2023 Gurgaon, India / Interactive Installation
An interactive visual installation for Johnnie Walker’s product launch of AIR-INK.
Masters’ Union, a business school in Gurgaon, stands out for it’s vision to innovate and integrate technology. For their first business cultural festival they commissioned a series of interactive art installations and experiences. MUTED was conceived as an immersive art tech gallery bringing multiple exhibits as a single experience.
Envisioning a series of new media art installations for an audience that has no prior experience in it took a lot of planning, iterations, prototypes. The steps of ideation and production went as follows.
Studying a 3D model of the space on which to base the layout and flow.
Ideating various possible installations to create the desired user experience.
Consulting my team to determine the optimal use of the designated space.
Listing out the required physical and electronic components and identifying which could be fabricated ahead of time and transported to facilitate assembling at the venue.
Selecting appropriate materials and fabric for prototyping.
Finalizing physical components and commencing production.
Briefing the music composers I was collaborating with on the soundscapes for the installations.
Placing orders for supporting structures to be installed at the venue.
Testing the electronic components.
Optimally packing all elements for transportation.
Setting up at the venue with the help of on-site team of volunteers
Multiple rounds of testing before the event.
For students accustomed to a high activity environment, Pulse was a calm oasis meant to soothe the nerves. The scene evoked a moonlit evening by the ocean. The colours, textures, and sounds created a therapeutic effect.
The user placed their hand on a pulse meter, which fed directly into the surrounding lighting, synchronizing with their energetic rhythm. The subwoofer that doubled as a seat gave them further tactile feedback, encouraging them to slow down.
Corridors tend to be passive spaces for passersby. We animated this one with an interactive roof, not sparing a chance for the spell to be broken.
A parametric light array paved the way, responding enthusiastically to the user as they walked by, triggering ripples towards their destination. It connected the different installations, a common thread that held the attention.
Ushering the camplife at nightime vibe indoors, this experience had a light installation representing a campfire around which the users chilled and jammed, conversing through sound and setting the mood.
The instruments here were digital and tuned to be harmonious while allowing play, thus democratizing music-making. The fire pulsated in rhythm with the music, as the campers fed it with their beats.
This was a previously designed experience that we were requested to reproduce.
It was an arena to explore the joy and freedom of movement, while witnessing magic unfold before one’s eyes.
We converted the whiteboard into a real-time digital painting. What was once a textbook source of information was now transformed into an artistic canvas of expression. As the users walked, danced, pirouetted, glided before the screen, the forms and movements their limbs traced were mirrored on the screen before them in a flood of colour and a galaxy of light particles.
It’s inspiring. It was very immersive, calm and soothing. I was never an art gallery person, but I enjoyed this very much. All three experiences were amazing, but being a psychologist, I liked Pulse the best. It was very calming, very therapeutic in nature.I think psychologists can use it as therapeutic technique, to control breath, to control anxiety.
Lovely and innovative. I totally loved the immersive installations. My two favourites were Campfire and Pulse. I found those concepts adorable. The pulsemeter tracked your heartbeat, and the light reflected it. I also tried stopping my heartbeat to feel the difference. You could set up a whole gallery like this and invite people to immerse themselves in it. It was a really tranquil experience.
Immersive. You had to be very present to the moment. It was therapeutic. I like the entire setup, how it was designed, especially Pulse. Being a musician, I really feel something like this could be used in a musical setting. It’s very calming to the senses, and would be very helpful for musicians.
Sound Design: Mrityunjay Sathyanarayanan, Dhruv Dhingra
Electronics/Setup: Sandeepan Sharma
Scenography: Priyanka Bardhan
Digital Fabrication: Akash Hebballi
Creative Direction, Project Management, Interactive Developer – Vinay Khare