Art

Christopher Bauder from WHITEvoid interactive art & design sent us information about their latest project: "The "Polygon Playground" is a large scale interactive lounge object. It offers room for up to 40 persons at a time to walk, sit and explore its multifaceted surfaces. Gradient ramps guide to the top plateau or offer space to sit and rest. The installation features a software aided 3D surface projection system to cover the object with a seamless 360 degree projection mapping. An additional sensory system detects peoples positions and proximity.

The visual appearance of the "Polygon Playground" changes continuously with the presence, movements and touches of its visitors. The object detects the positions and directions of people and reacts with evolving visual moods and graphic styles.

This Muncie Free Press article reports students at the Center for Media Design (CMD) and its Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts and Animation (IDIAA) have developed a three-dimensional media browser that uses plastic blocks embedded with RFID chips to interact with a virtual reality environment. From the article: "MUNCIE, IN - What if, having just returned home from the supermarket with no idea what to make for dinner, you could simply place a stalk of broccoli or package of chicken on a reading device and retrieve a list of recipes on a computer screen? Some Ball State students hope their project could lead to that.

This Networked_Performance post takes a look at levelHead: an interactive game that uses a cube, a webcam and pattern recognition. From the article: "When the cube is rotated or tilted in front of the camera the user will be able to see ‘inside’ the cube and guide a small avatar through six different rooms.

Pattern recognition has already been used in several other projects, but this is a new way of using it, and a new way of thinking of the technology. The idea behind the game itself is rather simple. When the cube is tilted the avatar moves in the corresponding direction. The goal of the game is to guide him through a maze of rooms connected by doors, and lead him to the outside world.

This Canadian Press article takes a look at some VR projects going on at University of Alberta AMMI Lab. From the article: "On the cutting edge of virtual reality research, fantasy is used to fix reality, create reality and even push new boundaries in art, with music that can not only be heard but also seen.

"You'll find bigger systems, more powerful systems, but the issue is what you do with it," says Walter Bischof of the Advanced Man Machine Interface Laboratory on the University of Alberta campus.

"Our push is to use virtual reality in research and applications. That's the strength of this lab."

The lab, known as AMMI for short, has been operating for more than seven years, solving problems and preventing headaches for a wide range of professionals.

This Engadget article takes a look at an immersive system which allows you to view the world through the lens of real-time ASCII art (amongst other effects). From the article: "Sure, ASCII art is cool for making lewd gestures and the unicorn that you use for your e-mail signature, but couldn't we be doing more with it?

This NewScientist Technology Blog article takes a look at the work of the Japanese experimental performance artist, Suguru Goto, who built a suit embedded with sensors to control a percussion band consisting of 5 drum-playing robots. From the article: "First, take a percussion band consisting of 5 drum-playing robots (see the movie here, .mov 20.1MB).

Then build a suit embedded with sensors that monitor your every move--from the twist of a knee to the bend of an elbow (see movie here, .mov 29.7MB).

Then connect the output of your bodysuit to the input for your robot band.

This Networked_Performance post talks about the Mes-etoiles (My stars) artistic interactive wall that responds to the proximity of people and provides feedback in the form of light. From the post: "This means that users are able to use their bodies to draw with the light. The wall consists of numerous squares that each holds a collection of white lights. When a person stands in front of the wall, his or her silhouette will activate the corresponding square of light. Movements will produce dynamic drawings and because of the built-in delay it’s possible for one person to create rather large images.

This Gizmodo post takes a quick look at the Augmented Sculpture project by Pablo Valbuena that mixes a "volumetric base that serves as support for a second level and a virtual projected layer that allows controlling the transformation and sequentiality of space-time."

This we-make-money-not-art.com article takes a look at the Delicate Boundaries project, by Chris Sugrue, that uses human touch to dissolve the barrier of the computer screen. From the post: "Delicate Boundaries, a work by Chris Sugrue, uses human touch to dissolve the barrier of the computer screen. Using the body as a means of exchange, the system explores the subtle boundaries that exist between foreign systems and what it might mean to cross them. Lifelike digital animations swarm out of their virtual confinement onto the skin of a hand or arm when it makes contact with a computer screen creating an imaginative world where our bodies are a landscape for digital life to explore. Video.

What was the biggest challenge in developing the project?

The greatest challenge was that the piece dealt very directly with the human body. It was important to create the illusion that these animated forms (which my Spanish colleagues have fondly named bichitos) have an understanding of the structure of the arm or hand they are exploring and can respond to it in a believable manner.

Interactive works are often facing the challenge of unpredictable audiences and responses, but attempting to respond so specifically to something as versatile and subtle as hand and arm movements was pretty challenging. I also wanted to create the experience that these lifelike forms that are made entirely of projected light had a physical presence in the world. It was certainly a challenge to design a system that convinced people to try to hold them and feel they had perhaps some responsibility for them.

Do you plan to develop the idea any further?

Yes, absolutely. I think there is a lot of potential for development.