Marcin Ignac - How to move that pixel?

MediaLab Chrzelice – Obóz Kultury 2.0

2010/08/12

The Beginning

My adventure with computers started with this Amiga. Obviously you play games at the beginning but then desire to create something arose when I was for the first time exposed to graphics programs (DPaint :)

But then my dad bought me a PC and I started to play games again.

Vorg is my coder’s nickname.

Drawing

Drawing

Primary and secondary school. I always liked to draw. Especially during literature and history lessons. A way to kill time. A little bit of creativity every day.

Computer Graphics

I was still mastering my computer graphics skills back then. Experimenting a lot.

This drawing is part of ‘wall of art project’ when me and my friend were trying to draw an infinite image.

Computer Science

I was studying computer science at Poznan University of Technology, Poland. I was learning math, algorithms, how to design boring databases and standard compliant HTML websites, basics of AI and image processing.

It was time to combine both of my passions : graphics and code. I was perceived as an artist anyway.

Demoscene

Welcome to Demoscene - a subculture of computer geeks focused on using their machines in creative ways. Borntro is 64kb big and 3min long realtime computer generated animation. Kind of like a computer game but not interactive. It was the first time I created something alive completely in code. 3 months and 8k lines of code later we (DMA) went to Symphony’04 demoscene party in Poznan, Poland and we won!

‘Art’

After I finished Computer Science at Poznan University of Technology I had to decide if I want to find full time job or do sth that I always was thinking about and try to apply to Academy of Fine Arts. I got accepted and I studied at the Academy in Poznan for one year where I was exposed to both traditional art...

Media

... and some more contemporary stuff like video and interactive installations. I was playing with projections, motion tracking, performance and even build my first multitouch table. Not so much art, more design like approach. But always driven by intuition and willing to explore.

Interaction

One of my favorite art pieces I made. There is an image of a woman projected on the wall. When visitor comes closer to the picture, the woman becomes younger and younger.

It was was the first time I used Processing (for motion tracking). Also it’s my first project in public space.

Context

Context was very important for this piece. Upper floor of abandoned building. I used photos of my mother. The frame? I found it on the floor. And the projection was cropped using piece of paper :)

“That what is the first”Video: http://vimeo.com/666152

Tools

Code is the ultimate tool. That’s the beauty of it. Everything is possible. I build tools and more and more often I try to release source code of the things I make.

CIID

Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design

In 2008 I moved to Denmark to take part in the pilot year of new interaction design course.We learned about sketching, video prototyping, programming, user research and rapid prototyping.

Putting People First

User centered design. Trying to understand their needs.

Talking to care takers in elderly home about user interface design prototype.

Beautiful Experience

But then there is also another way. To come from pure technology side. Just follow your intuition. This way you can still create immersive experiences, Aha! moments, and smile.

Here Joshua Walton from Rockwell Lab is playing with a wall of light reacting to people passing by. So simple but so engaging. It was first step of building my multitouch wall project.

Realtime, every time.

In september 2009 I joined shiftcontrol studios (http://shiftcontrol.dk/). We develop realtime-rendered and interactive media.

Our first project together. Live audio reactive visuals for Mike Sheridan during danish radio music awards show.

More & Video: http://marcinignac.com/projects/2009/01/26/DR-P3-Guld'09

Design

As every design company we sketch, draw wireframes, brainstorm, make 3d visualizations.

Process

This is example project that we are developing at the moment. My task was to implement swarm behaviour to simulate bait ball. I started with simple flocking models and added more features like leader following or collision avoidance. The whole project was developed in Unity - one of our main tools.

Photograph by Enric Sala, National Geographichttp://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/photos/pristine-seas-cocos-island/

Experiments

But there is still time for experimentation. This is my submission for writtenimages.net. A generative book project. Every page is generated by another program and it looks different every time. So in theory every copy of the book will be unique. The style of images was inspired by Ernst Haeckel.

Storytelling Exploration Expression

Roles of Data Visualization

We also do data visualization. These are three roles of data vis to me.

Sharing Knowledge

More and more often we decide to share our knowledge. Let it be a workshop, blog post or presentation. I was even teaching one week course at CIID once.

"Share everything you know. It's easier to teach, then to advertise" #rework @37signals

Fun!

Ok, I’m not 100% geek. Just 99% ;) I enjoy cooking, especially indian food. Cooking is like programming - it’s all about transforming, creating something out of nothing. I just started running this summer and I want to come back to Capoeira. And I love trance music!, especially psy, goa and progressive.

marcinignac.com

Thank you!