Canvas+Triggers+Snaps is an evolving movement-interactive multimedia computer installation developed using Max 5 software.

Canvas projects color paintings inscribed by movement. A camcorder records the movement an installation user makes and paints those video pixels that change in luminosity from one video frame to the next. As people move within the installation space, their movement generates colorful visual traces on the projected output video. The color of the painted pixels changes gradually from frame to frame and the paint accumulates on the projections, only gradually fading.

Triggers is an audio component that like Canvas responds to filmed movement, but in multiple ways. Firstly it may react with swishes of sound that mirror the size and position of the movement tracked. Secondly it may respond with footsteps that vary in speed and panning depending on movement that has just stopped. Thirdly it includes a very basic piano player that converses with the moving visitor. The three responses occur sometimes alone and sometimes together, each combination active for ten to fifteen minutes at a time. Additionally there is a fourth sound set made up of samples of wood percussion, which plays quasi-randomly and runs independently of the users.

The newest component, Snaps, brings cohesion to Canvas and Triggers while providing an additional option for user interaction. Like the footsteps and piano of Triggers, it is triggered by stillness; its response is to take a snapshot of whatever Canvas is showing at the time. It projects this new snapshot for a short period of time before beginning to sequence through a series of older snapshots, each triggered by one of the random percussion sounds of Triggers.

Canvas, Canvas+Triggers and Canvas+Triggers+Snaps are available for half-day and longer installations in lobbies, studios, galleries, schools, museums and other public venues.