Giants of the Hoods is an interactive mobile guerilla art influenced street performance and urban VJ intervention. In the project, local residents participated by creating visual avatars representing characters of their neighbourhood, and by animating them with their own dance movements.
In creating the animations, the team used Animata, an open source real-time animation software, developed by Kitchen Budapest to create animations, interactive background projections for concerts, theatre and dance performances.
During Media Facades Helsinki, the Giants team toured with participatory dance events in different neighbourhoods - in Kallio, Kontula and Tapiola. Their van contained a mobile VJ unit and a motion tracking system through which the Giant animations are projected on local facades. At the end of the tour, a dance battle between neighbourhoods was organised at Lasipalatsi Square in the city centre.
The project was realized by Sini Haapalinna, Markku Nousiainen, Pia Lindy and Matti Niinimäki for the Media Facades 2010 festival. Besides Helsinki, the project was presented at FACT Liverpool at the end of the Media Facades Europe chain of events, on October 2.
For Media Facades Helsinki 2012, a developed version was presented in a special performance where Aku Meriläinen replaced Matti Niinimäki.