Levin, Golan
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Digital access to this material is pending artist's approval. Materials may be viewed onsite at the Goldsen Archive, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Kroch Library, Cornell University.
My work is focused on the creation of artifacts, environments and experiences which explore supple new modes of interactive audiovisual expression. It could also be considered a personal inquiry into abstract communications protocols. From a background rooted in a rigorous study of the intrinsic formal properties of the computational medium, my work has since pushed towards the dissolution of the more contextual subject/object boundaries which lie between the author and authored, user and designer, and sender and recipient in interactive communications.
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Item 2008 Rockefeller New Media Foundation ProposalLevin, Golan (2009-06-08T18:36:27Z)I propose a collection of thematically related interactive installations, called the "Eye Contact Systems", which explore the potential of gaze as a primary new mode of human-machine communication. The projects address the questions: What if artworks could know how we were looking at them? And, given this knowledge, how might they look back at us? The proposed artworks investigate the aesthetics of interactive systems endowed with new perceptive capacities -- the ability to know where we are looking -- and new expressive means, through mechanical eyes that can return and address our gaze.Item 2006 Rockefeller New Media Foundation ProposalLevin, Golan (2009-05-20T19:51:01Z)I propose a collection of conceptually-oriented interactive installations, called the Eye Contact Systems, which explore the potential of gaze as a primary new mode of human-machine communication. The project addresses the questions: What if artworks could know how we were looking at them? And, given this knowledge, what if they could look back at us? My proposed artworks investigate the aesthetics of interactive systems endowed with new perceptive capacities - the ability to know where we are looking - and new expressive means, through mechanical eyes that can return and address our gaze.Item Rockefeller New Media Foundation --Supplementary MaterialLevin, Golan (2007-02-23T18:09:26Z)Still images from select performances and installations.Item Rockefeller New Media Foundation --Supplementary MaterialLevin, Golan (2007-02-23T18:03:49Z)Dialtones is a large-scale concert performance whose sounds are wholly produced through the carefully choreographed dialing and ringing of the audience's own mobile phones. Because the exact location and tone of each participant's mobile phone can be known in advance, Dialtones affords a diverse range of unprecedented sonic phenomena and musically interesting structures. Moreover, by directing our attention to the unexplored musical potential of a ubiquitous modern appliance, Dialtones inverts our understandings of private sound, public space, electromagnetic etiquette, and the fabric of the communications network which connects us.Item Rockefeller New Media Foundation --Supplementary MaterialLevin, Golan (2007-02-23T17:58:22Z)Messa di Voce (Ital., "placing the voice") is a concert performance in which the speech, shouts and songs produced by two abstract vocalists are radically augmented in real-time by custom interactive visualization software. The performance touches on themes of abstract communication, synaesthetic relationships, cartoon language, and writing and scoring systems, within the context of a sophisticated, playful, and virtuosic audiovisual narrative. In addition to the performance itself, a separate installation version of Messa di Voce makes select software modules available for public play and exploration.Item 2005 Rockefeller New Media Foundation ProposalLevin, Golan (2007-01-19T15:17:55Z)I propose a collection of conceptually-oriented interactive installations, called the Eye Contact Systems, which explore the questions: what if artworks could know that we were looking at them? And, given this knowledge, what if they could look back at us? The Eye Contact Systems are intended to explore the possibilities of granting interactive artworks with new perceptive capabilities-namely, knowing where we are looking-and new expressive means, namely, simulated mechanical eyes that can look at us. The series of artworks proposed here are made possible by recent advances in gaze-tracking technology. This term refers to a set of computer-vision techniques, wherein a computer fitted with a high-resolution video camera is able to reliably estimate where a subject is looking. Thus, although the individual pieces in the proposed series take a variety of forms (including wall projections, small mechatronic sculptures, and roomlike installations), they share (in addition to their common thematic thread) the common technical infrastructure of a gaze-tracking system. It happens that this infrastructure is difficult to create, while many of the individual artworks proposed here will be relatively simple to build, once the infrastructure is in place. This proposal, therefore, seeks support to develop such a technical infrastructure, as well as the many artworks that it will make possible.Item "The Hidden World of Noise & Voice" Installation GuideLevin, Golan (2006-11-27T15:08:04Z)Brief supplemental documentation of the projcet carried out at ARS Electronica's Furturelab.Item 2003 Rockefeller New Media Foundation ProposalLevin, Golan (2006-11-20T21:29:22Z)I propose a new corpus of kinetic artworks and related performances to be developed around highly miniaturized robotic machinery. My objective is to produce a series of seemingly-organic optomechanical systems that are small enough, and flat enough, to fit within standard 35-millimeter slide cases. The tiny motors, ligatures and optical components of these machines will be programmed to exhibit an expressive variety of lively audiovisual behaviors under both autonomous (independent) and remote (interactive) control. The machines will be projected large by a conventional slide projector, while the nearly inaudible sounds of their moving joints will be greatly amplified using special microphones and optoelectronic transducers.