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This 13:48 minute video with original photographs, instrumental and synthesized music (adjust volume low), is inspired by aspects of the human visual processing architecture. The first movement focuses on edge and surface shade detection. The second movement emphasizes motion perception, while the third highlights color discrimination. The artist's perceptual art abstracts everyday experience. The artist used Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo 2 to prepare photographs, and custom code in Processing.org to extract features and to transition between images. The title "Dimensions Alpha” indicates that this is the first composition in a planned series of multiple perceptual dimensional videos.
Dimensions Alpha In 3 Movements is a 1080P resolution video with sound that can run on any 1080P or higher video monitor with sound. The video sequence consists of a series of foreground and background original photographs, with the current foreground image being eroded by the artist’s custom filters coded in Processing, along with some stock Processing filters. Custom filters include dark-to-light pixel etching, and greyscale-based and color-based image region stratification with movement of the strata. Stock filters applied to foreground images include darkness-based erosion, fading, blurring, rotation, 3D-like scaling, and canvas painting via un-erased drawing. The artist’s graphical code is interactive, supporting performer improvisation. Custom software captures performer input in a piano roll-like text file for replay. Apple QuickTime captures the final video as Processing replays the "piano roll” on a 1080P monitor.
Dale Parson is a retired, professor emeritus of computer science with the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s Kutztown University after a long career as a computer scientist with Bell Labs. He has taught digital art students in graphical video programming using processing.org’s Java interactive environment. He has also worked with students programming spatial sound in his university’s planetarium.
