isadora

Ideas:

Our first response to the isadora software became, quite quickly, a playful take on a magic 8-ball or fortune-telling machine. We were interested in the possibility of having a program speak back, and felt that a project of this nature would allow for interesting illustrative outcomes.

Isadora gives the illusion of "speaking back" by simply recognising audio input, then randomly selecting one of a number of pre-set responses to be played back to the user. we are able to implement a delay between the question being 'asked' and the response being projected, so the experience as a whole is more seamless.

We intend our outcome to resemble a fortune telling booth, and we have collaborated on a mixed-media graphic to act as the stage for the interaction. To add to the mystical, knowing personality of the work, we hope to have animated curtains that will part as a user approaches the stage. This is a matter of asking isadora to recognise movement using video camera input, then triggering a simple animation as the user approaches.

We have also prepared the character elements, with similar allusions to clairvoyance and mysticism as our stage. The animations are looped in flash then arranged in isadora. The character, an eye, will appear to watch the user as they stand in front of it using similar methods of motion detection to our curtain animation. These simple methods of programming will hopefully give the work a responsiveness that compliments the content. We also have sound elements, and have discussed the possibility of other animated components, such as blinking lights on the stage for added an added sideshow effect.