Responses
I began working with the Interactive Arts group, a small collaborative research group housed in the Arts, Media, and Engineering program at Arizona State University. During my first year with this research group, I participated as the primary mover and experiential tester of the group's interactive environment, "Responses". Responses is a responsive audio/visual environment that utilizes understanding of Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) Shape Qualities to extract meaninful intent from a single user's movement. Through the use of motion capture technology, the environment is able to gain a three dimensional understanding of the user's movement. The raw motion capture data is then analyzed based on LMA Shape Quality. The analyzed data is then streamed to a sound and light composition, which then sends audio/visual feedback back to the user in the space - all in real time. My role involved recognizing problems with the analysis through movement testing, conceptualizing strategies for gaining better analysis, and gathering experiential information about the system's visual and audio feedback.
Aside from working with this new marker set, Jodi James and I conducted a user study to explore some of the different experiential issues of the Responses Environment. Much of our work in EA was dedicated to understanding and shaping the experience of a user within the space. Jodi and I looked at what users experienced when they moved in the space. Are participants aware of their movement? Are they aware of the system? Do they feel connected to the space? Is reaching a state of embodiment possible in such an environment? We gained invaluable information and a better understanding of what the user experiences while moving in our mixed-media environment.