Points of View

IDC IIT Bombay India

This installation, presented at National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, was a part of the “Nature Embedded” exhibition. The exhibition was inaugurated by Paola Antonelli .

Mid Day reports about the exhibition : Imgur

“To develop an understanding one has to look at things from other’s perspectives”. Through the means of this exhibit we tried to recreate an experience for the visitor to see the world from the point of view of a bird, dog and a fish. The view is not just a physical sensation but a perception of the world. In our design, we incorporated the unbiased, natural and permanent physical features of the eye like the shape of the vision cone and color sensitivity. Further, there was an attempt to showcase the world as perceived by a dog travelling down an alley, a fish inside a sea of pollution and a bird flying in the sky. These perceptions were biased human reflections which seem to affect these characters.

The narratives and visuals were precisely designed by experts. I am grateful to have worked with them.

My contribution was largely towards designing the interactions with the game and implementing them using electronics.

Dog

The environment was designed similar to a traditional Indian street. We tried to capture the hustle bustle and festivities using audio and visuals. screen_3_dog

screen_4_dog

The physical device made using teak wood. It contains an IMU which computes the suggested gestures and moves the character in the games. wireddog

dog

The interaction technique was found after conducting a small internal study. It was similar for all the characters to all quick, easy and intuituve transfer of control by the user at the site. launch

Fish

The environment of the fish showcased a narrative in which a fish explores the area.It finds pollution and garbage while moving along a path. Then a giant whale is seen being captured by hunters which the fish along with other smaller fishes sets free. There was a dreamy treatment given to the visuals. fish2

fish3

The physical controller. fish

Bird

The bird environment depicts a bird flying back from its quest to gather food to its nest. She sees chimneys, electric lines, fountains and lands from far above.

bird4

bird3

bird5

The physical controller bird2

At NGMA

We received great response and feedback from kids and other audiences. People loved the quality of the visuals and idea of exploring the world through the “animals”. fish6

fish5

Exhibition

bird6

Team

The project was a part of my work done under Prof. Ravi and Prof. Ajanta at IDC. The super talented team at dsource and ekalpa project made the project possible. They include Vajra, Pranisha, Deep, Shyam, Herold, Ravi, Malay, Swati, Vinaya, RamP (Audio) and other folks whose name I intermittently forgot.

Cheers,

Rohit