It all started with the idea of revisiting the work of the french artists Robert and Sonia Delaunay.
We wanted to use nowdays tools to imagine what could have been their work if they had lived in our digital age. With new techonoligies, they could have added interactivity, music, reshaped forms in time, played with colors ... and create a brand new world.
In our installation, the spectator becomes a creator. He is able, with his gestures, to move shapes, to change the colors, the music tempo, to add elements such as music notes or new shapes...
Interacting with our creation gives one the freedom to create a unique piece of art using the elements at his disposal.
Learning the gestures and what they launch can be challenge for the spectator !
With this installation, we hope to make the audience curious about tools that they don't know and make them be a part of the creations of the Delaunays.
We have developped a program in C++ using openFrameworks that communicates with Ableton and the Leapmotion* and that displays shapes whith colors, movements and effects and broadcasts music.
Step 1 - SETUP and SLEEP MODE The basic shapes and music of each sequence, that we call 'state of mind', are loaded. Shapes and their colors are gathered via SVGs and music via MIDI. For each state of mind, we have defined specific actions and their results, as well as physics for the movements. Once everything is setup, we project the visual and broacast the sound. When there are no actions from the user, our installation is in sleep mode.
Step 2 - INTERCTIONS
When a user places his hands over the leapmotion, it wakes our installation up. Each gesture is mapped with a specific reaction, both on the shapes (colors, movement, ...) and on music (filters, note or noise addition, ...). Therefore, when a gesture is detected, their is a direct response!
The development of this installation was impossible without tools such as :
The Leap Motion controller is a small USB peripheral device which is designed to be placed on a physical desktop, facing upward, and which detects hand and fingers movements.
openFrameworks is an open source toolkit designed for "creative coding". It is written in C++ and built on top of OpenGL.
Ableton Live is a software music sequencer and digital audio workstation for macOS and Windows.
Developper
