Carl-Johan Rosén
The mix presented here is a selection of works dating back to 2006. Some are collaborations with other artists, some are solo works.
Works
→ Det klarnar
→ Direktsändning från simbassängen
→ Partners In Crime
→ Who are you looking at - who's looking at you
→ Who are you looking at - who's looking at you (installation)
→ Jeans View 1.0
→ Ambient Licks
→ Predator?
→ F.T.L.
Other
→ OpenFrameworks Syjunta
→ True Romance
→ Source.Code
→ Think
→ Cell Noise and Processing
→ OpenFrameworks Pachube code
Contact
Jeans View 1.0
Jeans View 1.0 is a mind-boggling experience which turns your body backside up front. The feeling can best be described as an x-ray shield which de-orientates your body. As viewer your presumptions of the bodily constitution are questioned, while obviously there is something wrong with the body you see, it looks totally valid. This is an indescribably weird experience!
The installation is constructed from a (perfectly) blue colored office-space separation screen. A live video of one side of the screen is flipped and projected back on the other side while leaving the upper body of the user visible above the screen. JeansView 1.0 was created together with Claes Ericson.
Video
Predator?
Predator? is a minimal game/installation where the audience interact with an abstract predator. The users are represented as white squares and the predator as a black square. The predator is bound by a leach and the audience can enter the installation to fool or be eaten by the predator. Predator? is study in virtual reality immersion, exploring the minimal connection between real life and the virtual. The minimal design of the participant representations in the virtual world and the physical representation of the virtual in the real world (by two lines on the floor), shows how little is needed to create this immersion in virtual space.
This project has also been a starting point for me to explore behavior animation and artificial intelligence design, which i have continued to work with in my master thesis (see Source.Code).
Predator? was created by Henrik Wrangel and me at the Interactivos? 2006 workshop in Madrid. Zachary Lieberman, co-initiator of the OpenFrameworks, introduced us to basically all the tools we used for this project and was also teaching the workshop.
Shows
→ New Media Meeting, Norrköping. December 2006. → Ars Electronica Festival, Linz. September 2006. → Media Lab Madrid, Madrid. May 2006.
Det klarnar
Det klarnar is part of a larger research effort to investigate how sensory composition of a being, digital or biological, determine the awareness, the memory and the self. This materialization of theoretical reasoning exemplifies three digital beings with each a different means of acting in the world, and a sense to register its own actions. Through acting and sensing in a recursive feedback loop the electronic constructions create a fleeing memory of their being in a specific space at a certain time.
The digital beings are design to not give room for mystification or imitation of biological life, but to reveal its simple construction of wood and electronic components. They are nothing but machines. Still their emerging behavior are too complex to be deconstructed solely through observation. The behaviors are a memory pattern unique to the placement and the design of the digital being as well as to the environment. Might this uniqueness constitute moral grounds for not pulling the power to these machines?
Photos
Who are you looking at Who's looking at you
Who... is an ongoing study of social implications of surveillance in public space. Since the start of this project, late 2007, one of the results is this performance/vj set where cameras around a public space (a dance floor in a club, a street or a building) capture movement of people at that time and place. Footage is returned to the audience after beeing fed through the authoritarian power of the CCTV system and the performer. As performer I can seek individuals and place them in or out of control of their virtual representations on screen.
The goal of Who... is to highlight two things mainly: 1. The audience's lack of control of their footprints or traces left behind in a surveilled space, and 2. The non-personality of a CCTV system and the problem of relating to a covert power of this sort. Additionally, the wonderful esthetics of surveillance camera videos, and of body and crowd motion are qualities that amplify the experience.
The live video feeds are read by custom software built with openFrameworks which gives the performer full control over time and space.
Shows
→ Essential Existence Gallery, Leipzig. September 2009. → Pre PPP, Stockholm. September 2009. → OSC09/Färgfabriken, Stockholm. August 2009. → The Interactive Institute 10 år, Stockholm. December 2008. → The Office, Stockholm. December 2008. → Sweat, Linköping. September 2008. → New Media Meeting, Norrköping. September 2008. → Klubb Republik, Norrköping. April 2008. → Norrköpings Konsthall, Norrköping. April 2008. → New Media Meeting pre-event, Norrköping. January 2008.
Video
→ Essential Existence Gallery, Leipzig. → Pre PPP, Stockholm. → OSC09/Färgfabriken, Stockholm. → The Office, Stockholm. → Sweat, Linköping. → Klubb Republik, Norrköping. → Norrköpings Konsthall, Norrköping.
Who are you looking at Who's looking at you
As an expansion of the performance Who..., this is a participant-driven installation on the same topic. The installation allows the participant to engage in a more exploring way. The project still touches the same key issues, but targets a new audience in this form, and also allows for more reflective thought while interacting.
In this form, the authoritarian power has undergone a shift from performer to participant. The power is based on the participant but granted by an absent power. By removing the performer, the installation leaves the participant in a more vulnerable position, since she can't observe the source of control but is forced to look for it in herself.
Shows
→ Essential Existence Gallery, Leipzig. September-November 2009.
Video
Direktsändning från simbassängen
Direktsändning från simbassängen (Live from the swimming pool) was created to capture the atmosphere of the local community bath Aspuddsbadet, as a contribution to the debate against its closing down. The bath house has been occupied since its official close down in the summer of 2009. The exhibition was planned to take place in the swimming pool of the bath, but due to police breaking the occupation the exhibition moved to a nearby gallery. The work was shown the day before the bath was sadly torn down, as part of a group exhibition with seven works all relating to the bathhouse, both as architecture and as a place for meeting.
Together with Loui Kuhlau, we created a live video screening of a miniature swimming pool in two parts. The first part in the gallery space is two monitors showing a cut of a swimming pool. The second part is the water filled miniature pool, located in a nearby room, where visitors can take their hand for a swim to the delight of the visitors in the gallery space.
Video
→ Konstfack, Stockholm. December 2009.
Photos
ofxPachube
I've been working a bit with the Pachube data sharing tool by Usman Haque and found it a useful platform for several projects. In the process I've created an openFrameworks Pachube addon, which is now on version 0.02. It's threaded and supports the Pachube API as per 2009-03-30.
Download
Ambient Licks
Ambient Licks is a fourty-two hour statistical recording of a public space. We wanted to create an alternate portrait of the space (the New Media Meeting festival) and the people passing through. We can compare the results with a time-lapse video, where a picture is taken at regular intervals, only in Ambient Licks the picture is a set of sensor measurements. During the festival we measured light level, humidity, temperature, alcohol amount in the air and counted number of persons in the space. The portrait was created and presented live as shown in video.
The installation was created together with Chris Leung from the Pachube/PachuBox project. We used OpenFrameworks, Pachube and the PachuBox to capture and present the data.
Video
Partners In Crime
Partners In Crime is a dance performance on the borders between the physical and the digital, between the stage and audience, between criminal and law-abiding. The project is concerned with the general preemptive criminalization of people through surveillance, and creates a space where the participant's every move might be a criminal act and every judgement might be wrong.
Partners In Crime is a collaborative project with Diggapony, a choreography group who love to provoce and question given rules. The project is supported by Riksteatern, Interactive Institute and New Media Meeting and first shown in May 2009.
Shows
→ New Media Meeting, Norrköping. May 2009.
Video
OpenFrameworks Syjunta
The oF Syjunta is a monthly meeting in Stockholm, where we chat, share experiences and coding tricks. We are using the OpenFrameworks coding kit, which is designed for artists and other people who wish to use code as a tool in their creative practice. We usually meet at different places at around 6pm on a weekday and hang out for a couple of hours. We'll post on our website when there is a new event coming up, so stay tuned!
Website
F.T.L.
F.T.L. (Färg Till Ljud) is a visual sound composer. It's constructed as a rotating scanner which visually reads the surface of the table. Colored blocks of different shapes and sizes can be combined to create a unique sonic landscape. Each color represents a sound sample. The radial position changes the pitch and the size of the block controls the volume of the sound. The speed of the rotating reader is controlled by tactile slider on the side of the sound controller.
The installation, or instrument, was created to allow people who prefer a visual approach to create sounds and music. It has proven a successful and playful approach to both young and old people. Since the interface is entirely analogue, people tend to have a lower threshold before deciding to use it. Especially people with little or almost no computer experience easily start creating digital music.
The instrument was designed and created by myself and Markus Appelbäck in the summer of 2006, and has since been exhibited at Malmö Technical Musuem, New Media Meeting and Norrköpings Konsthall.
Shows
→ Norrköpings Konsthall, Norrköping. September 2007. → New Media Meeting, Norrköping. December 2006. → Malmö Tekniska Museeum, Malmö. June-August 2006.