Dance Dance Experimentalism

Creating Interactive Video with Gaming Devices

Summary: Isadora + JunXion = interactive video fun.

I am afflicted with a dark obsession – an endless search for new ways to manipulate video. This is common in VJs, whose setups are often a mix between a mad scientist’s workshop, a production studio, and a flea market.

With the introduction of JunXion, Steim opened up the wonderful world of game controllers to the realm of live video manipulation. JunXion is a USB -> MIDI data routing application for Mac OS X. It enables you to define the translation of each key or joystick action into a specific MIDI event, that can then be routed to any software through a virtual MIDI port, or sent to an external MIDI interface.

Isadora is a software for building real-time interactive video setups. It accepts JunXion as a virtual MIDI controller. With these two programs together, we have an enormous field of possibilities. One program maps any USB input to MIDI, and the other uses MIDI to manipulate video in countless ways. Rather than being limited to expensive MIDI controllers, we can use cheaper devices created for gaming such as Joysticks, Gamepads, Driving Wheels, Dance Mats, 3-D Gloves, Golf Clubs – the list goes on.

With the addition of a hardware converter, we can also use Gamecube, Playstation and Xbox controllers.

Isadora is available for both the Mac and PC platforms.
JunXion is Mac-only, but you can use VMIDIJoy

Completed projects using these setups:
Joystick Video Feedback coming soon
Dancepad Video Triggering coming soon

Current/Future projects:
Turntable/Optical Mouse Video Scratching coming soon

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