Nature rePlay: an Interactive Playground

Rusaila Bazlamit and Mansie Verma

Keywords: interactive, audio, visual, performance, immersive, installation, playground.
Abstract:  

In this paper, we present our experimental design work taking advantage of mobile physical qualities of a pendulum (oscillation, collision, swing and inertia) and the human input required to bring these movements and interventions. The tangible nature of these pendulums constructed at an ergonomic scale and the intuitive interface will promote face-to-face collaborations.  Upon interaction with these pendulums, sound and corresponding visuals are created, allowing multiple users to engage, play and contribute at the same time.

This project takes off from the idea of human connectedness, of which a playground has always been a lively and networked model in the built environment. Just as in a playground there are various medium of play such as swings, see-saws, slides, merry-go-rounds etc., this play space is about people-centric play with pendulums as the prop and medium. 

As an immersive installation it engages live artists and performers to play with their fingers with the pendulums, and see and hear the corresponding visuals and sound, allowing multiple users to play, connect, and collaborate at the same time.
The audio and the visuals constantly generate interest, creating a sense of curiosity to experiment and play around with the pendulums. 
The screen communicates with the physical interface by generating visuals in response to the randomness of the system, more the movement and the collisions; more the recursive geometrical forms, wither fewer collisions; the changes and fractures in geometry get reduced till it simmers down to just gentle breathing and hissing. 
Within a very subjective communion between the instruments of play and its consequent audio and visual field, one can feel a certain fluid crossover of –action and response. The layered sound events in relation to the corresponding generative visuals intersect with the performers’ physical momentum in immeasurable intensities.
In effect, this immersive play brings the physical science and the creative act together to generate an interactive experience of the multitude at the same time.
