COMMUNICATING MOODS IN SPACE
A dynamic responsive environments for multiplayer physical interaction.

SLIDES (Click on image to launch slideshow in new window)

DESCRIPTION

Communicating Moods in Space provides a dynamic environment where people can explore relationships in a spatial context, and space in the context of relationships between people.
Interactors move through the ‘live’, responsive, Moodspace, defined by wall-sized projection screens, discovering the laws of interaction that govern it, and working creatively with its conventions - the room itself becomes a character in a dramatic improvisation. Spatial relationships are composed by the interplay of people, visual imagery and sound/music.

The Moodspace responds in real time to the interaction of the people inhabiting it, and can be the locus both for staging dynamic group processes and for debate around them. The space itself is conceived as dynamic, and the action within it creates sequences in time by definition. Making these sequences meaningful results in narrative, so the Moodspace itself is narrative space. The computing incorporated in the installation exploits the thinking behind state machines and self-organising maps.

Moodspace can be used to explore and develop group dynamics, but it also enables the addition of fictional layers, and offers the possibility of mixing a cast of real and virtual actors. This mixture generates a new media content form: Moodplay, dramatic digital interaction which moves between traditional or physically-played fiction layers, and digital fiction layers, stimulating new dimensions in reflection and enjoyment. In prototype experiments, the emphasis is on exploring identity and role, and formulating a better understanding of both reality and fiction through improvisational dramatic, theatrical frameworks. Mediated by the computer, the group of actors as a whole shapes the mood of the space and the performance. The group dynamic is focused as interaction, producing a new kind of relation-driven drama - made possible only through the use of digitally enhanced media space - which complements the traditional mode of character-driven drama.

In the Moodspace, the traditions of theatrical and musical improvisation - creativity by constraints (Viola Spolin) - are transformed and extended by developing game-rules as a basis for shared communication-frameworks for improvisation. This Moodplay provides a structure for computer-based games, so an individual can ‘play’ with the computer, which mediates the responses of the space, or several people/characters can interact with each other and with the space, in collaborative or debate-based modes.
Because the Moodspace is projected beyond its actual ‘walls’ (screens) by means of images and sound, the installation is completely flexible and extendable. The Moodplay can be programmed using whatever material and variables are appropriate for the situation. Both the space and the system are dynamic. The physical space is navigable, using full body movement as the interface, tracked by optical or other sensors; and the system responds to this navigation, giving back stimuli and reactions, body-responses which in turn generate new Moodplay. Thus movement in space determines the properties of the environment, and space becomes the inspiration for movement, so the Moodspace is infinitely configurable. Individuals and groups can ‘play’ with its responsive parameters, and those who work with it frequently can develop the skills to turn it into a new kind of performance medium where they can compose new works and define new game-rules.

Download project description (.pdf)


DOCUMENTATION

Callesen J., Nilsen K. (2004) From lab to stage: Practice-based research in Performance Animation” in Digital Creativity Vol. 15 no. 1 (pp. 32 -38) edited by Maureen Thomas, Swets & Zeitlinger publishers, Lisse, The Netherlands.

Callesen J., Kajo M. and Nilsen K. (2003) The Performance Animation Toolbox; developing tools and methods through artistic research” in ‘New visions in performance: the impact of digital technologies’ edited by Gavin Carver and Colin Beardon. Swets & Zeitlinger publishers, Lisse, The Netherlands.