Photo credit: From SIGGRAPH 2010 Art Gallery piece titled “hanahanahana” by Yasuaki Kakehi, Keio University; Motoshi Chikamori and Kyoko Kunoh, plaplax – details below.
(Chicago, IL) – From virtual bugs to wearable devices, the SIGGRAPH 2010 Art Gallery investigates the multi-sensory nature of human experience in a technologically enhanced environment. The official title is TouchPoint: Haptic Exchange Between Digits, and from more than 250 submitted pieces, the jury selected 14 to be featured at SIGGRAPH 2010.bouncy castle
“The exhibition becomes an interactive environment where the viewer or participant is essential to the manifestation of the work,” said Richard Elaver, SIGGRAPH 2010 Juried Art Chair from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. “This is art that immerses people, and the end result is an art experience that many have never encountered before.”
Works exhibited in TouchPoint are published in a special issue of MIT Press’s Leonardo, the Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology. Peer-reviewed SIGGRAPH 2010 Art Papers will also be published in this special issue, which coincides with SIGGRAPH 2010 in July. A reception for the Art Gallery will be held Tuesday, July 27 from 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. in Room 150 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where attendees can talk with the artists, designers, and Art Papers authors about their work and meet the members of the SIGGRAPH 2010 committee who organized this year’s Art Gallery.
The Art Gallery jury consisted of a wide range of the leading experts in haptics, design theory, architecture, and sculpture.
Highlights of the SIGGRAPH 2010 Art Gallery include:
Echidna ll
Tine Bech, University of the West of England and Tom Frame, Surrey Space Centre
This interactive sound sculpture is a fussy, tumbled creature that has an electronic voice. Undisturbed, it hums happily, but when it is touched it squeaks and reacts to human presence. The work combines a circuit that directly measures electrostatic changes in the environment and a custom-designed, phase-locked loop system that drives an audio speaker.
Glowing Pathfinder BugsSquidsoup
In this shared environment of a sandpit, virtual creatures and real people coexist and communicate. The sand operates as a tactile interface, allowing participants to define physical landscapes to which the digital creatures respond in real time. The result is a form of animal husbandry, a sense of controlling and caring for the bugs.
hanahanahana
Yasuaki Kakehi, Keio University; Motoshi Chikamori and Kyoko Kunoh, plaplax
To experience hanahanahana, the participant applies perfume to a leaf-shaped piece of paper and shakes it in front of a bud-like device. A flower appears and changes intensity according to the strength of the floating scent, while color and shape also vary according to the type of fragrance applied to the paper. Participants can enjoy temporal and spatial variations of floating air with olfactory sensations from the scent, visual sensations from the projection screen, and tactile sensations from the wind.
In the Line of SightDaniel Sauter, University of Illinois at Chicago and Fabian Winkler, Purdue University
In the Line of Sight is a light installation that uses 100 computer-controlled tactical flashlights to project low-resolution video footage of suspicious human motion into the exhibition space.
Tools for Improved Social Interacting
Lauren McCarthy, University of California, Los Angeles
This series of wearable devices (the Anti-Daydreaming Device, the Happiness Hat, and the Body Contact Training Suit) uses sensors to condition the wearer to better adapt to expected social behaviors. The work explores the potential for technology to shape how we think, feel, and act. It also questions our social expectations and attempts to improve our understanding of their function and worth.
View the entire Art Gallery here. Contact media@siggraph.org for high-resolution images.
