"Also present, is the sometimes overriding, delight-in-the-process of
_acquiring_ the data. I've often had the distinct impression that I
was reading/retaining information as I was photo-copying or scanning,
or downloading files – particularly the earlier interlaced gifs.
Their apprehension conceptually blends with their comprehension."
- brad brace ( http://www.aec.at/fleshfactor/arch/msg00127.html )
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PRECEDENCE
net artists have historically exploited the peculiar limitations of
the net's formal protocols to their own conceptual ends.
Alexei Shulgin used html forms to critique formalism:
http://www.c3.hu/collection/form/
Eryk Salvaggio used ascii art to commemorate 9/11:
http://anatomyofhope.net/wtc/2/
cf:
http://www.ljudmila.org/~vuk/ascii/
http://turbulence.org/spotlight/ASCII_BUSH/
MTAA used the lossiness of jpeg compression (actually, they used
vector animation software simulating the lossiness of jpeg
compression) as an analogy for the lossiness of the mediated self:
http://www.mteww.com/five_small_videos/sliding_compression/index.html
But nobody's used progessively loading web images to make a
conceptual statement… yet.
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TECHNOLOGY
Back when everybody was on a dialup modem, nobody wanted to wait for
your fat image file to load into their browser page, so you could
solve this problem in several ways:
1. create a thin, quick-loading low source version of your fat,
hi-res image and code it (via the "lowsrc" attribute of the "img"
tag) to load prior to your fat image. This gave viewers an
approximation to look at while your intended image was loading.
2. create a progressive jpeg, which initially loads blurry, and then
gets progressively crisper in waves, giving your viewer a blurry
image that gradually comes into focus.
3. create an interlacede gif that gradually gains resolution as it
loads, but without the characteristic jpeg lossiness (since gifs are
a lossless compression format).
All these hacks are moot now for anyone surfing via a high speed
connection. The high speed surfer simply sees your high resolution
image loaded immediately, since there is no wait time, and hence no
reason for the her browser to load your image gradually.
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CONCEPT
All sorts of things in the world appear one way upon first
examination, and then on closer examination, our perception of them
changes. There is often an even more dramatic difference when the
first examination is mediated and the closer examination is in real
life. It's not too tricky to see the conceptual correlation between
this aspect of real world apprehension/comprehension and the
"LOWSRC-progressive jpg-interlaced gif" technology.
++++++++++
INSTRUCTIONS
First, choose some before and after images that resemble each other visually.
Since the 21st century conceptual media artists is obliged to be
cynical and depressed, the before image will probably be hopeful and
the after image will probably be gloomy. The challenge is, there has
to be some sort of visual correlation between the initial low res
image and the final high res image.
For example, you could start off with a low res image of a happy
poodle, and then as it gradually loads it could reveal a high res
image of an abu ghraib prisoner on a dog leash. You get the idea.
You may have to tweak the images a bit in photoshop to get them to
align with each other in size and shape so that the transition
between one and the other is seamless rather than abrupt. It should
look like the same image gradually coming into focus. Remember, the
concept has to do with the viewer's gradual perception, so the art is
in the process of the reveal.
Since the actual "LOWSRC / progressive jpeg / interlaced gif"
technology is invisible on all the slowest connections, you'll have
to simulate it. Make your progressively loading "image" an animated
gif, that way your can force it to load gradually at a speed of your
choosing. You can simulate either the LOWSRC effect, the progessive
jpg effect, the interlaced gif effect, or a cobination of all three.
Emulate whichever technology is most visaully appropriate to the
subject matter of each particular animation. Here is one example of
the tech:
http://playdamage.org/42.html (That particular piece is merely the
same image fading in and out. Your piece will, of course, have a
happy low res image fading into its ironic high res doppleganger.)
Make a series of these gradually loading images (actually
animations), and give each animation a provocative, double entendre
title which will serve as the animation's caption. The caption will
appear on the page below the animation before the animation fully
"loads," serving as a king of teaser. For example, with the
dog/prisoner animation, the title could be "The Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals." The more smarmy and irreverent,
the darker the import when the final hi-res image is revealed!
The effect should be like in the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney World
when you're in that room with the portraits, and then the room
stretches to reveal a malevolent and heretofore hidden portion of the
portraits (
http://www.doombuggies.com/media/wallpaper/dynamite_800.jpg ). Or
like the Edward Gorey animated introduction to Mystery on PBS (cf:
http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.04/5.04pages/lambgorey.php3 ).
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MARKETING
retro low res emulation is modish (pun intended).
cf:
http://www.mnartists.org/work.do?pageIndex=1&rid550
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/play.html?pg=5
http://www.beigerecords.com/cory/Exhibitions/
http://www.lust.nl/lust/mtv/
With that in mind, you should really play up the "progressive jpeg
emulation" angle in your press copy (aka artist statment/grant
proposal). Otherwise, the piece risks being misconstrued as a series
of horribly crude transformer animatics with cheeky captions.
Fortunately, angsty irony is always en vogue, so you should have no
problem pimping it to your desired art cartel.
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PEDAGOGY [an aside]
The next time I teach my net art class ( http://lab404.com/373 ),
I'll probably make this concept an assignment.
I currently have my students make a collaborative quilt:
http://mmas.unca.edu/~cloninger/373/2005s/quilt/
And a collaborative alphabet (a la piotr szyhalski):
http://mmas.unca.edu/~cloninger/373/2005s/abc/index.html
So this assignment will be like a combination of the two.
Steal this concept before I teach it, and I'll be obliged to allude
to your work in my syllabus. Your work will then have had a marked
influence on my pedagogical methods!
++++++++++
Happy implementin'!
curt
steal this cocept: LOWSRC -- progressive interlacing
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Type: discussion
