PBV is an original software application designed as a computer graphics visualization of the song "Punch Buggy Valves" by the band Deerhoof. The piece is an experiment in the 3D graphics capabilities of the Processing programming environment and novel user interface methods for real-time performance. The application functions as an immersive 3D game in which the user navigates the gamespace by moving his or her body to steer a "rocketpack" worn on the back. The rocketpack consists of an Apple MacBook laptop enclosed in a specially designed backpack. As the user moves his or her body, the application uses the laptop's built-in accelerometer to detect positional changes and broadcasts the positional data over a wireless network to a second server computer which displays the user's movement through the gameworld and cues various game events in response to the music. The application is designed to support multiple users playing simultaneously over a network. The above performance consists of just one user performing the work as part of Professor Casey Reas' Visual Music performance event on 29 November 2006 in the Broad Arts Center at UCLA.
Video documentation by Jonathan Bobrow.