Body Paint (2009)

Interactive installation
Materials: infrared cameras, infrared emitters, multiple HD projections or video wall, PC, custom software
Technique: custom software, C++, computer vision, fluid simulation
Dimensions: variable [4m x 2.25m] – [50m x 5m] or more.

Our body is a vessel for emotional expression. We have a natural instinct to express ourselves through movement. Body Paint leverages our ability for non-verbal expressive communication, and combines it with our desire to create; even more so, our desire to create something beautiful.

Body paint is a visual instrument that enables you to paint on a virtual canvas with your body, interpreting movement and gestures into evolving compositions. It is not a painting application per se, and instead explores expressive ways of creating and performing images and color through capturing the motion and energy of the body. The piece is about the interaction experience. What matters is not the image created at the end, but the sensation of creating it, interacting with it, reacting to your creation as it evolves. Analogous to music, the motivation for playing an instrument is not always to compose or record. Sometimes every note is just for the moment, an unconscious response coming from within, without any concern for making it permanent. Similarly in Body Paint, when you stop moving, the image slowly fades away, leaving only the memory of your experience.

The interaction is simple, movement creates paint. The installation is designed to work with any number of people and is scalable to cover areas from 4m to 50m wide, potentially more. (In fact the installation doesn’t see ‘people’ at all, only movement. So anything – living or not – of any shape can trigger colours, as long as there is movement in the space). While the installation is suitable for a single person, when multiple people are present, a new dynamic emerges as the audience start interacting with each other via the work.

The work has been shown internationally including as part of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s touring Decode exhibition in 2009, and is part of a number of public collections around the world.