Last week was the first residency of my journey through the MFA program. Throughout the week, I got exposed to numerous pieces of art and even created some of my own. From touch experiences to visual/audio experiences, it was enlightening experience. The residency helped me understand that the meaning of interactivity can be simply to interact but to have a rememberable experience. There were a few pieces that relate to an area that I want to focus on this semester which are Double Taker by Golan Levin, and Standards and Double Standards by Lozano-Hemmer.
Double Taker by Golan Levin is part of an experience I want to include in my project. The piece is a black cylinder with an eye that follow visitors that walk towards the entrance of the building. The “character” moves around bending almost as if it had emotion and life. I want to explore this concept but expand upon it. I want to create a piece that has that emotion and life but add A.I. that would react to groups or individuals. I envision an interaction where people notice that the piece is following them. I want the piece to respond to what it visually sees. As an example, if the A.I. sees a person wearing a sweater. It would make a comment about the piece of clothing. I want the visitor to feel the piece has life and to enjoy that interaction. Another piece we covered that covers that area would be Standards and Double Stands by Lozano-Hemmer.
In the piece, Standards and Double Stands by Lozano-Hemmer, has “living” floating belts. These belts are waist high. They rotate and move out of the way of the on lookers. The belts react to the people. With that said, the experience feels like these belts are worn by invisible people. Within the piece on the back wall, it shows how the magic happens. There is a monitor that displays the graph of motion where a person is standing and how the belts react. Like that piece, I would like to explore a way to receive real time data to create a fast and smooth reaction.
I wish to explore importing these ideas into a game engine like Unity. I believe using Unity will have the flexibility to combine the emotion and the reactions I am envisioning. I wish to research and develop a way to include an A.I. using visual input, such as a camera, to create a unique experience for the audience. The visual input could dictate what comes next in the chain of events. These events would be pre-determined scenes, for now, that would be play in response to the data. If there is any type of delay, it could throw off the feeling of being “alive”.
To summarize what I wish to focus on this semester would be to begin research to implement visual input within the game engine, Unity. I believe this would be the biggest and most difficult hurdle to complete my idea for a final project. If I could increase the scope, I would like to include audio input. In the end, I would like to stand back and watch people interact with the piece and enjoy their experience.