#sensitive interfaces

By Martin Messier (audio, light, performance), and Samuel St-Aubin (electronics), 2012. More info here. SOFT REVOLVERS "Soft Revolvers is a music performance for 4 spinning tops built with clear acrylic by the artist. Each spinning top, 10’ in diameter, is associated with an ‘instrument’ or part in an electronic music composition. The tops are equipped with gyroscopes and accelerometers that communicate wirelessly with a computer where the motion data collected (speed, unsteadiness at the end of a spin, acceleration spikes in case of collisions) informs musical algorithms designed in Pure Data. "

"LEDs placed inside the tops illuminate the body of the objects in a precise counterpoint to the music. The positioning of the lights creates visually stunning halos around the tops, enhanced by POV effects (persistence of vision). A camera placed above the performance table provides video feed that will be subtly manipulated and projected back on the screen behind the artist, making the projections an integral part of the performance. "

By Myriam Bleau, 2014. More info here. SOLU "SoLu was designed to demonstrate André Rangel's theory of correspondence between sound and light (read 'Audible and Visible Spectrums - a proposal of correspondence' (Rangel, 2010).

"SoLu gives its users the control over a audiovisual algorithmic composition generated in real-time"

By André Rangel and Anne-Kathrin Siegel, 2010. More info here. PROJECTORS "Martin Messier's Projectors is a surgical work of art in which he orchestrates the engineering, manipulation and distortion of 8mm projectors under the lights of a digital projector. Through a tight stage lighting and the resynthesis of the 8mm projectors’ quasi-mythical roar, the machines come alive outside of the projection room and turn into bizarre and explosive noise mechanisms. All at once offbeat, unfamiliar and marvelously incongruous, this performance leads the public to a timeless universe, somewhere between dialogue, confrontation and technological contrast. Here, the projectors do not project: Everything but discrete, they take action and become the performance itself – loud and luminous."

By Martin Messier, 2014. TüISt "TüISt is an emotionally driven interface taking on our inner desires and fantasies of instantaneously becoming superstars and on our instinctive imitation of the musical performers gestures as expressions of sounds.It is a multi-instrument minimal interface featuring multi-track gesture recording/ playback allowing for ‘one-man-band’ performances. Its three different instrument modes can be automatically selected by positioning TüISt in a natural and similar position to its inspired instrument not requiring any any physical transformation or button activation."

By Teo Park. More info here. NON HUMAN DEVICE #02 Second part of a series of installations based on alien objects/devices found by Boris Chimp 504 during his missions through the deep space). In every version it is presented a new interface and the audience is invited to explore and interact with sound and visuals in real time.

Nice article by "The Creators Project", about the Non Human Device series and the Boris Chimp 504. By Rodrigo Carvalho/Visiophone - Visuals and interactive system, Miguel Neto - Sound. CONTACT "Tangible audio interface to manipulate and visualize sounds generated from interaction with a simple wooden surface. Any physical contact with the table generates acoustic vibrations which are manipulated and visualized LIVE as they occur using several communicating pieces of software."

By Felix Faire. Making Of here. MUMUR "Murmur is an architectural prosthesis that enables the communication between public and the wall upon which it is connected. The installation simulates the movement of sound waves, building a luminous bridge between the physical and the virtual worlds."

By Chevalvert. More info at the project page. NOISY JELL "Noisy jelly is a game where the player has to cook and shape his own musical material, based on coloured jelly. With this noisy chemistry lab, the gamer will create his own jelly with water and a few grams of agar agar powder. After added different color, the mix is then pour in the molds. 10 min later, the jelly shape can then be placed on the game board,and by touching the shape, the gamer will activate different sounds."

The Lumigraph was also compose by a flexible screen that hid light beams, by touching the screen it would intersect the light beams and display the colored lights. FIREWALL "A stretched sheet of spandex acts as a membrane interface sensitive to depth that people can push into and create fire-like visuals and expressively play music. The further you press into the membrane the faster and more intense the piano music becomes. In the instrument mode, the further the membrane is pressed into, the higher the pitch of the sound." "The Kinect measures the average depth of the spandex from the frame it is mounted on. If the spandex is not being pressed into nothing happens. When someone presses into it the visuals react around where the person presses, and the music is triggered."

More info here By Aaron Sherdwood and Michael Pallison OBAKE "Screens as they exist today are flat, 2D and rigid; even the 3D displays we have today are not true 3D - they are optical illusions. We created a 2.5D display that is shape changing with the help of actuators, depth cameras, projector and a silicone screen. 'Obake' (o-baa-keh) as we lovingly call it, imagines how we would interact with elastic display. We could literally pinch and pull them!" "Create mountains by pulling them out of the screen, draw rivers with your fingers, elevate an entire terrain to see a cut section view. Make your data come alive. The video shows our working prototype."

More info here. By Dhairya Dand + Rob Hemsley CLOUDS PINK EVERYWHERE The audience is invited to create and interact with the clouds above their head by touching a fabric screen that is suspended in the air. A depth camera in the top captures the interaction with the screen.

"Lying down on a hill with your pupils filled with the endless blue sky, perspective of your eyesight suddenly gets distorted and clouds drift at the tip of your nose. You stretch your arms up to the sky to touch the clouds but can’t reach. Another world right  above your head, clouds."

More info here. By Everyware SOAK, DYE IN LIGTH

"There is an empty canvas glowing in a dark room. When you touch it, it’s elastic surface stretches and gets suffused with beautiful vivid colors just like fabrics absorbing dyes. Poking and rubbing with hands or resting their whole body on this spandex canvas, people can soak this canvas in virtual dyes and create their own patterns. "

More info here. By Everyware