Arts

All danceroom Spectroscopy content is now available at our new website http://danceroom-spec.com/

A little bit about the EPSRC funded danceroom Spectroscopy project…

Understanding the fundamental patterns and rules that govern what matter does on the nanoscale requires insight into the strange frontier-world where quantum mechanics is just starting to kick in, and classical mechanics is just starting to fade out. On top of this, nano-systems tend to involve LOTS of atoms and molecules, with each one affecting every other one. For those attempting to fundamentally understand and predict nano-scale behavior, the points discussed above make things a lot more complicated.

danceroom Spectroscopy (dS) creates a virtual world that allows people to step into the highly correlated world of molecular motion and quantitative feedback. It invites you to move, observe, play, and even dance.

Using cutting edge 3d imaging, real-time computing, and rigorous physics, dS transforms your movement into real-time ripples and waves that warp virtual particle forcefields, triggering sound and image so that they emerge as interactive visuals and soundscapes.

Whereas modern technology increasingly offers us tailored individual experiences, this work fuses art and science to generate results which are most interesting and beautiful when amplified by collective and coherent action.

dS is home-brewed C++ code written by David Glowacki and Phillip Tew.

Collaborators include the Bristol Pervasive Media Studio, Charlie Williams, Mike Ashfold, Lee Malcom, Bristol University’s Centre for Public Engagement, and Arnolfini. Funding is being provided through a successful grant proposal made to the UK EPSRC.

Here’s a link to some tracks mixed at Changing Perspectives by Lee J. Malcolm using the DanceRoom Spectroscopy code (ToddlerSteps-MovingOn & ToddlerSteps). Click to play, or right click to download..

If you’re interested in the technical details, here’s how dS works...

dS starts with a mixed classical-quantum (Feynmann-Hibbs) molecular dynamics simulation running on my Mac (this is the kinda stuff I’m an expert on from my research). Normally in these simulations, the atomic particles represent a closed system: they feel nothing but electrostatic forces from the other particles. But in dS, we let the virtual particle dynamics interact with the real world via connection to 3d imaging cameras suspended above the room. This results in a system which is open & interactive instead of closed. The 3d cameras track people’s motion and use it to warp the external forcefield that the particles feel. In real-time, we use some tripped out openGL effects to project the particle dynamics superimposed on the forcefield perturbation images taken by the camera. The particle motion appears chaotic to the naked eye, but some mathematical trickery lets us transform the apparent chaos into the ‘characteristic frequencies’ that describe the particle motion. This gives us a vibrational spectrum, which we pipe out to an electronica artist, and amp up to resonate throughout the exhibition space. The net result is that people can actually see and hear their forcefield imprint as they interact with and perturb the real atomic physics.