Lawson: Cycle 1
Posted: November 14, 2023 Filed under: Nico Lawson, Uncategorized | Tags: cycle 1, dance, Interactive Media, Isadora Leave a comment »My final project is yet untitled. This project will also be a part of my master’s thesis, “Grieving Landscapes” that I will present in January. The intention of this project is that it will be a part of the exhibit installation that audience members can interact with and that I will also dance in/with during the performances. My goal is to create a digital interpretation of “water” that is projected into a pool of silk flower petals that can then be interacted, including casting shadows and reflecting the person that enters the pool.
In my research into the performance of grief, water and washing has come up often. Water holds significant symbolism as a spirit world, a passage into the spirit world, the passing of time, change and transition, and cleansing. Water and washing also holds significance in my personal life. I was raised as an Evangelical Christian, so baptism was a significant part of my emotional and spiritual formation. In thinking about how I grieve my own experiences, baptism has reemerged as a means of taking control back over my life and how I engage with the changes I have experienced over the last several years.
For cycle 1, I created the Isadora patch that will act as my “water.” Rather than attempting to create an exact replica of physical water, I want to emphasis the spiritual quality of water: unpredictable and mysterious.
To create the shiny, flowing surface of water, I found a water GLSL shader online and adjusted it’s color until it felt suitably blue: ghostly but bright, but not so bright as to outshine the reflection generated by the web cam. To emphasize the spiritual quality of the digital emanation, I decided that I did not want the watch to be constantly projecting the web cam’s image. The GLSL shader became the “passive” state of the patch. I used difference, calculate brightness, and comparater actors with active and deactive scene actors to form a motion sensor that would detect movement in front of the camera. When movement is detected, the scene with the web cam projection is activated, projecting the participant’s image over the GLSL shader.
To imitate the instability of reflections in water I applied a motion blur to the reflection video. I also wanted to imitate the ghostliness of reflections in water, so I desaturated the image from the camera as well.
To emphasize the mysterious quality of my digital water, I used an additional motion sensor to deactivate the reflection scene. If the participant stops moving or moves out of the range of the camera, the reflection image fades away like the closing of a portal.
The patch itself is very simple. It’s two layers of projection and a simple motion detector. What matters to me is the way that this patch will eventually interact with the materials and how the materials with influence the way that the participant then engages with the patch.
For cycle 2, I will projection map the patch to the size of the pool, calibrating it for an uneven surface. I will determine what type of lighting I will need to support the web camera and appropriate placement of the web camera for a recognizable reflection. I will also need to recalibrate the comparater for a darker environment to keep the motion sensor functioning.