We present an interactive installation that introduces a new type of affordance,
the choreographic button, which integrates movement, gesture recognition, and
interactive visual feedback. Our intention was to promote social interaction and
creative emergence. Jumping, a quick movement, and crouching, a sustained gesture,
were choreographed to form a vocabulary that is personally expressive and which
also facilitates automatic recognition. Arranged in a 3 x 3 grid in the
installation, these choreographic buttons are used to explore a collection of
consonant imagery, which consists of personal movements of extension and contraction.
The movements function as expressions through which participants dynamically
create a series of individual and collaborative compositions. Narrative and lyrical
components emerge through elements and patterns. Movements in the installation
contribute to an embodied process of interaction that integrates dance performance
with control structure and feedback, engaging onlookers in each successive
participant’s creative process. By conducting an integrated user study / art opening
event, we found this promotes social interaction between participants and onlookers.
