Splaycious is a multimedia installation that allows multiple participants to collaboratively compose digital paintings with their body movements. Data from user’s movements is translated into digital strokes reminiscent of abstract expressionist painters, and projected on the ground in a 6ft by 6ft space. Using a Kinect camera, I am able to track the movements of people in a space. The types of movements they make affect the visuals that are projected underneath them. Users can select colors to “paint” with, as well as mix colors when they touch. If all the users step off the canvas area, their painting is saved, and they can view it on an iPad mounted to the wall next to them where they can print it out.

Tapping into abstract expressionism’s attempt to capture non tangible concepts such as feelings and experiences, my project creates an abstract expressionist art piece representing how people feel, interact, and move their bodies in a space. Mark Rothko, one of the abstract expressionists said, “A painting is not a picture of an experience, it is an experience”. Through participating in the creation of an abstract expressionist piece, users gain a new lens through which to consider this movement of art.