Motion Detecting Motion
(Custom Software, 2026)
Motion Detecting Motion is a real-time generative installation in which a webcam feed continuously translates movement into luminance. Using this motion data, forces are applied to displace the vertices of a subdivided grid. The work is in perpetual flux. When a viewer enters the frame, their silhouette becomes legible within the displacement field; not as a trigger, but as an inscription in the image.
Motion Detecting Motion was a large format projection spanning 24' by 14'. Everything you see was created with code (Processing and GLSL), by hand, without the use of any graphic, or video software. Motion detection uses the BoofCV open source library.
1. Create a subdivided grid texture using recursion.
2. Animate the grid.
3. Sample each pixel in the grid texture and use it's brightness to offset the pixel.
4. Animate the displaced grid.
5. Detect motion using a webcam.
6. Use the motion detection data to further displace the pixels in the grid.