Negar Behbahani

If I were an instrument, what kind would it be? How would it be played? What are its tones? Its moods? What would I reveal to a new player or one who played me many times?

Description

My thesis project is a musical sculpture and self-portrait based on my nature, body, memory and background, told through the universal language of a music.
The instrument/sculpture's key features are the sound, the screen, and the hair, which has played an important role in all aspects of my life. My instrument connects with the intimate experience of touching my hair, and is a different and new experience, playing and hearing a poetic and feminine instrument.

It's for a general art audience for presentation in an art space.

Wen Lei Ng

Roving Spectres is a traveling shadow theater. Taking inspiration from shadow puppetry, traveling tent shows, and physical computing, this project weaves narrative worlds out of nothing but light and shadow.

Description

In Roving Spectres, shadow and illumination serve as both performative and participatory mediums . A glowing suitcase containing kinetic paper sculptures, a performative glove, an emotive light umbrella — these re-appropriated objects transform into the performer's 'co-actors'. Each object is woven into a series of imaginary landscapes through their interactions with the performer.

With a suitcase, Roving Spectres brings the magic of live theatre to the people where they least expect it.

Will Canine

I have developed a new open, automated, and easy way of creating novel genetic constructs using the OpenTrons robotic lab platform. My goal is to bring synthetic biology to the maker movement and accelerate the development of biotechnology.

Description

Today, it is much easier to design genetic pathways than to prototype and test them. Complicated, finicky, time consuming lab work is one of the biggest barriers to more rapid biotech innovation. An affordable, open synthetic biology automation system is the solution to this problem.

By combining the OpenTrons automation platform, Genomikon DNA prototyping protocol, and Synbiota open science hub, I was able to create such a system. This stack of technologies allows users to design DNA in software, run an automated assembly protocol to produce their plasmid design, and then share it with others. The whole thing costs less than $3000. We are poised to empower biodevelopers everywhere with the power of digitally controlled lab automation!

William Lindmeier

Tunnel Vision turns any NYC subway subway map into an interactive experience. Point your phone at an official MTA map and bring it to life with data about the subway, the city, and the people who live here.

http://tunnelvisionapp.com

Description

The image of the MTA subway map is distinctive and ubiquitous throughout New York. Tunnel Vision uses the map as a platform to explore the city through data-visualization. The app pulls data from a variety of sources and seamlessly integrates them into the map by drawing over the camera feed.

When a rider is waiting for the subway, she points her phone at the map to activate Tunnel Vision. The map comes to life with animations that add context to the ridership experience. By simply moving the phone around the map, she can explore many kinds of data including turnstile activity, rent prices, income, etc..

Tunnel Vision adds a layer of insight to a familiar image.

Xuedi Chen

In the realm of data, we are naked all the time. x.pose is a wearable data-driven sculpture that reveals a person's skin as a real-time reflection of the data emissions that they are producing.

Description

As a generation, we are tethered to connected data-producing devices which are in a constant cycle of production and consumption of data. My electronic devices make me an implicit participant in this cycle while I'm largely unaware of how my metadata is being consumed. Could someone construct a clear image of me from my data emissions? How would that look? x.pose explores the vulnerable nature of the relationship we share with our data. I have collected my own geolocation data over time to use as the basis for a personalized generative couture mesh armature that reacts to the trails of information that I produce. As data emissions are collected, the more transparent and exposed I will become.

Yang Jiang

Twinkle is a whimsical camera that has left his owner to start his very own vacation – a journey to discover himself in this big world. As he travels, he invites others to help him discover the duality of moments both transient and enduring.

Description

For me, photography is more than a hobby or a career. My camera travels with me always, helping to get at the essence of others at particular moments in time..not a cold machine or emotionless object. But I am so busy at ITP, I can't travel. My camera was restless. I thought: what if my camera could go on a journey alone and experience the world in its own unique way? I created Twinkle, a cute hand-made, programmable camera built with a Raspberry Pi. Twinkle travels the world, meets people, and invites them to help him document moments of life, both transient and enduring. Twinkle sends me photos of his journey and the moments he's encountered while I'm stuck at work. In this way, my camera becomes an extension of my vision once again.

Yuliya Parshina

A portable exhibit that gets kids ages 4 to 7 excited about geography and wildlife, through physical exploration of a giant world map.

http://www.whereanimalslive.com/

Description

Where Animals Live is a roaming experience that pops up in parks, playgrounds, schoolyards, and block parties, to bring delight and spark curiosity about the natural world.

Participants explore a 20 ' x 12 ' world map and use clues to help lost animals return home, while becoming familiar with continents, oceans, and habitats. Electronics embedded in the animals provide real-time feedback when the creature is placed correctly. Young explorers walk away with booklets about their favorite animals, which can be used for further learning online.

An accompanying website prepares kids for the adventure through practice exercises and encourages deeper learning after the in-person activity.

Zhenzhen Qi

FLOW is a biofeedback-based 3D Virtual Reality game. Employing a VR headset, wearable sensor, and interactive gaming design, it creates a journey, through self-reflection, to detach from the physicality surrounding us.

Description

FLOW's VR headset and breath sensor system temporarily transports a participant into an alternative virtual world in the hustle and bustle of city traffic, human voices talking, laughing, arguing. Gradually, as the participant’s breath starts to deepen, the city noises are replaced by a soothing binaural sound-wave. The entire city is slowly submerged under an endless ocean gently coming to shore. The opaque sky of stress is washed away by the mild glow of sunset. Through deepened breathing, the participant manifests his or her inner calmness into a virtual sanctuary sustained by wondrous aesthetic harmony.

Sanniti Pimpley

PrintO-Bot is an inkjet printer on wheels. This robot can print on almost any flat surface- no matter how large or what material it is made of. It is very cheap and you can even build it yourself!

Description

There's a lot of interest in the hobbyist & maker community regarding printing your own designs on a variety of materials for aesthetic purposes. The PrintO-Bot allows us to do this very easily on any reasonably flat surface- wood/stone/ fabric/PCB/ any floor.

The PrintO-Bot is essentially an inkjet printer hacked into, modified and put on wheels. The printer here has its nozzle on the bottom; we put the bot on the material on which we want to print and it starts printing while moving along the material. The bot moves to the next position after each print swath. Since the PrintO-Bot uses an existing printer, we send a print to it the same way as we send a print to our desk printers.

The PrintO-Bot is an open source initiative.

Hanbyul Jo

Dat(um)a is an art series that navigates the individual story within the scope of a big dataset.

Description

Data is getting bigger and bigger. An overview of the data gives a complete picture, but not the full story. 'Gentrification of New York City' is one example. My goal was to reveal the individual stories that make up the dataset–the datum within the data. First hand interviews about gentrification (the datum) were combined with income level change over 6 years (the data). The result is a series of sculptures that spotlights what is missing inside an averaged overview of data.