Feedtank
Full Body Games
Abstract:
Full Body Games is an interactive installation that allows users to engage in an unencumbered, full bodied, gaming experience. The Full Body Games system projects the users’ silhouette in front of them in relation to simple graphic objects with which they can interact. The user can select from four different games: Color Shooter, Two Touch, Duck and Jump and Sorter. All of the games were designed to encourage dramatic movement and provide users with an athletic experience, using their entire bodies. The installation itself consists of a computer, a video camera and a projector. The user faces the video camera, as well as a projection of themselves in the gaming environment, which consists of their own silhouette along with simple graphic objects. The user moves their silhouette to touch the objects in order to play. Each game was designed to be as simple and direct as possible, so users can immediately start playing and exploring rather than having to read directions beforehand. The installation was created in response to the same issues that Nintendo was responding to when it created the Wii: the lack of experimentation with new interfaces in videogames. Since Full Body Games uses a video camera as an input device, it allows for the same type of non-tethered fluid interaction, but adds a greater possibility for expression and experimentation by incorporating all the user’s gestures and motions into the game play. The games also explore the possibilities of the interface on its own terms, rather than using existing paradigms or attempting to force more traditional game play mechanisms into its structure.
Biography:
Feedtank is a collective of digital artists using new technologies to create playful interactive spectacles. Formed out of desire to create interactive audiovisual experiences that encourage dramatic movement and a wide range of expression from its participants, Feedtank has developed a number of novel systems that explore alternative interfaces. Based in Brooklyn NY, Feedtank has shown its work at galleries and exhibitions around the world. They’ve exhibited at Art Basel in Miami as well as at events in Rome, Singapore, Stockholm, Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, and New York. Commercially, they’ve worked with: Adidas, NCAA, IAC, Kyocera, AMD, Samsung, Imagination and Trollback + Company. They’ve also been featured in WIRED Magazine, seen on the Discovery Channel, and interviewed by Adobe Magazine.