Pictures of You is a permanent interactive installation, created for the opening of the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg.

Growing out of the need for the museum to connect to the resident student community surrounding it, Digital Fabric and Pixel Project collaborated to create an interactive billboard on the museum's glass windows that presents a visual experience fundamentally generated by the interaction of that viewer.

The installation is rear projected onto 2 of the street facing window panels for a display area 5 meters long. It is viewed and engaged with from the outside of the building, visible to the very busy Braamfontein street corner and can be interacted with by any foot traffic that passes by.

Pictures of You was created in C++ using Cinder, and 2 synced XBox Kinect cameras are used for tracking people. This information is translated in real-time into a visual artwork that challenges viewers to comtemplate the surreal particle-based and ethereal reflections of themselves.

Concept Development - Digital Fabric (digitalfabric.co.za) and Pixel Project (pixelproject.com)
Installation and Project Management - Digital Fabric
Development - Rigard Kruger

Please see vimeo.com/44023962 for a full description

The Pixelator is an installation tool developed for parties and events that makes use of the Kinect technology's body tracking capabilities to turn the audience into fun and colourful 3-d rendered blocks. The system functions well under low light and smokey conditions, is audio-reactive and can be controlled via the OSC protocol, typically used with an iPhone or iPad. The iPhone control system has been customised to make the live management of The Pixelator fun and intuitive. Built in Processing.

Footage in the video was taken at two of The Jupiter Drawing Room's parties, one during the annual Loerie awards.

Thanks to Fletcher for allowing us to use his track
Track: Fletcher meets Mix n Blend - Shall We Swing (feat Sindi)
Album: Cape of Good Dope 2
Label: African Dope

See our website for more imagery: pixelproject.com/

Using the XBox Kinect and openFrameworks (c++ framework), the portal was motion sensitive which means it responded to movement. The ribbon responded to any movement it detected changed the twists and turns of the ribbon creating openings where there was motion. The ribbon also responded to distance and depth. The closer one got to the camera and the wall, the bigger the ribbon portal became, the further away one went, the ribbon portal would close in and become narrower (see diagrams 2 and 3). Proximity thus affected the size of the portal and together with motion, the ribbon was transformed as guests walked past, danced or interacted with it.

Using a table carved into a relief map, Pixel Project created an interactive story-telling experience that educates visitors about the interesting and diverse history of the Emakhosini Valley. I was involved in programming this.