Embodied Interfaces

Recursively tracking edges of digital characters with OpenCV within the digital screen. This tracking created unexpected overlaps and glitches based on the size and resolution of the tracking algorithm. The theme of this experiment became isolating machine and computer vision qualities.

Paragraphs of text are always framed by a bounding box. On default design tools, these boxes are rectangular and linear. This study uses the ever-morphing bounds of OpenCV edge detection algorithms as the new bounding box. What emerges is a generative layout system following the shape of the surrounding space, including bodies.

Including the visual language of movement notation systems into strokes for typography. Combining the geometric Labanotation symbols with the organic Beauchamp-Feuillet notation system.

Shoulders offer a wide range of movement, and arms are a fixed length. I imagine the arm is akin to a composing stick in letterpress printing, and the shoulder controls rotation.

Creating spatial typography by rotating planes of a body.

Hands type, hands swipe, hands click, hands press. The potential range of choreographies with computers for our hands are quite limited. I apply molding gestures to typographic form. Despite the continued immobilization of the spectator, I focus on the freedom in the movement quality itself.

Re-enacting a generated text prompt for choreography with the letter A. Machine-generated movement was read back into the machine, with only a moment of friction in my re-enactment. This in-between space has further potential but I did not see enough room for human expression.

Eyes already share a history of interfacing with computers. Eye gaze tracking is an objective measure of hierarchy, efficiency and seamlessness in user interface testing. I subvert the typical position of eyes as followers and use eyes as initiators in this experiment. The layout is clear in the area of focus as other content on screen fades into the background.

How may text be responsive to a person? Text tilting with the angle of one’s head both makes for easier reading and returns awareness to our bodies.

Footsteps denote a space between two feet at varying widths with a pre-defined maximum space. I connect this space to the space between letters. The width of a footstep may change the relative position of a character on the horizontal axis.

Often viewed from a bird’s-eye angle, computer vision footage has a hierarchical viewpoint with undertones of authority and domination. I use this camera angle to create the next experiment. The floor becomes a pseudo screen and I orient on a horizontal axis, performing choreographies about the floor. I am functionally invisible to the computer’s webcam.

Testing varying degrees of complexity and depth of the 3D forms. The typographic object inherits a corporeality despite its digitality. As their creation relies on performance, no two forms will ever look exactly the same.