marginalia 1.0 BETA - first test

Marginalia 1.0 BETA from Marginalia Project on Vimeo.

The first effective version of Project Marginalia was completed with the test of the audiovisual installation Marginalia 1.0 BETA, on 5th July 2008 in a residence in the city of Córdoba, Argentina [where André Mintz lives temporarily]. The system worked well, as expected, in spite of delaying response to gestures made by the spectators, which was caused primarily by the system's unsatisfactory processing time and limitations of java code to real-time video response.

Developed by Project Marginalia's team on Processing environment, the software GestureMapping [version 1.1.1] was used to create an installation in which the spectator is able to define the area in which a projection occurs by directing the light of a torch to specific areas of the screen. A camcorder captures this intervention and communicates with a computer that interprets received data. The software then recognizes the illuminated area and uses this mapping to generate the final image that is projected by a multimedia projector over the screen.

A group of spectators – composed of other residents of the building – got surprised and satisfied with the achieved results, reacting to the installation in various ways. The majority used the system to explore the projected image itself, using the torch light to reveal what was hidden by the darkness of when they entered the room, while others enjoyed the possibility of drawing diverse shapes and theirs names with the torch light. 

For more information on this project, please check the previous posts marked marginalia 1.0; to know the history of its development explore the whole blog.