TODO (Collaborators)

people interested in sound to record 4 reactive soundscapes for 4 humours (phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric, melancholic).

people interested in space to think about layout given the site we will have to work with

people interested in materials and construction and wiring for the interior

people interested in graphic and web design for the web pressence

BUDGET/TECH SPECS

Building materials: free-300 Eu depending on how much we can slavadge from the country side, get from local inhabitants etc.

PC, speakers and webcam. I provide speakers if necessary, PC and webcam is provided by you as I am not there for de-intallation.

It's better to have more than one web cam. Any model will do, even an old firewire camera is fine.

PC, again any model will do.

It is mecessary to have an unfirewalled internet connection for this project.

Software On Site: Pure Data probably, possibly Processing, possibly both.

Software On Web: AJAX stuff, easy peasy, can be broken down into simple task for collaborators that are interested in learning programming for the web.

ABOUT

BIME BIMH is a foray into emotional space. Particularly if the space is ambiguously emotional.

We spend our everyday in designed spaces that affect the way we react to and perceive the world. BIME BIMH is a series of explorations using very simple tools and a web interface that will allow someone from the internet (a space in which we have no body, no physical presence to begin with) to become the ghost of architecture or the kuora of a prototype module of emotional space. Can a space maintain it's ghost without consistent spacial organization, but with an actual ghost in it?

What is the human experience when we are no longer bodies, but spaces. How do we relate to other bodies when we become the glue of a space but have no voice, no touch?

The internet user will have various emotions to mix and match from. The emotional characteristics the user selects will be translated into light and sound and will affect the viewer within the space. However since the sound within the space is also based on computer vision input from the space itself, the viewer that is on site is also a user. BIME BIMH is a play with filters of human and machine perception and human and machine communication.

The module is very simple to build, all one needs are some standard sheets of plywood or sheet rock or angle irons and cardboard and salvaged material from the street. The space will be built channeling the tradition of the sukkot where there is a place for everyone to come in for shelter and food, but no roof overhead. For the interaction all one needs is a camera and some simple computer vision code. The rest can be channeled into any kind of home made modules one can think of. I like to use sound, because it comes standard with a computer and it an ethereal time/space medium. Depending on time and money other modules can be integrated into the construction. It is important however, to always use standard construction materials, as they are not designed to convey any kind of effect. The kuora of construction materials is deeply buried in the socio-economic and technological systems that allow for their production. They are designed by their environment, not for it at times. And so they relate greatly to this project as it has no clear as a space. It serves only to create a different kind of body to channel not the ego, or the heart of it's designer but the heart of it's users, who ever they may be. To force humans to a different kind of freedom of communication with bodies, once they are nothing but ghosts.