Islands/Seom

Shih-lien Eugene Yen

Islands/Seom is an interactive AR archive of developing artists that we are close to and feel inspired by. The audience enters a room of floating cube sculptures called Islands. Each cube encapsulates the perspective, voice, and beliefs of one of the artists. Every time you interact with our interpretations of these artists, you will know more about them and feel our emotions for these significant individuals.

The user experience consists of 2 stages:

An AR experience, the Navis Stage, where the audience views and interacts with the physical setup using the provided mobile devices. They explore the room and encounter the artists, listen to what they want to share, and decide which artists they would like to send to the world simulation system called Lacus. An installed-iPad stand is used in the Lacus stage as a navigator for landing the avatars on a 3D-animated floating lake (Lacus), as well as the worldview control panel. The simulation starts as soon as the first avatar lands. The avatars then reveal their embedded attributes, interacting with other artists and the world around them. The world initiates and we observe the thriving organic growth of an ecosystem in a holodeck, which is a pepper’s ghost installation. As it reaches the end of its lifespan (5 minutes), Lacus is destroyed. Waiting to be reborn when the next group of avatars arrives.

Credits
Shih-lien Eugene Yen/ project lead, programmer, 2D animator
Anna Libbie Grossman/ programmer (algorithmic movement, network communication, sound implementation)
Jeffrey Huang/ programmer (virtual interaction, shaders, sound implementation)
Gahyae Ryu/ sound designer, sound engineer
Christopher Jung Woo Kim/ 3D Modeler, 3D animator
Jihyun Her/ art direction, scenic designer, sculptor
Jinyoung Sung/ scenic designer
Peiyu Lai/ lighting designer

Learn more

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