dusk is an interactive installation exhibited at the underbelly arts festival which draws upon the connections between people, technology and environment. participants engage with tiny creatures of light which respond to movement, flock around to avoid rocks, follow the queen and take refuge in a tree.
ive been doing a bit of work lately with the chaps from angryPixel (scott brown and eli murray) and this has been the first interactive installation we’ve worked on collectively. we all have our own individual skill sets and have been able to contribute to the project in unique and complemantry ways. everything was tied together through the magic of OSC allowing for communication between openFrameworks <=> max msp <=> ableton live.
we had great luck with the space allocated for our installation, a disused warehouse large enough to facilitate a top-down projection. you can see the dimensions in the photo above, with eli included for scale (he is quite tall). there was also a very convenient mezzanine level where we were able to set up our control center and have a good view when testing the projection.
the tracking of people walking around in the space was done using openFrameworks with simple background subtraction + blob detection. the camera we used for the task was a point grey firefly mv with IR pass filter which did a beautiful job of capturing a crisp image with little to none noise.
the input from people walking around was then used to steer a flock of fireflies which flew around the space avoiding people and rocks. there was also a queen firefly which had a love / hate relationship with the rest of the colony. she followed her minions around but would scare them off if she got too close. the position of the queen in the space also controlled the direction of artificial shadows being cast by the rocks and panning of sound through the surround sound system.
the fireflies were also able to take refuge in a tree, backlit by DMX controlled LED lights. the tree would give off a stronger glow depending on how many fireflies were taking refuge in it at the one time.
in the end it was great seeing people chase the fireflies around the space and gang up to heard them into the tree. kids especially took to this activity and i think thats always a good indicator of a success interactive installation… if kids understand and enjoy it then the kid inside of us all will enjoy it too.