Here & There
Here & There is small series of scenes depicting domesticity during quarantine. The avatars in the scenes embody the hope, dream, and opportunity of other places, speeding through locales that contrast to the stillness and current constraints of home life.
Using a Kinect Sensor, TouchDesigner (a visual programming language), and access to IP Cams I built a system that transformed a person to become a mediated avatar, that through it’s body displayed other parts of the world.
____________________________________________
This project has taken a few turns – I originally pitched a sort of digital camera obscura effect that would use the motions of my body in my space to digitally reveal other places; think body paintbrush. What I attempted to build was a system that would use layers of feedback on top of itself while still clearly being able to see each layer. I had hoped the use of a projector would aide in the layering effect allowing most of the visual content to conform to the geometry of my room. Unfortunately TouchDesigner does not support projector output on the free license.
The next iteration was to focus more on the computer vision aspect of the piece and implement hand tracking that I would be able to paint objects surfaces in my room that would reveal portals to other places. The triggering and isolation specific content proved difficult, was working on gesture recognition in TD that would trigger the effect on whether my hand was open or closed. I am confident with more time and development I still could realize this system.
This led to the current incarnation that flipped the layers. Instead of layering behind my body I opted to cover my body entirely rendering myself something entirely mediated.
Further work on this project would expand the series to stage more scenes, as well develop a more fool proof overlay of the body and limit artifact.
This project was the first time I worked with the Kinect sensor and much of the R&D was seeing what could be accomplished in TD and how best to maniuplate the sensor data. There are countless of things to explore with it and Im excited to see what else I can build with it and continue to build off this project.