MOVE


'Andrew Hieronymi Andrew Hieronymi

MOVE is an interactive installation divided into six distinct modules, JUMP, AVOID, CHASE, THROW, HIDE and COLLECT and uses a camera vision detection system as an interface. When visitors approach the installation, they see a projection on the floor. The projection displays MOVE’s ‘menu’, which consists of an animation that alternatively shows one of the geometrically distinct shapes (3x2 feet) representing each of the modules. As soon as the presence of the participant standing above the projection is detected, the shape extends to its full size (10x8 feet) and the interaction with the module can start. The interaction lasts as long as the participant is able to prevent collision with the opposing graphical element. If the participant loses, a distinct sound signals the end of the game. Each module of MOVE offers a single-user interaction, based on a verb corresponding to the action the participant is invited to perform. Each verb corresponds to a common procedure acted out by avatars during videogame play. Each module offers an interaction with abstracted shapes (circles, rectangles) behaving according to simplified rules of physics (collision, friction). Each module is color-coded with consistency, where the color red is used for the graphical element that poses the core challenge. Each module increases in difficulty in a similar linear manner.

What makes MOVE unusual is that unlike most computer vision or sensor-based games, like Eye Toy or Dance Dance Revolution, the participant IS the avatar. He is not seeing a representation of himself, or an indirect result of his actions on a separate screen, but instead interacts directly with the projected graphical constituents of the game. Because those graphical elements are non-representational they do not allow for a projection in a fictional space. The combination of abstracted shapes and direct interaction reinforces in the player the focus on the action itself (JUMP, AVOID, CHASE, THROW, HIDE or COLLECT) instead of an ulterior goal.
http://users.design.ucla.edu/~ahierony/move/
http://ahieronymi.net/

Project Assistant: Togo Kida / Project developed at: University of California, Los Angeles