Octa

Octa Is a Hybrid of an audiovisual performance and Interactive installation premiered at day for night 2016.

During the Installation portion people interact with a version of the lighting and musical effects from the performance using an overhead of twelve Kinect sensors. 4 computers running TouchDesigner were used to run all the Kinects, 3 computers send their Kinect views to the master over Touch Out TOPs. On the master the 9 incoming Kinect views are composited along with the the 3 native Kinect views into one large view of the whole room with x and y overlapping zones which are blended.

This is then cropped and analyzed into individual trigger zones for each light. The trigger channels, and mode change channel are sent over OSC to Ableton/Max.

During the Performance the data flow is reversed and Ableton/Max triggers TouchDesigner to move through a series of cues, each of which contains programming for one or more instruments or automations.
Spatial audio effects such as the speed of movement, or spread of the sources can be controlled by the performers pad, and those values streamed to touch for a lighting effect that represents the change in spatial audio. 3D visualizer rendering in TouchDesigner allowed me to sit down with the musical artist and get a clearer idea of how the programming would feel in the space.

Mechaphoton provided all lighting design, programming, electronics, and interactivity.