Interactive Immersive installation <Narcissus at night> 2022
Arduino, Touchdesigner, Madmapper, Kinect, After Effects, Laser Papers

Overview of Concept

This project is a two-people group project, which is an immersive interactive installation based on a Greek Myth, Narcissus and his reflection. Combining projection mapping and lighting, this installation aims to re-build the mythical scene about “Narcissus”, giving viewers a relaxing and restorative feeling as well as an aesthetic appreciation through the reflection of the "narcissus".

In the dark room, there are projections of ripples giving it an ocean-like aura; the water waves on the ground will follow with the audience's footsteps. After touching the petals in the room, the light source will approach the center and a physical flower will rise and bloom in the unoccupied space, and viewers will suddenly be in a "rainbow-like radiance".

Hopefully, this project, serves as a positive reminder to inspire viewers to be confident and comfortable, to love and to care for ourselves because everyone's reflection is incredibly beautiful.

Design Idea

Preliminary Research on LIGHT

Try to use light to mimic the effect of James Turrell's work：Create a sense of space （right）

Cut out circles of different sizes on two sheets of paper. Use a flashlight to shine a colored plastic plate to change the color of each piece of paper at the button.

More Science Theory

1. Psychological + Physiological = Psychophysiological

Light can induce a change of the psychophysiological responses by the perceiver (Flynn et al., 1979; Boyce, 2003).
influence psychology and behavior

2. Fractal Pattern can be served as a symbol of nature.

Based on the myth of Narcissus and self-love, our project takes the advantage of fractal, reflective materials and projection mapping to create a rainbow-like reflection in an immersive digital installation.

Making process

1. Test materials & Light experiments

2. Flower making Iteration: 1st iteration
using cardboard to create the form of the flower, and use wood, rubber bands and straws to help the flower bloom and close

Flower making 2nd iteration: more stable
use 3d-printing material to serve as the backbone of the flower which has its memory of shape so it can back to the original form.

3. Technical part A: Arduino
Photoresistors, DC motor and L298N driver were used to control the Blooming of the flower

When in darkn, the motor does not move. When in the light, the motor will keep rotate clockwise for 2 seconds, pause, and then rotate counterclockwise.

4. Flower Effect
This is the final effect of our prototype 1. We achieved the effect that use flashlight to control the bloom and close of the flower. In the dark room, when viewers turn on the flashlight to project onto the flower, the petals will slowly open and reflect in front of them a whole side of fantasy. This kind of “Flowing rainbow”, bringing infinite beauty and immersion to everyone who saw it.

NOW, Time to add more environments

Based on the previous works, our final effects focuses on combining projection mapping to add environments for recreating the scene of “Narcissus”. Expected outcome should be a larger size immersive interactive installation.

Since the mythical story of Narcissus is that the main character sees his beautiful self in the water, and cannot help touching the water reflection, and become self-absorbed. In order to be more in line with the storyline, we also decided to add elements of the water series to better create a scene of narcissus flowers by the water.

6. Technical part B

Interactive Water ripples︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎

We Use Kinect with TouchDesigner to capture the human movement, combine it with the animation we made, program it in touch designer and project it onto the ground and flower petals.

Interactive petals ︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎︎
I connected Arduino with Madmapper to achieve the effect of audiences touching the petal, the petal image changes and the flower blooms in front of them. When pressing the button, the effect can change.