Here are some videos from other iterations of my “Removial Studies” series. These are the versions that I don’t view as entirely successful, but there are some nice parts to each of them. I wanted to include them because they are an important part of the process; in a way, they document my progress while learning to live with this machine. In this sense, the project fleshes out more as a true domestic intervention.

Here’s an initial sketch and an installation detail.

Removal Studies are a series of videos made using time-lapse photography. These videos are sleep studies that observe the reaction of the unconscious body to the negative stimulus of removing the covers.
The covers are removed by a machine that attaches to the bed and tugs a slight amount off in increments throughout the night. By studying the sleeping body, my aim was to capture something very honest and very animal about human beings. I was interested in this gesture of removal — and subsequently, exposure — and how it could function as a larger metaphor.

The imagery is generated by a DSLR camera taking 30 second exposures every two minutes. This video is what I view to be the most successful iteration from a series of studies. It was shot during a full moon.

Other studies and process work: Link

Initial attempts at mechanizing umbrellas. For a larger installation being done in collaboration with the Barbarian Group’s S.F. office. This installation will contain an array of 100 or so umbrellas mounted upside down in the ceiling. The umbrellas will be undulating in response to data in and around the office.

At the moment, this project is on standby pending further funding. We want to have the whole structure professionally fabricated and have been in contact with fabrication labs in the Bay Area.  More to come, hopefully.

Here’s a quick render that Robert made in Processing, with 1000 umbrellas, to visualize what kid of behavior we had in mind.