Research @ Home

I've done some reading online, about the Waag building. Let me summarize some of the things I found.
First of all, the first stone was laid on the 28th of April in 1488. Back then it still was the St Antoniusgate. It was on of the gates into the city. So there was a city wall connected to it.
It was called after the St Antonius hospital that lay just outside of the city walls. It was a leper home.
In the 17th century the city of Amsterdam expended, thus losing the function of the former city wall, which then was demolished. At that point there was no use for the St Antoniusgate to be a gate into the city. With the loss of the wall and with the draining of some of the surrounding water, the Nieuw-Markt was created. Also the pavement was raised, obscuring the lower parts of the building.
Later on the old gate got a new function; the function of a Waag (weigh-building), this to lift some of the load of the former Waag at the Dam.
4 gildes were housed in the new Waag: the masons, the smiths, the painters and the surgeons. Each gilde had it's own entrance in 4 seperate side towers.
In 1690-91 a large dome was build upon it. There the surgeons held their 'anotomy sessions', which where open to the public as well, for a fee that is.

So that's it for a very short summary.

Furthermore I browsed through my own bookcase and picked out some of the books that might be used for further inspiration:
Encyclopaedia Anatomica - Museo La Specola Florence
HR Giger - H.R. Giger
Comic Art Now - Dez Skinn
Dream, A Journal by Larry Vigon - Larry Vigon
Paradise Lost - John Milton

Don't know yet if all these books will be usefull, but hey... at least it's something.
Yesterday and today I've been reading Paradise Lost. It just finished the introduction by the editor. And I already found some interesting stuff, that might be usefull for our story and interaction. Soon I'll write some more about that.
One quote (discussing the attributes of the Tree of Knowledge:
"Eve had no notion of death as extinction earlier in the poem. Can it be that the fruit has enlightened her? Some moght think that Milton has merely slipper here, but it is more likely that he is being subtle. Eve's acquisition of knowledge is consistent with what God says about the fruit. Eve and Adam gain knowledge, but not of God's creation. They gain knowledge of the darkness into which creation falls when it is deprived of God's goodness. Saint Augustine had argued that evil has no real existence but is only the privation of good. Adam and gain knowledge of privation. Put simply, the come to realize what is is that they have lost."
In that I think there might be some interesting principle. Good vs. Evil. More precise weither evil exists without good en vice versa. Milton also coines that the World (our universe) is created by God out of Chaos and that Chaos is dark and evil. So that contradicts Saint Augustinus argument.
Well... need to think it more over, to make something out of it, but just wanted to share this.

That's it for now.

Meeting with Alex @ Fablab, Amsterdam

Last week Jean-michel and I had a meeting with Alex of the Waag Society. He already had some ideas about an installation at the Waag, so we swapped some ideas.

JM and I are still in a very early stage in our concepting, which is a good thing Alex said. That is because we're still open to new ideas.
Our main idea is to make an interactive installation in/on/at/around the Waag building at the Nieuw-Markt in Amsterdam. In our minds we see an abstract storytelling reaching into the history of the building and it's surroundings. The imagery we want to create is of an abstract nature, in which we want to tell our story more atmospherically then in a concrete visual manner.
When it comes to interactivity through a narrative perspective, we want our users to interact with the building in stead of one or more persona's in our telling. So in other words the building itself is our main character.

To obtain some funding from the Waag Society, there must be some link made to the Foundation. Main purpose in that is making the audience aware that the Waag building houses the Waag Society Foundation. At the same time, we must try to illustrate or explain what it is that the Society does. In what manner this must be done is at this point not yet clear.
Alex coined the idea of a touch-screen next to the intrance for more information for the users.

Some things that came up where:
- Directional audio using a special dish, mounted on top of the Waag somewhere above the entrance of the Society.
- A projection using an household beamer (projector for those who think a beamer is a merely a car) from inside of the building, projecting on 3 windows above the front entrance (where the restaurant is).
- A touch screen next to the entrance of the Society.
- Speakers underneath the entrance of the Society, place in the cellars.
- Projection on the side of the building. For this we at least need a 4000+ ANSI Lumen projector. And we need permission of the City of Amsterdam, which might be a problem, since these things take ages to obtain.

For myself the last part (the big projectioin) is the main part. So we must also keep in mind other locations for our installation (it may even be somewhere inside).
We also must have a little talk with some of the members of the Society responsible for the fundings, to see how we can help each other, and to get a clearer picture of what is possible, especially regarding to bigger projection on the side of the building.


Furthermore... I spoke to Charles (a 4th grader Image Media Technology) whose himself is planning to do something with projection and videomapping (projecting on objects taking in account the shapes of these objects). He already did some research on the subject and is willing to share this information with us.
I also spoke to Laura (a 4th grader Digital Video Designer), who is willing to help us with some of the concepting and visualisation parts. I'm having a meet with her this thursday.
Finnaly I got an email by Ravian (4th grader Sound Design). He was looking for projects in which he could help out on the audio parts. I told him we could really use his help. Later on I ran into him and told him about the directional audio thing, which grabbed his attention. So we'll see how that will go.
And I think I could probably get Maurits (another 4th grader Image Media Technology) to help us shooting, compositing and colorcorrecting in exchange for some programming or the like (or maybe even a couple of beers).

So next on my schedule is to dive in to the history of the Waag building. And this Thursday a talk with Laura.