Human-machine interactivity has expanded considerably over the years, and enriching these experiences is one of Golan Levin’s goals when creating an interactive artwork. Quite a handful of his interactive pieces use projections and tracking as a form of control; a way to “get away from the mouse and use out full bodies as a way of exploring aesthetic experiences” as he puts it. And out of all these projection based interactive artworks, I feel that Messa di Voce best incorporated the various interactive elements.

“The mouse is probably the smallest straw you can try to suck all of human expression through” – Joy Mountford

In addition to focusing on the aesthetic experiences, Golan wishes to empower people through interactivity and “discover themselves as creative actors”, which, without a doubt, reflects in the performance shown below.

As they “speak” [enter performer’s flawless impression of raging Donald Duck here], little spheres are projected onto the scene, seemingly emerging from the performer’s mouth and floating upwards like bubbles. In a way, I guess they could be called speech bubbles. More than that, the bubbles also change in size depending on the vocalisation of each sound.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE. The bubbles eventually fall to the ground and the performers are able to push and kick them around, an interaction that made it seem as though both the virtual and physical spaces were the same place.

The performance goes on to show the various ways sound can be used in the interactive artwork; from creating ripples,

to drawing with lines,

to what it would probably look like if your soul was being sucked out by a dementor,

and even creating this weird spiky aura thing.