The Enemy of Anemones

Intention

Our project is centered around memorializing the "pure" and untouched by humankind Earth, specifically the oceans and various water sources which we associate with purity. Currently, there are large garbage patches of trash floating in the oceans, currents having pushed all of the trash together into great whirlpools of degrading plastic and junk. The most famous of these garbage patches is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is currently theorized to be about the size of Texas and is only going to increase in size in the next ten years. While we currently do not see the repercussions of this trash build up in our daily life, we predict that in the next ten years our visions of giant, vast oceans that are too large for humans to alter will no longer exist, and we will see them as the cesspools we have caused them to be.

Our proposed memorial is an interactive exhibit that allows users to experience thousands of years of ocean history as well as the likely future of the oceans based on the current attitudes towards the problem. The form of the exhibit is two long pathways: the first of which is actually a pool where people can swim through to understand the history of the oceans, and the second is a hallway where people can walk through a "sea of data," understanding the facts and statistics  as well as observing a Twitter wall that predicts what the future of the oceans look like based on the positivity and negativity of current day tweets. 

Context

We really wanted to examine how to engage the senses in our exhibit, for which we used two main memorial precedents: the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. and the shoe exhibit in the D.C. Holocaust museum. The Vietnam War Memorial engaged the senses primarily using tangibility; visitors often touch the engravings to feel the literal cut into stone. The shoe exhibit at the Holocaust Museum uses smell, as part of the overwhelming experience in seeing the thousands of shoes is the tanned leather smell that accompanies them which makes the experience much more real and present for the visitor. These interactions are what encouraged us to create an immersive experience where visitors are literally forced to have a very physical experience of swimming through water. 

In terms of portending calamities, we used the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as our main sign of the future. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a source of some of the most evocative images relating to the anthropocene and the marks that humankind has irrevocably left on the environment. As we are all well aware, the ocean often has trash dumped in it on a range from individual littering to deliberate corporate dumping. However, all of these pieces of trash get moved along via ocean currents until the ocean currents come together to create the trash vortexes that we see.The Garbage Patch is a herald of change for the ecosystems and environments we will live in; we will probably have many hundreds of species to mourn, if not tremendous human loss with the reduction of food supply.

Process

After settling on our concept, we began iterating through different floor plans and forms the memorial could take. We eventually settled two long, constricting pathways, the first of which would be the swimming pool and the second of which would be the "data sea." Preceding each hallway would be reflection centers, rooms with one way windows that would enable visitors to change in and out of bathing suits as well as enjoy a moment of solitude before the experience. 

After settling on the form, we were able to quickly create an architectural model using Rhino and the laser cutter. The next step was creating the technological prototypes: namely the projections for the swimming pool and the projections for the "data sea." 

For the swimming pool projections, we decided to use PIR sensors to detect our hand moving a swimmer through the pool. Once triggered, the PIR sensors would change the projections as the swimmer moved across the pool; the projection would start off depicting a "pure sea" from thousands of years ago. While the swimmer moves across the pool, the new videos would get triggered that would show more and more trash in the ocean environment. The challenging parts in this process included figuring out how to project with water, which we ended up solving by using back projection, and getting the PIR sensor configured correctly with the water and acrylic which just took some experimentation.The whole system was connected to and powered via the Arduino, and the code was a combination of Arduino and Processing.

The "data" sea projection was a much simpler projection problem, as we were projecting on a wooden surface. Moreover, the projection would change once "recorded" by pressing a button, so we simply had two videos that would toggle once the button was pressed. An Arduino was used to operate and power the circuit, and the code was a combination of Arduino and Processing.

Product

Our final products included a scale architectural model, an experience map detailing our experience, and the two technology demos that were both interactive projects. The final work is shown below. 

Reflection

In terms of successfully prototyping our concept and vision, we think this project pretty successful in getting our intended vision across. However, the main source of our difficulties arose from fine tuning the interaction itself. Would the users have to wear full on diving suits or would bathing suits work? Would people be safe swimming in bathing suits with literal trash floating in the pool, or would diving suits then be required to protect the exhibit visitors. Moreover, would the average person be invited for this experience, or is this more of a shock experience meant to prod donors to fund scientific research regarding the Anthropocene. If we were to redo this project, we would like to have a clearer and more reasoned process for these details of the interaction, as because of the timeline, we were not able to iron out the logistical details in favor for larger scale vision execution and prototyping.