Concept

Water is essential to life yet water pollution is one of the most serious threats that we face today. Water pollutions occurs when harmful substances contaminate and degrading water quality. This widespread problem not only jeopardise our health through contaminated water but also the marine life.

For my project, I would like to address the problem of water pollution and how it harms the marine life through a projection. The user will experience being in a submarine looking out of the window to have a closer view of what is happening underwater.

Storyline / Graphics

The big picture will be to portray a peaceful underwater scene at the start and slowly transiting into how pollution change the underwater environment. Playing around with the setting like adding a darker filter will also help to change the mood of the whole scene. I illustrated and animated the elements in the scene myself in illustrator and after effects. In addition, the sound track also plays an important role in transiting the scene as I want the second half of the animation to have an impactful change and also to change the mood of the audience.

SetUp

In order to allow the user to fully experience being underwater, I want the user to be able to go close to the window projection. Thus, having a rear projection is more ideal than placing the projector infront of the screen as the audience will not be blocking the projection.

Type of screen

Doing rear projection required the screen to be slightly translucent as to allow the projection to seep through on the other side, thus the type of screen is important. Using the material available in school, Kristy suggested that I could use the big white sheet of paper that is mounted onto a wooden frame. I tried rear projection on that screen and it works! Therefore, the next step is to think of the orientation/position of the screen and ways to mount the screen.

Orientation/Position of screen

I tried different orientation for the screen to get an understanding of how the audience will feel when standing infront of the screen. Having the projection too high or too low will not give the audience the experience of viewing through a window. Thus, I decided to make it eye level for the audience to have a comfortable view and also the experience of being in a space.

For my final set up, I will be using 2 c stands to support the screen where I can easily adjust the screen to the level that I want.

Final setup

Final Outcome

Further enhancement

Playing around with the space, I want the audience to feel that they are really inside another space in this case a submarine. However due to the size of the room, the audience won’t be able to have the full experience of being in another space. Also, due to the size of the screen not being able to  fully covering the whole room, it will also affects the whole experience.

Thus, working around with the space and changing/adding of projector can also helps create the immersive experience.

Inspirations

Digital Media Design Exhibition 2016
Artwork by Hiroyoshi Asano

Hiroyoshi Asano projected images on the wall and floor surfaces and reproduced “the edge of waves”. He uses actual waves shot of a few beach along with pleasing sounds of the waves coming back and forth. The whole setup give the audience a refreshing feeling of the sea while being indoors.

I feel that being able to bring an outdoor experience to indoor is really amazing where the audience can feel like they are in the actual space. Thus, playing with the space and the way he place the projector is also important factors here in order to achieve this outcome. Having to think of how the audience is able to interact with the projection itself is also a factor to consider.

Digital art museum L’Atelier des Lumières

The new digital exhibition immerses visitors in the painting of Vincent van Gogh. His paintings have been transformed and projected on all the surface of the Atelier. Using art and music technology, it bring the paintings to life and giving visitors an immersive experience.

Having the whole area projected with visuals definitely allows the visitors to feel like they are transported into a different space. However the thinking process must be difficult as to where the projector should be placed. Also having to project on the floors will creates shadow as visitors step into the space, but I don’t really see much shadows from the images found online thus I’m really interested to find out how the whole process works. In addition, I feel that they make good use of the sound to enhance the visitors experience as sound is important in an immersive space.