Video Performance Reflection
This is my video performance patch and the shader. And this is the recording of me doing some practices in advance.
As far as I am concerned, I feel that my video performance is pretty successful. Though I have tuned some parameters wrongly during the process, I think they didn’t affect the overall performance and the audience didn’t pay attention to it at all.
From the description part of the discussion, I have heard people saying that this looks similar to a fish tank. It actually never came to my mind that these microorganisms can be kept as pets in this tank. My original idea, like the indication from the title ‘Micros’ Carnival’, is to build a club-like virtual space for micro creatures and see their entertaining process through the manipulation of color, size, and so on. But based on the audience’s understanding, it’s more like they are reacting to their masters’ actions. This changing color is somehow a shred of evidence showing they are playing happily with their friends.
Moreover, I received some valuable critical thoughts on the narrative methods. And I do agree that I am moving too fast in the first half of the story. If I have the chance to do it again, I would leave less time showing the second part. Since there are only color and size changes, it looks less attractive compared with the first half. Other alternatives could be the rotation of the camera, and shortening the time gap between changing. Learning from other projects, especially based on that one with Indian background music and the manipulation of the infinite mirror, I could add more effects to the background to form a more vivid club-like environment.
If I had more time or had the chance to do it again. One biggest differentiation perhaps will be the choice of these microorganism-like creatures. Instead of using three of them, I will only focus on one of them. And try to make it responsive to the web camera. In this way, I could bring the audience in, inviting them to become part of the show. And I think this will also create an illusion that they are playing with a ‘pet’.