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Above the Cloud

Mingna Li, Yuanyuan Wang

A magical instance to connect with outer-space creature (alien).

https://

Description

This project is inspired by our interest in magic, and we want to create a scenario that human can communicate with the unknown. Through this installation, user can connect with creature-like objects through movement. In our human world, we talk in complex languages, but sometimes, unspoken language can pull our hearts even closer, such as a smile, a hug, or a moment together. This installation is intended to recreate that beautiful connection between creatures.

User wears a simple finger glove, which is an alien communication device. Then, user lies down on a cloud (a cushion that looks like cloud). There will be about 10 aliens above user mounted on a frame. When user points his/her finger to aliens, aliens will come down to user. When users points away, aliens slowly retract.

We will use IR sensor to detect whether the user is pointing at aliens. User is wearing IR emitter on the alien communication device, and aliens have IR receivers in them. Aliens are controlled by stepper motors. Pulley is attached to the stepper. When user and alien make connection, stepper releases wires and aliens move down. When the connection is lost, stepper reverses, and aliens will move back to their home.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing, Introduction to Physical Computing

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Cosmic Harp

Sid Chou, Louise Lessel

Inspired by an armillary sphere, the two concentric circles make up the laser harp instrument and allows the user to play sound decided by satellite data.

http://www.louiselessel.com

Description

The Cosmic Harp is an instrument that allows the user to play abstractions of satellite data. The harp is designed with inspiration the Armillary sphere used in astrology in the 16th century.

Designed as a futuristic-looking midi instrument, and using lasers instead of strings, the harp plays with notions of the new and the old. It is equipped with an accelerometer to measure the rotation of the user’s interaction with the instrument, and thus inspires a new investigation of how to play a harp.

The inner circle rotates and creates patterns in the sound when swung around. The outer circle allows the user to play more traditional harp strings.

By Louise Lessél and Sid Chou

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing

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Tinkle

Shu-Ju Lin, Suzanne Li

Installation of a toilet that emotes.

https://medium.com/@sl7211/winter-show-2018-b658bee02a2e

Description

It is not enough just to disconnect. What is needed is more reflection in spaces we inhabit every day such as the most frequented: the bathroom. The incongruity between form (toilet) and content (toilet narrating) can be light-hearted wit, and potentially be a catalyst for thinking. The experience of our reformed toilet experience will elicit intimate and curious thoughts in participants.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing

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IMERSA

Marcela Mancino von der Osten

We are so grateful for being together here, but still, it was never this hard to connect. Every word has a thousand unspoken words behind them. We look into each other's eyes and we see the infinity that separates us. We try to find a way to reach each other, but we get lost in the moving topography. It is frightening, but its colors and textures are so fascinating that we just let go. We give up the words. We stare into our shared infinity, we dive.

https://https://mardefronteira.wordpress.com/2018/11/11/final-project-proposal/

Description

We are so grateful for being together here, but still, it was never this hard to connect. Every word has a thousand unspoken words behind them. We look into each other's eyes and we see the infinity that separates us. We try to find a way to reach each other, but we get lost in the moving topography. It is frightening, but its colors and textures are so fascinating that we just let go. We give up the words. We stare into our shared infinity, we dive.

IMERSA is an interactive sculpture that explores the implications of my experience in reterritorializing in the USA, specially considering the political situation that I have left behind in Brazil and how hard it is to create empathy in people for things that are so far from their realities. No matter how much we all try, there is something that gets lost in our living experiences and will never go through.

This piece relates to that by asking the user to dedicate attention, patience and intimacy for the experience to happen, but making it so long that no one would wait for the whole experience to happen. The sculpture – consisting of crystal strings, mirrors, light and sound – is only activated when it tracks a single person looking at it. While the person is there, the piece builds itself up slowly, using motors to bring the strings into a physical sculpture which receives increasing amounts of movement through light and sound. If another person is tracked, the system pauses, leaving the sculpture in the same place as it was. If the person leaves, the sculpture immediately resets, bringing the crystals to fall down, and the lights and sound to be turned off.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing

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Smile, Please

Chenshan Gao, Winnie Yoe

“Smile, Please”, a speculative and dystopian system that assesses your facial expression, shocks you, and prints out a photo and grading record to train you for a perfect smile.

https://chenshangao.squarespace.com/smile-please/

Description

According to UK innovation foundation Nesta, the prevalence of AI in emotion prediction is one of the predicted trends in innovation in 2018. Companies such as Affectiva and Beyond Verbal already own huge deposit of emotion database around the world. The Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal proves the danger and impact of “psychological warfares” in tech. In the near future, as our emotion becomes an asset that is trackable and predictable, would it also be controllable and “hackable”?

Against this background, we created “Smile, Please”, a system that detects smiles and uses a thermal printer to tell users if their smile is “good” enough or not while also using electrodes to shock the person if their smile was not “good” enough. In addition, users will be given “The Manual of Smile Etiquette” after each experience. The project is a response to the prevalence of emotion AI and current coercive societal forces that manipulate our emotions. This project combines concepts from Physical Computing and Design for Discomfort (e.g. creating and closing the magic circle, use of visceral effect and taboo). Through an extreme approach, dark humor and by creating visceral discomfort, with mechanism referencing to Palvov’s classical conditioning and the Milgram experiment, we hoped to shock our audience in thinking about the implications and ownership of our emotions in the current societal and technological landscape.

*Considering the ethics of this project, we will be following IRB’s guidelines and referencing other artists who have used TENS unit/electric shock in their work.

Classes

Design for Discomfort, Introduction to Physical Computing

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Islands of Sound

Kexin Lin, Shijie Zhang

An interactive interface where users can compose their own ambient sounds.

https://www.s-j-zhang.com/islands-of-sound

Description

We aim to play with the sound of neglected daily objects, to explore the possibility of combining natural and electric synthesized sound, and to inspire people to find the neglected beauty in daily life. When we were considering what can help connect human mind and the physical world in an intuitive way, we started to think about texture, graphics and sounds. In this case, we tended to design an experience that can provoke human sense of touch, sight and hearing. In order to reintroduce those amazing combination, we chose stone, metal, wood, acrylic and fabrics, which are common natural or artificial materials that compose our living environment, as our design elements. When objects on the interface are touched, sounds and projected graphics reflecting their properties will be generated.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, Introduction to Physical Computing

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Gilad’s Box

Gilad Dor

A fully immersive light sculpture, with a unique sensory experience for the person inside in this solitary space, giving them a different perspective to the things going on around them.

https://

Description

The Box is a fully immersive light sculpture, with a unique sensory experience for the person inside this solitary space, giving them a different perspective to the things going on around them.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing