Transits

2012

Trailer from the 1 hour video

For the work Transits, Ursula Damm filmed the Aeschenplatz in Basel during a period of 24 hours. Every day, thousands of cars, pedestrians and trams pass Basel’s most important traffic junction. “Transits” captures and alienates the recorded stream of motion with an intelligent algorithm that was developed by the artist and her team: It evaluates the audiovisual data and categorizes the patterns of movement and the color schemes. Based on the human memory structure and the visual system, the artificial neuronal network integrated in the software – where every pixel corresponds to one neuron – computes the visual flow. Various perceptional image layers overlap to generate an intriguing visual language in which stationary picture elements compete against the color scene. This begins at night and leads via dawn and noon to dusk; at the same time it is pervaded by arbitrary passersby, by cars, trams and people in the streets. The generative video interprets movements as atmospheres and eventually throws the viewer back to an individual perception of the city.

A detailed description of the algorithms and a further development of a interface for the installation you may find here

Transits has been produced for the exhibition sensing place of the  House of Electronic Arts Basel and is part of the collection of the museum.

close-up on the pedestrian level
People standing at the platform
top view on the Aeschenplatz

Screen print

Konzept der Installation:
Ursula Damm
Vorarbeiten: Matthias Weber
Software: Martin Schneider
Sound: Maximilian Netter