Just recieved the new brief- design for interaction and its got me thinking about some installations I have seen over the past couple of years. There is one in particular which was fanstastic, it was an interactive installation called Shadow monsters by Philip Worthington
The video doesn't do it justice.
Focusing on large scale and tactile interactive experiences that engross and envelope the visitor, Philip Worthington (1977-) created Shadow Monsters, a digital version of the traditional shadow puppet, as part of his degree in Interaction Design from the Royal College of Art.
Through a complex interplay of computer graphic and photographic programming, fantastic monsters materialise from the shadows cast by the hands of participants, reacting to and elaborating on their gestures with sound and animation. Wolf-like creatures, birds and dinosaurs are among the characters that speak and squeak as imaginary mouths open and close.
‘Play’ and ‘playfulness’ are words Worthington frequently uses when describing both his work and his approach to interactive design. As the London-based designer says, “it is a platform for experimentation and a space for the imagination to run wild.” His other projects include a digital version of the traditional toy race car track, an online community graffiti network and a colony of digitalised leaf-cutter ants that mimic the behaviours of actual ants as they forage around an interactive tabletop in search of real objects on the surface.
Worthington’s designs inject spirit and humanity into our increasingly technologically driven society. However, interaction designers today are not only concerned with the expressive and communicative possibilities of new technologies but also with their social and cultural consequences. The vision recognition software Worthington has written for Shadow Monsters could have applications beyond growling wolves and squawking birds to incorporate graphical commands for the physically disabled. While exploring all available avenues for his truly immersive and interactive designs Worthington continues to make existing and emerging technologies more meaningful and relevant to our lives now.
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1 comment:
That looks quite similar to a new advert for John Lewis, where all the shadows are created from chrstmas gifts, and form a person.....not really interactive though....probably not a very helpful comment. But, if you do decide to do something with shadows, might be worth looking at just to see how it looks aesthetically, and how the sound works to make it so captivating to watch.
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