Concept Overview
Pictures at an Exhibition is a physical/digital puppetry piece that uses tangible interface puppets to modify a virtual scene projected at the back of the stage in real-time. The actions of physical puppets controlled by live puppeteers tell the story of a heist in an art gallery, while simultaneously leaving their traces on an artwork that exists within their space. The piece merges traditional puppeteering practices with tangible interaction technologies and virtual environments to create a novel performance for the live stage.
The piece was developed jointly by classes in the Digital Media, Computational Media and Industrial Design programs at Georgia Tech. Prof. Ali Mazalek's Experimental Media & Digital Art class worked on the physical/digital co-design of the tangible puppets, with help from Prof. Claudia Rebola's Prototyping Interactions class. Prof. Michael Nitsche's class worked on the 3D virtual environment aspect of the piece. Additionally, the classes collaborated with a group of professional puppeteers and a sound designer to realize the piece.
