Interactive City: The Social Curtain

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It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.
~Aristotle Onassis

Main Idea

Our project will show innocent things being forced to grow up, purity being tainted, and natural things being mutated or dying out. The goal of this project is many things. The main goal is to show the intense, Manichean, disturbing juxtaposition and perspectives that occur all too often in our modern world.

Visual Aspects and Juxtaposition

Visually, our project will feature two tablets with text between them that states a “query question.” As one looks at the piece, there will only be one tablet “on” at a time. One will show an image while the other is completely black. First, on the left tablet, we will show something such as a young child or a flower on a black background. After a few moments, the image on that tablet will fade to complete blackness. The other tablet will begin to fade out of black, revealing the complete image. For example, the tablet on the left that showed the child on a black background will fade out. Then, the tablet on the right will begin to display the full image of the child including the background that was previously “blacked out.” This would be something like a complete photo that features the previously cute, innocent seeming child in a terrible situation such as an environment obviously recently affected by a cataclysmic natural disaster. This is meant to display stark contrasts.

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We are also considering the possibility of including some sort of touch-sensitive “switch” on the tablet that would show the incomplete, blacked out image. A viewer of the piece could then interact with it, switching that tablet off, and in doing so, the other tablet with the full image would come into view.

Another design is utilization of the question space as a interactive space by creating a switch. Combining the interactive space and the question itself can create even more intense experiences of the display.

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Our Question 

The question that will be featured on the text between the two tablets will read:

Did you see everything?

Do you really want to?

Creating a Social Network

A Social network is created through personal interaction with anyone outside of its own circle. This interactive display creates a social network by engaging people by taking people into surprises, shock, realization, and controversy. The images and the discovery of truth provokes a sense of urgency to share the major social issues that are displayed and start up a conversation between the audiences about the display and hopefully, how to resolve them.

Author: Yun Mi Koh