the Nokia 6230

I've been checking out J2ME using Eclipse and have written a few small apps to familiarise myself with its differences from regular java and C++.

if you've got a Nokia 6230 then goto the game downloads menu and use the address :

http://www.benedictsheehan.com/java

I've been frustrated with sound and have learnt that the code is very platform dependent. Also interesting, reading up on business models.

I've rewritten the Spore 'logo', written a basic Pong game (to go bluetooth at some point) and had a look at camera and image access (not so much joy on the 6230).


To get going on coding phones :

1.Install JDK.
J2SE 1.5 http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/index.jsp

2.Install J2ME Wireless Toolkit 2.2
http://java.sun.com/products/j2mewtoolkit/download-2_2.html

3.Install Eclipse 3
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/index.php

4.Download EclipseME 0.7.0
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=86...blah

5.Then any platform plugins for Eclipse depending on the phone.

ps: my favourite mobile app of all time mygirls. If only I'd had this in my bachelor days! But even for settled couples - this could be a relationship saver!!! (its indicates PMT!!!!!). Apologies for being a bit unPC ;-b

 
Currently just finishing up the visuals in open-GL for a new application for a company called Soda. They're an interesting mix of art and technology, producing creative projects such as SodaPlay

I first came across them when they were letting office space from Studio Fish an excellent creative multimedia company set up by Julie Freeman.

Like myself, several members of Soda and Studio Fish are ex-Middlesex MA Digital Art acquaintances, either students, researchers or teachers.

 
This is just a general post about my teaching work.

One Minute Wonder, Animation Workshops
Organised by Lighthouse and Final Cut, supported by Screen South, the Arts Council England South East, Awards for all, Brighton TV and Cinecity.
We gave 9 participants a very busy weekend of talks/films and workshops in preparation of producing their One Minute Wonders.
read more.


Central St Martins
I spent a year as a visiting lecturer on the MA Future Textiles course at Central St Martins College of Art and Design.

Armed with soldering iron and patience, I was involved in setting briefs for the students and to aid them with relevant technologies.

From flooring which used intellegent plastics in order to change shape to clothing with memory......

Brighton University
More recently, I have been teaching on Sue Gollifer's Brighton university Digital Media Arts PgDip course.

MA and PhD Students, privately
I also teach and support students privately. Specialising in giving technical aid to artists. 'Processing', for RCA MA student, Louisa Stathopoulou and technical assistance for St Martins PhD student Lisa Stead.

 
I recently helped an RCA MA Product Design student with her final project -

Louisa Stathopoulou built an interactive bench. (see we-make-money-not-art review)
When you sat down on the bench you could leave 'virtual' messages via a touchscreen which would then be projected onto the bench next to you along with previous 'sitters' messages.

She had started developing the motion tracking using 'Processing', and she hit problems and was put in touch with me by one of my ex St Martins students.

I have to admit, even though I enjoy the flexibility of programming in C & C++, I was very impressed by the Processing environment. Especially because of its easy transition to web based work.

Watch this space as I'm going to convert some of my webcam based artworks and publish on this webblog!

3/8/05 - actually, I won't be using Processing to do webcam based weblets as you can't access the camera via Processing. There appears to be an additional plugin for java which uses TWAIN (which did you know stood for Technology Without An Interesting Name!!!!) but this wont give proper live access to the camera. So it looks like I'll have to write a Director xtra.

 
As a practising artist and technologist, I exhibit work internationally; my work focuses on lifting the audience/participant from their normal place.

As a digital artist, I feel one challenge is to make digital art accessible. In my interactive pieces, I typically use natural body motion to interact with technology, whether it be walking, jumping up and down, waving an arm, rolling the eyes or twiddling a little finger! This allows people who are techno-shy to access technology and therefore technology used within art. Interactivity makes the passive experience a participation.

My interactive works engage the participants in a creative and intellectual way – and by using intuitive interactive techniques I am able to engage a wider audience, and then to use this engagement to allow the audience/participant to be free to explore their own creativity; their world without and within them.

Having come from a background in illusion; a kiddies magician, an animator, special effects and indeed computer programming! I use this knowledge to trick the audience into participating and interacting with concepts that may engage with.


I have exhibited solo and collaborative work (Spore).

Selected artworks are documented in this blog :

Magic Mirror #2 - The second iteration of this interactive digital art piece, Boston, SIGGRAPH, 2006
Big Head - interactive video installation, Brighton Open House, 2005
Magic Mirror #1 - interactive digital installation, Big Blip 05, Brighton
Histronics - interactive digitl installations, Brighton Open House, 2004
Butterflies - interactive digital installation, AlphaBeta, Brighton Fringe Basement, 2004
Pendulodic - interactive soundscape installation using a pendulum as an instrument, Big Blip 04, Brighton, 2004
Tenth - Art installation, Raphael Cartoon room, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2001
Jam - collaborative exhibit at Fashion Art show, The Barbican, 2001
Material-izations - Interactive exhibit, Propeller-Z Gallery, Vienna, 2001
Digital Runway #1 - Fast Forward,The Kunstlerhaus, Vienna, 1999,
     DR #2 - CCAC Institute. San Francisco, 2000,
     DR #3 - The Grey Area, ICA, London, 2000,
     DR #4 - The Box, British Council, Mexico City, 2002
Feesh - Battenburg Music Festival, Morden Park, London, 1998
Digital Sketchbook - Hyper Hall, Osknehallen, Copenhagen, 1998
Whitenoise - The Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London, 1998
Leige - The OXO Tower, London, 1997
Sounds of resistance - Quicksilver Gallery, London, 1997
We Three - Quicksilver Gallery, London, 1997

 

Magic and Illusion
A magic trick for you ....
click on the image.

I've always been interested in the art of deception ;-) and used to perform magic shows for childrens parties.

I've come to the belief that it all ties in to my interest in animation and special effects!
What is a special effect or an animation but simply a deception? Indeed, most of my art is about deception too. Making things appear to be so when in fact they're not.

It always amazes me how easy it is to deceive the brain; I recently went to the Soho Theatre to watch the 'Theatre of Science' show where my friends Stephen Wolff and Sarah Angliss performed a Theremin duet. Richard Wiseman illustrated the psychology behind 'not seeing' with a simple video.....
Download the quicktime movie psychology test (7.5 MB)
There are two teams passing a basketball. What you have to do is count how many times the players dressed in white pass the ball. Ignore the players dressed in black. Concentrate and count very carefully.

click here after watching the movie...

I'm also a great fan of Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, he talks about the brain in an amusing and accessable way.
Check out these illusions.
And these!

 



Julie Freeman held her Private View for her latest digital artwork.
We had loads of fun, and it was great waking up under the sky.

Click here for Julie's explaination !






I did some of the preliminary work for this project; I produced some fish tracking and visualisation software using webcam capture, C++ & OpenCV.

 

my girls ! Caia, Amber, Molly & Gouttière (last two the cats)

 
Spore

Spore is a collective of six artists and designers from diverse backgrounds including music, animation, fashion, photography, sculpture and design technology who share a common interest in digital media. Spore is keen to establish a reputation for producing work that focuses on the cultural impact of digital media while reflecting its members' multiplicity of histories. Since 1997, Spore have undertaken projects ranging from sound-orientated multi-user work to digital environments.

Spore are:

Julie Freeman
Suzanne Lee
Emma Quinn
Benedict Sheehan
Edwina Umeyor
Stephen Wolff

 
Seeing problems in different lights or putting unconnected parts together in different ways; a way of finding solutions laterally.

Trained in traditional animation, and having an MA in Digital Art, but with a background in innovative software programming and development for both the medical and entertainment industries; I also have had a large number of collaborative and solo art works exhibited in the UK and internationally, including works at SIGGRAPH 2006, the London ICA gallery, the London Victoria and Albert museum, the OXO Tower gallery, the Barbican Gallery, the British Council in Mexico, the KunstlerHaus Vienna, and CCAC in San Francisco.

I'm also a freelance Creative Technologist specialising in 3D and 2D image, surface analysis, tracking and manipulation. I also teach at many levels, from degree to PhD.

Download my CV or see my On-line CV

 
Programming

Ever since my brother and I bought an Acorn Atom in 1981 I have been a programmer.
The Acorn Atom came with 2k RAM (expandable to 12k), had b/w graphics, and ours had a very iffy tape recorder connection. This dodgey connection meant that we couldn't load pre-recorded games! so we spent hours and hours typing in programs from magazines such as BUGBYTE.

We took it turns dictating the code and of course there were loads of mistakes, which is how I learnt to program. 'What happens if you change this bit?' etc etc !

Things have come a long way since those days!

I have since drunk gallons of coffee, lost yards of hair from my head and biten miles off my finger nails programming umpteen lines of code on many different programming projects and platforms.

Acorn Atom, BBC Model B, 6502, BASIC and Assembler
Unisys B22, B39, BTOS II, Cobol
Apple Mac, Metroworks CodeWarrior, C & C++
PC, MS-DOS, Windows, C, C++, Java, Processing, Foxbase, Pearl, Action-Script, Lingo, Visual Basic


see OnLine CV for details