by Joanne Jackovich and Kirsty Beilharz

Sonic Tai Chi is a responsive space where your movement leaves traces of colour and sound. Your gestures allow you to create or destroy colonies of basic artificial creatures whose existence follows simple rules: If a live cell has two or three live neighbours it remains alive. If a dead cell has exactly three live neighbours it becomes alive again.

A camera and computer track your motion as you move around the space. Your speed and direction will allow you to create different effects.

The creators of Sonic Tai Chi, Joanne Jakovich and Kirsty Beilharz, are researching soundspaces at the Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition at the University of Sydney. The initial inspiration for the Sonic Tai Chi installation came from a desire to understand how digitally generated spatial elements, such as digital sound and projected imagery, could be controlled by users of a space to create novel and unique environments.

The 'bricks and mortar' of such digitally generated spaces are instilled into our perceptual systems through interaction. Interfaces that provide feedback in response to movement allow the user to build a sensory model of how the space feels and looks while digitally immersed. These spatial cues surpass the typical limitations of the built environment, enabling constantly changing and infinitely expressive hyper-spaces.