Idea:

The four elements of nature are water, air, earth, and fire. The idea is to create 4 generative art pieces for each of these elements, that represents them in some way(using different patterns and colors etc..). Then audience member will be asked to choose which element they want to interact with. The processing art piece created for that element will move with the person interacting with it so that they feel like they are controlling the elements in a way or are In harmony with them.

Method #1:

I am planning to use a kinect in order to detect the movement of the audience, and program a Processing sketch that will analyze the data from the Kinect and translate that into patterns and colors. Arduino will be used as kind of the controller in the project. Basically, Arduino will be used to choose which element you want to interact with.

I am also not sure if this is possible, but I want to use the potentiometer to enhance on the generative art, for example if someone is interacting with the fire element, turning the potentiometer would draw even more flames and enhance on the drawing. Or if someone is interacting with the earth element turning the potentiometer would make more towers and trees grow etc..

Method #2:

the second method to do this would be just by using an ultrasonic distance sensor and whenever someone comes close to the sensor the generative art piece would gradually fade in. Whenever they remove their hand it would gradually fade out.

I prefer the first method but it is much more complex and a lot of issues may arise.