[IxD Studio] The Water Project

The last project in IxD studio was to envision the future of water and to share that vision.

My group (Shaili Das, Ramune Rastonis, and Vida Riahi) decided to look at the future of the oceans. We wanted to create a space that would cause people to consider the way their choices impact the environment, without being judgmental or preachy.

'Oceans' is a pretty vast subject; given the scope of the project, we needed to keep a narrow our focus and create something simple. We wanted to create a sensory space where people could take a minute to sit, contemplate, relax, escape, and be mesmerized. Our inspirations were, not surprisingly, mostly aquariums.

We created our ocean space with sound, visuals, motion detection, and scent. Besides the smell of the ocean (made possible by a bucket of fresh seaweed hidden under a bench), the space really came alive with our visuals. We projected our Processing sketch onto a 8'x6' frame with two layers of very thin muslin draped over it. The fabric layers gave the projected image softness, depth, and a bit of motion. Our Processing sketch, based on this Flocking tutorial, was meant to show how humans may be impacting the oceans. For this version we focussed on the impact of overfishing on blue fin tuna, but if there were time for another round of revissions we would definitely add a greater variety of facts.

For this proof-of-concept level prototype, we faked our interaction, but the idea is based on using proximity sensors to decide what to display. When a person walks toward the screen, the fish disappear and the number of jellyfish increases, as they step back, the fish reappear. The facts also fade in and out based on proximity.