EXPERIENCE DESIGN · PHYSICAL COMPUTING EXPLORATION · 2025

Equinox.

An exhibited spatial film translating emotional transitions into light, contrast, and visual rhythm.

Through participatory visual research, photographic studies, and motion design, I developed a moving-image experience for physical exhibition. I also explored bodily motion and light through an independent Arduino prototype.

Watch full film

Independent projectMar–Jun 2025Research + prototyping

Actual exhibition projection with warm and cool color regions and an audience silhouette — Actual installation documentation · pre-rendered video projected in space

CORE IDEA

Balance is not a permanent state, but a fleeting moment within an ongoing cycle of change.

At the equinoxes, day and night are approximately equal. That brief natural equilibrium became a metaphor for life’s transitions, interruptions, and returns.

MY ROLEIndependent research, visual direction, video creation, Arduino experiment and installation

FOCUSParticipatory research · temporal visual states · physical prototyping

OUTPUTExhibited pre-rendered video · separate LED experiment · proposed interactive integration

PROJECT AT A GLANCE

Challenge

How might a fleeting sense of balance be made visible—not as a fixed ideal, but as a changing relationship between body, emotion, time and space?

Approach

Literary inspiration, participatory photography, a seven-person relay drawing workshop, photographic trials, and a three-phase moving-image storyboard.

What was exhibited

A completed pre-rendered spatial film. A separately built motion-sensing LED experiment informed my thinking about a possible future interactive system.

01 / INSPIRATION

From seasonal change to emotional rhythm.

Cyril Pedrosa’s Les Équinoxes introduced the equinox as a metaphor for temporary emotional balance. I used this connection between seasonal change and human experience to investigate how rhythm, contrast, and shared space can express transition.

Rather than representing balance as a fixed endpoint, I explored the tension between inner rhythms and shared environments, translating this transient balance in nature into a visual language of emotions.

Concept exploration

I examined seasonal transitions as a framework for exploring temporary equilibrium, disconnection, and change in visual form.

Les Équinoxes cover — Pedrosa’s *Les Équinoxes* uses shifting light and intersecting lives to explore emotional balance and disconnection.

Spring

People seem to be in the same space, but their focuses and interpretations are completely different.

Winter

Communication among people of different ages is often out of place: the elderly focus on daily habits, while the young care about online connections.

A person's "emotional balance" is not determined by the place, but by whether the inner rhythm aligns with the external rhythm.

Design Opportunities

Design Opportunity 1

There were a lot of people, but everyone was lost in their own world.
Shared space, but no shared emotions or attention.
Visually warm, but internally “lonely in a group”.

Design Opportunity 2

Generational differences lead to communication misalignment.
Even in close relationships, there can be misunderstanding.
The space is colder, the pace is slower, and it is more serene.

Design Opportunity 3

Loneliness in nature is not passive but active.
Slow down the pace → realign the emotions.
Nature offers an opportunity for “reset”.

02 / RESEARCH

Ask people what balance looks like.

Two participatory approaches explored the visual cues people associate with emotional equilibrium and transience.

PARTICIPATORY VISUAL RESEARCH

Instead of asking for a single definition of emotional balance, the explorations invited visual associations: personal photographs of transience and a shared drawing process. The materials below are exploratory qualitative inputs rather than representative survey results.

METHOD 01

Archive of balance objects

Participants photographed objects and scenes that represented their internal state, creating a visual archive of personal metaphors.

METHOD 02

Workshop-relay drawing

Seven participants contributed sequentially to a shared visual composition, exploring color, symbols and a collective rhythm.

01Group workshop

Seven participants joined the collaborative visual workshop.

02Shared materials

Canvas, watercolor and Procreate were available for the relay drawing.

03Relay drawing

Participants contributed colors and simple symbolic elements in sequence.

03 / INSIGHTS

Balance is not a static state.

Dynamic, not fixed

Balance emerged as an ongoing process of adjustment rather than permanent stillness.

Objects hold transitions

Participants chose everyday objects whose qualities suggested impermanence and movement.

Seasons suggest emotion

Changing warmth, darkness and texture offered an intuitive emotional language.

Nature is shared vocabulary

Natural elements provided a common starting point for discussing an internal feeling.

Design implication: use changing color, light, movement and rhythm to communicate transitions rather than defining balance with a single fixed icon or image.

FROM RESEARCH TO VISUAL DECISIONS

How the inquiry shaped the film

01 / Dynamic balance

Balance was interpreted as continual adjustment.

→ A looping film rather than a permanent resolution.

02 / Natural metaphors

Participants and the visual archive drew on seasonal light, objects, and nature.

→ Petals, organic imagery, and shifts in light.

03 / Different rhythms

Shared space does not guarantee a shared emotional experience.

→ Split compositions and contrasting visual rhythms.

04 / Ambiguity in early trials

Photographic scenes invited divergent readings during review.

→ More abstract color, diffusion, and transitions.

These observations informed the visual rhythm, imagery and transitions explored in the film.

04 / VISUAL EXPLORATION

From literal imagery to abstract signals.

Early photographic compositions evoked uncertainty and observation, but review feedback suggested that viewers interpreted the same images in inconsistent ways.

The visual exploration moved toward more abstract color, light and transitions to communicate changing atmosphere without relying on one literal narrative.

EARLY APPROACH

Photographic imagery

Used familiar scenes to evoke uncertainty, distance and observation. Different viewers read the same images differently during review.

→

DESIGN RESPONSE

Abstract visual rhythm

Shifted toward layered warm/cool fields, soft focus, transitions and repetition to form a more coherent atmospheric language.

Early photographic exploration · atmosphere and framing

Early photographic exploration · ambiguity and viewpoint

Exploring uncertainty through everyday movement — Early photographic exploration · movement and uncertainty

Distance and framing in a domestic scene — Early photographic exploration · distance and domestic framing

05 / STORYBOARD & FILM

A visual rhythm with three phases.

VISUAL NARRATIVE / FIVE BEATS

From a fleeting moment toward a continuing cycle

The narrative unfolds through a petal, an emerging space, divided imagery, and shifting states. Its cyclical meaning comes from returning to the idea of transience, not from reaching a final, permanent balance.

Falling petal in the opening sequence — **01 / PETAL**Transience — the beginning of change

Soft warm visual field from the film — **02 / SPACE**An environment comes into view

Divided blue visual image — **03 / DIVISION**Different directions and states coexist

Contrasting blue and violet light-grid states — **04 / SHIFTING STATES**Rhythm and balance remain unstable

Warm candle flame near the end of the film — **05 / CONTINUATION**Light and change persist; the cycle remains open

↻ A cycle of searching for balance, rather than a final state of equilibrium.

PHASE ISTILL

Quiet awareness and a baseline sense of equilibrium.

PHASE IISHIFT

The start of movement, ambiguity and negotiation.

PHASE IIIDRIFT

Transitions that make instability perceptible through light and form.

COMPLETED MOVING IMAGE

Watch the full film

Pre-rendered visual sequence developed for the spatial installation. Video playback is not triggered by a live sensor.

01:19

06 / FINAL INSTALLATION

Balance becomes a shared visual space.

The completed moving-image work was exhibited as a spatial projection. On-site documentation captures the interplay of light, architectural surfaces, and audience silhouettes.

EXHIBITION DOCUMENTATION

See the installation in space

Original onsite footage shows the projected visuals and real exhibition environment.

01:15

SPATIAL PRESENTATION

Projected imagery

Warm and cool visual fields, shadow, grid structures and changes of light carry the work beyond the monitor.

Viewer relationship

Audience silhouettes shift how the projected compositions are perceived, adding human scale and presence to the installation.

Documentation

Still photographs and the original on-site video document the exhibited pre-rendered work and its physical setting.

Warm and cool projection with audience silhouette

Blue projected film and visitor silhouette

Colored light reaching the exhibition floor

07 / POST-EXHIBITION REFLECTION

What could change if the film responded?

The exhibited film used recurring natural imagery, divided compositions, and shifting light to give temporary equilibrium a spatial and temporal form. After the exhibition, I considered how an audience-responsive version might turn this metaphor into a more physically perceptible experience.

This reflection informed a future spatial interaction concept, alongside my independent Arduino motion-to-light experiments.

WHAT I LEARNED

Atmospheric presence is not the same as responsive interaction.

The finished piece gave viewers a changing visual environment, but its timeline stayed fixed. The next design question is whether bodily input can meaningfully affect transitions, without reducing an emotional idea to a simplistic numerical score.

This is my post-exhibition design reflection; it is not presented as a documented audience request.

08 / FUTURE INTERACTION CONCEPT

Imagining a responsive spatial system.

FUTURE SPATIAL INTERACTION PROPOSAL

Following the completed video exhibition, the two-zone concept offers a direction for a future responsive version: audience position and duration could influence light and the timing of projected video states.

Equal conditions suggest balance; sustained differences suggest imbalance. The concept diagram specifies a five-second stability threshold to avoid constant state switching.

ORIGINAL PROPOSED SYSTEM LOGIC

The concept diagram imagines two defined audience zones— STILL and SHIFT —with a proposed overhead sensor or camera, a duration threshold, and visual playback responses.

Two zonesPresence + number≥ 5-second stabilityWarm / cool responseSeamless loop

01EnterAudience approaches the two zones

02SenseEvaluate presence and duration

03MapCompare conditions to a visual state

04RespondShift projected rhythm and ambient light

CONCEPT STATE / BALANCEEqual presence sustained ≥ 5 seconds

Proposed transition toward a visually balanced state.

CONCEPT STATE / IMBALANCEUnequal presence sustained ≥ 5 seconds

Proposed transition toward contrasting visual conditions.

A proposed two-zone interaction maps sustained audience presence to changing visual states. The Arduino motion-to-light study is documented separately below.

Proposed two-zone spatial interaction · 3D concept visualization

09 / ARDUINO & TECHNICAL EXPLORATION

Testing motion-to-light feedback.

INDEPENDENT HARDWARE EXPLORATION

I built an independent Arduino-based physical prototype exploring how body movement can drive changing LED light states.

Body motion→Signal mapping→LED light

THREE-STAGE PHYSICAL PROTOTYPE

Bodily motion sensing

The shaking-based prototype captures subtle movements as a changing input signal. The experiment focuses on bodily micro-movement rather than a conventional button gesture.

Processing & state mapping

Sensor readings are processed in code and translated into lighting parameters. The aim is an evolving state, not a single on/off trigger.

Ambient light visualization

LED color, brightness and rhythm make fluctuations perceptible as ambient light, rather than direct task-based feedback.

Wearable LED test · different light condition

Next technical step

Connect the separately tested motion sensor to a playback controller and map incoming motion to transitions among STILL, SHIFT, and DRIFT. This remains a future integration direction.

Potential technical route: transmit motion measurements to a playback controller and map stable states to video transitions.