Entertainment

Live Video Editing App Turns the World into Op Art

 

by @mike_n5 // always tag #geometricam #geometricamapp for a chance to be featured here

A photo posted by GeometriCam (@geometricamapp) on

Instagram has its limits. You can retro-fy photos and images, but can’t remix them into arty geometric abstractions. With GeometriCam, by Giuseppe Capozzo, you can.

Rather than just being able to apply the effects retroactively after you’ve taken an image, GeometriCam uses the iPhone’s camera as a live video source and generates a range of effects, like a vortex, pixels, triangles, diamonds, turning your world into abstract compositions in real-time. You can also change the parameters, shape settings, colors, the brightnesses of the primaries, saturations, and even the parameters according to byte size, ranging from 1-bit upwards.

Videos by VICE

It works on both images video, and your camera roll, meaning you can create a short, glitchy video just by pointing your camera at, say, a coffee cup, refine it as you see fit, and then save the video for further tinkering.

The app’s immediacy becomes addictive—once you’ve figured out how to use the patterns, variations, and filters, you feel like a master of augment reality. One can easily imagine this being fed into VR goggles, allowing you to dive into a world straight out of a Philip K. Dick story.

 

Look into my eyes by @mike_n5 // always tag #geometricam #geometricamapp for a chance to be featured here

A photo posted by GeometriCam (@geometricamapp) on

Capozzo says, as well as wanting to add a touch of surrealism to the everyday, he also took inspiration from the Op art movement of the mid-60s, artists including Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley, and Josef Albers. “The true pioneers of modern computational design, but without computers,” Capozzo calls them. “One cannot deny the influence of this aesthetic on the new generations of ‘creative coders’ and I wanted to pay my humble tribute, given that I’ve often wondered what these artists would have made with an iPhone as their creative tool of choice.”

Capozzo uses Albers’ quote “Abstraction is real” on the PR copy for the app. It’s taken from the line, “For me, abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. I’ll go further and say that abstraction is nearer my heart. I prefer to see with closed eyes.”

Which is apt, because the fizzing real-time patterns on GeometriCam are reminiscent of those closed-eye hallucinations you get with eyes shut in a darkened room or staring with lids closed at bright lights.

To see what kind of compositions you can create, check out GeometriCam’s Instagram where users have submitted some inspired creations. We’ve featured a few examples below:

 

Wreck it now by @hivanfuentes // always tag #geometricam #geometricamapp for a chance to be featured here

A photo posted by GeometriCam (@geometricamapp) on

 

Geometric Woof-Woof!!! by @pink_lab_power // always tag #geometricam #geometricamapp for a chance to be featured here

A photo posted by GeometriCam (@geometricamapp) on

 

•Malfunction• by @ferver_clothing_co // always tag #geometricam #geometricamapp for a chance to be featured here

A photo posted by GeometriCam (@geometricamapp) on

 

BB-8 by @mmartinkkinberg // always tag #geometricam #geometricamapp for a chance to be featured here

A photo posted by GeometriCam (@geometricamapp) on

 

GeometriCam vs @pixiteapps by @lulutanata // always tag #geometricam #geometricamapp for a chance to be featured here

A photo posted by GeometriCam (@geometricamapp) on

 

S ku ll by @leftfield_corn // always tag #geometricam #geometricamapp for a chance to be featured here

A photo posted by GeometriCam (@geometricamapp) on

 

•da funk• by @ncesardsgn // always tag #geometricam #geometricamapp for a chance to be featured here

A photo posted by GeometriCam (@geometricamapp) on

You can download the app here.

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