Documentation

Learn about the MELT PROJECT's inpiration and technicalities.

General

Media Exposing Limited Time (MELT) is a large-scale immersive audio/visual art experience that invites participants to explore the theme of climate change by combining large interactive projections, web-based interfaces, and Augmented Reality.

Featuring original content built-in visual programming software TouchDesigner, MELT employs multiple projectors, projection mapping techniques, and motion-sensing input devices to transform the 3200-square-foot Enhanced Immersion Studio ASU’s world-class Media and Immersive eXperience (MIX) Center in Mesa, Arizona. It will immerse users in a future-oriented environment designed to engage the community in meaningful, collaborative, and empathic discussion of environmental issues.

Attendees will have the opportunity to manipulate the projected environment via a custom-built website that translates messages to a node-based visual programming language in real-time.

  • Participants are encouraged to download the Hoverlay Augmented Reality app to take advantage of the full experience, complete with 3D assets and spatial audio.
  • MELT is the final project developed by the students from the D551 Immersive Experience Design course led by Ana Herruzo and Weidi Zhang, a new course offered for the first time at ASU MiX center. The class is made up of a wide array of interdisciplinary students, with diverse backgrounds such as artists, architects, software developers, researchers, and designers.
MELT @ MiX

Media Exposing Limited Time (MELT) is a large-scale immersive art experience that invites participants to explore the theme of climate change by combining interactive projections, web-based interfaces, and Augmented Reality experiences.

Thursday, December 1 @ 6:00 pm [Time TBC]
Enhanced Immersion Studio
Media and Immersive Experience (MIX) Center
50 North Centennial Way Mesa, AZ 85201

How the website works

We have built a website as a front end interface to interact with the system by providing an ability for the user to select scenes out of the four avaialble scenes. The selected scene data is then passed to the TouchDesigner control panel in the form of JSON data by including the scene name and the scene code.

Below is the workflow diagram of the data from the website to TouchDesigner.


The website packs the selected scene data into JSON and sends the data to Heroku server where the server side node js code is executed. The server code dynamically listens to the data sent through websocket and then passes the same to the touchdesigner control panel, which is programmed to continuosuly receive the JSON data from the server.

Scenes
Design Statement

The topic of environmental stability is a constant thought among humans no matter their generation, culture, or involvement with the living world around them. MELT creates interactions that bluntly show humans how we directly impact our surroundings no matter how abstractly we view them. This immersive experience leaves those who interact with it haunting thoughts of “Will this all still be here in the future, or will it MELT away?”

SPILL

An explosive visual that engulfs the user in an oil spill of contrasting colors. When oil spills it consumes every inch of surroundings and organisms around it with deadly speed. By exposing this fossil fuel, which is so essential to humans, users will see the deathly effects it can have on a larger scale.


STORM

The shock and shake of thunder followed by an instant strike of light will awaken users to the unnatural recurrence of thunderstorms. The earth’s rise in temperature has awakened the sky to rain down shattering sounds and deadly light more frequently than ever before. The user will immerse themselves in a field of lighting to see how dangerous the sky has become in recent years.


MELT

Slide across the liquified flooring of a world consumed by water. The oceans are being oversaturated with the water of once solid glaciers which will soon consume more land than ever before. Users will wade through a predicted watery environment based on the projections of what is soon to be a landless world.


UNDERNEATH

An organism that provides so much life above and before the sea level, coral is slowly fading away. A giver of food, shelter and life coral breathes life into the earth. Users will quickly see their impact on coral reefs as it retreats into the depths of nonexistence from human’s touch.

AR

AR content documentation to be added here.

Team

Professors
Dr. Ana Herruzo
Dr. Weidi Zhang


Students
Responsive Media System and Content Design:
Henry Beach
Xavier Nokes

Web UX, Development & Integration:
Chetan Nagaraja

AR:
Mary Kenny
Ankita Santhosh Kumar

Marketing Material, Logo & Poster Designs:
Clare Witt
Kimberly Tsen
Nandini Maya Thevar

Video:
Paul Amendola

Reference
  • Server side code reference : Torin Blankensmith