Yuhan Wang crouching among the installation: glowing white fabric boxes, some resting low and some hanging high on thin lines, in front of a grey curtain

nyu shanghai · ima capstone · 2024

place a block on the screen. a real box rises into the air.

boxes
16
stepper motors
16
arduino
1
play

01

see it float

the installation in the gallery, rising and falling as it is played.

play the film

02

the screen and the room

on the left, the screen: point at a column and click where its box should go, or drag across columns to paint. on the right, the room: every box follows, as fast as its motor allows.

virtual · instant

physical · motor pace

16 steppers · in place

a model of the installation: the screen here is a sketch of the idea, not the original interface, and the boxes’ speed is an estimate. Six heights per box, from the floor to well above head height.

03

from a click to a box in the air

every virtual box on the screen has one real box in the room, and one motor between them.

  1. the screen

    A block world on a computer. Put a box where you want it, as in a game.

  2. arduino

    The computer sends the new heights; the Arduino turns them into steps.

  3. 16 stepper motors

    One per box, each turning exactly as far as it is told.

  4. a box in the air

    The box rises or falls on its lines, to the place it was given on the screen.

04

like minecraft, in a room

When we move things in a game or a modelling tool, nothing in the room moves. What if a physical model answered to the virtual one, at the scale of architecture?

FLOAT connects a virtual space directly to a physical one. As in Minecraft, you put blocks where you like; here each block is also a real box, in front of you, in real time. The boxes form one structure that seems to float: an interactive architecture, shaped by whoever is at the screen.

It gives a virtual environment a body: tangible interaction, something to touch and walk around, and an output you see, feel and stand inside, not only look at.

  1. tangiblethe virtual move becomes a physical one
  2. hapticthe space you build is there to touch
  3. multi-modalsight, touch and the space around you, at once

Architecture not merely inhabited, but co-created: a partner in creation, responsive to and shaped by the people inside it.

05

record

time
2024
program
NYU Shanghai, Interactive Media Arts, capstone project
team
Personal project
type
Interactive kinetic installation
built with
16 stepper motors, an Arduino, a virtual interface on a computer, 16 fabric boxes on lines