– aka How to Run Backwards –

Facilitator: Leo Scarin
Language: English
Software: TouchDesigner, Mediapipe for TouchDesigner

Participant requirement

No requirement, though intended for a creative audience that is comfortable with basic programming. Scroll to the bottom of the page for more detailed requirements.

Max. no of participants: 20 people

The art of (mis)using a body capture algorithm is an iii workshop run by Leo Scarin (RGBdog) that repurposes body and hand tracking algorithms into critical tools for expression. The participants are invited to create an artistic response to this prompt using Mediapipe and TouchDesigner, tools practiced during the workshop.

Computer vision was devised as early as the 19th century as an analytic tool for military and labour surveillance, now adopted, too, across industries like cinema, arts, and sports; renewed by a recent innovation of machine learning (ML) techniques. Like all ML algorithms, though, decisions about who creates the datasets, how and for whom, are often top-down and opaque.

Running backwards is a silly activity. It is the creative mean to camouflage, defy, and flee surveillance tools. (Mis)using algorithms is a way of repurposing technology, reclaiming its design with a bottom-up approach.

References

– Hito Steyerl, How Not to be Seen (2013)
– Nikita Diakur, Backflip (2022)
– James Bridle, Autonomous Trap 001 (2017)
– Cybernetic Forests, Gaussian Noise Human Hands (2023)
– Marcel Duchamp, Nude descending a staircase (1912)
– Nam June Paik, Candle TV and Magnet TV
– Bruce Nauman, Wall Floor Positions (1968)