THE LAB
rumtiden is a laboratory for new ideas. it's built by uniform elements, like lego, with modules that can be changed and re-built for different functions. rumtiden creates new experiments almost every day. some are successful but some are complete failures. below are some of the labs that hasn't yet resulted in a finished project.
THE GALLERY
rumtiden micro gallery is a free, small gallery for exploratory interactive art, facing the street at åsögatan 122 stockholm sweden. as the idea lab is not a public space, rumtiden regularly present projects at the gallery, to observe and evaluate how citizens passing by interact with the art.
LAB #001
teaching ai to recognise objects in a street environment, controlling music with their position, movement and characteristics. the aim to extract musical content from any urban environment. The video is analysed by an algorithm called yolo, based on a library that has been trained on thousands of images. developed by kasper nilsson.
LAB #002
one of the ideas that rumtiden repeatedly explore is "not yet unknown art forms" where we try to imagine if there could be artistic ways of expressions that are not yet invented. and if ay of these can be somewhat meaningful and bring new artistic ideas to the world. sing-draw by max björverud is such an idea. the art of singing and the art of drawing were probably the first ones invented by humans. what if they could be merged into a new, yet unknown form of art. in order to draw you have to sing - and the other way around. the strength of the voice control the thickness of the brush and the pitch control the color.
LAB #003
we are used to interact with musical instruments that relate to the size of our own body. especially electronic musical instrument tend to get smaller and smaller so that they can easily be carried and easier to transport. but what happens if we make music controllers really big? we built 3 controller of 8 m3 each, total 24 m3, like a small flat. but they are inflatable and very light. with built in gyros they control musical loops and a graphic interface for better music control. the instruments become really big and the humans really small. by per-olof jernberg and håkan lidbo.
LAB #004
musical instruments can be many things but can they be dangerous? this is a theremin synthesizer where you control the pitch of the tone with the distance between the built in antenna and your hand. but the antenna is hidden between the cactuses and in order to reach the highest pitch, you might sting yourself. the synth needs water every 3-4 weeks.
LAB #005
a camera tracks hundreds of spinning ping pong balls, forced into motion by 6 fans. . generating sound and primitive visuals. music is an expression of gravit. so maybe building a machine where the gravitational parameters can be translated into music and manipulated by the performer, might be an interesting tool for future musical creation..
LAB #006
adding pre-recorded music to the church bells in the city, composed in synch with the ringing of the bells. as augmented urband sounds or cultural heritage remix.
LAB #007
in this installation, pixels in motion are invisible - but if you stand still your portrait will slowly appear. pixel by pixel.
LAB #008
6 different spieces of monkeys (and some others) were given different synthesizers. hjumans is the only species on earth that actually compose music. birds and some mammals can make beautiful sounds, but primarily to scare others away -- or to get laid. the project explores if other primates have musical skill. conclusion: they don't.
LAB #009
Lost Bots is a group of 25 not very smart robots. They can only drive forward so they depend on people to help them to steer in the right direction. Each robot is carrying a sign saying" Help, we're lost, please help us find our way". The experiment wanted to find out if robots could complete a task depending on the goodness of humans. 24 of 25 robots reached their destination.
LAB #010
3 robots in an argument about ... well.. what are they talking about? randomly generated phrases create intricate patterns of confusion.