Usually it’s music that puts people in motion and not the other way around, but the V Motion Project changes all that by allowing people to turn their moves into music.
The V Motion Project was commissioned by Frucor Beverages Ltd., a company famous for making the V energy drink, and Colenso BBDO, their agency. The V energy drink is very popular in New Zealand and Australia, where the market shares of Frucor are enormous. I agree that the motto of the company (“With enough energy, extraordinary things happen”) is spot on, but it could use an addendum, given the novelty of this project: “With enough energy and a bunch load of money, extraordinary things happen.”
The project involves an instrument that Jean-Michel Jarre would definitely use. In fact, I find his music more appealing that the one the developers decided to create using this instrument. Extending the arms in certain directions or moving in certain ways determines a sound to be played. If the moves are continuous and make sense to the motion-capture device, actual music can be created, as seen in the following video. In the context of clubbing and energy drinks, the following piece of music might make perfect sense to some, but I really hope the developers of the V Motion Project will get their feet wet with other genres, too.
I’m not a big fan of dubstep (read that as “I hate dubstep with a passion”), but that does not mean that I do not appreciate the originality of this concept. However, if you enjoyed the song, which is called “Can’t Help Myself”, you can download it as an MP3 from here.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzf9wcQyYnQ]
The developers of this concept even took the V Motion Project to The Dark Knight Rises premier. Obviously, there is nothing in common between this and TDKR (except for that dubstep remix song that Hans Zimmer included on the soundtrack CD), but this event had an enormous attendance, so only a fool would’ve missed such a huge opportunity to get free publicity.
The ones interested in the tech details of the project should visit the following link. And yes, in case you were wondering, the project is based on Microsoft’s Kinect, but the visual spectacle is nevertheless impressive, especially since it is a live one. Two Kinect cameras were used, as a single one could not handle the entire project on its own.
If you liked this post, please check this dance party robot and the Tron inspired dance moves by Wrecking Orchestra.
