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Excelfie is an experiment where a spreadsheet is used in a new context. It is a simple idea, both conceptually (populate a spreadsheet with numbers that do not actually mean anything but actually perform a graphical representation) and technically:
- take a selfie snapshot
- read each pixel's intensity value (how dark/light it is) from the selfie file
- convert this value into a character (according to the set of characters that you want to use)
- place these characters inside an excel file, each in the corresponding cell, using the image file structure (number of rows and columns) as reference.
Voilà, you have an excelfie!
My original wish was to use only numbers (and the empty cell) but most numbers do not represent the variations in the gray scale so well as other characters, so I am using a mix of numbers and signs such as #, % and +.
You are welcome to download the file. Despite the file extension, it can also be opened using Open Office and Libre Office. ;)
Derivation #1
The experiment has one derivation so far, which is a performance/installation where selfies are typed out using a typewriter. Excelfie - Derivation #1 has been featured at the Post-Digital Publishing Archive, performed at Zine Camp 2017 - WORM/UBIK Rotterdam November 11 & 12 and presented during Berlin Poetry Festival 2018, in the exhibition Types of Typewriting at Oqbo Gallery, curated by Annette Gilbert and Michael Glasmeier, between May 24 and June 23, 2018.
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Addwords is a performance/tool done in collaboration with Max Dovey and Manetta Berends for the event 'The Gig is Up - Cloud Labour Night' at V2_, in Rotterdam.
The tool communicates with the API of Google Adwords - their online
advertising product. Two screens positioned next to the speakers' stage
display a ranking of the 10 most (and least) popular words according to
the data provided by Google. These words are typed live as the speakers
present their talks and are displayed using elements that resemble the
stock market.After the lectures, the Optimization Report is presented, containing
an overview of the results, title suggestions for each lecture and a
generated advert text to promote the Exhibition The Gig is Up.The performance has been reviewed by Metropolis M: Cloudsourcen vanuit het atelier (in Dutch).
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Cassandra is a voice-operated chatbot, aimed at making psychological profiles during the conversations. These profiles are shown as pie charts where every color corresponds to a personality attribute. The graphics are accompanied by a short analysis and a list of companies possibly interested in the profile. In this sense, the bot provides data that can act as a mediator in services like job-seeking and dating. The profile then becomes a digital representation of the user and can be used as a kind of 'digital key' to personalize the relationship between the user and every gadget in the near future of the Internet of Things. Make your life easier, let Cassandra make a digital copy of you.
Presented at Hofpoort as part of the exhibition Tempted by Tomorrow.
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Done in collaboration with Italian filmmaker Agnese Cornelio, Working Title is an interactive installation and performance presented during Rotterdam International Film Festival 2015. Agnese was feeding a database with clips of her film Free to Work during the festival. These clips were tagged according to terms defined by the filmmaker and displayed in an interactive interface. By navigating through the tags and clips, the festival visitors could build their own edited narrative of the film.
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Print Cake is an installation/performance where cupcakes are decorated with a snippet of William Morris' News from Nowhere printed on edible paper with edible ink and sold for customers/visitors.
There are two kinds of cupcakes: the standard and the customized. The former costs less than the latter. In the customized version, customers choose a color and a word, through a simple interface (a one-page website running on full screen browser). The chosen word generates a snippet of text (taken from News from Nowhere) which is then placed onto a designed template and in combination with the chosen color. This is printed on edible paper and placed on top of the cupcake. In the standard version no choices are possible — they all have the same color and just a few variations on the text snippets.
Presented at V2_, Rotterdam, as part of the exhibition Politics of Craft.
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