Project of Xaomei, Joanna, Sandra
Interactive Particles
(Sandra´s interpretation)
This project is a first introduction to various possibilities offered by the Open Frameworks environment in conjunction with the tracking system to make it´s playful use interactive.
The idea has been inspired by works of Felix Bonowski, in which he shows various possibilities of real time implementation of interaction in a live environment.
Here is some of his work, that sparked the idea: https://vimeo.com/17758118 https://vimeo.com/52134418
set up of installation
In an attempt to make the project understandable on a novice level, it has been refrained from using the entire skeleton to steer or interact with the particles on the big screen. Also, to make it more simplistic, the project exclusively deals with 2D representation on screen - no 3D.
set up which has been used is the following:
for interaction with the tracking system only the upper part of the body has been used; i.e. head, neck, left arm (divided in upper arm and forearm), right arm (divided in upper arm and forearm). To demonstrate the functionality in which these five points steer the movement of the particles, it is possible to make them visible on screen to be able to observe their relation of moving body and the generated movement of the particles accurately.
interactive particles with bone points
set up for real time performance is as such:
for real time use in performative set ups, the five skeleton points are hidden, i.e. made invisible to have a more artistic than explanatory approach and generally to make the entire performance appear more smooth. The main functionalities in which these (invisible) skeleton points interact in conjunction with recorded body movement by the tracking system are the following: either the points attract a number of particles - in this case the particles can be "collected by the moving body" or they repel the particles, which gives the impression of the "moving body shoving the particles out of the screen".
interactive particles
design decision in the field of color
The main reason that the choice of color is merely a black background with white dots is the functionality of the tracking system. Other, maybe more suitable attempts have been made with reverse color, i.e. white background and white dots, blue background with white dots etc. The reason why these variations of color choices were refrained from implementing is simply that the tracking does work most accurately in a dark lab with a dark screen as background.
Many thanks to the supervisors of this module and Tobias, without whom the finalisation of the project would not have seen the light of day.