The audio through a microphone is the primary input that triggers the interaction in this project to simulate the acoustic trauma in the ocean. The sound produced by the audience will influence the choppiness of the simulated ocean and the swimming activity of the 3D whale.
In essence, the audience gets to control the digital whale’s living condition by their choice of interaction to any extent. When the audio input reaches a certain level, the environment turns completely red. In contrast to the chaos when the noise level is high, the environment calms down again right away due to low audio input. Fortunately yet ironically, everything will go back to normal that the piece starts with, while in reality, the trauma takes decades to ease and heal and the tragedies of death are irreversible.
In order to achieve an immersive experience, the underwater whale sound will be played from the headset accessible to the audience. In addition, the intentional design of the installation: ocean surrounding whale in a circle, stimulates the atmosphere of an aquarium as well as a sense of secrecy.
This project was selected for exhibit at the ITP show at NYU Tisch.
In Collaboration with: Ruyi Chen (NYU)
Tools used: Three.js/ WEBGL/ p5js/ Xcode/ Unity/ MadMapper