Fabricio BREEZE Olsson

Digital Arts and New Media M.F.A. Project Proposal

12/11/2007

DESIGN BRIEF

Setting:

Indoor with controlled lighting

20'x20' Installation space

Equipment:

PhaseSpace motion capture system

Designer station: computer manipulation of the virtual environment video processing

Projector and projection surface

Sound system - low levels of outdoor sound bites

Motion Capture suit dressing station

Audience involvement:

Two active participants move within the motion capture area. One wearing torso and head and the other wearing the hips and legs. Their movement triggers a watercolor-like collage representative of a natural environment. Trigger rules and parameters are adjusted by the designer in order to help participants achieve a desired look on the e_Motion painting. Also, designer may introduce changes in visualization of the virtual environment - scale, point of view and image filters.

Sound bites of local environments are played in the installation space. Sounds may not necessarily be synchronized with the visual stimulus being presented.

A database of images is accumulated each time a new participant is introduced. e_Motion paintings are displayed while there are no active participants within the motion capture space.

Motion data gathered from each participant can be used as a playback feature. Each participant is saved individually, therefore data may be combined from any previously recorded session. Also, a single "live" participant's data may be combined with previously recorded motion.

Visually, the motion data gathered triggers a set of coloring dots (representational of natural environment). The lower body controls the "planting of seeds," while the torso and arms represent "water flow." Coloring dots follow a predetermined set of rules (akin to game of life), where adjacent dots affect one another depending on their color, intensity, size, etc.

Here is one scenario of such rule set:

Lower body: two states, standing and moving. While standing, damages ground, moving plants seed - damaged ground turns brown

Upper body: variations of water flow and pollutants depending on the relationship of different body parts. Clean water has a stronger, more lasting effect on plants. Polluted water has a stronger more lasting effect on dead ground (spread/flood)

Two main approaches may be taken by participants: to "play the game" of creating or destroying the virtual environment; or focus on the aesthetic aspects of the e_Motion painting - treating it like a water color painting, where each participant holds a virtual brush with a specific kind of ink.

Principle of Remediation:

It is important to note that the context of the "game" is fluid and may be adapted to a variety of scenarios and situations. The goal of e_Motion is to establish a dialog from one gallery space to another, whereas the rules and parameters themselves become a cumulative database set. This newly formed data set can in turn be used as a vocabulary in forming yet another set of cascading parameters. This repurposing of media is remediation, a "complex kind of borrowing in which one medium is itself incorporated or represented in another medium." (Bolter & Grusin, 45)