Glowing Pathfinder Bugs
a Squidsoup project
Glowing Pathfinder Bugs, an interactive art project primarily aimed at children, uses projection to visualise virtual bugs on a real sandpit. The bugs are aware of their surroundings and respond to its form in their vicinity. By altering the topography of the sand, participants affect the bugs’ environment in real time, facilitating direct communication between them and computer-generated creatures.
This highly malleable and tactile physical environment allows us define and carve out landscapes in which the creatures exist, in real time. The piece, originally commisioned by Folly Gallery for Portable Pixel Playground, encourages a simple form of animal husbandry; a sense of looking after, controlling, breeding and caring for the bugs.
Glowing Pathfinder Bugs resulted from a period of research and experimentation into interaction in three physical dimensions. It uses equipment originally designed to track human gestures and movement, and as with much of our work, we try to blur or dissolve the boundaries between the real world
and virtual space.
In this piece virtual creatures are controlled by, and appear in, a physical landscape. As the bug’s decisions are based on their surroundings, and this is controlled by participants, there is a strong sense of communication between bugs and people - virtul and real.
Squidsoup is a digital arts group specialising in immersive interactive installations within physical 3D space. Their work combines sound, light, physical space and virtual worlds to produce immersive and emotive headspaces. They explore the modes and effects of interactivity, looking to make
digital experiences where meaningful and creative interaction can occur.
Contributors: Anthony Rowe, Chris Bennewith, Liam Birtles.