On October 27th, after a morning of working on our projects, we met upstairs in the IES building to talk with Thijs de Wit from PIPS Lab, a group of artists who do everything from media performances to interactive art installations, and mainly focus on photography, theater, interaction, and music.
However, none of us knew this at the time. All we knew was that we were once again meeting in our classroom to listen to some guy talk about something. We didn’t know his name, we didn’t know what he was going to talk about, we didn’t know where he was from. We were expecting nothing.
The presentation started off very confusing. Both John and Thijs seemed to think we had some idea what the presentation was going to be about, and kept referring to these “performances” that we had just missed or that were going to happen soon. We managed to get by with lots of head nodding, and then the presentation really began.
Thijs started by telling us about the Luma2solator, an interactive “painting with light” system which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. PIPS created a software that reads the light in an image and records it, so that just by moving a flashlight across the screen, you can paint a line. To see it in action, check this out.
After showing us the videos about the Luma2solator, Thijs asked if we had any questions. Everyone sat in awe for a moment, until finally someone spoke up and said what was on everyone’s mind: “How did you do that????”
This general fascination with how incredibly awesome PIPS Labs is stuck through the rest of the presentation. We listened attentively as Thijs told us about the 360* lens that PIPS created using a glass ball mounted on a camera (regular 360* camera lenses generally cost around E500 per day to rent), and were inspired by the music video editor which can remix a music video with the push of a button.
But the real excitement came when we saw a video of PIPS Lab’s Washing Powder Conspiracy performance. The year and a half that it took to create, practice, and finalize was well worth it, because even though it was shown to us on a pixilated quicktime video projected onto the wall, I don’t think I’ve ever seen our class so whole-heartedly interested in anything before.
The Washing Powder Conspiracy is a semi-interactive performance complete with great songs in Dutch and English about washing powder, dances, Luma2solator images, and videos. My personal favorite was the pre-edited (but not pre-shot!) video. PIPS created software that can be “told” where to put clips and how long to play them, so that a whole movie can be made before it’s even shot. PIPS creates short videos using this program at performances, and usually uses an audience member to remind people that it was created live.
The performance was not only fun songs and video. Towards the end, most of the footage taken of the audience, performers, and music, was used again to make a statement about politics and corporations. Then, just to end the show on a less serious note, they played another fun, happy song about washing powder.
After the video, all I wanted to ask was “when can I start working for you?” But I didn’t. I also wimped out when I walked up to him to ask him a question, which I never actually asked. We talked to Thijs a bit more, and ended by applauding what was definitely one of the best presentations we’ve experienced on this trip.
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