Concrete Constellations is an interactive sculpture where viewers are invited to peer through a telescope and observe dynamic typography as it floats across the ‘sky’ in the form of zodiac constellations. The telescope is used as a mediator for the spectacle, pointing at a Raspberry Pi screen mounted on the floor above. These textual constellations pay tribute to a 1950s Concrete Art method of writing tokened ‘Concrete Poetry’. More specifically, this piece is an ode to founder, Eugen Gomringer's, 1954 Manifesto, 'From Line to Constellation', in both the textual constellations’ form, as well as their delivery. These zodiac constellations are generated on Processing using JSON data from a Word Associations API and plotted across a digital solar scape.
For the final project, I wanted to play around with this notion of Text as Art and create a piece that utilises typography in a way that was both playful and against traditional art methodologies (See Documentation1). When attending the July Summer Sessions workshop, Machine Poetiques, I learned about the term Concrete Poetry, and how, it strayed away from the custom use of language by placing emphasis on the reduction and arrangement of linguistic elements to give rise to new meaning.
When reading Eugen Gomringer’s Manifesto, concrete poetry was originally called constellations : an ‘arrangement and at the same time a play-area’ of unnecessary words that cluster and create an ‘object’ that can be ‘both seen and used ’. In M.E. Solet’s book Concrete Poetry: A World View, I took a great interest in Emmett Williams’ Sweethearts sequence, and found it fully embodied Gomringer’s manifesto by the way the word ‘sweetheart’ dynamically shifted with each sequence; and it’s form (being a back to front flip book) only added to Gomringer’s idea of an object ‘containing thought but made concrete through play-activity’. For that reason, I wanted to create a piece that would emulate this whilst relating to astronomy through both its linguistic elements (word Associations API concerning stars), generative forms (12 zodiac constellations) and mode of presentation (a telescope).
When contemplating the technical implementation of the piece, it was imperative that I utilised the high ceilings of the exhibiting space in a way that was both novel to my concept as well as complimentary to my fellow exhibitors. For that reason, I requested a location overlooking a mezzanine to point my telescope towards. Once confirmed the space, I took out a 250mm zoom lens from the IT/AV hub and tested out the aerial throw of the space to determine the best telescope to purchase (See Documentations 5). From that I concluded that any telescope with a focal length over 400mm would succeed the throw provided in G01. As a result, I purchased a telescope with a 300mm focal length and three magnification lenses to potentially use (x20, x12.5 & x6). Upon experimentation, x6 magnification lens provided the closest zoom. Now while it was useful to have the phone accessory to document the captured scenes, I felt it would take away the play activity of looking through the telescope itself and make almost the mounted screen redundant.
When coming to the decision of what screen to use, the mystery of where the digital solar scape was coming from became a very important factor of the piece. For that reason, I purchased a 7-inch raspberry pi screen, created a box to fit it into that had a circle face to ensure only the solar scape was in view and installed it behind the railing, onto the existing pillar. Throughout the installation process, I was very weary of my piece not demanding enough attention with the big artworks surrounding it. As a result, I purchased a worker’s tripod to provide a bit more presence, and spray painted the telescope body in a similar colour to give the illusion that they were a pre-packaged item. However, I later learned that the telescope’s existing tripod head could not fit the tripod I had just purchased, so I 3D printed a new tripod head to sit the telescope on its side to allow a better alignment for viewing. I also 3D printed three floor brackets for the tripod feet to slot into as a preventive measure. All four 3D printed pieces were spray painted black along with the screws of the telescope body.
As for the code, I originally came into this project hoping to use Twitter API to gather words to create my concrete poems. However, after gathering the information on VSC I found that undesirable words were being given that bared little to no relevance to constellations. Consequently, I looked into using Spotify and Genius API, though I quickly found that the actual lyrics were not attainable. So, I attempted word scrapping on thesaurus.com yet came across a few roadblocks, before finally settling with Rapid API’s Word Associations API.
After a few wrong searches on Processing’s library manager, I was able to source an HTTP request library to save myself the hassle of passing OSC messages from VSC to Processing- keeping it all in one program. I then installed processing on my Raspberry Pi so that my screen could be used as a computer to run the sketch in real-time, calling the API over the exhibition Wi-Fi and drawing new textual constellations. I tried setting up SSH to allow remote desktop usage to limit the need of dismounting and remounting the raspberry pi screen but found installing Team Viewer the best solution to work on and update my sketch from both G01 and home.
Upon reflection, I’m incredibly proud of myself for creating a piece as originally intended and manipulating the exhibiting space in such a unique manner. Seeing how I had never used a Raspberry Pi before or gathered API data prior to this module and now can confidentially work my way around both feels like a great achievement! Should another opportunity present itself where a second iteration of this project can be made, I will look into making a telescope of my own, similar to the Kaleidoscope works of Olafur Elissaon. I believe in doing this I can create a structure that is perfectly aligned, magnified and unaffected by audience interaction as found during the exhibiting duration.