Dan Shiffman is n’t like most professor . rather of Scantron sheets and bluebooks , Shiffman prefers to give his last exam on a 120 - metrical unit video wall that ’s the equivalent of six 16:9 displays linked conclusion - to - end .
Yes , it is last exam prison term for Shiffman ’s Big Screens stratum - at 6PM on a Friday night , with free wine-coloured - and I am standing with a twosome hundred other likeminded graphics techie in the entrance hall of the IAC Building , a stacked glass Frank Gehry creation on the West Side of Manhattan . We are in front of a 120 - pes cover that ’s the equivalent of six 16:9 displays arranged end - to - end , and we are doing what it ’s tell us to do . We are obeying it .
It tells us to clap , and we spat . Then we stomp our feet and say “ la la la . ” Then we send text messages to it , replete with the anticipation of influencing what seem on its glowing greatness . We acclaim to shoo snowy birds off a power seam that ’s strung across its great length . We do it while drinking and taking pictures of the natural action , and it is good - a techie church for bigger screens , always giving ! We kneel !
Shiffman and his students have the IAC hoi polloi , in part , to give thanks for their schoolroom . Rather than put in a garden or grand , empty third house , Barry Diller ’s IAC empire — which owns several web - pertain businesses like Ask.com , Ticketmaster , etc — decided to build one of the reality ’s biggest indoor picture bulwark . It ’s made up of 27 vertically oriented projector , linked into a undivided display by software from Spyder and shined onto a translucent screen to make a massive projection image :
For the Big Screens class , the paries is power by three dual - oral sex Mac Pros , each driving their own pair of 16:9 facet - proportion screens ( splitting nine projector for each head ) , for a total resolution of 8160 x 768 pixels .
The course is part of of NYU ’s Interactive Telecommunications Program ( ITP ) , a two - year graduate academic degree they ’ve offer up since 1979 and the source ofall kinds of geeky curiosities . Shiffman , a wizard of the graphical programming oral communication calledProcessingthat many of the students use to fill up the screen ( a few others use openFrameworks , another visual speech communication ) has taught this class for two year now . Processing has been used in tons of music videos , data visualizations and interactive video recording art and is popular for its comparative simplicity as a way to turn codification into awe-inspiring visuals .
talk to the bookman , it ’s seeming that such a unequaled medium can barely be classify as a “ screen ” in the traditional sense . The Brobdingnagian size of it , when pair with such an extreme aspect proportion , turns the screen into more of a physical space than anything resembling a TV ( even one that’s150 - in ) . Besides , it ’s not about resolution , in the household - theatre of operations sense . certainly , you could do a good deal with 6 million pel , but it ’s not why you come to see this 120 - pes screen .
Interaction is the key , as you’re able to see in the following videos . Mooshir Vahanvati created a monolithic 120 - foot stint of powerline with birds who perch when it ’s restrained and scatter when microphones pick up a loud noise :
Vikram Tank created a six - panel director that sync up the crowd ’s claps , snaps and la - Louisiana - las :
Matt Parker ’s “ Caves of Wonder ” took a television feed of the crew from an IP television camera and twisted it into a craggy landscape painting with Processing — part iTunes Visualizer , part Grand Canyon on Mars :
And Alejandro Abreu Theresa Ling combined silohouettes on screen with the shadows of real actors behind the sieve to produce three vignettes of Chelsea ’s unwell past :
Shiffman figure out the controls at the back of the room with a gigantic smile ; he is perhaps the only somebody that could instruct this socio-economic class . He ’s the primary author of the “ Most Pixels Ever ” depository library for Processing , which grant projects to sync up across multiple display seamlessly without delays - and not just your dual - head monitor . Most Pixels Ever is awe-inspiring because it can handle the 6 million pixels of IAC ’s video bulwark without blink away , and without it , this class would not survive in its current shape . All the art - tech nerds thank him as we file out the door .
“ For the students it ’s just such a completely unique experience - it ’s unique for anybody , whether you ’re a grad scholarly person or a professional interior designer . Few mass in the universe have a hazard to work on anything of this graduated table , and what ’s heavy is that I can say to them you could do whatever you require , ” he suppose . “ You check a net ton about technically producing the work , and also what it imply visually to work on that plate . ”
“ I ca n’t imagine that when IAC establish that wall that they imagine performances on it with doer casting shadows behind the screen , so that ’s fantastic . ”
The rest of ITP ’s classes are having their semester - cease show this week in NYC ; find outmore hereand await for our insurance coverage start later this week . [ ITP on the Big Screen ]
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