The idea was to visualize audioreactive fractal-like patterns on human skin with the help of Processing and some libraries. Kouhei Nakama and his work was a huge inspiration in the research stage. Finally we chose the Reaction Diffusion Algorithm to accomplish the patterns and realize our goal. That's how the project Living Symphony was born. 

The symphony is derived from the Greek word sýmphōnos meaning "sounding together". The title of our project was carefully chosen. It basically consists of 3 parts which together should form a coherent picture in which the viewer can immerse like in a musical symphony. All 3 parts work together like in an orchestra and result in the final image.

The visual style was achieved with the help of a customized shader, to get the dream-like images. The dots are in a constant flow, like water, which is in motion, but remains the same.

The visual pattern on the floor is inspired by Rorschach inkblots and responds to the music. If the dynamics of the music swells, the pattern becomes larger, takes up more space, but never intends to be dominant.

The audio-reactive pattern was created with the Sound Library provided by Processing.  With the help of this library, the sound spectrum was sampled and analyzed. The resulting values got mixed up with volume and amplitude values of the audio input and those constantly transform the shape of the pattern.

For the image composition and masking the video is loaded into the application using the Video Library. In order to extract the foreground - the dancers - from the background, the video was compared frame by frame with a picture from the background of the video. This was done by taking a screenshot of the beginning of the video when no dancers were visible. This method required a static camera image, which does not change during the video.

The shader is basically a Reaction Diffusion Algorithm in a GLSL Shader. It is a simulation of two virtual chemicals which react to each other. Chemical A is our dark background and chemical B is the blue color. The masking regularly creates new chemical B in the scenery at the respective position of the dancers. This creates the patterns that make the silhouettes of the dancers visible.