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Soft Steen

Rachel Lim

A soft, small scale interactive reproduction of Jan Steen's painting, "As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young"

https://

Description

This project was inspired by Jan Steen's dynamic and humorous paintings and my desire to share my excitement about his works. The painting my project is referencing, “As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young”, depicts a family raucously celebrating a baby's baptism and is punctuated with moralizing symbols and gestures that imply Steen meant to warn the viewer rather than invite them to copy the family's behavior.
As a small (size of printer paper), simplified soft reproduction, I intended to have this serve as a gentle and friendly introduction to Steen's work and 17th century Dutch paintings, which are abundant in historical motifs and symbolism. It will not be an extremely detailed as I feel accuracy may feel intimidating or too reminiscent of actual artworks at a museum. I'd like to keep it loose (the fabrics in the video are rough outlines!) and simple to keep it playful and create a more inviting appearance.
The symbols in this particular painting (a dog, a hat, a pipe, and a pot), are removed and act almost like puzzle pieces, which the user must correctly place within the painting. Once it is placed, supplementary text and audio on an iPad next to it will explain it's significance and provide context. Its setup is intended to mimic the way artworks are hung at museums/galleries, which have the work and informative text next to it. When all the pieces are put together, the figure at the center of the painting will raise her wine goblet and congratulatory text will appear on the iPad screen to signify that the painting has been completed.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing

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Conducting Paintings

Chenyu Sun, Nianqi Zhang, Yunze Shi

Conducting the painting — an integrated interactive way to appreciate paintings

https://wp.nyu.edu/nianqi/2018/12/05/pcomp-finalworking-in-progress/

Description

In this project, we want to offer a different approach to appreciate landscape paintings.

We will create an sound interface for user to interact with a Chinese Landscape and an Landscape oil painting through the baton.

The baton will trigger the sound reflecting the elements in the paintings. Also the music will change based on the movement of the baton.

On the music shelf, users will be able to choose between 2 pages of music notes. When page selected, users will be able to interact with the painting which the page reflected.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing

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Visual Mode

Alden Jones, Beverly Chou, Ellen Nickles, Ridwan Madon

You be the VJ! (with a twist)

http://bit.ly/visualmode

Description

Dynamically drive screen content for ITP Winter Show attendees. You have two visual modes at your disposal: GIFs and Abstract Shapes. But how can you take control when everyone has access to the controller?

Classes

Understanding Networks

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Sit, Please

Carol Chen, Zhe Wang

When you sit in a chair, does the chair fit you, or do you conform to the chair?

https://

Description

This project inverts your relationship with a chair, and invites you to invent new ways to interact with a chair. In trying to “please” the chair by sitting in a way that conforms to its own rules, we lose control of our own bodies. The chair shapes our body, instead of serving our body. On top that, we want the participants to get silly, awkward, and be entertained by their weird poses and the absurdity of this inverted relationship.

The interaction starts when participants see this chair waving its two hands from a distance. They come close and learn that they can only make it quiet and obedient like a normal chair by sitting on it and conforming to its own rules. The participant needs to cover the flashing spots on the chair, but at the same time avoid the non-flashing spots. The arrangement of the flashing and non-flashing spots is contradicting the natural human sitting pose, and forces people to twist their bodies, stretch their limbs, and completely lose control of their own body to make the chair quiet. Once they finally made the chair happy, it's quite satisfying, but after a few seconds it will change its rules and require you to sit by a new set of rules.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing, Introduction to Physical Computing

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Jane

Ming Pu Shao, Ada Jiang, Wannapa Pokakunkanon

An interactive and immersive sound experience of a future therapy program guided by artificial intelligence, Jane

https://editor.p5js.org/ada10086/sketches/HyQ0lEOyE

Description

Jane is a future AI therapy program. It has largely improved the emotional states of the population. However, through learning human emotions during sessions, Jane has encountered some issues with certain people who do not respond positively to the program. As Jane is programmed to help people rid of negative emotions, she developed a highly advanced technology that will put them into an eternal slumber and their minds will be uploaded to a world where they will live a perfect life where everything will be just as they want them to be. Everything in this new world, their sole purpose of existing is to make them happy.
Interaction: User signs waiver before the session. During the session, user will face the decision of whether to have his “mind uploaded” to the perfect world, or to shut down the program using the emergency deactivation instruction provided. Depending on which path the user takes, Jane will produce different results.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing

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The Body Pillow

Jacquelyn Liu

The Body Pillow is a speculative design that explores how can an object made out of synthetic human skin can fulfill our emotional and physical needs for human touch.

https://tissu.tech/

Description

The Body Pillow is a speculative product design set in a future where we can scalable and ethically create realistic, synthetic human skin. From the speculative fiction side, the project extrapolates on recent developments in 3D printing biological tissue, like human skin, and explores (as explained in the accompanying website: https://tissu.tech/) the potential for synthetic human skin to be incorporated into product design – specifically, as therapeutic objects that can satisfy the innate, but often overlooked, need for human touch.
The concept of the pillow builds off of studies in psychology that suggest the materiality of skin-to-skin touch, i.e., warmth, softness, and the detailed texture of skin, are key for evoking the benefits of touch, like release of oxytocin, relief from stress and depression, and forming secure social bonds.
From the physical side, the Body Pillow exists as a tangible, interactive object to help an audience imagine how the speculative product can be used in day-to-day life. The pillow is covered in “synthetic human skin” (for this prototype, peach-colored latex sheeting) and uses subtle light, heat, and vibration cues to induce feelings of an actual touch interaction between the pillow and the user.

Classes

Citizen Science: Biotechnology, Citizen Science: Biotechnology, Introduction to Physical Computing

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Constant Lineation

Casey Conchinha, Mark Lam

Exploring how a simple line can be individually expressive while also acting as a segment of a communal artifact.

https://communalline.markofthelam.com/spiral-control.html

Description

Sparked by the surrealist art game exquisite corpse and the rule based drawings by Sol Lewitt, this project to explore how individuals can make something as minimal as a line while allowing for individual expression. This project uses digital tools to create a primal experience for those inside the installation and the audience outside.

This project explores how individuals are able to draw a line with tight constraints. When a line is completed it is joined with the previously drawn lines into a gestalt communal artifact that represents a history of all those who have drawn before. The shrouded environment creates a hyper-personal ritual for drawing a line but creates a collective experience. The mathematical concept behind the project considers properties of a continuous line that grows with user input.

Constant Lineation asks how a person can contribute to history given tight constraints.

// Technical aspects

Sofware: This project uses P5.JS drawing tools to save vertices to Google Firebase. Drawers are able to draw a line to connect two points on a canvas using their fingers or a vocal input. Their individual line is appended to the community line which spirals around the installation environment and ambient music notes are generated from the line data. The output resembles a constellation which is further pushed by the physical components.

Physical: The physical installation creates a cave like environment consisting of a 2.5 ft x 2.5 ft x 5 ft shrouded structure which has a spiral line projected on the top and sides of the enclosure. The material is translucent allowing for double sided projections so both the drawer and passerbys to view the drawing. Inside the structure is a tablet for people to draw a line via touch interface or audio recording and speakers to play back sounds generated from line data.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, Introduction to Physical Computing, Socially Engaged Art and Digital Practice

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Feeling in the Time

Khensu-Ra Love El, Raaziq Brown

America is going through a chaotic time, we want to know how YOU feel about it?

https://github.com/raaziqmasud/Feeling-in-the-Time/tree/master/FITT_Final%202

Description

America is in a strange place. Day-by-day it feels like we are falling further and further into a dark hole. Since Khensu-Ra and Raaziq have started their tenure at ITP, the media has consistently covered devastating events on a national level. This coverage is happening at such a consistent rate that negativity, catastrophe, and poor country leadership is becoming normalized. In this project, we plan on presenting the participant with audio clips of current events of the past 4 months and logging their emotional response of said events. We will then force the participant to consider their role and action in regards to the current social, cultural, and political climates of the U.S.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, 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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Creaturely Life

Noah Pivnick

Creaturely Life explores the winding of yarn as a tactile, tangible interface for reading electronic text.

https://creaturely-life.art

Description

Creaturely Life takes it's name from a collection of poems by Michael Joyce, written in stream of consciousness from the perspective of a woman keeping vigil over her dying husband. The final poem in the series recounts having found solace in knitting beside her husband’s deathbed.

Turning the crank of a ball winder, the poems unfold at first in fragments on a screen as a length of yarn (the poem as object) passes through the user's fingers. The poem fragments run their course and the poem is revealed in it's entirety only once the ball of yarn runs out.

Winding yarn with a ball winder is an intrinsically satisfying interaction. The crank evokes the passage of time. The wobble of the spool, spinning off-axis, conjures visions of an orrery, the cycle of life, and what it means to be immaterial.

An interface emblematic of knitting is befitting a collection of poems about death and dying. The last of the yarn slips swiftly through the user's fingers as the original ball of yarn disappears, reconstituted in identical form on the winder’s spindle. Cycles within cycles, as in life.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing