Good Vibrations

Barak Chamo, Jenna Xu

Enter the mind of a monk in our pan-sensory brain entrainment dome.

http://www.xujenna.com/itp_blog/category/sem-1-finals/

Description

Meditation requires years of practice to be fruitful, but entrainment may be a shortcut to less stress. Our dome is an immersion into in a four-minute, pan-sensory experience that we hope will reproduce the brain activity found in advanced meditation practitioners. Users wear a headset that measures their brain activity during the session, so they will be able to see how the experience affected their brainwaves afterwards.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing

Everyday Windows

Ilana Pecis Bonder, Nicolás Peña-Escarpentier

A set VR experiences to reflect on the sociopolitical aspects of everyday sexism

https://github.com/nicolaspe/everyday_windows

Description

Sexism, harassment, abuse… They all have been historically regarded as personal issues, relegating them from the public discussion, and diverting attention of their status as sociopolitical systemic problems. We want to show what happens behind the doors (or windows, in this case), what women go through and how society as a whole contributes to the expansion of these issues.

Guided by the prompt “touch a window and use me to explore the stories behind” under a VR Cardboard, users select a window -lined with conductive fabric and wired with a capacitive sensor- which lights up the room showing the shadows of the characters inside. Then, the specific scene loads in the VR headset, so the users can immerse themselves in the daily experience the character goes through.

Classes

Intro to Fabrication, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, Introduction to Physical Computing

The Traffic Jam

Alejandro Sanin

A routine disruptive sound performance with sounds from cars and traffic!

http://www.nicosanin.co/blog/

Description

The traffic Jam is a new project that came to life when Physical Computing class allowed different interests to join into this newborn Project. The bad traffic of my hometown Bogota, how that affects us all in a very negative way, and the love for sound and music joined to make room for a playful experimental experience. It pretends to raise awareness of our challenges regarding the transport technologies, our way of inhabiting the big cities and also about the paradox between sound as noise or as a beautiful element. The idea is that this instrument or toy, can be played by anybody and will also allow enough room to create interesting sound pieces ranging from very peaceful to stressing noisy one’s. Different car sounds can be played at the same time creating a soundscape that is always changing, as the notes in a Jazz jam session. There are different possibilities to play with this idea and the exhibition space. People could use the instrument. The experience would be customizable to the available space.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing

Project Wings

Chengtao Yi, Meicheng Jia

Our project is a physical wing that let users wear and experience the 'flying' movement in the space.

https://meichengjiablog.wordpress.com/2017/12/06/final-project/

Description

This project is a 'Space Flying Simulator' created by Meicheng Jia and Chengtao Yi that can enable users to navigate through a virtual space. The simulator will be a physical 'wing backpack' that let users wear and experience the 'flying' movement using the accelerometer and gyroscope. The whole experience is accompanied with a space ambient music to let the user meditate while gliding through the virtual galaxy.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing

The Lingo Gizmo

Elizabeth Ferguson

Invent original words with the Lingo Gizmo, a fabricated mouth, teeth and tongue. Contribute to a growing new language. Listen back to new words created by the people around you.

http://www.itpblogelizabethferguson.com/2017/11/06/class-10-intro-to-phys-comp-final-proposal-meaning-maker-by-the-mouthful-or-tbd-new-name/

Description

This project lets people:

-Build culture by creating new words that a loose group might use together.

-Have fun making strange words by using one’s hands.

-Be challenged to think of a meaning, feeling or situation that doesn’t have a word yet.

-Enjoy seeing what other words people have invented, and listen to those people pronounce them.

-Learn a little about other people based on the definitions they created, by looking through a little window into what’s on that person’s mind.

-Possibly start using newly invented words in daily life!?

-Less likely, but some people might stop to think about how the mouth forms words, which is what inspires the physical interaction model of the project (by which I mean whether words are made primarily with the tongue, teeth or mouth without the tongue or teeth. People will probably not figure this out and that’s OK.

-If someone is going deep, they might consider whether their native or second or third language allows for a full expression of how they’re feeling on the inside, and give people some agency to think of language (and therefore their world-view?) as not fixed and instead something they can change.

-If people are especially theoretical or grounded in linguistics… they might think about how the actual physical feeling of words in one’s mouth may intentionally map onto the intended meaning of words.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, Intro to Fabrication

Private Beach

Jillian Zhong

Installation exploring intersections of private vs. public spaces and individual experiences within a collective experience.

http://blog.jzhong.today/pcomp/Intro-to-PComp-Midterm/

Description

The piece consists of a video projection and a seashell object. When a user picks up the shell, they had place it to their ear and hear music. This action also triggers the accompanying video projection to become visible. When the shell is placed faced down on the table, music and video ceases. There are 2 different musical experiences in the piece that alternate when the shell is placed down.
This was completed for my pcomp midterm. Read blog post for more information. For the show iteration, I would like to project the video on the surface the shell is placed on and on the wall behind it. As well as contruct a more polished enclosure.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing

Transmotion

Barak Chamo

Transmotion is an experiment in capturing the essence of meaning and emotion. A narrator and mechanical performer that capture the beauty of poetry in motion.

https://barakchamo.com

Description

Transmotion is an attempt to capture the emotion and beauty of poetry and translate it, by means of mechanical interpretation and conversion, into machine performance. The apparatus is seeded with human input, beautiful pieces of poetry, and I want to know wether it is capable of evoking the same sense of expression and emotion.

The selected poems are processed through sentiment analysis to extract the affective score of parts of the text. It is then read by a mechanical text-to-speech synthesizer and sent, word-by-word, to the robotic performer. The performer receives each word in time and interprets it into 3-axial movement.

Is there a connection between the text and the motion, between the poet's intention and the machine interpretation, and are performative automata capable of capturing and conveying human emotion?

Classes

Designing for Digital Fabrication, Introduction to Physical Computing

THE WALL

Dongphil Yoo

Draw your graffiti digitally and virtually on the wall with playful interactions

https://

Description

Digital Graffiti works on fully wireless and web-based system. Users can draw own graffiti with a device that tangible and has interactive functions: color picker, motion detection. Since the project runs on the web, it is scalable, collaborative. For example, it can be combined with google map API and be generated by several devices in remote places simultaneously. So, users make some visual images in digital space, but the place that exists in real world. This kind of interaction could be done as a participatory social activity, and playful viral movement as well.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing

Heart Sync

Ellen Nickles

Visualize your heartbeats and see if you can sync them with others!

https://ellennickles.com/itpblog?category=Physical%20Computing

Description

Heart Sync visualizes the heartbeats of two people and encourages them to match their heart rates. Participants may also adjust the color of their pulse information to co-create the shared color field between them. Depending on their moods or personalities, it's either a calming, meditative moment or a playful, competitive game for two. All ages welcome.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing