Stardust

Curatorial Statement: 

  "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself." - Carl Sagan  

  Inspired by the quote above, we created an installation that explores the individuality of human beings and its relation to the space. Incorporating symbolic elements (T-shirts, light) and audio-based interaction, we developed a space that invites audience to reflect on the universality and diversity in the space we are in.  

Intention

"The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself." - Carl Sagan

This quote is what inspired our original installation in module 3. We wanted to show what unites humanity. That we may be very different, but in the end, we are all made of the same "star-stuff".

Last time due to time constraints, we were not able to refine our installation to an intuitive, interactive, beautiful level. For the rework this time, we want to brush up the implementation of our installation. We reconsidered the location (availability, spacial compatibility with our installation), arrangement of our components (intuitive connection to our intention, visual effect).

Previous work:

http://ideate.xsead.cmu.edu/gallery/projects/hanging-piano

Context

We got inspiration for our project from various other art installations. We looked into installations that fell into roughly three categories: Fabrics, Lights, and Interactivity. Installations such as Firewall and The Dance push the limits in which fabrics can be manipulated. While projects such as Submergence and Starfield make use of light with depth. There is a depth to these installations, created by manipulating light sources in unique ways. We wanted our project to have a similar feel of depth while combining the unique properties of fabrics.

Product

  Our finished product was an interactive art installation that focused more on the individual than the previous iteration of our project. We chose to keep many aspects of our project, such as the hanging t-shirts and the background of stars and space, which we felt really illustrated our concept -- that human beings are all inherently the same and that we are made of the same star stuff as one another. However, we wanted to emphasize individuality more. So, in order to connect our audience more with the t-shirts and make them feel more like the shirts represented them, we decided to allow them to manipulate the project by using their sound. When the room is dark, all the shirts look quite similar but once someone claps or makes some kind of noise they can really see the differences between the shirts. Furthermore, the audience member that chose to make the noise essentially puts the spotlight not only on the shirt but on themselves, highlighting their own individuality.

Process 

Our thought process starts with where our last project ended. We listed the elements that we lacked in our first iteration that we should take into consideration in our second. One such consideration we had was for project stability. Our previous project ran into trouble staying up for extended periods of time. To fix this, we used wire instead of string. Another consideration was to include projection mapping, a feature we did not have enough time to implement in our previous iteration. We also wanted our project to fit its intention better. So, in order to highlight differences, we decided to make each tshirt a different color.  With those details set out, we started to remake our project. The first step was to get the actual physical installation set up. Soon, we noticed that the lights in the room would be too bright. So, to fix this problem, we used garbage bags to block out all the sunlight in the room. Finally, the projector was set up using Millumen to take mic input and use that to control the projector's simulated spotlight.

Collaboration 

Collaboration: Describe the process of collaboration. Note what contributions were made by each person. How did the collaboration work? What roles did each of the team members have?

Because it was difficult to reserve the room and coordinate our busy schedules, collaboration regarding ideas and concepts mostly occurred over text. We saved in-person collaboration for dry-runs, craft-store trips, and the physical creation of the project. It's difficult to pinpoint where exactly our ideas came from, since much of it came from bouncing ideas off one another. We divided purchasing the materials amongst ourselves. Sohail handled the projection mapping and the interactive aspect, learning how to use Millumen and Milluplug. Yiyang and Toya took care of the more physical aspects of the project, such as how to set up the t-shirts and darkening the room. Yiyang was also often the one who borrowed and looked after the equipment. Toya also dealt with the overall design of the installation though some of her designs had to be scrapped due to unforeseen difficulties w

Attribution

https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/54-498/f2015/the-veiling-by-bill-viola-1995/

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/185294?locale=en

Reflection

Our project seems to hit all of the goals we set out, yet it seems to lack something that our first project had. I personally think that small design changes we made actually negatively affected the final product. There are two changes, in particular, that prevented our product from reaching its fullest potential. The first was the switch from 9 tshirts to 6. With less tshirts, the message feels less powerful. The second was the switch from string to wire to hold up our project. While this made our project much more stable, I personally find the wire to detract from the experience our project offered. In contrast, the strings used in our first project gave our project more shape and form. Also, the wires are thin and unnoticeable, making our project seem a lot emptier than our previous iteration.

On the other hand, I'm really impressed with the projection mapping effect. I personally think it's really cool! The fact that you can do all this with just a projector just seems really impressive, in my opinion. So, I really like the addition of projection mapping to our project, because it gives the project an interesting amount of depth.