Golan Levin {to my home site}
Real-Time Systems for Fluid Abstract Expression
Still Images Documenting Interactive Drawing Environments

Aesthetics and Computation Group
MIT Media Laboratory
   

The expressive and evocative capacities of abstract form are important complements to those afforded by other visual media such as text and information graphics. My theis work has focused on the design of real-time environments which allow people to create abstract shape, color and sound in ways which are direct, engaging, physical and communicative.

The images below are stills captured from my animated environments while they were being used. Several of these full-screen software pieces have been sonified, and can be used as real-time sound synthesis instruments in addition to visual performance environments. All software is written in C++ and runs in the IRIX and WindowsNT operating systems.

 
Floo (1999) disperses and deflects soft-edged tendrils in response to the user's movements. A simplified form of this program has been implemented in a Floo applet. Floo
640x512 / 280k
Floo
640x512 / 257k
Floo
640x512 / 321k
Floo
640x512 / 227k
 
Flocculus (1999) is a Latinate term for hairball. In this environment, ductile hairs drawn by the user swirl around a shifting, imaginary drain. A modified version of this environment, the Floccugraph, renders photographs in hair. Flocculus
640x512 / 83k
Flocculus
640x512 / 70k
Flocculus
640x512 / 176k
Flocculus
640x512 / 80k
Flocculus
800x512 / 122k

Meshy (1998) is an interactive drawing environment in which the user's strokes scaffold a gauzy mesh of animated elements. Users can gesturally tease and torque the mesh in real-time. A smaller version of this program has been implemented in a Meshy applet.

Meshy
800x600 / 77k
Meshy
800x600 / 136k
Meshy
800x600 / 184k
Meshy
800x512 / 110k
Meshy
800x512 / 78k
Meshy
800x512 / 97k
Directrix (1998) is an interactive drawing environment in which users can quickly generate animated "pseudo-parabolas". These complex curves are the result of an interplay between a set of dynamic and static gestures performed by the user.
Directrix
800x600 / 108k
Directrix
800x600 / 95k
Directrix
800x600 / 75k
Directrix
600x480 / 154k
Aurora (1999) permits the user to create and manipulate a shimmering, nebulous cloud. This glowing formlessness rapidly evolves, dissolves and disperses as it follows and responds to the user's movements.
Aurora
1280x1024 / 74k
Aurora
1280x1024 / 92k
Aurora
1280x1024 / 81k
Aurora
1280x1024 / 88k
Curly (1998) repeats a user's strokes end-over-end, enabling simultaneous specification of a line's shape and quality of movement. Each line repeats according to its own period, producing an ever-changing yet consistent animated texture. Curly
640x480 / 8k
Curly
640x480 / 33k
Curly
640x480 / 93k
 
Escargogolator (1997, created in collaboration with Scott Snibbe at Interval Research Corporation) smoothly exaggerates or diminishes one's strokes according to their local curvatures. The strokes inexorably rewind to their points of origin. Escargogolator
640x512 / 19k
Escargogolator
640x512 / 48k
Escargogolator
640x512 / 35k
Escargogolator
640x512 / 24k