tools
Camera, Webcam, TouchDesigner, Projector, Adobe Premiere Pro, Audacity
Year
2025
3 Weeks
Team
Yudi Cao, Peng Guan(Snow), Yifan Wang
Description
Engulf is an interactive installation that encourages participants to reflect on the relationship between humans and technology, specifically the use and overuse of smartphones. It challenges viewers to consider: do humans control the technology, or does technology control us? Additionally, it prompts them to think about their own reactions when they see someone completely absorbed in their phone. How does witnessing this behaviour make them feel? Will it influence their own smartphone habits?
The installation is created in TouchDesigner, with a webcam and projector. A white circular spotlight moves back and forth across a black background, inviting viewers to step closer and interact, and the spotlight will acknowledge the participant's existence by following the participant when the participant's figure is captured by the webcam. When the participant remains still at the edge of the projection area, a shadow figure emerges from the side, accompanied by the sound of footsteps approaching a chair. The figure sits down, takes out a smartphone, and begins scrolling, and the sound of notifications, message alerts, and TikTok videos start to fill the soundscape.
As the shadow figure becomes increasingly engrossed in their screen, rolling text representing an overload of information appears, and darkness begins to descend from above, gradually engulfing them. If the participant intervenes, moving their hands to push the darkness upward before it fully covers the figure, the darkness will retreat, the person stops using their phone, stands up, and walks back into the observer’s shadow, concluding the experience. However, if the participant does nothing and allows the darkness to fully consume the figure, the entire room fades to black, ending with a long beep.
By inviting the audience into an immersive experience, this project aims to raise the question: How can we cultivate a healthier balance with our devices and reclaim agency, rather than being consumed by them?
The installation is created in TouchDesigner, with a webcam and projector. A white circular spotlight moves back and forth across a black background, inviting viewers to step closer and interact, and the spotlight will acknowledge the participant's existence by following the participant when the participant's figure is captured by the webcam. When the participant remains still at the edge of the projection area, a shadow figure emerges from the side, accompanied by the sound of footsteps approaching a chair. The figure sits down, takes out a smartphone, and begins scrolling, and the sound of notifications, message alerts, and TikTok videos start to fill the soundscape.
As the shadow figure becomes increasingly engrossed in their screen, rolling text representing an overload of information appears, and darkness begins to descend from above, gradually engulfing them. If the participant intervenes, moving their hands to push the darkness upward before it fully covers the figure, the darkness will retreat, the person stops using their phone, stands up, and walks back into the observer’s shadow, concluding the experience. However, if the participant does nothing and allows the darkness to fully consume the figure, the entire room fades to black, ending with a long beep.
By inviting the audience into an immersive experience, this project aims to raise the question: How can we cultivate a healthier balance with our devices and reclaim agency, rather than being consumed by them?
FlowChart
