mmmt, or the magical, mystical, mirror thing, is the result of 4 weeks collaboration of the entire interaction design course (16 students).
The brief was to make an interactive installation that was to be mounted for public use in the school. mmmt stems from an idea of the AHO entity. We wanted to make the individuals of this school more aware of themselves as part of a bigger whole, namely AHO. We wished for the interaction to include some sense of contribution, by playing and manipulating the reflections of yourselves in the AHO environment.
The installation is based around a harp with a mounted camera, a projected image of yourself, being manipulated as you play the harp. The harp is indeed an instrument and very delicate sound comes from it as you play. The sounds are also a way of feedback for where in the process you are. As you start playing the harp only small balls are visible on the screen, then as you hit the strings on the harp the balls grow larger and larger containing you in them. When you reach a certain level the balls explode and you get back to the starting point. A screenshot is taken at that moment and uploaded to a website where you can browse images of your fellow students and yourself.
The output has an kaleidoscopic effect which gives a magical distortion and together with the sounds you really feel that you are playing yourself. The input creates several different reactions based on the mode the program is running. The shapes, textures and motions are programmed to react in certain ways to the input from the player.
AHO works winner Design for all