Kathryn Lynch
KI Studio - Fall 2009
Maya Interface and Interaction
Maya, an industry-standard for the creation of three-dimensional computer graphics, stands in a position of authority and influence in the world of 3-dimensional graphics. My interventions in Maya’s menu system and surrounding visual architecture build metaphor into the process of interaction with and use of the software itself. While the created objects are usually connected to their maker and environment only indirectly, here the camera records the environment, maker or otherwise, as the form is constructed.
Squares | Abacus | Hands/Surface
Web-Based Interactive
The next several sets are web-based artworks, where the graphics and sound shift over time and with the user’s mouse position. They are meant to be seen as one would look at works in a gallery, but adapted to respond to the user's presence. Just as sculptures often change depending on the viewer's position in space relative to the work, these pieces take into consideration the user's mouse location to determine what is visible and audible in the work. ** Some of the pieces require the use of stereo headphones.
Haze
Again looking at the process of interacting with content on a screen, the works in Haze and several of the following collections use the technique of blurring to direct a users attention, and exaggerate the visual process of focusing on individual elements on the screen.
Move
Move 7 | Move8 | Move 9 | Move 10 | Move 13 | Move 14
Fields
Grid1 | Grid2 | Field 3 | SoundField1 | Feather3 | Field 4 | Field 6
Blocks
These compositions use short videos as the points within a web page to move in between, where the blurring effect allows only one to be fully in focus at a time. The sound is also controlled and changed based on the mouse’s relative location to each clip.
Moving | Surface Focus | Surface Pan | Surface Pan 2
Wavelength
The videos are lined up to mimic a waveform graphic, and as the user mouses across them the individual elements move in and out of focus while the sound shifts from ear to ear.
Bandaging
The wired bandages are intended to be strapped on by the wearers, worn as individual experiences, not performances. The piece is experiential, but individual – emphasizing personal experience over collective experience. The recorded sounds of the breath or words are meant to interact with the body, where the wearer experiences a sensation of an other inhabiting their own body, and the necessity to shift and change the body form to be alone with themselves again. Currently there are two sets, one composed primarily of breath, and the other using spoken text imploring the wearer to "listen."
** The videos may appear at distorted dimensions, but will play correctly through quicktime.
Documentation | Listen | Breath-Body Dual | Breath-Body Single
Cover You Eyes, Open Your Mouth
In this piece, the wearer puts on the glasses and the chin piece, and alternately covers eyes, opens the mouth, etc, in order to view the different video segments. The piece is meant to partially mimic real body sensations, where the covering of the eye results in the initial darkening of the video on the corresponding side of the screen.
** Fullscreen possible in Flash Player.