The Electric Heliotrope Theater

An immersive, interactive environment, a personal theater and enveloping playspace that responds to your body motion and gestures.

The Theater is a venue for interactive light and sound pieces that can range from pure sound to viscerally real 3D sight/sound experiences. It is designed for first-person, direct, close interaction, with no controllers, no shadows, nothing to mediate the interaction and play.

My goal is to open-source my code for the Theater, and to share the knowledge I have gained in developing these pieces so others can buiild immersive interactive theaters of their own, and in so doing create a base of responsive cinema venues for us all to present our works.

The Invisible Orchestrion

In what appears to be an empty space, participant's motions create music. The tempo, complexity, and intensity of the music being generated is completely derived from the motions and gestures of those inside. The more you dance, the more danceable the music becomes; the more sweeping and gentle your motions, the more lyrical and ambient the music. The more people inside, the more layered and rich the sound. (Video coming soon)

Lambent Gambol

Nebulae move like amoebae swimming in a whirling void that moves with you; infinite moving lattices of light respond to your gestures; surreal and ethereal spaces come and go with your continued motion.

 
Lambent Gambol is a new immersive first-person dance-with-light piece for the Electric Heliotrope Theater.

Dance the Body Electric

Just walk up to the screen and washes of color start moving. Dance with your own lighted shadow that moves in time to the music, amid patterns that morph from kaleidoscopic to fractal to spiraling tapestries, all in response to your movement.

 

Great event with a great vibe, and lots of fabulous dancers played in/with the Heliotrope.

3rd annual pre-party for the DC Santarchy. Installed outside in an alley using front-projection against the alley wall. Did interactive projections with fire spinners as well, using an IR camera to track their torches.

Responsive Cinema

Immersive interactive environments offer the opportunity and challenge of new kinds of storytelling, participatory exposition, and teaching. Work is underway - watch this space.

Past Event Installations

Dancing Light Theater at the Museum of Science and Technology (MoST), Syracuse, NY, ongoing

The Unseen Sun and WILL (Willfull Intelligent Lazy Lifeform) at the Museum of Science and Technology (MoST), Syracuse, NY, ongoing

The Invisible Orchestrion 2 at Stone Quarry Hill Art Park as part of the Society for New Music Cazenovia Counterpoint Festival, Cazenovia, NY, July 19th, 2014

Jazz Central, as part of CRAVE Fest, Syracuse, NY, Sept. 20th-21st, 2013

Entanglement #1 - Hawaii 1936 in the juried show Made in NY at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, March 30th - May 12th, 2013.

Lambent Gambol 2, and The VR Museum - Rochester Museum and Science Center. Two installations as part of the RMSC 100th Anniversary Gala, Rochester, NY, September 29th, 2012

Leaders in Software and Art (LISA 2012) Conference afterparty, interactive projections on the building facade and indoors, New York, NY, October 16th, 2012

The Electric Heliotrope Theater in Immersive 3D, at Playa Del Fuego (recipient of a Playa Del Fuego Art Grant), Odessa, DE, October 4th-7th, 2012

Premiere of Swim With the Fishes (of light) an interactive ALife, a finalist in the GECCO 2012 Evolutionary Art, Design, and Creativity Competition, Philadelphia, PA, July 8th-9th, 2012

Premiere of The Invisible Orchestrion, Figment New York, Governors Island, New York, NY, June 9th-10th, 2012

The Fridge Gallery as part of Forward Fest, Washington DC, April 25th-29th, 2012

Naughty Snowball 3, Washington DC, Dec. 10th, 2011

Manifest:Introspect, Baltimore MD, Dec. 9th, 2011

Playa Del Fuego, Odessa DE, Oct. 6th-10th, 2011

Joe's Movement Emporium, Mt. Rainier MD, Mar. 12th, 2011

Ballstan Spa Film Festival, Ballston Spa NY, Aug. 6th, 2010

Disorient GLAMTECH, Brooklyn NY, Mar. 20th, 2010

Sheridan School, Washington DC, Spring 2010

FatBack @ Liv, Washington DC, Jan. 16th, 2010

Naughty Snowball, Washington DC, Dec 11th, 2009

TechArts, Washington DC, Oct 31st, 2009

Loda Halloween, Silver Spring MD, Oct 30th, 2009

Playa Del Fuego, Oct. 8th-12th, 2009