APD Week 5- Play and Forces: StyroFace [][]

By Carlo Tolentino

THEME: Play and Forces

CONTEXT:

Force: People / Camera / Projection

Inspired by Ross Philip and SHOWstudio’s The Replenishing Body: http://www.rossphillips.me/2007/09/replenishing-body.html

I wanted to recreate the same effect of fragmented images of body parts combining in a composition but in a projection-mapped installation. The force at play would primarily be people, then the camera/s and the physicality of the projected objects and space. Additional motivation in choosing my method would be my recent attendance of White Night festival in Melbourne.

METHOD: To incorporate people’s faces in a projection-mapped installation, using a single camera input, and manipulated through a video mapping software.

RESPONSE: StyroFace is an interactive projection-mapping installation, aimed to fragmentize and abstract people’s face.

REFLECTION: I initially wanted to create generative photogrammetry hybrid creatures in this theme. However, due to the limitations and restrictions of photogrammetry, I couldn’t properly create or “breed” what I had in mind. StyroFace was then developed, as I was inspired to create a projection-mapped installation having recently attended White Night in Melbourne. StyroFace uses people’s faces through a webcam, and fragments them into an abstract and unsettling composition, projected on Styrofoam blocks. Using cameras and projection-mapping techniques was also something I wanted to develop through my studio project but leaned towards a game design outcome instead. The use of Styrofoam blocks and cardboard trash as an installation canvass for projection mapping is a method that has emerged through the constant iterations of my exploration in interactive projection mapping. I can absolutely see StyroFace be further explored in more complex and larger installations, perhaps incorporating multiple cameras and participants. I also find it impactful when body parts are zoomed in on each fragment, especially the eyes, giving it an eerie omnipresent surveillance feel.

I wanted to engage with the theme of play and forces, using people as the main force or cause, and cameras and projected light as the effect. Brigid Costello’s Play and the Experience of Interactive Art (2001), expounds on the Power of Sensual Sounds and Images. Wherein it focuses on the combination of action and representation being an effective strategy for designing for play.

…the way that an action performed within an interactive work produces the representation that is then seen and/or heard. This relationship, then, is not just about a sympathetic reaction, it also involves the creative pleasure of being a cause. (Costello, 2009:185)

The objects, Styrofoam blocks, that are being projected may also be perceived as a force on its own. Abstracting, limiting and fragmenting the output of the camera. Prompting the user to disconnect and subvert from how a normal camera would function. I would also like to attempt incorporating audio/voice-interactions connected to more cause and effect abstractions in possible future iterations.

These pleasures are very much connected to the way the representational context puts a protective frame around the actions performed. Such actions are then disconnected from reality in a way that provides a space for play to occur. (Costello, 2009:185)

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