Unconscious Flows
Installation • 2001 • Designer*
Unconscious Flows, a public art installation designed along with Christina Wong, allows multiple users to communicate by remotely sensing the presence of others through four hanging water capsules.
The Experience
As a user looks into a capsule or places a hand over the water, sensors detect presence and alter the amplitude, rhythm, and tempo of low-frequency sounds. The vibrations from these sounds create concentric patterns upon the water's surface which change depending on the proximity of the user, the number of participants, and the length of each interaction.
While this is happening, speakers within the top of each capsule play music that is generated in real-time. Information gathered from the interaction is used to create the specific tones, amplitudes, and rhythms of gentle chimes and bells. Communicating through abstract forms such as music, vibration, and touch, participants are challenged to examine the ways in which their actions are translated to those around them.
Unconscious Flows, a public art installation designed along with Christina Wong, allows multiple users to communicate by remotely sensing the presence of others through four hanging water capsules.
The Experience
As a user looks into a capsule or places a hand over the water, sensors detect presence and alter the amplitude, rhythm, and tempo of low-frequency sounds. The vibrations from these sounds create concentric patterns upon the water's surface which change depending on the proximity of the user, the number of participants, and the length of each interaction.
While this is happening, speakers within the top of each capsule play music that is generated in real-time. Information gathered from the interaction is used to create the specific tones, amplitudes, and rhythms of gentle chimes and bells. Communicating through abstract forms such as music, vibration, and touch, participants are challenged to examine the ways in which their actions are translated to those around them.
Technology
As designers, we focused on creating an aesthetically minimalist project working much of the technology into the actual design. Photocells are mounted beneath plexiglass sheets in the water, and by lighting each capsule from within, we create a constant source of light from which we can measure shadow. Using degrees of darkness, we can calculate the distance of a user's hand from the surface of the water. This information is sent to a microprocessor (which interfaces with a Mac) that feeds the data into a MAX application where it is analyzed and used to control variables directly affecting the installation's output.
Using sound as a model of communication, low frequencies are played through subwoofers mounted in each capsule's base in order to create patterns upon the water. By altering the amplitude, rhythm, and tempo of these sounds, a variety of visual effects is achieved. These range from the subtle, crystalline, concentric circles slowly emanating from the pool's center to the extreme splashes of water rushing up to meet a user's hand.
The soundscape which plays from the inside of each capsule is also generated in real-time according to each user's interaction with the installation. The proximity of the user's hand to the surface of water (as well as the number of users) directly affects the volume of the soundscape, the notes being played, and the rhythm of the chimes. In this way, each of the capsules may be used as a single instrument which is part of a larger whole.
*The installation was designed with the amazing Christina Wong.