Final Project Artist Statement
Yan Hong - 301147038
Joey Kuei - 301115519
Chinda Reward - 301158294
“If beats can make people dance, is it possible the other way round?”
“Creating beats with the dance steps?”
Our inspiration came from the above thought in quote. While trying to get ideas
that could enable us create and design an interactive artwork related to our vision or
inspiration, our group decided to create this artwork, using the web-cam to capture users’
movements based on the idea of using “dance steps to create beats.” For those who know
how to dance, they can easily follow the beats. How about those who don’t know
anything about dancing but with a huge passion of learning? This project is designed to
accommodate everyone. Once the web-cam captures any movement from the users, there
will be sounds generated. This project is a performance art piece since its presence in a
medium has a strong relationship with the audience. And we can also understand this
project as a remix art and an installation art piece since the web-cam is fixed, steady and
designed to transform a certain space to help capture different movements by the user in
order to create different beats. Our goal is to apply this project in a studio so that whoever
it pleases can actually use any body movements to make their own beats, instead of
dancing to an already made beat. Thereby helping them create their own style.
Although the project is similar in a way people interact with the XBOX Kinect,
differently there isn’t an instructional sheet telling the users to create certain beats; the
users can create the beats freely with the movements. And also, it’s similar to an IPhone
Final Project Artist Statement
Yan Hong - 301147038
Joey Kuei - 301115519
Chinda Reward - 301158294
app called iAmHiphop which the user can drag the point to different area to make
different beats. The concept is the same, but the method we use is different. In order to
make this project doable, our original idea was to create a dance mat; by using the
sensors and chips to capture foot movements. This is similar to the dance pad which the
users step the right arrows they see on the screen following with the music. However, we
met some technical difficulties because we can’t afford such big sensors that one’s foot
can step on, so we choose to go with the camera capture technique. Still in process of
trying to make this artwork of ours a reality, we found some good sources that talked
about how to capture movements using the web-cam. And some websites even share the
processing codes so people who are interested in can edit based on it. The method we use
is to split the web-cam screen into several boxes; and also we tried to make sure that each
box has a sound assigned to it. So as the web-cam detects any movement, it shows on a
particular area of the screen, and since the screen area has been shared into various boxes
which have sounds allocated to them, the area where the captured body movement was
detected on the screen, the sounds allocated to that box plays. For easy movement and
access to the various boxes on the screen, we ensure that every user is able to reach the
top-right, top-left, bottom-right and bottom-left of the screen when he/she has the hands
and legs stretched thereby using this as a standard to determine the distance between the
user and the web-cam to make sure the user’s movement is made within the boxes.
Another version of our project is to design using four columns allocating each column to
different style of beat giving the user a wider space that could fill his/her body to enable
the webcam capture the body movements. The user should fit his/her whole body in one
Final Project Artist Statement
Yan Hong - 301147038
Joey Kuei - 301115519
Chinda Reward - 301158294
column to reduce the noise. And with advanced hardware, our project has a huge
potential working with a DJ who could assign different tracks on each column whenever
he wants. It brings the project more complex and a user can have various experiences.
The artwork could accommodate up to four people at the same time. For them to be able
to use the artwork effectively, they should move one at a time because if they all move at
the same time, it produces much noise and reduces the effectiveness of the artwork. The
purpose is to switch the beats quickly with webcam tracking movements in columns. For
example, if only one person moves at a time, the webcam would only track the column he
is in. And if he stops moving, and second person starts to move, the webcam will track
immediately with his movement in his column. So the four people can still have fun with
our project. The tracks we design don’t have to be sequential with the order we put it, a
user can jump to different columns to easily change beats.
Website: http://www.sfu.ca/~jkuei/IAT2221/
Final Project Artist Statement
Yan Hong - 301147038
Joey Kuei - 301115519
Chinda Reward - 301158294
INTERACTIVE DIAGRAM
Body movements captured:
Final Project Artist Statement
Yan Hong - 301147038
Joey Kuei - 301115519
Chinda Reward - 301158294
Footsteps captured:
For some users who can’t tell the difference of two songs, and to reduce noises, the
following is the improvement:
Final Project Artist Statement
Yan Hong - 301147038
Joey Kuei - 301115519
Chinda Reward - 301158294
References:
Dance pad http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_pad
Xbox Kinect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect
Processing Myron Library http://webcamxtra.sourceforge.net/
Processing Minim Library http://code.compartmental.net/tools/minim/
songs we used in our project
-Black Eyed Peas - I Can't Make You Dance
-James Brown - Get Up Offa That Thing
-Busta Rhymes - What It Is Ft. Kelis
-Arthur Baker - Breaker's Revenge (Freestylers BBoy Mix)