2007 Harvestworks Residency Application Form

APPLICATION LINKS:
- Work Samples
- Project Description
- Goals for the residency
- My future work
- Equipment Needs
- How does the work sample relate to your proposal?
- Plans for distribution
- CV

Personal Data
Name: Fereshteh Toosi
Address: 195 Garfield Place 4B, Brooklyn, New York 11215
Telephone: 757.350.5791
Email: ftoosi@gmail.com
URL: http://fereshteh.net/harvestworks

Category
web

Work Samples & Descriptions
web site: http://fereshteh.net/projects.html

Project Description:
"Vid-Libs" is a computer-video interface that uses pre-recorded footage from popular film and/or television programs as a catalyst to prompt "voice-over"/dubbing from audience-participants. "Vid-Libs" plays on the notion of media misrepresentions with the term "lib" and refers to extemporaneous processes, as with the popular word game "Mad Libs". After a residency at the Experimental Television Center in Owego, New York earlier this year, I completed a rough draft of the project with an assistant engineer, Farsheed Toosi. However, our knowledge of Max/MSP/Jitter is limited, and I now wish to gain the skills to refine the programming and to complete the piece for use on the web. "Vid-Libs" is an improved version of a proposal I submitted to Harvestworks last year.

In "Vid-Libs", the user is prompted to fill out a simple questionaire by speaking into a microphone to record their answers vocally. Once the user completes the vocal recordings, the words that they have recorded will be inserted to replace bits of dialogue from 2-3 minute excerpts of popular film and/or television programs. The video used for the patch shown below is from an episode of a children's television program: Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley: The Case of the U.S. Navy.

Below is an example of the interface and the kind of questions that will be posed to the participant.
This image is not interactive, it serves just as a visual cue what the finished project might look like:


LINK to download or view sample video clip with audio bits removed (15 MB).
LINK to a text version of the patch shown above for use in Max/MSP/Jitter.

Goals for the residency
The patch detailed above is a rough draft for a web art project that would allow for user interaction. The first set of sample videos will be provided by me, but ideally, future users will be able to upload their own videos and create their own customized "Vid-Libs". The Harvestworks residency would provide me with the resources to work towards this long-range goal.

The code works, but it is inefficient and sloppy. For example, there is a "start/stop" button at the bottom of the interface that was created as a work-around for a bug that we could not otherwise resolve (the fact that the program would not refresh itself with each new user/cycle). The goals for the residency are to refine the coding for the project, and to find a way to make the "Vid-Libs" interface available for users through the internet, even if this requires using an application other than Max/Jitter.

Project to-do list
- Compile a small archive of other video clips which would work well as "Vid-Libs" & edit to remove audio pieces.
- Revise the patch so that the user-recorded audio syncs up more smoothly. Currently, the patch works by indicating the video frame range where the audio will be replaced. However, this is inconsistent, as it seems to be based on processor speed and users are forced to record their contributions in very short chunks of time dictated by the original video's audio track.
- Change the interface so that the "press to record slider" jumps back if user decides to re-record. Currently the user must re-set it and the process is not intuitive.
- Find a way to save each person's answer/response and a forum for user feedback.
- Write a code that allows for automatic reloading (eliminating the "start" button at the bottom).

My future work
My future work will use Max/MSP/Jitter to pursue embodied interactivity through the support of machine-based interactivity. In my work I actively solicit participation from the audience through dialogue and spectacle. In addition to web-based projects, I'm interested in creating performances with live interactive audio and video systems. This project is a viable start, providing me with the experience to build more ambitious projects with this technology.

Equipment needs
- digital video editing suite with Final Cut Pro, Max/MSP/Jitter & mini-DV deck
- capabilities for VHS to mini-dv / digital import of analogue video

How does the work sample relate to your proposal?
My previous projects demonstrate a commitment to audience participation and interaction. As I develop new projects that rely on the audience for much of their content, my goal is to create environments where I and/or the viewer can control the performance and the video that documents our relationship in real-time. Max/MSP/Jitter allows an opportunity to give the visitors to an installation immediate results of their participation, whereas with my previous projects, participants had to wait for my interpretation of the material through the edit of a single-channel video or photos posted to a project website, just to name a few examples.

The most exciting thing for me about using a computer as an audio sampler/synthesizer and/or video processor is not the possibility of having this control of the media, but rather sharing the control through situations that solicit spontaneous responses to audio and video.

My project samples document public intervention and video. I also make sculpture and installation, with performance as the primary connection between the media I use. Called to action by the gravity of current events and their historical context, I play with cultural icons varying from material objects such as genie bottles and magic carpets to political figures like Saddam Hussein and Martha Stewart. Although they inevitably fail to illustrate larger, differential concepts, icons are accessible representations of popular understandings of the world. By seizing the pleasure of mythology and using it proactively, I hope to resist the oversimplification of ideas that such fantasies have come to represent.

Plans for distribution
This project can be distrubuted in a gallery or other physical setting, but ideally it would be distributed with a website that is hosted on a server that would allow video content and interaction from users around the world.