Ananke, a reference to the greek personification of inevitability,
compulsion, and necessity, deals with the double-edged nature of
technology, in the midst of a society where the lines between
technology, surveillance, and data privacy get increasingly
blurred. The piece deals with the interactions between a dancer
and a mysterious dodecahedron hanging from the stage ceiling,
triggering sounds and visuals throughout the performance. The
performance starts serene and playful as the dancer gets used to
the seemingly innocent dodecahedron (which represents technology
and social media). However, as she focus on it and bends its
powers to her will, a hidden figure emerges, suggesting that what
initially seem harmless might not actually be so.
This project was developed as the final project for the class
Sensors, Body and Motion.
It was performed at the
Quoz Arts Fest 2020
as well as NYU Abu Dhabi's Interactive Media Showcase (Fall
2019)
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This interactive performance uses live tracking of an infrared light using a PS3Eye Camera. Using a ring of bright infrared LEDs inside the semi-opaque dodecahedron allowed this to be possible. Apart from the infrared lights inside the dodecahedron, we also decided to use a neopixel ring. We added this to make the dodecahedron appear like something alive, changing colors twice during the performance. We made this possible by enabling the Neopixel ring to be remotely via a Bluetooth LE and the Adafruit application. Erica Wu performed as our dancer.
We laser cut the dodecahedron from a sheet of frosted acrylic and glued them all together using acrylic glue. We chose this in order to hide the hardware inside from the audience while also allowing viewers to see the dodecahedron light up.
The visuals were all programmed in C++ using OpenFrameworks with some prototyping done in Processing. We decided to use particle animations since we believed this would be the most flexible throughout the performance, allowing us to vary their movement and color depending on the stage of the story.