Project Bump – Maria
Posted: January 27, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »I really enjoyed the task of creating a “fortune teller machine” for this pressure project. I have no idea how I would make it myself (although I think I could probably figure it out if I spent some time playing around), but I thought it was a really cool application of the interactivity of what Isadora allows!
Reading this student’s reflection revealed a variety of issues that I will probably run into in my own pressure projects, like spending several hours trying to find a specific actor, or making a patch much more complex than it actually needs to be. It’s good to be reminded that these are part of everyone’s learning processes and I shouldn’t let them get me down if I run into them myslef 🙂
Project Bump (Sara)
Posted: January 26, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »I scrolled backwards through time to find a project that caught my eye, but I found myself somewhat overwhelmed by the myriad techniques and technologies on display that we have not yet discussed in class. For my own peace of mind (and, admittedly, to satisfy my curiosity), I then clicked on my former peer Taylor’s subsection to scope out his very first Pressure Project in the course.
As is to be expected from one of the most cerebral people I have known, even Taylor’s first foray into Isadora was technically-challenging and highly interactive. What most struck me about the work, though, was his writing in relation to it. He speaks frankly about frustrations, fiddling, and failures even in the midst of what evolved into a successful work. And honestly, I found this to be encouraging. Yes, I will undoubtedly, most assuredly bump into any number of walls as I try to cobble something “delightful” together in five hours. But, given that hard and fast time constraint, rather than try to punch the wall down with my fists, I’ll need to circumnavigate these barriers to keep moving forward. Taylor mentioned that the time limitation led him to make “simpler choices.” I’ll keep that in mind and try to do the same.
MByrne Bump
Posted: January 26, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »https://dems.asc.ohio-state.edu/?p=2597
Here we have an interactive photo-booth design that allows the user to place themselves in a setting and costume of their choosing. I resonated with Matt’s project since I am interested in bringing XR elements into live music performance, especially with the sudden prevalence of virtual events. Infected Mushroom did a tour with XR and projection mapping at least 5 years ago, but they did a one-off virtual event more in-line with this back in November.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElFL6JswhIQ
Project Bump
Posted: January 25, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »I selected Emily Pickens’s third pressure project. The concept and execution are very simple, but I found it to be a very fun interactive object. It is a box with several touch sensitive spots on it that when touched play a different sound. It uses the makey makey and has the user keep one hand on ground while exploring the box with their other. The Isaodra setup seems quite straightforward, but I think there are so many ways one could further this idea and have different touchpoints trigger a variety of feedback. Maybe the box vibrates when you touch one area. Or flashes a color from the inside at another.
Cycle 3 – Stanford
Posted: December 14, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »For Cycle 3 I had to rethink the platform I was using to transport my Sketchup model from my computer to VR. I was having issues with all of the shapes loading in SentioVR and the base subscription didn’t allow me to use VR at all. This made me look into an extension called VR Sketch.
This ended up being a way better program. You are able to make edits while in VR and even have multiple people in the model at the same time. The render quality is not as great though.
I think my favorite thing about the program was the workflow. I used it a few times over the past couple weeks while working on other class projects. I was able to make quick sketches models for a design I was working on and put myself in it in VR to see if it worked the way I thought it was working. Then I could make changes and go back in VR within minutes. It made the way I design a lot different. I now have a practical way to see the way an audience is going to experience something before it is built and make changes accordingly.
Cycle 3 – Final Project
Posted: December 13, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »In this iteration of the project, I completed a more robust prototype of the box, which allows a more usable interface while calling cues.
The box evolved between cycle two and three, but adding all of the wires and the grounding option. In cycle two, the box mainly just had the spot outlined for the Makey Makey, and the top of the box had numbers painted on. I improved by then adding all of the wires, cutting the holes for the box, and securing everything inside the box.
The patch did not change from cycle 2.
This project could also work off of just the Izzy patch, but you would then need to memorize which letters are what number, where the box allows you to just think of the numbers.
Cycle 2 – Final Project
Posted: December 13, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »In the second cycle of my final project, I focused upon the Isadora patch. I knew I didn’t want to make it overtly complicated, though I wanted to attempt to discover a way to create a more visual output of the data, but did not decide to go as far to do so.
Above is the Isadora patch itself.
I do not have any photos of the box during this cycle, as I forgot to photograph any before moving onto the third cycle. The cycle three file will describe the detailed changes between two and three, for the box.
Cycle 1 – Final Project
Posted: December 13, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »With my final project, I wanted to create a box that could be used to track the number of cues called together at once by a stage manager.
In order to do so, I would need a box, electrical paint, conductive thread, wires, and a makeymakey. Once I got everything needed, I began crafting out the measurements to be able to line everything up on the box to allow comfortable sized numbers, and organization to ease use.
Each of these photos document the original concept for the box, along with all of my added notes for improvement on my next version of the box.
Movement Meditation Room Cycle 3
Posted: December 13, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Cycle 3 was a chance for me to figure out how to guide people through the experience. Now that all of the technical elements of the room worked consistently, I needed to think about how to guide people through the space. Originally I thought of putting something on the door that explained the room but I felt that there was a lot of information that wouldn’t make sense until they were in the room itself. So instead I went with an audio guidance system that would tell the user how each element of the room worked as they moved through the space. I still had a brief description on the door that would welcome users into the space:
Here is a link where you can watch me go through each of the room’s locations and hear the audio guidance system in action: https://osu.box.com/s/dd5izpw890mx3330r43qgdj3fazkux6i
It is important to note that it was possible for a user to move between locations of the room if they wanted to experience either of the locations again. The triggers were on timers so that the actions of a particular location could restart if the user decided to re-enter the space after leaving it for a certain amount of time. So the amount of time that someone spent in the space was totally up to them and what they wanted to experience.
Unfortunately, due to Covid restrictions, the only people who were able to experience this project was myself and one of my housemates. This is what she said about her experience: “The room offered me a place to reconnect with myself amidst the hectic everyday tasks of life. When in the room, I was able to forget about the things that always linger in the back of my mind, like school work and job applications, and focus on myself and the experience around me. The room was a haven that awakened my senses by helping me unplug from the busy city and allowing me to interact with the calming environment around me.” I thought it was interesting how she felt the technology in the room helped her “unplug” and her feedback gave me further questions about how technology can sometimes hide its influence on our surroundings, and give us experiences that feel “natural” or “unplugged” while also being dependent on technology.
Overall, this cycle felt very successful in providing a calming and centering experience that engaged multiple senses and could be guided by the user’s own interests. I tried to add a biofeedback system that would allow the user to have their heartbeat projected through the sound system of the room, hopefully encouraging deeper body awareness, but my technology was somewhat limited.
I used a contact microphone usually used for musical instruments to hear the heartbeat but because of its sensitivity, it would also pick up the movement of my tendons at my wrist if I moved my hand or fingers at all. Even though I did successfully create a heartbeat sound that matched the rhythm of my heartbeat, the requirement of complete stillness from the elbow down for it to work conflicted too much with goals that were more important to me, like comfort and freedom to move.
In continuing cycles, I might try to build a more robust biofeedback system for the heartbeat and breath. I might also look into the Hybrid Arts Lab locations that might be able to host a Covid-safe installation of the room for more people to experience.
Even if the project itself isn’t able to continue, I do feel I learned a lot about how different kinds of devices interface with Isadora and I have a saved global actor that houses the depth sensor trigger system that I used to structure the room. My realm of possibility has expanded to include more technology and interdisciplinary approaches to creating art. The RSVP cycles that we used to create these final projects has already helped me start to plan other projects. Coming out of this I feel like I have about a dozen more tools in my art toolbox and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to develop my artmaking skills beyond dance.
Dynamic Light Tracking System Prototype
Posted: December 12, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »By: Kenneth Olson
(Iteration 3)
Approach
For this project I wanted to build off what I learned from the previous iteration. In Iteration 2 I utilized the “Eyes ++ Actor” to manipulate objects on a computer screen by using my fingers, a web camera, black tape, and a table top to create an interactive Sci-fi user interface. This time around I wanted to create an even easier, more approachable, way to make objects on a screen move in correlation to how the user moves. A more intractable and abstract system than previous. The system utilizes the “Eyes ++ Actor” and the contrasting qualities of physical light and the void of darkness, with a web camera. The overall system is simple, however, depending on the case usage could result in complicated outputs.
The system works as follows. First, in the middle of a dark room, the user will use their phone flashlight to wave around (the user could be responding to music through dance, or other forms of stimulus that would cause the human body to move freely). Second, A web camera, facing the user, will then feed into Isadora. Third, the web camera output would then connect to the “Eyes ++ Actor” to then affect other objects.
With this system I discovered an additional output value I could utilize. Within Iteration 2 I was limited to only “X” and “Y” values of the “Blob Decoder” coming from the “Eyes ++ Actor” .In iteration 3 I also had “X” and “Y” values to play with (because the light from the flashlight was high enough contrast from the black darkness for the “Eyes ++ Actor” to track) My third output, as a result of using light, was the brightness output of the “Eyes ++ Actor”. Unlike before, in Iteration 2, the size of the object in the tracking area did not change significantly, if at all. However, in Iteration 3 the amount of light shown at the Web Camera would drastically change the size of the object being tracked, resulting in more or less of the tracking area to be filled with white or black. So by using one dynamic contrasting light value as an input to the “Eyes ++ Actor” I was able to affect several different objects in several different ways. This discovery only came about from playing around with the Issadora system.
With this dynamic light tracking system, I made ten different vignettes with different interactable objects and videos. Bellow are just a few examples:
Vignette 1
In this scene the blue and purple shapes would change scale with the addition of more or less light.
Vignette 2
In this scene the two colored circles would move in both “X” and “Y” directions in correlation to the light’s position within the tracking area. And a white grid would appear and overlay the circles with the addition of more light and the grid would fade away with less light.
Vignette 3
In this scene the pink lines would squash in succession when the light source moves from left to right or from right to left. (this scene was inspired by my iteration 2 project)
Assessment
Overall I found this system to be less accurate or less controllable for precise movements, when compared to iteration 2. I could imagine with a more focused amount of light the system would behave better. However, the brightness value output was very responsive and very controllable. I did not try using multiple light sources as an input, but with too much light the system does not function as well. I would love to see this system integrated into a large in person concert or rave with every member of the audience wearing a light up bracelet, or something. But as a party of one, I used a projector as an output device for this system and created a mini rave for one, in my apartment. I used my phone light and also played music from my phone. With even more projectors in the space I could imagine the user would become even more engaged with the system.Â
Isadora Patch: