Download zipped code package,
compile and run
the XCode
project inside the folder.
Usage
Ku will follow wherever you lead with your cursor. You can make Ku
bounce by making sounds, and increase Ku's size by eating
(running into) particles. You can also modify Ku's environment with
control keys.
Ku's particle environment has 4
behavior modes, triggered by keys 1-4: repel, attract, attract to
magnet points, and rain. Camera view can be toggled on and off within
any of these modes by pressing the 'c' key.
Mode 1 (repel)
Mode 1 with camera toggled
Mode 2 (attract) with camera
Mode 3 (magnet point attract)
Mode 4 (rain) with camera
Vision and Design
Ku was inspired in part by the Furby
and other horrifying toys, and in
part by the life cycle of the cuckoo, a brood parasite who lays her
eggs in the nests of other birds: the host mother unwittingly feeds the
imposter, who evicts her own chicks by throwing them out of the nest,
sometimes still in their eggs.
"Ku is a helpless baby creature
from another dimension. Entirely by accident, she was born inside your
computer: once you realize that she is stuck there, you decide to raise
her yourself, out of the kindness of your heart. From the user’s manual
that inexplicably showed up with her, you learn that individuals of
Ku’s species sustain themselves on vibrational energy sound, in your
terms and in order to keep her healthy and happy, you must feed her:
talk to her, play music for her, and show her the sound environment of
your world."
By feeding Ku sounds, which she
would then begin to granlularize and
play back, the user would exert some influence over her development:
different kinds of sounds (to be determined via FFT analysis) would
result in different colors as Ku grew.
First Ku design
After workshopping and feedback, Ku acquired a face
Photoshopped from a human ear, a sonic bunghole, and a storyboard.
Thoroughly
implementing Ku's stormy adolescence and climactic choice of
allegiance, however, became rather unfeasible within the project's time
constraints.
["SCOPE CREEP!"]
The streamlined Ku demonstrated here is simpler, but much less dangerous: just make noise and watch her dance!
