name: Erik Conrad | cv [pdf]
email: erik dot conrad at peripheralfocus dot net
url: http://www.peripheralfocus.net
OZO: Palpocilium ('OZO' is 'Zoo' spelled backwards, then shifted a bit)
Palpocilium are large, slow-moving, simple yet social creatures. They have no eyes, but are very sensitive to light. They respond to light anywhere on their bodies, but have a greater concentration of photoreceptors on their 'feelers' which they use to explore things in more detail. Their bodies also emit light, which some believe they use for communication, although to what extent, it is not known.
Palpocilium, when amongst more of their own kind, exhibit a particularly peculiar behavior. It appears that in a palpocilium colony the senses of each individual extend out to the rest of the group. The excitement of a single palpocilium will propagate throughout the colony almost instantly, although seemingly at a lesser intensity. In effect, it makes the colony a large collective organism.
These are very interesting creatures, due to their large size and unusual sensory system, and are naturally docile enough to be ripe for domestication. OZO provides a chance for people to get up close and personal with these incredible organisms. If you cannot make it to the exhibit, you can virtually visit the palpocilium online! On the OZO web site you can watch the palpocilium, live, in their pen. Online, you can experience what it might be like to BE a palpocilium! A special camera is positioned inside a palpocilium decoy in the pen. From this unique viewpoint you can see what it is like to be a palpocilium from their perspective!
...
OZO: Palpocilium investigates the relationship between the phenomenal understanding of the body and the experience and understanding of space. In the spirit of Lygia Clark's M‡scaras sensoriais the project asks participants to both question and contemplate their sensory experience. The focus is both the effect on and possibilities of combining sensing technologies and the body. Visitors to the gallery can participate in this petting zoo-like installation as human and/or palpocilium. By donning costumes equipped with custom electronics, the participants can put on the body of the palpocilium. They cannot see, but the costumes allow them to feel tactile vibrations that correspond to light sources either in the gallery or on other palpocilium. They are instructed to explore slowly, and to make sure to use their ÔfeelersÕ to avoid collisions. Unadorned humans are free to roam among the palpocilium as they wish.
The project addresses networks in two ways. First, the individual palpocilium form a network that operates as a distributed, multi-agent sensory systemÐcreating one large collective organism out of a roomful of individual organisms. The participantsÕ experience of the space is defined, in part, through the local network of creatures. The online component compliments the overall theme of the piece by placing yet another layer of technological mediation between the viewer and the experience of the space. For the gallery goer, it emphasizes the difference between experiencing and observing through technology. For the net goer, it acts as a commentary on net culture and the recent bio-fetish of new media art. In OZO: Palpocilium, the biological agents are, at the core, human, but human clothed with an elaborate technical apparatus. Net visitors interact with technologically mediated human agents through a very different layer of technological mediation.
The palpocilium costumes will be built by incorporating tactile display technologies developed during the production of Tactile Space with the Gumstix (very small) computing platform.
Data will be gathered from the palpocilium via wireless LAN using CNMAT Berkeley's Open Sound Control and a G4 Mac (provided by the artist) running Max/MSP/Jitter. The data will be processed and control data sent back to the palpocilium. The G4 system will also run the webcams, and push the image data to the Turbulence servers.
Erik Conrad is an artist, designer, and computer scientist with ten years of experience working with new media. He has taught courses in net art, programming and electronics for artists.
| Gumstix robostix cf pack | 220.00 | x 5 | $1100.00 |
| Compact flash wireless cards | 60.00 | x 5 | $300.00 |
| PAK IV PWM co-processor chip | 28.00 | x 10 | $280.00 |
| Battery pack ~2000 mA | 29.99 | x 5 | $149.95 |
| Misc. electronic components | 300.00 | $300.00 | |
| Webcam USB 2.0/firewire | 100.00 | x 2 | $200.00 |
| Fabrics, sewing supplies | 1000.00 | $1000.00 | |
| total | $3329.95 |
Tactile Space
http://peripheralfocus.net/hybrid/tactileSpace.html
http://turing.ace.uci.edu/~econrad/palpocil.html
aether
http://peripheralfocus.net/aether.html
irnerio
http://peripheralfocus.net/irnerio.html
Invisible Relations
http://peripheralfocus.net/ir.html
An odyssey (of sorts)
http://peripheralfocus.net/Odyssey/index.html