Odd title but uncannily accurate. BallDroppings is a processing-driven application almost musical in its nature. Musical in the sense that by drawing lines, you are able to turn a series of 'blink', 'clink' and 'dink' noises into something remotely musical...just don't expect to make the charts anytime soon.
All in all a seemingly simple, yet addictive concept, with alot of potential in the right context.
Featured recently in both Creative Review and Wired, are American industrial rockers NIN, (aka Nine Inch Nails). However this has nothing to do with their music...as such.
The band's latest tour, 'Lights In The Sky', the band have gone all spontaneous; and have achieved what I think is a first in live music.
"For the band's current Lights in the Sky tour, Reznor has not only raised the bar for what's possible in an arena tour, but has also produced what could arguably be one of the most technologically ambitious rock productions ever conceived. Unlike most rock shows, the visuals for about 40 percent of the show (including "Only") aren't pre-rendered. There's no staging, no pantomiming by band members: It's all interactive, live and rendered on the fly.
With more than 40 tons of lighting and stage rigging, hundreds of LED lights, a daunting array of professional and custom-built machinery running both archaic and standard commercial VJ software, three different video systems and an array of sensors and cameras, the tour is nothing if not a lavish display of techno wizardry."
Personally I find this indicative of the advance of interactive art, and perhaps a resurgence in its popularity. This idea of using computers for spontaneous expression. Perhaps NIN has opened a door, I suspect other artists/bands may well be inclined to follow them through it. I guess whether interaction on such a level will make any difference to the performance or its appeal is yet to be seen. Maybe this is the future and it will become the norm for musicians to take complete control of their on-stage performances.
Through research for my upcoming dissertation, (and the much closer dissertation proposal presentation) I have been feverishly researching and discovering as much new interactive works as time deems possible. Through such I have discovered an interactive designer known as Scott Snibbe. Who is responsible for a work called Boundary Functions, (see below).
Snibbe works primarily on the floor...that is to say a large proportion of his interactive works centre around an area of flooring that in someway reacts to analog input from users, passers-by, etc.
I found Boundary Functions to be of particular interest as true to the nature of 'interactive art' it explores analog human traits in a digital environment. That is to say Boundary Functions effectively creates a digital representation of something about us as individuals that, in this instance, may otherwise not have a physical presence as such.
Boundary Functions, to me, visualises that idea we all have about personal space. As can be seen from the demonstration above, this 'space' or 'boundary' adapts and changes depending on variables such as the number of people in the space, contact with these people and of course the relative position of said individuals. A simple yet intrigueing piece of visual interactive art that is, I think, capable of provoking thought in even the most casual of participants in the piece.
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