Building Virtual Worlds – Mr. Youn Kim’s Disco Club (2013)

Interactive art, dance and music installation using projection mapping in a disco club environment.

Platform: Kinect, Arduino and Projection Mapping
Timespan: 3 weeks (November 2013)
Role: Programmer and 2D artist
Team: Chung “Michael” Wei Lee, Hyunghwan Byun, Jimin Song, Hwang Youn Kim and Paulo Bala

For the final assignment in the Building Virtual Worlds course, the team was tasked with developing a world for the BVW Festival.

Considering the team’s background and desire to work with an interactive installation, we settled for using projection mapping as the main platform. The first two weeks of the development period were spent working on a prototype of a projection mapping game, “Hamsters vs Cupcakes”, about the worlds cutest things and their deep seething rivalry. Considering the limitations of the technology, the team decided to change the concept, going with a location based approach and then “Mr. Youn Kim’s Disco Club” was born. The experience consisted of a pyramid of cubes who reacted to the guests movement. Based on Chirag Raman projection mapping work, 41 planes were set up with homography shaders; each plane was capable of playing 20 base animations. Kinect input from the guest was mapped to a series of interactions (changing animations, expanding animations, strobe effect, changing colors, etc) in a way that was natural to users. Additionaly, in order to coax shyer guests, we created a DJ station using arduino and physical buttons with the intention that if we made it a group experience, people would be more willing to dance in front of the installation.

My responsibilities for this world included programming (dj station, kinect input and basic projection mapping) and art (16 animations in After effects for each cube and experience design).

This world was selected for the BVW 2013 Festival and the team was able to work on it as a location based experience by transforming the Entertainment Technology Center Lounge into a Disco Club owned by tyrannical nigh club owner Mr. Youn Kim. The below photoshopped posters were used to advertise the experience and possess the tongue in cheek attitude of our world.