Our final product for this class, Special Topics in Interactive Performance and Technology, was a struggle all the way to performance. Each time we met there would be a new problem. The end result turned out nicely for all of the work we put in.
A few challenges we encountered:
- I became injured and I was unable to dance. Therefore, I taught my choreography to another dance, Juliet, and she performed for me.
- We ended up having to take out the conductive thread connecting the Arduino, XBee, and battery because there was not a good connection and replacing it with wire. This was something I was worried about because I didn't want the wire to be pulled out when Juliet was dancing.
- The pressure sensor always output maximum value data so there was no range of values to work with. We ended up having to take out the pressure sensor from our performance.
- The data was being transmitted inconsistently and was only picking up changes every couple seconds like a photo instead of like a video. This meant that it was harder for the audience to hear the changes in the music with the movement the dancer was making. We could not find a way, and did not have time to fix this problem. This is something we could improve if we ever do this project again.
- Lastly, the data would stop transmitting all together when the dancer had more than two points of contact on the floor. Whenever the choreography went to the floor, the music would remain at the levels it was at before the dance went to the floor. I decided to make this a choreographic choice to have the music remain constant anytime she was on the floor.
Overall, this project was difficult, but we pulled through and created a nice presentation.
