Success! 6 jets working!

On the last day of the second session and main EM Fountain work time in Skien, the 6 jets finally came into action. It took a long time to find out how to wire the dmx relay box to the relay box that serves the electronic valves with electricity ……

What became clear when we saw the fountain in action was that it was most lively without a cell phone installed by the antnenna.  The antnenna picked up ambient disturbances in the electromagnetic environment and the fountain responded with a rich variety of chorepgraphic patterns, jet heights and light blinky-blinks. Then, when you come close-ish to the antenna with a cell phone, the feedback is instantaneously perceptible, with a uniform choreography and all jets on full height. It is beautiful and sense making. But it is hard to say if the fountain will react likewise when it is moved to a new location …..

I now have a break for a week (going to show the Emotion Organ at the ACM Annual conference and exhibition at Science World/Vancouver). After that I have another 3 full days in Skien where all the remaining things need to be done to get the EMF ready for meeting the public – not in the least is to see if it will run on its own steam for 24 hours and more. The first preview will be in Porgrunn town square on 8th November, where it will stand for 24 hours before travelling to Article 08, Stavanger.

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Recommended! EM workshop.

Data forensics [in the landscape].
Workshop call. 6/7/8 November. Oslo
A practical workshop with Martin Howse and Julian Oliver.
Thursday 6th November – Saturday 8th November 2008
Atelier Nord, Wergelandsveien 17, Oslo ( Kunstnernes Hus)

Participation fee is 500 NOK
Application deadline Friday 24th October
Send applications with brief statement of interest to office@anart.no
Further information: http://anart.no/projects/data_forensics

//

With an emphasis on the active construction of hardware and software
apparatus, the Data forensics workshop will apply practical tools,
techniques and theory to analyse [un]intentional data emissions within
the city of Oslo.

The workshop extends a succession of practical and theoretical
investigations concerned with electromagnetic [EM] phenomena into the
world of data space. Spanning signal and noise, digits and decay, Data
Forensics explores the often unintuitive reality that digital data has
its own electromagnetic (physical) presence, a physicality that can be
read and perhaps even modulated through the carrier medium itself.

Data Forensics presents a window between the domain of the digital and
the physical; the digital both informs and reveals the physical and
vice versa. It is through this relationship that we can find a
fortuitous exchange of practices. We can – for example – borrow
techniques from real-world forensics to examine and attempt to make
sense of leaked data emissions. Alternatively, we can expose and
elaborate upon the notion of data sedimentation; taking an
archaeological approach to examining everyday digital activity.

Topics for active research and discussion within an artistic context
include but are not limited to:

making sense of landscape from a forensics perspective, photo and
audio reconnaissance, data sedimentation, data visualisation,
TEMPEST, cryptography, mapping of event intensity using GPS,
signals, noise and strategies for interpretation of the
intentionality of transmissions

Participants do not need to have practical or theoretical experience
within these multiple fields; a keen interest in this novel artistic
terrain is essential.

Participation is 500 NOK

Application deadline Friday 24th October

Send applications with brief statement of interest to office@anart.no

Further information: http://anart.no/projects/data_forensics

Questions to: office@anart.no

RGB lights arrive, but no relay box

The 2 remaining RGB lights finally arrived today, but the relay box for the solenoid valves, expected at 13.00, still hasn’t made it through the post. It’s frustrating because I really want to see the whole thing up and running, and to make sure the pump that serves the solenoid valves is strong enough, and that the switch box/relay box system works too.

Last night brought with it some minor glitches, such as a potential risk of water spill flowing in to the electronics chamber from one of the bars supporting the fountain bowl, and a defunked blue colour on one of the RGB lights on a pentagon water jet. It takes 3 weeks to get hold of a new one – and we really don’t have time to hang around for it. I’m going to move the funky light out of the pentagon format and put it in the group of 3 that surrounds the central jet. I’ll try and aim this light at the top of the jet – it will always have a red/yellowish colour though. Another option is to get a white light from my studio in Oslo, and replace it with that.

So all that happened today was that Marius hooked up the 2 new lights and placed the funky one in the centre.

And just in case you are thinking that Marius is the only one getting dirty lying under the fountain – you are wrong! I do it too – but I’m the only one taking photos.

It’s extemely cold in the warehouse. And even colder when you’re wet. So once everything is up and running I’m planning to fill the bowl with warmish water and get my bikini on to focus the lights. I can’t reach the central ones without getting in the bowl, and I can’t focus them without the jets being at their full height.

Houston, we have one less problem

It was a very busy day today.

It started with nothing much going on, so I fiddled around, adjusting this and that. Then Frank Ralle came and fixed the pump tubes. He also reminded me of something that he previously told me that I should do – get rid of the air in the pumps each time the water is drained out of the fountain bowl. Silly me. By 14.40 the central jet sprang out of the bowl reaching a height that must exceed 4m. Fab!

At 15.00 most of the NLI Engineering AS team turned up, as well as a journalist from the Weekly Technical Magazine (Teknisk Uke Blad) to interview us all and take photos. It was a pity that the relay box and the last 2 rgb lights hadn’t arrived, but at least one jet was behaving very nicely. The seance lasted about 2 hours, so I hope he’ll write some good stuff.

During the evening the fountain took part in an open day at Klosterøya – a good opportunity to get some feedback, even though the fountain isn’t finished yet. Several of the people who work at Bautas turned up which made me very happy. Below is the only half-decent photo I have of the fountain in operation. It doesn’t really give a good impression of the water jet, and shows the need for 2 more lights to capture the height of the jet at night.

Lastly, here’s a screenshot of the max patch for the EMF that was made with the help of Trond Lossius at BEK last week. (Some of the sub-patches can be found on my Flickr site. Click the image below to get there).

Houston, we have a problem

L-R: Atle (ROM3), Svein Kjetil, Øystein and Geir (NLI Engineering)

Had a meeting today with the project group from NLI Engineering AS to go over the water pressure and leakage troubles, as well as the electronic valve issue. Contrary to the idea of getting a 3rd pump to help/feed the two existing ones was the suggestion to address the “visible” faults – the angles and bends in the tubes running from the nozzles to the pumps and valves. The electronic valve issue should be solved with a relay box that supplies the valves with electricity, and is triggered by signals from the existing switch box. If this works, it won’t be too costly, and could be completed by Wednesday. Perhaps I will see the water jets working by the time I have to leave on Sunday.

The software still keeps running!

I am feeling positive :-)

(PS: Just got a call from my flat in Oslo – the water pipes in the bathroom are leaking – and water it running down into the flat below. This cannot be happening!)

Sunday at the warehouse

Arrived today to find that my feathery friends have been using the fountain bowl as a toilet!

The leakage from the pump department does not seem to have got worse, so that’s a good sign.

Working with the sniffer
Spent the day testing how the VLF sniffer and the mobile phone worked when connected to the fountain bowl. At first, it seemed that the electronic parts of the fountain were creating too much noise to get a clear signal. Then I did various tests with numerous cables and plugs on the Alesis sound interface, as well as the audio plug/cable of the VLF sniffer, and found that there seems to be some malfunctions with the sound interface inputs – but perhaps it is the cables/adapters, that are the problem. I eventually plugged the most sturdy mini jack cable from the sniffer directly into the mac mini, by passing jack-mini jack adapters, and got much better results. So I’m dumping the sound interface  – it is a bit superfluous anyway, as it seems that I’ll only using one sound input/sniffer this time around. There are just too many variables to trouble test right now.

Another strange occurrence
When I ran the fountain patch in max/msp a strange thing happened. When I had the sub-patch that visualizes the sound input analysis open, the fountain behaved as if it was getting calls on the mobile – in other words, as if a BIG change had occurred. When I closed the sub-patch, everything behaved “normally”. I’m not sure why this is happening.

RGB light control
With everything running as it should, I started to work on the rgb light control. It is a simple composition of shifting red and blue tones with a constant green value. The pentagon lights have twice the amount of green as the central jet lights. Exacly what I did, I can’t remember (I’ll have to take some screen shots later), but the result is a pulsating shift between red and blue, with hints of white/yellow in between sometimes. Faster on the pentagon jet lights, more smooth on the central jet lights. When the phone rings, they all meet together in a crescendo of red. Sometimes the rhythm and transintion is smooth, sometimes jerky, but it feels good and connected.

Naught to Thirty-nine (with some numbers missing)
I used up all my camera battery taking pictures of the warehouse – namely places where things must have stood once, marked with numbers painted in yellow. You can see them here.

EMF update – ROOM 313

Room 313

I am sitting in room 313 at Thon Høyes Hotel in Skien, Norway, waiting for all the other guests to go out and have fun on Friday night so the wireless net connection goes faster and I can update my blog. I’m a bit lonely, but it is a very friendly hotel down by the water. My room is moderately sized and quite cozy really, with just enough space for me and all my clothes and equipment that I have been carrying with me from place to place for the past 9 weeks. There’s a telly, a desk, a single bed and a couple of chairs and a spacious bathroom. I have my espresso machine with me so I can make good coffee when I want to.

Breakfast and dinner

Each morning I eat breakfast in the restaurant, and make a packed lunch of fruit, sandwiches and yogurt before setting off to the old warehouse down the road at Klosterøya provided kindly by Bautas Equipment Rentals to work on the EM fountain. The warehouse is huge, cold and inhabited by several pigeons, but I like it, and the staff at Bautas are extremely friendly and supportive.

Each evening I eat the dinner of the day accompanied by one glass of wine (house red or white, according to the dish on offer) before coming up to my room to plan the next day, and then falling to sleep in a heap. Each day brings with it a new and unexpected hurdle to overcome.

Programming (max/msp) with Trond at BEK

Having been here almost a week to work on the fountain construction at Frank Ralles workshop, I took the train to Bergen to work on the programming of the fountain with Trond Lossius at BEK (Bergen Centre for Electronic Art), who, having invited me to give two presentations of my project earlier, offered to work with me for three days on the matter. One of the main issues was to devise a way to get meaningful data out of location-sensitive, unpredictable sound data that flows from the detectors designed by Martin – and then find a meaningful way to map the results of the data onto the fountain’s mechanisms. We encountered a series of technical malfunctions in relation to the detectors, the origins of which are too complicated to go into here, with many unknown variables/causes. Anyway, I will cut through them and move on to what we ended up doing, but before doing so I would like to mention one thing. Working with the detectors and the analysis of the signals revealed, amongst other things, how bodies moving through electromagnetic fields alter the fields themselves. This is a fascinating (re)discovery that could be picked up on later. Water jets could, for example, follow people around as they moved through the fields picked up by the detectors. There are a lot of potentials to address in the future.

We worked on the most reliable detector, and the one that eventually gave the strongest signals – the VLF sniffer with 2m coil antenna. This one picks up and delivers strong signals of EM fields in its very close proximity and gives delicious sounds. We put a mobile phone directly over the antenna nose to create a continuous input signal. Plugging the audio output from the sniffer into the audio interface (amplifying it) and the mac mini, we analyzed the brightness, loudness and noisiness of the sound signal in various ways, visualizing it and looking/listening for significant changes in the signal. As a new change occurs, the fountain valves adapt a new pattern/sequence. Each sequence resembles a “classic” fountain choreography, but because the rhythm is dependent on the quirky rhythm of the network signals it is all a bit off beat. This is of course all theoretical right now. The fountain is not here physically, and we can only watch what is happening on the screen, but it looks and feels very promising.

Each jet pattern circulates either clockwise or anticlockwise. When the mobile phone receives a call, or a signal from elsewhere produces a dramatic change, then all valve jets of the fountain are programmed to “flash” open and closed. Applying an autoscaler to the data became very interesting in relation to this behavior. As it takes time for max/msp to re-calibrate the signal from memory/buffer it is as if the fountain must recover from a trauma, or an exertion, before moving back to its pulsating mode.The mobile phone also acts as sensor/antenna for other data flows – though it is difficult to say exactly what they are and where they come from. So, in the light of the time scale and demands of getting the EM fountain ready for public exposure, this solution (a mob mounted directly on the antenna nose) has become the basis for the second EMF prototype.

This solution focuses mainly on direct human interaction, but has some environmental influences too. When leaving BEK I had an ambition to utilize at least one other of Martin’s sniffers to get more of the environmental influence in the picture, but after today’s discoveries I am not so confident about this ….

Yesterday – back in Skien

Returning from Bergen on the night train on Wednesday evening, I dumped my stuff at the hotel, was picked up by Atle Barcley (ROM3/ producer) and driven to the warehouse to see the work that had been done during my absence. It looked great but the chamber that holds the electronic gear had been sealed with a bolted panel, rather than a locked door. Having noted this we rushed around finding a table, chair, as well as a drill and bit/chimney with which to open the chamber.

I hooked up my mac to the fountain to assign DMX channels, etc, to the electrical components – valves, lights, pumps – with some success (pumps and central light were connected, great! Only the solenoid valves and 5 jet lights to go. By that time I was cold and tired, but optimistic enough to phone Marius the Electrician to tell him of the success.

Today ……

Today I have sworn like the devil, and cursed every living creature on earth – and then, after a while, repented.

Next morning (today) I meet Marius. We correct the dmx addresses on the rgb light controller for the jet lamps and the solenoid valve switch box. All is working fine, it seems. Excitedly, we start to fill the fountain bowl with water (it has taken a long time to get to this stage) ……

….. and with horror find that two streams of water are flowing out of the hexagon hole in the centre of the fountain base over the floor. After a short period of disbelief and panic, we cut off the electric power and investigate further. There are two open holes that should have been closed in the centre of the bowl. They are for the cables that will run from the 2 rgb lamps that have not yet been delivered, to their power supplies in the electronics chamber of the base. PHEW. However, we also discover that there is water leaking from the tubes connected to the water pump system. DAMNATION.

Marius fixes the plumping. He fills the empty holes with cables.

We fill the bowl with water and try out the pumps. Instead of a 4 m jet flowing out from the central pump, a pathetic 4 cm dribble appears. HELVETES FAEN! (very naughty Norwegian swearing). And even though the switch box is working in accordance with the software signals, the valves do not open or close, neither does the water pump that supplies them seem to be responding. SATANS HELVETES FAEN! (okay, so this means “the devil’s hell devil” – an overkill I agree, but I was very disappointed, and there aren’t that many Norwegian swear words to choose from if you don’t want to get sexist).

After much investigation and telephone calls, Marius the Electrician-and-Plumber-and co-problem solver and I conclude that:

1. The pumps are too weak.

2. The tubes supplying them are to wide and long.

3. The solenoid valves welded into the fountain are not the ones that should have been ordered, requiring 250v instead of 12v power.

(More swearing in English this time, but I’m too ashamed to repeat it.)

I call Atle who arrives as soon as he can.

I am mad at almost everybody, including myself. I calm down and apologize – admitting that everyone on this project is entering new ground and stretching themselves in one way or another. It is a case of learning by doing – and doing it together, over coming differences, ambitions and expectations. Looking at the world today that must be a good thing.

Looking at the problem from different angles, we put the water supply tube directly into the central hole (that feeds water to both the cnetral pump and the pump for the 5 valves) in the middle of the fountain bowl, turn on the water and activate the dmx signal that controls the power supply to the pump. The water jet jumps straight up, high into the air. Lovely! So a 3rd pump that sucks water down to the 2 other pumps would solve the pressure problem.

We make a plan to resolve the problems on Monday.

The rest is to follow ……

EPILOGUE

Last night Søren Jessen, a good friend to my sons, died as a result of cancer and the effects of kemo therapy. I can hear his very distinctive Danish accent clearly, and recount the colourful stories my sons came home with when visiting him in the countryside in the summer holidays. It is very humbling news.

Day 4 at Frank’s place

Fantastic sunny day again. I arrived at the workshop to find the fountain on a fork lift truck, with Marius working on electric cables:

The water jet nozzles and lights are now in place and almost wired up. Some deatials:

L: The top hole is for water control (it rains a lot in Stavanger where the EMF will be standing in November) so any water over this level runs out of the bowl. Simple, but effective.
R: The rgb light fixtures allow them to be adjusted by height, angle and rotation. Lovely!

L: The bottom view of the fountain showing the water tubes running from the pumps/solenoid valve chamber, through the mid hexagon chamber and up through holes to the jet fixtures.
R: I haven’t noticed the parabola logo before.

The fountain is moved back inside Frank’s workshop so that Marius can continue wiring.

I set up a table in the sun to test the sniffers. Though I don’t manage to get through all combinations of detectors and antenna, I do manage the following:

VLF box with large coil antenna: no response!
VLF box with small sensitive coil antenna: lovely, rich sounds, from very deep tones, to textural rushes and wooshes and clear tones when close up to wireless devices.

8318 box – 2-11 GHZ with small board antenna: clear pulsing signals, high tones
8318 box – 2-11 GHZ with large board antenna: clear signals, beats and pulses, lower tones

8318 box – 900 – 300mhz with small board antenna: very loud signals, melodious at times, lots of variation in sounds when the antenna is moved around
8318 box – 900 – 300mhz with medium board antenna: as above, but very raw and tough, heavy rockish and black metalish sounds. Fab sounds when a guy used a mobile phone about 6m away.

Question: How to protect the antennas from the elements and how to make them robust enough to stand outside, in public space for 2 weeks?

So, the wiring is not quite finished, and we’re still waiting for the relay box. Frank still needs to put the doors on the base chambers – and all this really has to be done before we can do a test.

From the sniffer tests I did today, I really have to insist on spending time to decide how to fix the antennas on the fountain. I really need to be able to adjust them, rather than them being fixed in a static position. I am going to push forward to try and get them installed in steel goose neck tubes (or an alternative), so that the public can move them too.

Had hoped to set the LAN box channels today, but it was just not possible. Tommorrow’s another day!

Day 3 at Frank’s place

The lovely weather has broken. It’s damp and dreary here in Skien today. What a pity.

Arrived at Frank’s workshop to find the mechanical installation of the EM Fountain almost complete. The base shown here is now the right way up.

Frank and Atle place the bowl on top of it.

Atle and I go to shop for needed parts, while Frank and Marius continue to work. The sniffers have arrived from Martin in Berlin. Four very sweet and mystical silver boxes, all carefully labeled:

The VLF (very low frequency) sniffer has two alternative coil antennas. One is shown here:

The other 3 sniffers have 2 alternative board antennas:

I go back to my hotel (functions as office/studio) to check them out but find that the power adapters are not included in the package from Martin. The shops are closed, so I’ll have to wait till tomorrow to test them. (Wish I’d noticed this earlier.) One thing that is apparent is that it is going to be a real challenge to find out how, and where to mount these on the fountain, and how to protect them from the elements …….

The electrical installation should be complete (or as least as much as it can be before the dmx switch box arrives), so I hope to start testing everything with Marius tomorrow. Hopefully there’s time to get adapters for the sniffers too.

Day 2 at Frank’s place

This post is more of a memory aid for me to remember what goes where in the fountain base as the bottom plates will shortly be put on. It is also the last chance to take a look at the open base and its design on the inside, and from above. We are still waiting for the sniffers to arrive from Berlin, and the dmx switch box to arrive from England.

Here’s 2 photos of the fountain base at the start of day 2:

The 2 pumps have been bolted in place in their chamber on the top of the base (which is still upside down).

L: Marius threads the electric cables through holes from chamber to chamber.
R: Frank has soldered the metal bars on the bottom of the base in place.

L: The last view of the base construction before the bottom panels are put in place.
R: In the break Frank demonstrates how to get power out of electromagnetically charged water.

L: Hole for the central pump/jet water tube.
R: 5 holes for the 5 solenoid valve/jet water tubes

L: The hole for the electric power supply to the central jet pump.
R: 8 holes for the electric cables that lead from the rgb control boxes to the 8 underwater led lights.

L: Pump cables.
R: Solenoid valve cable holes.

L: Frank installs the water tubes that will carry water from the pumps to the 5 solenoid valves and central nozzle.
C: Water tube/pump fixture.
R: Water tube fitting.

L & R: The first base bottom panel is in place on the bottom of the fountain base, covering the computer/dimmer/rgb controller/ sound interface chamber. Atle Barcley (on the left) writing down the things he has to buy for tomorrow.

L. The chamber for the electrical components with base and lid. The parts are being screwed in place, and electric cabling drawn threw holes from chamber to chamber.
R: The water tubes run from the solenoid valves the central hexagon chamber. They will be drawn out of corresponding holes on the bottom of the fountain bowl and feed the 5 pentagon nozzles.

L: I am a bit distraught when I see Marius has dismantled my LAN box, but I’m sure he has a good reason.
R: At the end of the day Frank’s son, David, arrives to check out his dad’s work.

I think that we will be running a bit behind our schedule. The aim was to get the fountain construction finished by Thursday and transport it to an old warehouse at Klosterøya to test it with water in it. However, the fact that the dmx switch box is still sitting in the care of the customs officers in Oslo has put a damper on things ……. I’m a bit concerned about time running down the drain, but have decided not to panic and to keep relaed and confident about it all ….. hmmmm.