BOOM!
An audio visual installation about highly sensitive person.
This is an mixed media installation about highly sensitive person. Also called hsp. It is a psychological definition raised by Elaine Aron in 1990s. These people have very sensitive sensory system and feelings to emotions. They can be easily overwhelmed by bright lights, noises and crowd, and also wear high empathy. But it is not like that a kind of disease, or mental illness, it is just a special personality that some of us have. So I did this installation using arduino and TouchDesigner to express myself as one of the so called HSP.
I use ultrasonic sensor to sense the distance of audiences, which connect to a air pump and a solenoid valve. The air pump is originally set to inflate the balloon for 2 seconds and than deflate for 2 seconds in order to present a similar status of alive, like breathing, while the sound is like heart beat. If the distance is too close, the air pump will change to inflate continuously so the balloon will explode eventually.
The visual effect projected onto the balloon is like visualising my feelings. Different Colors and moving make the pattern more like a heat map, which makes the balloon to be more alive and vital. As the distance becomes shorter, the balloon becomes bigger and faster, and the sound will turn into noise whose frequency is 440hz, which annoy the audience and keep them away. Finally it will pop unexpectedly.