The Manual Input Sessions


' Tmema Tmema

The Manual Input Sessions is a series of audiovisual vignettes which probe the expressive possibilities of hand gestures and finger movements. Our concert is performed on a combination of custom interactive software, analog overhead projectors and digital computer video projectors. The analog and digital projectors are aligned such that their projections overlap, resulting in an unusual quality of hybridized, dynamic light. During the performance, a computer vision system analyses the sihouettes of the performers’ hands as they scribble on transparencies, and move across the glass tops of the overhead projectors. The hand gestures and transparency drawings are then analysed by our custom software. In response, our software generates synthetic graphics and sounds that are tightly coupled to the forms and movements of the performers’ actions. The synthetic responses are co-projected with the organic, analog shadows, resulting in an almost magical form of augmented-reality shadow play.