Motion Poetry

Project Definition

Motion Poetry is a Game friendly Digital Literature project which exhibits the awareness and reinterpretation of the Avant-Garde poetic movement on the digital screen. Our intention is to stretch the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm or the status quo when thinking of how literature is
taught, experienced and read. The gamer/reader will immerse him/herself in the game-like environment of poetic creation through a motion like interaction. The aim of this project is to reconfigure the idea of the reader/spectator in the digital age by offering the possibility of experiencing a new form of reading sensibility which focuses on the advantages the new digital medium offers when reading and or interacting with our new digital environment.
We defend the idea of literature as a hybrid entity and the options that gaming-like interaction can add to it in the 21st century. With this method we intend to promote a non distracted, focused reading in which the reader/gamer won't be able to wonder around the screen. By combining the literary with interactive gameplay we strive to create a new format of enjoying literature while also participating in it. We want to affirm the power of human beings to create, improve and reshape their environment with the aid of practical experimentation and technology.

Poem selected

Landscape
In darkness we pass through parallel routes
The moon is where you see it
The tree is taller than the mountain
But the mountain is so wide that it exceeds the extremes of the land
The river runs but carries no fish
Careful at play in the grass recently painted
A song that drives sheep to the sheepfold

Vicente Huidobro

How it works

The user will have to "put together a poem" while respecting the tempo set by a soundtrack which will expose the text the reader/gamer must select by moving a part of their body towards it thanks to a motion capture program used specifically for the work. Once the text is selected by the reader's/gamer's "body", on "beat", a flow of continuous text options will arise which will also include "traps" the reader shall avoid so as to achieve the authentic poem and advance to the next level. The purpose of the game is
to complete the poem by selecting all the right text options on time and like this move on to the next stage. If the gamer/reader selects the wrong/alternate options, corruption of the original text will occur and the results will vary.

Technology needed

WebRTC Technology,
headtrackr, liuliu's algo,
bootstrap, and textfill plugin.