During my research about reference works that I discussed in my last post (Reference Works 1) already, I also specifically looked for published articles in scientific journals. While I did not stumble over an installation that I would deem very closely related to mine, I found various aspects that bear great similarities to what I imagine The Emotional Space to be built upon. In the following text, I will touch upon four projects that were published in scientific journals that I chose as reference works for my installation.
Most often, [interactive art installations] are works that explore social, political, and experiential boundaries of digital interfaces. They manage to break tradition, ask new questions, and explore new venues.
Nam & Nitsche (2014, p.189)
Cross-Pollination (2008)
The installation “Cross-Pollination” by Tom Davis (2008) consists of inherently different technology and strives to create “real-world manifestations of computer based simulations”. Even though there is no direct topical relationship recognizable between his installation and my concept, I can clearly sympathize with his striving to create a system
that is not isolated from the complex nature of reality. He also makes a point about the individuality of art installations and how the meaning of a medium in that frame does not lie in the installation or the medium itself, but rather in the relationship between the installation, the visitor and the environmental context. I can draw parallels to this statement in my wish to create unique experiences, more than creating an object.
HUM (2010)
“HUM” is an interactive and collaborative art installation by Filatriau & Zajéga (2009). It uses motion tracking with a camera to create sounds and visual images in real time. While it focuses on different timescales and creating long-time trends by collecting data from visitors, there are several points that clearly align very well with visions and goals of The Emotional Space. In the artistic vision of “HUM”, Filatriau & Zajéga (2009) state that the “aim, and unique criteria of quality, is to increase the energy freed by the visitor by encouraging him to go out of standard behavioral schemes. […] The visitor is thus both creator and spectator, guiding and guided by HUM“. While in The Emotional Space, I do not necessarily want to encourage the visitor to do anything she does not want to, energy is still a major factor within the concept. The sound rendering for “HUM” was done in several layers, where some were modulated by the number
of visitors and their movements, similarly to what I plan to implement in this installation.
LoopJam (2012)
“LoopJam” is the name of an installation by Frisson et al. (2010), that allows participants to create a collaborative musical composition by interacting with a sound map through their movements, which are tracked by a vision tracking system. While this could rather be classified as a collaborative music instrument, there are still some aspects that
The Emotional Space could draw inspiration from. Specifically, the tempo adjustment based on the participants’ movements, the synchronization of sounds to a common tempo and the automatic alignment of sounds with the rhythmic pattern.
Sound Forrest/Ljudskogen (2016)
Another installation that I draw inspiration from is the “Sound Forest” by Bresin et al. (2016), which consists of room-high light-emitting strings that can be plucked and lead to electronically played sounds. What I like to take away from this installation is its collaborative aspect, as well as the non-requirement for prior knowledge to participate in it. It also serves as a long-term installation, which introduced the need to create an installation that encourages visitors to come back for further exploration.
References
- Bresin, R., Elblaus, L., Frid, E., Favero, F., Annersten, L., Berner, D., & Morreale, F. (2016). Sound Forest/Ljudskogen: A Large-Scale String-Based Interactive Musical Instrument. Sound and Music Computing 2016, 79–84. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-192919
- Davis, T. (2008). Cross-Pollination: Towards an aesthetics of the real. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.bbp2372.2008.129
- Filatriau, J. J., & Zajéga, F. (2010, October). HUM, an interactive and collaborative art installation. In Proceedings of the 18th ACM international conference on Multimedia (pp. 1429-1432). https://doi.org/10.1145/1873951.1874236
- Frisson, Christian, Dupont, Stéphane, Leroy, Julien, Moinet, Alexis, Ravet, Thierry, Siebert, Xavier, & Dutoit, Thierry. (2012). LoopJam: turning the dance floor into a collaborative instrumental map. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1178255
- Nam, H. Y., & Nitsche, M. (2014). Interactive installations as performance: inspiration for HCI. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (pp. 189-196).
