metaphorical mind mapby Joseph Hocking 2004 |
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Metaphorical Mind Map is a first sight and sound installation for a planned series of pieces. This piece is an attempt to answer a simple question: What does thinking sound like? To answer this question the piece represents a person's mind as a white space to wander around in, with spoken sentences from different trains of thought droning out into a layered and incomprehensible murmuring, resulting in an aural environment not unlike a cocktail party. People must exert effort in order to make sense of thoughts within the mental disarray.
A group of color coded abstract shapes exists in the virtual space of the computer. The shapes and colors represent different trains of thought and have sound clips associated with them. As the shapes drift around, they occasionally collide and change direction, emitting a sound clip. Meanwhile, there is also an avatar (ie. a human character) in the virtual space, moving according to the movement of participants in the installation space. The volume of sounds being played varies by proximity to the avatar, resulting in a spatialized soundscape. To pick out specific sound clips from the general murmuring the avatar must move close to the shape emitting the sound. 2.8MB movie - clip depicting visuals and audio of the piece Even without any input from a participant, the avatar wanders about. The participant can choose to direct these wandering purposely by standing under a camera. The piece analyzes the video stream coming from the camera and the onscreen avatar moves around in virtual space to match a participant moving in the real installation space (ie. motion tracking.) In this way participants with the piece can, with effort, concentrate on and listen to specific recordings within the general cacophony. 1.3MB movie - motion-blurred clip of the prototype installation space, with people interacting At this stage the piece is really just a functioning interactive prototype. Two areas in particular invite further exploration in order to arrive at a final piece. In terms of installation construction there is much to be desired. For this prototype an adequate installation space was not available, so the installation was built in a very rough and jury-rigged manner, with the computer, cables, and camera just sitting out. Subsequent iterations of the piece demand thoughtful exploration of the aesthetics of the space. 1.3MB movie - recording of the wall projection Meanwhile, the motion tracking is currently fairly primitive. The program code will have to be improved, because the avatar jitters around a bit and the motion tracking is simultaneously not responsive to certain colors in the camera's view and oversensitive to others.
Moreover, as mentioned in the beginning, this piece is only the first of a series. The planned series will be metaphorical representations of several people's minds. Creating additional versions of the piece will involve conducting interviews with various people in order to accumulate sound clips.
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