studio test: sshhkk

sshhkk v0.1 (studio test) from christian.ryan on Vimeo.
this one was a bit of fun...  first new work in the new studio + I got to play with a bit of animatronics I rescued from some drugstore throwaway holiday tchochke. 

unfortunately I melted through the logic board two days after shooting this test; it limited the motion to that strange jerky on/off sequence.  now it's just a dumb circuit (by "dumb" i mean just a simple voltage -> switch -> motor, no controlling board.)













at any rate, can't wait to install it in a few days @ the Christina Ray gallery in NYC; lots of fun rattling plz to enjoy.

testing a leptaxis element (prototypes!)

testing the breathing mechanism of a reactive installation object...not yet convinced.  I'd like to see it on a wearable prosthetic, so that's in the pipeline, although I'm not sure if there's time to include the finished result in the thesis show...


leptaxis _breathable (prototype) from christian.ryan on Vimeo.
programmed in Max + uses a Make Controller,  servo motor, and some grad school kludgery to make the engineering "operate."

dance+off

__//posted new wrk today - dance+off
originally I wanted to reconstruct "iconic" clips from cinema in which the main protagonist, denied of any other agency, used dance as a method to vent their frustrations and as protest to the oppositional institutions surrounding them. the original cinematic dance scenes needed to be solo + private - as if the character was having their own therapeutic relationship w/ the body + rhythm.
after shooting a few clips, I thought more about the male body's relationship to dance, esp. when represented on screen; and how the feminizing effects of technology, dance, + pop music alter how this body is sexualized in relation to on screen representation.
obviously, the only way to proceed is a 10-channel video installation w/ endless loops of this exploration.

on a tech. note, this was also a way to test the 1280x720 video of my nikon d90. the 24fps is still sticky for someone who's been using 29.97 for years, but other than that, I'm pleased w/ the results. I'm really interested in finally exploring a decent depth-of-field in video.