The project OpenLines consists in dynamic lines projected onto the floor of a busy campus atrium. The project is based on the observation of how apparently simple graphic elements such as lines in urban environment so strongly condition people’s behavior.
Lines in cities tend to be passive and fixed in time despite the continuously changing urban dynamics around them. In OpenLines the behavior of lines, instead, is conditioned by peoples’ movements as it is picked up by a camera system. A program interprets pedestrian behavior in real time and over longer time periods through a framework adopted from the Viewpoints technique of movement improvisation.
In Viewpoints individual and collective activity emerge based on actors’ heightened awareness and immediate response to any of nine temporal and spatial viewpoints: Tempo, duration, kinesthetic response, spatial relationship, topography, shape, gesture, and architecture. In the project lines and people condition each others’ behavior without the ability of direct control.
TEAM
Kristian Kloeckl (PI)
Jonathan Carr (PI)
Mark Sivak (PI)
Camden Phalen (RA)
Jennifer Heintz (RA, Video)