Technical Details

Fig 1.  single installation setup

The Technology
This varies from creature to creature and set up to set up.
Below is a typical set up descibed for the starfish in some detail:

The starfish is constructed from video recordings of the artists’ bodies, which are collaged together in the multimedia authoring program Flash which also controls the interaction. The output from Flash is back-projected onto a home built lycra screen in semi-darkened gallery space. Sensing technology, comprising infrared lighting and webcams is linked to motion tracking software, which detects audience movement and sends motion parameters to Flash which trigger a variety of life-like actions in the creatures.

The installations can be exhibited at a range of different sizes depending on available space. Once, a giant starfish was projected 40 foot across for MediaLab at Area10 in Peckham. The piece is straight forward to set up once the light sensitivity has been calibrated, and extremely stable. There are inbuilt biometric variables within the program to allow for minor adaptations in size, speed & sensitivity etc… The starfish has happily run all day for 4 weeks at the Bargehouse exhibition in 2008.

The installations can be exhibited at a range of different sizes depending on available space. They are straight forward to set up and extremely stable.

Fig 2. motion tracking and touch screen

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Equipment requirements for each installation
- fast PC computer, at least 2.5 GHz
- projector – 1280 resolution
- webcam (infrared capable)
- USB cable (5m)
- VGA cable
- stereo speakers and audio cables
- screen (wood to build frame and material to project onto)
- Small Infrared Lights (*4)

Fig 3.  double installation setup

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Technical Description: creature construction to installation set-up

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Technical sketches

Fig 4. motion tracking – outputting man-params

Fig 5. creature behaviour sketches – showing the types of variety of creature behaviour given certain user input.

Fig 6. program flowchart – showing how the actions were broken down into code.