The CANVAS, Collaborative Advanced Navigational Virtual Art Studio is an open laboratory / research / performance and display space on the lower level of the Krannert Art Museum of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – three floor to ceiling back-projectioned screens display larger-than-life images appearing and receding in real-time. To visitors donning 3D glasses these images fly off the screen, appearing close enough to reach out and grab.
A part of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics in the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, the Fitzpatrick-CIEMAS studio is a windowless black box room. The studio has computer monitors along the walls and webcams wired to the ceiling. Motion is captured by the webcams and channeled through computers to trigger sounds. The result is a space you can "play" like a musical instrument by moving around.
Middle school students in both locations will soon interact in a virtual, visual, and musical hip hop art event, in conjunction with the Katrina Summit. This event is called MiXTAPEStry, a play on hip hop mix tapes and the unfolding tapestry of sound and image, art and technology.
Hip hop recording artist J. Bully (also known as Robi Roberts, an
adjunct professor in Duke's music department), will perform a song
called "Lemonade" at the Krannert Art Museum. The Illinois middle
school students will experience the performance firsthand, the North
Carolina students will be beamed the performance online. The motion of
the students in the Duke studio dancing to "Lemonade" will be captured
by the webcams and transmitted via the internet to the CANVAS. The
information from that motion will control the motion of the images
displayed in the CANVAS, a collage of portraits and graffiti dedicated
to uplifting social activism and created by UIUC Graphic Design
assistant professor John Jennings.
Students in both locations will be able to see the images, hear the music, communicate with each other, and manipulate the resulting "tapestry" of musical and visual elements using motion sensors, webcams and the Internet.
MiXTAPEStry makes use of a true hip hop art aesthetic, sampling technology, imagery, music, and community involvement, and remixing it all into a one-of-a-kind interdisciplinary intercampus art event. Much like the Katrina Summit itself, MiXTAPEStry is an example and metaphor for the possibilities of cooperation and social betterment that can be achieved locally, nationally, and globally.
