Matt Roberts

Invasive Species AR

The latest augmented reality additions to my ongoing Invasive Species project. These AR projects allow you to become invasive species made from discarded plastics found along the Atlantic Coast. These species symbolize our problematic and burgeoning interspecies entanglements with plastics, humans, and nature.

Invasive Species (Plastic Bottles): Wear a bottle as a mask and open your mouth to birth more invasive species, part plastic, and part human. https://www.instagram.com/ar/434009021287905/

Invasive Species (Plastic Bottle Swarm): Open the app and then your mouth to release an invasive species. https://www.instagram.com/ar/857770141635499/

Invasive Species (Bottle Caps): Touch the screen to wear different masks made from images of bottle caps found along the Florida Atlantic Coast. https://www.instagram.com/ar/883813112156460/

Invasive Species (Wrappers): Touch the screen to wear different masks made from images of wrappers found along the Florida Atlantic Coast. https://www.instagram.com/ar/825977341556164/

Breathe the Machine at ELO2020

Breathe the Machine – interspecies morph edition at ELO 2020
A collaborative group composed of a prose writer (Teresa Carmody), new media artist (Matt Roberts), 3-D animator (Dengke Chen), and poet (Terri Witek) enter your personal computers and suggest that in this particularly viral moment, individual breaths + machines may be the closest we get to community touch.

Project Website https://btm19.weebly.com/

Zoom Recording

Breathe the Machine at ELO 2020 from Matt Roberts on Vimeo.

Interspecies video conference

BTM Application

Dazzle Camouflage

Dazzle Camouflage is a mode of camouflage that uses confusion rather than concealment as its method. Developed in the early 20th century, Dazzle Camouflage was often added to naval ships, which were painted to feature perplexing black and white patterns. In these uncertain times with access to immense amounts of information and when terms such as fake news, deep fakes, alternative facts are becoming part of our lexicon, we often find that the true meaning of our inquiries as with all our desires is concealed by confusion.

To participate a user can enter a search word or hashtag to search Twitter. The frequency of the word on Twitter is used to generate black and white patterns. The software will continue to search for the word on twitter and create more complex patterns as the frequency of the word increases.

Wind

Wind is a continuation of my interest in visualization of real-time weather data. This work responds to real-time wind data from the National Weather Service to create a moving abstract image.

Wind Sketches

Some test screen shots from a new piece I am working on that uses real-time wind data to generate new images

Waves Walks

I have a solo show coming up at the Duncan Gallery of Art at Stetson University. The show, entitled Waves Walks, features two bodies of work. A series of works that uses real-time wave buoy data as a means for generating sounds and images and a series of work based on walking. The opening is August 27 6:00-8:00pm and runs until the 28th of October. Below are some in progress installation shots.

The two pieces pictured below use real-time wave height and period data from wave buoys off the coast of Florida. Using custom software the buoy data is translated into low frequency sound waves. The sound waves shake objects such as bowls of water, these objects respond to the sound waves by creating abstract patterns.

I created software that abstracts images I took while swimming in the ocean. Each projection has a design element which changes size according to the current size of the waves off the coast of Florida.

A NEW MOVIE

conner

This application uses mouse movements to create a new edit of Bruce Conner’s “A Movie”(1958). “A New Movie” maps each x/y position of the users screen and assigns each position of the screen to an edit point of “A Movie”. The application watches and records the users mouse movement over a chosen period of time. When enough data has been collected the application will re-edit the original version of ”A Movie”. The user can then view the re-edited version, which keeps the original soundtrack in place but rearranges the visual track according to the users daily mouse movements.
For more information on Bruce Conner and “A Movie”

SOFTWARE

Download Application (Macintosh)

SCREEN SHOTS

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CONNER TIMES TEN

First in a series of applications made in homage to Bruce Conner, “Conner Times Ten” is an application that creates new images using Bruce Conner’s film “Ten Second Film” as its source. Conner’s “Ten Second Film”, which was made for the 1965 New York Film Festival but never shown during the festival because it was believed to be too “risky”, was made from ten film strips each 24 frames long. Using only multiples of 10 and 24 the application “Conner Times Ten” randomly chooses a frame from Conner’s “Ten Second Film” and new images are made from this frame. These new images are never the same or repeated in the same sequence.

Software

Download the application (Macintosh Classic)

Software Screen Shots

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