Floo, 2001, computer work using digital software c++ application of Navier-Stokes equation,
Courtesy Bitforms, NYC
GOLAN LEVIN
Floo
(1999-2001) is an interactive audiovisual environment constructed around a
Navier-Stokes simulation of fluid flow. Users create synthetic sound and image
by depositing a series of fluid sources across the terrain of the screen, and
then steering a large quantity of particles through the flow field established
by these singularities. An image is gradually built up from the luminescent
trails left by the particles. The shapes of these trails are entirely a result
of the forces originating from the user’s cursor and the fluid singularities.
As the particles tread again and again over a given location, that spot becomes
brighter and brighter. A custom software granular synthesizer whose
sound-particles move in a circular pitch space sonifies Floo.
Golan
Levin is an artist, composer, performer, and engineer interested in developing
artifacts and events that explore supple new modes of reactive expression. His
work focuses on the design of systems for the creation, manipulation and
performance of simultaneous image and sound, as part of a more general inquiry
into the formal language of interactivity, and of non-verbal communications
protocols in cybernetic systems. Levin's work spans a variety of online,
installation and performance media. He is known for the conception and creation
of Dialtones [2001], a concert in which
sounds are wholly performed through the carefully choreographed dialing and
ringing of the audience's own mobile phones. Previously, Levin was granted an
Award of Distinction in the Prix Ars Electronica for his Audiovisual Environment Suite
[2000] interactive software and its accompanying audiovisual performance, Scribble [2000]. Most
recently, Levin and collaborator Zachary Lieberman premiered Re:Mark [2002],
an interactive installation and performance that uses augmented-reality
technologies to create a multi-person, real-time visualization of its
participants' speech and song. Levin received undergraduate and graduate degrees
from the MIT Media Laboratory, where he studied with John Maeda in the
Aesthetics and Computation Group. Between degrees, he worked for four years as
an interaction designer and research scientist at Interval Research Corporation.
Levin resides in