ECOTONE
I had the pleasure of working with my good friend Cody Samson on this piece for Digital Graffiti’s 2023 light festival. Ecotone is an experimental piece of projection art that delves into the interplay between natural and artificial environments. By utilizing machine learning and cymatics, it augments natural sound waves, highlighting the evolving tensions and synergies between these two realms. The process involves visualizing sound patterns through vibrating sand and water particles, which are then interpreted by a neural GAN system. Satellite imagery of coastal areas, such as Alys Beach, is incorporated to connect the piece with the Digital Graffiti Festival location.
Role: Design, Animation & Music
Client: Digital Graffiti Festival
Created: 2023
LOCATION & MAPPING
Ecotone was mapped on a tower that featured four turrets and a distinctive oval window in the center. We used Madmapper software to warp our imagery to fit the building’s canvas and the visuals were projected on a 20k projector provided by Digital Graffiti. Special thanks to the production team for working with us on the set-up and troubleshooting of the projector pipeline.
PRACTICAL EFFECTS PROCESS
Our visual process began with Cymatics, where we vibrated water and sand on metal plates to generate various patterns. We filmed the results on a Blackmagic 6K camera and a Zeiss 50mm Macro lens. The footage was then color corrected and edited in Davinci Resolve.
DIGITAL PROCESSING
After filming the cymatics, we created a time-remapped edit in Adobe AfterEffects. We then ran that edit through Notch before processing it in Stable Diffusion with satellite imagery of Alys Beach as our style reference. We also created luma-mattes in notch that allowed us to mix the analog footage with the AI visuals throughout the piece. Cody and I wrote a custom musical score based on the tones used to drive the cymatics.
CREDITS
Design, Animation & Music: Peter Clark, Cody Samson
Curator: John Colette
Event Production: Digital Graffiti
Technical Assistance: John Colette, Xuan