We are presenting an installation called Chroma Space to serve as a platform for experimenting with the novel usage of affective colors in an immersive environment. Chroma Space shares Flick Flock`s (2009) technology, which explores a transformative enclosure for the viewers through a combination of 3D game engine, computer vision, and ambisonic 3D. The challenge in the implementation of stylistic presentation of colors in Chroma Space involves not only game engine restrictions but also the sensually destructing visual continuity issues (both in visual presentation and in animation) that are difficult to resolve in a synthetic world. This installation is aimed at demonstrating the effective impacts of using a stylistic approach to address emotional sensations, by making colors move in space.
We envision Chroma Space in muted palettes, depriving each rendered frame with the richness of colors. With carefully chosen palettes to only direct the sensations of the spectator, entering Chroma Space, the performers find themselves influencing the behavior, colors, and presentation of the virtual objects. Chroma Space presents muted colors that are temporally interacting and communicating to our senses. The installation also features virtual objects that are moving in harmony with colors and sound. This is the abstract world that defines Chroma Space.
Chroma Space creates its immersive environment through light and wall projection and is driven by the immersant`s own body. The immersant`s body affects the imagery and sound is acting like a solid geometry mapped in a coordinate system. By raising the viewer`s arms far apart from the body, the viewer signals the system to go forward in space. By moving the viewer`s body some degrees to the left or right, the system shifts the virtual camera in that direction. The direction of the movement of the viewer also affects the panning and playback of sounds.