Christmas Light Sculpture

Christmas Light Sculpture

A common paradigm in the new media genre are pieces that reflect some aspect of the viewer's visual appearance - virtual "mirrors" that take in live video input (usually via webcam) and then feed back that visual data in intriguing ways. My interest in using this technology is not to simply present a two dimensional "mirror," but to combine that effect with 3D graphics, creating an onscreen virtual space that is sculptural and architectural, as well as, graphical. I call the approach "3D Video Sculpture."

"Christmas Light Sculpture" is an interactive work using a webcam and specialized software to generate an interactive 3D Video Sculpture on a computer screen.

click on a picture for a larger version

"Christmas Light Sculpture" is an experiment is breaking the conventional square and cubes shapes of my earlier work and seeing what would happen if the shape itself were molded and twisted by the incoming camera data. The way it behaves reminds me of a plant folding and unfolding into itself. It was originally meant as a technical prototype for my own use but thinking about the holiday season, I manipulated the incoming colors into something resembling a bright, happy, living and breathing Christmas tree, reacting to what's going on in the space captured by the camera.

Happy Holidays!

Click here to view "Christmas Light Sculpture" in motion!. (4.13 MB Quicktime Movie)

The software was created in Windows C++ using Visual C++ .NET, using Quicktime for live video capture and OpenGL for graphics.

A big thanks to Daniel Shiffman and nehe.gamedev.net.

e-mail me at edtang at antiexperience.com

All Materials Copyright © 2004 Edward Tang. All materials on this site including interactive programs, images, videos, and text are the property of Edward Tang and is protected by copyright and are not to be reproduced without permission. All Rights Reserved.