Nipun Kumar

Thesis Project 1

Point of Misconnections from Nipun Kumar on Vimeo.

This sound and light installation is placed in the context of hallways and corridors. These interstitial spaces are charged with movement of people who are trying going to point B from point A. These long transitory cuboidal spaces are charged with a certain type of social behavior. This social behavior can be described as a tension that exists when one is walking in a common space with many strangers. While people are walking across these passages they are aware of the position of other people walking and accordingly orient or align themselves to avoid a collision in their trajectory. People walk at a different pace than each other crossing and passing others from the opposite direction and in the same direction. At these points of crossing I believe our minds unconsciously register the phenomenon of the cross and there is an awkward feeling and hesitancy in acknowledging this event especially if people make eye contact. I have experienced a small amount of tension whenever I cross someone in these hallways. I want to amplify this subtle phenomenon by using a series of LED panels framed across the hallway which triggers a wave of changing colors originating from the point of crossing and also generates a sound which travels with the wave.

It is hard to argue that everyone feels the same way, because there are many different dynamics that occur within these hallways. Some people do not care and keep walking confidently, neglecting the people and the architecture of the space. These are those who use that space very often and are comfortable ignoring their context unless something unusual captures their attention. The other scenario is when people are not walking alone and are having a conversation with the other person or are talking on the phone, this situation allows them to be pre-occupied and the feeling of crossing is less heavier. I think it will be right to assume here that mobile phones are a distraction from people acknowledging their relationship in a generic space like hallways and corridors with regard to other people in it. It is definitely unusual to assume some sort of connection between you and the person you will be intersecting for a fraction of time. On the other hand when people are on the mobile phone they are remotely talking to somebody that they might have a connection with. This affordance of telecommunication generates a social behavior which helps people ignore the their present context easily and often mobile technologies have been attributed as agents of dematerializing spaces.

“This piece engages with non-existential social interaction between humans but realized through a technological intervention. This system is triggered by human to human interaction bringing attention to the social behavior in humans which is aware of but ignores the presence of other beings in the hallways, passages and streets. At the point of crossing between two bodies the awareness is at its highest” - Prof. Paul Badger

In present times digital technologies and mobile phones provide and alternative environment for social interaction where people are connected to familiar and known people over networks. I find this provision of the alternative environment problematic as it withdraws the people away from their physical environment. Generic present day architecture also is not really helping in making the people respond to spaces they walk or pass through. Most hallways and passages are cuboidal, dully lit with CFL lamps, painted in creams, whites and pastel colors. Unlike the architecture until the end of 19th century. Baroque and Gothic walk ways, majestic glass and mirror hallways, ornate and cast iron pillars were all agents of engagement when people walked through them. Industrialization and modern movement reduced the architecture to bare minimum and as most current hallways belong to this genre. In post modern times since the digital has come of age, digital interventions and overlays onto pre-existing architecture can can generate an interesting dialog between people and the space. We can use the digital technologies to charge the architectural spaces with socio-cultural tones by observing and interpreting them through the same tools and technology that people walk with.

Most digital interactions are developed on human cognitivity and intuitiveness, mostly user to machine/system directly. One to one interaction. In this piece the system respond to an interaction that occurs between two persons and involuntarily triggers an event which is more about the people in that space and all the dynamics that are playing in them.

cell phone displayed in the crit

Final Project - Mobile Tech. Workshop

Concept- To create a mobile phone app which gives us an audio-map of different soundscapes that we work or move through in a day. Soundscape means spaces with different tonal, volumetric and textural qualities. The sounds and volume in a space and place change constantly vis-à-vis its visual perception. The term volume is a very interesting word for me to measure the quantity of sound. Volume means the amount of space filled by a particular medium in space. Sound and light are measurable scientifically but in normal routine it’s just a judgment of the human perception. When we say the volume is loud then we not only relate to the intensity of the sound but also to the amount of space it fills, hence loud sounds fill larger spaces and low volume fills smaller spaces. Understanding a space in terms of it relationship to sound is particularly interesting to me and this project will attempt to understand this complex phenomenon through a cell phone since it is one of the only objects that is tagged with us all the time every where.

Description- ‘Silence’ like all the context aware mobile tools around us (for example weather forecast, pollution levels, traffic information etc.) will map out different noise levels that a mobile device user will move in. Unknowingly we transit through various types of spaces/environments/contexts which have a certain sound level to them and ignore or biologically adjust to that scene. This applet will have two interfaces to let you know about the sound levels around you (Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz); one hertz is one vibration per second. Specifically in a human, we have a 20- 20,000 Hz frequency range, and an intensity range of 120dB).

First with an audio output; every increase or decrease in 10dB will play a pre recorded sound which will play “silence” calibrated at the same level of its environment. This will cause a consciousness telling the person and people in vicinity how loud it is around him/them, since it is difficult for us to detect the transition from one sound zone to another because it is usually a very smooth transition in the natural setting. So here is a scenario on how this would work- imagine you have your mobile device in your pocket or purse and the app is running- you are in a party or a plaza or a bus stop, as people start gathering and socializing the sound levels change. The device will output “silence” to match the same pitch around you with every 10dB shift in the range. Nobody will know where the sound came from and what it means except for you. (I will focus on this section and try to realize this interface)

Second it will log how many times you made transition from one sound zone to the other and create a visualization which can be viewed at the end of the day. This visualization can also have GPS tags and the volume of “silence” mapped on it so you can review and see which place was how loud over the day. May be through out the month one can begin to see some patterns emerge out of the sound statistics generated by the application and you can have a good sense of how the sound operates in a particular space and place.

Results of mockup- When I was testing the prototype that I made, I realized the position of the phone changed the results drastically. The phone when in the pocket analyses much muted sounds as compared to what the human ear would be subjected to. Secondly, the quality of the recorder and microphone on the device is not as great as it is not designed to do field recordings and thirdly, the speaker can never get as loud as the potential of sounds for a particular space and hence the output gets lost when places are really loud, large and populated with more number of people.

is seen as a social behavioral activist and that amuses a lot people as they wish they could ask obnoxious people to talk within their limits. Also to see other people’s reactions on the sound output is a funny moment. But more importantly it is for the phone user himself and to make him aware of how he travels through different soundscapes throughout the day. The notion of sound as a place and space drives the project and informs us on how our mind can filter sounds depending on the engagement of the activity preoccupying us.

In terms of getting attention of the people in a public space, it is very difficult to do that just by one sound output “silence” even if it is at maximum volume. People not engaged in a discussion directly with the bearer of the phone tend to ignore the sound. It works well in round table conferences/meetings/dinners or quite places like studios and offices.

Project Intent- Because the project has a sound output in a social setting it makes interesting remarks on how loudly or softly people speak in public spaces respecting other peoples audio spaces. The phone here is seen as a social behavioral activist and that amuses a lot people as they wish they could ask obnoxious people to talk within their limits. Also to see other people’s reactions on the sound output is a funny moment. But more importantly it is for the phone user himself and to make him aware of how he travels through different soundscapes throughout the day. The notion of sound as a place and space drives the project and informs us on how our mind can filter sounds depending on the engagement of the activity preoccupying us.

Equipment- Nokia N95 with Simbian Platform and programming in Python.

Silence demo on YouYube

Concept: Making a morphing 3d screen is not a new concept and various attempts have been made by designers, architects and artists to visualize this idea in different forms. Inspired from a pin-screen, I intend to make a screen which can extrude itself from it’s flatness to create forms and shapes using robotics and electronics. These forms and shapes in essence resemble stone relief work and murals which as an exploration of surface has been used by sculptors in the past.

The vision of making a computer assisted screen which can make complex shapes and forms has for some reason not been explored to its full potential. One can imagine various uses of this technology. For example- a display system - futuristic T.V which can change forms at the same pace as the video, a wall which can change it’s form as per desire or even as an art wall where various artist could use it to create there own 3d dynamic mural, an interactive surface which could respond to movement of the people, an architectural element- where the floor can change it’s configuration and form different layouts during different time of the day.

Working: The cross section of the wooden block determines the resolution and its length the depth. A computer program let’s you control the movement of each block and governs the extent to which it will move in the 3rd dimension. Depending on the speed and size of the motor driving the wooden blocks the time required to achieve a result could vary. Depending on the intent, the screen could generate one specific result over time or continuously be in motion making patterns.

Initial working models

Circuit for stepper motor

Technical details: Prototype for Physical Pixels has 9 blocks placed in a square grid. I custom made my own linear actuator which drive the block forward and backward using a DC motor. Depending on the RPM of the motor the bolts turn at a speed moving the block from one point to the other in a specific time. In this prototype the block moves about 50mm in a quarter of a second. Higher the RPM on the motor the faster refresh rate is achieved by the screen, but if RPM is slower more precise movement of the block is achieved. This entire setup is run on one microcontroller (modern devices), 3 shift registers and 5 H-bridge chips. 9 DC motors are run on external DC power supply. Program used for this prototype was built on Arduino.

Final Exhibit

Final Prototype

Physical Pixels in action

Visit youtube to watch this Video

This piece generates henna patterns that are traditionally used in Indian ceremonies to adorn the hands and feet of women in marriages and festivals. Basically it isolates different elements, which are used in creating intricate patterns, and establishes a relationship between large and small elements (classes) and creates different patterns each time it is engaged. Its composition have many elements that are recursive and occur in different sizes, scales and orientation which are either filled or outlined. A library of these graphical images in .svg format will be made and placed in the grammar file. Each element will have its own function and will draw using those rules. There will be another rule on how these functions fit together and what is the relationship of each functions and where they occur on the body.
Blob detection through camera will allow the drawing to occur on the persons hand in front of the projector and not spill over beyond his silhouette.

Project website link

Place your hand under the projection

Installation setup

Viewers interacting with work

This applet plays with the nature of English Language. The grammar defined for this piece basically has a set of nouns and verbs that are attached with a positive expression in the first line, negative expression in the second line and attempts to be sarcastic in the third line.

Link to Applet
Link to Grammar File