CERAMIC STORIES [Digital Connection]
Ceramic Stories [digital connections] is an interactive exhibition project designed for the Australian Design Centre.
It investigates how animation and digital technology may enhance audiences’ interactions with contemporary ceramic work.
I worked with ceramic artists Sebastian Conti and Casey Chen to create and construct two interactive experiences that turned tangible ceramic artefacts into responsive imaginative story worlds.
Visitors were encouraged to connect with ceramics in more than just viewing; to play, to gaze closely, to imagine, using touch-sensitive interfaces, generative animation and augmented reality.
Drawing on my research interest in Expanded animation, Computational media and interactive storytelling, the work examines how digital media may serve as a bridge between material objects and audience experience.
The digital interventions were not layers of explanation, but were aimed to disclose hidden tales, enhance tactile interaction and make meaningful connections between people, things and stories in the gallery space.
Technologies in use: Capacitive touch sensor, microcontroller, MAX/MSP, Augmented Reality
This was presented at the Expanded 2024 Conference(Ars Electronica), Linz, Austria.
INDEED
Indeed is a screen-based interactive installation that explores the ideas of self, metamorphosis and social connection through real-time mirrored reflection. The real-time video sequence of a primary viewer via kinect to a floating 3D sack (balloon) on the screen. To make it float and shaped, a viewer needs to blow via the provided blower which is wirelessly connected to screen. When a spectator stop breathing into the sack, it will be flattern and fallen down to the bottom of screen. So the breath of a viewer brings the balloon with the reflection of self to life as a dynamic digital mirror that responds immediately to the breath of the spectator. The spectator’s picture is continually transformed as they breathe into the sensing device designed for the project, displaying the subtle yet profound ways our internal emotions impact our view of ourselves. Also the presence of others, outside the own experience, is indeed. The main spectator’s reflection may be affected by up to five surrounding participants, whose hand gesture (grab - pull - release) are sensed by a Kinect 2 sensor. Grabbing, pulling and releasing actions modify the image in the mirror in real time, so creating a shared environment where identity is not individually controlled, but jointly negotiated. With this piece I wanted to produce a lyrical meditation on ephemerality of self and the ways in which we are always in a process of becoming through our own choices (and desire) and societal interactions. The project asks the audience to reflect on how change arises from inside us and via our engagement with others. The exhibit is technically constructed with openFrameworks with a unique breath sensing interface and Kinect 2 motion tracking to enable multi-user responsive engagement. Indeed was projected on the 15-metre Media Art Nexus screen at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, where its large-scale immersive projection accentuated the intimate conversation between the individual, the communal and the ever-evolving digital self. Apart from NTU, this piece was also presented in ISEA, QUT The Cube and many other places in Australia.
MANY EYES IN WILD - 360 VIDEO PROJECT IN AMAZON, PERU
Immersive environments, and particularly Virtual Reality (VR), are providing exciting new ways of seeing our world. One challenge is the effective application of this technology to solve large scale problems, and make this world a better place. Here in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), we combine visual and statistical capabilities to make that change happen. We use VR to elicit information from "virtual scientists" (VS) and hence facilitate "VR-VS science". In late October, we sent our team of scientists to the Amazon in Peru, to capture data using various stereo cameras, 360-degree cameras, and ambisonic surround sound recorders. Having such recordings, we can now bring the forest to the international community of experts through VR interfaces, and elicit information to gain insight into scientific problems of interest, which in our case is to map the presence of jaguars throughout the Peruvian Amazon. The project effectively links together science and statistical modelling with visualization, 360-degree film, and VR. For more information please visit http://vis.stats.technology.