CPS Week 04 - Place

Video of the Experiment Process: 


In response to the theme of discussion of place, I produced an organic landscape by motion detection using Touchdesigner. This week’s discussion of place made me contemplate on the role and qualities of environment.

Experiment a: Organic Landscape By translating the motion detection (fram differencing) into meaningful data pass, I was able to feed this live data as the height map of a plane geometry so the plane would deform responding to my motion. I planned to make it interact with objects, however the physic system didn’t work out. Nonetheless, I still think it is a potential approach in game and interaction, imagining the place respond to player’s input and perform certain kind of changes. This proves that “place” itself could be in motion and organic even it’s not common in the real world.

Experiment B: The Invisible Force By leveraging the motion detection channel I set up, I experimented the potential of enabling players to act as invisible force in the place. The place provided not only a stage and also limitation and imagination of the identities who the player is. In my experiments, player would be an star arranger in the night sky and angry wind who wants to mess with pedestrians. This shows that “place” could be the major interactable, connecting designated objects and players.

Similar work has been produced by Yeuz Interactive, their work Kepler, was a motion-driven interactive installation. (Yeuz Inteactive 2016 ,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JjfDhUQ9r8) Players’ existance will alter the place in the virtual world, where the snow will stop on the sillhouette of the players. The accumulated snow will show and “perform” the existance of the players, which I find it very interesting. The qualities, content (light, wind, snow, shadow) of the place outline the existance of things in it.