software principles

The principle by which the viewers' motion is detected is based on statistic information processing of the Passive InfraRed detectors (PIRs) situated under the central object of the installation, the Moebius strip.

The System always considers the information received from three neighbouring sensors. The sensors are not fixed in groups of three, but through reacting to changes try to capture the impression of the sum of all movement in the space (as opposed to considering specific trajectories of members of the audience). This principle was chosen precisely because it does not give a mechanical set of facts, (based on the laws of causality) for that which is always possible but creates an impression that is true only once, analogous to organic impression and reaction. The possibility of wilfully influencing the installation is therefore excluded.

The System processes the gathered information and creates a dialectic tension between the predetermined audio-visual flow and the processed statistic information. The synthesis of the two makes a unique audio-visual response which is directed personally to each individual spectator.
The software, running on the central computer, checks the state of the PIR detectors, and then calculates the distribution of segments of images representing the headlines between the six computers. Because of the complexity of the projection surface and its aspect ratio, the whole image is divided into six sections. Every section has its own dedicated computer that generates the appropriate image segment. All the information is carried through the network to the other computers. The same information is used to control sound generation and distribution, also in six computers, each generating two layers (a 12 speaker sound-system) of the total soundscape. The sound moves within the 12 speaker sound-system and the thereby created audio-panorama is genuine and not simulated. The sound materials themselves are created by overloading electronic instruments - ie. trapping them within feedback loops and imposing sound patterns based on their hardware characteristics.

The installation software is written in JAVA programming language (Java2 platform, Standard Edition), with additional packages Java3D and JavaMedia Framework. The application will run on PCs with Windows9x operating system. Some of the routines for the acquisition of the state of PIR detectors are written in another programming language (C), and linked with the main application through the Java Native Interface.


© 2002 Zoran Milkovic