Movens


Movens

The idea of Movens was to have the audience in an environment they hadn‘t dynamically experienced yet. The parti­cipants swing in a miniature landscape. We recorded the video material with a high frame-rate camera and projected on a surface in front of the swing-construction in order to create an immersive experience in the physical space. The project revealed possibilities of visual immersion without a head-mounted device.

Two sequences of the video ma­terial were edited with a 3D-Camera tracker to add particle, color and light effects. The result were two stylised vari­ants of the recorded sequence giving an impression of moving through 3D space. The projection would switch between the two sequences seamlessly depending on the tracked swing movement. More activity would increase the effect and less would shift to the monochrome sequence. The swing served as an interactive device. We attached a motion sensor (Mictic) under the swing board and calculated the current position and angle. The parame­ters were connected to the video material we had pro­cessed. A Max patch made sure this was all happening in real time. A similar approach was used for the audio component of the project. The higher the amount of swinging, the more the audio goes from natural bird song to more abstract electronic tweeting and chirping.

Collaborators:

  • Alexandra Eichenauer (concept & construction)

  • Tobias Wanner (video)

  • Fabian Keller and Amir Garibovic (video post)

  • Sascha Jösler (motion tracking, video mapping & sound design)

«We are in a time when many people are expressing themselves politically and demonstrating, but some people also have the feeling that nothing is changing. The powerlessness in face of all the difficulties makes people lethargic. Movens makes it possible to experience that one can bring about change by becoming active. Movens is a swing that picks up movement and transforms it into a changing, projected image of the world. In this way, the swing functions as a drive: the more actively one swings, the faster the fog clears and a colourful world emerges. A feeling arises as if one could change the world. Movens makes it possible to experience that we can make a difference. This makes it more than just a swing: it is a medium that makes it clear through interaction that every single person can make a difference.»

Alexandra Eichenauer