Immerse Yourself in Abstract Visuals Distilled from Nature

Nature's swarming forms are the genesis of the installation Primary Forms by A/V artist Mark Eats, which was first presented at the Day For Night festival in Houston, Texas in 2015. Eats has recently uploaded the documentation for it. The interactive projections are based on recurring swirling patterns found in twisting smoke, shoals of fish, spiraling galaxies, and other natural events.

The public are encouraged to alter the projections by moving around and reaching out their arms, pushing and tugging at the abstract visuals, so they tear apart or move in a certain direction. They're then pulled back together by the physics of the software that's controlling them.

The crowds were tracked with two Kinects and custom-built software, while another piece of software, both built in openFrameworks, generated the visuals.

“At its core, Primary Forms is an abstracted rule-driven world that includes many random variables," Eats explains. "I have an idea of the basic results it will usually generate, but the concept allows lots of scope for the unexpected. Even after running for hours, it can still create some real surprises. Inviting a crowd to have so much control over your work can be somewhat nerve-racking but the element of performance is important to me in pieces like this. People watching each-other and ‘acting’ for each-other becomes part of the experience.”

You can check out some images, and the video of Primary Forms, below:

Image courtesy of the artist

Image courtesy of the artist

Image courtesy of the artist

Visit Mark Eats' website here.

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