The Light Herder
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The Light Herder Device is now 4K with analog hue/saturation/brightness/contrast knobs controlling five 4K screens!<br>The operator at the helm of the Device plays god with light and recursion, using high definition analog video feedback fractals to create spirals<br>within spirals, loops within loops, galaxies, cell structures, strands of DNA, trees, insects, tentacled primordial creatures, and classic fractal images.
When the camera sees itself, a universe is born.
See the Device in Make Magazine, on Boingboing, on Hackaday, again on Make Magazine, on Boingboing again, on Kottke, again on Hackaday, on Slaschcam, on Reddit, watch an artist's interpretation, read a review by Rich Walkling, and read an in-depth analysis by Armaan Ahmed.
"It really is quite tangled...very impressive. Lots of wonderful<br>fern-like stuff, also some jellyfish-like stuff, and the Sierpiński<br>gasket now and then. Congratulations!"<br>- Email from Douglas Hofstadter
"I like what you are doing very much. It's fascinating. Reminds me of<br>the days when I was playing - experimenting - discovering."<br>- Email from Heinz-Otto Peitgen
Check out more videos, explanations, and a detailed account of building and testing the Device on my blog: Forward Chronology / Reverse Chronology.
4K Resolution Finally Achieved!
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Custom 4K screens with analog hue/saturation/brightness/contrast knobs make doing finely controlled analog 4K video feedback possibile for the first time.
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An Exciting New Development: 4K?
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MOMENT Exhibition Video Extract
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No computers were injured (or used) in the creation of these images. This is a segment of a video commissioned by Filip Ivarsson and Carl Fredrik Emrik to be projected on a loop during their MOMENT Exhibition in Copenhagen, Denmark, on April 25, 2025.
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Trapping Images in Feedback Loops & Creating Galaxies
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Linear Bearings that Rotate: Perfection Achieved! (2024)
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Real-time Fractals King Hell Edition
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Fractals and the Remote Fish Tank
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Here, live images of fish are used as the secondary input on the Video Feedback Device, influencing the fractals being made.<br>Music:<br>Girls Against Boys, Satin Down<br>St. Vincent, Broken Man (instrumental)
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God Machine II, Sleater-Kinney Version (2023)
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A Delicate Interplay Between Color and Luminance: New Build Practice #1, One Monitor, One Camera (2024)
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Adding Complexity - Light Communicating with Light, Spirals Made of Spirals Within Spirals: New Build Practice #2, Four Monitors, Three Cameras, Secondary Input (2024)
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The God Machine II (2023)
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Made<br>of maple, mahogany, aluminum, three cameras, five HD feedback monitors, three Roland video switchers, two viewing monitors, two<br>sheets of beam splitter glass, and a video input.
The device now has two monitor structures.
Both structures have two HD monitors (with analog hue/contrast/saturation knobs) at right angles to one another, with a sheet of beam splitter glass between them. The feedback loop between these two monitors, the reflection in the glass, and the camera, creates fractals in real-time, without a computer.
Using the video switchers, the left monitor structure can interact with the right monitor structure, and vise-versa. When they both interact with each other at the same time, yet another feedback loop is created, producing unexpected and strange results.
There is also a feedback loop between the third camera and the rotating<br>HD monitor. The output of this loop can be folded into the other loops.<br>Music:Toyo y Moi, The Medium
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Insanity Mode: Fractals Made of Fractals Made of Fractals... (2023)
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In this mode of the Video Feedback Kinetic Sculpture, each of the four monitors effects every other monitor, and the image on the left is composed of the image on the right, while the image on right is composed of the image on the left - all at once (they create each other!) - making fractal sets within fractals sets within fractal sets within fractal sets...
Here, there's a feedback loop between two cameras and two monitor structures (each monitor structure has a top and bottom monitor with a sheet of beam splitter glass between the two). There's also a feedback loop between the monitor structures themselves, where the image created on the left structure is sent to the right structure, while the image created on the right structure is sent to the left structure.<br>Music: the Kingdom of Leisure
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Ty and Dave use the Device at the Palm Beach Cultural Council Gallery (and other weirdness)
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