by Dickinson
Prentiss
The Portal was exhibited
at the Millenium Motel exhibition during SIGGraph 99 in Los Angeles,
USA. The Portal is an interactive
multimedia installation employing state of the art
technology and freewheeling imagination, the combination
resulting in canvas literally being sculpted on
pigment.
The artwork is composed of large, 30 foot
diameter, tension fabric structure, interface mechanisms
and supporting peripheral audio visual elements.
Interaction with dangling cordage (vocal cords) sculpts
the elastic lycra spandex surface into multidirectional
laser light pigment paths and simultaneously activates
the Tilt integrated analog inclinometer sensors. The
signals are then processed by the I-CubeX control voltage
to MIDI translator device and output concurrently to
laser and intelligent lighting systems (initiating
dynamic visual content changes) and a digital sound
sampler amplified via an audio system (providing a
singing voice). Each of the 24 interface mechanisms is
assigned one digitally sampled note, over a three octave
range, of a human voice and, by working together, people
can actually make the installation sing polyphonically
like a chorus.
july 1999 |