"I love Kyle McDonald"

2022-05-14 13:09:56

Kyle McDonald @kcimc [email protected] Biography Kyle McDonald is an artist working with code. He crafts interactive installations, sneaky interventions, playful websites, workshops, and toolkits for other artists working with code. Exploring possibilities of new technologies: to understand how they affect society, to misuse them, and build alternative futures; aiming to share a laugh, spark curiosity, create confusion, and share spaces with magical vibes. Working with machine learning, computer vision, social and surveillance tech spanning commercial and arts spaces. Previously adjunct professor at NYU's ITP, member of F.A.T. Lab, community manager for openFrameworks, and artist in residence at STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at CMU, and YCAM in Japan. Work commissioned and shown around the world, including: the V&A, NTT ICC, Ars Electronica, Sonar, Todays Art, and Eyebeam. Selected Work Ethereum Emissions 2021 A bottom-up estimate of the energy use and emissions of the Ethereum blockchain. Experiments in cultural intervention in the form of a technical research articles and realtime dashboards. What are the affordances and limitations of research alone? A response to a year of hand-wringing and mud-slinging in the digital arts, asking: how bad is it, really? site code podcast interview Siren 2021 with Annie Lewandowski Audiovisual installation exploring the songs of three humpback whales, recorded by Annie Lewandowski and pioneering bioacoustician Katy Payne. Lighting design backed by ML as an aid for deeper listening. Projected on derelict fishing gear, recovered from areas where they represent the primary threat to cetaceans. video at invisible dog video at martha's vineyard video at cornell photos Facework 2020 Game that imagines a world where face analysis is key to the latest gig economy app. As a Faceworker, the player is given an opportunity to interrogate in realtime how computer vision and machine learning tools work — to playfully grow an intuition for what it means to see like a machine, and to understand how machines can fail. Created with support from Mozilla Foundation. site code writeup review by mark wilson Vibe Check 2020 with Lauren McCarthy Appropriates common surveillance tools including face recognition and expression analysis to catalog the emotional effect exhibition visitors have on one another. Some are identified as evoking expressions of happiness, disgust, sadness, surprise, or boredom. Upon entering the exhibition, visitors are playfully alerted to who these people are, and as they leave, they may find they've earned this distinction themselves. code documentation nvidia-co2 2020 Command-line tool for showing real time gCO2eq emissions estimates in various formats (equivalent sea ice lost per hour, grams of beef consumed, number of light bulbs, etc) combining CPU and GPU usage. A tool for researchers and hobbyists, playfully intervening at the site of one of the most commonly used debugging/monitoring tools used for machine learning. code Pattern Radio 2019 with Google Creative Lab Working with a decade of underwater recordings collected by NOAA to visualize humpback whale songs. Techniques from computer vision, signal processing, machine learning, all converge to push the creative potential of machine-aided listening of contemporary performers in a 11 million year old cultural practice. site frontend code analysis code writeup discrete figures 2018 with Rhizomatiks Internationally touring dance performance. Exploring the relationships between the performing arts and mathematics, giving rise to mathematical entities that engage with the bodies of human dancers onstage. Collecting a custom dance dataset and training a new network for generation of abstract dance-like movement. site video writeup code ICEspy 2018 Concerned you may know an ICE employee? Use this helpful app to check. Just point your camera and press the photo button. We'll check against hundreds of ICE employee photos from LinkedIn and show you the closest match. A direct subversion of face recognition technology to watch those who wield power without responsibility. site video NSynth Super 2018 with Magenta Synthesizer for exploring neural interpolations of sonic textures. Four knobs for controlling "reference" sounds and a touchscreen for blending between them using the NSynth algorithm. Contributed to conceptual and interaction design, and wrote the synthesis engine and initial user interface. site code making of video demo video Man and Woman In The Middle 2017 with Lauren McCarthy We each wrote scripts to intercept and modify or reply to text messages from each other, in the hope of syncing our different communication styles and developing a better relationship and conversation. info photos How We Act Together 2016 with Lauren McCarthy Prompts you to perform small gestures of social interaction repeatedly until exhausted. Your action triggers a video stream of all the previous participants performing the same action back at you. If you perform longer than anyone before you, your own gesture gets added at the end of the stream. site review by joanne mcneil review by paolo ruffino Bird Sounds 2016 with Google Creative Lab Thousands of bird sounds, organized using machine learning. Similar bird sounds are placed close together, producing a sonic map that produces unexpected connections between different species. intro project video The Infinite Drum Machine 2016 with Google Creative Lab Thousands of everyday sounds, organized using machine learning. Experimenting with alternative interfaces for exploring sound libraries and serendipitous opportunities for musical improvisation and composition. intro project video Terrapattern 2016 with Golan Levin, David Newbury, et al Similar-image search for satellite photos. An open-source tool for discovering "patterns of interest" in unlabeled satellite imagery—a prototype for exploring the unmapped, and the unmappable. Click an interesting spot on Terrapattern's map, and it will find other locations that look similar. site talk new yorker pop sci Highsight 2015 A virtual bungee jump through a real space. Visitors are strapped into a harness and a VR headset showing a live stream from a camera on a wire. The camera meanders through a playful diorama before dropping through the bottom of the box and into the crowd. video code photos Exhausting a Crowd 2015 A crowdsourced description of 12 hours in Piccadilly Circus, London, inspired by the classic 60-page piece of experimental literature from Georges Perec, “An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris”, written from a bench over three days in 1974. website code on hyperallergic on citylab on creators project pplkpr 2014-2015 with Lauren McCarthy An app that tracks, analyzes, and auto-manages your relationships. It uses GPS and subtle changes in heart rhythm to keep track of when you're coming and going and determine your emotional state. The data is connected to people you interact with to determine who should be auto-scheduled into or out of your life. on hyperallergic on edgadget on techcrunch on can on animal on wired on fastco on independent on forture on cnbc Augmented Hand Series 2014-2015 with Golan Levin and Chris Sugrue Real-time interactive software system that presents playful, dreamlike, and uncanny transformations of its visitors' hands. It consists of a box into which the visitor inserts their hand, and a screen which displays their "reimagined" hand—for example, with an extra finger, or with fingers that move autonomously. documentation code video on can on wired Sharing Faces 2013-2014 For eight months we shared photos between Anyang, Korea and Yamaguchi, Japan. Visiting the installation at either location would match your expression and pose in realtime with these photos of someone else who once stood in front of the installation. Thousands of people visited the work, and saw themselves reflected in the face of another person. video on apap code on can on verge on wired on psfk Serendipity 2014 A map showing ephemeral connections created by simultaneous listens: every second a few people hit "play" on the same song, at the same time. Developed during inaugural media artist residency at Spotify. website on gizmodo on engadget on the verge on quartz Who Pays Artists? 2014 A sounding board for artists to anonymously share stories about what they've been paid for, and by whom. An intervention and conversation starter in the ongoing dialog about money in the context of the arts. website code on animalny on artnet Social Soul 2014 with Lauren McCarthy An immersive digital experience inspired by the question: how does it feel to be inside someone else's social media stream? Starts with the stream of the person visiting, then uses a custom algorithm to match participants, displaying their social stream instead. After exiting, users and their connected "soulmate" receive a tweet encouraging offline conversation. video photos code on gizmodo on psfk Noodle 2014 with Lauren McCarthy A crowdsourced robot with the inputs and outputs of a computer but the thoughts and feelings of a person. Noodle uses a natural language interface to program mechanical turk workers, providing them with a body for influencing the real world. instructable code Conversnitch 2013-2014 with Brian House An eavesdropping lamp/lightbulb that livetweets conversations, using a small microphone with a Raspberry Pi that records audio snippets and uploads them to Mechanical Turk for automated transcription. video code photos on wired on salon on the verge on abajournal us+ 2013 with Lauren McCarthy A Google Hangout app that analyzes speech and facial expressions to improve conversation. Speech to text is handled by the Chrome Speech API, linguistic analysis is based on LIWC and inspired by linguistic style matching research, facial analysis is based on the Hangouts Face API. project page on neural start hangout video code on huffpo on fastco on vault Going Public 2013 A one month performance coinciding with the Twitter IPO, where my Twitter profile is made publicly accessible by allowing anyone to tweet as "me" simply by direct messaging me a tweet prepended with a "~" (tilde). original post code twitter on mashable FriendFlop 2013 with Lauren McCarthy A browser extension for Chrome that scrambles the identities on your Twitter or Facebook timelines, dissolving your biases and reminding you that everyone is saying the same shit anyway. original post code extension page Open Fit 2013 with Lisa Kori Open source software that investigates several approaches to generating custom tailored pants patterns. Open Fit Lab is an experimental event where we use this software for on-the-spot generation and creation of custom clothes. website code video photos on creators project Roseheading 2013 Endless glitch facets of a "fractured, frozen" mosaic, a metaphor for our data in the cloud. Commissioned by xo. code Social Roulette 2013 with Jonas Lund and Jonas Jongejan A game with "a 1 in 6 chance of deleting your Facebook account", in fact a hoax that was shut down by Facebook for suggesting the possibility that your account is yours to play games with. website code original post followup post on techcrunch on bbc on yahoo news on huffington post on laughing squid on betabeat on the next web on cnet news Light Leaks 2013 with Jonas Jongejan A scattered array of fifty mirror balls reflect light from three projectors, filling a room completely with small reflections, casting patterns that fill the visitor's peripheral vision. Creating a curious space that alternates between a meditative state, and an uneasy imbalance. video code at click festival photos Inbox Zero Residency 2013 A one-week residency aimed at clearing my inbox, treating email answering as art, daily digital life as readymade performance. Daily reports on Twitter, supported by GaOk in Seoul. text first tweet RAM Dance Toolkit 2013 with YCAM A toolkit for dancers to communicate with each other in virtual environments. Includes functions to access, recognize, and process motion data to support creation of various scenes, and to provide realtime feedbacks to dancers with code, easily. video project page code tutorial ExR3 2013 with Elliot Woods An anamorphic analog interactive installation that exists coherently in a fractured, mirrored version of a reflected room visible from four points within the real space. video photos on creators project Missing 2012 with The xx, Matt Mets and Aramique 50 robotic speakers turn to face visitors, while a spatialized recording of The xx's song "Missing" follows them through the space. video photos code on can on wired on notcot Mother 2012 with Inmi Lee Digitally extruding hand gestures in response to linguistic cues as a method of experimental sound visualization. photos code Blind Self Portrait 2012 with Matt Mets While the visitor keeps their eyes shut, a moving platform guides a pen in their hand to draw a self-portrait, using computer vision to track their face and generate a line drawing. The result is a machine-aided drawing, a self-portrait you could never draw. video photos code on creators project subpixel 2012 A subway advertisement upgrade kit, built from laser-cut acrylic, rubber bands, and nine razor blades. It transforms a small patch of subway advertisement into an 8×8 grid of pixel stickers, ready for interaction with the public. project page laser cutting files photos on makezine ScratchML 2012- with Jamie Wilkinson and Michael Auger A format for describing turntablism, as well as tools for recording, analyzing, sharing, and even recreating scratch performances with giant robot arms. Initially built as a prototype in at the 319 Scholes Art Hack Day. project site on FAT code demo video hackday videos on the verge Shadowplay 2011- Experiments with shadow manipulation as an alternative interaction paradigm, exploring the unexpected results of structure in shadow, or form in emptiness. Shadowplay uses ProCamToolkit which was co-developed by the YCAM Interlab during a residency. video code on cdm mapamok 2011- An experimental projection mapping tool that minimizes the amount of time spent doing calibration. mapamok uses ProCamToolkit which was co-developed by the YCAM Interlab during a residency. video tutorial code app at byob helsingør on cdm Face Substitution Research 2011-, with Arturo Castro Real time face tracking and substitution experiments including a realization of the Scramble Suit and an interactive installation Faces that picks a new face for you every time you blink. video photo code app at eyebeam at playtime on artinfo design of the year nomination Pocket Topographies 2011-, with Chris Woebken Ongoing experiments with pocket-sized topographical maps for visualizing geographic data in a physical form. The first piece shows a year of travel around NYC captured surreptitiously by an iPhone. Started during a residency at MakerBot. photos code People Staring at Computers 2011 A photographic intervention. Custom app installed around NYC computer stores, taking a picture each minute and uploading it. Photos exhibited on site, full screen, on every computer. writeup video tumblr on fffff.at on neural on nytimes on bbc on thefactoryfactory on gizmodo on techdirt on the register on mashable on rwdfoundation ars prix honorary mention Sharing Interviews 2011 Interview series about creators sharing work, with an emphasis on open source, media art, and digital communities. The interviews are conducted with EtherPad and stored on GitHub. all interviews vade on cdm Eyeshine 2011 with Golan Levin Interactive installation which captures, records and replays the retroreflections (red-eye effects) from the eyes of its observers. In doing so it presents an image wholly constructed through the process of being observed. project page video code The Janus Machine 2010, with Zach Lieberman, Theo Watson and Daito Manabe A 3d photo booth built from a structured light system. Janus is often depicted with two faces, each facing in opposite directions. Here: the real face, and the scan stored by the computer. source photos at aec at cinekid at bouillants at art rock at offfmàtica in eye ars interview Only Everything Lasts Forever 2008-2010 Very long sound composition for MP3: an arrangement of every sound we can uniqely distinguish. An exploration of noise and emptiness, and the auditory implications of sound representation. An open source project towards an MFA. project page google code images on cdm Night Lights 2009 Building projection with crowd interaction in collaboration with YesYesNo, featuring three different interaction modes over six different scenes, cycled every hour over five nights in Auckland, NZ. video from yyn video from daito manabe photos yyn page source keytweeter 2009 One-year performance for custom keylogger, tweeting every 140 characters I type, ending June 30, 2010. An exploration of the boundary between "information" and "control", ubiquitous status updates, and personal identity. twitter discussion and source application on neural on hackaday on la libre Portrait Machine 2009, with Theo Watson An interactive photography installation that visualizes the connections between visitors, reminding us of our connectedness and uniqueness, creating strong visual patterns and playful juxtapositions. video photos screenshots discussion CBK Amsterdam cinekid DIY 3D Scanning 2009- Ongoing work democratizing realtime 3D scanning with structured light (one projector, one camera). code video images demo instructable on gizmodo on great dance on hackaday on makezine on cdm in el país at makerbot 1¢ Grants 2009 A project to provide 100 grants at 1¢ cent each. Suspended early due to the high overhead cost of mailing pennies. recipients ASDF $1 grants Vibrobyte 2008-2009 The Vibrobyte is a wireless haptic interface specialized for co-located musical performance. It was featured in "Telemorphosis" at ICMC 2008. Technical details were presented at the 156th ASA Meeting and NIME 2009. photos ICMC video NIME poster short paper long paper I Eat Beats 2008-2009 Skittle-based beat sequencer, a tangible and edible music interface. v2 implements a generic control surface with the aide of a linear polarizer to cancel out the screen. v1 video v2 video v1 processing source v2 processing source on hackaday on analog industries on cdm pppd 2009 An appropriation of computability theory. During each brief scene, a random sequence of p'' code is generated and run, while the memory it uses is visualized and sonified. An investigation of emergent behavior and computational dreams. images view online machine dreams exhibition Please Remember Me When I'm Gone 2008, with Rebecca Weisman Exploration of personality, death, and emptiness through a human-scale settlement of handmade dwellings combining video, electronics, and recorded voice. Colors from the sky as it moves from dusk to dark, and from dark to dawn, are sampled from video and routed into the huts. photos discussion Nandhopper 2008- Ongoing noise synth explorations, with inspiration from the Kraakdoos, Theremin, Thingamakit, and BEAM electronics. instructable prototype video v1 video v2 video audio photos on hackaday DIY 3D Interface 2008- Ongoing work with DIY capacitive sensing for 3D interaction. v1 used an Arduino, aluminum foil, and six resistors. instructable video photos on hackaday on gizmodo Future Fragments 2008 An anti-time-capsule: quotes from seven fellow art students, transcribed phonetically and encoded as colors. Prints of these colors were carried by the artists for a summer. Decoded back into phonemes and re-formed into words, each text offers an indirect account of their respective journeys. photos and transcriptions Musique Du Vent 2008 Reclaiming the entropy of unused dryer heat from a vent outside a freshman dorm, redirecting it into a discarded accordion. During the early Winter, the vent creates a small grassy space surrounded by snow. In March, it's mostly thick mud, but still unexpectedly warm and inviting. photos video Theremug 2007 An exercise in simplicity: the most basic capacitive sensor, using the smallest possible number of external components. Requires only an unshielded cable connected to a microphone input. video max patch on hackaday on cdm Empathy 2004 Early Processing work. Don't move too fast, you might scare it. Click to forgive and forget. view online Consulting Reflections 2013, directed by Joanie Lemercier Sculpture for holiday window display at Barneys New York. Inspired by visual aesthetic of "Light Leaks", the sculpture was designed with three.js and Rhino, fabricated from a milled foam base, with generative patterns projected upon the mirrored surface. photos on instagram code EletroAxé 2011, with Lucas Werthein Experimental percussion interface for Brazilian musician/composer Carlinhos Brown. Performed for a crowd of 50k during the 2011 Carnaval in Salvador, Bahia. video development photos on hackaday on cdm ...and Counting 2010, for Wafaa Bilal Visualization for a full-back tattoo, one dot for each death associated with the war in Iraq: 4k US soldiers in red ink, 100k "invisible" civilians in ultraviolet. project page development pics on we make money not art on nytimes on democracy now on infosthetics on fast company on good.is Subdivision of Roam 2010, for Chris Milk An interactive installation investigating personal shells and their deconstruction. Presented at the NYC Wired Magazine pop-up store 2010, and later developed into "The Treachery of Sanctuary." video photos code Lagoglyphs 2010, with Shawn Lawson for Eduardo Kac Flocking of 1400 unique handmade drawings, with an emphasis on the generative mutability of writing. A version of the source was branched, and shared as "Clouds are Looming". oi futuro photos debug screen video processing sketch