Pressure Project #3: Augmented Backgammon

Backgammon is the first board game ever in human history.

It is a mysterious mix of choices, strategy and luck. Properties of life I enjoy the most.

On my latest visit to Istanbul Turkey, I got a beautiful backgammon board.  I decided then, to bring it back and let my fellow artists co workers play with the augmented reality version of this game I created.

Thanks ACCAD for the awesome video on this piece.!

Axel Cuevas Santamaría VJ axx
https://axxvjs.wordpress.com/

Pressure Project #2: Dancing Depths

After Presure project 1: Staring at the Sun, I developed this new iteration.
It was an attempt to deliver a delightful automatic digital art piece experiment.

… an individual walks into a room in darkness where a MIDI controller interface awaits.

The device, once activated by the individual, lets Isadora create a visually pleasing and self generating patch of shapes, lines, and color

Visual textures are assigned to the dancing silhouettes of people inside the room

This was my first experiment using kinect v2 and Isadora together

Also, my first interactive dancing experience where my audience got activated

After this, I continued developing a more complex and integrated experiential media system for an interactive dance performance titled Microbial Skin

Thanks Alex Olizsewski and ACCAD for all the support!

Axel Cuevas Santamaría VJ axx
https://axxvjs.wordpress.com/

Pressure Project #1: Staring at the Sun

For this project, we experienced yellow color invading our spatial perception.

Inspired by Pi, the American surrealist psychological thriller film from 1998 written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, this is the project I developed.

The experiential media system for this project provided a mock-up for an immersive environment that allows users to shift our spatial perception.

https://axxvjs.wordpress.com/

After this experiment, I built a geodesic dome to test immersive possibilities.

I started building cardboard domes, for delivering immersive experiences.

Axel Cuevas Santamaría VJ axx
https://axxvjs.wordpress.com/

motiondetection01

As I started with fast motion detection action, I uploaded a first test patch.  Works best with lots of light in the room (darn) and with Input Menu/Start Live Capture to play. hope it works

Download Patch in this link:
axtest03_sept08_motiondetection01-izz

Pressure Project 3

For the Pressure Project 3 I used 2 colors as a dice to activate different interactivity modes. Firstly I created a square shaped, paper, two sided (red & blue) colored dice on a piece of string.

I introduced the dice to the viewer and asked her to experiment with it by showing it to the camera. In order to see the “trick” she needs to match the right side of the camera and the dice. I divided the screen in two half with the crop object and assigned red or blue colors to each side. Blue is tracked only on the left side of the camera/ screen and red is only on the right.

Blue color activates a different sound and blue visuals also the color picker triggers a type object that indicates “ “ in addition to a whisper soundtrack on the background. Red color activates a jackpot! İllustration with a changing scale based on the movement value and a clap soundtrack in order to indicate the “win”.

I used the dice as a symbolization of two different image and sound results that are presented to the viewer. Red symbolizes a winner theme while blue symbolizes a random/neutral trigger with the murmur and whisper sounds on the background. I tried to use blue for keep trying to find the right side and red as a finish point of the game (with a win). It seemed to work on the audience. They found both red and blue sides.

I tried to come up with a simplistic dice idea in order to enable the motion and flexibility of the object in front of the camera. Color code seemed to work well, which is an important feature to use/learn in visual programming. Also in addition to using chroma key object, I used inside range and measure color object for the first time. Measure color object works great, especially for measuring the exact numbers of RGB pixel values. I am surprised how much I learned from a dice concept. A dice can be anything that triggers different functions.

Here is the Isadora file: karaca_pp3-izz

Two sided paper dice

Video is captured from the screens perspective, so when we see red side of the dice on the video, camera recognizes the blue and vice versa for red.

Cycle 1, 2 & 3

Hello,

I documented all parts of my process on my wordpress blog:

https://ecekaracablog.wordpress.com/2016/10/17/visualizing-the-effects-of-change-in-landscape/

I documented the process on my blog. All the visuals and sketches are on the website and the video is on the way.

Cycle 1:

While I was dealing with analysis of data, I came up with a very simple demonstration of variables in order to place them on a visual reference (map) to show the exact locations in the country. I wanted to show the main location by using a map, considering the audience might not know where exactly Syria is.

Text and simple graphic elements formed the main start of the project. After I shared it with the class the feedback I got was mainly around curious questions. One of my peers asked “What is sodium nitrate?” I could tell that he understood that chemical was not good for environment or health. Another classmate continued, “They attack to cultural areas during wars, like they are trying to destroy the culture or history of nations.” That comment helped me to add more on to the project and consider the different results of the war, connected to the same ending “damage”.

After more research and analysis I had to admit that I can’t use clear Satellite imagery or maps for the infographic, which would’ve been a great tool. I learned from Alex, since the war is still ongoing Google Maps have some restrictions in the war areas. All I got from Google Maps was pixelated, blurry maps. I moved on with abstract visualizations applied on map imagery, also included photographs from cities to the final outcome.

Cycle 2:

I believe the feedback that I got from the Cycles helped me a lot to consider the thoughts of my peers. When we work on our projects for long time periods, being subjective and critical towards the become harder. Since I worked on the collection, analysis, sketching and design of the dataset by myself, I was clear about the details of the dataset while I knew it was still too complex for the viewers. In the end the dataset and design is still too complex. It was decision I made for my first complex interactive information design project. Because the analysis of data showed me the complexity is the nature of this project. There is catastrophic damage given to a war country and even a small detail, an environmental issue I tried to visualize is connected to multiple variables on the data set. Therefore I used the wires to show the direct connection between variables and communicate the country is wired with these risks and damages.

Since my peers saw the work and heard me talking about the project, they were more familiar with it. So I was not sure the project was clear to them but I got a positive feedback in the second cycle. I’ve been told that the project looks more complete.

After I got feedback from Alex, I started to think about an active/passive mode for the project. I included a sound piece from the war area, that is activated by the audience walking by the hall in front of my project. The aim for the sound is to take the attention of the audience to the work and give an idea about the topic. Camera to track the motion sees the people passing by and activates the sound afterwards. Since I want the audience to focus on the data set, I targeted the potential audience for the sound part.

I believe sound completed the work and created an experience.

I know the work is not very clear or ideal for the audience, but I wanted to push the limits of layering and complexity in this project. Taking the risk of failure, I am happy to share that I learned a lot (from everyone in this class)!

Right now I have a general understanding of Unity, I know how to add more and manipulate the code (even I don’t know about complex coding). I learned the logic of Unity prefabs, inspector, interactivity and general interface. In addition to MAX MSP (used it last year), I learned using Isadora, which is way more user friendly. Finally I learned using a 3rd information design software called Tableau, which helped me to develop the images (under Infographic Data) on my blog.

I have very valuable feedback from my peers and professors. Even if the result was not perfect I learned using 3 softwares in total, had fun with the project, experimented, pushed the limits and learned a lot of things!

Please read the complete process from my blog. 🙂