Chris Somerville

Thesis Statement:

Our interactivity with electronic media initially created to enhance our lives, is now invading and enveloping our conscious to a level that is detrimental to mankind’s physical interaction with each other. By creating an installation art piece, I will metaphorically demonstrate the negative impact of interactive electronic media, thus making the viewer more aware of its potential harmful social impact.

Thesis Project Description:

The visual element to my thesis proposal is to create a large scale interactive sculptural installation, sometimes referred to as ambient media.
The language of electronic space is ever evolving and I will strive to explore this new language through the study of the physical and social relationship between man and digital media via the creation of ambient media.
The installation sculpture will consist of graphical images that will be projected onto a wall. The viewer will notice that as they walk toward the wall the images begin to move, as if the viewer themselves are disturbing the digital elements’ flight with their own approach. To elevate this element of interactivity, or realization that, “hey my body is deflecting the projections,” I will attempt to accentuate the viewer’s own shadow. The shadow would be digitally replaced by a solid color. This would create a visual cue for the audience. They could observe the live interaction of their own shadow or physical presence with the projected elements. This, in turn, would lead to further exploration of the piece with their own movements; creating a sense of play. Continued exploration would hopefully lead to the observation that the degree of their physical momentum would have a direct correlation to the movement of the projected images. That is, the faster you wave your arm, the faster the pieces scatter. As the viewer slows down or leaves the space, the objects will once again resume their normal state. Obviously this will require further study and research, but it must be clear that the viewer is customizing the installation piece with their own physical presence. That is, their physical presence is communicating with the digital media through their own customized form of communication or language within this playful electronic space.
I feel the scale of this piece to be very important as it must relate to the physical size of the average human. Thus, one of my initial goals of the project is to make the audience feel as if they are enveloped or surrounded by the projected images. That is, the piece will approximately be the size of one interior gallery wall. This approach incorporates the concept of the entire human body’s relationship with electronic media, but at arm’s length. What about the more personal communication with our electronic media via touch?
I would like to anticipate that touching the walls will initiate a different behaviour. If your shadow effects the movement of the graphic elements, than what would touching the objects do? If the viewer could touch the object this could initiate or change the graphic to support my claim that electronic media interaction has a negative effect on society. For example, a happy graphic when touched, turns into a negative representation of current electronic interactivity. If I could accomplish both aspects of physical movement and touch within the installation piece, then I think it would be a stronger piece and better support my thesis. Not to mention, leading to innumerable levels of individual experience and interactive exploration by the viewer.
 

Action Plan:

To accomplish this will require researching how the projected images will respond real time to the audience.

Step 1: Hardware Research

Research into translating areas of high contrast (shadows) from a camera into digital data will be implemented immediately. My initial thoughts are to have a digital video recorder that will capture the real space of the wall and the movement of people in front of that wall. The digitized movie would be run through a computer processor. Scripts will be created that will load the captured movies into Houdini (see Step 2), then processed in Houdini and turned into a collision object in the particle system. Thus, I will need to investigate digital cameras that can accomplish this. Other hardware research will be required for projectors that will output the rendered particle system from Houdini.
Once this is initially prototyped I will also need to explore infra-red detection cameras. This will hopefully allow me to track heat signatures of finger tips interacting with the images. The camera will relay the heat signatures as a real-time movie and be translated into the software as a particle collision object. This will occur immediately as well, as this may prove to be cost prohibitive.
Although I would initially like to be able to detect movement and touch interactivity on any surface, further investigation should leave the possibility open to requiring a specific surface or material other than a gallery or exhibition space wall. Perhaps this is a series of pressure sensitive screens or simply a screen (non-digital) placed away from the wall where infra-red and shadow detection happens from behind the screen instead of behind the viewer. As stated this will be researched very early in the prototype development.

 Step 2: Graphical Environment Research and Creation
Part of my past creative experience has been working with a variety of 3D animation software and I have always been drawn to particular software called Houdini. Houdini is procedural based 3D software that is very good at particle simulation . I have, in the past, created a wind tunnel effect, but Houdini allows you to substitute generated particles with any digital object you can create. Thus, creating my digital graphical environment should prove no problem. It will be implementing an interface that reacts with the real physical presence of the viewer and the generated particle system in real time that will require more research.

Step 3: Scripting Needs and Industry Support

To load camera data into Houdini will require some automated scripting. My experience with the software and personal knowledge of the Programmers at Sidefx will help me accomplish this step. Any further hardware scripting support will come from other Colleagues and peers. I will begin to contact them for their assistance and support.

Step 4: Testing

Once I have a prototype working I will need to conduct a series of tests to determine the effectiveness of real-time response of software and hardware with the audience. Will there be a playback lag?

Prototype Development:

For my initial prototype development I will demonstrate how the installation piece will look by creating a demonstration of the graphic elements interacting with a potential collision object (audience silhouette) via the Houdini software and outputting as a movie asset. This will not be live, but will occur in the software exclusively. I will also gather all hardware information and attempt to create a recipe of the feasibility of the successful completion of the ambient media thesis project with available resources. I will also attempt to demonstrate some live physical testing of camera image capture and projected output through the software.