Wednesday 28 November 2012

"Primavera" - Vernissage on 16 Nov 2012

Thank you to all who came down to our Vernissage on 16 Nov 2012. The exhibition is still open until 1 Dec at Immanence (21 Av du Maine) so if you are in Paris please do come down to visit while its there!

Here are some photos from opening night.

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Before the opening: Hafiz, Debbie, Valentine, and Elio!

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We were honoured to receive a visit by the Singapore Ambassador to France, Tan York Chor.

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A few people from National Arts Council in Singapore also flew in specially to support our show!

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Some of our friends also living at the Recollets also came by!

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Elio-ception

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And thanks to George South for helping to take these excellent photos.

"Primavera" - Works by artists at the Dena Foundation Paris Residency 2012-2013

Elio Germani - Postcar (Work-in-progress) (2012)

Elio Germani - Postcar (Work-in-progress) (2012)

Hafiz Osman - Dessiner moi KOTA Paris (2012)

Hafiz Osman - Dessiner moi KOTA Paris (2012)

Debbie Ding - Extracts from A Record of Postdated Memories (2012)

Debbie Ding - Extracts from A Record of Postdated Memories (2012)

Les artistes de la Dena Foundation présentent leurs projets effectués pendant la résidence 2012-2013. Avec le soutien du National Arts Council of Singapour.

Primavera évoque bien sûr le printemps, et aussi les (re)-commencements. Qu’est-ce qu’être un artiste qui recommence ailleurs ? Comment habiter un espace où je ne fais que passer sans tomber dans la standardisation ? Comment intégrer le lieu d’accueil et créer mon propre chemin à l’intérieur d’une forêt de signes étrangers ? Comment manipuler l’iconographie pour sortir de mon propre folklore ? Comment Paris me met en mouvement ? Comment procéder à l’élagage, au transcodage, à la traduction ?

“Exposition dans le cadre de la programmation culturelle hors-les-murs à l’occasion de l’exposition Retour à l’intime, la collection Giuliana et Tommaso Setari à la Maison Rouge (réseau Tram) - 20/10/2012- 13/01/2013”

Thursday 8 November 2012

Geocoding: From Excel to TileMill (Part II)

This continues from the previous post, where the iPhone GPS data has been batch exported to Excel BUT in a weird DMS format rather than the DD format that we need in order to import into TileMill. Unfortunately, there is no magic button or plugin for this, but in the end... it turns out... its not that hard after all. Doh.

D + M/60 + S/3600 = DD
In Excel:
=SUM([@[D-Lat]]+[@[M-Lat]]/60+[@[S-Lat]]/3600)
=SUM([@[D-Lon]]+[@[M-Lon]]/60+[@[S-Lon]]/3600)

Note that iPhone's format may actually be D,M(in decimals) without an S value.

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Degree:Minutes:Seconds GPS values converted to Decimal Degrees!
(See Lat and Lon column. TileMill will understand any of the following column headers: latitude, longitude, lat, long,lon, x, y.)

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Data successfully imported into TileMill Layer!

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Plotted successfully! But what is this? IT IS ALL EMPTY!?????

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Oh so I forgot to add in any shape layers. So next we need an ESRI Shapefile for city of Paris available here here and here from metro.teczno.com and downloads.cloudmade.com respectively, based on OpenStreetMap data. [See also: Adding Layers in TileMill]

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Successful loading of shape layers for buildings and main roads.
Some random slapbang colours here just for testing purposes.

SUCCESS!!!

Now I will finetune it from here...

Geocoding: From the streets to Adobe Bridge and then Excel (Part I)

This is a documentation post for my own record on how I will produce a map of 180 date points that I have collected so far. To be honest I'm not a real programmer or anything like that, so the methods used in this post might be desultory or silly. I'm helplessly flapping about here. I'd be happy to hear of what method others would use! But in the absence of any external assistance........

So the situation thus far is that all the images I have taken have been geotagged by default in iPhone 4, and I want to pull the metadata out into csv (comma separated values) and then bring into something like TileMill where I can produce a proper map of it all.

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Viewing Metadata in Adobe Bridge

But first, the drudgery. I needed to batch export the filenames and gps data from all my images. Unfortunately there was no instant readymade solution for this online that I could immediately find. Like with Illustrator and Flash's automation scripts, what I ended having to do was to write a simple Adobe Bridge script to export all the information...

To find the location for your Bridge scripts, go to Preferences > Click on "Reveal My Startup Scripts" to see the folder in Finder. I found a script on a forum and adapted it slightly (quick and dirty) to include the GPS data. Save it as a .jsx file and drop it into the Startup Scripts folder. Because Bridge is silly, you will have to close and reopen Bridge in order for the script to load - apparently you can't load it on the fly while Bridge is open. With this script, a new menu item will appear under tools: "Export CSV file"

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Export to CSV

For some reason, iPhone's geodata is formatted in degrees:minutes:seconds rather than decimal degrees, and on top of that - confusingly º (degree) is replaced by comma and minutes by full stop, e.g:

48,49.8N 2,22.13E

I wonder why that is so by default. I suppose I understand it but let me tell you if you just plug this into TileMill it wont be read because of the wrong delimiters and I suspect it also requires decimal degrees (DD) instead of degrees-minutes-seconds (DMS). Cue the furious googling of "HOW DOES I CONVERT DMS TO DD?"

Anyway back to the batch exporting of metadata to Excel. The data is saved in different namespaces such as the "exif" and "photoshop" data. EXIF stands for Exchangeable image file format and this is the format for the storage of metadata in files such as images and also audio files. You need to invoke the right namespace to find the right property. For example I realised that the Date Created in both exif and photoshop are different because only files that have been edited within photoshop have got a Date Created stamp (do note the property names also differ slightly in syntax although they may describe similar types of properties).

I eventually figured out which namespace the gps data resided in (EXIF). I don't know why it isn't more straightforward to find a reference for all these things. Anyway since we are on the topic, this is a list of standard Namespaces; from these different namespaces you can search for the properties you are looking for so you can call them up:

IPTC Core: http://iptc.org/std/Iptc4xmpCore/1.0/xmlns/ ("Iptc4xmpCore")
EXIF: http://ns.adobe.com/exif/1.0/ ("exif");
Dublin Core: http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/ ("dc")
TIFF: http://ns.adobe.com/tiff/1.0/ ("tiff")
XMP Basic: http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/ ("xmp")
XMP Media Management: http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/mm/ ("xmpMM")
XMP Rights Management: http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/rights/ ("xmpRights")
XMP Basic Job Ticket: http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/bj/ ("xmpBJ")
XMP Paged-Text: http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/t/pg/ ("xmpTPg")
Photoshop: http://ns.adobe.com/photoshop/1.0/ ("photoshop")
Stock Photo: http://ns.adobe.com/StockPhoto/1.0/ ("bmsp")
Adobe PDF: http://ns.adobe.com/pdf/1.3/ ("pdf")
Camera Raw Settings: http://ns.adobe.com/camera-raw-settings/1.0/ ("crs")
PNG: http://ns.adobe.com/png/1.0/ ("png" )

AND VERY IMPORTANT: Reference list of properties for the above schemas

#target bridge 

if (BridgeTalk.appName == "bridge" ) { 
   var menu = MenuElement.create( "command", "Export CSV File", "at the end of Tools"); 
   menu.onSelect = function(m) { 
   try {
        var tDate = new Date();
        var tDay = parseInt(tDate.getMonth()+1)+'/'+tDate.getDate()+'/'+tDate.getFullYear(); 
      var f = File.saveDialog("Export file list to:", "Comma delimited file:*.CSV"); 
      if ( !f ) { return; } 
      f.open("w"); 
      f.writeln("DateProcessed,FileName,DateCreated,ImageWidth,ImageHeight,Latitude,Latitude2,Longitude,Longitude2,Altitude,ImageDirection"); 
      var items = app.document.visibleThumbnails; 
      for (var i = 0; i < items.length; ++i) { 
         var item = items[i]; 
         f.writeln(tDay,',',item.name,',',ListMetadata(item) ); 
      }; 
      f.close(); 
   } catch(e) {} 
  }; 
}; 

function ListMetadata(tn) { 
   md = tn.metadata;
   md.namespace = "http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/";
   var res = md.CreateDate;  
   md.namespace = "http://ns.adobe.com/tiff/1.0/"; 
   res = res + ',' + md.ImageWidth + ',' + md.ImageLength;
   md.namespace = "http://ns.adobe.com/exif/1.0/"; 
   res = res + ',' + md.GPSLatitude + ',' + md.GPSLongitude + ',' + md.GPSAltitude + ',' + md.GPSImgDirection  ; 
   return res; 
}
Screen Shot 2012-11-08 at 8.08.35 AM.png Data now in Excel
NEXT POST: EXCEL TO TILEMILL

Tuesday 6 November 2012

"Telepathy" / "Pedestrian Racing" (Documentation of Work, Goodman Arts Centre, Sept 2012)

gac floorplan mockup

I just recalled that on the eve of my departure from Singapore I had spent some time scurrying around the Goodman Arts Centre applying some vinyls to the ground in anticipation of this year's Goodman Arts Centre Open House. Although I was not in Singapore at the time to see people's responses or interactions with it, I hope that someone out there actually saw it.

Here are two psychogeographical games presented by the Singapore Psychogeographical Society + Studio Thirteen at the GAC Open House 2012 - "Telepathy" and "Pedestrian Racing" - located at the 3rd, 4rd, and 5th floors of Block B, based on the fact that the upper floors of Block B offer a kind of panopticonic view of the entire compound and everyone walking in...:

Telepathy

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Pedestrian Racing

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Installation

If attempting the foolhardy task of applying many vinyl text to the ground by oneself, do check at the printer if they have missed out any dots or the letter i. Next, clean the ground with a rag rather than pouring a bucket onto it or it will TAKE HOURS TO DRY. These were things I wish I knew before I had to cut out my own dots for letters, and before I gaily tossed a bucket of water on the ground and had to wait a few hours for it to dry - hours which I could scarcely afford on what was literally the eve of my departure. In the end, I ran out of time and part of the installation had to be completed with the help of Kent Chan! Thanks so much Kent!

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Monday 5 November 2012

Postdated Paris (Work-in-progress) / "Primavera", Immanence, 16 Nov 2012

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I am currently working on a project to document all the dates that I find on roads in Paris, and to match them with a story.

It began with the image of 05/09/12 that I found on the 05/09/12 itself while walking to the Louvre. I arrived in Paris on 03/09/12 and it was the third day that I was in Paris, and there was a new pavement being made. It was perfectly black and shiny and the heat was still coming off it. It looked like a sign, like it had just appeared so that I could find it!

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Subsequently, for the last two months I have been walking around in Paris on foot collecting dates and also asking people if they can remember what they were doing on one of these dates. I ask people to write me a description of the day as if they were writing me a postcard from that date. The dates were assigned at random from the pool of dates that I have collected. The most magical part is probably seeing people's reaction to being asked to recall a date very far back in their past. As of today, 5 November 2012, I have collected and processed 201 unique dates and 79 stories.

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Random sample of road dates in Paris

I find that the spaces in cities are experienced in trajectories rather than in zones and their boundaries. I have been walking a certain path from the Gare de l’Est to the Porte Saint Martin, and then to the Boulevard de Sebastopol until I reach the River Seine, and into the Ile-de-France, and then onwards to the Latin Quarter. Sometimes I take the 38 bus up and down. I have repeated this so many times that the entire path has become familiar. After becoming familiar with that path, I started exploring other paths. Along the way, one frequently encounters dates on the pavement, like chronological monuments physically etched into the city, embedding the markers of time and dates into the fabric of the city. All the photos I take are geotagged so that later, I can map out the positions of these dates, forming the outline of my trajectory through Paris. By looking at the markers on the map, I can recall what I was doing on that particular day.

A friend who was a writer told me that he “stored” his memories in the books that he was writing, because by doing so he would not have to carry them with him all the time; he reasoned that if their stories were written into his books, then he could always go to the shelves of someone else who might have a copy of his book, and he would always be able to find them back.

I wonder if more stories can be stored inside these dates in the streets. For me, the geotagged pictures of dates on the roads are the markers of my own trajectory and journey as I travel through the streets of Paris. I wonder about the trajectories and the journeys of others. By fitting stories to dates in the roads in Paris, I want to make monuments of these dates that have been marked into the roads. Mundane, serious, vague, or foggy, I collect them all. The journey is a process, and the process is in the journey.

I am working towards a presentation of this work in a group exhibition on 16/11/12 at Immanence, at 21 Avenue du Maine. If you are in Paris, please come to see the show!

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Les artistes de la Dena Foundation présentent leurs projets effectués pendant la résidence 2012-2013. Avec le soutien du National Arts Council of Singapour.

Primavera évoque bien sûr le printemps, et aussi les (re)-commencements. Qu’est-ce qu’être un artiste qui recommence ailleurs ? Comment habiter un espace où je ne fais que passer sans tomber dans la standardisation ? Comment intégrer le lieu d’accueil et créer mon propre chemin à l’intérieur d’une forêt de signes étrangers ? Comment manipuler l’iconographie pour sortir de mon propre folklore ? Comment Paris me met en mouvement ? Comment procéder à l’élagage, au transcodage, à la traduction ?

Exposition dans le cadre de la programmation culturelle hors-les-murs à l’occasion de l’exposition La collection Giuliana et Tommaso Setari, retour à l’intime. à la Maison Rouge (réseau Tram) - 20/10/2012- 13/01/2013

The artists of the Dena Foundation 2012-2013 Residency Program present their ongoing projects.
With the support of the National Arts Council of Singapour
Curator : Valentine Meyer
Artists : Santo Alessandro Badolato (Italie), Debbie Ding (Singapour), Matteo Fato (Italie), Elio Germani (Italie), Hafiz B Osman (Singapour)


Immanence
Du 16 novembre au 1 décembre 2012
vernissage le 16 novembre 2012 à partir de 18h
21 Avenue du Maine / fond de cour
75015 Paris