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The Curious Cabinet

· 5 min read

Interactive digital exhibit for the Florence Arts Centre's Fruitful exhibition - 19th Feburary - 29th March 2022.

The Curious Cabinet is an interactive digital installation for the Florence Arts Centre 's exhibition: Fruitful which runs from 19th February - 29th March 2022.

Description of work​

Just as fruit attracts animals to feast and carry off seeds, this Curious Cabinet tempts visitors to play a while and hopefully carry away thoughts that interactive digital exhibits such as this deserve a place among the more traditional arts.

Here a repurposed charity shop cabinet, discarded TV, webcam and Raspberry Pi (inexpensive mini-computer) have been coded to life to reflect viewers as colourised continuously-scrolling artworks.

This piece has been developed from my ongoing experiments with Javascript and “Slit Scanning” - an old film effect used to build static images from a stack of thin slices taken from each frame.

A colourful smear
A trip to Age UK charity shop furnished me with an old telly and a lovely cabinet to work with.
The Raspberry Pi is a tiny computer that can be programmed to do all sorts
After some cardboard prototypes my friendly shed-based robot cuts a frame and control panel.
One of the cabinet's footplates is repurposed to integrate the look of the webcam.
I wired a rotary dial into the Raspberry Pi to give visitors a little control over the artwork.
The whole thing is secured to a large base to stabilise the weight of the TV at the back.
I love the mix of old and new provided by keeping the original wallpaper backing.
Twistin' like taffy!
I've programmed the colour tint to cycle through a vivid range.
That is the face of someone trying to look like they are not taking a photo!
How many eyes?
I think it's perhaps the emergent abstract images I like the best.

Slit Scanning​

As it is explained on Wikipedia slit scanning started out as a manual artistic technique using a slit to expose thin strips onto the film.

The most comprehensive write up on slit scanning I found was compiled by the inspirational Artist Golan Levin and can be found here: http://www.flong.com/archive/texts/lists/slit_scan/ .

The web page linked above contains source code to produce the effect using a bit of software called Processing .

Another of my digital art inspirations is Dan Shiffman and his youtube channel: The Coding Train . If you want to understand slit scanning more and learn to code it yourself, his video is an excellent place to start.

Technology used​

In the video above Dan explains how to create the slit scan effect using a Javascript library called p5.js . If you would like to dip a toe into the world of creative coding I can think of no better place to start than with p5.js. It has an amazing community all focused on making coding accessible and inclusive for everyone.

  • I did use Javascript running in an html page to make my version, but not with p5.js this time.
  • I used a Raspberry Pi mini-computer to run the code. The Raspberry Pi has lots of advantages:
    • Allows me to add physical controls.
    • Can be set up to automatically display the artwork.
    • Withstands being shut off and started up by flicking the socket power switch.
    • Really small, so easily hidden withing the piece.
    • Relatively cheap - this one cost me £40 from Pimoron i.
  • I used Electron.js To control the html page so it fills the screen without all the gumpf a browser usually shows at the top.
  • To get the push and turn inputs to control the web pages I used Node.js and Socket.io .
    • It was my first time tring to add phyical inputs like this and couldn't be happier with how it went. Socket.io worked exactly as advertised.

Electron , Node , Socket.io and Raspberry Pi OS (the software running on the Pi to make it just like using a PC) are all amazing, free and open source software.