Scotch Egg

Today Scotch egg came into uni to give a presentation. Scotch Egg is an experimental Producer/Dj who creates compositions using a gameboy. Yes a gameboy , not a nintendo or a Psp but a gameboy. I think it was a realy interesting use of nostalgic sound coupled with minimalistic style. The nostalga comes from the music and sound from the gameboy which is directly relational to our own childhood. Would be interesting to see how people who are not from the same era as us would react to his work.

Design for Interaction/Interactive Story Installation

Rationale
Interactive Story Installation

I have developed a concept for an interactive installation where the audience’s movements is an integral part of the piece. An interactive story that’s responsive and engaging even when the overall story has a single path structure. The story illustrates the negative effects man has on animals and there habitats. (Habitat destruction, Poaching, etc). When a habitat is destroyed or tampered with by man, the animals that occupy that site have no place to go, they get separated from their families and simply die off.

Viewers enter a long room (Installation space) an animation of animals grazing quietly is projected onto the far end of the room. The animals aren’t aware of the viewers at first. As the viewer moves closer to the animation they unknowingly set off sensors which triggers sound and effects to the animation. The animals look up and become aware of the viewers whereabouts. The closer the viewer gets the more sensors are triggered extracting more sound and frightening the animals more and more until eventually they fade away.
I see it as a progression through distance and space, an installation involving sensors which plays on the reaction to the audience’s movements when looking at the installation. Viewers have a choice, of how close he/she wants to get to the animals, they may decide to stop still or walk away from the installation knowing they are having a negative effect on the animals, or they may decide to continue to approach and move closer to see what will happen to the animals.
The story is offered to the viewers but its up to the viewer how far they want to take it. The concept will hopefully have a lasting effect on the viewer and will educate them about the negative effects they have on animal habitats, realizing that animals and there environments should be left alone.

With regards to the brief which describes new media to offer a viewer a new form of empowerment, this concept does just that but not visually, there are no buttons to press or paths to follow, the viewer has a space to move and walk around in, setting off sensors which create change in the story. Viewers will gradually figure out that the closer they get the more dramatic effect they will have on the animation and the choice is there’s as to how close they wish to get.

The technical parameters of the interactive installation would be as follows. A computer which runs Flash. A back projection screen positioned half way down a room, a projector pointing at the back of the screen projecting the animation. The animation would be designed in Flash. 4 PIR sensors pointing down from the ceiling which triggers the sound and changes in the animation, interfaced to flash through a Bluetooth enabled Arduino board. Speakers suspended from the ceiling which activate with the animation. This installation concept is possible to create given more time, and the technology needed in order for it to function is relatively cheap and easy to purchase.

New Idea?

My new idea remains an interactive installation which involves shadows as I feel I have researched a great deal in this area. My proposed concept is an interactive story installation which illustrates the effects humans have on animal habitats. My idea is inspired by a film I watched about habitat deconstruction and fragmentation. When a habitat is destroyed or tampered with by man, the animals which occupy that habitat have no place to go, so they simply die off.

The installation is an interactive story, an animation is projected onto a screen, virtual shadows or silhouettes of animals in there habitat grazing silently, e.g. deer, birds, rabbits etc. The animals aren’t aware of the viewer at first but as the viewer gets closer they unknowingly set off sensors which triggers sounds and effects the animation. The animals look up and towards the viewer. The closer the viewer gets and setting off more sensors the animals react and become more frightened. The sounds that would be triggered could be for example, crackling sounds like a workman standing on sticks and rustling through bushes, gunshots and machinery. If the viewer gets close to the animation the animals shadows begin to fade away.
The viewer has the choice of how close he or she would like to get to the animals, the types of animals and there movements depends on which sensor has been triggered by the viewer. I believe that the viewer will become aware that they are having an impact on the animals and they may decide not to get any closer or they may decide to walk right up to the animals.
When the viewer walks away from the animation, footprint shadows of an animal follows in the viewers footsteps. I think this would be a nice way to end the installation as animal tracking is a method used by hunters and poachers.
I believe that the set up and technicalities of the installation would be similar to my original idea. A room divided into two by a back projection screen, behind is a projector projecting the animation. Infrared sensors pointing down from the ceiling which trigger sound and changes in the animation e.g., animals looking up.
I’m unsure about how I could get the footprints to follow the viewers as they walk away. The idea of footprints following the viewer was inspired by an interactive installation called case-sandbox by plaplax, they used a system called I-trace but I haven’t had any luck finding any info about this.

plaplax (case-sandbox)

"at " is an interactive work using i-trace system*.

Footprints of various animals (e.g. cat, lizard, rabbit and elephant) follow users who step into the desert image projected onto the floor.
When someone crosses the other's footprints, people in the environment can catch a glimpse of the animalﾕs habitat such as sea, meadow, flower garden, etc., as if the crossing evokes
each animal's memories. Imagine the presence of animals from those footprints and scenes.

Animal tracking is a skill to read animal's footprints left in the nature. Tracking tells so much information (such as species, size, sex, territory and habit) which makes it possible to
characterize the animals vividly.

A footprint itself exists in the place but also tells the existence of someone there sometime ago. ("at" is a word not only for a point in the space but also for a moment in the time.)

* I-trace is an interactive system for illuminating the space developed by Yasuaki Kakehi. Using human tracking, computer graphics and projection technology, this system enables to draw one's trace and their crossing with various dynamic images in real-time.

Lucid Dreams

A lucid dream is a dream in which the person is aware that he or she is dreaming while the dream is in progress. During lucid dreams, it is possible to exert concious control over the dream characters and environment, aswell as to perform physically impossible feats. Lucid dreams are known to be extremely real and vivid.

My installation could be based on a lucid dream where the viewers focus shifts from small static objects on the ground to being able to interact with the objects shadows with there own shadows, giving them control over what happens to the shadows and the environment in front of them.
I like the idea of basing the installation on a childs lucid dream, objects could be toy soldiers and marbells etc. the objects them selves dont change but there shadows do and the viewer is able to interact with the shadows with there own shadows.