In Between the Window (2022)

Interactive Sound Installation, Digital Video Collage, Projection Mapping 

Featured in

Rehearsal Art Book Fair, CICA Museum, NYU ITP Winter Show 2022
collaboration with Shiqing Chen
text edit / Chirui Cheng














In Between the Window is a digital interactive installation and an ongoing research project, exploring urban sound and visual spectacles in the downtown Brooklyn area. By reconfiguring and recreating the light projected by the glass curtain wall, the installation hopes to break with the industrialized modernist landscape and to discover the underlying, vivid, rhythmic urban space.

在窗之间是一个数字互动装置, 也是一个正在进行的研究项目,探索布鲁克林市中心的城市声音和视觉奇观。通过对玻璃幕墙所投影的光线进行重构和再创造,这个作品希望打破现代主义城市所主导的工业化景观,并发掘那些潜在的,鲜活的,律动的城市空间。

Background

Qi and Chen have always been fascinated by the interaction between light and architecture in New York City. They believe that when light reflects and interacts between the modernist glass curtain walls, the texture of light would be recorded as beautiful as ripples on the lake. If we could focus our attention on a specific urban area and carefully record it, capturing the collision between the flowing light and the stillness of buildings, the lightscape of the city would present a spectacular light performance.


项目背景
陈诗晴和齐雨璇一直对纽约市中光与建筑之间的碰撞感到着迷。她们认为,当光在现代主义的玻璃幕墙之间反射与交互时,其质感就会像湖面的涟漪一般,光滑地被记录了下来。如果能将我们的目光聚集到一个特定的城市区域并展开记录,捕捉到那流动的光线与静止的建筑之间的交流,那么光的独特景观将会呈现一场精彩的视觉表演。
How it Works

The video collage section of In Between the Window is divided into three pieces, each corresponding to an instrument and enabling each piece to make a different sound from the community. In each piece, the variation of the playing speed would correspond to the values of the x-axis, the positive and the negative y-axis. Thus, every time the audience lifts the globe that represents the orientation of the sun in his hand, the pieces start playing in response to the audience’s gesture. The picture and the sound in the video change according to the speed of rotation; the faster the globe rotates, the faster the video plays. The changes in angle and speed on the different axes are the changes in sound and image that the audience gets.

In order to present such an effect, In Between the Window utilizes the accelerometer built into the microcontroller (Arduino Nano) to test the changes in angle and speed of the sun’s orbit on the coordinate axes. The data would be transferred into pre-edited Javascript to change the speed of the video playback to correspond to the changes in different pieces.

装置工作原理

利用单片机内部的加速度计,将其方向和俯仰值无缝地转化为p5.js界面中每个视频的播放速度,当人们引导玻璃球沿横向和纵向轴移动时,将根据手部的微妙动作“指挥” 一场视觉交响乐,与此同时,他们眼前图像中建筑表面的光影转换速度将相应地改变。视频拼 贴中的每个窗格单元都与周遭社区的独特声音录音相对照,当人们与该装置互动时,他们将体验到音频和视觉组合持续变化的过程。

为了达到实时呈现的声影效果,在窗之间利用了在单片机中内置的加速度计来实时测试太阳轨道在坐标轴上的角度和速度变化。把这些数据转移到事先编辑好的Javascript中以改变视频的播放速度,从而对应三个模块中的变化。



Preparation

For half a month of researching, Chen and Qi recorded the changes of light between those glass wall buildings, as well as the sound samples from the community.

准备

在为期半个月的研究中,齐雨璇和陈诗晴记录了玻璃幕墙上的光影变化,以及来自社区的声音样本。


List of Buildings

建筑清单

  1. 300 Ashland
  2. The Ashland
  3. 66 Rockwell Apartments
  4. Hub
  5. 1 Flatbush
  6. The Brooklyn Tower
  7. 7 Dekalb Avenue
  8. City Tower
  9. Hoyt & Horn
  10. 11 Hoyt
  11. Brooklyn Point
  12. Avalon Willoughby Square
  13. AVA DoBro


Recordings
  1. elevator arrival
  2. elevator pressing buttons
  3. elevator door opens
  4. vacuum in the hallway
  5. noise from construction site
  6. closing the window
  7. siren from the street
  8. ringing the bell
  9. hitting something hard
  10. throwing trash down the trash chute

录音

一  电梯到达
二  按电梯
三  电梯门打开
四  走廊里的吸尘器
五  远处施工现场传来的噪音 6. 关闭窗户
七  街上的警笛
八  按门铃
九  楼下敲击硬物
十  往垃圾管道里扔垃圾



Time
Nov. 11th — Nov. 22nd, 2022

时间线
二零二二年十一月十一日至十一月二十二日



2022 NYU ITP Winter Show

In December 2022, In Between the Window was officially presented to the public at New York University’s ITP Winter Exhibition. The location of the exhibition at NYU Tisch in downtown Brooklyn was uniquely significant for the project.

During the event, the audience was highly interested in the visual presentation and light effects of the project, and it provoked thoughts and discussions from a variety of perspective and created a meaningful dialog in the community. 

二零二二纽约大学冬季展览
二零二二年十二月,在窗之间项目正式在纽约大学的冬季展览向公众展示。展示地点选择在布鲁克林市中心的纽约大学对这个项目有着独特的意义。


Special Thanks特别鸣谢
Yeseul Song, Daniel Rozin, Elias Jarzombek, David Currie 
In Between the Window shown at CICA Museum, Korea
Featured in the Voices group show
October 11-29, 2023

Exhibition Catologue 
Press

Project Brochure featured and shown at Rehearsal Art Book Fair 
September 15-16, 2023
University Settlement, New York NY

Research - Yuxuan Qi, Shiqing Chen
Book Design - Shiqing Chen
Text - Chirui Cheng
Asset Collection and Management - Yuxuan Qi

Press