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Watching Formations

Watching Formations is an adhoc title for a system artwork/installation I created for DXARTS 482 during my final quarter at UW. The work examines community and identity formation in the presence of surveillance systems. Several software tools were used to bring this project to life - TouchDesigner, StableDiffusion, Flask, and Markovify were of particular importance. The project’s source code can be found on GitHub. Special thanks to Tivon, Laura, and Zoe for their help in shaping this project.

A fine-tuned StableDiffusion model trained on Insecam screengrabs generates CCTV imagery based on bodies detected in the space.

In another state, the system displays a log of words that attendees have clicked in a web interface. The web interface was hosted on the DXARTs GPU server, and displayed infinite Markov-Model musings.

The system latches onto a face in the room and reconstructs it in its SVD form.

Opposite the projector, my laptop ran the client code. On display are the server’s logs, a QR code which linked to the web interface, and a state transition diagram documenting the system. A device, mounted on the wall, played a low 60 Hz buzz.

Here is a closer look at the corporal form of this system work.