You’ve heard the lamentations before: album art died with the move from the large canvas of the LP vinyl record to the CD. Well, eat your heart out, LPs: album art is back, it’s interactive, and it’s trippier than ever. Just ask Flying Lotus.
Fieldlines is a free Mac and Windows application that creates an “augmented reality” experience for your computer. Based on the exquisite cover art by Leigh J. McCloskey for Flying Lotus’ upcoming album “Cosmogramma”, the organic visual pattern animates to movement tracked from your computer webcam, accompanied by the sounds of the record. (Harpist Rebekah Raff’s delicate textures dance through the air as it moves.)
Interactive artist Aaron Meyers did the programming. The work combines imagined magnetic fields with free code framework OpenFrameworks. I asked Aaron about how he put the work together. He responds:
Late last year, I was writing a piece of software with Processing that I was using to make images and animation using simulated magnetic forces. The magnetic force algorithm was actually based on some code I discovered in Toxi’s onedotzero identity project. So anyway, I was playing around with that stuff and making stuff like this:
So a little earlier this year, I was talking to the Warp guys about some of the stuff they wanted to do for the Cosmogramma release. They showed me the cover artwork and at the time, I was looking some pictures of solar wind and the Earth’s magnetosphere (good images at the wikipedia pages for solar wind and magnetosphere) and it kind of clicked for me that the magnetic field line stuff I’d be playing with before related to the cover artwork in what I thought was a really intuitive way. So I hacked together a quick prototype in OpenFrameworks and they were really into it and we just went from there.
More on FlyLo’s record as we get closer to launch. I can’t bear to tease the thing any longer. In the meantime, you can grab Fieldlines and play right now, free:
http://flying-lotus.com/fieldlines
I have to say, too, for all the hype about tablets and mobile devices (some of which I propagate myself), here’s a gorgeous, free toy that takes advantage of the larger, brighter screen and greater processor muscle on your laptop or desktop. (Now, if there were just easier ways to get these kinds of creations on big-screen HDTVs.)
The album launches Tuesday, with a full-length preview available on NPR’s fantastic All Songs Considered blog Monday.
[…] related posts: (automatically generated)Related posts on ArtCreate Digital Music » Flying Lotus Album Art, Come Alive …Related posts on CultureSYMPOSIUM ON THE QUESTION “HOW IS CULTURE BIOLOGICAL?” ~ Six …Guest […]
thanks for reminding about Processing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TgfolwSfT0
Hot, hot, hot, hot.
is the processing code for the image above available somewhere?
post has open-source tag, but can't find it.
I loved the app. Blogged about it too. 🙂
I love all things Flying Lotus, and I cannot wait for his new album. More progressive thinking from such a talented artist.
[…] [via] [flying-lotus]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Flying Lotus Cosmogramma Fieldline Free Augmented Reality Application", url: "http://www.lintcoat.com/tunes/flying-lotus-cosmogramma-fieldline-free-augmented-reality-application" }); […]
[…] event is led by artists Aaron Meyers (Flying Lotus’ Fieldlines) and Aaron Koblin (Daisy Bell). I asked Mr. Meyers for a round-up of the kind of work that […]
[…] event is led by artists Aaron Meyers (Flying Lotus’ Fieldlines) and Aaron Koblin (Daisy Bell). I asked Mr. Meyers for a round-up of the kind of work that […]
[…] else notice the graphic similarity between Warp’s cover for “Move of Ten” and Flying Lotus’ Fieldlines? You could almost see the one image fitting inside the other. Indeed, let’s try […]
[…] else notice the graphic similarity between Warp’s cover for “Move of Ten” and Flying Lotus’ Fieldlines? You could almost see the one image fitting inside the other. Indeed, let’s try […]
doesn't really look like that app is being controlled by the guys hand movements. Seems to me to be another so called Interactive application, but it's really just got some indeterminacy built into it to make it seem as if it IS interactive.
And how the hell is THIS album art? You can't hold it in your hands.
[…] by moving around in front of your webcam, loosely interacting with the artwork and sound. read an interview with Aaron on Create Digital […]
[…] event is led by artists Aaron Meyers (Flying Lotus’ Fieldlines) and Aaron Koblin (Daisy Bell). I asked Mr. Meyers for a round-up of the kind of work that he’s […]