Shinyoung Park

1. Description
You Are the Universe is an interactive installation that considers an object on the screen
as a living creature--specifically a human figure with cells moving through the body.
The installation uses a combination of genetic algorithms and the distance between viewers
and the screen to express emotion through the human's and the cells' movements.

2. Personal statement
We are interested in using body movement and emergent computing to explore expressiveness
and emotional responses of people to computers and of computers to people.
I want to help people feel more aware of their inner selves by allowing them
to see through the human body into a landscape of cells whose purpose is to
express emotion, and allowing their interactions with the screen to affect the evolution of emotion.
At the same time, by altering the size of the image based on the viewer's distance from the screen, we want to give a sense of the similarities between macrocosm and microcosm, and to show viewers how a human is a small universe.

3. Background
Sometimes technology confuses people by confusing them with illusions.
However, I believe technology can help artists to liberate people's minds, let them dream,
and make them happy by having a moment of peace in their busy lives. There is a notion of the relationship between human and universe in Buddhism asserting that
"Each human being is one small universe," that human beings are all connected to the infinite energy
of the universe.
A person should feel confident that everything will come true if a person believes it will be,
because we have infinite resources connected to the universe.

4. Implementation
1) Sensing: Ultrasonic sensor
2) Decision: Arduino
3) Behavior: Processing

5. Applet
Here
Spring, 2007