Sensing Speaking Space, 2002
The snows that crown the peak of Fuji
Melt on the mid-June day
And that night it snows again.
Takahashi Mushimaro in the Manyoshu "Sensing Speaking
Space", is an interactive installation that focuses on the notion
of the "intelligent space", a space that knows you are there
and reacts to the presence and movements of multiple spectators sensed
through a custom camera tracking system. The image is projected on
a large screen, the sounds are spatialized around the audience through
a 6 channel surround-sound based on their locations in the gallery.
The visualization consists of the play between the noise, randomness
and order, through multiple layerings and subtle changes that build
up over time and in response to spectators movements. There is a back
and forth transition between two images that is produced dynamically
as a consequence of the spectators' actions. The first state is a
textured image surface continuously being covered by white visual
noise, like film dust, or snow falling on a windshield. The noise
is made up of ascii characters that must be wiped away by the spectators'
movements to activate further events. Enough action must be generated
so that the transition to the other state is possible. The second
state is a green blurred image, from which readable texts are drawn
to the surface through the spectator's movements. The audience's movements
advance the events from one to the other evoking metaphorical acts
of "wiping" and "breaking through" in the white
noise screen mode to "bringing forth" and "revealing"
in the green text screen mode.
The sound consists of several layers (drone, singer, water sounds,
bells, speakers, etc.) with variations for each of the two visual
states. The vision program send messages over a network to a SuperCollider
program that controls the sound synthesis and mixing.
The work is intended to focus on reflexion and self-realization of
one's presence. It is an abstract work meant to be contemplative like
a Japanese garden. Technical contribution for "Sensing Speaking
Space", include Gilroy Menezes for motion sensing, and Gary Kling
for OSC communication. This project was realized in Macromedia Director,
OSC and Supercollider. Exhibitions
ISEA
Conference Exhibition, Nagoya, Japan (October 2002)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, "Activating the Medium"
festival co-ordinated by David Prochaska and Randy Yau, (February
2002) George Legrady, Professor, Media Arts
& Technology graduate program, University of California, Santa Barbara.
His work in interactive installation focuses on interaction design,
and data management through semantic categorization using neural-net
based algorithms. www.georgelegrady.com
Stephen Travis Pope is senior researcher/composer at CREATE, UC
Santa Barbara and lecturer in the Media Arts and Technology program.
From 1988 through 1997, he was editor-In-chief of "Computer Music
Journal," MIT Press. www.create.ucsb.edu/~stp/
Andreas Schlegel is an interface designer currently
in the masters program at MAT, UCSB. He co-founded and directed
the visual and technical production in the "Diffus" design firm
in Stuttgart, Germany. www.sojamo.de
|
|