Lucas Chung

Shush? is an installation that reacts to the noise levels of a space. Comprising a series of sensor nodes that are outfitted with kinetic “bloom” structures, Shush? provides a visual representation of activity within an area.

Description

What happens when our surroundings are given the capacities once limited to our phones and computers? Will they then also strive to capture our attention for their own ends? Shush? is an installation that I hope will offer an alternative approach.

Shush?’s own objectives are agnostic. It instead will exist just beyond the foreground of a person’s attention. It lives above the user and reacts only to sound. When noise levels are elevated, the nearest bloom structures will close, and when it is quiet again, the bloom structures will open again.

Each bloom/sensor node is supported by a wifi enabled microcontroller that will send information to a remote server. Each node also will await instructions on whether it will open or close. This allows easy calibration and recalibration in order to observe user behaviors, eccentric spatial conditions, and other unknown factors that need to be accommodated.

Ultimately I hope to create an experience that shows that simple gestures can have a profound impact on our built environment while utilizing technologies that allow these interventions to be scalable, adaptable, and decentralized.

Classes

Thesis