This year, I have been learning as much as I can about the Javanese court arts, including music, dance and live theatre. Part of what interests me is how stories like the Ramayana and Mahabharata can be passed on for generations without the need of archival technology. Furthermore, different cultures at different times utilize different methods of storytelling in order to transmit them to the next generation.
The Wayang Kinect project is an exploration of storytelling ancient texts in new mediums. Using a Microsoft Kinect as a sensor, users are able to interact with and manipulate a digital puppet on a projected screen.
The web applet, which controls the puppets using the position of the mouse, can be found here. Full description, videos and code are after the jump.
Presentation Slides:
Wayang Kulit, which translates to “leather puppet”, are puppets made from ox hide and controlled with rods made of either bamboo or buffalo horn. Indonesian Shadow puppet theatre has been performed for over ten centuries and has been proclaimed by UNESCO as an “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”.
The Wayang Kinect project will incorporate new technologies to tell traditional Wayang stories in an updated contemporary context while continuing to safeguard the traditions of Wayang Kulit theatre. Furthermore, the Microsoft Kinect can be utilized to record a well known dhalang (shadow puppeteer) and further preserve Wayang Kulit’s performative history.
The code for this project is based mainly on Daniel Shiffman’s examples from his Nature of Code course. I am utilizing OpenNI’s drivers to control the Kinect, and the fabulous Toxiclibs libraries to manipulate the pixel physics. I’ve been learning about Javanese music and shadow puppetry from members of the Gamelan Kusuma Laras Orchestra, to whom I am greatly indebted.
Videos:
A single user controlling the puppet
Two users, two puppets:
Code:
