(land)moves

(land)moves is a project developed in collaboration with Marco Liuni (music) e Bruno Zamborlin (gesture analysis). It consists of an interactive system which relates user’s gestures to the evolving landscape they have in front.
 
The system generates a representation of an artificial planet where the experience of time is set by cycles of days and nights. The morphology of the land vary according to the qualities of user’s movements. These firstly relates to a reactive flock of polygons which flies over the land.
 
Sounds are associated to visual events in order to create a symbolic yet surrealistic meaning. Twittering metallic polygons defies gravity while seismic evolutions shape the land. Wind blows constantly on this world as the guitar restitutes the flavor this electric landscape.
 
The explicit influence that movements have on the morphology of the territory is intended as a suggestion of the direct link human beings have with their environment.
 
 
Exhibitions
New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) 2011, Oslo (Paper and demo)
Audiovisiva, Milan

The immersive communication project created a benchmark document of current and next generation developments in the area of immersive communication, gesture recognition and other related, tangible user interfaces. It analysed these developments with a focus on usability, intuitiveness and naturalness of user interaction, and developed a set of recommendations about the use of gesture recognition interfaces.
 
Experientia then imagined possible applications of gesture interface technology, creating a portfolio of concepts modelled around user needs in the areas of communication, organisation and entertainment.

The workshop focused on the development of an interactive mulitmedia artwork linking real gestures to simulated physical models.
 
The experiments arised a discussion on how user’s haptic experience build a mimetic link by which the visitor interpret the piece.
 
Programming relied on Processing and Max/MSP/Jitter, with a particulr focus on my side to the library Mass Spring Damper by Nicolas Montergmont for Max.
 
Download Max Patches.

Composer Sami Klemola asked me to contribute in the development of Sculpt!, an interactive sound installation presented at the Kunsthalle Art Gallery during Siba Fest organized by Sibelius Academy. Sami worked on the music while I developed the camera motion tracking and then we had fun with the mapping.
 
In an empty white room people could walk, pose and move to shape the sound they hear. The feeling of “sculpting” is emphasized by remodelling the sound’s frequencies spectrum.

Descritpion

Link is a ludic interactive artwork entwining physical and virtual experiences. It consists of three parts: the Creation Desk, the Playground and the Eden of the Avatars.
 
At the Creation Desk the participant creates an avatar, a visual representation of himself, modeling it with the voice. The sample is recorded and will be used as raw material to generate a personal soundscape.
 
In the Playground, a maximum of three people can play together through (and with) their avatars. Modulating their respective distances the avatars will link and unlink themselves, generating a personal soundscape according to their movements. Everyone can hear others voices.
 
The Eden of the Avatars is an extension of the physical experience. It is a virtual world populated by the avatars of former participants. Here they survive for a limited period of time and, moving as their owners moved, evolve in a virtual dynamic network. The Eden of the Avatars is only visual, the sound experience being personal, subjective and limited to the physical experience.
 
 

Aesthetics of Interactivity

Link – Interactive Experience

The experience is immersive but social and unbounded. Participants are immersed in the light of the projection of their avatars which follow them like shadows and interact with their movements.
 
Users wear wireless headphones (equipped with a light motion capture device) which allows them to move freely modulating their own soundscape (based on their vocal sample) and to interact with the others sending and receiving sounds particles.
 
The experience can be personal while opened to the external world, audio and visual elements, beside glances and smiles, are exchanged in between participants.

Exhibitions
Portes Ouvertes de l’Ecole Nationale Superieure de Beaux Arts de Paris.
Enactive 07, Grenoble.