My final project is an extension of the motion tracking / audio performance that I already worked on for my midterm. The basic idea is to allow players to walk around on a 10′ x 10′ x 10′ stage, and play different parts of a song based on their locations:
Infrared illuminators will flood the floor of the stage, while an infrared camera watches from directly above. Using blob tracking, the movements of various players will be observed, and an image of an ice field will be projected onto the floor, with cracks appearing where the players are. Two projectors will be used, to minimize the interference of shadows:
The floor will be virtually divided up into sections, and walking through a particular section will trigger tracks of the song (guitar, bass, percussion, vocals, etc). The eventual idea is for the sound clips to be short chunks of each track, played randomly and concurrently so that the sound created is dissonant and atonal.
Staying in one section long enough will cause the cracks in that section to develop a certain color, and if players manage to get all sections colored at the same time, the curtains in the middle of the stage (which simulate an ice crystal) will lift up, revealing what’s inside. Furthermore, the complete song will then be played in full, after which the curtains will be dropped back down:
The setting for this will be a large gallery space, will crowds of people walking about. Hopefully, the process of revealing the inside of the ice will be repeated many times throughout the day.