Sophie Chen – Looking Outwards 12

For my final project, I wanted to dive deeper into animations that interact with or respond to a live camera input. As I was doing research I came across this project called webcam piano created by Memo Akten, where the users’ gestures not only trigger animations but also different keys of the piano, creating their own visual and sound sequence. Another project that I found is Fauna by Dr. Woohoo, an immersive art experience where a floating fauna seems to be just on screen but when people stand in front of it, it starts moving and engaging with them. Both projects are triggered by what’s in front of the camera, the main difference being that with the webcam piano the users see themselves and the animations on top, whereas with Fauna users don’t see themselves on screen at all, merely the animations that are triggered by their movements/presence. This made me think a lot about what it means when the users are able to see themselves vs. when they are not, and what I want to do for my project.

Fauna

Webcam Piano

Link to webcam piano: http://www.memo.tv/portfolio/webcam-piano-2/

Link to Fauna: http://blog.drwoohoo.com/currents-2010-playing-with-fauna/