Details

Why we started down this route

We first identified that there is a gap in the industry’s attention when it comes to engaging audience that are both smaller scale and in events that are free to attend.

• Small scale which means there is no large monetary incentive to improve the current setups, and often overlooked by larger organisations seeking to make a larger scale impact
• Free event usually means that audience are less participative and are quick to leave, often not knowing the performers on stage or what they are performing

For many young Buskers, busking is a way of conveying a heartfelt message and receiving positive feedback from it. However, audience engagement is usually low and there is a lack of genuine connection between the busker and the audience. We surveyed multiple performers of various genres to receive genuine feedback on how they feel about the busking scene in Singapore, as well as to gauge what are considered positive and negative audience feedback.

My Role in the Project

We started the whole journey with interviewing many performing artists and a few buskers to identify the problem. We ideated in a macro level (whole space) and micro level (broken down spaces, e.g. audience area vs stage area). One important discovery that we wanted to hold on to was the inclusion of passerby as part of the busking experience, which is prominent in our chosen location, Wisma Atria.

Below are the earlier concepts of what Bask could be, where we brainstormed fun, engaging activities to fill the busking space with energy and excitement.

I am also in charge of the technical aspect of the live demo. Throughout the semester I learned TouchDesigner with OpticalFlow to detect motion, on top of other machine learning/computer vision solutions in order to achieve the effect in a busking area without the need of expensive sensors/Kinect.

The song will affect how the balls behave, such as the color and speed, which can either be detected live or extracted from Spotify’s API.

Whenever the performer waves their hand, or a group of audience members wave back, this will create a back and forth wave motion, pushing to one side or the other. Within TouchDesigner, I utilised force fields in order to push the particles away from certain areas which has a lot of detected motion. The amount of movement will determine the area and the strength of the force.

In the below video, I am acting as the performer, which pushes the particles from the top (blue indicates downward movement). The video feed is divided into areas, where movements in each vertical section will affect the force field in the respective particle area (a lot of motion on the left will push more particles on the left side).

So, why Bask?

Tapping onto the spontaneity nature of the passer-by and audience attendance, Bask aims to create a more inviting and interactive atmosphere to help local budding artists create authentic connections with the audience, making the local busking scene more vibrant.

Utilizing technology such as cameras and interactive projections, the performer’s cues are detected, prompting collective movements reflected through interactive projections to establish two-way communication between the performer and the audience. By understanding herd mentality and human response to moving lights, Bask uses technology to capture attention and encourage audience participation.