Brainwash / Sweet Home — Art Installation to VR Experience
Team:
Just me
My role:
Discovery and ideation, interaction design, fabrication and installation, and VR level deisng and prototyping
Just me
My role:
Discovery and ideation, interaction design, fabrication and installation, and VR level deisng and prototyping
Project year:
2019 - 2021
Location:
Work begins in Seoul, Korea and finished in Brooklyn, NY, USA
2019 - 2021
Location:
Work begins in Seoul, Korea and finished in Brooklyn, NY, USA
Tools:
Unreal Engine4, CAD Fusion 360, Illustrator, Premiere Pro
Skills:
Fabrication, Virtual Reality level design
Unreal Engine4, CAD Fusion 360, Illustrator, Premiere Pro
Skills:
Fabrication, Virtual Reality level design
Abstract
The initial definition of brainwash is negative, but it can also be defined as a phenomenon in which memories simply overlap.
Physical Model Making
Art Installation Video Recording
This project shows the memorable moments from 2011 to 2019 and the memories that have faded. It shows the process of brainwashing with the introduction of new and various memories into the mind.
A liquid flowing in a transparent tube representing the brain cortex and the monitor reveals how the cover changes and color changes as the water fills. As we know, the brain structure is very complex and the process or way in which information is stored is not simple.
However, I would like to use that complexity to show that the new process of brainwashing fills up with the flow of water through the winding tube. And what if this process was repeated hundreds or thousands of times? The transparency of the tube will become translucent or even opaque over time reflecting ourselves.
However, I would like to use that complexity to show that the new process of brainwashing fills up with the flow of water through the winding tube. And what if this process was repeated hundreds or thousands of times? The transparency of the tube will become translucent or even opaque over time reflecting ourselves.
Virtual Space Design
I was inspired by the art project above that I did two years ago, named brainwash. Our brain easily accommodates new environments and adapts to new things that cover and change the old memories, thoughts, and beliefs from the past. But, those changes do not happen instantly; it takes some time before someone is actually brainwashed. As time goes by, when the new images from our memory overlap the old images, we end up remembering the current images more clearly. On the other hand, however, on this project called Sweet Home, not only I talked about my memories of the homes I have lived in the past, but also I tried to illustrate a symbolic representation of the homes I remember.
Before starting the project, I first recalled the cities I lived in that had the greatest impact on me.
Perhaps Toronto is more like a hometown to me than Korea. It may be because I spent most of my teens and early twenties, which had the greatest influence on my self-creation, here. From high school to college graduation, I spent a long time in Toronto and thought a lot about my career and future ahead of me. Winters in Toronto are really cold and long, and my memory of Toronto is similar to such a long winter.
Chicago is a city where my current wife spent most of her 20s, so I visited and spent three to four months every year, and it left me with a good first impression of America. Chicago, which remains in my memory after time has passed, is perfectly lined skyscrapers, a beautiful skyline, and a wonderful night view. Thanks to my wife who loves architecture, I have many memories of walking while appreciating architecture while listening to stories about spaces throughout the city.
Most of my memories of Korea are formed in my late 20s and early 30s. At this time, air pollution in Korea was very serious, so I spent a lot of time enjoying nature outside the city. So, my memories of Korea are more about the natural spaces of Korea than the memories of the city of Seoul Lastly, New York is a place that means a lot to me as a new start. This place was full of new experiences and new encounters, and they piled up one by one to make me who I am today.
Perhaps Toronto is more like a hometown to me than Korea. It may be because I spent most of my teens and early twenties, which had the greatest influence on my self-creation, here. From high school to college graduation, I spent a long time in Toronto and thought a lot about my career and future ahead of me. Winters in Toronto are really cold and long, and my memory of Toronto is similar to such a long winter.
Chicago is a city where my current wife spent most of her 20s, so I visited and spent three to four months every year, and it left me with a good first impression of America. Chicago, which remains in my memory after time has passed, is perfectly lined skyscrapers, a beautiful skyline, and a wonderful night view. Thanks to my wife who loves architecture, I have many memories of walking while appreciating architecture while listening to stories about spaces throughout the city.
Most of my memories of Korea are formed in my late 20s and early 30s. At this time, air pollution in Korea was very serious, so I spent a lot of time enjoying nature outside the city. So, my memories of Korea are more about the natural spaces of Korea than the memories of the city of Seoul Lastly, New York is a place that means a lot to me as a new start. This place was full of new experiences and new encounters, and they piled up one by one to make me who I am today.
VR Spatial Layout Diagram
I think of our brain as a space. Each human being was born with a space in his head, and as we live, we create rooms of memory in that space. The structure and arrangement of the brain space differs from person to person, but my room in the brain is classified according to the place where I lived and stayed and the characteristics of the place, such as seasonality, smell, and color. I worked on spatializing the experiences in each city mentioned above, and to do so, I worked on symbolizing each space. I thought a lot about how it would feel if I made a personal diary or journal into a space, and what it would look like if a memory room actually existed.
Compartments
In this VR space, a total of 4 rooms are formed. These are rooms made up of the characteristics of the cities I have lived and passed through, and fragments of memories acquired from those cities. As memories accumulate and deteriorate, the atmosphere and shape of the space also change.
Final VR Experiences
Because this project is also dealing with the memories, it was important for me to clearly state the flow of its memory by years. However, it could also be mixed and changed by the time, and drawn differently from how I actually experienced it in the past.
The users will start to experience in the middle of the project where the huge brain is hanging to the water pipes. The reason I put the brain in the middle of the scenes, is because all memories begin to come out from there.