Joe McKay

Recent Projects Resume Press Links Writing

Recent Projects

How to avoid Gmail Ads instructional website
Real Time
Avoid
The Story of ALH84001,0 [an interactive presentation with its own website]
segway accident animations
MapJack car
googleStreet view van
Cell Phone Sculptures
Platformer
Return of Balance
UFO images
Sunset Solitaire
Progress Bar
Press Enter to Exit
Accidental MPEGs
The Colour Game
Robots NoFollow
SuperBreakout Remix
Audio Pong

Page 2

Big Ups
Enter Okay
The Infinite Fill Show
Prereview
Kinetic computer sculptures

Upcoming and Current events
I made a website that is now hosted at bestpageontheinternet.com. As you can imagine, it's awesome.
Click here if you're looking for the digital art 2 website.

How to avoid Gmail's Sponsored Links
A website with instructions for avoiding targeted gmail ads. (It's easy!)

Realtime
Realtime is a proposed website and PDA/ cellphone application that reconnects us with time. Realtime was my 2008 Rhizome Commision Proposal.
Update: Both iphone application and website are well under way. Sorry, no peaking until it's ready for prime time. Keep checing back! in the interm you can take a gander at the original proposal.

Avoid
Avoid is currently on display at Pace University.
Avoid has it's own website HERE.

Animations of people falling off Segways

I have a Segway rant about how f*&%#ng stupid they are on my writings page.

MapJack car

MapJack is a company that is maping cities much like Google is. This image (and the google image below) are created entirely from the pictures of the vehicle reflected in store windows in San Francisco. I have made photo prints of this image that are 24" x 18".

Google Street view van

This Google "steet view" van image is created entirely from reflections of the van in store windows in San Francisco.

Cell Phone Sculptures

This is an ongoing series of sculptures made from old discarded cell phones.

HeadPhones
These two phones are set on the "pick a ring tone" mode. A hole has been drilled through the plastic so the speakers project into the sphere. An arduino has be programed to toggle between two songs on each phone. While the songs have been carefully chosen, the switching is done randomly, so the song is ever changing. The result is a soundscape that is both beautiful and highly annoying. Here's a sample.

The cell phone piano. Each key on the keyboard is wired into a key on a cell phone - as you play, you are also dialing. The channels are mixed together and amplified through speakers. Every sound the piano makes is generated by one of the four phones. The white keys play notes and the black keys are people saying the number out loud - English on the left hand and Spanish on the right. Some white keys were left over and I made those percussion instruments (the "*", "END", and "#" keys).
MOVIE (Sorry, I have no keyboarding skills what-so-ever).

Cellular Panda Bears. Nobody who has ever owned this phone uses any of the other animations as their wallpaper, the pandas are that beautiful. They have a nice lumber to their gait, it's definitely not a "Sprint". The circuit behind the phones clicks every few seconds, triggering the "end" button on one phone and the "CLR" button on the other - otherwise the bears eventually stop walking. The dual tones create a pleasing chord. The phones are reclining on lawn chairs as if they are on vacation, but the I.V. lines and metronome machine behind them looks like they might be on dialysis. Maybe they are on dialysis while on vacation?

This phone was chewed on by something during it's short life, probably a dog. I removed and repositioned the screen, which still turns on but only produces an eerie yellow glow. The phone is sitting on a slowly rotating platform (motor from a salvaged Epson C80). The display turns off with inactivity, so once a rotation a magnetic reed switch triggers the "0" button on the phone, turning the screen back on. MOVIE

Telegraph Phones - flip phones connected to telegraph keys. A solenoid inside the base snaps the phones open and closed. There are two sets of keys and phones and naturally one key will operate the other phone. At last, we can use these things to communicate with one another!
Don't believe me? MOVIE

audio cell In this particular piece I drilled a hole through the screen, then made a little gallery wall to hang this tiny flat panel abstract artwork. Behind the wall sits the phone on a small wooden scaffolding. A C-clamp serves double duty by both holding the phone on the scaffold, and pressing a button that keeps the display turned on.

This phone is activated by a foot pedal from a drum kit. The phone's audio is routed through speaker, and when you press the pedal you hear the annoying cell phone opening noise. I owned this phone and loved that I could produce the most annoying sound in the world wherever I went. It's no longer portable, but the speakers make it nice and loud, and the foot pedal leaves your hands free.

MOVIE

Update! As you can see from the pictures, this phone has gone through some changes. This new version uses an LED to illuminate the screen, and the water is a little more pool-like. The original phone was donate to me by Jenifer Wofford - many thanks Jenifer. The sun on the screen is actually created from burned out pixels on the original phone.

The LED runs off the cell phone's battery in this graveyard piece. The most recent version is on the left - the LED is much dimmer now, producing a light that looks more like moonlight than a streetlight.

Platformer

Platformer is a looping video. Click here for a sample clip of one of the scenes. the total running time of the video is about 8:50, this clip is only a couple of minutes.

Return of Balance

This video game project is a collaboration with Greg Niemeyer and our programmer Nik Hanselmann

Formerly known as "Okay Donuts", The Return of Balance requires the player to use subtle shifts in weight to control a virtual platform. Players use the platform to deflect bouncing balls into colored hoops. Like any good video game, it gets harder as you go along.
Unlike most video games, it requires the player to find and control their center of gravity. The above image is from the Worth Ryder Gallery in Berkeley. Here's a short video showing the game in action.

Currently the game is being installed in Cairo at the Falaki Gallery. There is a new element in the game now - a wild card. In another part of the exhibition a wall bisects a room that's full of balls. As balls are tossed over the wall, wildcard balls are interjected into the game. Of course leave a bunch of balls around and new games are bound to spring up too. These images show what looks like an impromptu version of "blind multi-ball volleyball". I wish I was there to see it in person. That's not entirely true, I wish I was there to play (and win).

UFO No.1-7 click any image to enlarge
Hello GOOGLE image UFO searchers! Yes these have been photoshopped! Don't panic. send me an email if you want.

If you see a UFO, act normal. Go about your day-to-day. Try not to stare too long. The UFOs are always there. UFO #3, for example, is in the parking lot of the Home Depot in Emeryville. Say hello for me next time you're there.
These images are a series of digital c-prints 18"x24", mounted on aluminum.
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Enter Okay

These are a few images from a collection of photographs of modified ATM machines. They all come from The Berkeley Bowl, a local supermarket.

There's a cacophony of wonderful problems here. [my new years resolution is to stop saying "perfect storm of ..."] First, the word ENTER on the green button wore off. Then in most cases it was replaced with the word "OK". Why? Because the text on the ATM is misleading, saying something like ENTER OKAY. There's also a YES button that had to be taped over, just to make things more fun.

I'm finding these all over the place now, so look for this to be an ever expanding database. I spoke to a cashier who'd made one of the signs who said he used to give away free candies to whomever used the ATM without messing something up. He said he gave away about two candies a day. Eventually he got bored of that game and made a sign (picture coming soon).
If you see one, let me know - I'll go photograph it.

Click on an image to enlarge.
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Sunset Solitaire

In this performance/video I've written a program on my computer that lets me mix the sunset live. I have three gradient fields that I can constantly change with specially devised hardware. I then project from my computer onto a garage in a field behind my studio. I did this a few times - each time I went back to the studio and messed with the software, and each time I got a little better at the game.
On my last attempt I videotaped the session, mixing for both an audience and the camera. The result is a 35 minute tape that takes us from a point when there is too much ambient light for the illusion to really work, to almost complete darkness. Chris Ashley wrote a nice article about my work which featured this piece.

Thanks to Jaime Cortez for the camera work.

This short quicktime is edited together from the final video.

The Big Job

UPDATE - the Big Job is larger untethered and going to England! There's even a video! The bar is now controlled by an Arduino.

After several failed attempts over the years the progress bar is finally here. The bar is moved by a stepper motor which is connected to the computer. The computer screen displays a message which changes as the bar gets closer to completion. As you can see, Ico is very in favour of this trend towards kinetic sculpture.

Update: The Big Job (note the new title) is in a show called Code Reside at VertexList starting June 11th 2005. I've toned down the graphics somewhat so they no longer compete with the bar (the real star). Installation shots to follow.
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The Colour Game
The Colour Game is an interactive computer installation. In this 2 player game each person controls three sliders: a red, green and blue. The players uses these sliders to try and match their colour to the "target" colour before their opponent does. The game is easy to learn, addictive, yet hard to master.
There are fifteen different levels and animations but the goal is always the same. A player who spends time with the game will come away with a deeper understanding of the nature of light and colour. Mixing the colour is counterintuitive to the uninitiated because you are mixing light not pigment (for example: adding red and green will make yellow not brown).
I debuted The Colour Game at Smack Mellon Gallery in Brooklyn, New York in the summer of 2003. I presented it again at Wee Works in Toronto in the spring of 2004, it spent the summer at the Berkshire Museum in a show entitled "The Presence of Light", and I showed it this fall in "Game Overture II", a fun one night show curated by Free 103.9.

Click here to download a more comprehensive pdf
Click here for a short quicktime of the Colour Game in action.

Accidental MPEGs

Accidental Mpegs are a collection of short video clips taken by mistake. The clips were shot on digital still cameras when the photographer accidentally switched to movie mode instead of still mode. I intend for this piece to act as both an installation where the viewer can pick their own clips, and as a curated selection for single channel viewing.

I discovered this phenomenon while working as a macintosh consultant, and have been collecting them ever since. Everyone who has contributed has consented to their use in my artwork. If you have accidental mpegs and would like to contribute (anonymously or not) please send them to me at joester5@mac.com.

Holland Cotter of the New York Times said that "The results have the unflattering awkwardness of old-time candid snapshots and are just as funny and touching."
Click here for my press page with the full review

UPDATE: the Mpegs now have thier own page with more clips avalible for viewing.

Robots NoFollow

Robots NoFollow is a five minute single channel video that seeks to answer the question "Is it better to be a person controlled by a robot or a robot controlled by a person?

Here's a youtube vesion of the video. The sound got a bit messed up during the compression and the subtitles are hard to read, but it's still fun to watch.

SuperBreakout Remix 2001

SuperBreakout Remix 2001 is a video that documents an audience participation performance. Part of the fun of both the video and the performance itself is that it's hard to figure out what's going on exactly, which make writing about it (yet another step removed) particularly difficult. In Super Breakout Remix 2001 a remake of the classic video game is overlaid on top of a live video feed of the performers. There is another participant off camera who is playing the game. All the participants are watching the same thing that we are watching in the video. The participants are holding blocks that match the size shape and colour of the virtual blocks in the game, and they're role is to make their block turn colour and eventually disappear as the ball hits the blocks.
Yeah, I know, it's confusing. Maybe a short quicktime clip will help.

Audio Pong

Audio Pong is everyone's favorite video game re-made with microphones instead of joysticks. The louder you talk, the higher your paddle goes - the quiter you are, the lower. The result is an audience participation performance duet. Audio Pong was made with Macromedia Director for Macintosh and toy Karaoke machines from Radio Shack. It debuted in The Electric Donut with Kristin Lucas in 2001.
Go on and click on this quicktime clip