The Contract- 9/11/13

I will be working on an interactive installation for my BFA project. It will include glass spherical shapes to touch and interact with the audience. The interactions that will occur through different variations of the glass spheres being touched will be changes in lighting, sound, and projected html5 <canvas> moving particles.

The concept of my piece is for the viewer who interacts with my piece to experience movement, and in essence ‘dance’ in front of other people and have it be a fun experience because they are paying more attention to the art piece that the outside viewers of the piece. The theme would address how most people do not like to make a spectacle of themselves and how some people do not like to dance in public or at all but that everyone has the ability to dance even if they do not believe they do.

How the interactive piece will be set up will facilitate the movement of the participant by having them touch different parts of the installation which will be located at different heights and in a semicircle around where the main users interaction will occur. Each of the glass spheres of the installation will control different reactions from the piece, some will change the lighting, some will affect the sound, and others the visually projected moving particles. This will also help give the suggestion of a dance setting with music and flashing lights.

The final format of this piece will be an installation that will probably need close to the 12 square feet, I want a 3.5ft space where the user will stand and have a semicircle of glass spheres hanging from three different heights and layers from the ceiling and three different heights and layers coming out of the floor as well. Around 23 glass sphere would be hanging from the ceiling and 15 attached to the floor. There will also be a projection down onto the floor. These glass spheres will be what controls the lights and sounds and projection objects that will move around.

The equipment I will need during production will be a MakeyMakey, LEDs, a projector, and a computer for testing. I will also need the glass blowing studio. In the display I will need a projector that is small and could be hung from the ceiling, the MakeyMakey, a computer to run the program (maybe a Raspberry Pi), speakers, the glass spheres, securely attached to the floor and ceiling, or on a frame.