We expanded the communication potentials of visually impaired participants through technical prostheses, through which they could use their bodies as light and sound instruments.
This involved a bracelet with gesture recognition of the hands, an accelerometer and gyroscope sensor, a ball to be held in the hand with gyro and magnetic field sensor, and a Kinect.
With a quadraphonic audio setup and Max/MSP, Vanessa Barrera Giralda and I created an interactive sound sphere for the blind. Andrew Quinn and Davide Santini used TouchDesigner to allow the movements of the participants to have an extended visual impact on a screen. The sound also influenced the images.
Dr. Daniel Bisig also equipped the project director Jill Scott with electronic shoes that triggered sounds of loud stomping with each performance, symbolically representing the ecological footprint 🙂
With the five participants, a dance performance was developed over the course of a week in the basement of the House of Electronic Arts Basel by the two choreographers Dominique Cardito and Tommi Zeuggin.
The entire performance in video:
Alumni. Prof. Dr. Jill Scott works as an artist and scientist with the senses.
Her wife Alumni. Prof. Marille Hahne asked me if I would like to program something in Max/MSP for a project that works inclusively for the visually impaired, exploring the senses of sight, hearing, and touch, and addressing climate change.
The result was a controller for sound control (sampling, synthesis, effects) through arm movements and hand gestures, which were captured by MYO bracelets worn by each actor and whose operation was tested.
MAX/MSP Audio Controller for six MYO bracelets, 4 audio tracks, 2 effects per track (code available upon request)
A MYO bracelet (Stock Photo)
Invitation from the House of Electronic Arts Basel:
ESKIN 5 Basel is an inclusive media art project on climate change led by the Swiss-Australian media artist Jill Scott. During a workshop phase, five scenes were developed collaboratively involving sound objects, wearable technologies, interactive graphics, and real-time computer interactions on a novel media art stage. In collaboration with five performers, two choreographers, six media artists, and two scientific advisors, a spectacular audiovisual performance has emerged that creates an emotional dialogue between the performers and the audience.
The five scenes in ESKIN 5 Basel cover the following contents: rural life, urban life, rivers, forests, and sustainable climate-conscious living. Individual information and image materials were provided by the Crowther Lab at ETH Zurich and the Atmospheric Sciences Meteorology Institute for Climatology at the University of Basel. This information and personal experiences are creatively woven together by the ESKIN group into a 40-minute interactive audiovisual performance.
ESKIN aims to encourage the audience to proactively engage in the preservation of our nature and to contribute to reducing human impacts on our environment. Following the performances, there will be audience discussions with all participants.
Direction: Jill Scott
Choreography: Dominique Cardito and Tommi Zeuggin
Participants with visual impairments: Roberto Collidoro, Pina Dolce, Daniel Fernandes, Leila Grillo, Nicole Sourt Sánchez
Media art team supported by: Hahne/Scott AIL Production, Zurich
Stage design, sound, visuals, programming, film: Marille Hahne, coordination, stage design, documentation / Andrew Quinn, Interactive Graphics / Vanessa Barrera Giraldo, Sound Interaction Design / Victor Giers, Interactive sound customization / Olav Lervik, Electronic Music / Scene 5 by Daniel Fernandes / Daniel Bisig, Wearable shoes.
Communication: Lucie Bader Promotion
Description text by Jill:
IDEA OF ESKIN at HeK (In English)
Eskin is a performative tribute to nature and to the re-wilding or re-design of our local environments. It is based on a technical platform that encourages local empowerment for those who want to be included in the cultural debate on climate change and speak out about pollution and energy use. Eskin in Basel is the second collaboration with visually impaired persons that gives them a chance to be included in this debate. Alongside choreographers, scientific consultants, and artists, these participants work in this project, one that was initiated by Swiss Australian media artist Jill Scott. The participants will perform five interlinked scenes on a unique stage with customized sound objects, interactive graphics, dancers, computer interaction, and wearable technologies. The aim is to educate the audience and encourage them to be proactive about climate change.
THE 5 SCENES OF ESKIN
Scene 1. Homeland and the Farm
This scene is based on the healthy memories we have from childhood about the farmland around us. The sound of cows and other animals and the land itself as well as the tastes from local food that grows on it. These tactile pleasures and sound sensations from our own childhood memories of the Swiss landscape illustrate how our changes in temperature are shifting these memories.
Scene 2. Our energy use and the City
This scene maps the energy use in our cities as seen from an aerial perspective. It uses satellite data from Basel to create an impression of how the distribution of our energy from industries and pollution from our activities such as commuting and industrial production will affect our physical health.
Scene 3. River and Pollution
This scene compares the beauty of abundant Swiss river water with the effect on water quality of our own waste and agricultural and glacial run-off. Also, micro-plastic waste is featured here as an analogy and its effect on life under the water and our drinking water.
Scene 4. Forest and Extinction
This scene shows the relation between climate change and the effects on biodiversity. It features the affects of higher temperature levels and how predator-prey relationships are already changing and may shift again in the future.
Scene 5. Mitigation and Adaptation
This scene is a call to the audience to get up, demonstrate, and be engaged in the improvement of local conditions. It features action based on teamwork as a necessary element to look at the problems of adaptation and encourage mitigation. Mitigation (in German: containing climate change) is the acceptance of climate change with the need for our action to lessen the future climatic effects of it.
Additional posters in the theater space: We plan to exhibit five relevant posters featuring related solutions in the space.
