The poetics of mass-weighted median diameter

Abstract

This interactive touch-activated work simulates raindrops on glass. Each touch generates a virtual splash and water drop that can be playfully dragged, leaving a visible trail accompanied by sound. The soundscape was created by two-time Emmy Award winning sound designer and composer Serge Ossorguine of Serge Audio in New York City. This work is designed to be exhibited on a 65” Philips Multi-Touch display and runs as a Unity Game Engine published standalone application on a Macintosh Operating System computer. The Poetics of Mass-Weighted Median Diameter was first shown at the Odetta Gallery in Brooklyn as part of New York Creative TechWeek in spring 2018 and was most recently exhibited at the Center for Collaborative Arts and Media, at Yale University as part of the 2019 IEEEGEM(Games,Media andEntertainment) conference. Thisworkwas also shown as part of City Wide Open Studios in New Haven, CT at the Alternative Space exhibition at the Yale University West Campus in the fall of 2019. The Poetics of Mass-Weighted Median Diameter depicts a landscape as if seen through a large plate glass window on a grey overcast rainy day. A copse of trees is seen in the distance with larger trees in the foreground and an empty field in between. The leaves and branches are buffeted by the perturbations of simulated wind dynamics. The addition of rain hitting the glass pane contributes to this sombre, virtual world that may trigger in the viewer associated memories of similar views from lived experience Figure 1. With the invitation to touch the screen, this work engages the viewer in the exploration of the poetics of randomness and the liminal space between intentionality and observation, seeing and hearing, touching and listening. The horizontally mounted touch-sensitive display shows algorithmically generated virtual rain drops randomly hitting and splashing on the simulated glass window pane, with droplets colliding and forming larger droplets that then pull apart and follow paths dictated by simulated gravity and surface tension. The viewer can watch and listen to the soft barely audible tapping sound of the droplets or the viewer can actively reach out and touchwhich generates distinct ethereal sounds of shifting frequencies. This intervention of the viewer changes how the droplets form and encourages a playful interaction that transforms the actualization of this work. In other words, the viewer completes the work through interaction Figure 2.