sooj – LookingOutwards03

FLOW, a real-time data-driven interactive artwork byMahieu Le Sourd (alias being Maotik) (2016)

 

FLOW is an interactive, environmental projectile installation work that brings in real-time tidal movement data and visualize them into computer graphics. The projection is done in Deep Space 8k of the Arts Electronica Center, an exhibition space quipped with a 16 x 9 meters large walls and floor projections, which allows the installation to be regarded as an immersive, even an optical-illusion-triggering work. Not only there are just visuals of the waves; there are also sounds that enhance the poetic quality of the nature-simulating work.

Algorithm-wise, the dynamics of the tidal motion is synchronized with the moon and controlled by the real-time based weather features such as wind position, humidity, temperature, and so on (as shown below)

The interactivity is driven from visitor’s position, and basing off of the data of the waves, the floor projection of the water will oscillate along.

I find Maotik’s overall artworks intriguing in that he tries to merge or recreate physical property data of nature by having to project them on artificial, code-driven environments, using digital multimedia. The works, to me, seem as mixed forms of such two contrasting elements, and I am amused by how those forms still bring poetic and futuristic impressions. In this specific project, I appreciated how the richness of the data coming from the nature could yield such a realistic and an immersive quality of tidal movements, especially when projected on an extra-large scale space like Deep Space 8k.

Project found and information referenced from: http://www.maotik.com/flow/