and made real by the changing data over time. The form itself is also going to be represented by live sensor data from a wireless sensor network.  I have set up ten node wireless mote network. (Motes sensor boards Mica 2 with sounder , noise, thermister sensors)

Concept

Gallery is an empty room full of sensors with an online representation of the space itself. "I am doing nothing to the space other than monitoring it". There is no direct intervention in gallery, interactions in the space by visitors change the data, as does . That the space is art; and data is the medium used to form this artwork. Made by Stanza at Plymouth Arts Centre. The work is based on a series of ideas exploring time based interactions within art gallery setting using technologies used for urban monitoring and surveillance. Stanza tries to question whether meaningful cultural interactions can take place by changing the way we focus on space and consider what art is in the process.

When we are out of the gallery the building itself has behavior so does the surrounding environment. On a smaller micro level things change constantly in a gallery. The gallery itself is made more alive by the objects that move inside and make noise, people for example. But this is not the particapatory or performative element in gallery, this is embedded in the artwork by default. The sensors themselves are controlling this. The gallery is made interactive by this element of control. The gallery is in fact monitored by technology over various networks.

Touring

Gallery is available for exhibitions and touring, ie it can be remade and set up in your space or gallery.

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Gallery is a data space.

The body experiences the artwork called "gallery" by default. The body is the interpreter of the "artwork". The "anomalies" of presense in this work are not key to any interactivity. The shifting data in the space is measured and the interactivity is not based on physical response to sensor devices like in most installations. The interactive response is on a metaphysical leve,l ie how one interprets an artwork. This is an interactive response between audience and the artwork (which is titled "Gallery") and therefore in this case between audience and the gallery space itself. The visualisation, ie shifts in the data respond to changes in the environment. If it gets darker and the lights go out then the visualisation changes, if there are loud noises the visualisation changes, if it gets hotter the visualisation changes.

I suppose people could go around the gallery shouting or, lighting matches, use torches and switch the lights out. But I am not responding in this way to the audience I am responding to the architecture, to the physical presence of the space.

"Gallery", input from other artists and curators.

What is Gallery.

" Audiences are increasingly seeking the artistic environment for entertainment. And what do you do, when there¹s nothing to see? You either get frustrated, or you end up realizing that we accept without any reflection that everything that is enclosed within the art gallery walls should be considered art. Encountering an empty space can be an incredible opportunity to rethink our position as spectators. Our perceptible generosity and curiosity towards the artistic space could very well be extended to everything in life. It seems to me that this was the invitation proposed by Stanza. " text by Cadu. {Cada is a Brazilian artist who responsed to this artwork with these comments, he is also artist in residence in Plymouth Arts Centre feb 2008.}

Keywords
 
Gallery is a network, net art , networked, generative. Sensor, installation and database.
Gallery is also a real time audio and visualization of an environment.

network: (1) a system or group of interconnected elements; (2) a set of nodes, points, or locations connected by means of data, voice, and video communications for the purpose of exchange.

net art: art projects for which the (Internet) is both a sufficient and necessary condition of viewing/expressing/participating.

networked art: (1) works in which nodes, objects, and people connect via computer networks, including the Internet, Local Area Networks, and mobile networks; (2) works that invite (inter)action and/or participation.

generative. evolving continuous system of data.

(1) bridge multiple realities while maintaining autonomy;
The project gathers assets from the real house and represents this data across networks as an online system a generative experience of a a real architecture.
(2) engage the user as a participant;
The user participates in the online system by mixing and controlling the assets and the data. An interface will be created to  enable this
(3) include the dynamics of both one-to-one and one-to-many communication within the work;
A multi- node wireless sensor network ie a rhizomatic network gathers the assets (data) and feeds it online for interpretation my end users.
(4) require collaboration between artists, programmers, scientists, and others; and, (5) encourage dialogue.

Technical:

A special hardware system has been custom installed and custom software created can also allow the visualization to be viewed live on the internet. Eventually a network of environments( gallleries and real spaces) can be connected to show a global space a global world of data. ie galleries can be linked up and networked.

A network of live wireless sensors is deployed and this collects the data. A wireless sensor network with ten motes and multiple sensors on each data maps the environment. Using Tiny OS and open source software the motes  are programmed so that they communicate over the air. Once OATP is established the data is collected and extracted via a router as xml. A unique system for live XML broadcast has to be developed which archives and relays the data to the online systems and interface.

The DATA SPACE .

XML local example.

Below is example of xml format.

<NewDataSet>
−
<mts310_results>
<result_time>2008-02-09T16:40:58.9210000-00:00</result_time>
<nodeid>7</nodeid>
<parent>0</parent>
<voltage>448</voltage>
<temp>471</temp>
<light>734</light>
<accel_x>19</accel_x>
<accel_y>14</accel_y>
<mag_x>794</mag_x>
<mag_y>794</mag_y>
<mic>205</mic>
</mts310_results>
−
<mts310_results>
<result_time>2008-02-09T16:41:01.4210000-00:00</result_time>
<nodeid>6</nodeid>
<parent>0</parent>
<voltage>486</voltage>
<temp>467</temp>
<light>719</light>
<accel_x>1</accel_x>
<accel_y>3</accel_y>
<mag_x>775</mag_x>
<mag_y>776</mag_y>
<mic>202</mic>
</mts310_results>
−
<mts310_results>
<result_time>2008-02-09T16:41:04.7340000-00:00</result_time>
<nodeid>2</nodeid>
<parent>0</parent>
<voltage>480</voltage>
<temp>473</temp>
<light>790</light>
<accel_x>9</accel_x>
<accel_y>18</accel_y>
<mag_x>773</mag_x>
<mag_y>773</mag_y>
<mic>199</mic>
</mts310_results>
−
<mts310_results>
<result_time>2008-02-09T16:41:08.1250000-00:00</result_time>
<nodeid>4</nodeid>
<parent>0</parent>
<voltage>460</voltage>
<temp>473</temp>
<light>791</light>
<accel_x>28</accel_x>
<accel_y>20</accel_y>
<mag_x>792</mag_x>
<mag_y>793</mag_y>
<mic>206</mic>
</mts310_results>
−

Temperature.

A java and PHP system is used to relay the live data ie a mote reader for the live version.

Gallery by Stanza. 2008. Concept, sounds, design, visualisation, copyright Stanza.

Thanks to Scan, Plymouth Arts Centre, and IDAT, as well as B, Paula Orrell , Helen Sloan. Part of distributed South, which is a project funded by The Arts Council England.

Thanks for support from Eamonn Martin and Adam Hoyle.

Thanks to an AHRC creative fellowship and Goldsmiths digital studios.

Artwork by Stanza. 2007/2008. www.stanza.co.uk

Projections of the virtual gallery back in the real gallery space.

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KEYWORDS: network, net art , networked, generative, sensor, installation and database, real time audio, visualization, environment.