‘Tanhaayi’ Installation: Final Project

My project shifted from a performative creation to visualization of a research process.

Documentation of dance improvisation and even more the recreation of it, is extremely difficult. Dance is ephemeral and improvisation is often times forgotten. I wanted to keep the sensations and the facts alive in the visualization of the recreation my improvisation.
My solo in the video was filmed within a small place, similar in the dimension of Oldooz’s apartment in Tehran –where we collaborated. When I was dancing, the painting was not physically present in any form, but rather I was relying on my memory of it. In the editing process, I layered the painting in real life proportions and adjusted the foreground and background in a way that it seemed as though I am in front of the painting. However, at times I merge into the painting, as if we are one. This visualization speaks to my experience investigating my improvisation without the painting present and the sensations of my memory staying active.
The first half is an interactive masking of the painting that invites the audience to be curious and explore something unknown. The image of the painting is being masked by shape actor and is connected to specific depth spaces inside the Kinect range.
The installation did not go as planned. I wanted the audience to be closer to the projection but that required all of the technological devices to be installed inside the ceiling which we ran out of time to do!
Going forward with this project, I will layer the first half with different materials that connect better to the short film. I also want to make the interactive section become a lot more physical and the shapes to leave different affects that help the audience to feel as though they are discovering something.

Pressure Project 3: Pen&Paper Game

Get a box!!!  

• From 2 Players to as many as you want!
• Ages 9 and up!
• Need pens or pencils!

1. One player takes a random book or magazine. Another player picks a page number, line number, and a word in that line. For example: Page 56, line 8, word 12. The other player picks the first letter of that word.
2. All players complete their cards with words starting with that letter. For example; if the letter is B, then you can write BMW for car, Bruschetta for food, and Barbara for name!
3. Whoever finishes the entire card first; shouts “stop”. All other players must stop writing.
4. Players say their words per category out loud – you get 10 points if no one else has written the same word, which means 5 points if someone else has written the same word as yours. 0 points if you didn’t write anything.
5. The top 3 players get to draw lines on the dots. The top score gets 3, the second place gets 2, and the third place gets 1 line. Whoever finishes their box first, wins!

Instructions:
Context:
According to wikipedia, examples of Pen & Paper Games include ” Tic-tac-toe, Sprouts, and Dots and Boxes. Other games include: Hangman, Connect 5, M.A.S.H., Boggle, Battleships, Paper Soccer, and MLine.”

Assignment:
Choose a known (at least to you) pen & paper game*.

Combine it with another game. The second game can be another pen and pencil game, a card game, a dice game, or a interactive projection.

You have no more than 5 hours to complete this project. (Not including research.)

*Please feel free to keep things simple. Yet, here are some more adventurous examples:

1. http://zenseeker.net/BoardGames/PaperPenGames.htm ,
2. http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/GameSystems4.shtml,

Basic Limitations:

1.  new game can have no more than 5 rules
2.  a novice player must be able to play without your verbal or gestural intervention. (provide an instruction sheet with the rules.)

Basic Level 3 Achievements: 

1. Fun to play
2. Game is delightfully repayable

Trump For An Afternoon Break

Pressure Project 2 had to be a minute of audio telling something that had cultural significance.

I had trump’s face projected on a pear, Persian cucumbers, and a bawl of Cheetos! In Iranian culture, pear and cucumbers signify dumbness. Carrots signify ignorance. On the carrots there was no projection: to add to the meaning of ignorance and also to cut audience’s expectation of seeing projections on all the fruits! The videos were from CNN reporting the signing of the first Travel Ban. The audio was cut and edited from Fox News, announcing the latest version of the Executive Order. This was to show the trajectory of these bans and the ongoingness of them. Next to the snacks, was a fruit knife that had a projection of protests in Columbus after the first ban. Metaphorically, saying that the people were “sharper”, meaning more powerful. The Fox News audio faded into the protestors singing “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Donald Trump had to go.” After the audio finished, the lights came up, and I invited the audience to cut some fruits and vegetables, and enjoy the snacks!

I liked the fact that it had a sense of dailyness to it. As we eat, these political actions and decisions are made, and we are just there, in our homes, eating some fruits and vegetables !

I also liked cutting the pear that Trump’s face was on. I felt that I was able to release some of my anger in a positive and healthy way!

Video of the piece/performance:

Video in class showing with feedback:

Materials:

First Travel Ban – CNN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuDZit1lOkU

Latest Travel Ban – Fox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC9g07DbpiQ

Columbus Protests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=resMbl0mxB8

MakeyMakey Fortune Telling Pressure Project

I knew from the beginning that I want this project to incorporate tactile objects. I felt that keeping everything inside a computer screen does not necesarily incorporate other senses (touch, and space). I wanted to create a personal and intimate experience. So knowing that I needed objects helped me know immediately that I could use the makeymakey.

Unfortunately, since my macbook was stolen two months before, I had a hard time finding a computer to work with. ACCAD’s computers also had an issue with saving Isadora files. So the computer drama took some of my time and creative energy. However, I came up with a new idea!

I thought why not create a mysterious experience that does not include much verbal instructions. A small, quiet, fortune telling secretive room, with no one in there but the person curious to know more about their future!

I made a tiny space (similar to a fort) where the user had to crawl in under a table covered with blankets.

Took me a while to know how to get started with makeymakey. on PC the keyboard watcher identified A W D S as the arrow keys but on Mac it was just ‘ ‘ – the space representing whichever arrow key was entered. It was important to label my actors by arrow direction or makeymakey colored cables.

The way it  worked was, a key was clipped on the cable going to earth. The other four cables on the arrow keys were attached to paper clips, representing locks (wish I had real locks!). When the key would contact a paperclip and audio would go off. Every arrow key corresponded to a fortune telling, but the story was told in audio only. For example, a car engine starting and then crashing, or people clapping someone’s success/fame and then heart rate beep going off. They were ambient, and vague. One could imagine the scenes that the audio provided and make up their own story to it.

Shadertoy BETA https://www.shadertoy.com/view/MtXSzS

GLSL Actor –> iTime to iGlobal Time then Compile

–> HSL Adjust Actor  → Wave Generator: Cooler colors and changing

In User Actor

Audio samples – Source:

Car Crash https://freesound.org/people/musicmasta1/sounds/131385/

Ambulance https://freesound.org/people/LanDub/sounds/184623/

Baby Laugh https://freesound.org/people/Stevious42/sounds/259611/

Baby Cry

Clapping https://freesound.org/people/ebcrosby/sounds/339483/

Heartrate https://freesound.org/people/palkonimo/sounds/197492/

Happy Dog https://freesound.org/people/Robinhood76/sounds/63261/

Sad Dog https://freesound.org/people/lewisinheaven/sounds/389581/