update after the line!
I haven't gotten to documenting/reflecting on "A Fool's Journey" yet so blogging about a final almost feels premature, as my ideas for the final performance are inspired by the midterm. Apologies therefore for references that may feel loose without context of the midterm. The most important thing to know was that a lot of the objects used in my part of "A Fool's Journey" were personal effects of mine, items saturated with a great deal of history and meaning, but also tied to archaic and modern rituals existing outside my personal experience.
I want to explore how these objects can "speak" or bear their souls, and use Max as a way to interpret their language. I want to explore the cv.jit library for motion, gesture, and color tracking, as well as sensor inputs mounted on various objects that affect video and sound output. I want to create something magical, to perform "serendipity" in such a way that explains these objects to the audience in a way that I cannot without feeling trite.
Objects of thought
A bowl of water: I'd like to project into a bowl of water and have the projection or possibly sound change as I add things to it. I'm considering color tracking or sensors for this.
A mirror: this is sort of my piece de resistance, as I want to create a performance object that projects a "reflection" from a mirror and then manipulates that projection based on sound
Red: I use a lot of red in my artwork, meditations, etc and want to use this as a variable for sound change
Smoke: I'm not sure if it will act as an input (with incense or sage for instance) or an output (video effect or blurring) but it's an important element
No code shame
I'm refraining from expressing doubts about my abilities as I was critiqued for self-effacement. But I know I have a lot to learn here before I can execute any one thing. I suppose the question I have is, if I use one object to study interaction and processing, which would give me the most flexibility and reward for time spent exploring?
I have a lot to think about before presentations next week, I'm desperately overworked but determined to make something beautiful.
Update: Futility of Order with Marcela
Marcela and I connected quite strongly after our first solo performances, it's been liberating to find a comrade who had similar artistic inspirations and aspirations. We've decided to collaborate for the final performance, and I'm incredibly excited to sync our visions toward something powerful! We started by lightly discussing our hopes for the final, and moved into an in-depth brainstorm of ideas and created a network of thematic connections.
We decided that we want to explore the futility of order, or the societal compulsion to organize/clean as a matter of taking control of nature/natural entropy. In that concept there is plenty of space to play with ideas about life cycles, task-oriented tensions, procedure and the inevitable breaking down of procedure. Texturally, we are looking toward moving from the geometric to the elemental, looking toward liminalities (eg breaking human-defined barriers), and examination of things that thrive in darkness.
Technical considerations
We are formulating the piece to be as far away from the code environment as possible, with most live video manipulation a result of body placement and movement. The two tech elements we're considering employing as part of the performance is a button of some sort that can trigger a preset, and the handheld mirror using iPhone camera via Airbeam/Syphon that I've been dreaming of making over the course of the semester. Marcela has been working her tail off designing a Kinect-controlled Max patch for her Sound in Space final, and we'll be redeveloping that toward image-based performance.
We're hoping to go with the 3-channel option in order to create two "separate but equal" environments with an estuary between the two. We haven't dived beyond this point yet, but definitely have both lots of elements we can expand on directionally, and nice parameters to limit our decisions as we continue to form the piece.
Update with mood board and patch ideas to come!!
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