There are 9 posts filed in Interactive Spaces (this is page 1 of 1).
1 Light
Suspended in mid-air
10 Lights
Placed in the 8 corners of the room as well as on the floor and ceiling
100 Light
Placed covering 1 adjacent floor and ceiling, to create an extremely bright illuminating corner of the room
Pavillion
Since Singaporeans are infamous for their love of queueing for things, for the pavillion it could be a performance art of sorts with regular everyday Singaporeans placed in a long queue which would continue for a comically long distance!
Elastic Heart (Screen)
In this music video by Sia which features Shia Lebeouf and dancer Maddie Ziegler, the entire video takes place in a single space which is a large cage pictured above.
While it might seem simple, a space like this can hold a lot of power. For me when I first saw the music video years ago I was blown away by how the dancers had made use of this minimal bare space and turned it into so much more than just a song and dance.
In this case, the connotations behind the cage are that of trapped birds/animals and this is fitting because in the video, the dancers are interacting with one another in a manner that appears to be raw and feral, similar to how wild animals would interact.
Since this is a screen based space, what is important is also the angle of the camera and how the cinematographer chooses to capture the space. In a way, the cameraman is the person who is controlling how we navigate through this space. Hence the use of camera angle is interesting as well in Elastic Heart because at many times, the camera appears to be capturing the image from outside of the cage peering in through the bars.
The symbolism behind the cage is even more apparent later on in the video as the younger female dancer realises she is able to leave between the bars of the cage and attempts to help the other dancer escape frantically, almost as if the space is symbolic of his inability to escape what confines him despite the efforts of those around him.
This space has really got me thinking about what it means to make a space effective in the context of screen-based performance art. A minimal space like this, with just some metal bars forming the shape of a large cage, can be very effective in communicating to the viewers any subliminal messages behind the performance itself.
Hansel and Gretel (Physical)
The main installation space for Hansel and Gretel by Ai Weiwei and Herzog & de Meuron is a huge empty space that is populated by images formed through overhead projection onto the floors. This is striking to me as it is rare that video content is projected on the floor instead of on walls and it really gives an illusion of more depth and more crowdedness in the room.
Since taking Kristy’s projection mapping class this semester, I am really interested in how projection or projection mapping can really change a bare space and turn it into something otherworldly and strange. Hansel and Gretel is a good example of such a space. The room is dark which adds to the ominous and dangerous feel of the installation, and allows for effective projection.
In this installation, something interesting is that drones are used to fly around the space which serves several purposes. The first is to collect footage of participants of the installation, which is then fed back to the projectors and projected onto the participants themselves with red boxes drawn on different body parts to mimic CCTV cameras and facial recognition. In this way, participants are encouraged to interact with the space because of what is projected on it.
Secondly, the drones also serve the purpose of creating a soundscape in the space which I thought was super interesting and authentic way of feeding a soundscape into a space, using the actual items rather than recordings played through speakers. The attention to sound in this space also reminds us that a space is not just about the objects or architecture in it but also the sensorial elements which turn the space from just a mere place into an experience.
Cardboard Kingdom
by Bridgel, Chloe, Mavis and Viena
About the artwork
Cardboard Kingdom is a recreation of the fascinations and perceptions one has about the world during childhood. When you’re small, everything around you just seems bigger, and a simple room could become a castle in your imagination. In this interactive installation, we have tapped into their memories from early childhood to recreate an innocence and simplicity that could only be possessed by a child.
Reminiscing on our childhood days where we were content with playing with the simplest of materials in the smallest of spaces, we have created a child’s playhouse simply using recycled materials incorporated with interactive digital elements. Cardboard Kingdom aims to gift participants something that is rare in today’s world: a little bit of pure childhood fun, reminding us that happiness can be found in the simplest of things.
Digital Project Planning
Since we had already crafted all of our furniture and household appliances during the analog phase of our project, for this next phase we were able to focus solely on coding and digital interactivity.
Knowing that we already had a lot of tactile and scent components from our analog project, we decided to make it a multi-sensorial experience by adding visual and audio elements using lights, sounds, sensors and simple projection mapping. The feedback and observations from the analog project was also a gauge for us to decide which appliances/furniture worked and which didn’t, hence the choice was made to remove the toilet bowl and include a sofa for the living room instead.
Digital Project Process
Visual Appearance
4 large walls were created by sticking separate pieces of cardboard together. The walls were then placed together held up by pillars to create a makeshift “room”.
We decided to paint the entire house including walls and furniture white, to make it look a little more interesting as the colour of the raw cardboard is quite dark and looks a little too shabby! The walls and furniture were painted using house paint as we wanted to let participants draw on the objects using coloured chalk and the house paint would give the chalk a base to stick on.
Bathtub
In order to create a more “realistic” bathtub compared to the analog version, we decided to make the taps of the bathtub work by connecting them to potentiometers via Arduino, and these potentiometers controlled audio output (through the use of MAXMsp).
The potentiometers provide a range of values into Arduino, and MAXMsp receives these values from Arduino through serial 9600, and then used through MAXMsp we controlled the speed of the sound (water flowing). Similarly, we made use of this same concept to control the brightness of the LED strip that was placed in the bathtub, under the foam peanuts.
Sink
The sink used an identical Arduino code to the bathtub, using a potentiometer to control the speed of the audio that played on a loop.
Stove
For the stove, we wanted to incorporate the idea of what we did for the analog together with the digital idea, hence we decided on the use of pressure sensors. For analog, audience were able to “create their own recipe” with the use of vinegar and baking soda. In the digital aspect, they are now able to “cook” their recipe, as through the pressure sensors, when the pots are placed on the stoves, the led light strips are lit up to simulate fire – through the use of Arduino, FastLED.
Oven
For the digital version of the oven, we wanted to make something happen using the oven door as a trigger. Hence, we decided on using an infrared sensor to detect the distance of the door when closed to open. When the door opens, the distance increases and this triggers the LED strip within to shine a warm light – just like a real oven. When closed, the value falls and hence the light clears.
Television
With the television, compared to what we did for analog (puppets), the TV went into “no signal” and using Arduino servo motor, we decided to make it glitch a little everytime the button was pressed.
Projection Mapping
The projection mapping videos were illustrated by us and animated with After Effects. Using a projection mapping software called vpt8, we were able to map it onto specific areas that we wanted in the house rather than having to tilt and move the projector itself. Since we wanted it to be interactive, we decided to make the animation play only when someone has reacted to the object, through sensing motion. vpt8 is a MaxMSP-based software so we were able to use a MaxMSP patch with vpt8 that allowed us to connect a USB webcam to the laptop and map our areas from the webcam that we wanted to use to trigger the video so that when someone moves into that area, the software will play the animation.
vpt8
Final Outcomes, Video, Reflections
This project has been really fun to do and we are glad that we managed to do what we set out to do from the beginning, which was to create a life size dollhouse out of recyclable materials that would bring childlike fun and joy to participants.
One thing that was interesting was that we realised people seemed to have more fun playing with the analog aspects of the house (chalk, cooking) than with the digital aspects! I guess that’s the point of having an analog phase, to show us that analog works can bring joy and be successful too.
It has been a fulfilling semester working on Cardboard Kingdom for us, thanks again to everyone who came to see our work and to LP for all the guidance and help!
Cardboard Kingdom
by Bridgel, Chloe, Mavis and Viena
About the artwork
Cardboard Kingdom is a recreation of the fascinations and perceptions one has about the world during childhood. When you’re small, everything around you just seems bigger, and a simple room could become a castle in your imagination. In this interactive installation, we have tapped into their memories from early childhood to recreate an innocence and simplicity that could only be possessed by a child.
Reminiscing on our childhood days where we were content with playing with the simplest of materials in the smallest of spaces, we have created a child’s playhouse simply using recycled materials incorporated with interactive digital elements. Cardboard Kingdom aims to gift participants something that is rare in today’s world: a little bit of pure childhood fun, reminding us that happiness can be found in the simplest of things.
Conceptualisation
The idea for this project came about when one day, we just happened to be talking about our childhoods and what we liked to play with. We discovered that for some reason, many people as kids tend to be fascinated by small spaces like cardboard boxes and personally for me, it has been my childhood fantasy to create a huge structure out of cardboard and just crawl in it!
SERIES D (SQUARE TUBES), REPRODUCTION. Charlotte Posenenske, 1967/2015. Cardboard.
We also came across the above artwork while on a field trip to the National Gallery’s Minimalism exhibit, which gave us the idea that this childhood fantasy of ours could actually be turned into an actual artwork. To keep with the theme of childhood, we decided to recreate a life-sized interactive dollhouse out of cardboard!
Analog Project Conceptualisation
The first phase of the project was to create the analog version. Since we already knew that we would be using cardboard to create the objects for both the analog and digital versions, we decided to just create the things that we wanted to have for the final product and just add on the digital aspects after completing the analog ones.
We discussed and came up with a list of household furniture and appliances that we felt could be more interactive, both analog and digitally, as well as which rooms we wanted to have:
Kitchen
Living Room
Toilet
We created a mock-up sketch to plan out the functions of each component:
Analog Project Process
To start off, we created this miniature model of our project in order to picture how the final product looks and test the properties of our chosen material (cardboard)
Scent components
To make the analog project more immersive, we decided that in all the “rooms” we would have a scent component to it on top of having the cardboard structures.
Chloe hard at work (:
Using flour, food colouring and food colouring, we created a scented paste which we were able to harden to create certain objects in the house or coat over the cardboard structures to give off certain scents.
Kitchen
The main attraction of our “kitchen” is the kitchen sink, oven and washing machine! All the knobs and doors can be turned and toggled, and the oven contains a scented “pandan cake” which we made with our scented paste. The washing machine has a rotatable drum which the audience can open the door of to take things in and out, like a real washing machine.
Plastic toy foods
Vinegar mixed with food colouring for “cooking”
Scented “cupcakes” and toy eggs
We also purchased some plastic cooking toys because what’s a dollhouse without cooking toys? We wanted participants to play with our structures like they were children playing in a big doll house, so we also had some toy pots and pans and some baking soda so that they could mix it with the coloured vinegar to create chemical reactions and pretend that they were cooking!
The entire kitchen family!
Bathroom
Toilet bowl made using a wooden stool as a base that participants could sit on. We later added a flippable lid to the toilet bowl and created fake “poop” scented with plant fertiliser which was placed under the lid on the stool!
We attempted to make a round bathtub by bending and shaping different pieces of cardboard and taping them together, however it turned out to be really flimsy so we switched to a rectangular structure instead and added a turnable knob!
The tub was filled with foam packing peanuts so that participants could jump inside for tactile sensory play!
Living Room
We created a cardboard television with a hollow base, as well as some sock puppets, so that participants could put on their own puppet shows and watch them through the TV! We wanted to encourage them to be participative in our installation and to use the creativity and imagination that everyone has as a young child.
Coating the “leaves” with pandan scented paste
Puppet show for LP
There is also a fish tank which can be seen on the right side of the above photo, which has colour-coded fishes and sliders that participants can move around to make it appear like the fish are “swimming” in the tank.
Outcomes and Reflections
The analog project was really fun to do! Before doing this project we really didn’t realise how much we as interactive media artists rely purely on digital components to create interactivity in our works. The analog project really forces us to think about what really makes a work interactive. It’s not just about throwing on as many lights and cameras and sensors as we can, it’s about thinking how participants/audience will react to the pieces and the kind of reaction it evokes in them that’s more important.
Apart from that, looking back the analog project was really helpful to our digital project because it creates a basis from which we can build our digital components around. By reusing the same components from our analog project in our digital project, we were able to use the digital aspect as an enhancement to our analog pieces which were already interactive. The analog and digital components complement one another rather than relying too much on just one aspect, which is something that we as artists and creators should keep in mind especially in this day and age where we tend to be so focused on new technologies that we forget that physical forms and objects have an important role to play as well.
For this week’s in class assignment we were tasked to do a fake trade show campaign using 3 key words which were assigned to us! The words that me and Chloe were assigned were Scrunchie, Integrity and McDonalds.
So we came up with an ad campaign for McDonald’s which centres around showing that McDonald’s and its staff are a company with integrity. Many companies like to embody themselves with certain traits in order to seem more appealing to public, so we decided to do something similar with this! As for a scrunchie, all girls will know that a scrunchie is an item which we lose all the time and we don’t really think much of it as it’s mostly a functional object we use just to tie our hair. So, we went with the concept that McDonald’s employees have so much integrity that if you accidentally left something in their store they would return it to you, even if it’s just merely a scrunchie.
Mavis, Viena and I were unable to complete Experience 2 in time because our materials didn’t arrive in time so we will submit the final next week, but in the meantime this is our concept!
Our concept is based on the idea of truth. We decided to use fake apples as our object since the apple is a symbol of truth in the Bible (Adam and Eve seeing the truth about the world after eating the apple). We purchased 50 foam apples in bulk from the internet and are currently waiting for them to arrive!
The fake apple that we ordered haha
We have decided that we will be doing this in the form of an installation that engages the public. In each apple, we will be rolling up a small piece of paper which contains a “truth” about the world and placing it in a hole at the bottom of the apple. The apples will be hung from trees with fishing line in a public place, and a sticker will be placed on the apple saying “PICK ME” so that people know that they can pick and keep the apple and read the “truth” inside it.
That is it for now! Will update again next week when we have completed the project!
Moving & Static Images
Elastic Heart – Sia
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared
Physical Space
Ernesto Neto
Ai Weiwei – Hansel & Gretel
For this project, I am working with Chloe, Mavis and Viena. We decided to create a game as we feel that a game is the best way to engage people in artwork while making it fun at the same time. We decided to involve my pet frog Kwakwa in this exercise and make it a sort of feeding game where the audience tries to feed a worm to the frog!
In this game, the audience (2-4 people) is given a piece of plastic with a stick attached to each corner and holes in different spots on the plastic. A worm is then placed on the plastic and the 4 players must work together to get the worm into one of the holes and into the hole on top of the frog tank.
The game is pretty self explanatory after we tell them that they have to feed the worm to the frog, because certain parts of the experience will cue the audience into what they have to do for example having 4 sticks at each corner of the plastic indicates to them that they are supposed to hold each corner to play. One thing we noticed is that because this is a “game”, people tend to take the easy way out and just get the worm through the easiest hole which is the one in the middle. To rectify this maybe we could have done it in such a way that the holes further from the middle have more points to encourage the audience members to try out different ways of playing instead.
