c26h21 n3o3+o2

Exhibitions

About

This realtime generative work is inspired by biolumenscent life forms, like the dino aggelates (marine plankton), living in coastal waters. The plankton is pushed by a gradually changing current that shifts between calm waters and turbulent waves.

Bioluminescence is a form of chemiluminescence where light energy is released by a chemical reaction. This reaction involves a light-emitting pigment, the luciferin, and a luciferase, the enzyme component. Coelenterazine (c26h21n3o3) is a luciferin, a light-emitting molecule, found in many aquatic organisms. It is oxidised (o2) to produce light.

Using mathematics, particle systems, vector elds and various types of procedural generated noise to capture the complex beauty of nature in a digital domain. Projected as a tunnel, combined with generative sound based on the motion of the currents and particles, the spectator is completely submerged.

particle installation at byob
particle installation at byob

Technical

In February 2020 this a/v installation was made site-specific for the Uncloud Festival 2020 in a cell of the former Pieter Baan Centrum in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The visuals were projection-mapped on the walls and the ceiling of the cell, forming a tunnel. The visiter could then walk in the tunnel and immerse in the visuals and sound. The mapping was done by using three short-throw beamers. Because of the small space in the cell mirrors were used to reflect the projection of the beamer. In this matter a longer range could be made possible while having the projectors in the same room. The software for the installation was made with the MaxMSP programming environment, using GLSL for the particles and vectorfield calculations, and also Jitter/OpenGL for the rendering. The sound was designed using FFT-freezing of a recording of waves at the shore combined with pitchshifting and reverberation.