Sunwoo Baek

2022.12 - 2023.02 (3 Months)

Time to Snow

RESEARCH

AR/VR

PROTOTYPE

Interactive installation that visually displays the current time using tiny Styrofoam grains

Time to Snow is an interactive installation that showcases the current time using tiny Styrofoam grains resembling snow. The installation highlights the aesthetic allure and ephemeral nature of snow. The title not only evokes “displaying time with snow”, but it also bears a double entendre, the enchanting moment of “when snowing”. Viewers can playfully interact with the Styrofoam grains, using hand gestures to immerse themselves in the installation. It presents the sensation of engaging with snow in natural environment.

This work was accepted at SIGGRAPH 2023 Art Gallery and won Red Dot: Best of Best in Red Dot Award 2023 - Design Concept.

Deliverables

Interactive installation
Interaction video

Team Project

Myeongseong Kim

Sunwoo Baek
Prof. Woohun Lee

Responsibilities

Interaction Design
Prototyping
Video editing

Tools & Materials

Rhino, 3D printing

Unity(C#), Arduino, Infrared camera

The installation hardware mainly consists of four parts: 1) masking units, 2) vacuuming units, 3) a screening mesh unit, 4) a blowing unit. The masking units are mechanical structures(four 7-segments and one colon) driven by servos that open or close their segment-shaped holes where air flows. The vacuuming units have fans on the back generate negative pneumatic pressure that suck air and grains in the chamber. The screening unit is a mesh fabric where the grains are collected. Only air can pass through it, but Styrofoam grains can not. The blowing unit has 9 pairs of fans at the bottom and top to below up Styrofoam grains in a vertical direction, and 3 pairs at the left and right side to blow away grains in a horizontal direction.