Document:Q11800

IDADES is a communication network formed by modular installations placed in transit spaces. In each of them, a spectator can recognize his or her simulated silhouette, projected onto a screen, placed in the midle of the transit space, in such a way as to discover that his or her movements affect the trajectory of a virtual ball that bounces as it touches the edges of the silhouette. This activates a game in which the participant is the body of the player, along with the rest of the spectators that enter the visual field of the camera that is displayed on the screen.
In this game, the ball acts as an “ interconnection device” which, as it collides virtually with the body limits of the players, promotes in them a corporal response to keep it in movement. This way, the spectators become players of “ idades”, fusing with others in a neutral game space that is formed by the people who are in the same transit space and with those that are in other places in which similar screens have been installed, with the same conditions of space, time and play.
The neutral space is achieved by installing a modular installation which includes a camera that is used as a sensor, in front of the zone in which the interactors play, a computer connected to the camera that cuts the image of the people, a projector that displays the game, situated behind the interaction zone, and a screen, displayed in such a way as to ensure the normal circulation of people.
Each module is connected to a central computer via a networkwork device. This way, cut images are processed and displayed along with the ones that come from other modules, using a software program specifically developed for idades that copies the movement of a ball that bounces on-screen, synchronized with the silhouettes' activities. Afterwards, the processed data is fed into each module computer, in such a way that every projector displays the shared game among all modules, so each interactor can be aware of their active presence and communication with others.
The ball allows for a communicational closeness among the people that circulate trough transport stations for a short while and have no recognizable link in these spaces, given their transit space status. In “ Idades” the ball metaphorically writes the multiple identity of the game, and actualizes those who participate in it, because it is the game in itself that allows the opening/ existence of a perceived neutral space, which is articulated by everyone´s identity. This way, “ idades” bestows upon the transit space a multiple identity which is completed by the intuitive reaction of all bodies reflected, in a game in which a ball is present as an object that enables communication.