Final projects

Spectrum of Baile 

Title: Spectrum of Baile
Members: Sirley Peña, Trey Cluff, Ivonne Aristizabal, and Andrea Yañez 
Topic: Cultural Collaboration 
Materials: Arduino, Projector, Photo resistors, Processing and Speakers
Dimensions: 4m x 3m

Description: Spectrum of baile is a large-scale, participatory art installation designed to interconnect Colombia and the United States. Powerful projections and sounds act as “bridges of light” that link up the cultures in a multi sensorial experience. The piece creates a fluid projection of light that can be modified by visitors to five interactive stations, which depending on the spectators positions the sound and the video they will hear and see will vary. This installation is strongly related to the travel metaphor in which not only we aim to transport the viewers into different cultures just by changing their positions but also, we used metamorphosis as a visual representation of the changes you go through when travelling.
The projector has 2 uses, one to project the video and one to create clearly defined shadows used to track people's movements. In order for you to interact with our piece, feel free to walk in front of the projector and cast a shadow in the different sensors located on the wall and see magic happen.  

Fragments of time 

Title: Fragments of time
Members: Arney Herrera, Maria Clara Morales, Toyin Awosanya, and Alanna Xu
Topic: Sensorial experiences and daily emotions.
Materials: Arduino, Touch designer, Ultrasonic sensor, Cardboard, Paint.
Dimensions: 1,62m x 1,27m x 50,8m

Description: Life goes by in a blink of an eye. Rather than prolonged memories, we remember brief moments, bright flashes, fleeting impressions, and fragments of time. When thinking back upon the experience that Open Estudio has been, a myriad of images and sounds come to mind in a layered and non-linear way. 

Our goal is to bring this sensation to life with an artistic object onto which different personal images are mapped to achieve a highly sensorial, emotional, and interactive experience.

Fragments of time is an interactive video mapping artwork based on the stories captured by the artist cameras about West Lafayette and Medellin. This artwork works with an ultrasound sensor when the viewers close step by step to the artwork. This situation makes it possible that the images will be changing progressively.

Intersection of cultures

Home to me is? 

Title: Home to me is?
Members: Astrid Damaris David, Ketaki Pawar, Katie Phan, and Rafael David Gaviria Mejía
Topic: Cultural Collaboration
Materials: Arduino, Processing 3, Acrylic, Motion sensor, LED lights.
Dimensions: 18cm x 15cm x 17cm per house.

Description: Home to me is? It is an installation that seeks through the concept of "home" to highlight the cultural differences between Colombia and the United States. This, apart from being a project, is the result of a cultural exchange that allowed us to view the trip as a possibility to transcend or mutate the concept of home.  Nowadays, when we travel and get to know a new country it is difficult to adapt due to different circumstances, and the cultural shock makes us miss our home more and more.  Therefore, this installation seeks to make people feel at home through a multisensory experience. 

This installation consists of 4 houses built in acrylic that allow the users to visualize in an interactive way some colors and audios that transport them to places in Colombia in the United States. This is achieved through an Arduino, proximity sensors that detect the movement of people as they approach each of these houses that we call home. In addition to this, when the viewer is close enough they will find several QR codes pasted on the houses which when scanned they will play different audios.

Maze of culture 

Title: Maze of Culture
Members: Em Jennings, Mark Hinkle, Geraldine Duque Salazar, and Juan Carlos Hernandez
Topic: Cooperative interaction
Materials: Wood, PLA, Arduino
Dimensions: 33cm x 33cm 

Description: The labyrinth symbolizes search and encounter. A journey where the correct path must be found among the possibilities that are made available to those who pass through it. Developing this project was a cultural and intellectual meeting, in which we exploited a range of tools to reach a common destination: new artistic proposals where space, meeting, and path prevail.

Our creative encounter is embodied by an imaginary city. A maze of streets and buildings, a fusion of art and architecture that configures the experiences of those who inhabit them, generating a new representative space of our cities and our alma maters. The assembly consists of a 3D-printed maze supported by a wooden mobile platform that is connected to two joysticks that control the tilt and pitch of the maze. Thanks to this approach, the work invites the public to interact cooperatively to solve the maze, with each user controlling the inclination in an axis of movement. 

Also, the maze exposes drawings of the imagined city with architecture as representative as The Man Creator of Energy of the University of Antioquia or the Engineering Fountain of Purdue University. 

Plasmonic Kaleidoscope 

Title: Plasmonic Kaleidoscope
Members: Maria Clara Morales Restrepo, Arney Herrera Herrera, Esteban Rendón Tamayo, Sirley Peña Guzman, Esteban Garcia Bravo
Topic: art/science
Materials: Cardboard, Corrugated acrylic, Hard board, animation
Dimensions: Variable

Description: This Plasmonic Kaleidoscope is the second prototype of a concept  that started in 2018 through a collaboration with researchers at the Birck Nanotechnology center. According to a study, it was demonstrated that the appearance of colors in optimized nanosurfaces can be perceived differently depending on variations of angle and polarization of incident light. The sculpture is proposed to be an interactive object that allows the general public to experience the relativity of color experienced at the research laboratory. For this exhibit, colombian students contributed to this research optimizing the design of the kaleidoscope, exploring shapes, materials, and fabrication methods that optimize the reflections and overall aesthetic experience.

Acknowledgements: We would like to thank Dr. Alexandra Boltasseva and Maowen Song for their scientific research, and support of our artistic explorations.

Virtually un_distanced 

Title: Virtually un_distanced
Members: Davin Huston, Aven Bufkin, Brett Ford, Connor Hoben, Evan Weyer, Austin Ford, Kien Lac, Nathan Agno, Arney Herrera, and Maria Clara Morales
Materials: Raspberry Pi, Webcam, Leds, Wood, Pipes, Fabric, Touch Designer, Posenet, Buttons, Projector.
Dimensions: Variables

Description: Dancing is a wonderful act of self-expression and is also great for connecting with another person. Reading each other’s movements and reciprocating them with the body can bring two people together in a profound, comforting, and romantic way. 

In the current pandemic situation, all types of physical interactions have been cut short, dancing included. Thus, arises the question of dancing in a safe way by translating it into virtuality. Can this seemingly real world only interaction be taken to the digital realm and a real body language communication be established through a computer in an artistic context?