nite_aura

Posted bygregcornessPosted inUncategorized

nite_aura is an audio-visual interactive installation exploring physical, auditory and visual motion within an immersive environment.

nite_aura

 

Many children imagine themselves flying through a night sky full of stars. Humans often whisper wishes to the stars. nite_aura embodies these memories and experiences allowing for visitors to whisper to the air and play with fields of stars surrounding them. The main structure is a hanging bell constructed of fiber optics and fabric. Participants enter the space by lifting one side, setting the bell in motion. Physical engagement is sustained by pulling cords from the ceiling or touching the glowing fiber optics that protrude into the bell surrounding the participant. The inside of the installation acts as a metaphor for private space, connecting infinite space and finite being, and acting as a pathway between sensual and virtual worlds. Organic patterns based on the bell’s swing influence grains of light and sound to immerse the viewers. nite_aura’s lights are soft and calm. Light affects our perception of emotion. Once the bell starts moving, points of light gently oscillate under the control of the participants; it seems that they are dancing in the end of a fiber optic thread trying to fly off. When participants touch the grains of light, they fluctuate and swirl, and are separated from the physical end of fiber optics and illusory light traces become visible. Granular synthesis and a set of resonant filters tuned to the harmonics of a bell are all controlled by the motion of the structure to produce the sound environment. The sounds made by each participant are recorded into an archive which contributes to this sonic ecosystem.

Published by gregcorness

Greg Corness is a Researcher and Artist working with embodied interaction in media environments. His background in music, theatre and dance provides the basis for his research which focus on interdisciplinary improvisation, distributed cognition in performance, and methodologies for researching experience in performance. He is particularly interested in investigating performer’s intuition during improvisation and how to leverage this embodied knowledge in their interactions with autonomous computer systems. He has developed several generative sound systems as well as computer vision and tangible interfaces for use in interactive performance and installation works. He has published in the fields of electronic music and human-computer interaction and his work includes galleries installations, interactive museum exhibits and live performance in Canada and the US.