Description of the installation
A camera attached to the ceiling captures the activities in „Lichthof 3“.
Persons in this observed area experience a direct acoustic feedback of their movements from the 4-channel speaker system hanging from crossbeams.
Every moving object in the range of the camera creates a spatial sound structure, which is altered depending on size, speed and distance of the objects from one another.
The sound ceases as soon as no motion is registered in „Lichthof 3“.

camera signal

 

 attached speaker

 

In the „Medientheater“ (Lichthof 5) a continuing and more complex interpretation of the captured movements is performed, in respect of its sound as well as in respect of a visual transformation.
An image of a three-dimensional cuboid, which matches the space observed by the „Lichthof 3“ camera is projected onto the wall of the theater. This squared shape holds the quality of a non-transparent matter, a pliable substance reminding of powdery snow.
Movements in „Lichthof 3“ dig lanes into the substance and deep tracks remain. Intermediate spaces are left as elevations – a landscape of movement is formed. In time, the trodden tracks grow back to original height, until a new movement alters these spots again.
The sound in the „Medientheater“ differs from the one in „Lichthof 3“; it correlates with the structure of the virtual substance. The elevations within this structure constitute the foundation of that sound. Relevant parameters for sound generation are the respective bases of elevations, the average height of the lanes as well as the temporal component. The „aging“ of the spatial structure leads to a slow „regrowth“ of the virtual substance, which is responsible for the gradual change of the sound in time.
the virtual substance
Complementary Documentation

Before and during the exhibit of the installation, motion data gathered from the observed area is stored in regular intervals. Each day a picture is calculated showing the average movement in space over this period of time.
On five weekdays each, before and during the presentation, ten motion maps are generated from which "walked-on" and "untouched" areas can be distinguished. The maps are presented in „Lichthof 3“ in form of posters.
This quick-motion cartography is a supplement added to the ever-changing installation and at the same time serves as a possibility to analyze the effects of the spatial and audible feedback on human movements in the „Lichthof“.

the 10 motion maps

Motion maps in Lichthof 3