Aquatic (Finland)
Aquatic - a poetical sensitive sonic environment
Aquatic is an interactive media installation inviting the audience to participate in a multisensorial experience. It is a three-dimensional interactive water soundscape to be explored through bodily movements within the space of the installation. The visitors hear the water soundscape as the accurate feedback following their movements. The soundscape handles three emotional states free to one's interpretation: soft and quiet waters, refreshing streaming waters and tempest waters.
Aquatic proposes an immersive and poetic experience of imaginary water worlds playing with kinaesthesia and sound images. It gives the main role to one's imagination in the building of the experience of immersion. It proposes a reflection about the influence of sounds on our sense of space and our imagination. How sounds, bodily movements and interaction arouse in us body memories and sensations. Aquatic explores with poetical means the sensation of ubiquity proper to augmented reality.
Aquatic is situated inside an architectural environment. The installation uses the structures and circulation paths of this architecture to lead the visitors into the sensitive empty space of Aquatic. The shapes, lights and the poetic of the architectural space influence on the visitor's sensations and the building of the imaginary world suggested by Aquatic's soundscape. The acoustic, circulation paths and architectural spatiality influence on the various movements the visitors might perform inside Aquatic and therefore on the resulting soundscape.
Aquatic deals with divers aspects of performance and theatre transgressing the boundaries between viewers and actors mastering an environment.
As a motion driven audio system, the technical realisation of the installation uses David Rokeby's soft VNS for bodily motion tracking through a video sensor and video processing, and Max Msp for ruling the interaction between motions and sounds.
Aquatic is a project by Marianne Decoster-Taivalkoski.
This project is supported by AVEK, the Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture in Finland (Veli Granö) and the Media Lab of the University of Art and Design Helsinki. Thanks to: Lotta Partanen