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Wang. (IPoC Taicang 2014 April, group 7)

by Marin Sikkenk, Boxing Zhong, Yajie Tang, Tingman Zeng

Concept video:

Prototype video:

Drama

We focus on the ancient China where we see similarities with thoughts of modern China. As we take the beautiful princess as an example, from the outside she looks very beautiful, but actually she is struggling with her heavy hair, they have to tight their feet, and she is not allowed to show emotion, and she has no own opinion in choosing who she is marring with. Something so beautiful from the outside is actually less beautiful (or happy) from the inside. These days people still live in this expectation world. For example in China children may be forced by their parents to get a good education, to be able to get a good job. But does a good job is as pleasing as we expect? Money is not always as beautiful as we hope it to be. In a lot of situations you are faced with beauty from the outside, while the inside is not as pretty as we hoped. Our installation will show the beauty of the outside and the destructiveness on the inside.

Script

We are building an installation of which the outside looks like an ancient Chinese roof, with the pattern of an ancient Chinese window panes. By using a light installation outside of the object we create a certain pattern. When you enter the installation you can see the shadow of the pattern on your body. It looks like you are in a cage. By touching the walls, the wall will (virtually) breakdown. If some pieces of wall will fall down, the light installation will start shaking which makes the shadow of the installation shaky. In this case it seems like the installation is going to collapse. After 30 seconds of falling pieces, the light installation dims. You will not see any more shadow, which links to the idea of being in a cage: You have freedom now.

Context

We want to have our installation on a square where a lot of people walk by every evening. In the evening people have some free time to experience a short visit to our installation. During day most people are at work, therefor we design something during evening. We need light to create shadow and these shadows will be more clear during night. We chose Nanyang square in Taicang, as there is enough free space to have an installation for at least 10 to 20 people. Our installation is designed to walk through, one way in and other way out.

Interaction

If people enter the installation, or walk through the installation, they have the opportunity to touch the walls with their hands. We want to use touchscreen on the inside of the installation to have people touch the wall. If they touch the wall, the rocky wall (animation/projection) will fall apart. The light installation around it will start shaking, to make it really seem to be collapsing. In this case you are able to break down beauty and create freedom yourself..