WORKS

Light Around the Edges (1997)

Created for the Kansas City Performing Arts Center as part of the 1997 SEAMUS Conference

Light Around the Edges

Light Around the Edges is a sound/video installation that uses a video camera to detect location and movement of people in a large public space. The sensing camera is placed high above the audience, pointed downward at an angle. Movement on the ground is transmitted as numbers into the Max programming environment via David Rokeby’s Very Nervous System (Rokeby, 1995). There, software interprets data representing players’ speed and location to create original music or to triggers individual sound samples. While participants hear the results of their actions, they simultaneously see themselves in the form of a processed and abstracted video projection.

Detailed Description

Light Around the Edges is a sound/video installation that uses a video camera to detect location and movement of people in a large public space. The sensing camera is placed high above the audience, pointed downward at an angle. Movement on the ground is transmitted as numbers into the Max programming environment via David Rokeby’s Very Nervous System (Rokeby, 1995). There, software interprets data representing players’ speed and location to create original music or to triggers individual sound samples. While participants hear the results of their actions, they simultaneously see themselves in the form of a processed and abstracted video projection. lessmore

Except for four speakers, the installation is invisible. Any number of people may walk through the sensing area, often just passing by. Any number of spectators can watch players dance or move around the space. As the number of participants grows, the ability of an individual to perceive direct impact on the system is reduced. To meet the challenge of accommodating an unknown quantity of players, the installation operates in  three different modes, based on how many people are playing. Each mode defines a sonic environment and a lever of interaction appropriate for the number of players. For one to four players, the software is highly interactive, with speed and location perceived as having an immediate and obvious impact on the sound, generating music, processing sound, and controlling panning. With five to ten players, the perception of immediate interaction is lessened, and the space transforms into a soundtrack of a train station, with players’ locations triggering conversations in many languages, train doors opening, announcements, and the sounds of trains coming and going. Thus, the space becomes an invisible set, defined architecturally in sound, with fixed locations on the floor representing specific sounds and functions (although not entirely predetermined). Finally, with too many players to identify any individual’s input, the third mode turns the space into a big party, with movement triggering canned laughter, sounds of people eating, conversations, glasses clinking, and other crowd sounds. The effect is a fortified social space, where the audience’s movements alter their own social interactions in real time.

All three modes are playful environments that encourage conversation, eye contact, and movement between players and spectators, companions and strangers. The participants are the subject of this work, their actions, responses, facial expressions, bodies, and social interactions are much more significant than the actual visual and sonic material they generate.

Related paper: Audience Participation and Response in Movement-Sensing Installations