[ISEA2019] Paper: Maria Lantin, Alexandra Hass, Simon Lysander Overstall — A Method to Being: The Time Space Scanner

Abstract

Keywords: living, dying, organic matter, time, space, sampling, scanner, procedural video, procedural sound, ambient

We describe the Time Space Scanner, a method of capturing living and dying organic matter that prioritizes neither time nor space but rather weaves them together into continuous coexistence, delving into the instability of memory, the insistence of being, and the constancy of change. The Time Space Scanner uses a 2D scanner programmed to scan spatially random small samples at regular intervals, collecting 25,000 to 50,000 images over a period of 3–5 days. These micro captures are then reassembled and animated in a real-time flow of constantly changing mixtures of growth, decay, time and space. Any frame of the animation contains pixels drawn from multiple times and locations of the scanner bed.

  • Alex Hass is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer and instructor. Her creative practice is based on exploring the tensions and overlaps that exist between nature and technology visually amplifying the moments when this hybrid practice creates fresh insights and experiences for the viewer. Her design practice encompasses art direction, brand and book design as well as image creation. Alex studied illustration and art direction at the Alberta College of Art and Design, Canada,received her design degree in Visual Communication from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University and her Masters in Applied Art, Media stream from Emily Carr University. She has taught various aspects of design at ECU, SFU and BCIT for the last eighteen years.
  • Maria Lantin is a media artist and the Director of the Basically Good Media Lab at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Canada. Her work is informed by a desire to rethink digital beauty and the path to the aesthetic experience of being in the forest, of performing together, of being, witnessing, and remembering together. Formative experiences include a BSc and PhD in Computing Science (Dalhousie University and Simon Fraser University), a wonderful stint at Mainframe Entertainment working on the first ever stereoscopic animation for the IMAX screen, three fantastic years at the ground-breaking Banff New Media Institutes Advanced Art and Technology (A.R.T) labs, and now heading into thirteen years at Emily Carr.
  • Simon Lysander Overstall is a computational media artist, and musician/composer from Vancouver, Canada. He develops works with generative, interactive, or performative elements. He is particularly interested in computational creativity in music, physics-based sound synthesis and performance in virtual environments, and biologically and ecologically inspired art and music systems. He has produced custom performance systems and interactive art installations that have been shown in Canada, the US, Europe, and China. He has also composed sound designs and music for dance, theatre, and installations. He has an MA in Sound in New Media at Aalto University in Helsinki, a BFA in Music Composition from the School for Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University, and an Associate in Music (Jazz) Diploma from Vancouver Island University.

Full text (PDF) p. 214-219