imhk: Navigating Images

video clips from the Interactive Installation: Navigating Images 2005

Background
I have always been interested in the relationship between Human Beings and Moving Images, in seeing how a new platform created by a computer can cause the artist and the audience to re-define some adopted/conventional wording/terms relating to human activities and experiences such as Love, Kiss, Movement, Talk, Memories, and so forth.

After completing my CDROM on human beings and moving images (1997 -2001), I discovered some interesting ideas and platforms for exploring alternative meanings and providing new experiences of human activities in the digital world.

Recently, I have turned my attention to new experiences of Time and Space that relate to the human body, in the Digital world/platform. First, I set up a small research lab, named the Innov+Media Lab, Hong Kong (www.imhk.hk), and invited some people with similar goals who come from different backgrounds such as computer programming, multimedia design, art, etc., to participate in some on-going projects that focus mainly on the theme of digital platforms related to time and space. I have been developing a series of installations since I returned from my research center, ZKM, Center for Art and Media, in Germany in 2002.



Introduction
The project “Navigating Images” simulates dropping objects that fall on a moving body. The dropping object is represented by dots. There are three shapes for the dots: the rectangle with round corners, circle, and triangle. The object dropping can be further subdivided into two modes: a and a . The real mode simulates natural falling, without taking acceleration into account. The grid mode simulates a digital effect in which each dot falls in a predefined grid position. The movement of the body is detected by the difference between the color in the background image and the color in the current image that is captured from a web cam/camera. The detection of objects is affected by the color system, such as the hue, saturation, and brightness of the image. Once an object (human body) is detected, a color-fading effect can be applied to the detected object. The program also supports sound in real mode. When a loud sound is detected, the radius of the dots will be larger. Base on the above different functions, we have created a control panel for different and multiple combinations of situations.

Demonstration of the Installation
For this installation, we need a camera, PC, and video projector. Real-time moving images of the audience will be captured by the camera. The date of their motion will be directly transferred to the PC and the specific images will be generated by computer programming that is composed of the computer language C++.



visualization for the installation setting for Navigating Images 2004