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Portland Winter Light Festvial 2021

Portland Winter Light Festvial 2021

The Portland Winter Light Festival has been growing every year. What started as a very humble collection of eccentric artists has become a ever growing event.

Unfortunately, half of this year’s event occurred during our big snowstorm – the very weekend I was hoping to go out so I missed most of it. Bummer. However a few folks posted some video of this year’s event:

Also, here’s some collected photos from the event over the last few years to enjoy

Links

Belle Epoque

Belle Epoque

Messy Nessy Chick tells us about the Incroyables (men) and their female counterparts the Merveilleuses – a short-lived aristocratic subculture which emerged in Paris during the penultimate stage of the French Revolution, as a sort of counter-revolution. They held hundreds of balls and started fashion trends in clothing and mannerisms that today seem exaggerated and affected.

They scandalized Paris with revealing dresses and tunics modelled after the ancient Greeks and Romans, cut of light or transparent linen and gauze. For a brief period, young aristocrats who survived the Reign of Terror greeted the new regime with a defiant outbreak of luxury and daring decadence through their exaggerated clothing, silly mannerisms and indulgent behavior.

While it didn’t last, I was amazed at some of these outfits and wonder if they couldn’t be highly popular if modernized today…

When all is said and done

When all is said and done

Existential crisis. We all face it at some point in our lives. Did I make an impact? What happens when I die? Did I matter at all? It’s a Wonderful Life is all about one man’s existential crisis. I’m also reminded of the line from movie Blade Runner.

I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.

Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.

I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

Time to die.

Roy Batty – Blade Runer

When we think all the way back to the stone age – one is confronted by so many lives that were lived and never remembered. No matter how much we accomplish, how rich, how powerful we become – no matter what amazing things we do, death and obscurity await us all in a long enough timeline. It is sometimes said that you only exist as long as one person remembers you. Or as long as something you did or created impacts another life. So what happens when that is finally gone? Do I really matter? Does any of it matter?

For me, it’s knowing those even when the world forgets – those moments and our lives are not lost. Even when the last person that knew me dies or the last impact of my work fades – all of it comes with me into eternity.

Because there is always someone that remembers. They were all shared with one who loved me and was with me my whole life. We spend eternity together remembering those moments and witnessing how my actions echo through time – in the glory of perfect joy. For Jesus was with me yesterday, today, and through all eternity – and he loves me more than I can even love myself.

That is where true hope lies.

Pulse – analog animation using glass panes

Pulse – analog animation using glass panes

https://vimeo.com/498493354

This artist was inspired by patterns she saw in Yellowstone’s hot springs. By drawing different patterns on multiple layers of glass and moving lights across and between the planes, she creates a unique animation effect.

Made me wonder if projection mapping could perform the same thing more easily – but this is a really cool analog method.

IMMERSIVE LIGHTFIELD VIDEO WITH A LAYERED MESH REPRESENTATION

IMMERSIVE LIGHTFIELD VIDEO WITH A LAYERED MESH REPRESENTATION

I worked with a little bit of early lightfield photography back in the day. Looks like they’ve expanded and possibly found an interesting VR application. These researchers present a system for capturing, reconstructing, compressing, and rendering high quality immersive light field video. 

Here’s the Siggraph paper and some more examples:
https://augmentedperception.github.io/deepviewvideo/

Katsumi Hayakawa

Katsumi Hayakawa

Japanese artist Katsumi Hayakawa’s explores the impression of architectural density through delicate three-dimensional installations. The intricate sculptures were all hand-crafted piece by piece out of paper and glue, creating an awe-inspiring assemblage of multi-layered urban conditions at different scales.

See more of his work here:

Grocery Trip

Grocery Trip

“Computers are good at lots of tasks – but they’ll never replace creative activities and artists”

May I present Pouff’s grocery shopping video (Grocery Trip). It was created back in 2015 using neural network technology which attempted to identify animal faces in places where they didn’t actually exist.

Incidentally, Mario Klingemann disagrees with the first statement. “Humans are not original,” he says. “We only reinvent, make connections between things we have seen.” While humans can only build on what we have learned and what others have done before us, “machines can create from scratch”

Stainless – slow-motion train stations

Stainless – slow-motion train stations

Amazing.  Adam Magyar takes high-speed video of crowds as his train pulls into stations and then replays them at slow speed – creating a ghostly passage through the terminal. He did this in New York, Berlin, and Tokyo. Having just been in Shinjuku station a month or so ago, this one is my favorite.