Ziqin Xu-Portfolio for UCL MArch Design for Performance and Interaction

Project 01

The Invisible World Audio-visual Installation Medium：Projection mapping. Videos, Editing audio, EPS foam, Tripod

The Invisible World is an audio-visual installation, trying to combine remote sensing, my undergraduate major, with design. By collecting various data models used in remote sensing (multi-band images, spectral curves, 3D reconstruction based on 2D data, etc.) and volcano documentaries shot in the field as materials, image creation and mapping are carried out to present the comparison of human bodies in the data world and the physical world. In this way, I can convey my unease and turbulence in the virtual system that human beings are building.

•Inspiration

•Research

This project was inspired by my attempt to combine remote sensing with design.

Remote sensing is a technology that uses electromagnetic waves (visible and invisible) to monitor and reconstruct the world in a non-contact way, based on data. Nowadays, more and more attention is paid to data, but when people use data to explain and define things, they must abandon the comprehensiveness of expression.

It is because in such a major dancing with data that I feel the charm of data and realize the chain of data more precisely. In four years, remote sensing has given me another way of thinking about the world, realizing that there is much more beyond the visible world that is not perceived. But at the same time, the process that is near but not real makes me realize more clearly that we are only taking a slice of the world from a certain angle.

Remote sensing technology is just an epitome. In the digital era, virtual system, which people try to build with data and rules, is becoming a trend. Progress is unstoppable, but in the midst of it, I increasingly feel a kind of unrest and anxiety.

Whatever speakable is the trade-off based on purpose and perspective, however the sum of them is not the whole. The most physical world stands still and substance exists before description.

Therefore, the combination of remote sensing and design is not so much data as my listening and voice to the world, based on my real life. In remote sensing, I try to listen to the invisible world, and in design I will give my voice to the world. my friend

The Invisible World refers not only to the invisible band commonly used in remote sensing technology, but also to The "invisible" part that cannot be described and abandoned when people try to analyze and define everything with data and pursue to visualize things.

Leaving the physical world behind, when we plunge into the virtual, a new life is born, and the solid eventually fades away. I think that's where my uneasiness comes from, and I'm still trying to figure out how to live together Concept sketches

volcano research

Reality

I just finished an assignment and it occurred to me that virtual worlds are more fake than we think.

How? Somehow this virtual space is not what I thought it was.

Not the same as an intuitive experience?

When I used to watch 3D modeling, I thought it was to create a 3D object and the corresponding lighting conditions of the object, that the space seemed to exist.

Like creating a world behind the screen?

Yes, but when you actually get down to the bottom of the programming, that's not how the computer understands things. That surface is just calculated in real time.

I see. In reality, transcendental space exists before being felt, but all creation in virtual space is actually a collection of formulas and rules, which can be summarized and described. But the reality is beyond that.

That's right. It feels limited.

Discussion of virtual worlds because of computer graphics assignments

Data

The construction of the data world

Data

•Music

Reference Spectral curve calculation data Reflectivity and accuracy 3D model reconstruction based on 2D data Wudalianchi Volcano

The temperature inversion After color treatment

Image of volcanic eruption in thermal infrared band (λ : 3~14um) 1.PBS-[NOVA.Kilauea.Hawaii.on.Fire.2019] 2.Page Films-[Kilauea - The Fire Within] https://vimeo.com/122038715 1.Ryoji Ikeda - [Test Pattern #0010] 2.Heilung - [Traust]

For music, I chose Heilung, a folk band with a natureworship religious style, and Ikeda Ryoji, an electronic musician, to combine the two pieces. Nature worship is the most primitive belief based on objects and nature, while Ikeda's works are full of the sense of electronics and data in the digital era.

3.Martin Rietze-[Krakatau at night] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Plj4b79cwg&t=1s 4.Page Films-[volcano tides] https://vimeo.com/ondemand/volcanictides?autoplay=1 5.Marco Cianflone-[KRAKATOA - CHRONOLOGY - 416AD to 2019] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4wKipsqN_Y&t=892s 6.Martin Rietze-[Etna activity Feb. 2020] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raUND-gsr4s&t=27s

•Video

Reality The physical part uses real recorded images from the flow of the volcano to the eruption of the volcano, as well as the bodies of people under the volcano disaster. A series of visual experiments were carried out, including color style, picture rhythm and sound.

Spectral curve After color treatment

Computer Vision - Saliency operations - Output results Context -aware saliency prediction is adopted

I used volcanoes as a point and collected a variety of data that could be used to describe volcanoes, including multispectral images, spectral curves, computer vision algorithms (represented by saliency recognition -CV algorithm), 3D model reconstruction based on 2D data and spatial information, etc. In this way, I tried to describe the part of the volcano with various indicators and spread it out to show the reconstructed volcano in digital space.

Digital

•Installation I used EPS foam as the material for the Mapping device. The foam is cut and dug, supported by a tripod and glued together with hot melt glue.

Device material: EPS foam Hot melt adhesive The tripod

Projection experimental Smooth surface and concavity surface

•Screenshot The digital part I only cut suitable foam boards based on the designed frame and spliced them with hot melt adhesive. Use a smooth surface for projection.

Projection software: Aren Optimize The solid part I made the foam uneven by referring to mountains and rocks, hoping to simulate the feeling of the solid, so that the flat feeling of data space could be more strongly contrasted with the three-dimensional feeling of the solid.

•Final

The Invisible World

Project 02

Fregoli Void responsibility(memberNum=6){ data Connection(Tet-1); SleepyTui Sound design(SleepyTui); Visual(Tong, Zhang); Space(Beauty.Liang, Ziyi);

Fregoli

SleepyTui Light & Interaction(SleepyTui,Huang); SleepyTui Leader(SleepyTui); } Void FregoliLAB(){ Print("Homogenization is done") }

Spatial audio-visual installation Medium: Digital screen, Led strip programming, Tin foil, Eletronics scrap structures, Sound design

Fregoli is an audio-visual space performance that combines interactive devices, sound design and animation, aiming at criticizing the phenomenon that people are becoming more and more homogeneous under information discipline in the digital age."Fregoli" comes from the Fregoli delusion syndrome, in which sufferers believe that many people around them are the same person in disguise.

concept and proposal

Research

Development

In the cluttering of information fragments, we are lazily fed with information and eventually disciplined into homogeneity.

overall design

video

The interaction of sound and light simulates the transmission of information, and animation shows the result of homogenization of people, and collects the "homogenization matrix" of discarded electronic components to build the center.

We filmed ourselves, from natural behavior to pulling out our phones and gradually stiffening and following the rhythm. And then put it all together to match the music from color to black and white.

Varied and colorful

The division of labor includes four parts: sound design, video, lighting and interaction, space and structure

Rhythmic and gray

sound design Echoes of the same An oscillation in space in which I make a sound and receive myself.

Key word: sound, echo, message (nourishment)

The echo Train

"Vocals and rhythm"

interaction

Refer to the "echo chamber" in the Disappearance of the Other, which describes homogenization in cyberspace, I consider the jumbled vocals gradually disciplined into a consistent rhythm by the rigid regularity of electronic sounds.

I converted 1946, the year the computer was born, to binary to get 11 bits of binary code.

Complete a 0 as a partition to get three four-beat patterns.

“1946” binary conversion

1111 0110 0010 xxxx oxxo ooxo rhythmic pattern

I u s e To u c h D e s i g n e r to extract the sound spectrum into a signal, and then input it into Arduino, controlling the strip so that the running water lamp changes with the sound.

Structure and space

materials We collected a variety of discarded electronic parts from the electronic market, including cases, motherboards, wires, fans, etc., for the construction of the central structure, and chose tinfoil as the material with a sense of science and technology to cover the whole space. The main supporting structure is aluminum alloy tube and chassis, and the electronic screen is set up on it.

Final

Fregoli

Project 03

Blan(K )iss

Introduction This is an accidental project, is inspired by the breakup of a relationship and if I have to say how it came to be, it is in progress. The impulse is simple, and the accomplishment is long.

Repeatedly confessing and overturning cincepts, from pain to calm restraint and then gradually stopped mentioned it, rather than call it a project, I prefer to call it practice, an unconscious art therapy practice. No matter how naive the work is, I place memories and emotions on the object, complete the separation, and finally leave the outdated frozen love.

When I was about to finish it, I suddenly realized that if there is something about creation, it should be a process of uncovering scars and healing.

Inspiration

a breakup of the relationship (2020.4.28-2021.4.1)

Express self-healing video Medium: Screen, , Expressive art therapy

Primary Research - Materials

Primary Research - mind map

Primary Research - mind map

Primary Research - mind map

photos

texts

In the collection of materials, I used words as the main clue, repeatedly recalling that chaotic and painful memory, constantly asking questions. Finally, the content is divided into four parts according to the subjectivity: “chaotic me”, “to him”, “those people” and “blank”, which are the struggling self, the wishes left to my exboyfriend, the wider love beyond the two of us, and the blank left after pulling out the expired love.

music

I sorted out the related materials. The images mostly recorded our time together, the text w as my c reati o n in this relationship, and the sound was some music created by my ex-boy friend. These things are traces of this period.

Secondary Research

Secondary Research

king gnu I ge t insp ir at i o n about body, vision and form from different emotional expression and selfhealing projects.

After deciding to divide the narrative into four themes, I combed the words corresponding to each theme again, and determined the colors and relationships of each theme through the emotions, which served as the basis for further development of visual style and symbol design.

Secondary Research Hazy mood

《Douleur exquise》

Music and performance

Secondary Research

Expressive Therapy

Visual emotion

Design Process

Design Process Gradient texture experiment

Design Process-Projection background

Design Process

Design Process In the pro ces s of watching myself, I s aw my t h o u g ht s of repeated and flowing in the face of separation and pain more clearly.

Referring to the research work s, I chose the visual style of flowing and fuzzy. According to this, various visual experiments were carried out, including ink injection on film, texture experiment with watercolor and plastic wrap, etc.

Design Process

Design Process-Sound

I choose to use words as a visual element rather than a narrative tool. This is because I realize that the specific content is personal to me and I don't need to show it to the audience. And I did a typesetting experiment on how to integrate vision.

Music-Ókyrrð

I chose a song to listen to during the lovelorn period, which was the music that initially formed a series of physical impulses and pictures in my mind. I cut it from 11 minutes to about 4 minutes.

Vocal recitation

I read every part of my written words with the edited music.

Text experiment

Others

In the part of Those people, the voices of friends are collected. And recorded the sound effects of breathing and writing.

Symbol Chaotic me -Sorrow -hope -bystander

He and I Meet and go away Each other's passers-by

People around me -There are many kinds of love in this world

Pulled him away An expired, frozen love Only blank

Sound recording and editing

Design Process - experiment and shooting I conducted a dance experiment, giving my body to music and words to express the emotions and physical impulses that washed in my mind.

Then I projected the designed back ground, and arranged a simple scene according to the theme of each part. Then I photographed my body movements and selected the appropriate material for editing.

Chaotic Me

To Him

Those People

Blank

Final

Project 04

A Gift

—— For “She”

This is a gift for my mother.

Based on a multifaceted prof ile of my mother's image and self-emotional profiling, I approached or reconstructed the apple in 7 different ways, trying to portray "She" in various identities and situations. Then using light and shadow to metaphorize the inevitable gaze among various identities, and finally the shadow of the apple is projected on the black column, dispelling the definition and discipline outside the "self".

Ultimately I hope my mother can feel my blessings for her as an individual, prior to gender and social relationships.

Installation Medium: Apples, Wire, Cosmetics, Wax, Staple, EPS foam, Hot melt adhesive, Light absorbing cloth

I don't like apples since I was a child, but my mother thinks apples are irreplaceable for their nutritional value and liked to take advantage of every opportunity to let me eat them.

•Inspiration

story board

'About shadow _ Jun AHN One life (2015) HDR Ultrachrome Archival Pigment Print

My relationship with my mother was not close.

Getting along is more about silent observation than expression. She has a strong personality, but is extremely attentive to the eyes of the world.

I often see in her a paradoxical struggle, the pull between her ego and the outside world.

"How should a good woman be?"

The traditional requirements and constraints on women have left a deep scar on the women of the previous generation, which is far deeper than what I have seen on my peers.

The inspiration came from a phone call with my mother, in which she gave me a rare affirmation frankly. After that, I thought, I did not conform to the traditional discipline, but she had a landlike tolerance for me. In fact, she also didn't have to struggle with the definition of others, but she still couldn't escape. So I came up with this work, based on my mother, which is a narrative about her from my perspective. But the theme is not focused on the identity of "mother", or my relationship with her, but only on "she".

In my eyes she started out as "mother". But what I really want to show is my gaze, understanding and reflection the individual "Guo" (mother's name).

Starting from the relationship of "daughtermother", then jumping out of it, and finally returning to the dialogue of "individual-individual", this is what I really want to say, for mother, for me, for various identities "She" in context.

'About melt _ Yosuke Amemiya 溶けたリンゴ · Melted apples (2007-2021) Oil paint on Non-foaming urethane

•Apple

In my memor y of my mother, the most bright and soft picture is that long ago, she would wake me up after a nap with a plate of peeled and cut apples.

She would feed me one by one before I completely woke up.

In this project, I choose apple as the symbol of my mother, which comes from the softest memory of the time I spent with her.

reference

'About decay and others _ Zhang Xiao

After determining the apple as a symbol, I investigated the works of different artists about apple, analyzed their treatment and relationship, and obtained some inspiration based on my profile of my mother. Such as melting and burning, shadow and body, decay and aging.

I swallowed it in a half dream, vaguely awakened by the sweet apple, which was a rare moment of delicious apples for me.

•Inspiration •Research

•Gaze and Dissolve

I put together some information about the mother.

Review the details of our relationship, comb through the image of her in my eyes. In addition, I searched through old photos and asked related people to sort out the stories that my mother did not know before I was born. Let me paint a richer picture of my mother.

Young mom

Now mom with filters Mom and I as a child

The c-section scar from when I was born A comb from her first boyfriend More than ten years Mom never used to wear makeup recently started using BB cream

I interviewed some people around my mother about things I didn't know about her

Based on the research, I dealt with or reconstructed apples in seven different ways, trying to depict the contradictory image of my mother in various identities and situations, which is tough but fragile, sharp but tolerant, rebellious but trapped in her own evaluation.

•Depiction

Spotlights and Shadows However the conversation didn't stop at my depiction of mom, but a deeper wish for her to break free. Therefore, I use spotlights and irradiated light as a metaphor for external observers and society's gaze towards women. The apple shadows cast on the wall are the repressed and flattened state of my mother as a actual and living individual in gaze and labels.

The Black But each apple is also my gaze, and I have no right to define her. So eventually, the shadow is projected onto a column made of black lightabsorbing cloth, which is then dissolved. This not only deconstructs others’ definition of mother in my eyes, but also deconstructs my definition of mother as others in the project.

That's it, my gift for "She".

Solid and silent black.

Independent and inclusive.

•Final

AR theater(on going)

Medium: AR, 3D modle

Debris Terminal is an ongoing AR theater project, the successor of the project "Fregoli", which explores the human situation surrounded by the brief pleasure of Debris in the digital era. Through modeling and AR, I planned to build a dynamic virtual scene, which conveyed the fragments of empty electric shock feeling surrounded by overwhelming fast food information. Forgetfulness and fragmentation are the end of the human process.

Inspiration

Inspiration

•Fregoli Since Fregoli is a group project, the final theme is determined based on the fusion of ideas. But at the beginning of the discussion I described a scenario: A human being in a flood of fast food information is like a brain connected to countless electrodes. The momentary pleasure of the shards passed like a stream of electricity, the blank brain quivering stiffly for a moment.

Inspiration

Inspiration

•An animation It's called "Forgetting is the End of the Human program."

Colour reference

Colour reference

•Colony

•Material experiment

-- Invasion,Contagion, Disintegration

After discussion, Fregoli identified another entry point, and I started the project on my own.

•Mushrooms and Butterflies -- Colorful, Poisonous

Development •Modeling - Nomad

Development

Development

Development

•Color - Procreate

Development

Development

•AR-RealityComposer

Development

Location Shooting

Video address：https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/700600229