Excited to see the results? – (The sound of the helicopter may be loud, depending on your computer volume)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCWCILlDjo0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT5id-WFTis

I’m currently working on building an UAV with a projection system in order to test the nature of
perception and space through human interaction. Excited to see the results!

Title: ‘The Pied Piper’ or ‘Over and Out’

Site:

potentially anywhere. spaces where there is existing urban milieu and/or the interstitial, there to be made malleable.

Collaborators:

The unwitting observer, curiously drawn into performative and evocative aspects of  new interpretations of ‘place’

One-sentence description:

A media guided motile approach to reinterpreting and projecting a reality outside of one that is being lived.

One paragraph project description:

Using open source software and hardware I plan to build a UAV helicopter guided by GPS to designated points where a projector, attached to the quad-copter, shall project imagery and sound. The physical dimensions of the projection will delineate a new space to be observed and interpreted. It could be a historical narrative or may be a fictional window into an invented home and life not lived.

Detailed aesthetic approach (including conceptual approach to technology)

The choreography of a space is overlooked and typically seen as  human actions which usethe space. I seek to challenge this, reversing the tide, and use spatial choreography as the actor that challenges the senses of the observer / participant.

We look forward, but seldom up. Never backward, but always aware of the ground below. Everything is made of energy, always vibrating and moving and yet still the built/infrastructural world is perceived as unchanging and static. Currently Audio and video projection is typically reserved for a) movies  b) the classroom and  c) spaces with physical dimension (at least one wall). My goal is to break the confines of static presentation and challenge the audience to perceive and digest a series of spaces that have been invented or reinterpreted.  Using a technology typically reserved for military and surveillance operations in a way that provokes curiousity instead of erasing it is exciting. The potential for moving the scene/site/act to any number of places without wires, manual guidance, fixed stage gives a level of dynamism to this project that excites me.

Questions/areas of uncertainty

I have no doubt in the potential for this concept to come to fruition. However, the mechanical minutia of rotational axis for projection and battery life are of concern and of importance for a successful experience. What my subject material will be and the level of interactivity with the audience are undetermined. I would like audience interaction or perhaps staged performances that interact with the projection itself. Can I project a live feed through the camera or projector? thus opening another level of interactivity. Can text messaging or human ‘hive’ sensing be used to redirect without the need for manual input?

Technical aspects:

quad-copter

pocket DLP projector

arduino board

wireless receiver

gps receiver

remote control or iphone as remote

on board lighting rig

live feed camera