Our body is the result of thousands of generations of intense evolution. When we use modern technologies, our bodies are reduced to a chair and a finger click. Design creates behaviors. A new approach is needed to develop the technologies of the future, starting from our physical reality, giving emergent technologies a human shape.

Prototype Ginga is an experiment conceived in Capoeira, the Brazilian dance/martial art. The “players” dance to the typical Capoeira music, and using a set of sensors in the arms and legs, they will change the music as they dance. ‘‘Ginga’’ is the name of the basic movement of Capoeira. The concept of the project is to read the body movement and establish new relations between our natural behaviours and future technology. People recognize music instinctively and we can easily assign movement to rhythm. With this project, the relation between music and dancer is reverted as the movement is now generating the sounds. The set of sensors amplify the human output, entering a loop in which the output of the body movement becomes a new input for the dancer, in the form of sound and music. This results in an interaction that adds complexity to the experience.

The experiences we share determine the value we give them. Technology is as good as how it make human experiences more complex, letting us communicate in new ways, generating questions and curiosity.

Sensor Setup
The device works by attaching a flex sensor in the elbow to detect the extension of the arm and the act of opening the body. An accelerometer in the wrist registers the beginning and end of any of it´s displacement in space. It registers the movement in the x,y,z axes.

The sensors send those inputs to an arduino board and turns it into numbers. The data is sent via xbee radios to a computer. The numbers are put into a programming language for music called max/msp, which creates several frequencies with each input. The real achievement of the prototype was to turn the body movement into data that can be used, remapped and modified as parameters for computer applications. This means that these kind of devices could be used in several fields such as music composition, music performance, dance performance, medical uses, virtual reality interfaces, and sports.
All the technologies used to develop this prototype are open source.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy-xn4TVEbE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCDAtjkv7MQ

There is evolution of form in Architecture.

There is evolution of form and intelligence in Nature.

Advanced Architecture is intelligent through interaction and communication. Sound and Light serves several complex organisms to interact.

Language is one of the most important elements of human interaction and intelligence. It could have evolved from music, as espoused by Rousseau, Herder, Humboldt, and Charles Darwin.

Color and sound can be measured, and turned into bits of information. Bits can be transmitted and under a certain code, they can become messages for interaction. This way, color becomes sound and sound becomes color. They are both just channels for information. This can be used to develop Intelligence in Architecture designing lightscapes and soundscapes.

Interaction

Interaction is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. The idea of a two-way effect is essential in the concept of interaction, as opposed to a one-way causal effect. A closely related term is interconnectivity, which deals with the interactions of interactions within systems: combinations of many simple interactions can lead to surprising emergent phenomena. WIKIPEDIA

Interaction is interesting because of the human factor. We people are complex and spontaneous. Technological interfaces are as good as they can potentiate and expand our human interactions.

Technology is not necessary or mandatory for advanced interaction. It is a medium that helps define a frame of behavior. Imagine you are throwing a ball to a dog so it brings it back. The ball is a medium that establishes the kind of interaction between you. The complexity of the interaction comes from the experience you both share. The ball is just a ball, there is nothing special about it. What is shared is the real important factor. It creates emotions and memories.

Interests – Materiality and Perception

Starting from a theory basis about interaction, the final proposal will be based on the research and the inspiration discovered on the way.

There is a special interest of our physical reality in this project. Technology is conceived in this case as a tool between others. This is not a technology development project. It is focused on bringing awareness of our senses and the forces that affect our perception of the material world.