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Dima has just finished making me this super powerful new All-in-one Tagtool (and it’s left handed of course!). I’m so pleased with it that I thought I’d do a posting showing how he made it. With the lid on it measures 52.5 x 77.5 x 27.5 cms and is made using the Adam Hall Easy Case System. The computer fits inside this flight case and the Wacom tablet and Tagtool are attached underneath the (removable) drawing surface that fits inside the lid. There is enough space under the drawing surface next to the computer to store all the cables and also the projector – and even with all this inside I can still lift it by myself (just!)Fitting together all the components for the computer – the part of the process that I know Dima likes best! He decided to use a very cheap (and therefore light) computer case for this.Next came the measuring and cutting of the material for the flight case – a much less less exciting task and very important to do accurately!Then all the parts just had to be slotted together and riveted in place.

The photos below show how we fitted the Wacom tablet into the work surface – and fortunately there was just enough of the aluminium strips left over from making the case to make the two ‘rails’ (which fitted perfectly!) to hold the tablet in place.The next task was to make the back so that the drawing surface would be sloping when in use. (The hinge came off an old mirror that we found on a rubbish dump…as usual, no project of ours is complete without a bit of recycling!)After that Dima drilled and cut this plastic work surface in order to fit the sliders, arduino and the big red button for the Tagtool.Then it was time to solder all the wires for the Tagtool – another tricky operation requiring patience and concentration!Below is a view of the interior of the flight case showing the luggage straps that secure the computer in position inside.This photo shows the finished case all packed up and ready to go. It is lockable, has extra side handles for easy carrying and air vents in the base for the fans when the computer is running.I’m really looking forward to using it – and as we have two performances in Prague this week, at DOX Gallery on Wednesday evening and at the Meetfactory on Saturday night as part of the Lunchmeat Festival, Dima has finished my new Tagtool just in time!

For our second evening jam session I asked Dima to adjust the projectors so that our drawing area would be larger. This was not a problem, but then videoing the session was not so easy as one of our camera lenses was wide angle and the other not wide enough to capture the whole drawing area. So – the video for this session had some problems but fortunately Dima took some still photos as well. Here is a selection.The two photos below show a nice example of the interesting effect that can be achieved using a very slight fade to produce a transparent version of a previously solid image.Here is another short sequence.And here is the ‘final scene’ from our jam session.

As promised in the last posting, here is a short clip of part of our Tagtool performance on 3 January at Cafe Wendel, Berlin.

Frances Sander (tagtool)
Dimitri Berzon (video)
Edith Steyer (sax)
Manuel Miethe (sax)
Michael Esch (sax)

The Berlin clubcafe Wendel hosts a Tagtool session once a month as part of their evening events programme and we were very pleased to be invited by Andreas Dzialocha to perform there. Wendel is a very nice venue – definitely worth checking out if you are in Berlin.As usual, setting up everything is Dima’s job so I had time to take a few photos before sitting down to draw. During the performance Dima took some video which I will put in my next posting but for the rest of the photos below I have to thank our friends Ernst Altmann and Markus Dorninger who came and kindly agreed to take photos for me.The three musicians – Edith Steyer, Manuel Miethe and Michael Esch.And, just for the record, a couple of shots of me and Dima ‘in action’!

Our Tagtool performance was a real jam session – although the three musicians knew each other and had played together on previous occasions they had no time to rehearse or to practise working with the drawn and video images before the performance began.There is no doubt that having live music and a receptive audience is definitely the best recipe for an enjoyable Tagtool performance!

For this posting I have chosen just a few images from the (literally) hundreds that Ernst took during the performance.

The photos above provide a much more vivid impression of my Tagtool drawing than they do of Dima’s underlying video but I think that the images below capture something of the interaction between the two mediums.Both the musical accompaniment and the length of this performance meant that I had an opportunity to exploit the full range of the mark-making possibilities of the Tagtool – and so it seemed appropriate that not all of my drawing was figurative. Below are two sets of stills from some of the more abstract sequences. I am certain that the stimulus provided both by the music and the video clips enabled me to produce a more interesting and wider range of images than would have been possible had I been drawing alone.To obtain a more complete view of the different ‘episodes’ in the drawing sessions I have arranged all of Ernst’s photos into 14 photo albums. Click here for the link.

рождественская елка
Christmas tree

Installation and Tagtool drawing
by Frances and Dima
December 2010

We wish everyone a Happy New Year – and lots of great Tagtooling in 2011!

We have just returned from Berlin where we were performing at Cafe Wendel. I have lots of photos and some video footage from this event and will be doing a posting about it in the next couple of days.

Dima has just returned from the Node10 Forum for Digital Arts in Frankfurt where he was enrolled on the week long workshop on projection mapping.

He used this Tagtool animation as a texture to map on some blocks of polystyrene. The photo below shows the studio set up for this workshop with the two course tutors, Chris Plant and Elliot Woods in the foreground.He learned a lot about vvvv in the workshop and found the Node10 Forum extremely interesting. Now he is planning to build a small environment in a corner of our studio on which to practise what he has learned about projection mapping. Although this is all very spectacular I think I will just stick to the drawing……

This is a VERY SPECIAL posting. Malu and Maki got married!

After the wedding ceremony in the beautiful and historic Schloss Atzenbrugg, family and friends got together for an evening of serious partying at Gasthof Pree in nearby Asperhofen. At Gasthof Pree the food and drink was superb; there was wedding cake, champagne, music and dancing all night long – and of course, lots of Tagtooling. In between all this eating, drinking, dancing and drawing I did manage to remember to take some photos – as usual, many of them out of focus….why does this always happen at parties, I wonder? The photos below show some of my drawings from the Tagtool session at the beginning of the evening.The newly-weds lead the dancing!In this set of photos I am drawing and Holger is doing the animation.

In the next part of the evening’s entertainment, with Philip seated at the piano, Christian took up the microphone….with maki and iink on Tagtool, cue the appearance of a very special wedding guest – Hilti!I was sorry that I didn’t take any video of this performance, but instead here is a little collage of Hilti photos. Look closely and you can see that Hilti has the wedding rings…After this performance it was time for a Tagtool open session – and then the partying continued until dawn!Definitely a night to remember!

At last – Dima has edited the final video!
No performance at the Kunstwerkstatt by the Tulln Tagtool crew would be complete without the appearance of Hilti – and in this video, the finale, he duly appeared. The President also arrived….(Maki and iink – Tagtool and animation, with Christian Reiner – voice).

Additional sound and backgrounds provided by Steve Buchanan (foot drumming), Chann (electronics) and Frances (Tagtool).

As promised, Dima has now edited more of the footage from the ‘Wassergasse @ Kunstwerkstatt’ performances. This clip features Christian Reiner (voice) and Steve Buchanan(foot drumming/dance) and as in the previous posting, the Tagtool performance is by Maki, iink and Frances.

I hope that Dima will get the remaining footage edited soon so that I can do another posting!