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Hypnagogia

Lihan Bao

Alternative storytelling using video mapping and AR

https://

Description

This installation is about alternative storytelling—the viewers experience different stories as they change their way of perception, namely reality and augmented reality. Inspired by the Chinese folklore “Butterfly Dream”, where the author Zhuang Zi dreams of being a butterfly so veritably that he questions whether he is the person dreaming of a butterfly or the butterfly dreaming of a person, this project centers around the nuances of dream and reality.

As the spectators approach the installation, a rather sizable, tall white box, they see the first layer and story, a figure walking across the four lateral sides of the box, enabled by video mapping. At the top, the printed original text of the butterfly story in multiple languages are wrapped around the box. Then, as the audience looks at the work using an AR equipment, they see the second layer and story through the electronic screen, in which an AR butterfly flies around the installation blocked by an AR white box of the same size. By its physical appearance, the viewers experience the person projected upon the box, and by the AR recreation, an animated butterfly moves away from the 2-dimensional display and presents an alternative story.

Despite of the simplicity of the stories—a walking primate and a flying lepidoptera—the installation provides its audience with significant blank space to contemplate and make personal, individual interpretations. The superimposed texts provide the context of the story and function as a reminder of the association between dream and reality. This installation aims to encourage the viewers to rethink the definition of dream in not only its psychological sense but also the philosophical one. What does it mean to dream? How is it different from reality? What is reality? The purpose of this installation ultimately lies in the stimulation of thoughts.

Classes

Comm Lab: Hypercinema

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The Pilgrim

Chunyi Yang

A screen-based game about the life of a faithful pilgrim.

https://github.com/EEEEEV/The-Pilgrim

Description

In the game, the players control a micro creature to move around and gather bricks. The bricks are used to build a tower, which is for these faithful creatures to reach their sovereign patron saint. The protector, or the “god,” protect the creatures from brightness, which can kill them. Players will loose health point if exposed under light, but will get healed around the tower. As players gather more bricks, the tower will become taller, thus enlarging the vision and the map. Players also get to meet more creatures dancing around the tower, worshipping the god. Some characters share stories of the god. Players may feel frustrated due to the difficulty and boredom of collecting bricks, but their sense of mission may grow as they receive stronger gratitude and adoration from other creatures, for that their dream is about to come true. As the tower is finally tall enough for them to reach their god, players have a chance to see who the god is, and what happens at last.

Classes

Comm Lab: Hypercinema, Creative Computing

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Celestial Scars

Runqi Zhou

It is an interactive artwork involves with experimental animation/videos projected on the screen.

https://youtu.be/tEgdUVo4Ftw

Description

This work is inspired by the cases involved with murders and my study of the trauma experience of female this semester. The experimental videos are created based on the emotional stimulus and empathy I feel from the sources. I create the scenes with both inspirations from the murderers and the victims, and my goal is to aestheticizing the events or to revive a kind of beauty from the cult or underground culture. The first part is simulating the start of a crime in an abstract way, emphasizing the emotional change before someone became a sinner. The second part is an abstract representation of the events applying collages of female figures and borrows the indication of omen from film Carrie to express the catastrophe happens on female. The body parts will transform into celestial planets and introduce the last part out. I’m making a mock interactivity for the last part, in which when the audience’s shadow touches the female body the body will be fragmented. In this part I want to guide the audience into the traumatized world of the victims by letting them “murder” and “fragment” the body, seeing how the traumatizing experience is formed under their influences. This work should be projected on an isolated screen in an environment where the audience could concentrate on the content. The interactivity is mocked so far but I’d like to improve it in the future and it might be showed in public for the passers-by to experience it. I hope this work could arouse attentions of the mental condition of victims who experience trauma after violence.

Classes

Comm Lab: Hypercinema

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Autovendor

Sydney Hu

Snacks n more!

https://autovendor.glitch.me

Description

This project is inspired by the vending machines on the ITP floor that don't work sometimes. We started by creating a sarcasm about the vending machine doesn't give out food but consume the food itself. Then we started to think other possible meaning behind this work. We all have times struggling with out projects in the studio, and sometimes we would go to the vending machine to gain some energy or rewards. Other thank snacks and relaxation, we though about what else we might need. Come laugh out the stress and cheer yourself up!

Classes

Comm Lab: Hypercinema

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Spherror

Julia Fernandez

An playful, yet unconventional mirror commenting on the absurdity of reality.

https://jftech-art.com/f/an-unconventional-mirror

Description

In our project, we invite visitors to take a seat in a chair and look at themselves in our unconventional mirror. The “mirror” is 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide and was created with 20 polystyrene spheres fixed to wooden dowels. The dowels are attached to a hollow base that conceals the power source and any wiring, including the wiring for the webcam. Across from the mirror is a chair for visitors to sit and gaze at themselves, positioned in a way that mimics a traditional vanity mirror. A projector will be fixed from the ceiling and at the bottom of the chair for full projection mapping coverage of the spheres. Since it is projection mapping, we would like to request a darker room. When a visitor is seated in the chair, PoseNet will detect specific facial features (eyes, nose, mouth) isolate them, and assign them to a sphere in the p5.js sketch. We then take the p5 sketch into MadMapper and projection map each circle onto our physical spheres. In the p5 sketch, the isolated features will jump around to different positions, which in turn will jump around from sphere to sphere via projection mapping. When there is no human present, the p5 sketch will display a TV noise animation.

The project is a commentary on the absurdity of reality. By dissecting your facial features, it is easier to see how strange we look and how much stranger we look when our eye or our nose is isolated. The project is playful because it is a fun interactive installation that anyone can use, but it is also uncanny and even uncomfortable because it dissects, exposes, and magnifies your face. Though people love looking at themselves, how will they feel when their faces are distorted in such a way?

Classes

Comm Lab: Hypercinema, Creative Computing

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AR Flooded City

Timmy Zhou

A compact AR installation of a coastal city showing the effects of our rising oceans, and what cities can do about the issue.

https://

Description

The city will be displayed on an area of 16″ x 18″. Users will have access to 13 Marker tiles (9 of which will be double sided) that come together to show the city. 9 Markers make up Scene 1, which is the city in the present day. Flip those over and Scene 2 will display, showing more than half of the city has been flooded and there has been a hasty seawall erected to try and save the rest of the city. Users can then clear those tiles away and use the remaining 4 markers to show the city before it was flooded, but now with various flood infrastructure in place. (Flood protection ideas inspired by BIG's Big U proposal for NYC).

Classes

Comm Lab: Hypercinema