ITP Spring Show 2009

Last night, Sydney & I went to the ITP Spring Show 2009 at NYU and, as always, we not only had a great time, but we saw lots of cool things as well. Here are just a few of the highlights. For the 1st time since I've been going to the ITP show, I actually didn't get to see the entire place, so make sure you go to their web site and see everything created this semester. You can also go to ITP Spring Show ‘09 photos to see some of the pictures I took of the show. picture

MudTub

This was a very cool project exploring a very unique interface to play games and explore. Here's what Tom Gerhadt has to say about the Mud Tub:

By sloshing, squishing, pulling, punching, etc, in a tub of mud (yes, wet dirt), users control games, simulators, and expressive tools; interacting with a computer in a new, completely organic, way. Born out of a motivation to close the gap between our bodies and the digital world, the Mud Tub frees the traditional computer interaction model of it’s rigidity, allowing humans to use their highly developed sense of touch, and creative thinking skills in a more natural way.

As you can see by the video below of Sydney playing, it's a pretty engaging way to play computer games. But, as I said to Tom last night, I also thought that it would be a really cool way to let children learn physics, earth science and science in general. I can tell you that it was Sydney's favorite experience of the night. You can go to Tom Gerhardt | Mud Tub to learn more about the project and what Tom sees happening in the future.

Tugg of War

Another Sydney favorite was the Tugg of War. We saw a couple of experiences that involved using the cell phone as the tool to create a group experience and this was one of the game experiences. Tuug of War

A Fish This Big

Sydney & I also went fishing at ITPlease » Blog Archive » a tale of a whale…fish. It was a cool augmented reality piece about the storytelling behind the big fish. In addition to fish, Sydney & I also caught the Yellow Submarine. You can go to the Fish This Big photo page for some additional pictures of my & Sydney.

We focused on color tracking and Virtual Fish is the product of wanting to tell someone a story of how large a fish is that they caught. We used color tracking to track two green squares and based on the distance between the two squares we inserted a different fish. As the person pulls their hands apart, the fish, in turn, gets larger and changes species as it grows. Images are capture and later the person is able to see the different types of fish that they caught.

Shakers

Although the real name of this project is Shakers, Sydney and her new found friend Molly called it Population. In their minds, they were creating life forms on the plates and they needed to keep shaking the different colors onto the plates to keep the populations growing. As you can see, Sydney & Molly had a lot of fun, even if they didn't quite get the original concept.

The inspiration of "Shakers" (spice bottles) is not for seasoning food but for flavoring creations. Whereas they lose their practicality, they gain other identities to create visions and scents. Powder is supposed to be tiny particles of earth or seeds of organisms consisting of a certain pattern of generation. Audience can play them by shaking bottles onto the plates. Each shaker embodies different rule sets of creations that generate granules, their reactions, syntheses, and their collapse and disappearance. It is also embedded with scent dispenser that disperses different smell of earth. As audience sprinkle different shakers, they generate images of particles and dispersethe scent of organisms such as earth, decaying leaves, wood and flower.Expectantly, those collective smells formulate a forest-like atmosphere playing with genetic visuals and eventually it could craft more memorable experiences.

Body Beats

Body Beats is a musical wall sequencer that lets people create a melody using their body. Each person participates in the piece by using their body to play a single note. This encourages a group to cooperate together in making a composition. It uses face recognition to find where people are situated on the wall, and what types of notes they represent. Try it out and bring your friends!

MAKE TV

Just saw this, so thought that I would put it here as well.

MAKE was at the ITP Spring Show 2009 earlier this week. This is a compilation video of just some of the cool projects that were on display. Later in the week I will be writing about some of my favorite projects in more detail. More at: Make: Online : ITP Spring Show 2009 video compilation.

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