Our group chose the Beijing Opera as the subject of this workshop. First, we use a few days to gather information about opera, not only Beijing Opera but also other kinds opera. That’ s we want to find the unique culture belongs to Beijing Opera. We read books and online research and watch the videos which is a good observation methods. I interviewed a Beijing Opera actress and studied her graduation thesis. Her thesis is about the tune performance of laodan in Beijing Opera.
According to the research and observation we fond that different actors perform Beijing Opera in the same role, which means the story, the costume and the facemask are basically the same. Due to the scarcity of props in Beijing Opera, costumes take on added importance. Costumes function first to distinguish the rank of the character being played. So audiences can know the characters just according to the costumes and facemask.
Another insights we fond from research is the stage almost always have a table and at least one chair, which can be turned through convention into some certain scenario. For example actors can pretend there are mountains and rivers in front of them. Especially there are two doors in the stage, all characters enter from the east and exit from west, the two doors which called chujiang and ruxiang respectively. They are significant symbols dividing the reality from virtual, and also self from the fictional character.
We have identified our ideas and then next step is how to design a new form of interaction and interface with Beijing Opera features.
TUI provides a physical interaction behavior apart from the typical digital interaction by turning the physical objects into input and out devices for computer interface. It is very natural to pick up and place a physical object certain characteristics such as size and shape can be used to make a person interacts with digital information. TUI can be seen as offering a channel between the physical properties of the interface tool and the digital information in the virtualized interface.
The product is inspired by the “two doors†model in Beijing Opera, where the two doors are the gateway connecting the reality with virtual world. Attributes such as self identity of actors will interchange with mask, costume and props along the journey.
FuniMovi is an innovative image and video-capturing product that provide funny experiences of image capture and story sharing.
When people taking photo, the user perceive the interaction with a character that use emotional expression more enjoyable than with a character that does not use emotional expressions. In another way the kinds emotional movement effect the photography. With FuniMovi, characters can creatively capture image and video by applying different movements, so that they can create their emotional photo or video by themselves instead by the photographer.
With FuniMovi, user can creatively capture image and video by applying different hand gestures to the grips, just like the gesture of actors and musicians of Beijing Opera. By gliding, twisting, pressing, pulling, image and video will be captured with visual effects and characteristics.
After shooting, user can use FuniMovi to edit the archive for story-telling and sharing. User can apply transition and editing effects to the archive through motion detection function of FuniMovi, effect will be applied spontaneously. At the same time, the movement of user will be recorded as a secondary footage.
FuniMovi consist of 2 cameras lenses (front and rear), a body of transparent display screen and pair of grips. The grips are categorized by actor roles (male, female, painted face and comedic) and performance (sing, speech, act and fight) representing by colors and textures.
Interaction Model
