New project plans to bring art to life

Imagine a symphony of sounds raised by the movements of a conductor's hands even though there is no orchestra before him, or images that change depending on the number of people looking at them and where they are standing. Imagine art that can be influenced as much by the audience as by the artist - this is the goal of an exciting new research project in Dundee.

The G-Vision project is a collaboration between Nigel Johnson, Reader in Interactive Media in the School of Television and Imaging, and Dr Stephen McKenna of the Division of Applied Computing.

The pair aim to create a new gesture-tracking interface for artists and performers - an application that could revolutionise how both artists and their audiences can interact with artefacts, installations and performances.

The first stage of the project is supported by a one-year £25,000 Digital Media Commercialisation Award, funded jointly by Scottish Enterprise Tayside and the University's Department of Research and Innovation Services.

With this funding the team aim to develop a prototype software 'plug-in' capable of tracking anything from simple hand gestures to movements of groups of people, which can then be processed and used to make the artwork respond.

"This sort of low-cost and effective, real-time, programmable interface has long been a Holy Grail in the interactive arts," said Nigel Johnson. "This is something which would only be restricted by the artist's own imagination and how they wish to apply it."