Climate Control
West Hall Gallery, Room 111, RPI Campus
Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday, 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM

Climate Control is a series of climate-interactive electronic installations and eco-visualizations intended to address the personal detachment felt towards global climate change. As the Earth's resources increasingly succumb to the human grasp, these works question whether the next step is the construction of a human-desirable climate.  Through perception and interaction the goal of this work is to enhance sensitivity of the issues involved, inspire critical thought about solutions and to recognize the beauty inherent in the real-time climate occurring  outside the gallery walls.

Three new installations were created for this exhibit. More info on the specifics of these pieces soon - likely on bartwoodstrup.com. In the meantine you can find out more on flickr.

Obsequi
The Historic Albany Foundation joined September's 1st Friday
celebration, on September 7, 2007 with the presentation of Obsequi. Obsequi took place at St. Joseph's Church, 38 Ten Broeck Street Albany, NY. Featured performers were: Vodstrup, Alex Chechile, Jung Yoon, and Ethan Bach of iEAR studios at RPI; Linda Aubry and Mike Bullock of rise set twilight; Laura Teeter and Melissa George of Ellen Sinopoli Dance Co., Jennifer Grainer, tag artists Pervert/Dwell and Unit, and more.

"It is a privilege to be working on this show in such a breathtaking piece of historical architecture, along with some of the most talented artists the capital region has to offer" Chip Fasciana, organizer.

The multimedia show, which included performance art, installation, video, sound and dance, highlighted and brought awareness to the ongoing restoration and rehabilitation to this 150 year old Albany landmark, considered one of the renowned architect Patrick Keely's masterpieces.

"We are thrilled to host Obsequi and to have St. Joseph's open to the public in this capacity," said Historic Albany Foundation's Executive Director, Susan Holland. "This event gives Historic Albany Foundation a chance to highlight the extensive work completed on the building and also the potential of the building."

For this project I designed two new video installations, a sound installation, and co-curated the event.

One of the video installations was designed to be seen through large, metal ventilation grates in the floor. The video is of a person reciting the International Bill of Human Rights "keyed" with an image of a crucifix. The piece was originated to support the overall theme of "obsequiousness" or compliance. The actual Bill of Rights was countered with a fictitious one where the reader supplanted the actual "right" with a personal desire. For instance: "I have the right to kill you" "I have the right to love you" I have the right to cross your border" etc.

The second video installation is a projection of two of the dancers performing in the church. The video has been manipulated to make the dancers appear like angels or ghosts. The video shown here is a recreation of the one shown the night of the performance.

The audio installation consisted of an eight channel/speaker system suspended from the ceiling. The speakers were hidden amongst artwork from tag artists Pervert/Dwell and Unit. I may post a "vodcast" of this sound sculpture in the future.

Thanks to Craig Tompkins for many of the photos. More photos are available on flickr.

Dynamic Spaces - Minding Mining Morphing
This project explores the relationships within an acoustic and electronic performing ensemble for improvised music in virtual environments with deliberately varying characteristics. Variations in acoustics provide a new dynamic parameter of music in addition to harmony, melody, and rhythm. The performance is enhanced by dynamic visual elements with interwoven artistic images and views of the performers in a shared virtual space.

For this performance I adapted the software I designed for the ICAD conference. I am masking the performers with abstract visuals (videos). As the performers move, the part of their body that moves becomes visible "through" the abstract imagery.

A "distance performance" or "telepresence" is "the act or process of performing in two or more places simultaneously - usually through an apparatus that is some form of human/machine system."

Tintinnabulate were joined by Curtis Bahn and Tomie Hahn. We performed in NY and were broadcast to San Diego for the prestigious Siggraph2007 conference.

Summer Winds
Artists using wind instruments, breath, or air.
perform at Free103point9's Wavefarm in Acra, NY.

Performances took place throughout Wavefarm, both in the fields near Wavefarm's ponds, and in the forest. Audio and video web streams for this show available at www.free103point9.org.

Performers included: Tintinnabulate, Stars Like Fleas, Hassay, DeChellis, Nakatani Trio, Sparkle Projects, DizzySparkle, Kenta Nagai + Michelle Nagai, Christopher McIntyre and others.

Telecolonization
"Tele-colonization occurs when a group of people virtually populates a new area. During this process, both the new and old inhabitants will have to get to know each other through communication. Eventually they will have to adapt their cultures to share their habitat in harmony. During this concert, the audience has the opportunity to experience the perspective of the co-located site at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute through binaural rendering (dummy head reproduction via headphones) of this site, which is characterized by its individual sound scape environment." - Jonas Braasch 2007.

Telepresence is "the act or process of performing in two or more places simultaneously - usually through an apparatus that is some form of human/machine system." For this performance we used INET2 to simultaneously transmit audio and video from 4 different locations (Troy, NY; Montreal, Canada; Stanford, California; and Korea).

The images were generated in realtime by a software program that I designed to "mask" the performers using a motion-subtractive technique - this means that whenever a musician would move, that motion would cause them to appear from the surrounding image. For this performance we were using images of caves and clouds.

This project draws from the technical support of several research groups: CARL, RPI; CIRMMT, McGill University; CCRMA, Stanford University. The transmission was realized using Jacktrip, Audio Transmission Software (CCRMA), and the Ultra-Videoconferencing System (CIRMMT)

Song Cycle for Haruki Murakami
Matthew Dotson asked me to create the video supplement to this piece. His initial request was to have only simple, elegant white on black text. That posed a significant challenge to the creative process, as my goal was to visually link the textual elements of Murakami's writings with the dynamics of Matthew's composition. To accomplish this, I visually imitated themes from each movement ("insect wings", "earth", "dust", and "lock") through animating their elements by properties of the sonic spectrum (brightness, noisiness, amplitude, and pitch).

 

The impetus of this work was four quotes out of Haruki Murakami’s novel “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles.” The intention was to create a kind of pseudo-narrative out of just these four quotes; creating a new story out of fragments of the original story. But beyond this, I wanted each quote (or movement) to be markedly different, thus depending on the visual presence of the quotes to keep the work coherent. Sonically, Murakami’s work made it very evident to me that, in the words of his main character, it should be “something concrete” (a phrase he often used to try and make sense out of the baffling world that surrounded him). Thus, the foundation material was derived from several ambient recordings that took place both inside and outside of my apartment in Chicago. These recordings were used to symbolize the “inner” and “outer” worlds; the interactions and tensions between which served to be the conceptual focus of my piece as it likewise was with Murakami. Soloists (cello, drum set, flute, and clarinet respectfully) were added in order to comment on these sonic environments and lend a sense of humanity and drama to the work. - Matthew Dotson, 2007.

Grassland (POACEAE)
Grassland (POACEAE) is a large-scale public art project that encompasses and transforms the landscape of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's emerging “Art Corridor” located on the western edge of campus (between West Hall and the new EMPAC building).

The grassland consists of 375 bi-color cloth blades that are 6 foot in height, mounted on PVC pipes over rebar; attached at the bottom via hose clamps. The hope/goal is that the real grass between the sculptures will not be mowed and that, over time, will grow high enough to appear as though emerging out of a grassy "haze".

The installation runs from May until September 15, 2007

Grasslands (POACEAE) was generously funded by The Jaffe Fund for Experimental Media and Performing Arts, and commissioned by EMPAC.

To Painting
To Painting (2006-07) includes flute, piano, cello, dance, textile, images and electronics. The title refers to the series of poems “A la pintura” written between 1947 and 1967 by the Spanish poet and painter Rafael Alberti. These illuminative poems were the inspiration behind Robert Motherwell’s series of paintings (1976) of the same title. This multi-dimensional composition animates the text and two-dimensional paintings exposing additional layers of the works through sound, color, texture and gesture by provoking interactions between artists, artwork, space, movement and the audience. The artist states, 'By doing this, we hope to dive deeper into the intricate meanings of these works, both politically and expressively, melting into an effortless unity of sound, movement, words and light'."

Through the iEAR residency program, I was asked to collaborate with flutist Jane Rigler to develop an immersive, interactive video projection for her composition "To Painting". The piece was performed at the Flea Theatre in NYC and The Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, NY.

flute, Jane Rigler
dance, clyde forth
piano, Shoko Nagai
cello, Alex Waterman
costume, Marian Schoettle
real-time video performance, Bart Bridger Woodstrup (aka vodstrup)

Laser Cut Paper
Through the use of illustration, laser cut paper, and interactive video installations, my recent artwork seeks to challenge the way you envision land use, natural resource, and the energy grid. This electronic art, matched with ecological sensibilities, seeks to place the viewer inside of the artwork, focusing on the individual's role in environmental change. This work envisions a rebirth from the ruins of the Industrial Revolution and re-imagines a romantic notion of the pastoral.

 

 

 

Figures in the Landscape
"Figures in the Landscape" is an interactive installation using custom video software. Inspired by the works of Thomas Cole and JMW Turner, especially in the relationship of natural landscape to technology and industry. "Figures in the Landscape" (a work in progress) places the viewer in the video projected landscape, and through the viewer's movements, allows the viewer to act as "painter" of the landscape.

As the viewer moves in front of the work, the outline of their body begins to transform the imagery by revealing images of human-made landscapes and architectures. Sound is also transformed from the natural sounds of birds and crickets into mechanical sounds and noises. The more the viewer moves through the space, the more the installation is transformed. As the viewer remains stationary, the imagery returns to a natural scene. This piece debuted at the Fulton Street Gallery in Troy, NY, where it operated flawlessly for the three weeks it was installed.

Solar Research
One of the first things I did upon my arrival at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in August of 2005, was to visit the school's photovoltaic array located in the heart of campus. It is a unique because it is a dual axis solar tracker - it mechanically follows the sun throughout the day. It reminded me of the way sunflowers follow the sun throughout the day - a biomimicry?

I have been anxious to work with alternative energies, trying to find ways to incorporate them into artwork. This semester I worked with the Ecologic student group on campus to install a Heliotronic data monitoring system on the array. (heliotronics.com)

I am currently developing several interesting pieces with the data from this work - check back soon!

Vodcasts
Raw, organic, fleshy sound! A new vodcast will appear semi-regularly (about once a month) as a 1/2 hour episode. The format will change each month - some episodes will be interviews, some narratives, though most will be abstract experiments in timbre, melody, and rhythm.

"Back of the Yards" episodes will be rough and tough, uncooked sounds free for you to plunder at will! Upcoming episodes will feature sound experiments with the tribal sounds of West Africa, Middle-Eastern inspired beats, and field recording from Troy, NY. In addition, there will be interviews with Composer James Phelps and shape-note singer Jessie Perlman Karlsberg.

Drawer of Toolmarks
Drawer of Toolmarks was completed as an exercise for Michael Oatman's "Extreme Drawing" course at RPI. I emptied out the desk drawer that contained my pens. I then catalogued the toolmark made by each pen as well as the image of the pen. Each tool mark was then scanned and converted into a "brush" for Illustrator and Photoshop.

"Rather than attempting to define drawing, Extreme Drawing seeks to expand the territory of drawing." An Architecture class taught by Michael Oatman is inspired by the same kind of outside-of-the-box thinking that brought "Extreme Sports" to Sunday afternoon television. The Spring 2007 class will focus on a large-scale project being developed for the new EMPAC building at RPI (see the POACEAE project above).