Looking Outwards-08 : Mike Tucker

https://mike-tucker.com/15/

Mike Tucker is an interactive director whose work focuses on how arts and music can be turned interactive. He is based in the UK, and he studied how to create interactive art. Mike Tucker currently works at Magic Leap, but he has worked with many bands to create interactive art that played their music, such as pulling spheres to your ear virtually, or creating little organisms that would chime with noise. He described himself as a big fan of Flash, before Steve Jobs had gotten rid of it with the development of Macintosh. 

His work centers around using body motions, such as hands, eye movement, and head movement to direct art virtually. I admire how he tries to incorporate all five senses, and has made work that people had experienced synthesia with. I admire this because I tend to be sensitive to my senses, and end up focusing on certain noises or sights, and he effectively uses these traits to create art. 

I admire his Tonandi work the most, because something about it seems very ethereal. There are glowing lights that sway with the sound and the head movement of the VR set, and it almost feels like you are in the movie, Avatar. Additionally, I think this work is special because though there are ethereal images appearing, the background can be anything, and it will make the user feel that they are in a different landscape. It gives off fairy-like vibes, and it is visually and audibly beautiful. 

Mike Tucker presented his work very effectively, by going through timelines and comparisons. He first started by showing how VR once looked like before the technological advancements we have today, and then slowly showed how it changed with time. On top of this, he continuously showed the audience his work, and examples of how a user could interact with VR. For example, one of the works made it possible to “grab” a sphere with a song playing, and hold it to your ear to increase the volume. Another example was where the user’s fingertip could be used to draw different geometric shapes. It was impressive to see how the interactive media progressed as technology improved, and how Mike Tucker’s work grew with the time. From Mike Tucker, I got a sense of what a good presentation would be for artistic and technological projects like his. I would definitely present progress pictures/videos, and show examples of my inspiration like he did.

https://vimeo.com/channels/eyeo2019/page:4

The link above is the link to his talk. However I could not find a video of his work, Tonandi. Therefore, below includes pictures of Tonandi.