無常 (WuChang) II
Installation Design, Immersive Experience Design
Catalog
Interactive installation, Immersive Experience, New Media Art
Implementation
Physical Computing, Creative Coding
Introduction
無常 (WuChang) II is an experience that presents a metaphor of impermanence and Wu (the highest spiritual state in Taoism) through an interactive installation filled with real water. Combined with projected generative art and audio, I hope the audience can feel the the inner tranquility that brought by water.
This project aims at invites the audience to take a spiritual journey from worldly affairs to a more peaceful inner land where they can calm down, relax and feel tranquility successfully.
In the exhibition, when audience come to visit the spot, they will be implied by the interaction instruction on the table. Following the instruction, they will see the bowl filled by the real water gradually and forming a vortex when they touch the bowl. The constant flowing water, the projected moving lines, the lingering sound of wind chimes, will take the audience away from the urban life to a space of tranquility.
Why I made WuChang II
Imptus
What the urban life brings to us? The losses or gains? The pleasure or discontent? We faces a complex but charming world everyday, we need a moment to refresh ourselves. The healing from nature is a gift. Water as one of the basic nature elements, can purify one's heart as to me.
Engagement
The audiences were absorbed in view water and thinking, stay until they feel refreshed or released.
I hope the audience can empty their mind in the experience. Feel the coolness that the water brought. When they hearing the sounds in the air, I hope their mind can fly to the most purity and cheerful land in their mind. It can be their childhood, or the moment they stay with their beloved, or a blueprint of their dream.
Taoism & Zen
It’s all about Dao and Zen.
Is derived from my thoughts on life that are influenced by Chinese Taoism, and my interests in immersive space experience and installation.
There is a Chinese philosophy underling the Wu Chang which advocated by Lao Tzu: “道法自然 (Pinyin: Dao Fa Zi Ran )” (Fang, 62 ). It means the laws of the world is the nature flow. The idea of Wu Chang is not to teach the audience religious doctrines, but rather to help the audience feel calm and peace, and remind them that there is a Chinese approach to their spiritual strength: instead of persisting against the natural flow of life, one may obtain inner peace by accepting the changes in life, letting things go naturally.
How I made it
With the idea, I made 無常 (WuChang) I. The feedback from 無常 (WuChang) I is very positive. People like to sit there and view the water swirling in the bowl and something happened in their deep heart. Then I did 無常 (WuChang) II to use a more symbolic visual pattern replaced the Chinese scriptures.
This project was displayed at Graduate Thesis Exhibition 2018 for one week. There is a big gap between a functional prototype and real art piece to exhibit. In order to enhance and stability and quality for many visitors to experience. I start from the system structure.
Physical Object
PART 1 - Bowl and Water System
The core components in this project is an interactive glass bowl. How to make it tangible and responsive to user’s holding gesture is the first thing I need to figure out. The following images shows the circuit of the bowl from WuChang I.
In the 無常 (WuChang) I, I used jump wire connect the conductive tape on the glass bowl and Arduino. The wire is easily broken because I need to test the circuit and change the water under the bowl. So I changed the connection to the separable components with conductive tape.
PART 2 - Display platform
In order to facilitate more visitor to interactive with the water, I changed the meditation gesture from sitting on a cushion to stand aside the water. The display stand was made by fabric board. I used table saw, sanding machine to cut the curve the panels and stand.
Process of build the physical connection & create glass bowl
Generative Art & Projection
Lines generated by openFrameworks VS After Effect
Because of the CPU efficiency, I later changed into After Effect to generate a water wave effect with plugin. The gathering lines is created by openFrameworks
