Accordion Face (2013)

Concept
One of my interests is repurposing familiar objects such as toys (block toys, classic children’s books) or musical instruments (piano, xylophone, accordion) that I grew up playing with. By assigning different roles to these familiar items, I want to recreate the mesmerizing moment that we all had as kids when focused on the activity of play.

I have also been inspired by the childhood past time activity of playing with faces. As children, we all did silly doodles on our (or family’s) face pictures. We put a mustache, widened nostrils or enlarged eyes, and tried to deform the familiar faces into something else. Though silly, I find this play with faces somewhat classic.

“Accordion Face” started with these two interests (repurposing familiar objects, playing with face images).

Work In Progress.

Background
The first prototype was developed during Institute for Electronic Arts(IEA) Residency, Alfred NY (June 2013).
Read IEA Blog about the residency.

Media/Technology
Hand-made paper accordion, MaxMSPJitter application, Arduino Circuit (Ultrasonic sensors), Video Projection

Credit
Devin Henry (IEA Research Associate) – Head model, Technical advice (MaxMSPJitter)

Distorting a Face
AccordionFace-sq
Images-from-the-prototype

Prototype Video – Playing with Noise