Information
Technology
Hardware
- 1 Mac g4 PowerPC computer, (minimum 512MB RAM) - Video camera connected to analog video card in Mac or a/d converter to firewire (we will provide)
- bright digital data projector, 3200 lumens
Installation Requirements / Space
- about 6 x 5 meters - height: minimum 4 meters (for positioning security camera above crowd)
- acoustically isolated from other sound events
- large projection screen with image appx 3 x 4 meters (front or rear
projection)
Installation Requirements / Space
In the entrance of the installation, the following writing in Japanese should be added: the poet Takahashi Mushimaro in the Manyoshu:
"The snows that crown the peak of Fuji
Melt on the mid-June day
And that night it snows again."
Software
This project was realized in Macromedia Director, OSC and Supercollider.Sound
- 6 full-range powered speakers (or smaller monitor speakers and 1 large powered sub-woofer) - Mixer (4-bus or more, with aux outputs)
- Mac G4Powerbook and 6-channel DAC interface (we can provide)
- 6 50 feet cables, 1 stereo mini to 1/4 phone plugs into mixer
Descriptions & Essays
"Sensing Speaking Space", is an interactive installation that focuses on the notion of the "intelligent space", a space that knows you are there and reacts to the presence and movements of multiple spectators sensed through a custom camera tracking system. The image is projected on a large screen, the sounds are spatialized around the audience through a 6 channel surround-sound based on their locations in the gallery.
The visualization consists of the play between the noise, randomness and order, through multiple layerings and subtle changes that build up over time and in response to spectators movements. There is a back and forth transition between two images that is produced dynamically as a consequence of the spectators' actions. The first state is a textured image surface continuously being covered by white visual noise, like film dust, or snow falling on a windshield. The noise is made up of ascii characters that must be wiped away by the spectators' movements to activate further events. Enough action must be generated so that the transition to the other state is possible. The second state is a green blurred image, from which readable texts are drawn to the surface through the spectator's movements. The audience's movements advance the events from one to the other evoking metaphorical acts of "wiping" and "breaking through" in the white noise screen mode to "bringing forth" and "revealing" in the green text screen mode.
The sound consists of several layers (drone, singer, water sounds, bells, speakers, etc.) with variations for each of the two visual states. The vision program send messages over a network to a SuperCollider program that controls the sound synthesis and mixing.
The work is intended to focus on reflexion and self-realization of one's presence. It is an abstract work meant to be contemplative like a Japanese garden.
(George Legrady)
Literature
Exhibitions & Events