insert scorie - a sound-based game/interactive experience

 

the concept

Insert Scorie is an interactive game/installation that I have created in collaboration with the mediaintegrati lab and the academy of fine arts of Naples. it consists of nine semi-transparent tabletops mounted together to form a semi-circular table. On top of these tables, little hand-made toys are placed and moved around by the player/user, and a multitude of sounds is generated by these little toys thanks to the use of reactivision, a cheap web camera, and programming software (i.e., pure data) performing digital signal processing (DSP). This, in turn, allows players/users to create interactive musical performances and engage with each other in co-located group interactive performances.

 
 

the socio-political message

The Italian word “Scorie” means “waste” in English. All the interactive toys that compose insert scorie were created and handcrafted by Neapolitan kids, most of which came from difficult and marginalized areas. The materials used to create the little interactive toys were collected from waste and garbage from different areas of Naples city.

the involvement of these kids and the re-use of waste material to create an interactive game/installation was contributing to the socially-aware efforts that the city of Naples was making in 2010 to counter the severe waste emergency caused by economical and political inadequacies. In that respect.

insert scorie was not just an interactive game experience, but also a statement to the city administration, from the people who wanted an improved quality of life and demonstrated how, if used creatively, even waste material can become valuable.

 
 

the system architecture

The little toys used as input interfaces were tagged at their base with multiple ReacTIVision fiducials, each for one individual toy and with a unique ID. These fiducials would then be tracked with the use of a PS3-Eye camera placed at the bottom of the semi-transparent tabletops. To create the interactive sound system, I used the java wrapper Processing to handle the input coming from the ReacTIVision fiducials and used Pure Data to create dsp engine that let users generate music while interacting with the toys on the tabletop surface.

To enhance the visibility of the fiducial markers through the semi-transparent surfaces, I used neon lights. Each tabletop had a dedicated computer and a dedicated sound system that composed the whole interactive system. Finally, all computers communicated via TCP protocol to send signals to each other and coordinate input reading and sound output.

 
 

working team & international appreciation

insert scorie WAS CREATED in collaboration with the artistic workshop based in Napoli (Italy) mediaintegrati. To create insert scorie, I have coordinated a group of more than forty students together with professor Francesco Iandolo, all of which contributed to the building of the tabletop and helped me organize the workshop in which young Neapolitan kids participated to build the interactive toys.

In 2010, Insert Scorie was awarded the National Prize of Arts and was later exhibited at the Ars Electronica in Linz (2011) and at the Grenoble Institute in Paris (2012). furthermore, the installation received appreciation from Derrick de Kerckhove, the former Director of the McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology at the University of Toronto.