Major Project Plan: Here and Now

This installation work examines the idea of now and our ability to truly be present within it.
The centre of the installation is a wedge shaped block, set into the corner of a space. Within the front of the box is a concave surface 75cm in diameter, a projector sits in front of the Wedge projecting an image onto the concave surface.

The projected image will be of the viewer themselves. These images are taken from a camera set into the wedge shaped block. This feed is then be taken into TouchDesigner, mapped to a spherical shape, has reflections, chromatic aberrations and other colour layering effects applied to give the look of a reflection in a crystal ball.

The projected image will be mapped onto the concave surface to create the illusion that we are looking at a convex object.
Around the projection will be drawn and painted imagery compounding the viewers' sense of place within the present moment. The imagery will be a mix of up to date statistical data, map data and topographic drawings of the current pace.

The drawn images will be mapped to the flat surface of the Wedge and the corner walls creating the illusion that they exist on a flat plane.

The Concept.

In the use of illusionary forms I am making reference to the illusionary and transitory nature of existence. This is not only an idea from Eastern philosophical traditions, recent neuroscientific research shows that what we 'know' to be reality is merely an interpretation of remembered sensory data. Through remembering we add our own layers of signal noise and individual biases. 
The ability to let go of the many layers of thoughts, desires, fears and plans frees us to have a genuine experience and interaction with the world and each other. 
This level of Mindfulness is a hard thing to achieve but I hope that with this work I will at least be able to offer the viewer the experience of the work, themselves and the place within the moment. Hinting at something larger, or perhaps it is nothing at all, the void at the heart of everything.

Asset List

Wedge block set.
Ambient and reactive audio.
Video camera.
Projector.
Projector stand.
Surround sound speakers
Computer.

Touch designer patch controlling distortion, effects, audio and final mapped projected image.
Up to date Melbourne statistics.
Drawn topographic and map based imagery. 
Note: In order to map the drawn imagery to the walls I will first project a digital image and map it to the surface to create a realistic flat plane from a non-flat surface. I will then trace over this projection using pencils and paint to achieve the final look.

Set Design: Front

Perspective





















Mapped Set

Schedule

Major Project Plan: An Anomaly

City Screen Shot/ concept art

Set Design

Mapped Set

Production Schedule

Major Project Concept

Overview
‘Everything and Nothing’ is a projection installation work, the piece will take up about 2.5m2
 corner
of a gallery space, it will use a combination of projection mapping, ambient occlusion and physical
drawings to create the illusion of perspective and depth.
Viewers will be drawn into the projected world via the use of audio, colour, line, movement and
light. Perceptions of spatial reality will be challenged through projection mapping onto a concave
surface within the installation space.

Time will be set on a loop that takes around 10 minutes, animation will be kept to a minimum,
mostly of simple loops and lighting effects. I would like to be able to show the movement of time
from dawn to dusk and back to dawn again.

Treatment
The work will be set into the corner of a gallery space, in the centre of the installation will be a
rectangular box (aprox 1.5m high x 0.5m wide) with a concave surface cut from the corner facing
toward the viewer (fig.1). This surface will form the focal point of the installation: The illusion that
the projected image is coming toward the viewer.

One of the first things that the viewer will notice about the installation is the blending of the
projected space into the real space, this will be achieved by using a number of masking layers
within the projected image. The sky background will be blended using a large soft gradient mask;
The cloud layers will have their own soft gradient mask that is offset from the sky layer, thus
adding to the illusion of space as the clouds interact with the gallery wall; Ground elements also
blend in separately, this blend will be enhanced with the use of pen outlines drawn on the wall
around the unmoving projected elements such as buildings, cliffs and horizon. These outlines will
trail off around the edges of the projection.

The viewer is drawn into the projected image through the use of colour and contrast as well as
perspective and movement lines: that is a combination of the real perspective of the gallery corner
space and the forced perspective of the projected image (fig.2). Movement lines will be created by
the motion of traffic flowing into and out of the city via road networks running from the city and air
traffic taking off and landing within the city.

Use of lighting adds to the illusionary depth, as time passes shadows move and colours shift as
lighting conditions change. From the bright white light of midday through to darkness shot through
with dazzling urban electric lights.

The audio will play a major role, immersing the audience into the projected world. 6.1 surround
sound will be set up about the installation, the bustle and buzz of the environment will be brought
to life though an immersive environmental soundtrack.
The focal point of the installation is the concave/ convex illusionary space of the projected urban
environment. Distorted fish-eye style perspective gives the urban environment an extra surreal
dimension.

Energy Fields

Below is a render of a third of the proposed performance. No sound at the moment.

The energy field around the performer is created by a live silhouette  and the energies are controlled by a combination of the movement of the performers hands, centre point and live VJ control.

http://vimeo.com/bucketothought/aim1

Story Board

Visual Chi is a live stage performance with a duration of 3 - 3.5 minutes here is a step by step storyboard..

References

I will update this post from time to time with more reference material as I find it..

A TED talk utilising realtime augmented reality. The Kinect and VVVV programming. The pic links to the studios' page where you can see the video and the making of.

Some really great silhouette tracking and particle physics in this piece.

This piece is a "sound sculpture" using the Kinect and Processing to take 3D snapshots of a dancer and apply particles that hang in the air and are then taken by gravity.

Visual Example

A couple of videos I made in After Effects as a visualisation test

The first motion is derived from tracking my belt buckle (Tan Tien), I then added a point to represent the centre and rings representing energy. I offset the tracking slightly over time in relation to the rings.

For this example I tracked my hands and attached a particle systems to them. The oil-in-water patterns around the figure are made with a fractal noise, mesh warp is then applied to give the distortion effect.