NightForms Year 2
Interactive design, programing and content creation for public art installation
- Year
- 2022
- Discipline
- Installation / Projection
- Client
- Klip Collective
- Role
- 3d Generalist, Designer, Touchdesigner Developer, Onsite Install
- Tools
- Houdini, Touchdesigner
For year two of NightForms at Grounds For Sculpture, I led the push to make two installations from year one interactive. I transformed the Dorian into a playable game where visitors blasted kawaii space invaders. I also turned the amphitheater's granite stones into a massive musical instrument using a custom-built xylophone.
Dorian
Visitors to the Dorian were able to jump behind a custom fabricated joystic and pilot the whole environment.
When Ricardo (Klip Collective) said he wanted people to be able to drive the Dorian like a big space ship, I was all in.
Originally, I was told not to worry about any content on the hedges. But from my time with the site scouts and processing photogrammetry scans of the area, I knew those hedges were going to be an amazing canvas.
Cheat Code
One of the most fun challenges on this install was figuring out how to embed a cheat code into the controls. You can see more about that process here.
Making the retro-style glyph animations seen throughout this install was a blast. (Click the right arrow to see more.)
MIDI Sync
Using MIDI files from the composer was again key to achieving these tightly synced animations in Year 2.
Amphitheater
Visitors got the chance to add their own touches to the music and visuals via a custom fabricated xylophone.
Finding the balance between programming an instrument that visitors of any age could play while maintaining visual and musical cohesiveness was a big challenge for Year 2.
The prerendered elements tied to the xylophone keys were progressively layered when triggered in quick succession, producing really vivid results. The colors, when pushed past full white, were remapped in real time inside TouchDesigner to achieve these results.
It's a wrap.
NightForms at Grounds For Sculpture was a two-year-long installation, refreshed for its second season. Sadly, the content is no longer live. It truly was a special experience to be a part of creating and to take in as a viewer. Big thanks to Klip for the amazing opportunity.