mrghosty

prostheticknowledge: Circuit Bending The SEGA Saturn Many of...

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:52:56 -0400

Circuit Bending The SEGA Saturn

Many of those interested in glitch aesthetics are familiar with the act of circuit bending - while running an electronic device (such as an old games console), apply contact to the circuitry to affect the data output (which could be audio or visual).

This has usually been experimented with old 8-bit / 16-bit gaming consoles such as the NES and the Sega Megadrive / Genesis, but up to this point it is hard to think of an example with the following generations of gaming hardware which were designed for 3D graphics. Due to the limitations of the earlier machines, the output was with 2D graphics and unsophisticated sound.

Big Pauper (Panzah Zandahz) of circuitbentvideo.com found an old SEGA Saturn, one of the first consoles to specialize in 3D gaming and sophisticated audio. With this, he started experimenting and documented the results:

Had no plans of getting in to the gaming mods. I figured it was a pretty well charted and explored field. It wasn’t until I found my beloved model one Sega Saturn in grannie’s attic that I thought, “my old friend, i wonder what secrets you keep.” A little internet research (not the end all be all, I know) led me to realize that there isn’t much next generation gaming bends being explored out there. If there is then people aren’t posting it. Even the Playstation, seen in Goodwill stacks the world over, seems to have eluded the recent wave of electronic curiosity.

Upon opening the Saturn I found out why. It’s a very complex machine with very tiny components. One would need tweezers and a microscope to get anywhere with this thing (sound familiar? hehe). That’s the problem with modern circuitry, it’s all so goddamn mini. Mini, yes, but I would argue that it’s mythic there has been an increase in stability. Electronics that generate graphics will freak the f**k out if you hit ‘em just right regardless of whether they are from 2011 or 1991.

There are some great audio and video examples - here is my favourite, a glitchy Virtua Fighters example with crazy Ganz Graf-like reactive and unpredicatble polygons:

Also, here is another which is like a crazy polygon collage:

There is more to examine - you can find out more about this little project at the circuitbentvideo website here.

prostheticknowledge: Drawing With Computers The Artist’s Guide...

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:26:31 -0400

prostheticknowledge:

Drawing With Computers

The Artist’s Guide To Computer Graphics

1985 book by Mark Wilson scanned + PDF freely available from the author, with interesting examples of computer graphic history.

You can download it here

text-mode: BYTE Videotex (1983)

Mon, 20 May 2013 08:38:19 -0400

text-mode:

BYTE Videotex (1983)

robmeyer: Players are Artists Too An absolutely incredible talk...

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:47:34 -0400

robmeyer:

Players are Artists Too

An absolutely incredible talk by Henry Lowood, curator for the history of science and technology collections and film and media collections at Stanford University, at the Art History of Games Symposium on February 5, 2010.

This talk is basically what I’m all about.

GreyScreen: GreyScreen Artist Residency

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:14:52 -0400

GreyScreen: GreyScreen Artist Residency:

greyscreen:

I’ve been keeping this news largely under wraps for the last while, but now that the big day is nearing, I’d like to tell everyone about it. If you click on the picture above, you’ll be able to get a little more infor on the project. I’ll be doing a series of rom-hacks for the NES as visual…

laughingsquid: Ghosts in the Machine, Photos of Figurines in...

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:55:18 -0400

laughingsquid:

Ghosts in the Machine, Photos of Figurines in Landscapes of Old Electronic Components

laughingsquid: Artist Builds Detailed Miniature Interiors...

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:55:09 -0400

laughingsquid:

Artist Builds Detailed Miniature Interiors Inside Old TVs

prostheticknowledge: manwitha.mov My submission for the ‘Run...

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:53:00 -0400

prostheticknowledge:

manwitha.mov

My submission for the ‘Run Computer Run’ AR show exhibition ‘Economics + The Immaterial’: avant-guard film classic ‘Man With A Movie Camera’ meets 8-Bit aesthetics of computers which had an impact in Russia.

Apologies for gratuitous self-promotion - video and synopsis below:

manwitha.mov from Rich Oglesby on Vimeo.

Created for the ‘Economics + The Immaterial’ exhibition, part of the ‘Run Computer Run’ show at the Rua Red Gallery from May 25 to 13 July.
runcomputerrun.com/?page_id=8313

A visual experiment of curiosity and theoretical connections, of culture and technology (in particular, Russia), information transference and reproduction through media, analogue and digital.

The project aims to be a combination of two Russian cultural artifacts, a visualization of the results. First, “Man With A Movie Camera”, an avant-guard film directed by Dziga Vertov, demonstrated the creative use of filming, employing techniques developed and practiced for years by the director. In the context of this piece, the original film could be considered a “demoscene production”, exploring and pushing the creative possibilities of a technology. Second, the growth of ZX Spectrum clones in Russia during the 1980′s, in which colour and cheap digital computing grew from reverse-engineering and redevelopment. The availability of these various computer clones evolved a homebrew creative scene around the former Soviet bloc. There is still a strong creative demoscene around these machines in Russia today.

The whole of the ‘Man With A Movie Camera’ film has been converted into a representational format within the ZX Spectrum graphics protocol, reduced to 256 by 192 pixels, with each 8 by 8 pixel area represented by just two colours available from the system. The original file was downloaded from the internet (in .mov format) – it is worth bearing in mind that this file of information itself has travelled to and from various technological formats itself: without even taking into consideration the editing and filming or the original film, the information has been transferred to video tape, then a digital video file, and then on a video hosting site, each stage which has it’s own technical protocols which would effect the fidelity of visual representation.
The film has been converted to ZX Spectrum visual protocol manually on a shot by shot basis to produce the best representation of the film as much as possible.

Photo

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:49:29 -0400

Team Vector: Call for Submissions for the Vector Annual!

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:48:23 -0400

Team Vector: Call for Submissions for the Vector Annual!:

teamvector:

Open Call: Written Works for Vector Annual
Deadline: September 1, 2013

In February of 2013, Team Vector launched the inaugual Vector Game + Art Convergence, a four day Game Art Festival and Symposium centred around digital games as tools and inspiration for contemporary art making….

hydao: Game Boy (Japanese box, 1989)

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:44:27 -0400

hydao:

Game Boy (Japanese box, 1989)

rhizomedotorg: Featured work from the Rhizome Artbase: Data...

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:17:49 -0400

rhizomedotorg:

Featured work from the Rhizome Artbase: Data Diaries, Cory Archangel (2002)

Every so often an artist makes a work of art by doing almost nothing. No hours of torturous labor, no deep emotional expression, just a simple discovery and out it pops. What did Cory Arcangel do in this piece? Next to nothing. The computer did the work, and he just gave it a form. His discovery was this: take a huge data file—in this case his computer’s memory file—and fool Quicktime into thinking it’s a video file. Then press play. Your computer’s memory is now video art. Quicktime plays right through, not knowing that the squiggles and shards on the screen are actually the bits and bytes of the computer’s own brain. The data was always right in front of your nose. Now you can watch it.

In college Cory used to slip into the public computer clusters, saddle up to a machine and pull what’s called a “core dump.” …

Ghosts in the Arcade: the Legend of POLYBIUS.

Fri, 03 May 2013 19:46:38 -0400

theghostarcade:

I’ve been doing a fair bit of research of newer stories or stories from the edges of gaming culture that.. Some of them rediculous; some of them down right creepy.But I’ve also beeningI thinking about some of the more enduring myths, of games whose existence has never truly been confirmed. I think about these stories as gaming culture’s bloody mary or the munchkin hanging himself in the background of a scene in the Wizard of Oz. Stories that stand the test of time, and some of these, we likely could never truly investigate their origins. I’m thinking of one in particular, one which is probably gaming cultures oldest creepy legend.. and that is the story of a game named after an Ancient Greek Historian. It is a tale of madness and government conspiracy, with a storied history of hoaxes and false claims, and yet it endures. Friends, I give you .. the story of ..

Read More

thenerdwonder: lol

Wed, 01 May 2013 21:55:30 -0400

thenerdwonder:

lol

paintedpixels: Oh, I love “A Diancsaur’s Story”! :P

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:05:44 -0400

paintedpixels:

Oh, I love “A Diancsaur’s Story”! :P

punkarcade: Does everyone know freeindiegam.es? You should, and...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:53:22 -0400

punkarcade:

Does everyone know freeindiegam.es? You should, and now you do. Curated by indie/diy gamers Increpare, Terry Cavanagh, Noyb, Porpentine and Aquine (yes, only Terry is using his real name. And check all these links for more amazing games!), they post new free downloadable and/or online-playable free games. Check it early and often.

Martian Middle School Dance is by Benedict Fritz, and I’m looking forward to playing more of his games.

I actually thought it was by Jake Elliott, 1/2 of Cardboard Computer, who are responsible for the gorgeously fun-to-play Kentucky Route Zero that I’ve written about before that combines adventure, visual exploration, poetic prose, with a choose-your-own adventure style. I notice similarities that this game uses simple text dialogue and lets you choose a text answer to proceed in the game, letting you make minimal poetic choices that affect your place in the game. Ultimately, it’s an adventure as an alien trying to navigate a middle school dance, and ultimately, isn’t that all life really is? Play it! The game was created in Unity.-LT

post-nerdism: A perspective on computers from the 90’s. Watch...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:51:59 -0400

post-nerdism:

A perspective on computers from the 90’s. Watch it and feel superior.

gamefreaksnz: Shadow of the Colossus (1991) Consider this...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:07:05 -0400

gamefreaksnz:

Shadow of the Colossus (1991)

Consider this project a practice in game design.

The idea is rather straight forward… How would a newer generation game play, look and feel like if it were originally released during a different gaming era? In this case, I chose to represent the original Game Boy (early 90’s) coupled with Team ICO’s Shadow of the Colossus (2005). The interesting four colored palette and tight resolution of the GB created some fun boundaries to work within. As far as the game design aspect is concerned, playing with these kinds of projects results in a problem solving practice (and for me, a graphical challenge as well) in relation to the translation process between an almost alien generational gap.

nintendroid: Fake video game “secrets”. My personal favorite...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:01:38 -0400

nintendroid:

Fake video game “secrets”. My personal favorite was always the kids who told you if you beat Smash Bros 64 twice on very hard, you could play as Master Hand. Oh, youth.

Share your own?

notendo: Having the opportunity to 3D print naturally led to an...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:54:38 -0400

photo by John de Cristofano

Hex edited .stl "Seeing Buddha" 3D model

Slicing the .stl file for printing

Printing

Printing

Vector punk Buddha

notendo:

Having the opportunity to 3D print naturally led to an experiment with databending or, using a hex editor to manipulate a .stl file, the standard 3D modeling format used for 3D printing.

This is not easy as the nature of databending is a somewhat messy one. Retaining the results of 3D file “glitching” is quite easy if one remains within the domain of the authoring tools (Unity, meshlab, etc). Printing it, however is an entirely different endeavor.

Assuring a 3D model that is manifold (printable) after subjecting it to databending techniques requires certain extra measures. The extrusions on the printed file are the result of printing the spike-like formations my databending of the “Seeing Buddha” model produced.

I’m quite happy with the results as this is the first go at printing a .stl file that has been subjected to heavy, pseudo-random hex editing. This is a first in what will hopefully be many 3D printed “glitched” images.

Many thanks to Matthew Griffin for his help in making this a reality, John de Cristofaro for photographing the final result and, Gautama Buddha for enlightenment.