TimeMachine photos on Flickr

Life Cast Projection Test by Fabrice Florin

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My friend Jean Bolte (a.k.a. Dr. Figurine) would like to bring characters to life by projecting videos of human faces onto her ‘life casts’ of David Bowie, Sean Connery and John Cleese.

On a quiet sunday afternoon, we gathered in my studio to experiment with this idea, with the help of our friend Mark Petrakis (a.k.a. Dr. Zboon). For our first test, we used a video of my interview with Jean’s daughter Natalina (a.k.a. Dr. Canard), and projected it onto the David Bowie and Sean Connery life casts, as well as on a plain mannequin head. We also shot original video footage of Mark and projected it on the same life casts, along with some facial expressions.

The results of this first test were very encouraging, as you can see in these photos:

www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/27904764975/in/album-7215766...

… and in this companion video:

vimeo.com/172246909

We would like to apply this projection mapping technique to our Time Machine art project. One idea is to project the faces of historical figures onto these ‘life casts.’ They could be set in a dark box behind of the Time Machine’s porthole. Opening the porthole would reveal an animated face from the past, which would speak to you for a moment, across time and space. We could even add an old phone in front of that box, which would ring when a new historical figure is ready to talk.

If this experiment goes well, we may also feature one of these characters in our Dada Exhibit this fall, as part of the puppet show and Magic Theater project we are working on separately.

Here are some of our observations:

• this technique works well to bring characters to life

• it creates the illusion that you are seeing a real person

• aligning the faces from the videos with the life casts can be tricky

• we may need to hold the actor’s heads to keep them aligned while we shoot

• getting the eyes, nose and mouth to match may require adjusting the video as well

• some interesting expressions come out when the faces are not perfectly aligned

• people can be made to look older or younger, depending which cast you use

• when the face looks straight at the camera, you really feel that it is talking to you

• some facial expressions work really well, like shifting eyes left and right

• some interesting effects can be created by speeding up the footage, as in Max Headroom

In our next experiments, we will play with different ways to align the projected image and the life cast, and make it all work in a small space. We will also face a trade-off between realism and diversity: we could focus on just a single character to perfect the alignment for that figure; or we could aim to project a range of different characters against a more generic life cast where the alignment might be less precise.

I can’t wait for our next experiments with this promising direction.

Fire in the hole!

View more photos of our Time Machine project:

www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157659761749014

Learn more about Pataphysical Studios: pataphysics.us/

Time Machine Design by Fabrice Florin

This year, we are creating a Time Machine at Pataphysical Studios, with a world-class team of of artists, makers, engineers and multimedia innovators.

This interactive art exhibit invites you to travel through time and meet characters from the past, present and future. We hope to intrigue, enchant and engage visitors in a playful experience that combines interactive art, multimedia theater and technology.

These first designs illustrate the experience we are creating. We will invite our guests to go through a short interactive ritual during their visit: walk around the exhibit, step into a magic portal, pick a time to visit, travel to that time, meet its characters and return back to the present.

This is the most complex art project we have ever created together. We are now working in teams to design and build different parts of the Time Machine, making interactive art with lights, sound and motion powered by Arduino and Raspberry Pi -- as well as producing short videos of the different times you will travel to.

We're all excited about our next collective art project and can’t wait to see what it will look like in a year!

View more photos of our work in progress on the Time Machine:

bit.ly/time-machine-photo-album

Watch our 3D fly through video of the Time Machine:

bit.ly/time-machine-video-3d-model-1

Read our design spec for the Time Machine:

bit.ly/time-machine-design-spec

View our design slides for the Time Machine:

bit.ly/time-machine-design-slides

Learn more about Pataphysical Studios:

pataphysics.us/

Lego DeLorean (Anaglyph 3D) by Patrick Swinnea

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sign_01 by Andy Jones

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The Pataphysical Time Machine Awakens by Fabrice Florin

The Pataphysical Time Machine has awakened!

In May 2021, the good doctors at Pataphysical Studios started gathering again in our enchanted art garden, to resume work on our collective art project.

We didn’t waste any time getting the Time Machine up and running again:

• Dr. Fabio brought Dr. Albert Einstein back to life as an illuminated talking head in his Dreamer artwork, along with Greta Thunberg;

• Dr. Geo and David installed a new porthole, whose motorized iris will open and close to reveal these illustrious characters;

• Dr. Rindbrain added a magical spinning hand to our exhibit, while painting new shoes and animals for friends and family;

• Dr. Really set up a sub-anal sound system under our cosmic bench, aptly decorated by Dr. Skidz.

• Dr. Heatshrink put the finishing touches on his illuminated jewelry box;

• Dr. Firebird served us refreshments and prepared to paint her Rosebud panel;

• Dr. Truly came all the way from the far reaches of the North Bay to say hi and hand out lovely patches;

• Many other doctors came to shoot the breeze in the front deck: Drs. Judy, Tout d’Suite and Zboon, to name but a few.

We hope you enjoy these videos and photos of our first time back together in over a year, due to the pandemic. It’s been such a pleasure to reconnect with our old art pals and celebrate the return of the spring together. Let's hope this is only the start of a new Post-Pandemic Age of Enlightenment. Vive la machine à explorer le temps!

View more photos and videos on our Pataphysical Studios album:

www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157623637793277

Learn more about the Pataphysical Time Machine:

pataphysics.us/time-machine/