Browse Category: Projects

Demon on off

This light-piece is adding drama to the implicit and restrained art deco style of the Sainctelette bridge between Molenbeek and the center of Brussels. The general lighting of the whole bridge is quite sober. The four demon faces on the inner side of the bridges pillars are lit from below which creates an eery atmosphere, but rather of the cliché kind. One of the faces is now lit in a fast paste tempo that puts some nervous spice in the bridge’s nightly existence.

The work is on view since 2014. I still need to work on installing a sign with motivation, background info and credits.

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Demon relief in context of the bridge pillar and surroundings.

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Metal box containing light fittings

In 2009, when the general LED lighting was provided, Phillips together with Brussels minister for mobility and public works Pascal Smets were proud to announce on the Phillips Newscenter website that the electricity consumption of the new LEDs was “less then the consumption of three vacuum cleaners”.
(In case the site is down or no longer available, I pasted that news in a PDF file which you can read here.)

The information panel next to the bridge reads:

Sainctelette square takes its name from Charles Xavier Sainctelette (1825 – 1898), a liberal politician, an industrialist who was linked to coal merchants in Hainaut and a staunch defender of the Port of Brussels. It dominates the junction between the Willebroek Canal (16th century) and the Chareleroi Canal (1832), two waterways that are complementary but that have distinct histories.

The bridge was built in 1934 by the architect Victor Rogister, and is framed by four large idealised human figures made from blue stone by the sculptor Ernest Wijnants. They are in the Art Deco style, thereby demonstrating one of the styles showcased during the Brussels International exhibition of 1935.

(port.brussels / visit.brussels)

The central theme of the world exhibition was colonisation and the 50th birthday of Congo-Freestate. (the Belgian colony) The style of the bridge is very much in keeping with that of the Exhibition Palace on the Heysel, or even the Basilic of Koekelberg which is further up the road. Typical projects built with money from the colonies.

Creative Politics

Between 6 and 15 october, I participated in a residency organised by LCD lab in Guimarães Portugal focussing on the theme Creative Politics. The participating hackers, artists, theoreticians, developers, designers tackled many ideas in small groups, and some more ideas were being discussed over diners and after hours.

A few axis that dominated our work during the residency:
– Much work was done on the development of digital works and platform. A scenario and demo of an online game was developed in which the player is attributed points helping him or her to succeed as a ‘political manager’
– Thought was dedicated to how to set up strategies to ‘market’ political engagement; how to involve people in the somewhat unsexy work of politics? What about songifying your messages ? (or Rapify if that is your preferred Android app)
– Some people investigated citizen journalism and alternative ways to use information resources. Comparitive News looked at how trustworthy journalistic sources are by comparing news on the same subjects from different resources. Some paperware systematics were drawn for a method to harvest and publish spoken gossip from public places where citizens gather.
– The work on available resources extended to urban space: what basic needs can be provided for when using the city creatively ? Where to find free food and housing ? How can people appropriate hack and shortcut political decision making processes that determine hat can and can not be done in public space? This page served as a collection of interventions and test.
– Yet another related angle was to investigate open data in Portugal. A blog was set up to gather links and report on developments concerning open data.

A much more elaborate version of the above can be found on this etherpad page: http://meetingwords.com/pOAGlGlpEU

Motion front = back

videofile: http://video.constantvzw.org/R+R_divers/testout2.ogv

Two camera’s record in opposite directions: If one looks up, the other looks down. I am playing around with Motion, a software made for surveillance. It seems an easy way to connect multiple usb camera’s and control their behaviour through a simple interface. Motion works with config files. As is explained in this manual; motion needs one general configuration file (motion.conf) from which you point to one configuration file per camera. (through so called ‘threads’) Here are mine (camera left, camera right, general)
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Compass recordings

Three audio files, recorded and mixed using the Compass recorder software and a game controller.
The set up allows to navigate a file structure and play back files while adding new recordings to the mix. This means: no post-mixing in a studio, but looping while walking the streets.

It also means that the audio below is quite rough: mono, recorded on a usb webcam hanging from my backpack in which my laptop is overheating to power the process.

The first on is recorded during a walk through the Brabantstraat, a busy shopping street in Schaarbeek.
The mix is in paste with my walking tempo. Trying to move on and not be obstructed by cars, pedestrians and lots of derivations. 1, 2, 3, 4 …

The following one is recorded in another corner of Schaarbeek, between square Pavillion and Place Verboeckhoven. Although the method is the same, the sounds are very different. Post-industrial, less people, edge off the city sounds.

On Place du Jeu de Balle you can’t really walk, you strawl, stand still linger, hang, turn in circles.
I tried to make that part of the way the mix is made. Less forwarding, more coming back to the same point over and over.


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R+R in De Ochtend

A 5 minute radio report of the Routes+Routines surveillance walk of April 7 was broadcast on VRT Radio1 in the program ‘De ochtend’ on April 13 2011. (Dutch spoken)

Was the moment of broadcast 6.30 am too early for you?
Try grabbing this stream:
mms://wm.streampower.be/vrt/radio1/11_r1_och1_Routes_Routines_130411-snip_med.mp3

Or copy the link below in your favorite media player:
http://video.constantvzw.org/Surveillance/de-ochtend-13-04-2011.mp3

Routes+Routines Recyclart

4 R+R walks in the center of Brussels. Starting from Recyclart, 4 x 10 participants followed a walk along different aspects of camera surveillance.

Description on page Recyclart: http://www.recyclart.be/content/view/14269/1/lang,fr/

ingredients of the walk:

– radio controlled car fitted with small camera, mimicking the Lunar Rover
– balloons fitted with small camera, mimicking Google satelite
– capture wireless surveillance video, tv, and other 2.4ghz video signals
– visit Parking Panorama, discuss panorama painting and 360 degrees camera’s
– show ‘the making of’ video about ‘A street with a view’
– distribute Ambient tv’s ‘CCTV Filmmakers Manifesto’

Download the PDF of the handout given to the participants.

All images can be found on the CONSTANT Gallery
A choice:


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