(no subject)
Ingredients:
appr. 400 floppy-disks (the 'new' 3,5-inch, not the old 'floppy' ones);
the oldest computer you can get, nothing better than windows95;
a 'good' computer, with photoshop and processing, that can handle complex operations;
some programmingskills;
a digital camera;
a tripod;
a source of light, any;
spare time, loads of it;
a clear head;
patience, beyond count;
Preparations:
The preparation of this dish takes just a couple of series of easy-to-follow-up steps. Easy as it may seem, the endresult promises to be a load of fun, lasting for over half a year!
The first step consists of the programmingbit. I'm sure it sounds scary, but after this it all gets easier! Take Processing or any other programmerslanguage which you may think is more suitable, and write a code that specifies an image that's recorded on a floppydisk. It has to state that whenever the loadingoperation fails, it should load an in between piece of text. After much trial and error, asking for help from others and not getting the help you need except from the guy you didn't really wanted to help you anyway, you'll get there. Trust me.
Following this step comes a testing fase. It takes a while.
Step two: the actual pictures.
Organizing! Get all your equipment together, position them so you'll spare the most amount of time and movement. I would recommend a neutral background, such as paper, or something with more texture like a cloth. Position your camera, set the light, don't move anything! Check if when taking a picture the angle is right, and that you'll end up with photo's standing up, not lying down. Next, take a picture, from the first disk. Turn it over, take another photo. Put the disk back (be careful of the order they're in!) and take the next one. Take a photo. Turn. Take photo. Put back. Place new. Take photo. Turn. Take photo. Put back. Place new. Take photo. Turn. Take photo. Put back. Place new. You get the picture (no pun intended!), this goes for all of the disks.
Next step is loading all the pictures to you good computer. Wait. A long time.
Then make a Photoshopbatch that tells to resize every picture to 400x600, with a resolution of 180 px/inch. Again, wait. By the way, if you get tired of pushing the return-button all the time, just put any heavy object (I used my salt can) on top of it. It'll get you some warnings, just ignore them and go watch some telly.
Next step consists of preparing the disks to be loaded with your newly taken and edited shots! Open a Windows Explorer Window and browse to your a-drive. Take a pile of floppies (again, take care of the order!). Load a floppy and quickformat them by rightclicking your mouse. Eject the floppy. Do this with all the floppies.
Next, open two windows of Windows Explorer on your good computer. Position them so you can use them at the same time and don't have to switch that often. Take the pile of floppies (after this, the order isn't that important anymore) en load one in your computer. Drag the first set of photo's to your a-drive. Rename them to "1.jpg" and "2.jpg". Take out the disk. Insert a new one and drag the next two photo's to it. Same goes for the rest of the photo's and disks. If you took the amount of floppies I suggested in the list of ingredients, you're to do the same operation about twohunderd times. Just to let you know.
Now get your previously programmed application to the old computer. It won't work immediately, so try some updates or downgrades, whatever suites you.
Load a disk, start the app, and see the wonders and marvels you created in just over three weeks! (Don't be scared of any weird noises, that comes with the oldness of the hardware you're using.)
To see a demonstration of this lovely dish, come to the MBRT-institute (Medisch Beeldvormende en Radiotherapeuthische Technieken) in Groningen on November the 8th, five a clock, or the half year following that.