Sunday, 18 March 2012
FRACTURED HEART is being further developed to create an interactive projection sculpture and “light harp” performance instrument that utilises interactive kinect to allow the public to trigger and play mapped audiovisual projections.
This installation is an interactive light harp variation of the original fractured heart sculpture, so that the crystalline topography becomes an interface to remix the music of Gotye.
The technique of mapped light performance / play interfaces is part of Illuminart’s large scale projection, set design and performance toolkit, and will be evolved in ongoing projects with our collaborators and project partners.
In Fractured Heart, the motion of an audience member generates responsive animations and synchronised music samples and notes. The triggered images and sounds form a melodic response to the movements, allowing the user to be able to play an improvised form of audiovisual music.
The current stage of development uses depth, skeletal positioning, and other refinements to select which part of the sculpture to animate and which sounds to trigger. The graphical content is contributed by Illuminart animators and the musical content contributed by Gotye, who has also given valuable input into interface design for easy “playability” of this new type of public audiovisual instrument.
The shape of the sculpture allows two people to “play” the instrument together. The form of the sculpture – utilizing mapped projection that is carefully aligned to the projector – allows for precise beauty and a magical illusion on a playful architectural form that responds to the “players” learned interactions. The technology behind these interactive components is kinect, and quartz composer running on MacOSX.
The following video is capture of a pass of tests in March 2012, checking performance speed, responsiveness and early interface design.