NOW WE'RE HERE

Now We're Here  is an interactive audio-visual experience inspired by the texture, sound, and development of the Abu Dhabi desert terrain.

Now We're Here invites the user to connect with the natural environment in both a rhythmic and digital way. On this project I collaborated with artist and technologist Craig Protzel.

Craig and I wanted to create a piece that would integrate the sights and sounds of the desert and speak to the abundance of sand as a natural resource.The idea was to digitally simulate the pouring out of sand as if it were a water tap. The digital "sand" would accumulate, making a pile that reached a limit before resetting. While the sand poured out of the tap, we created opportunities for interactive play emulating a digital sandbox. Each of the opportunities to play with the sand incorporated themes regarding development.

The project was made to run in a web browser using the p5JS javascript library and the box2D physics library. There were many late nights spent writing the code and trying to figure out how best to simulate the sand falling from the pipe and collecting on the floor.

We tried programmatically to "accumulate" sand particles but this proved to be too computationally expensive. Instead we decided to use a fixed image of a sand pile that gradually animated upwards while individual sand particles hit the pile and rolled off its side. 

We collected images and sounds of rocks, sand and gravel from the Abu Dhabi desert. In the gallery space, we physically installed a pipe that exactly matched the existing pipes so that it blended seamlessly into the environment.

To experience the project online you can follow this LINK