The Outside Original

“The Outside” is an immersive interactive audiovisual installation which seeks to explore human’s reaction to a worsening outer environment. The project setting is composed of a glowing swing, a swing frame, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor attached below the swing’s seat, a projector mounted on the ceiling, a stereo speaker, and a haze machine. With haze floating in the room, the user can see an area enclosed by a halo, which is actually the visible projection trajectory, and we call this area “the inside”. The organic shape on the 2D projection screen is created with the p5.js programming language. We utilize the swing movement as a metaphor for “breaking through”. That is —— to swing across the halo as the boundary between “the inside” and “the outside”.

The interactive experience starts when the user sits on the swing. Initially, the halo is in blue color and the soundscape is peaceful and calm. But after a while, the halo would turn red and start to expand, and the soundscape would be chaotic. An anxious atmosphere is generated by both the visuals and the audios, and we would expect the user to swing high and escape from the unease. The IMU sensor measures the real-time angle of the user’s swing movement, which thus affects the expanding speed of the halo. If the user swings high, the halo would expand slower. Inversely, if the user swings low, the halo would expand faster. But it should be pointed out that in both cases the halo would expand anyway, and the user cannot escape from “the inside” after they have reached the highest point. In the end, the entire room would be shrouded in red light which indicates that “the outside” does not even exist and there is no way to run.

Even though storytelling guides the experience, we keep it as an open narrative and welcome individual’s personal interpretations. For example, “the inside” can be understood as the comfort zone or aggravating negative thoughts in mind. No matter what meanings the users attached on this immersive space, we believe that a worsening outer environment is a shared experience and emotional resonance can be triggered through artistic expression. We also seek to prove the potential of typical real-life movements as metaphorical objects in digital media arts.

Credit: the visual effect of the halo was inspired by artists Anthony McCall’s work Solid Light Works and Su-Mei Tse’s light sculpture.