Matthew Venn » interactive

The science of Snow

matthew venn — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:52:53 +0000

The “science of snow” is an interactive exhibit that starts by illustrating how snowflakes form and ends with a unique snowflake postcard to take away.

By controlling environmental conditions, you grow a unique snowflake; its shape is a visual history of the journey from cloud to ground.

The exhibit has been shown at many galleries including The Crypt (London) Motorcycle showroom and Lakota (Bristol).

More photos of the build process and the final product including example snow flakes. Source code is here.

I would like to thank Janko Gravner, David Griffeath and Clifford A. Reiter for their research in the field. Their work was used extensively to build this computer model. Lou Smith for his interest and work building the physical installation. Rachel Carless for help with the funding application. David Murray-Rust for computer help and advice. The open source community for providing all the excellent free software with which this exhibit was built.

Comments by the public:

We came for our christmas party had such great fun , made xmas cards and snow flakes. Thank you
Loved it all, but especially the snowflake machine and advent calendar.
I loved the snow flake guys work Thanks.
Personally thought the snowflake was the best ! Thank you for an interesting afternoon.
We particularly enjoyed the installation by Matthew Venn where we produced our own digital snow flake.
Loved the snow flake machine.
I made my own snowflake to take home great idea.
I made the opening night and it was absolutely mind blowing, came back again to play on the snow flake machine.

standing waves – an interactive installation

matthew venn — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:38:29 +0000

I’m working with Martina Sprenghart (fashion photographer) to produce an installation for her latest work.

The exhibition is in in the Mall Galleries: 17 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5BD http://www.mallgalleries.org.uk/. Please come along on the 10th. Feb. between 15:00 – 20:00.

Click the photo to see the story of the installation’s development.

laser tripwire

matthew venn — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 11:46:09 +0000

I made a laser tripwire for Fluxx theatre company. The system was installed at the Soho Theatre.

Chris wanted something that would be interactive and amusing for the audience. As the audience entered the space to sit down, they broke the invisible tripwire and a random farmyard or DIY sample was played over the PA.

Here’s what they said:

MATTHEW VENN is an inventive and industrious artist exploring a range of approaches to improvisation. His particular skils in working with technology allowed him to create a unique laser-based interactive device for use during Fluxx’s ten-year anniversary series of shows at the Soho Theatre in 2008. The device – generating sounds triggered by movements of spectators – proved a great hit.

midi controlled gas organ

matthew venn — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:08:07 +0000

I got the puredata patch to respond to midi, so now we can sequence the gas organ. For the flame and flesh event we’re going to have some performers who want to play their electric violin and cello with the gas organ. Martin came in and played a sequence (top right photo) which we recorded, and you can hear here.

experiment 1 : the gas organ

matthew venn — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:53:33 +0000

I’ve been working on the wiimote -> puredata -> bluemelon controlled gas organ for a while now, and we are getting ready for a full test on Monday.

We have a big event called ‘flame and flesh’ happening on the 22nd February at Corsica Studios. Come along and check it out!

update!

the test went really well! We have good intuitive control of the organ using 2 wiimotes. I’ve also got a basic random mode going down too. It was great seeing Shawn dancing with the controllers because the sound was so well linked to his movement. I began to be able to recognise and predict what the sound was going to do as he moved. I think the use of wiimotes is going to really make waves in synchronising music, movement, visuals and who knows what else. Exciting!