a digital Zen garden

source: thecreatorsproject

When you visit the SHiKAKU (四角, 視覚, 視角, 死角) exhibit at the Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, you notice one thing instantly: You’re in charge.

SHiKAKU uses motion control to sense nearby movement. Walking around the two light cubes or multiple diagonal beams triggers unexpected light and sound effects. It turns visitors into participants. It’s no surprise that interactive artist CHiKA has a background in graphic design and visual performance. In the exhibit, open until November 16, she creates a digital Zen garden reduced to its most basic elements of rocks and trees, and water represented by LED lights and the movement of people.

Instead of color and stroke, CHiKA uses light and sound as tools because, in her words, “light and sound effect your brain differently – you end up seeing more than what you are actually seeing.” And it all starts with 34 bars of LED lights.

She fortuitously received the lights from friends at Garagecube and 1024 Architecture, the company that used hundreds of LEDs to create the unforgettable light show for Vice’s Up Next interactive fireworks show back in June. But using the lights to create projection mapping like her previous exhibits wasn’t enough. She was determined to add a layer of sound art to the piece. “Sound is very important. Without it, the visual doesn’t work,” says Imagima. She even relates this merging to prehistoric times when man saw the searing brightness of fire with the hissing and crackling.

To further tie the exhibit to noise, the title is a homophone in Japanese–a word that sounds the same but means different things like pair and pear–and in this case translates to square, visual, optic angle, and blind spot. “I like this idea of different meanings and it’s all related to what you hear and what you see. I might use different media or different technology, but I won’t separate the visual from the sound. That’s where my heart is.”
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source: vimeo

SHiKAKU 07, a digital Zen garden by Eyebeam Resident CHiKA on view October 24th through November 16th at Eyebeam in NY.
Known for her minimalist interactive and site-specific projection mapping installations, 2013 Spring/Summer Eyebeam Resident CHiKA will present her residency project SHiKAKU 07, the latest iteration of her SHiKAKU series, in Eyebeam’s Main Space from October 24th to November 16th, 2013.
SHiKAKU (四角, 視覚, 視角, 死角) is a Japanese homophone that translates to “square,” “visual,” “optic angle,” and “blind spot.” Sound designed and programmed in collaboration with Phan Visutyothapibal, SHiKAKU 07 consists of two light cube structures and six channel speakers in a darkened room activated by the movement of participants in the space. A digital Zen garden reduced to its most basic elements of rocks and trees, and water represented by LED lights and the movement of people. The audience brings the elements to life with each movement triggering new and unexpected light and sounds patterns.
CHiKA is an interactive visual artist and an educator. She creates a minimalist geometric visual narrative in sync with the sounds of live music performance in addition to interactive projection mapping installations that explore the relationship between visual, light, sound and public audience.
Her work has been shown at the American Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Art and Design, the Hammer Museum, San Francisco Art Institute, Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneva, Museo Regional de Guadalajara, Matadero Madrid, Theatre Maisonneuve, Biennial in Venezuela, eBay, New York University, Cooper Union, The School of Visual Arts, The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Eyebeam, Harvestworks, Millennium, Mapping Festival, Dumbo Arts Festival, MOD Festival, Blip Festival New York, Blip Festival Tokyo, Mutek, Nuit Blanche, Metropolitan Pavilion, Music Hall of Williamsburg, The Gramercy Theatre, S.O.B.’s, and among other places.
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source: adafruit

SHiKAKU uses motion control to sense nearby movement. Walking around the two light cubes or multiple diagonal beams triggers unexpected light and sound effects. It turns visitors into participants. It’s no surprise that interactive artist CHiKA Imagima has a background in graphic design and visual performance. In the exhibit, open until November 16, she creates a digital Zen garden reduced to its most basic elements of rocks and trees, and water represented by LED lights and the movement of people. Instead of color and stroke, CHiKA uses light and sound as tools because, in her words, “light and sound effect your brain differently – you end up seeing more than what you are actually seeing.” And it all starts with 32 bars of LED lights…