Video

Organ: Sound and Light Video

Created for the concert Organ: Sound and Light at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church in Toronto, this piece features compositions by Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, organ by Michael Capon and video by Marty Spellerberg.

Watch Suite Du Deuxième Ton!

Suite Du Deuxième Ton

Posted Jun 18, 2007

Call For Participation ~ Suspension Performance

Suspension Performance, by Craig Marshall

Seeking performers, videographers and photographers for street-level performances to be staged late-summer 2007 in downtown Toronto.

During morning rush hour in the financial district, supported by ropes around their midsections, performers will lean at odd angles into pedestrian traffic. Crowds will form to observe, photograph and wonder. After five minutes the ropes will be released and the performers will fall to the ground, collect themselves and disappear into the bustle.

A minimum of four performance/documentation teams are needed for this happening. This follows a successful single-team Suspension performance in November 2006.

About Us

Marketing is a performance art collective based in Toronto Canada who stage non-confrontational performances for audiences traditionally underexposed to the form. Our goal is to develop a framework for performance that can be integrated into and funded by brand advertising.

For information please contact Craig Marshall and Marty Spellerberg.

Watch the November 2006 performance!

Posted Jul 31, 2007

Pyes Video

Pyes

Here’s a video I made this summer for the TIFF ’07 Blogs featuring my friends, Canadian photographers and film makers Nick and Sheila Pye.

Watch the Pyes video!

Posted Oct 01, 2007

Interactive In-Gallery Video Kiosk for Artist Midi Onodera

An interface to display short video clips in a gallery setting.
An interface to display short video clips in a gallery setting.

Interactive Touchscreen Interface using jQuery and HTML5 Video

Playing a video.
Playing a video.

In 2009 artist Midi Onodera created a series of 52 short clips designed for podcasting. I have been fortunate to be involved in this project, providing technical support and new media development. When exhibition opportunities arise, such as Onodera’s recent show at Concordia University in Montreal, we grapple with ways to present these new-media-specific works in the gallery setting. Knowing Concordia had some sweet gear, Onodera chose show this series on a large touch-screen monitor. I designed and implemented the interface using web-standard technologies including jQuery and HTML5 Video.

I have posted the code on Github. It uses a jQuery vertical center function I previously created, as well as some other interface effects. One of my favourite of its features is the randomization: The thumbnails are shuffled as the page is loaded and then each moves to the end of the page upon being selected. At its core are the functions to load and play the clips.

The touch-screen rig.
The touch-screen rig.

Swapping Sources in an HTML 5 Video

The interface provides access to 53 video clips, but rather than giving each its own instance, I set up an single video element, omitting a source.

<video class="video" id="video" controls="" autoplay="" width="640" height="426"></video>

And then, when a video is selected, its source is added in and the element begins to play.

$('.video').attr('src','movies/' + movieNum + '.m4v');
document.getElementById('video').play();

But the strangest thing happened when the next video is loaded and played: The audio from the first clip would play along with the new! I tried all sorts of things, including completely unloading the video element and creating a new one for each cycle, but still the audio could be heard. What a strange bug!

In the end I found it could be solved by, upon closing the clip, pausing the playback and then removing the video source:

document.getElementById('video').pause();
$('.video').removeAttr('src');

All of this can be seen in-context over at Github.

Posted Oct 27, 2011