Code: Retina, Budapest 23 April

[anna balint]

[invitation for people on Easter tour in EE: come by.]

Joseph Tasnadi
Code: Retina
 
Retina is a generative engine developed in Lingo 
on Macromedia Director 8 platform. It is a package 
of scripts written specially for interactive 
installations based on the relation between (any 
kind of) noise and image (.avi, .mov, .jpg, .psd, 
.tiff, animated gif, text etc). Different scripts 
are conceived to produce various image manipulations 
with interchangeable casts. Unprompted animation 
responds to the noise input, the performer or the 
audience controls the image stream via microphone, 
or inline sound input.  Retina  is an interface 
reacting to noise in the physical environment, but 
it can switch control to sound stored on the computer, 
or information dragged from the Internet. The software 
is able to simultaneously manipulate up to 30 image 
frames, multilayered sound and texts. It can be 
adapted by changing the code to different concepts 
and tasks according to the purpose of the project. 
Retina is performative and reflexive at the same time.  
Two or three computers casting large jpeg sequences 
and Quicktime movie loops render the projected images. 
The channels can be mixed, thus the images can move 
across form one screen to another, while layers can 
overlap.  The moving images are generated by a code 
responding to the level of the sound. According to 
the power of sound the image stream is faster or 
slower combined with an echo-like continous fading 
effect. In case of silence the flow of images stops. 
The software has the capacity to trail and display 
several frames of sequences already played. 
Autopoesis and randomness are also characteristisc 
of Retina: a work, a performance can be presented 
any number of times, but the show would never be 
exactly the same, appearance is always influenced 
by actual sounds. 

Retina can be used in various contexts such as 
multichannel installations, real time video 
manipulation, experimental theatre, interactive 
installation, concerts, and parties.

This time an interactive animation designed for 
a concert of the underground group Colorstars is 
going to be presented on Wednesday, 23 April, 
at 19 h.

Balázs Béla Stúdió
Budapest, Újpesti rkp. 5.
tel.: 340-5551 
bbs at chello.hu