Exhibit Installations
Working with the City University of Hong Hong's Chinese Civilization Department and Alex Chengyu Fang of the Department of Language and Translations, Studio M developed two 'interactive' installations for an exhibition of ancient Chinese coins and charms.
Photography and Interaction Design: Max Willis
Technical Advisor: To Yip Sang
Exhibition began 11 July, 2008
The concept was to add several media elements to open up the exhibition with a visual aspect and a playful one. Visitors can in one exhibit, alter the flow of coin images on the projection, and flip each coin. The technology involved is simple but effective.
On the second installation, visitors are presented with a handdrawn image of the ancient coin production process, projected on the wall. Using a light pen, the projection can be investigated, and blow-up images show in detail the process.
COIN FLIP PROJECTION
The coin projection is a Flash application, stretched over two screens. The application runs automatically, spinning the coins in succession. When a visitor uses the mouse to interrupt the automatic process, they can examine the selection of coins. Four sets of 12 coin images are offered to browse, and each coin can be flipped. 30 seconds after their last interaction the application returns to automatic mode.
LIGHT PEN APPLICATION
The light pen application is run on Max/Msp using the Jitter application to program the image overlays. A cctv camera and digitizer are connected to track the light pen, and hotspots act as the trigger for the closeup images. Graphics are shown below.
Original installation designs used infrared tracking of an IR torch. This was revised to accomodate the green light pen.
