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ITP Spring '22 → Future Mapper → Week 2

I went to MoMA this past weekend for the Shigeko Kubota Liquid Reality exhibit. I enjoyed many of the pieces, but especially liked Video Haiku–Hanging Piece.

Shigeko Kubota. Video Haiku–Hanging Piece. 1981

I also enjoyed her other pieces, some that left an impression: a piece where we had to lean over to see inside it, and two where the light was reflected onto the water or onto the walls which made for a beautiful effect.

Initial project ideas

I have a dataset of Chinese actresses that have starred in Wuxia (Chinese historical/fantastical martial arts) films, and I love the dataset for the stories it tells. There are three actresses in particular that have really defined the Wuxia category for their respective generations, and then went on to become supporting (often mentoring) characters to the younger actresses. The earlier two actresses also retired at their initial peak when they got married, then came back to act in those supporting roles later upon their divorce. The third actress continued to act even after marriage.

I worked with this dataset in my digital fabrication class last year, and I want to continue iterating on it for this class.

In particular I'm imagining an interaction where the fabric are much larger in scale, aesthetically reminiscent of clothes hanging on drying lines. As a person walks alongside it, the projection fills in just the little part in front of them with color and annotations about the actress and the movies they were in. Perhaps highlights from movies of that time are projected on the wall across from the person.

After the person finishes walking alongside the fabric, they turn back and see all of the actresses and how they were interconnected (not quite sure how to execute on this yet).

The metaphor being that an individual actress might not be able to see all the impact she has as she goes from one movie to the next. So we walk along with her to see her perspective. But when we've finished, we have the benefit of hindsight—and we can see all that they've accomplished in a bird's eye view.

I was inspired by these two images from Pinterest:

Aquatic Colors by LUCENT (left) and Untiltled by Roelof Knol (right).

Mood and aesthetic

These are photos I've taken in the past when I found something particularly beautiful:

I'm not 100% on this idea though, as I want to try something with a bit more interaction.

Feedback

I got some great feedback from Chika: