Higher Estates Of Mood

Higher Estates Of Mood : Concept

Installation Overview:

Higher Estates of Moods is an interactive installation piece focused on urban landscapes and the effect they have on consciousness and mood. It is displayed in an enclosed and elevated structure with wind blowing upward to emphasize the elevation and cancel out other sounds from the exterior. Computer generated original representations of urban landscapes are split into three parts (bottom, middle, and top), and the viewer initiates the display. Two modes of interaction are offered to the viewer: chaos and order. Should the viewer pick "chaos," the scenes are displayed randomly (the top, middle, and bottom may be from different scenes, but they are shown together). Picking "order" will display all three portions of one scene. When shown randomly, the viewer is often inundated with contrasting images and sounds. When displayed in order, however, the viewer has an opportunity to discern the various themes that constitute the landscape representation.

a bit of history

Evolving through spaces, one can often relive the emotions attached to them from previous encounters, or apply models from previous places visited or placed into. These emotions are associated by the dweller. However, it has also become apparent that the place itself had a feel to it, an emotional state, independent of the one the dweller is in at the moment of encounter. This sense of spirit of the place, genus loci, is defined great depth in the work of Christian Norberg-Schulz, "Genus Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture", a reference in the subject.

My fascination for places and their impact on moods is the main motivation and drive behind the various projects created in this class, eventhough to most anger is all that is pushing me forward. A year long class, this convergent media course has seen me go through various states of mind, and the work produced is a direct result of these variations.

At first, I only wanted one thing: share my anger, result of life events, by inflicting it upon the viewer/user via an installation piece, a space of anger. A very coarse approach to anger and what angry thoughts are made of. Recently exposed to performance art and the shock value of some Austrian Performance works of the 60's, I let myself create a space of repulsion and anger, sometimes far from correct or even valuable to some. An exorcism of some kind, what is now known as the Anger Project: Whipped Anger has taught me considerable conceptual elements and tips, and I hope having successfully applied these in this new piece, Higher Estates of Mood. Having coped with this angst, room for a more subtle installation was ready to be assembled.

Partially pleased with the previous results, I thought clutter was too distracting. I was now convinced to approach the process of making via more minimalistic conceptualizations.

Higher Estates Of Mood : Concept Installation Overview: Higher Estates of Moods is an interactive installation piece focused on urban landscapes and the effect they have on consciousness and mood. It is displayed in an enclosed and elevated structure with wind blowing upward to emphasize the elevation and cancel out other sounds from the exterior. Computer generated original representations of urban landscapes are split into three parts (bottom, middle, and top), and the viewer initiates the display. Two modes of interaction are offered to the viewer: chaos and order. Should the viewer pick "chaos," the scenes are displayed randomly (the top, middle, and bottom may be from different scenes, but they are shown together). Picking "order" will display all three portions of one scene. When shown randomly, the viewer is often inundated with contrasting images and sounds. When displayed in order, however, the viewer has an opportunity to discern the various themes that constitute the landscape representation. a bit of history Evolving through spaces, one can often relive the emotions attached to them from previous encounters, or apply models from previous places visited or placed into. These emotions are associated by the dweller. However, it has also become apparent that the place itself had a feel to it, an emotional state, independent of the one the dweller is in at the moment of encounter. This sense of spirit of the place, genus loci, is defined great depth in the work of Christian Norberg-Schulz, "Genus Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture", a reference in the subject. My fascination for places and their impact on moods is the main motivation and drive behind the various projects created in this class, eventhough to most anger is all that is pushing me forward. A year long class, this convergent media course has seen me go through various states of mind, and the work produced is a direct result of these variations. At first, I only wanted one thing: share my anger, result of life events, by inflicting it upon the viewer/user via an installation piece, a space of anger. A very coarse approach to anger and what angry thoughts are made of. Recently exposed to performance art and the shock value of some Austrian Performance works of the 60's, I let myself create a space of repulsion and anger, sometimes far from correct or even valuable to some. An exorcism of some kind, what is now known as the Anger Project: Whipped Anger has taught me considerable conceptual elements and tips, and I hope having successfully applied these in this new piece, Higher Estates of Mood. Having coped with this angst, room for a more subtle installation was ready to be assembled. Partially pleased with the previous results, I thought clutter was too distracting. I was now convinced to approach the process of making via more minimalistic conceptualizations.	why urbanism? Finding most of the material for this Anger installation in construction sites is undoubtedly the trigger for this new project about moods and places. Urbanism, its byproducts, its looks, construction sites, abandoned buildings and heavy industrial landscapes had now my full attention. I enjoy visiting construction sites, the way they are both horrid and beautiful, the incredible geometry of it all within the chaos of pre-existence. I can now spend hours walking around, looking at scaffolds :) or roads, highways, loops, cityscapes, lights, alleys, dumpsters, churches, hospitals, fire departments, gas stations... Each urban element has a mood, a aural dimension, a visual feel to it. The idea was then to bring the moods of urbanity to the viewer, both visually and aurally. In order to do so, narrowing down what urbanism is became necessary, to keep some sanity within the making craze. Brainstorming about "urban scapes", three major categories stood out as containers for urban elements, and what urban is.	Taking these 3 categories, we researched what we considered the major components of each one of them. Here are some of the associations we came to. (theme:item - reminds me of the SAT :) - infrastructures religion: church/graveyard commerce: store, bar/entertainment safety: hospital/fire dept/police dept/jail production: industry service: laundromat/gas station/bank knowledge: schools - networking roads: highways utility: sewers shuttles: subway/metro/buses/trains information/electronics: antennas/dishes/waves - byproducts garbage: dumpsters/dumps/sewers again helpers: construction sites chaos: abandonned buildings/ghetto/tags/urban art Having established a rough scope for these scapes, it was now time to construct them. find more at The Making Of... References: - "Genus Loci Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture", Christian Norberg-Schulz - "The experience of place", Tony Hiss - www.urbanism.org - www.urbanphoto.org - http://www.archinect.com/about.shtml - http://www.rice.edu/~lda/wet/index.htm - http://hughpearman.com/book1/extracts.html back <<<
	Urbanism is Infrastructures Researching what constitutes a city, a definite stronghold of urbanism, it became apparent that some elements are founding objects for an urban landscape. Interviewing the people around eventually narrowed the list to about half a dozen elements that defined the very essence of cities in these individuals' minds. These are places such as hospitals, churches, graveyards, restaurants and other businesses, etc. These elements had to be present in the installation. Urbanism is Networks As we were trying to narrow the infrastructures listed above, it also occured to us that these main elements were all connected to one another, via networking elements. We thus considered including networking elements, from roads to sewers via electronic networks. Urbanism has Byproducts Obviously urban scapes are way broader than just these infrastructures and networks. The third category we chose to include is one that represents what I consider as the byproducts of urbanism. For instance dumps, abandoned housing, ghettos, etc. These places that were not really planned for in the first place, but that earned a place among the urban landscape and have become full-fledged environments with their own language, their own culture. These byproducts are the most fascinating of the three categories involved in what we considered urbanism.