We [Erik Adigard, Chris Salter, Harry Smoak, Elie Zananiri and myself] have just completed a project for the 2008 Architecture Venice Biennale titled AirXY.

“AirXY is a multimedia installation combining real time animation, sensors, haze, light and sound into large-scale screen and floor projections. The screen is a clock and responsive real time capture of the presence of visitors while the floor projection gradually reveals a fleeting, ethereal architecture.”

Elie and I did the video tracking and on-screen visuals are all done with openFrameworks and OpenGL (using OpenCV, shaders, FBOs, …). You can check out pictures on Flickr (here and here) and a small video on Vimeo – we should have more videos soon.

For this project we implemented an oF version of FreeFrame

Elie and I finally had some “free” time to go back to the multi-touch interface. We worked on the core library called Distal. Distal enables us to quickly put together a multi-touch GUI. It takes care of all the contact points [touchPoints], and their interaction with the GUI components [toggle button, dragable button, slider, dock, etc.]. We are also using ezGesture, which is a gesture recognition library for Processing recently released by Elie. So far, it is only used to interact with the docks containing the GUI ; one finger sliding from right to left in a specific area of the surface will make the dock appears.

Here are some visuals created using facecloth and a video showing the interaction/process.

faceCloth MT – Distal from smallfly on Vimeo.

Thierry and I had a paper published in the ACM Digital Library. We submitted the paper for the ACM Multimedia 2007, in Augsburg Germany. Our poster was a part of the “Art, Content, Applications” poster session held on the 26th of September.

The paper “Performative Surface: Double Sided Interaction” is a short presentation of the interaction framework we worked on last year. This research/framework focuses on the relations that occur between co-located individuals mediated by an interface with a goal to help to emphasize the intensity of interaction by way of a two side responsive surface. We have applied this framework to two of our projects to date: Soft n’ Silky and collectiveShadow.

Elie and I met early afternoon. We turned on the computers, plugged in the cam, wired the projector and finally lit the LEDs. While working on some code (multi-touch UI) we have on ‘track’, we set a goal to produce something by the end of the afternoon. Here, sur(ta)face came to life. sur(ta)face will be the name/repository for a collection of projects/experimentations using the multi-touch interface.

sur(ta)face > faceCloth is the first project/experimentation under this label. The original faceCloth, by Elie, is an exploration of the relationship between real and virtual control. Live video is mapped onto a digital cloth, which reacts to its environment in a realistic fashion. The user selects the desired image and then manipulates the display geometry in order to create rich visual compositions. I like to say that sur(ta)face > faceCloth came in to existence to fill one of Elie’s anxieties about his “pursuit to build a decent physical controller.” (see here).

faceCloth > sur(ta)face from smallfly on Vimeo.

Really…. I believe that our interest here is to work with video (must it be lived or pre recorded) as a malleable material. To distort and stretch time as well as splatter and freeze ‘alive’ pixels on a surface…. A performative surface.

On theses photos and video sur(ta)face > faceCloth runs using Lost Se03 Ep18 as video texture.

collectiveShadow is an interactive event that utilizes electronic shadows as raw materials and paints them into an architectural spatial form. The responsive environment explores the organic connection of human actions in an interactive collaborative environment by encouraging people to become both physical and social aspect of the participatory installation.

Project Team: Maxime Bergeron, Hugues Bruyère and Jason Safir.

In collectiveShadow, shadows immaterial form symbolizes a representation of distinct individuality. The interdependence of persons within the environment establishes a conscious and unconscious relation between one another by the means of diffused shadows, silhouettes. Representing the participant’s physical presence as data rather then tangible objects exposes a unique sense of body, self, and representation. The defamilarized social interaction collectiveShadow generates, creates a meaningful distinction between collective and individual shadows. The interacting of mere shadows investigates the individual’s conception of social identity and representation in a new light.

collectiveShadow from smallfly on Vimeo.