I decided I wanted to do a test run to see if I could find any good textures in macro photographs of soap bubbles and I had moderate sucess - there were indeed some cool photos but I had to move and focus quick and due to the lighting which was a lightbulb with tin foil behind it to disperse the light - I was only able to shoot in f2.8 which as you can see leaves a very intense depth of field. I will be making a more serious attempt at addressing all the limitations I ran into this shoot in the near future based onthis article.

 view More Macro Photos of Soap Bubbles

Alisha and I had initially talked of not going anywhere or doing anything for Christmas. Somehow that slowly morphed into going to see Alishas family for Christmas. Dont ask me how I just work here. But dont get me wrong it was a LOT of fun and just what we both needed after a semester of school and work for Alisha and Non-stop work for several months for me.

Right before we left Portland got hit with a foot or two of snow and was left paralyzed for 3-4 days due to its lack of snowtrucks, refusal to use salt, and a number of other factors. My love affair for my Subaru was taken a few more notches as we trucked all over town doing donuts in parking lots and having other forms of irresponsible fun. 84 was closed until the morning we left to goto Eastern Washington.

Before leaving I ran out to grab some photos of this pine bough which was covered in frozen snow and in fact grabbed a number of great photos.

Ice Covered Trees at Sunset on Dekum Street

Our drive up eastern Washington on 395 - You can’t see it - but there is a car less than 20 feet in front of us. This is what one of my friends terms "white knuckle driving" The roads were thankfully mostly clear and free of icy patches otherwise we would have been stuck.

Dear Portland, while it was cute to see you flail under a few inches of snow you should step aside and let Spokane show you what real snow looks like. 3-4 feet!

Every time i see this picture I think "Goofball" so thats what it is. I can’t tell if its the aspherical distortion or our silly smiles but we do indeed look goofy.

The name for the quality of transition from clarity in focus to a soft out of focus blur is called "Bokeh" but for this picture I wonder if it should be called BowKeh - thank you thank you I appear here every Thursday evening.

After 4 days straight of fatty foods, cookies and obscene amounts of wine, I couldn’t ignore my inner nerd any longer and set up a science experiment where I tried to capture some photos of Ice Crystals - it worked out ok but given the fixed lighting and the lack of my 2x doubler I feel I was only able to scratch the surface of what is possible.

Speaking of frozen water… on our way out of Portland we dropped by multnomah Falls late at night and I set up a prolonged exposure in hopes of catching the awesomeness of the frozen waterfall… this was the best I could muster with the near total lack of light.

Thats it for this time… check out the rest of the photos here

This page is a collection of resources for Using OSC on your iphone and/or Processing. If you dont understand what any of this is about you can safely move on to the next article. This is mostly mac-specific, sorry pc peeps.

Iphone OSC Apps

mrmr - open source , community based project focused on allowing for easy installation of controllers over a wireless network via a BonJour Server. This seems to be the most extensible and useful of all the iphone OSC apps, though it is in its infancy.

[mrmr how-to quickstart]

TouchOSC - nice prebuilt app for free from itunes store - good for controlling music and processing [download] [reference]

Sonic Life - Cellular Automata that sends OSC messages over UDP

OSC Tools

OSC message Viewer - essential to see OSC messages [Download]

OSC Client - Essential to see if your scripts are working properly. [Download]

OSCulator - Convert OSC to midi and share with all your old devices which havent realized the greatness of OSC yet. Though its primary purpose is to convert a Wii-mote to OSC/midi data and works well with a Kyma Capybara

Processing

OSCp5 - the library needed in order to communicate in the OSC protocol through processing.

[download] [reference]

Tactu5 - an algorithmic music generation library which can send OSC messages with the above library

[download] [reference]

OSC Howto’s

OSC main page

Everything you wanted to know about OSC

Being the nerdy geeky sort I had a special fondness while growing up for the paradoxical nature, mathematical precision and infinite recursions present in MC Eschers lithographs, but recently I’ve grown to have an even more profound respect and admiration for his work from a fractal/loop perspective.

It started off with reading the article The Mathematical Structure of Escher’s Print Gallery by B. de Smit and H. W. Lenstra Jr. in which they analyze the print gallery as you see above where a young man is standing in a gallery looking at a painting that against all logic warps out and encompasses the gallery in which he is standing. There is a white spot in the center where the drawing stops. Why? Was it too complex to draw? Is there a mathematical paradox hinted at? The analysis of the original paper is pretty heady for those without a mathematics background and I hope the mathematicians don’t think of this article as blasphemy because of my attempt to make it simpler to grasp with my flimsy grasp on math. For those who have a solid grasp on math please don’t read my page (you’ll make me feel ashamed) and read the actual article instead.

The effect known as the Droste effect is named after a well known dutch chocolate in which the graphic on the box depicts a lady standing holding a tray with a box of Droste chocolate depicting a lady standing holding a tray with Droste chocolate… ad infinitum. This is known as recursion but how does this apply to Eschers piece?

The Print Gallery is actually a loop which contains a smaller version of itself, you start with a man in an art gallery looking at a print. This print hes looking at happens to contain the gallery in which he is standing but only 256 times smaller. Below is a video illustrating this part.

Why 256 times smaller?  First some math, but dont worry, it’s simple: 2 to the power of 8 = 256 (2×2x2×2x2×2x2×2=256) This means if you zoom in at a factor of 2X - 8 times to a certain point in to the image where there is a copy of the image 256 times smaller you will eventually end up back where you started. A seamless loop. As quoted from Bruno Ernst’s book  The Magic Mirror of MC Escher Escher started "from the idea that it must…be possible to make an annular (ringlike) bulge," "a cyclic expansion…without beginning or end." The realization of this idea caused him "some almighty headaches." At first, he "tried to put his idea into practice using straight lines [left], but then he intuitively adopted the curved lines shown in the image on the right. In this way the original small squares could better retain their square appearance."

What does this mean in laymans terms? Basically it means the small picture seamless warps into the larger one by using a grid to transform the image. Even cooler is that it creates a never ending seamless loop since it’s done with a zoom that ends up back where it started if you zoom in 256 times.

Below is one of the four original  studies for The Print shop.

Below are 8 images each one zooming into the previous picture by a factor of 2 (2×2x2×2x2×2x2×2=256) The rough areas are the white spot in the center of the drawing. By the time you get to the end you can see you are back where you started (the next zoom level is #1)

B. de Smit and H. W. Lenstra Jr of Leiden University in the Netherlands together with a team applied a 4 step process of reverse engineering this piece of Escher and reconstructing it

1) Decontrstruct - apply the reverse of the transformations to arrive at the original unaltered image.

2) Redraw the image

3) Recolor the image and apply the first logarithmic tiling transformation

4) apply the final transformation and the center is filled in!

While this is really cool and all I think what is the most amazing part of this is that different parameters can be used to create a number of variations of pieces escher might have come up with had he used different values. This was done by using a different transformation grid in the final step

By doing this the team created a large number of seamlessly looping zooming animations of what eschers print shop might have been - This page has all of them The animation below is the opposite values of what escher chose so it is in essence the yin to the print shops yang.

 One of my favorite visual mathematicians, Jos Leys has an amazing page explaining how to create the droste effect and use it in practical applications which will come in handy for those of us nerdy enough to learn how to put it into processing and code.

This page will be updated as I do more research on the subject.

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It all started with an idea to create a midi controlled spirograph. I was thinking how much I loved Spirographs as a kid and how with a number of wheels and rotation points you could create some really cool patterns. I wanted to make the equivalent of an Spirograph that smoked some PCP laced crack… just the hulking out / flipping cars part not the seeing ghost cutting your face up part. My idea didn’t go exactly as I imagined but in the different versions some really cool stuff came out - scroll down and read for the details.

This is the first version with only a few parameters mapped to my midi controller and using the first color palette, I eventually got sick of these colors and moved to a cleaner blue. The midi controller was mostly controlling sine/cosine values which controlled positional elements (scale, rotate, translate) of each iteration of the square.

The blue was an improvement but the black outline looks a little garish, while testing the blue color palette I snapped this image of cascading cubes. Mapped a few more parameters in this version

Ahh it’s nice and designy! I settled on this as the color palette and then focused more on finding things to manipulate.

I added a second square which rotates around the first and a number of new control parameters which allows for more complicated patterns and fine tuned control.

Wow! it can get really complicated and intertwined - yet its still a repeating mathematical function

Or it can be really simple and clean - this is the squares turned to circles and shows the second one rotating around the first. I do plan on revisting the original idea and work on an advanced Spirograph generator.

Want more? Heres the rest of my processing Math/code art

I’ve long dreamed of the day where all my content self-organises depending on the myriad of uses I had planned for it. Now that I have added tagging to my gallery it actually shows some of my perspectives on how I view and explore this amazing world we live in. Additionally the photos gather new strength and individuality through their new contexts.

With the addition of tagging to my gallery this allows me to dynamically create collections of images based on like characteristics. Its easier to see what I mean by browsing through the tags yourself - after clicking an image below try clicking any of the links below the images to see what comes up

Composition

These are all photos taken with composition in mind - that is the elements create a dialogue through their position within the photographs boundaries or the form of the elements in the photo are the main focus. Click the images above to see all the photos tagged as having a compositional element to them.

Favorite Photographs

This is a catch-all category for anything that i love on this site, beit a fractal, photograph, drawing or texture. This is a good page to start exploring from and clicking on tags that interest you - I apologise in advance for the tags that only have one or two photos.

Sculpture

This is a nice cross section of a wide variety of sculptures I’ve come across in my travels. Includes everything from small carvings up to famous civic art, to tribal carvings.

Geometric Photos

These are all items that have some element of geometric arrangement. From mineral closeups to artwork that has an underlying geometric structure. Other tags of interest are Hexagonal, Geometry, and Spiral

Textures

These are all photographs taken with the end purpose of highlighting the texture.

Macro Photos

Close up photography focusing on minute details surrounding us.

Organic Tag

These are all images that are not organic but have some organic element to them, whether its organic wrought iron facades or and organic flow to a fractal.

Motion

Pictures and images where the focus is on the flow or movement within it.

and I will leave you with a quote that sums up how I perceive the world from Don Juan -

…For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while; in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.

HD 3D Fractal Animation Study from Kris Northern on Vimeo.

This is a test render for a much longer piece Im working on which is currently rendering. I decided that I liked the end of this video the most and sought to replicate that sort of tweakery - So far the new animation is at frame 480 of 3200! It’s going to take a little while =)

Select a Mix ----------Upbeat Dance---------- Psytech Robots, Robots, Robots Space Disco Nights Cell Abrasion More Noise Please The Expansive Drift Crunch N Munch --------Chill & Downtempo--------- The Dreamer & the Dreamed Amphibian Low Cool Writhing sea of moonlit tentacles Preamble Journey to Ixtlan LSD The Four Corners -----------Live Sets------------- Live at Chrometoast Live at Momentum Live at Burningman 2003 Live on WNUR Live at Summer Meltdown --------Trance & Dubstep--------- Alien Step Big Friendly Giants Favorites (psytrance) Music For the Black Lodge

Heres a live dubstep set from the Chrometoast event in Seattl 11.20.2008 - this is a dj set with live dub style effects on top of it

1) Riskotheque - Dreamstate
2) Decklyn - Messiah
3) 23hz - Al Andalus
4) Sub Swara - Alabaster Dub
5) Nagual Sound Experiment - Desert Step
6) Distance - Night Vision
7) Frosty Boy - Stonk
08) Elemental - Boxed in
9) Rumblejunkie - Dope angel (Antiserum rmx)
10) Headhunter - Sushi Brain
11) Sick Rebel - Lion
12) The Bug - Jah War (Loefah rmx)
13) Roommate - Youth Promotion
14) Snares - Black Sabbath
15) Younger Brother - Crumblenaut
16) Chase & Status - Eastern Jam
17) Caspa - Floor Dem
18) Nero - Something Else
19) Tc - wheres my money
20) Benny Page - Pan Pipes
21) Cardopusher - Toothsmasher
22) Emalkay - Frequency
(break in recording)
23) Hektagon - Strange Voices
24) Riskotheque - Android
25) Modeselektor - Block Block (rustie rmx)
26) Nero - Night Thunder

I’ve been wanting to find a nice medium in between the computer and the physical and the medium of painting windows is just that for me. It allows me to exercise what I know how to do on a computer to execute what would otherwise be beyond my means in the physical world.

It started with me finding two very nice 6′ x 2′ rectangular single pane windows at a rebuilding center. I thought these would make amazing art pieces so I bought them - that was nearly 2 years ago and Ive been carting them around ever since. Our landlord replaced some windows in our house and Alisha grabbed one that she wanted for us to paint together - little did she know what she was getting herself into - I am aware that Im nearly impossible to work with in a creative setting, my neurotic controlling side comes out and then I argue outloud with myself because Im simulataneously trying to be fair, creative, open and do things my way, which as far as I can tell is impossible to do. The window didn’t end up coming out that great - It was a cool idea and took several days to do but in the end your first piece will always suffer. It did set the stage for bigger and better pieces and I decided to tackle the large windows. I started by converting the garage into a studio. We furnished it with random odds and ends procured on the streets of Portland - It will always remain a mystery to me how Alisha managed to get the table which is easily twice her size home without help but she donated that to my cause - I went out and started figuring out the best approach to all the dilemmas - masking, layers, cutting, securing the windows etc etc and within a week I was off and running.

I didnt really stop to think I should try some smaller pieces first and went for the Big Cheese right out of the gates. I started on the 6 footer as soon as I could; patiently cutting the mask in zen like states of focused relaxation until at long last it was ready to paint. The first layer went on like a dream - It was even better than I hoped

However after removing the mask tape and I was laying the second and last coat down the horror of horrors started happening - the paint was bubbling up and acting really strange and there was nothing that could be done to stop it. All those hours of work undone in mere seconds due to some unknown physical reaction - it could have been mixing of multiple types of paint or the fact that it was on glass - but through further experimentation I realized it was preventable by doing multiple coats of paint just dusting it rather than laying it on thick. see below for my rude awakening,  (the super cool fractal patterns weren’t lost on me.)

Rule 1: There is no Command Z in real life, no matter how many times you say it in your head when things arent happening the way you want there is no changing that fact.

Actually I take that back i did command Z this painting… with a razor blade.

Determined I put the tall windows aside and tried a few more hands at it - some more fun than others.

The first is a Celtic knotwork piece which seemed like a great idea at the time (like so many of my ideas) and remained so until about halfway into it when I realized just how much tedious work it was requiring - I eventually finished it and was pretty sure I never wanted to see if again, though currently its adorning my friend Liz and Jazz’ wall and looks quite good there.

After this I wanted pieces that were very simple to execute and rewarding to work on so I did these two mountain scenes where I got to focus on technique a little - worked on fades and speeding up the process of cutting the mask. Both were sold to my good friends at Astral Buoyancy and shipped to Asheville North Carolina where one broke in transit despite being packaged to survive just about anything. The other is mysteriously missing in action - FedEx claims it was never picked up from my friends house so it might have been stolen - So Ill let it be known that if I end up at a house party with this painting on the wall - I’m first taking it off the wall and then I’l do something worthy of praise from Tucker Max. Oh the gifts that keep on giving. Thanks tuna in a ventilation shaft.

anyways thats all I have for now. thanks for reading

I originally purchased this to take photos of it and eventually dismissed it as a bad purchase since it seemed to have what i thought of at the time as a layer of sediment rendering the clear cubes really ugly looking- it turns out to be the previous owners scuzz which came off quickly with a nice scrubbing. This is another in the macro series as the fractal detail of fluorite has always been one of my favorites. Most of these photos were shot with a 1:1 macro lens fully zoomed in so its rather small details. As with all the Cabinet of Curiosity post these photos are released with a Creative Commmons license which make them free to use for artistic / non-commercial purposes. If you use these in a project please link back to this page. Oh yeah if you want to purchase this piece make me an offer =)