PRECEDENCE: Webcam Piano by Memo Akten

Webcam Piano 2.0 Teaser from Memo Akten on Vimeo.

Webcam Piano is an interpretation of movements with sound.



"Webcam Piano 2.0, uses much smarter algorithms to try and understand motion and interpret how the person (or people) are moving and what kind of sounds they might be wanting and expecting to create with their movements. It also offers a simple gestural interface to switch between 3 (potentially more) different musical modes and color schemes, each representing a different emotion and feel."

- Memo Akten

Memo Akten official site

This relates to my study of synaesthesia. One of the most commonly reported form of synaesthesia is relating color to any other sensation, which results in multiple works in relation to color. But I'm pleased to find one of relation to motion.

There are three types of default colors one can use to project movements - red, green and blue. Users are able to choose any of the three colors as their default. Light movements will leave traces of the default color in use (eg; green), but rapid movements will produce overwhelming traces of either of the other two colors (eg; red or blue).

I find the idea of the traces of colors interesting. Perhaps it will give a more profound definition of the user's speed and the reaction of the projection.

IDEA DEVELOPMENT: Interactive Light Installation by Andrew O'Malley

Interactive light installation from The Latest Artists on Vimeo.

"A custom light fixture is controlled by the movement of people in the gallery it inhabits: motion sensors use the number and frequency of people in various parts of the space to control the color and speed of the installation."

Andew O'Malley official website.

This work has a common ground with installation. With the exception of lights, I will be using a webcam to sense the movement of my audience; which will determine the shade of color of the kaleidoscope projection.

An important detail that needs further investigation; will my projection react to a singular motion of an audience or to multiple movements?

PRECEDENCE: Kinetic Color Movements

Kinetic Drawing Number 7 (first iteration) from Adam Hinterlang on Vimeo.

Interesting experimentation. Although it mostly focuses on the relation of color and sound; I find it interesting on how the experimenter associated a music scale to a particular color.

"The colors I worked with were the primary colors of light and reflective color -- red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black -- seven colors representing seven notes in a musical scale."

- Adam Hinterlang

PRECEDENCE: Synaesthesia

There is a great importance in understanding motion and color. Both elements are what defines culture. Both motion and color are a form of expression, often seen in dance. We use the term of color to describe a basic range of elements. In this context, color is a complimentary of motion or movement, in which people use to convey a message.

Without going too much in depth on color and motion, I want to focus on the sensation of synaesthesia.

According to WordNet, synaesthesia is a sensation that normally occurs in one sense modality occurs when another modality is stimulated. For example, certain synaesthetes (the people who experience synesthesia) may actually see specific colors when they hear specific notes or music. They use sound to relate to a different sensation.

The synesthetic process

Image from DrHugo.org

Here are some videos which may help me understand more on the relation of color and motion.

Synesthesia from Trevor Jacques on Vimeo.

Music in Motion - Color Test from Justin Wilcott on Vimeo.

PRECEDENCE: Stateless - Ariel

Stateless - Ariel from FIELD on Vimeo.

"A digital dance performance exploring the eternal struggle of good and evil, for Stateless‘ latest single Ariel."

A great reference video that relates to color & motion. Animated by FIELD for Stateless.

"FIELD animated the two opponent characters of the song as surreal human figures, drawing dynamic sculptures into space. We collaborated with professional dancer Dominic North to record an impromptu interpretation of the song in a motion capture studio."

I'm not sure entirely how they picked particular colors to represent the motion, but the shades of color that were executed for the male and the female's movements were interesting.

For this music video, the dancer had to wear a special suit with sensors in order detect his movements which will be detected by the cameras and embedded into the software.

The making-of video and screen shots of the music video after this jump!