repetition can be a bummer. the same route to work every day, the same dinner as last week, the same forced small talk. i want you to ask yourself, isn't it great?

 

we were tasked to find a shape in motion we're interested in and let that bloom into an interactive installation. i started off with the movement of a book of filter papers being flipped inside out. it's just a piece of paper, then another, then another, then another and so forth. but together, in motion, it's beautiful.

 

within the project, i developed my own visual installation alongside another piece built by anet šilhavá and schuyler waters, all tied together by an ambient soundscape made by davis grinhofs, a prins claus conservatorium student. the sound and visuals changed based on user interaction, allowing visitors to (in)actively alter the experience as they engaged with the installations.

it took me a little while to recreate this effect the way i intended. thru multiple prototypes and a lot of trying the same things again and again it eventually worked. my installation uses an old 3d printer motor to turn a belt. this belt is guided in such a way that the cardboard flaps follow the exact path that they need to follow to replicate this effect. attached to the belt are cardboard flaps (these ended up being way too long and heavy). the installation automatically loops back and forth, but the user can take control and move it manually when they please.

there were a lot of things to take into account. what material should the belt be, how do i stick the flaps to the belt, what tention should the belt have, how strong should the motor be, how fast should the motor turn? some things were more in my territory, like controlling the motor thru code. but more physical and less digital things like friction, tolerances, different threadings were new struggles for me.

the end result is my installation with a camera pointed at it. this camera feed is fed into a touchdesigner network which applies some nice color grading and composites a nice delayed, lower framerate version on top. the projection brings it together in a way that i could not have imagined. a big magnifying glass turning this small simple movement into something bigger.